Some Serious Catching Up!

Okay, I am way behind and there are a few things I really wanted to post about, so here goes...

Independence Day

We had an awesome time on the 4th of July again this year. We always used to get together with my family and have a BBQ, swimming for the kids and then watch fireworks. It was always fun, but there was time between dinner and fireworks, so last year Daniel and I came up with the "Southern, Not So Special, Olympics." It was so much fun last year that we decided to do it again this year. The events were: Potato Sack Races (we actually used garbage bags because we didn't have potato sacks), 3 Legged Races, Wheel Barrow Races, Water Balloon Toss, Pie Eating Contest and the Obstacle Course. Each family was a team and we all competed against each other with Mike and Janelle's family and our family tying for first place. We were able to get the large inflatable slide this year and that made it even more fun. We had a blast and I can't wait to do it again next year! Unfortunately I was really busy keeping things going for the Olympics, so I don't have any pictures of that part, but at least I have some of the rest of it.

The bottom pictures are during the water fight with Grandpa. Emma loved it, but Matthew was not very excited about getting wet, hence his bugged expression while he was sitting in the little car. :)

Summer Field Trips

On Wednesday, July 15th we went to Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake for our Summer Field Trip that week. We had such a good time. They had a deal where you could buy a ticket to feed some of the birds. We decided to do it and had a wonderful time. Matthew loved the birds and kept wanting to touch them which of course he couldn't. Fortunately he didn't get too bugged about it.

Emma really loved feeding the birds and wasn't scared at all. The lady there gave us apple pieces stuck on popsicle sticks. Then she told us to hold our hands out and the birds would come and sit on our hand and eat the apple. Emma did just what she said and sure enough she got a bird to land on her hand, then another on the other hand. She was so good and obedient and didn't try to pet them. Then after a couple of minutes she had a bird land on her head. It was so darling and she thought it was awesome! she started to feed the bird on her head, but then another bird came and sat on her hand. So then Annika decided to feed the bird on Emma's head. It was so darling and Emma was so cute about it. The bird sat on her head for about 5 minutes and she was calm about it the whole time. We had a great time.

Then we went to the bird show and got to see some big birds up close. Emma was really excited about the Eagle. There is an Eagle in one of the videos she watches and was excited to see one in real life. They also did a demonstration about eggs. They put weights on an egg to show how strong they are. They got up to 70 pounds before the egg broke and the girl who was doing it said that she has seen them hold up to something like 115 pounds or something like that. I was blown away, I didn't know eggs were so strong!

Emma's Party

Emma had a water slide party for her 4th birthday. She LOVED it! We got our inflatable water slide and the canopy from the rental center and did it outside. I made a cake that looked like the slide and then had squirt guns, goggles and bubbles on the table for them to play with. There were also water balloons that lasted for about 5 minutes but the kids liked the inflatable slide the best! They played and played on it and Emma was worn out by the time we put her to bed that night. She had such a good time at the party. She was so excited about the presents and played with them all evening while Daniel and I cleaned up. It was supposed to be an easy party and it was pretty easy until it came time to clean up. Daniel and I spent between 3 and 4 hours putting the slide and canopy away and cleaning everything up. We were beat by the end, but we had an awesome time playing, and it was so great to see Emma so excited. It was definitely worth all the work. Here are some pictures:

4 Years Ago Today...

Our sweet little Emma was born. My labor was induced and it took 14 hours for her to get here, so we sure were happy when she came!

This was the picture we sent out with her birth announcement.

Emma looked a lot like Daniel's side of the family when she was born. Now that she has grown some she has some traits from me as well. Either way, we think she is darling.

Emma is such a wonderful big sister! She tries very hard to be nice to her little brother, even when he is not being the easiest brother to get along with. She is learning how to share with him and often does very well.

Emma likes to dress up. Or is it, mommy likes to dress Emma up. Either way, she has fun. These pictures are from Halloween and Christmas the last 3 years.

