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!

Knott's "Merry" Farm 2010

As our tradition, we headed to Knotts again this year a couple of weeks ago. Since Ron started working for the state, we have gone every year since Michael was born (with the exception of the year Emma was born since she was born at the end of November!) However, Michael went that year with my parents. Every year, the kids are able to ride more and more, so it's been pretty fun! Ron's mom came in to town the day before we went, so she came along too! (which made it nice because there weren't a lot of rides I could ride!)

Ignore the fat lady in the picture! (I look awful!)

After the Charlie Brown stage show, the kids went on this ride. Lets just say that Michael was less than thrilled to be on the ride and didn't want to go AT ALL. Emma really liked it, but it doesn't really show in this picture! They just took forever to get the ride started since one of the kids freaked out and wanted off.

Ron's mom took the kids to the sk8 board ride and the next thing I know, Emma was on it, by herself, in the FRONT!! This is the first time she's been on this ride and I thought she would freak out, but she LOVED it! I thought she was going to fly out of the seat, but she didn't!

Michael & Grandma liked it, too!

On the train! Choo-Choo!

Don't they look like twins?!

Me and my baby boy! :o)

I don't think she likes him very much! ;o)

The Stagecoach

Michael and daddy got to sit up front with the horses!

After we left, we stopped at Fudruckers for dinner. I don't remember ever going there before. It was pretty good! The kids were exhausted and Michael even fell asleep in the booth! We had a great time! The weather was nice, not rainy, and it was not crowded AT ALL which makes it even MORE nice! Until next year!

Emma's Birthday Celebrations!

Emma turned 3 this year & her birthday just happened to fall on Thanksgiving! I was due on Thanksgiving with her, but she ended up being 3 days late and this year was her year! I am bound and determined to NOT combine Thanksgiving with her birthday, because I feel like that is her special day and I want her to feel special. SO this year we had her party a week early and invited lots of family over to celebrate! Emma started out wanting a Princess party, then changed her mind for a couple of days to a Barbie party, and then finally decided on strictly an Ariel party! (I checked SEVERAL times before I started buying things!) She also insisted on having sandwiches, but "not peanut butter and jelly" sandwiches. So, we had a deli spread. I normally try to work the party around my work schedule and have that day off so that I can have time to prepare, but it just didn't work out. I had bought everything beforehand and left the setting up to Ron! He actually suprised me! He cut up all the meats/cheeses/breads and even hung up streamers that looked REALLY cute!! He did GREAT! When I got home, I helped with last minute set up, getting the drinks going, plates/napkins/utensils, etc. Amanda was in charge of the cake (again!) and she did an AMAZING job!! I gave her a little bit of direction and this is what she came up with! It was SO cute!!

My little 3 year old!


Brushing daddy's 'hair'.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome! Last year my family started the tradition of going to the beach for Thanksgiving. This year, since it was Emma's birthday, we decided to venture to San Diego and take her to Sea World as her present. I found a decent hotel (Best Western) and made the arrangements. After making the arrangements, my cousin got engaged and had decided to get married that weekend! I held on to the reservations for awhile (mainly because the date was officially unofficial and because I had hoped we could change to another weekend since the hotel was already paid for). It was getting closer and closer and I finally just cancelled the hotel. THE NEXT DAY we found out that the wedding was to be postponed!!!! That evening, I searched and found the same hotel for the same price and re-booked! I was so relieved! So the plans were set for our family & my parents to stay in the same room and my brother and his family in another. However, the day before we were to leave, my oldest 2 nephews came down with strep pretty bad, so they had to stay home! I was able to cancel their room without a fee, but we sure did miss them! We found out later that my youngest nephew got strep, too! We drove down Thursday morning, checked into the hotel and then found a nice park to bbq at. We had taken down some meats, rice, beans, tortillas, and other fixings to have a nice bbq in the park!

And what would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie?! My mom makes THE BEST pumpkin pies, so she made a couple and we took them down with us! After our feast, we headed over to this little boardwalk area nearby that had rides and games, etc so the kids could play around a little. We then headed over to watch a movie, but the movies wasn't for awhile so we bought tickets and found a Boomers and played a quick round of mini golf, then headed back to the theater to watch Tangled. CUTE MOVIE!! After the movie, we headed back to the hotel, got the kids bathed and ready for bed and the search was on for Black Friday deals. We noticed that Toys R Us was to open at 10pm, so I told my mom that I would go with her to that, but I didn't want to go in the morning. So we were off. We got there around 10:30pm and the line was wrapped around the store and back to the front! It was insanely cold!! After waiting outside for 2 hours, we were FINALLY inside only to find that the line to the registers weaved in and out of the aisles to the back of the store!! BUT we were able to find some good deals and got most everything that the kids wanted. I'm just about done with my kids for Christmas and what I wanted, wasn't on sale there. We finally pulled into the hotel parking lot around 2:30am when Ron called to see where we were. Apparently Emma was having a rough night and had been crying for the last hour and a half for me!! When I got up to the room, I noticed that she was running a fever. Luckily I had packed some medicine 'just in case'. So, I gave her some of that while my parents went out and did more shopping. Ron was going to go, but he had gotten sick, too, and didn't want to go shopping.

The next morning we got up, got ready and headed to Sea World! They didn't open until 10 am and it was really close, so we didn't have to get up super early (although my mom didn't get any sleep!). We saw lots of different shows and exhibits and had a great time!

Emma was a little trooper, but she started getting really warm! I had forgotten the meds at the hotel, so we headed to the first aid center. It was like a mini hospital! They took her temp and it was 101, so they gave her some Tylenol. She started feeling better after that, but she was still SO tired from the day/night before!

This was one of the baby whales and he/she was spinning around on it's belly.

The trainers had them 'kiss'! So cute!

Shamu!

Look at the power of that tail!

Emma watching the baluga whales. They had a 5 mth old baby baluga there! It was cute and followed it's momma around everywhere she went!

This was the last show of the evening and the best picture I got!

The park closed at 7:30pm, so we went over to Chilis for dinner. Emma was so tired, she crashed before we made it out of the parking lot and didn't wake up until the next morning! We even took her into the restaraunt and laid her down in the booth and she slept the whole time! The next morning we got up, got ready, checked out and went out to breakfast at Ihop. After that, we headed home! We had a great trip and the kids are still talking about Sea World!!

On a side note, Michael was complaining of a sore throat while we were gone, also, so this morning when I took Emma for her yearly check up and to get Michael his 2nd flu mist, I had the dr check them both out and Emma ended up with an ear infection and Michael has strep! Which means, I have to take Emma back in for her vaccines when she's better and I have to call to have them both have their 2nd flu mist because they ran out! I'm STILL trying to get Ron to go to the doctor because I'm pretty sure he has strep also, but he's being stubborn. He swears he'll go tomorrow morning, but he'll have both kids, so we'll see what happens!