Belated Birthday

In all the excitement and chaos of the last week, I completely forgot to do a birthday post for this little girl

and I can't believe that in two short years we've gone from this:

to this. It's hard for me to even remember Alena as a tiny baby, but it's certainly not hard to remember her as a 2 year old. The expression she has in this picture, it's the one we see all the time.

She is one determined, intense little girl who is not going to be left out of anything, and we love her all the more for it

We celebrated a little bit before we left to go to CA and a little more this past weekend after we got back. She didn't seem to care that we were gone on her actual birthday.

We love you, Alena Bena, and can't wait to see what the next year holds for you.