These are some of my favorite pictures of Emma. She has such a sweet personality. She was incredibly shy up until about the last year. She is still shy, but has come out of her shell a lot this year. She loves to play with her cousins and has even started to warm up to grandma and grandpa Southern. I love the picture in the top left corner. We had put her hair up in pin curls the night before, and her hair exploded when we took them out. I had to keep walking out of the bathroom and laughing so she wouldn't think I was laughing at her. She is such a doll.

These are some of the things Emma loves. However, one of the things she loves the most is the gospel. She loves scripture stories. If you notice the picture of her reading with grandpa, she is showing him the story about Satan tempting Adam and Eve. She is a very spiritual little girl. She loves to sing church songs and can often be found singing about anything gospel oriented. She has lately started singing her testimony about how she knows Jesus loves her and the Book of Mormon is true and that she is grateful for the prophet. It is so cute to hear her. She brings the spirit into our home so often and I am so grateful for it!

We are so grateful that Emma is part of our family. We are so blessed to have been able to be her parents for the last 4 years. We love you sweet little Emma and hope that you will always remain as sweet and wonderful as you are today!

Moyle Park

Okay, so I am way behind. We actually went to Moyle Park about 2 and a half weeks ago, but I guess it's better late then never.

For those of you who don't know, if you click on the picture it will come up much larger so you can see each individual picture. I just learned that and thought I would pass it on for those who don't know! :)

My sister-in-law put together a summer field trip schedule that has us going and doing something fun each wednesday morning. On July 1st we went to Moyle Park and had a great time! Moyle Park was the home of the man who walked from Alpine up to the Salt Lake Temple and carved "Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord" on the temple. As if it is not enough that he walked all that way, he did so even after an accident that required the amputation of his leg. He carved himself a wooden leg and kept on going. Now they have a historic site where his house was and on Tuesdays they have people who volunteer there. These people are descendants of John Moyle and they dress up in pioneer clothes (even the little kids) and they show how life would have been back then. It was really neat and was our favorite field trip this summer.

Emma (starting at the top left and going clockwise) got to try roping a steer, playing the stick pull, beating the rug, making a candle, washing clothes and making butter all the way the pioneers did. Her favorite parts seemed to be making the candle and churning the butter. She did not like the stick pull, I think because Annika won and she does NOT like to lose. :)

Bugsy (from top left going clockwise) waiting for Emma to finish her candle, playing in the rocks in the barn while Emma finished her candle, excited about watching the kids clean the laundry, wanted to ride the steer instead of rope it, and loved churning the butter. He didn't get to do everything because he was a little too small. Unfortunately letting him play in the rocks while Emma finished her candle was a mistake as his hair and everything smelled awful the rest of the day.

We had a great time, even Bugs who couldn't do everything had fun.

Thanks to Janelle and Karla for sending the pics to me.

If I could I would ... Live A Bug's Life!

For those of you who don't know, one of my church callings was to the "chairperson of the float committee." Basically that meant that I was in charge of making a mini float for the Lehi parade. The theme this year was "If I Could, I Would..." We chose to do, "If I Could I Would ... Live a Bug's Life." Last year there were actually not too many GREAT floats, so we were really hoping to win this year because we had put a lot of effort into our float. However, when we got there, it turned out that there were a lot of GREAT floats this year! I didn't know if we would place this year or not, but we were fortunate enough to take the "Sweepstakes" award which is the highest award! The placing goes Sweepstakes, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, so that meant they liked our float the very best. We were ecstatic, especially since there were a lot of really good floats this year. I guess all of our hard work paid off! We were even more excited to find out the next day that all 3 judges picked our float for the best float which the lady on the committee told us very rarely ever happens. It was awesome! so, watch out because there are a bunch of pictures coming:

Here are several pictures of our float. We used ideas from the show "Bug's Life." So we put a bunch of things that were human things that bugs might have used. We made Christmas lights for the house lights; a macaroni and cheese box for the door; a tootsie pop wrapper for the picnic blanket; popsicle stick for the fence; bottle caps for stepping stones; a dots candy box for the flower planter under the window. It was a lot of fun coming up with ideas!

Here we are just starting on Friday night. This is the banner and the big piece of wood that the girls are using to hold it is a giant match stick!

