Harlo turns THREE

Yesterday my little girl celebrated her 3rd birthday. I can't even believe it. I don't know why, but something about this birthday just seemed so magical. I guess 3 is a pretty big milestone. It means you get barbies for your birthday, it means you're a BIG GIRL. It means you're old enough to get in and out of the car all by yourself. It means you have an opinion... about everything. It means you're not really a toddler anymore. It means your mama might lose a tear or two over this birthday.
This year Harlo directed her whole birthday session. She's not a lover of the camera right now, or rather, a lover of anything that's not her idea, so I let her make the rules to her own session and I must say.. she did a fabulous job. She opted for pictures on the table, which striked me as my new favorite birthday tradition with the girls. She also asked for a small cake, a candle, her dance costume and tap shoes. She left little room for my input, and it ended up perfectly.

Both of my girls birthdays are always so special to me, but Harlo's birthday is always going to mean so much because the day she celebrates being a year older, I celebrate another year of motherhood. I sometimes like to think back to what my life was like, and what I was like before I had these babies. It seems like that was a completely different life than the one I'm on now. I guess in a way, it is. My daughters have made my life so unbelievably rich. Everything I do is for them, inspired by them, because of them. I'm thankful every single day for this life. I love them more than I ever knew I was capable of loving.
So happy anniversary of motherhood to me, and more importantly...

Happy Birthday to my sweet Harlo.
You came into my life at the most perfect time.
I love you more every single day and I'm so glad I get to be your mom.
I wish you another year of happiness, growth, and love, my darling baby girl.
Thank you for being mine.

xoxo, Mommy

Just a few things about today...

Harlo had her first dance performance today.
Harlo totally ROCKED her dance performance. LOVED the stage and would wave to all her fans as she walked on and off, followed along pretty well, but just made up her own dance moves if she didn't know/care what the others were doing. We had to walk away with her crying "I need to be on stage!" after it was over. She was so proud. It was such a special day and one I think I will always remember.

The girls had their first "sitting" with santa this year... Yep, both hated it. But not as bad as I thought.. Harlo was actually totally fine while we were there... as long as I was holding her. She asked Santa for "Princess dress-ups and barbies". The only part she didn't like was actually sitting on his lap. I was way hesitant to even try it out, but she insisted she wanted to do it, so we did. :) The picture is priceless.I honestly thought today that we lost Stella's boo... like, forever. ("boo" is Stella's pink blanky that she CANNOT be without.) I seriously almost had a heart attack. I was nearly in tears when we retraced our steps enough to remember it definitely made it in the car from the Dickens festival, we found it in the bathroom shortly after. Whew! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for a "boo 2" at the store, but still hope we never fully lose the original.

We finally saw the newest twilight movie tonight! The first twilight movie I saw was the day before I gave birth to Harlo, and I was reading all the books in those first few weeks of my new life as a new mom. Definitely brought me back with that movie tonight. Such fond memories I have of that time.
A very busy and very fun saturay. We live a sweet little life. :)