Emmie’s 4

Emmie’s big day was a pretty busy day around our house.  Our Elf showed up and made Emmie a little birthday sign.  He really is a thoughtful Elf.  And the hat?  I guess he really didn’t want to miss out on any birthday fun.  Emerson requested a purple cake with purple frosting.  I didn’t get a picture of the end product but it looked pretty and purple AND it tasted pretty darn good, if you ask me.I’m a mean mom…I scheduled Emmie’s 4 year check up on her birthday. Thankfully she didn’t need any shots.  That would have really been mean of me.After her appointment we went back home for a quick nap and then picked Hannah up from school.  I had promised her that we could go through the car wash so we left a little early and went through Brown Bear before picking Tom up. Seriously she loves the car wash.There is something about Red Robin because my girls LOVE to go there for their birthday dinner.Papa and Nonnie joined us for dinner and brought a gift for Emmie to open at dinner.  An Ariel doll that she can take in the tub with her!  A-ma-zing!After dinner we went home for presents and cake.  And, again, I didn’t get a picture of her with her cake.  I was too busy getting Nana on the phone so that she could sing with us.  I totally spaced the cake photo op.

It was a nice end to her day.  She had a wonderful day and even made sure to tell us that it was “her best birthday ever”.  :)  I love that girl and her sweetness.  I wasn’t successful at keeping you 3 forever, but you’ve promised me you’ll always be my little one. Happy birthday Emerson!  I love you, my little monkey!

Emmie & Jake’s Party

We had a pretty small crowd for Emmie and Jake’s birthday this year.  We didn’t really have a theme and sadly it was kind of put together really last minute.  It’s been a rough week but a birthday is a birthday no matter when it is and the party must go on!We tossed around the idea of doing gingerbread houses, but settled on decorating gingerbread cookies instead.  The kids all had fun creating their own little person. :)  We bought the gingerbread cookies from Haggen’s and oh.my.goodness they smelled fantastic!Dad & Barbara offered a little help to the littler ones.  :)And here is Cupcake, Emerson’s gingerbread man.  Present time brought lots of “oh my goodness, I’ve always wanted one of these”.Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Emerson and……Jacob, Happy Birthday to you (two)! She’s LOVING her new umbrella!!

It was a successful birthday party given the circumstances that surrounded the week.   Next year I’m thinking 1/2 birthday party.  :)

Our wounded one…

Our little monkey took a little tumble.  We let the girls play for a few minutes at the play area at the Alderwood mall.  I was talking to Tom when I saw Emerson walking towards me holding her arm and crying.  The lady sitting next to us said she took a head dive off the Ferry boat.  I figured if something was going to happen to one of our girls, Emerson would be the one.  She is a little dare devil.   I was pretty concerned with the way she was acting and holding on to her arm.  We managed to get her calmed down a little bit and worked our way to the car.  On the way we stopped to get her a cup of ice to put on her arm and when she told me that it hurt to hold the cup, I gave nurse Susie a call and thankfully she was working.  I asked if she could take a look at Emmie in the hospital parking lot.  :)  She looked her over and said it wouldn’t hurt to have her checked out.  I made the decision to go ahead and have her checked out because I just didn’t like the way she was acting with her arm. 

We got right in (if you ever need emergency care in the Everett area, Swedish Mill Creek is the place to go!) and were seen right away.  They were fairly certain that it wasn’t broken but did x-rays just in case.  I had to laugh because as soon as the swarm of medical professionals left her room she quickly changed her tune and was bouncing all over the room. Of course she would.  I wanted to sneak out of there, I was one of those moms.  But seriously, you should have seen her.  :)  It was amazing to see the difference in her behavior. Amazing.

She got to change into a gown.  Which she thought was pretty silly.  She also got a beanie baby…Hannah got one too.  Smiling while waiting for the x-rays…Her x-rays were clear and they sent her home with a beautiful green ace bandage and a diagnosis  of a deep contusion.  Oh Emerson!

