Miss Em Turns Two!

Emalyn Faith turned 2 on November 6th. We didn't have a party this year because Maddi's party was the weekend before and Cade had a swim meet in the afternoons on the weekend of Emma's bday. Plus, she's two, and she has no clue if she's having a party or not. However, we did try to make it a special weekend for our special little two year old. Five million pictures follow to tell about the birthday weekend!
Maddi and Cade didn't have school Friday, so we went to Chuck E Cheese. Maddi took Emma to see Chuck E and Maddi said Emma kept saying "see Mommy".

Maddi and Cade helped Emma play some games. They were so cute with her.

Ski Ball! I was playing it with Emma (her hand was just on mine as I rolled the balls) and I got a 10,000 and a 5,000. That was a first for me!

Emalyn very quickly learned how to put the money in the machines. She played this game over and over. Step one, put the token in.

Step 2, pull the handle.

Step 3, hit the red light. She got it down quickly and did it over and over again.

Riding in the car with Chuck E.

She randomly put a coin in this machine and ended up winning 50 tickets!

Two cuties.

Time to count the tickets. Maddi and Emma won the same amount of tickets. Ha!

The birthday girl sporting her signature look of one pink and one purple shoe.

These were her prizes after turning in her tickets. She got an orange slinky, a yellow fish, purple fish, airhead candy and a green crazy straw. She actually looked in the prize case and showed me things she wanted and told me what color.

And the big kids with their prizes. It was a fun lunch celebrating the big girl.

I have been wanting to get pictures of Emma in the bath tub and I finally remembered to do it Saturday morning.

Bubbles are so fun! I wish I had pictures of her the first time she had a bubble bath. She was freaked out that they were stuck on her. I told her to shake them off and kind of made a game out of it to make her ok with them. She's kind of a freak with getting dirty and sensory things so I figure a bubble bath here and there is good for her to get used to different textures.

She was being so goofy with her tongue the whole time we took pictures.

Time to wash the shampoo out.

Little sweetie pie!

The goofy tongue again.

Saturday Cade had a swim meet and I had a baby shower for a friend adopting a baby from China. I was at the baby shower and Brett put Emma down for a nap before he left for the meet. The plan was for Emma to sleep and Maddi to stay home with Emma while she napped. Our neighbor, Abby, was coming over to play with Maddi while Emma napped. Emma never actually went to sleep and was calling for us to change her diaper within 15 minutes of Brett leaving. Maddi changed it and then called Brett to ask what to do. He said put her back in her crib and let her cry. She then called Brett to say there was a wasp in house and he said to ignore it. I got home about an hour after Brett left and got a text from the neighbor saying the girls were all over at her house. I went over and found not only Maddi, Abby and Emma, but also Cocoa was there! Maddi and Abby (mostly Maddi, I think) freaked out about the wasp and called the mom over to get it. She couldn't get it because it was up in the second story of the foyer and told the girls to come back to their house if they wanted to, so they did. Maddi is clearly not ready to be left alone yet. She is so good with playing with Emma, but I don't think she has the maturity to actually babysit yet.

So then I took Emma to the swim meet without a nap, she ended up falling asleep on the way and napped for the first hour we were there. She was a champ all day at the meet. That night Cade had a bday party and Brett and I took the girls to dinner. We got home and Emma was asking for her yellow pjs. We washed all of her pjs in the morning, and since I was gone all day, I forgot to put them in the dryer. She about came unglued that all of her favorite pjs were wet. I remembered that Omie had sent Emma some nightgowns for her birthday. We asked Emma if she wanted to open a Happy Birthday present with nightgown pjs from Omie. She was all excited to open the present.

Still curious and excited about the pjs.

And then tears. She was so mad that the pjs were not the ones she was hoping for.

We laughed and laughed and she cried and cried. Is that wrong that we found it funny?

Brett took her in her room and found a few pjs that were clean.

That didn't satisfy her either, she wanted the ones in the dryer. Poor baby! She ended up wearing a yellow shirt that was wet and was happy as a clam to wear a wet shirt to bed.

She woke up Sunday morning and immediately started asking for her pjs in the dryer. She then started putting on several shirts and pants and all was good in her world again. Then it was time to open presents because Sunday was her birthday!

This stuff is really fun!

I love Maddi and Cade's faces looking and half way laughing at Emma's Dora the Explorer big girl panties!

