Raising Rutherfords: Our Little Princess Turns TWO!

It is so hard to think back to two years ago today, I was in the hospital giving birth to our first born child, our daughter Grace Pennington Rutherford. I had a wonderful experience birthing her (yes, I said wonderful). I was recently asked in my women's Bible study what moment I felt the most beautiful, and believe it or not, it was the moment she was laid on my chest for the very first time. I was sweaty and tired and hadn't eaten or showered in over 24 hours, had on no makeup and matted hair, and was very emotional. Grace was slimy, cone-headed and perfect, looking up at me with those big beautiful eyes, while my husband looked at me adoringly and in awe, looking past the sweat, lack of makeup, matted hair and tears, and straight into my heart. That moment in time is still so fresh and vivid in my mind. (Here's our first family photo, right after Grace was born, I think the Dr. and nurses thought we were crazy for wanting one so soon. And our little Grace.)

Fast forward two years, and here we are! Grace is TWO! She is truly something else. She has friends of her own and loves to play with them, and she likes to climb EVERYTHING. She calls both grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese quesadillas - pizza. (Hey, as long as she eats it, I won't argue...lol) She loves "pepperninis" (pepperoni), "mac-n-cheese" (shredded cheese), "chocolate milk" (good old fasioned white milk), and all things fruit. She loves to "push a mutton" (push buttons) and our dog "bapu" (Jasper, your guess is as good as mine.) She loves to sing "Jesus loves Me", "Old McDonald", and the "ABCs", but her absolute favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus." She can count to 15 and spell her name. She likes watching "Sofia the First" (she is actually dressing like that for Halloween) and "Mickey Mouse Club House, she can even sing the theme song to MMCH and knows all of the characters' names. She just blows me away!

For her birthday party, she wanted to have a princess Sofia party, so that's what we did instead of giving her gifts since she doesn't really "need" anything and she always gets some fun new toys from friends and family, plus Christmas is only two months away.

I used my Hallmark Card Studio program and images I found online to make Grace's invitations.

We had "royal" food. I made her two pink (strawberry) cakes with purple icing, finger sandwiches, and mini quiches. Paul made his famous homemade biscuits, and we had a Chick-fil-A nugget tray (it's Grace, she loves Chick-fil-A, it had to be done!...lol).