I told Tom that we’d be getting everyone a framed picture of her x-rays because I’m pretty sure this little visit is going to throw our Christmas budget out the window.  :)

The decorated tree…

We had fun decorating the tree this year.  Not that it’s not fun every year, but this year was just a little more fun.  :)  Nothing like a little Christmas music and boxes of old ornaments to put you in the holiday spirit.  The girls got their annual ornaments from us.  We try to have the ornaments reflect something from our year. This year was all about Disneyland so naturally, that’s where they were from.  Emerson was so much fun to watch.  Every ornament she pulled out of a box was either her favorite or “so, so special”.  They were usually so special that she wanted Hannah to hang them for her.  This angel made me laugh this year.  It totally belongs in our house with our girls.Can you see which “section” was Emerson’s? 

I do love a decorated Christmas tree!  And, when it’s a kid decorated tree, it’s that much more enjoyable.

Winter concert

Hannah’s “Winter Concert” was a hoot!  The music teacher did a great job with her music selections.  Not at all what we were expecting but then again what we’re expecting isn’t allowed in public schools.  :)  I digress…

I’ve included two video clips.  They happen to be two of my favorite songs from the evening.  I do apologize to those who will actually watch the clips.  I’m afraid I was a little bit (ok, a lot) shaky because I was laughing.  Next year I will bring a tripod.  Hannah’s classmate in the front row, Andrew (in the suit) stole the show.  The boy has some moves!  Again…I apologize for any motion sickness the following may cause.  Enjoy!

 

Seriously, didn’t he make you smile?

Finding our perfect tree

Sprinkles left us another note today.  This time he told us to go get our tree…after all, it was December 4 already.  Not wanting to disappoint our direct contact with Santa, we headed out.  Rather than going to a tree farm we headed down to our local grocery store.  A little pathetic I know, but hey it worked.

I don’t think the girls were too excited about me bringing my camera along.  You’d think that by now they’d know me. :)I think this was the 4th one we looked at.And, 15 minutes after arriving at the store we were on our way back home.  

Now that’s my kind of tree hunting!

Our Elf is back!

The girls were a little worried when, after Thanksgiving, our Elf didn’t return.  We thought maybe with all the “accidental” touching's last year that maybe he lost all of his magic.  Well imagine their excitement on December 1st when Sprinkle Cookies made an appearance.  :)  Oh the joy!  This time around, Sprinkles brought along a letter and a bag of snowman poop.  Us girls were kind of grossed out by the idea.  In his letter, Sprinkles explained how he knows an Elf who  is in charge of  cleaning up the snowman poop.  There’s a rumor floating around the North Pole that us humans like to eat snowman poop. So, he brought us a bag.After doing a lot of examining, I told them that I thought they looked and kind of smelled like powdered donut holes.  They weren’t so sure and didn’t really want to try them.  I finally convinced Hannah to give it a try and she did…Yup…just powdered donut holes.  :)

Silly Elves… :)  The girls enjoyed the snowman poop so much that they didn’t even save some for Tom.  I think he was a little disappointed.  I wonder if we’ll get more this holiday season?!?

Dinner

Aunt Roberta and Uncle Bill had us all over for dinner on Dad’s birthday.  It was one more chance for us all to visit with Aunt Karlene before she headed back home. 

Emmie and Cole gave us proof that they’re related.  Look at those smiles.We had a big birthday celebration – a cake with all six of their names on it.  Their birthday’s are all relatively close together. :)Happy Birthday Dad!!No spatula for Ethan tonight. :)The girls…minus Sevi, who was MIA.Grammy Jo and all her kids.Not really sure what was going on here, but Jake looks guilty and Hannah just looks scary.And, one last picture with Auntie Karlene before we left.

It was a fun holiday weekend, not looking forward to getting back into our little routine tomorrow.  I’m a long weekend kind of girl for sure!