Emma checking out the Dora panties.

Bubba reading the card to little Emma.

Cade wanted to give her something of his so he went up and got the Animal Planet doggy set.

More presents.


Time to play with the presents.


Grammy sent a singing card that got broken in the mail. Daddy, the engineer, took it apart and found a way to make it work. Love that enginerd! Emma enjoyed singing Happy Birthday with the Minnie Mouse card.

Stylish, no?

Lord help us if this way of clothing herself lasts for several years :)

Maddi and Cade were so excited to play with the play do set. Emma didn't want to touch it. Maddi and Cade have been banned from play do for about 5 years because they made a big mess of it one day and both refused to clean it up. I told them if they didn't clean it up, I'd throw it away, and I did. Ha! They were very responsible with it this time so they can have play do in their lives again. lol

I love these pictures of Maddi helping Emma paint her paint with water book.




Maddi is so good to Emma and is so nurturing. Emma is the baby sister she had wished for for so many years. I hope they are always so sweet with each other.

Emma wanted to put on her big girl panties.

But in true Emma style, she had to have multiple layers of panties.

We all thought she looked so stinking cute in her panties. She tells me everytime she poops and wants to be changed and tells me most of the time after she pees too. I think we'll work on potty training soon.

Since she wasn't wearing her pjs, she decided to carry them around with her. Goofball!

When we asked Emma what she wanted to eat for her Happy Birthday lunch, she said a cheeseburger. We were going to go to McDonald's but decided to go up a notch and went to Culvers. She loved her applesauce, cheeseburger and chocolate ice cream.


We spent the rest of the day with her napping and then at Cade's swim meet. It lasted forever and I ended up picking up Little Ceasers pizza for dinner. We put some candles in her pizza and sang Happy Birthday to her.

She really enjoyed the candles!






This is where Maddi and Cade kept the "happy" in Happy Birthday. Emma tried to grab the flame of the candle and they both immediately stopped her. Look at Maddi and Cade's faces. What a good big brother and sister!

We all helped her blow the candles out. I hope all of her wishes come true.

It was a very busy weekend but we tried to make it as much about the birthday girl as we could. I think she knew she was special. She kept saying "Happy Birthday Memma" and would talk about her presents and eating a cheeseburger. It's hard to believe she is such a big girl and is 2! I remember it like it was yesterday when I found out I was pregnant.

She has her doctor well visit Wednesday, so I'll update stats then. Went to the doctor today. Weight, 29.2 ounces is 75th percentile. Height 35 and 3/4 inches tall 95th percentile. Body Mass Index 50th percentile. Taller than heavier, so good. Some things about Emalyn at 2:
*She knows all of her colors and is a little obsessed with them.
*She can count to ten, but usually skips 6. She even counts objects.
*She talks a lot and puts several words together. However, her articulation isn't great.
*She loves Backyardigans, Wonder Pets and sometimes likes Curious George. She often repeats what they say and sings along with the songs.
*She can sing and do the motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider. She sings part of Happy Birthday. She can sing part of the abc's when we sing with her.
*She can recognize and name the letters E, C, M. She loves books and sits and reads parts of them to herself.
*She loves puzzles and blocks.
*She is wearing size 7 shoes and 2T clothes.

As Brett said, she adds a spice to our lives. She is not like Maddi or Cade at this age and she keeps us on our toes. She makes us laugh all the time and brings so much happiness to all of our lives. Happy Birthday Emalyn Faith!

Trick or Treat

Monday was one of the kids favorite days of the year, Halloween! Emalyn went to child care while I went to see the kids at their Halloween parade at school and then I was one of the parents who planned and attended Maddi's class party. Here is Cade with some of his friends. He was Josh Hamilton from the Texas Rangers. I was afraid that after the Rangers lost the World Series against the Cardinals that Cade would want to change his costume, but he never mentioned it. Whew!

Maddi had a hard time deciding what to be this year and finally decided on an Oreo. We made her costume in about 30 minutes one night. For her class party, they had dirt cups for snack and then played games. My game was the Pumpkin Bozo Buckets. Brett made those 4 years ago and we have used them at every class party since then. It was kind of sad that it will be the last time that I'm at Maddi's class party. She'll be in middle school next year and they don't have parties. :(

Trick or Treating started at 3:30 this year, that's when the kids get out of school. We did a little trick or treating after we picked up Emma and then Cade took off with a group of friends. Maddi and Emma and I came back and had some dinner and handed out candy before heading out again. Emalyn really enjoyed playing with the candy in the candy bowl.

