This week I have 1 and only 1 goal. To purchase, craft and mail Annika's 2nd birthday party invitations. Her party is going to be Saturday, September 9th for those family members reading. It will probably be sometime in the afternoon 3-4pm I'm thinking so that Annika can still get a good nap in that day. I have an idea for her birthday invites and I'm excited to see if I can make it happen. I also need to make an appointment for earlier that week to get Annika's 2 year pictures taken. I'd like to have all the pictures back by the 9th so I can hand them out to people. I have two dresses for her pictures already. I'm hoping they turn out cute! (How could they not - have you seen my daughter - adorable!)

Saturday I was gone most of the day wedding dress shopping with Amanda (and Mary, Pam and Tiffany). I think Amanda has found her dress! She looks so amazing in it. It is totally her. We may have found a bridesmaid dress too that goes very nicely with it. Mary tried it on and of course looked stunning.

While I was gone Auntie Kim came over to babysit Annika so that Kris could be outside all day working on the deck. Thank goodness for aunties! I'm sure Annika had a great time because she looooves her Auntie Kim. After Auntie Kim left, Annika was upstairs sleeping so I headed upstairs to join her. She woke up one time (I can't remember if it was because of the fire trucks or Kris pounding outside) but when she saw me laying there, her eyes widened as big as they could go! Then she grinned, wiggled over closer to me and put her hand on my cheek before falling back asleep. So precious.

I've been craving prime rib for a couple weeks so after Kris was done working Saturday night, he came inside, cleaned up and then we headed out for dinner. Kris and I both had prime rib and Annika had grilled chicken with steamed broccoli. I am so proud of Annika all the time. She is such a good little girl. I know she's not two yet and that there are lots of things that could change, but a picky eater she is not. She shared Kris' clam chowder soup with him that night and then ate a bunch of broccoli and chicken for dinner. It was funny though because she kept wanting to dip her chicken in our fresh horseradish. I'm not sure she would have liked that too much! Instead, Kris would dip it in his Au Jus and that seemed to satisfy her. I ordered a strawberry smoothie with dinner and boy did she like that! She kept saying over and over "Nika drink!" I think she drank a third of it.

Yesterday morning after church, Kris headed back outside to work on the deck again. And what did Annika and I do? We went shopping, of course! We got a gift for baby Talia and some summer clothes for next summer for Annika from the clearance racks plus some clothes for presents for her birthday. It was fun hitting the big 3 (Baby Gap, Children's Place and Gymboree) and scoring some really cute clothes.

After lunch and our long nap yesterday, I brought Annika's bounce house out in the backyard so she could jump and play and we could still be outside with Daddy. That worked for a while until she wanted to be up on the deck with him. Since the steps aren't quite done (no railings or sides) and the railings on the main part aren't done, it was pretty dangerous for her to be up there. I stuck close to her and she kept turning around and telling me "Mommy down!" and then pushing me away. She was mad I wouldn't leave her side up there. So instead I diverted her to a different activity. We went inside and got some babies and they "jumped" with Annika in her bounce house. Then she wanted her babies to go up on the deck. Instead we went inside and watched Sesame Street. I had to get her off that deck somehow!

Kris made excellent progress this weekend on the deck. I'm hoping in the next couple weeks that it's all finished. Then Annika can be out there all she wants. And then we can start on the basement!