Emma

Emma had a special birthday this year: she turned five the same day as Easter and General Conference. She also had her first birthday party with friends the Friday before. Since she is pretty obsessed with horses, we had a pony-themed birthday party. The girls got to wear pony "manes" (we ran out of yarn for the tails we planned to make) and made magic wands with plenty of flowers, ribbons, and glitter glue. They also played pin the tail on the donkey and all sorts of fun pony games outside. Even though it was cold and overcast, they had so much fun running around outside and it helped to channel their energy.

Cupcake time

Everyone gathered for pictures and presents

Elizabeth and Emma hunting for Easter eggs outside. It was cold! Emma absolutely loves to wear her "cowgirl" boots anytime. As you can see, she also gets pretty creative in her choices of outfits.

On her actual birthday, we held Easter dinner at our house with my family and served Emma's pony cake in between sessions of General Conference. It was one crazy day, although looking back, there were lots of great memories. We all had a wonderful day.

Emma with her stuffed pony from G&G W.

Her main present was a Madame Alexander doll. One of the first things she did with her was accessorize her hair and change her clothes.

Emma and Rachel enjoying their new strawberry and cupcake PJ's

Rachel and Emma getting ready for her party

Emma also had her first "real" haircut shortly before her birthday (not counting an emergency repair session when she was mischevious with scissors as a toddler!). It is so much easier to work with now.

Elizabeth and Emma decided to try on each other's clothes. It was so funny. Rachel was just thrilled to be dressed up.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is such a sweet girl. She has a natural ability to take care of her baby brother that is amazing to me. She is also very enthusiastic and loves life in general. I cannot believe she is seven already! She is growing up way too quickly. We had so many cute pictures of her from her 7th birthday and other times that I thought an Elizabeth blog post was in order.

Elizabeth and Joshua dressed in their Easter outfits

On her 7th birthday, opening up her gift cards from G&G

Elizabeth's cupcake-themed birthday party was so cute. I think I had just as much fun with it as the girls did! They made cupcake cards and bags, played freeze dance and twister, decorated their own cupcakes, and generally had fun being hyper.

Elizabeth received perfect gifts for a 7-year-old girl: a glitter ball, diary, porcelain tea set, a game, and a movie. From us she received a new bike that she got to pick out.

Elizabeth with her cousin Ashlyn

Emma, Elizabeth, and her friend Claire

Emma spent her own money to help buy Elizabeth a "sequin purse" she was hoping for at Kohl's. These close moments of sisterhood make it all worth it. :'-)

The craft table

The day before her party, Elizabeth had her first real haircut. She had wanted to grow her hair out forever, but it was getting to difficult to brush through each day. She was not happy going into it, but loved the way she looked at the end!

For the 100th day of school, Elizabeth was assigned to make a poster of 100 of something. Borrowing the idea from a box of Kix, she glued 100 pieces of Kix cereal onto a drawing of an ear of corn. It turned out pretty cute.

Family Home Evening Fun

For a family home evening lesson on "the armor of righteousness", we gave each family member a few minutes to find an item from a scripture story. Matthew is Captain Moroni with the Title of Liberty; Brent is Moses with his staff; Elizabeth is Ammon with the sword of disarmament; Rachel is Joseph wearing mommy's robe of many colors, and Emma is Nephi with his famous bow. It was amazing how much fun this activity was for our family. No, I am not brilliant enough to come up with this idea myself-- thank you, Friend magazine.

Matthew, Elizabeth, Brent, Rachel, Emma.

Wiggles and Giggles

Hooray! We caught video of Joshua giggling! This is priceless.

(Pardon the cookie timer in the background)

They grow too fast

We have so many adorable pictures of Joshua that we have been meaning to share. He is now 2 months old and growing way too fast! He is such a sweet boy and we are enjoying the spirit he brings into our family. Last Tuesday he had his 2-week checkup and now weighs 9 lbs. 11 oz. I was also surprised when the doctor discovered he had a nasty double ear infection, since he wasn't acting fussy or showing signs of a fever. Thank goodness for antibiotics!

Joshua has been sleeping great at night for the last couple of weeks. He wakes up around 3 AM and again at about 6 AM. None of my other babies slept so long or predictably at this age! Hence, the blog post. The cobwebs of bleary-eyed exhaustion are beginning to lift, and I am semi-functional these days!

Sorry if these pictures are totally out of order. I haven't figured out how to make them go where I want them to on the blog post yet.

2 months old

Joshua is finally filling out!







His first smile caught on camera. He loves to smile at the picture of the baby on the diaper package while lying on his changing table. It is so cute.

Joshua's first time playing with his toy gym

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa Aaron for the first time

His little body is so cute, I can't resist grabbing the camera.

About 1 month old

Rachel is so proud of her baby brother and loves to take care of him almost as much as her dolls.

Joshua's First Christmas, 2009

Christmas was very special for our family this year. We were able to welcome our new baby, Joshua, into our family only four days before Christmas. I was very anxious to be able to spend Christmas together as a family, and so I left the hospital the evening of Christmas Eve. Brent brought Joshua and I right over to Lisa and Steve's house, where the rest of our kids were waiting for us. There we enjoyed a nice dinner together and read the Christmas story from the Bible while the kids acted it out. There was a special spirit that evening as we celebrated Christ's birth as well as the birth of our own precious baby boy.



Following our evening at Lisa and Steve's, we went straight home and got the kids ready for bed so Brent and I could get ready for Christmas the next morning! I was still pretty sore from the surgery, but able to help Brent get everything ready. Joshua's first night home from the hospital was pretty typical for our babies: he definitely had his days and nights mixed up! Below are some pictures from Christmas morning. I was so grateful to be well enough to go home a day early so we could all be together on this very special Christmas.






Matthew, Elizabeth, Rachel, and Emma eagerly waiting to come up the stairs to see their presents.
Emma is rather obsessed with horses and anything tiny, and Santa brought her a new horse stable with lots of tiny horses. Hopefully Rachel (and Joshua in a few months!) won't swallow too many pieces! Rachel did stick a pony bead up her nose the other day...


Toddlers like Rachel are so easy to please!

One of my craziest nesting projects ever: attempting to make matching nightgowns for my girls as Christmas presents during the hectic week and a half before Joshua was born. I was still working on the final hems when my mom showed up to take the kids so Brent could drive me to the hospital! Mom was generous enough to finish those hems for me. They did turn out really cute, but ended up taking about 20 hours for my slow pregnant brain to figure out!

Matthew is always thrilled with more Legos.

Our first Christmas in our new house! Notice all the homemade paper ornaments the kids colored and cut out.

Rachel was in heaven when she reached into her stocking and pulled out a stuffed kitty. She also received a new baby doll with high chair, cradle, and stroller. Again, she couldn't have been happier.

Elizabeth asked Santa for a golden "magical" locket with a picture of her family inside.

After Christmas morning at home, we headed over to my parents' house for a late Christmas breakfast and to enjoy Christmas with my family there. I spent much of the day resting upstairs in my parents room and nursing the baby, but it was still nice to be able to be part of the family instead of home by myself.

My niece Kira holding Joshua on his first Christmas