Getting ready for Christmas

Decorating the Christmas tree.

Mia only touched the tree a few times, yeah. The other kids were constantly rearranging their ornaments.

Playing in the snow with a friend.

Quinn in his personally designed award winning Christmas sweater.

Decorating Christmas cookies.

 

Joy School Christmas Program

What cute Shepard's.

The Nativity and songs.

A very fun visit with Santa!

No crying for this girl this year, she just stared at him.

Emma was very nervous this year again because she was afraid she was going to be on the naughty list but Santa reassured her and we finally convince her to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

 

Just the week before the kids wrote letters to Santa and sent them off to Uncle Taylor who is in the North Pole on his mission. He said he would hand deliver them for us. How exciting.

 

Here he is at North Pole, Alaska.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

There is not much more I can say than we had a great day of Family, Food, Fun and Games.

 

The chefs.

The soon to be big brother, yeah!

The food.

Cousins.

Fun and games.

Climbing on Grandpa.

Happy first Thanksgiving Mia.

Our new 6 year old.

More games and pie.

 

Emma's Birthday - 6 years old!

Birthday with the Lavenders

Emma loves her crafting supplies.

Emma's new favorite toys are Palace Pets (Disney has created a pet for each Princess. Very smart Disney, well done.) (A side note about Emma's hair - she still fights me every day when I try to do her hair so this is what we get when she takes out the very cute pigtails that I put in for church.)

A birthday cake for only one this year. Cousin Tanner is on his mission but she got some extra love from Cousin Loren and Aunt Angie.

 

A Double Birthday Party with best friend Brooke

 

Emma and Brooke have the same birthday and so instead of them each having a party and essentially inviting the same friends we combined it and each parent did half the work. It was great! Quinn stepped up and planned all the games and ran the party. Way to go Dad! In the pictures is: (back) Ashley, Lily, Kate, Kiyomi (front) Brooke, Brooke's friend from school, Emma and Abby.

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First up was pin the bow on Hello Kitty or as Emma calls her Miss Kitty.

 Then birthday bingo.

 

Next was eating a doughnut from a string with no hands. Emma insisted we play this game as she had done it at Abby's birthday party and loved it.

So very excited to get a lollipop, she has been asking for one for a long time.

Another Palace Pet, yeah!

 

Birthday with the Van Bibbers

 

Emma gets so excited over all most everything. It is so fun to watch her expressions. Here she is excited about a card! (maybe it had money in it)

 Ponies to complete her My Little Pony collection.

 



A new dress with fun tights which she loves as you can see.

 

Daisy so Minnie has someone to play with.

Poor Grandma has to share a princess cake.

Happy Birthday Emma and Grandpa.

 

Birthday pictures

I love this year's pictures. Emma did great. Just walked right in and smiled so well. We love our 6 year old. Emma is loving kindergarten, her teacher and all her new friends. Her favorite is recess where she and a few girls chase a couple of boys around the playground. I asked her what they did when they caught one of them and she said we just catch him again. She still loves to draw and create things. Emma is also very good at playing with her animal toys and creating stories with them. She still likes My Little Pony and now Palace Pets. Emma loves to be read too but it not too interested in trying to read for herself yet but is slowly learning new words. She sometimes complains about having to get up so early (7:50) to get ready for school (still not a morning person) but by the time I drop her off she is out of the car without a goodbye or and I love you too Mom. Emma is loving having a baby sister and can make her laugh like no one else. She also plays and fights really well with brother James. We love you Emma and can't wait to see what new things you will learn this year.

Halloween Happenings

Emma's Kindergarten Halloween Party

 

I got to run the bingo table.

 



Geisha Girl and Queen Bee.

Our cute Mia.

 

Halloween Night

 



Let's go Trick-or-Treating.

Our Bat - he put his costume on for a few pictures and then decided he was done. We finally talked him to going out over an hour later and he only wanted to do one street.

Our Queen Bee - who was very excited to go but was stilled scared of some houses and their decorations so she also did not last long.

Our cute Monkey who really had no idea why she was being put in this silly costume for a few pictures and that was it. She stayed home and helped Mom hand out candy.

Cutest Devil ever.