Em's 5th Bday Party

Just like for Gracey, I agreed that my girls could start having friend birthday parties when they turn 5.  I realize now how that might be tricky for Emily.  Her birthday, being right in the middle of Christmas break, makes it difficult for all of her friends to be there.  Knowing most of them are out of town, I convinced her that we could still pull it off.  We invited two of her best buddies, Josh and Bryson, to come over for a birthday party lunch.  It really felt like a glorified play-date for me, but the kids sure seemed to think it was a rockin' party!

The kids played Twister, opened some presents, and ate pizza and cupcakes!   They had a great time and I didn't have the stress of a million kids trampling through my house.  

I may start doing her birthday party before Christmas break or afterwards so she can have more of her friends join us, but I will worry about that a year from now!  

Emily is 5!

It's no joke, time really does fly.  It is hard to believe that Emily turned 5 years old yesterday.  Her birthday is not easily forgotten, as long as she has anything to do with it.  She has been looking forward to her birthday for months and months, like most kids do, and is pretty excited to say that she is 5 years old now.  Even though we didn't have any big plans or reasons to leave the house, she was thrilled to be able to wear our "Birthday Girl" ribbon all day long.

As we prepped for our little family birthday party the girls helped make and decorate some cupcakes, strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, at Emily's request!

The night concluded with pizza, cupcakes, candles, and presents!  It was especially memorable because Emily's hair caught on fire as she attempted to blow out her candles.  I should have known better, it even crossed my mind as she began blowing that perhaps I should hold her hair back.  But then who would do the video taping?  Priorities, you know.

Sure enough, it caught fire.  It only singed a little before Corky was able to put out the fire out, but it sure gave us a good jump....and then a laugh!

Corky bought Emily a little set of rings, toe rings, to be exact.  To understand a bit of where this gift idea came from, I will add that Emily sees a neurologist about every 6 months.  Each time she goes, her prize is to choose a ring from the prize box.  It is a obviously a cheap ring and it turns her finger green within a couple of days, but she wears it religiously.  In fact, she keeps the ring until her next appointment.  Corky found some toe rings that we are hoping won't turn her finger as green and will give her a little variety.  She loves them already!

(maybe next time I will wait for her to swallow her mouthful of cupcake before snapping a photo)

We love Emily so much.  She challenges our parenting skills everyday with her mood swings and little-sister-syndrome, yet validates our efforts with lots of loves, words of affection, and never-ending snuggles.

She has the most tender heart and spirit when it comes to animals and babies.  I will admit, I have been drawn to tears a few times as I watched her interact with not just our dog, but other people's animals.  In fact, she is hesitant to watch movies that involve animals because she is so sensitive and gets emotional when watching them.

She can mimic nearly any dance move that she sees, and man, she can really shake it.

She can sing along to any song on the radio, hitting each note with ease and claiming with every song that she knows and hears that "this is my favorite song ever!"

Weeks 32 and 33

(32 weeks pregnant....Buster is going to miss the shelf he can lean on when I call him up for a hug.)

32 weeks into the pregnancy was the beginning of our weekly ultrasounds and bio physicals.  As you can see, she is growing successfully.  I never had bio physicals done in my other pregnancies and so I had never heard of them before.  It is much like a typical ultrasound, same machine is used but different measurements are taken.  Rather than measuring the baby's growth, the amniotic fluid is measured among other things.  They also check for signs of the baby practicing her breathing, spinal movement, and extremity movement.  All of which she passed with flying colors.  In fact, the bio physical test that was performed today showed that she not only was practicing her breathing, she was breathing rhythmically and constantly.  A very good sign of healthy lung development.

Other things to note from today's bio physical....

She has hair.  The ultrasound showed lots and lots of white fuzz on her head.  Of course you never know for sure until they arrive and you can see with your own eyes...but if I had to predict, she will have a full head of hair.  (just like Gracey!)

Also, it looks like she has my nose.  Her face and lips look a lot like Emily's did as a baby, and Emily definitely takes after me in that regard.  

Little Baby is also measuring bigger than her gestational age.  8 days ago, she was 4 pounds and 9 ounces according to her growth measurements.  Since today's test didn't measure her growth, we don't know for sure.  Trust me though, she is getting bigger and bigger.  My sore ribs don't lie!

