Emma's First Haircut!

I know, I know, she doesn't have much hair! BUT the hair that she does have is in all different lengths. I've been wanting to get her haircut for awhile, but it wasn't really a priority.

Saturday, Ron didn't put in for overtime in the morning, like he usually does, so that he could go play basketball with some guys from the ward. When that fell through, I told him "Let's go get Emma's haircut!" So, off we went to the kids salon. It was lined with video games and a play area with a TV and that was just the waiting area! They had a TV at every station where you could play video games or watch movies. Here she is before the cut.

(See her stringy hair?!)

Waiting to get cut! She decided she wanted to watch Ariel while she got her hair cut. That girls eyes were GLUED to the TV!

All done! They gave her a white bow to put in her hair that lasted a whole whopping 10 minutes! They also gave her a little "My 1st Haircut" certificate that you can put their picture on and saved some hair for me.

(Technically this wasn't her "first" haircut if you count the time at preschool that she took the scissors to her own hair and cut off a lock. Amanda saved some of that hair for me already!)

30 Weeks & Counting!

I've never been one to do "belly shots" while pregnant. I did one at 20 weeks with Michael and that was about it and then I did one as we were entering the hospital with Emma just to say that I did one! So, I thought I'd start at 30 weeks, and if I happen to take anymore, great, if not, oh well! So here I am at 30 weeks and things have been going pretty good. For a preganancy update, I had my follow-up ultrasound appointment a couple weeks ago and everything was GREAT! The Choroid Plexus cyst was gone and the placenta has moved out of the way which means (as long as no other problems arise) I wont have to have a c-section!! I had kinda been preparing myself for one, just in case, and was actually getting a little excited that I would be able to pick the day! But, that doesn't look like it will be happining! I've been feeling pretty good, as well as pregnacies go. It's getting hard to tell my kids that I can't pick them up anymore and bending over.....yikes! I HATE dropping anything because I don't want to have to bend over! I also have been feeling the baby move quite a bit, but it seems that he is REALLY low! So low I worry that if I stand up he's going to fall out! We've also been debating names....A LOT!!! We both have a favorite, and like the other one's choice, but we like ours better. SO we picked 2 names and plan to just wait until the baby is born and then name him. My mom's not thrilled with that decision because she has her favorite name, too, but we all need to be fair about it and that's the only solution I can come up with thus far! 10 more weeks to go, let the countdown begin!!!

Jesus Wants Emma for a Sunbeam!

It's official, I have no kids in nursery anymore! (Until the new baby is old enough!) Emma has been in primary for 2 Sunday's now and she loves it! She's already picked up on some of the primary songs! For her birthday, she got several dresses and I've been alternating them every week. She had 2 more to go, but insisted on wearing the dress that I made for her! I'm glad she likes it, but my OCD came out a little because she hasn't worn all the new dresses yet! I know, I'm crazy, but I did overlook it and let her wear the dress! This is her after church was over and I wanted to snap the picture before she ripped the clippy out of her hair and changed her clothes! She loves being a sunbeam, especially since her favorite cousin Aaron is in the class with her!

Golf Photo Shoot

For Christmas gifts for the grandparents/great grandparents I try to give photo's of the kids throghout the year in some form. This year, for the grandparents I did a photobook, and for the great grandparents I got a collage photo frame and put a picture of Emma's tea party shoot from a few months ago, a picture of the kids from our last family shoot, but I didn't have any professional pictures of just Michael. So, I made an appointment with HyeStyleShots and headed to the golf course! Michael was SO excited for the photoshoot, until I showed him what he was going to wear! He didn't want to wear the hat or the vest! I had to show him pictures of golfers that wear those types of hats and vests and I told him that I just wanted a few pictures and then he could take it off and play golf for awhile. he was okay after that!

This is the one I had printed even though I like the one above better, but I needed a horozontal photo!

This is my FAVORITE picture, because it's the "famous" pose that Ron and his family always do at various locations! We need to get all the boys out and have them all do it, but I thought I'd have her do this one for now. Ron's grandpa's birthday was last week, so I printed this one out for him. He loved it! :o)

Santa Came!

This year, our Christmas was a little different than years past. We've been pretty fortunate to have Ron home every Christmas morning with his work schedule. This year, he was off in the morning, but had to go to work in the afternoon, so we did most of our celebrations on Christmas Eve. A couple nights before Christmas, the kids made some sugar cookies for Santa. We baked them on the 23rd, and then decorated them Christmas Eve morning.

The result.

I forgot my camera for most of the festivities, so I don't have a ton of photos. My brother and his family were going to head out to Ridgecrest after they opened presents Christmas morning, so we had a Christmas Eve lunch with them and opened our presents to each other and our kids opened presents from my parents. Of course they got all kids of cool stuff there and we had lots of good food! After all the presents, we headed out to Ron's grandparents house where we celebrated with his family and opened lots more presents and ate even more yummy food! After some time, it was time to go home and wait for Santa to arrive. A tradition in both our families is to open PJ's on Christmas Eve, so we carry on the tradition in our family. This year, however, Michael had gotten some awesome Superman pajama's (cape included) from Grandma & Grandpa Smeesh that he had changed into while we were over there. The PJ's we got the kids were Christmas pajama's that I wanted the kids to wear for Christmas morning. Let's just say that Michael was less than thrilled to have to change out of his Superman jammies and into the snowmen playing football jammies! But after we distracted him with getting the table set up with Santa's cookies and milk, he seemed fine.

He cried a little! :o(

The table set up near the fireplace so that Santa wouldn't miss his cookies & milk. We also left a bowl of water for the reindeer! (I need to remember to get carrots next year!)

After Santa came...

Opening their stockings.

Santa brought Emma a princess bike this year! She loves it, but gets frustrated on trying to ride it. She starts out fine and then she thinks about it and says that she can't do it and gives up. We'll keep working on it!

Here are the kids all dressed up for Christmas Sunday.

We had a wonderful Christmas and the kids we spoiled (as usual!). We are truly lucky to have so many family members who love us so much! One of the highlights for me this year was listening to Michael sing the songs he's been learning in primary and singing it all the time! And, eventually, Emma picked up on the lyrics and joined in. He had learned the Children's Songbook hymn "Picture a Christmas". I especially loved hearing him sing it while we were out shopping! It meant that even though we talk about Santa coming and all the fun that goes with that, he is still learning the true meaning of why we celebrate this season. I sometimes feel like I don't talk about it enough, but I'm glad he is listening when I do, or he picks it up during Primary and it makes me feel so good! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and here's to a very happy new year!