We like to dress-up and we love our cow costume! How cute is this!

Our friend Laurel bought our family tickets to see Disney On Ice. What a treat to see it together as a family. The girls dressed up for the show, Julia as Sleeping Beauty and Emily as Cinderella. Julia spent the whole show sitting on Mama’s lap. Each time a new character came out Julia would shake with joy. Emily had a million questions about the characters and stories she didn’t know. If she knew the story she would tell us about what we were seeing. They both loved the show. Thanks Daddy for getting some photos!

Emily shared the evening with Daddy.

Julia was just transfixed with the show.

She couldn’t hide her emotions about what was happening. When Julia saw a character she recognized she would announced their entry.

Mickey and Minnie showed up between all of the parts to the delight of the girls.

Our girls favorite part was every part that has a princess in it.

Our annual fall trip to the pumpkin patch had to be moved once so that we could have a beautiful warm fall day. We enjoyed the sunshine, friends, maze, tractor ride, pumpkin picking, goat feeding, and a picnic. We love this playdate!

There were no photos of all of the kids looking at the camera so I picked one with no one looking at it. Why fight kid-nature.

Aiden enjoying the gravel.

Maeve and Lincoln being sweet together.

Elena having fun among the cornstalks.

Emily bringing in her pumpkin. I wonder if she gets that tongue thing from her Mama?

Emily collected flowers from everywhere we went at the pumpkin patch and made herself a flower bouquet. I think she was pretending that she was a bride and that was her wedding bouquet.

An excited Julia!

Julia kept picking flowers and smelling them and then offering it to Mama to smell too.

Julia was proud of her pumpkin.

Kenzie and Heather picking out a pumpkin together.

Maeve feeding the goat.

Natalie found a rock in the pumpkin patch. She was headed over to meet the goats.

Baby Rose hanging out in the sunshine.

Julia picked her birthday party this year. When given her choices she excitedly started jumping up and down saying ‘Jum Ouse”. Every time we asked her for the next week she said the same thing with the same level of excitement. After a week of that it was pretty certain she wasn’t going to change her mind.

Our friends joined us for our play date party. We first went to the bounce house and then to Chick-fil-a for lunch. The kids all had a great time bouncing all of their energy out. Julia was brave to try everything over and over again. A few things gave her trouble with the climb, but she didn’t give up.

We enjoyed our lunch together and for dessert we had bowls of icing with different toppings. Who doesn’t want to pick fun toppings to eat with icing. The mama’s got cookies, but the icing looked pretty good.

Julia had a blast at her party which is the most important thing for ones birthday party. The only bummer for the day was that Mama’s camera battery ran out so the photos of moving kids in a low lit room from her phone isn’t ideal, but still a great way to remember the day.

Julia had her three year checkup. All looked good from the doctor with all the standard questions. He was interested to hear about her current speech therapy sessions and my assessment on her improvement. Lucky girl didn’t need any shots except her flu shot. She was very brave and took it with just a few whimpers.

Her current height is 37-1/2 inches and weight is 28.6 lbs. This places her in the 50th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. In the last three months she has grown one inch and gained almost one pound more. She still loves for us to lug her around any chance she can get. That is definitely going to be impacted by her getting bigger.

Mommy’s favorite thing from the visit was Julia’s eye exam. The chart is a picture chart. We stopped and reviewed the shapes before starting the exam. There was the standard- star, o, heart, and flag. Then there were the more creative answers of a “t” instead of plus and “teapot” instead of cup. The cup did look like a tea cup, it was so sweet neither the nurse or I corrected her. She did great with the test holding her hand over each eye and giving answers. The nurse picked all the “teacups” on the chart for her to say.

We now have a three year old and she was excited about having a birthday. We recently went shopping and Julia got to pick out a new hair bow. She picked a Hello Kitty one and that also picked her party theme.

She has been changing a lot these past few months. She has been doing some fun things these days. She is increasing her speech slowly, but comes out with sentences at excited moments. We have started potty training and she is showing some promise of figuring it out. She is still napping really well in a pack ‘n play. She likes to play with Emily, but also by herself. She pretty much names everything she can a repeat sound – Ma-ma, Da-da, E-e (Emily), May-May (Maeve), Me-me (favorite blanket), wolf-wolf (stuffed puppy).

A few things that haven’t changed yet. She still gets her ultra-excited face and shakes with excitement. She also has her variety of facial expressions. She has added quite a frown/pout to her collection of facial expressions. She also likes to tease her Daddy by sticking her tongue out at him, to encourage him to chase her around the house.

Julia has developed her own little sister play with Emily. She will give her big hugs and kisses. She is sad when Emily is not around and asks about her as soon as she gets up from her nap. Julia can also be the pesky sister. She knows Emily’s buttons and isn’t afraid to push them. Most of them at this point are verbal buttons. She will word things in ways that irritates Emily. For instance, Emily likes to say the "Eney, meny, miny, mo" rhyme. When Emily proudly finishes saying it, Julia will say "Me, my, mo" and stop. Emily can’t handle the rhyme not being completed so corrects Julia. Then Julia will repeat the "Me, my, mo" abbreviated version. Then the whole things repeats over and over again.

Some of her favorites are:

• favorite color – pink
• favorite color to say – yellow said "yeah-l-low". She likes the "l" sound
• favorite phrases – "me do", "help me", "pick up", and "let go"
• favorite clothes to wear – dresses, specifically a dress with fun flower tights
• favorite stuffed animals – Hello Kitty, finger puppet chicken named "Bawk Bawk", and a puppy
• favorite toy to play with – Thomas train mostly using curved train track pieces
• favorite food – mac & cheese
• favorite movie – Mary Poppins, called "Mary Pop"