Candy!

I'm pretty sure they are all thinking, "Enough of the pictures, let's get some candy!"

Our little Oreo. She didn't end up wearing it all night. It was blowing in the wind and choking her so she pinned it to her shirt. When it got too cold and she needed a coat, I didn't want it pinned to her coat in case it ripped, so she put on some pjs and then had her coat over it so you couldn't really see a costume anyway. She helped me hand out candy for a while and I think she enjoyed that as much as trick or treating. Then we went out with some friends and then her and a friend went out by themselves for a while.

Cade went with a big group for a while and then over to a friends for dinner. Then the highlite of his night was working in the haunted house next door to his friends house. He loved everything about working in the haunted house.

This little Queen Bee would never say trick or treat, but she'd always say "thank you" or her version, "tink too". She seemed to have a great night and wasn't afraid of the costumes, etc. as I thought she might be.

Big smiles for trick or treating!

One of my favorite pictures! This diapered bottom and chunky legs of the bumblebee.

Trick or treating at Emily's house. Emily is 3 and Emma loves to play with her. These are the new neighbors that moved into the Ball's house. We missed having the Ball's to hang out with this year. :(


A tired little bumblebee inspecting her loot.

Messy lollipop face!

After some candy, someone was a little wound up and burned off some energy with Daddy.

Happiness!


No treats for Daddy, just a trick! He asked for a kiss and got a lick!

Cocoa was a pumpkin again this year. She looks very afraid of something, probably Emma! It was a fun night for all!

Carving and Laundry

I snapped this picture looking out the back toward the clubhouse. It is so pretty this time of year. I think we've been gone from Texas too long, I don't remember if the leaves even change there. We definitely enjoy the changing of seasons here.

Sunday was Maddi's actual birthday. We skipped church and had a lazy morning. Then we went out for lunch. She chose Famous Dave's and had ribs. Then we ran a few errands and the kids played with friends while Emma napped. After Emma woke up, we carved our pumpkin and Emma did some laundry! We had put her pjs in the washing machine in the morning and when she woke up from her nap, she was asking for them. I told her they were in the dryer and she said "Memma get pjs in dryer". She thoroughly enjoyed getting her pjs out and putting them back in and never once paid attention to the pumpkin carving.

Since Brett was doing the carving, the kids picked out a stencil to make it fancy. If mom does the carving, it's a boring face.

I'm sure Brett was telling them how important it is to be precise or something along those lines :) Love the Engineer for a dad!

Cade doesn't really enjoy the slimy guts.

Maddi loves the guts!

And Emalyn is still unaware that there is any excitment with the pumpkin, she's too busy doing laundry.

Those are most of her favorite pj parts in her arm and she's showing me her blue pants.

Time to put some of those pjs on!

After the guts were scooped, the kids separated the seeds so we could cook them. Brett did the carving.

Still in pj land.

The more pieces of pjs she has on, the better in Emma's world.


One happy little girl!

After the pumpkin was carved, we had some dinner. The kids and I were jamming to music on Maddi's ipad.

Emma moved on from pjs to shoes. You can find piles of shoes throughout our house. She had spent a lot of time putting socks on and off and shoes on and off earlier in the day before we went to lunch. She is Miss Independent and spends a lot of time mastering things by herself. She does not want our help. "No, Memma do it" is a common phrase in our house.

Had to include this picture. After Maddi's party Saturday, there were a bunch of leftover water bottles with the girls initials on them. I hate to throw out good water and we don't want to drink after them, so we are saving it to give to Cocoa. She's a dog, she doesn't mind drinking after 20 different people. Poor dog.

The finished pumpkin with a candle in it!

Nice work gang!

The rest of the evening was filled with Maddi playing on her ipad. She got some apps for math games. She can play ipad all day long if she's doing schoolwork at the same time :)

Cade spent the evening driving us nuts with his new Nerf Gun. It shoots discs instead of darts and he will tell you all about the pros and cons of each type of gun if you're willing to listen. I told Brett I am so thankful that I have Cade, but I am also so thankful that I only have one boy. Seriously. I think I'd lose my mind if I constantly had two boys running around shooting things or throwing balls or just being a boy.