MiMi is Here.... yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!

I always forget which way I have to upload the pictures for blogging... so, I wanted to start with Monday's pictures and work from Monday to present but the pictures downloaded the wrong way, so we are going to have to work backwards=)

Daniel had a very fun birthday party to go to yesterday... Kendall's 2nd birthday party at Gymboree! We have taken a few classes there and Daniel absolutely loves it! As you can tell from the pics below, this place must be like heaven for toddlers!

You probably know from previous posts that I am very picky about Daniel's diet... I really don't let him eat any sugar... BUT I always make exceptions for birthday parties and Daniel was old enough to really have a great time digging into the cake.

I thought it was so adorable how they had this room set up with little tables and chairs and expected the 1 and 2 year olds to sit at them and feed themselves cake like little people... I still think of Daniel as my baby... this class gave me perspective of how grown up he can be.

Daniel and his friend Jacq playing with the balloon centerpieces=)

So, the birthday party started at 1:30 and Daniel naps at 2PM so it looked like he was going to fall asleep at the table=)

If you saw the amazing pics of our family at the top of my blog... they were taken by Tanya and this is her adorable daughter Jacq. I fell in love with her painted toes!

Does this place not look like the coolest place ever (for a 17 month old?)!

Daniel's friend Eli...

My Future NBA Player!

Daniel is at a really fun stage right now where he copies a lot of what he sees Brendon and I do... I have been reading in my Toddler Books that their imaginative play will start developing shortly too (which I think will be tons of fun!) but yesterday I caught Daniel "working" on his car with some tools he found from Daddy's tool box=) Although, I am not sure where he got that from because Brendon does not work on our cars=)

Brendon had some yard work/ house maintenance to do and Daniel wanted to be daddy's little helper!

Daniel in Daddy's tool box!

We are training him young to do his chores!

He also wanted to help us cook dinner the other night too... however, this is slightly dangerous so last night Brendon and I made a trip to Babies R Us to buy MORE baby - proofing items for our house like an oven guard because Daniel is tall enough to reach our stove and has attempted to do it twice in the last week! He is just wanting to grow up way too quick!

So, that was our busy Saturday... we also went over to some friend's house for a nice get together in the early evening.

Friday night, we had our life group at our house and we're going through the "One Month to Live" http://www.onemonthtolive.com/ challenge which takes the idea of reviewing your life to live today as if you were given one month to live. That's a radical thing to really think through. Try it sometime... Write down the top 5 things you'd change. it's amazing to see what is really important and how daily life would change.

On Thursday, Mimi came to see Daniel perform at his tumbling class and she was quite impressed! I am always amazed at how much my little man has learned in his short 17 months here on planet earth.

On Tuesday, we tried a new park with our friends and we really enjoyed it... I have found that I have become quite the connoisseur of fine parks these last few months. Anyway, one of Daniel's friends Kai got a scooter for Christmas and Daniel was absolutely obsessed with it... he hardly wanted to get off of it the whole time we were there!

However, the highlight of our week was that Mimi flew in on Monday from South Africa and we have had such a wonderful time with her. Like I said in the beginning, all the pictures are backwards... but she always comes and just spoils us with loads of gifts! We actually had Christmas all over again... her gifts are always extra special because they are from South Africa.

She brought Daniel books, sticker books, "waxies" (similar to crayons), artists pads, fun bath things, and beautiful clothes!

Below is Daniel showing Mimi his favorite thing... a NY City snow globe.

Daniel also showing Mimi his best friend... Max!

Daniel showing Mimi her room

We are so glad the she arrived safely after a 19 hour flight!