(33 weeks pregnant, she is starting to run out of room)

Endless Entertainment

Like every other parent sometimes wonders....why do we spend money on toys when all the kids really want is the box?

Thanks to doing mostly all of our Christmas shopping this year online, we received an enormous amount of boxes delivered to our house.  Some of which were large enough to accommodate not just both of my girls, but also the dog!  Hilarious!  The first few times of coaxing Buster into the box, we wondered if he would create some weird aversion to boxes. (much like that one time I vacuumed him and his fur with an attachment hose....he was not a fan.)  After a minute though, he was jumping in voluntarily and having a grand ole time with the ladies.

I am not kidding, the girls played in these boxes for more than 4 hours this day.  The fun ended when the girls started fighting (not bad that they didn't fight for 4 hours) and I had to banish them from the boxes for a while.  They had pillows, books, flashlights, iPods, and snacks in the boxes that kept them occupied and most importantly, quiet for quite some time.

And when you think they are done with the boxes, Emily decided that is where she wanted to sleep at night.  She slept in her box 5 nights in a row, including Christmas Eve!

The streak ended last night though for a few reasons.  First reason being that she has a perfectly good and comfortable bed.  Second reason is that Gracey was getting a little jealous.  Not so much of her sleeping in the box, but the fact that Emily didn't have to make her regular bed in the mornings like she did.

Christmas Day in Pictures

This Christmas might go down in the books as being my favorite Christmas ever.  Not because of the great presents that were given to each other, but simply because we just had the most enjoyable day as a little family.  My plan was to let the girls get up, examine what Santa had brought us, then start getting ready for church, leaving unwrapping for after church was over.  We woke early enough that we had plenty of time to spare and so we opened presents immediately.  Throughout the day, I realized it was more than perfect for us.  We got the present-part of the day out of the way, had time to focus back to the reason for the holiday by attending a wonderful Sacrament meeting.  There didn't seem to be any distractions for us during the meeting so we could enjoy the music and words of worshiping our Savior, and that seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day.  

I vote that Christmas is on a Sunday every year!  

Corky woke up at 5:00am to get the turkey started in the smoker.  Dare I say, it was the best turkey that has ever been cooked.  We brined it the day before, something that we had never done before, then smoked it in time for our lunch/dinner Christmas afternoon.  Not kidding, best turkey ever.

Santa Claus brought the girls new bikes and helmets this year so we definitely had to try them out.  

Emily got a toy hairstyling set and Buster was her first client.  

Christmas Eve 2011

We were invited to attend a Christmas Eve dinner with a family that we go to church with.  Their traditional Christmas Eve dinner consists of food that Mary and Joseph may have eaten that Christmas Eve night so long ago.  We took our shoes off, sat on the floor (a little tiresome for this very pregnant lady), and munched on food such as cheese, flat bread, hummus, dried meats, olives, crackers, dates, prunes, and other fruits.  We enjoyed spending time with other people that we know that also live far away from their immediate families.  I was definitely missing my family in Utah that night, knowing the fun they were having going from party to party, but being with good friends and each other was a lot of fun too.

Unfortunately, I did not take a lot of pictures.  Here are the few that I have from the evening.

The past few years, Corky has enjoyed helping the girls follow Santa with the Santa Tracker App.  They checked it multiple times through the day, even seeing that Gracey and Emily's names were on Santa's nice list.  Technology is awesome!

Just before bed we set out the cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.  Emily really wasn't as grumpy as she looks in this picture.  She just thinks she is so funny when she does exactly the opposite of what I ask.  From now on, maybe I should say "Look grumpy!"

 Just before bedtime and after reading Luke 2 and "The Night Before Christmas," we all squished for a family picture.  We are so blessed to be together, be healthy and happy, and to enjoy being the family that we are.  

Rough and Tumble

When people say about their son, "he is all boy!", I have to laugh.  Usually it is said after describing his love of dirt, trucks, wrestling and rough housing, and sports.  It can also be followed by the fact that their boy burps or farts like a champ, is stinky, and perhaps torments the pet dog.

I must have boys too!  