This was during the Saturday parade. Notice the "sweepstakes" banner! We were so excited.

This is the plaque and award that we got for winning the sweepstakes award.

Here is a picture of our little ladybug (Emma) and butterfly (Emma's friend Mckinzie) at their little bug picnic. They were so good both days. They stayed on the float and looked so cute the whole time!

Here's our little ladybug family, minus Emma who was already on the float.

Matthew was more interested in playing with his ladybug dots then wearing them!

Here's a close-up of Emma's "ladybug smile."

This is me with our committee. There were other people who helped, but these were the main people who worked very hard to get this float done!

We had so much fun! I loved this calling despite the fact that it made June incredibly busy! It was awesome!

Emma Said... and Braided Hair!

Emma's latest funny phrases:

We were talking about Satan the other day and how he doesn't want us to be happy. Emma said, "We should always follow Jesus and Heavenly Father and be pure-ful and righteous!"

From her "Little Einsteins" videos:

It's the Great Snakes! (Great Sphinx)

Oh no, there's a sporky in there! (scorpion)

Look mommy, there's hi-glifs! (hieroglyphics)

I love to listen to the things she says sometimes!

We put Emma's hair in a bunch of little braids last night so it would be "curly" today. Here are a couple of pictures after we finished braiding.

And here are a couple this morning after we took the braids out. She said, "my hair is all frisbee!"

She was so excited about it! We had a lot of fun doing her hair today!

We went to Emma's end of the year program for her preschool class.  It was so darling.  They did a Wizard of Oz theme.  Emma was supposed to be a munchkin, but the costumes looked more like a witch to me.  Oh well, I still thought she looked darling.  

She was a little nervous when she first came out, but she warmed up after a minute or so.

They sang "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead," and did cute little actions to it.  In the bottom left picture, she is waving.  It was so cute to see her reaction when she saw us in the audience watching her.  

She was trying so hard to do all of the actions correctly and was so cute.  She got a little excited at one point.  They had little circles that each child was assigned to and at one point she went to jump back on her circle and fell down.  She got up and looked a little stunned and unsure what to do for a moment.   However, she kept on going.  I was so pleased with her that she did not cry and decide to come sit with us.  This class has been so good for her.  I have really seen her blossom.  She has become much less shy and so much more willing to try new things and meet new people.  It has been wonderful!

Here she is with her cousin Annika.  She is in the class one year older then Emma and as you can see she was dressed as Dorothy.  They have so much fun together and it was cute to see them both up there preforming!

I can't believe how fast time goes.  It seems like just yesterday that Emma was learning to walk and talk and now she's through her first year of preschool.  I don't know what I'm going to do when she graduates from high school!!  :)

My favorite Name!

Daniel's grandfather turned 83 on Sunday!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!  

Matthew definitely enjoyed eating his own cupcake!!

Grandma and grandpa came down from Idaho and we had a little get together here at our house.  Grandma, grandpa and Tamara came over early to get some ice cream made.  I was trying to get things ready, but of course Matthew was a little nervous that I was going to leave him and so was clinging to me for dear life.  This made it a little hard to get things done.  Tamara offered to feed him and so I put him in his chair.  The moment I did that, he started saying, "Mommy, mommy, mommeeeeeee!"  He did this for about 5 minutes when grandma said, "Do you wish you could change your name sometimes?"  I thought about it for a moment and said, "Nope, that's my favorite name!"  

I LOVE being a mother more than I could ever have imagined.  I never knew how much love could come from someone so small until they placed Emma in my arms, and somehow it just keeps growing.  Somehow your heart grows with each new addition as well.  What a blessing!

My cousin's wife, Holly, had this quote on her blog:

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only-- and that is to support this ultimate career."

-C.S. Lewis

I love my job, even when it does get hard!

Matthew loved Daniel's cousin's new little baby, Katelyn!  He kept wanting to hold her and trying to grab her from aunt Bev.  It was so funny to see all of the different expressions on his face.

I think these precious children are better than any coworkers or any praise from a job well done!  My favorite name is and always will be MOMMY!!