My girls do all of that and love it all.  The biggest difference that might not make them "all boy" is the fact that they are usually doing those things while wearing dress up high heels, lip gloss, and a cute bow in their hair.  

A most recent example of this is their wrestling habits with their pops.  Corky and the girls get into wrestling matches all the time and our girls are pretty ruthless!  

Here are a few more examples from over the past few years of my girls being not-so-dainty!

Gracey, August 2009, playing in dirt!

Gracey and Emily, 2009, really wanting to play with the lizard that was caught in our home.

Gracey, summer of 2011.  This shows her broken hand that happened when she was playing a little too rough at the park, and shows her tormenting the pup.  He's not safe, especially when he is sleeping!

With all that said, I do, with 1,000,000% of my being, love having girls.  Even though they can be stinky, sweaty, and hyper, they sure do make my heart happy!

They take after Cousin Eddy

For the last week or so, Gracey and Emily have taken turns (and fought about) who gets to get the mail everyday.  I will admit that Christmas time is the best time of year to receive mail.  Instead of the usual bills and junk mail (or in addition to I should say) we receive Christmas cards.  We all love getting them.  We quickly had to figure out a system so it would be fair to both girls.  So whoever gets to move the Christmas mouse on our calendar that day, the other girl is the one that gets to get the mail and choose a book to read that evening before bed.  It has worked out well so far.

Last Saturday we were gone most of the day so Emily took her turn early Sunday morning, in her jammies, in the freezing cold!  Corky was quick to grab the camera.

It reminded me of Gracey last January, voluntarily getting the trash bin then sweeping up leaves on the porch.  I don't recall every adding these photos to the blog, so I am glad I was reminded of it so that I could.  

Somebody is in denial

When Buster was this size.....it wasn't a problem.

I am not sure he will ever realize that his favorite sleeping spot, especially when we are eating dinner, he is just a little too big for these days!

Christmas Caroling and Hay Ride

While Corky was out of town for work last week, we joined some friends from church for our annual Christmas Caroling and Hay-Rack Ride.  We got SO LUCKY with the weather.  It had rained for almost 2 days straight before, even raining a few hours before were were supposed meet up at the church.  The rain stopped just in time and the temperature was so warm, about 60 degrees.  I didn't even need to wear my coat at all during the ride.

This was not just a silly moment the camera caught, this is all the girls would do for me when I asked for a picture.  

We stopped at two local assisted living homes.  The first stop we just walked around the hallways of the establishment, waving to the elderly that were sitting comfortably in their rooms as we walked past.  The second stop though was my favorite.  All of the patients and elderly that were able to met gathered in the main room (where they paused their show of "Survivor") to listen to us.  I loved seeing so many of them singing along to the Christmas hymns that we sang, and I loved seeing my kids participate. 

After were were through singing, both of my girls, and quite a few other children, walked around shaking the hands of all those that were able to.  Emily would say "Merry Christmas" to every single one of them.

We tried snapping a photo of everyone that was there before we headed off for hot chocolate and donuts but it was pretty dark, so we did our best.

Gingerbread Houses

I can't say that I will never make my own gingerbread house again, but this cute little kit sure made it easy!  It was only $8 at WalMart.  I would have spent double that money on just purchasing a variety of candy to put on my usual gingerbread house made of graham crackers!  My girls had a great time decorating this house last Sunday.  Because the two sides are nearly identical, they each got to do their own side, definitely helping in the fairness factor.  We split up all the candy evenly and they went at it however they wanted.  For the most part they wanted it to look the same, but at least there was no arguing or fighting.  They even agreed nicely who would do the gingerbread man (Emily) and the Christmas tree (Gracey).  It was a Christmas miracle indeed.

Dance Clinic Halftime Show

This last week the girls were able to attend a dance clinic put on by the high school dance team.  After a few practices, they performed at the halftime of the boy's varsity basketball game.  

I tried snapping a few photos of the girls before and this is the best I got. It really is the best because it definitely shows Emily's personality and that her most recent favorite thing to do is go cross-eyed.  She is either a complete poser for cameras, or a complete goofball.  Very rarely is there an an in-between.

They both did a great job and had a lot of fun.

We stayed after the performance to finish out the game.  The Independence Bulldogs beat Iola High School by 2 points!  We all had a good time, obviously goofing off some more.