Emma ~ 4 Years Old

Dear Emma,

A few days ago you turned 4! Where as the time gone? I know it's certainly seemed to have passed by in the blink of an eye. You were asking every day when you woke up if it was your birthday for a couple weeks before your special day. You are so very excited to be getting bigger. I, on the other hand, would like for it to slow down...way down.  Four years old means only one more year home with Mommy before you're a really big girl and head off to kindergarten and surely in another blink of an eye, you'll be off to college. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's what it seems like.

You are definitely a little mommy. You could run this house just like me if the need be and some days you certainly try. :-) You sometimes take the words right out of my mouth and it's kind of scary just how alike we think and act.  Daddy often says he feels like there's two of me in the house.  Hahaha! Poor Daddy! ;-) Some of the things you say, I have no idea where they come from, but they sure do put a smile on our faces and make us giggle often.  Gigi really gets a kick out of it! Sometimes the things that come out of your mouth are quotes from movies, but the timing of when you use them, is just perfect. And hilarious.  One day you and I were out to dinner and we were just chatting and you said to me, "So...Do you work out?"  Hahaha, just like a total pick up line.  Turns out that one was from Despicable Me 2.  Another time I showed you an old picture of Daddy from high school and you said something about it making your eyes well up with tears. That one's from Monsters University.  I'm thinking you might be an actress. Or you watch too much tv.  Probably a little of both!

You are quite sassy, but also very smart and so very sweet.  You are constantly giving us hugs and kisses and randomly telling us that you love us.  And boy do we love you, sweet girl.  You love Aiden and Aubrey SO much too. Aubrey wants to be with you all the time.  She loves to come over and give you hugs or sit on your head. You're so good with her.  Even when she's driving you nuts, you don't lose it with her, well, not too much. And Aiden? You say is your best friend. <3 You two love playing Minecraft together.  I still don't know how you understand what to do on that game because I still don't get it, but you love playing it by yourself and with Aiden. If Aiden is home from school, you are or want to be right there by his side!

You love to do many things! Some of your favorites are arts and crafts, reading, drawing pictures, playing with your tablet and leappad, playing outside, watching tv and movies and playing with Aiden and Aubrey. You just finished your first swimming class last night (5/6/14).  You LOVED it and weren't afraid of the water at all.  Ms. Michele (your teacher) said you were an excellent back floater and were really good at kicking your legs.  You liked playing with the noodles and floating balls the best.  You love to help Mommy cook in the kitchen when you can. You are one of the best cookie and cake dough stirrers that I know! Some of your favorite foods right now are hot dogs, cheesestrings, popsicles, chocolate, french fries, and "chicken balls" (popcorn chicken) from walmart.  Your favorite restaurant is Grotto's (according to you) and that's where we went to dinner on your birthday to eat.  Your favorite things to watch right now are Princess Sofia, Doc McStuffins, and princess movies, like Aladdin and Tangled.

We went to doctor on your birthday because you weren't feeling well and unfortunately you had strep throat...on your birthday! What a rotten present! But we found out that you are almost 40 lbs! I told you, you are growing so fast!

One of your favorite people to hang out with is Gigi!  Boy, do you love Gigi! And she loves you right back.  She always says there's just something about you.  And there really is, you are simply one of the best.  I feel so extremely lucky that I was chosen to be your mommy!!  I love you soooo much, Emma Cheryl! I can't wait to see what you discover and grow into as the year passes...just not to quickly, okay?

I love you!!

Love,
Mommy

Questions with a 4 yr old Emma

Wow! I haven't touch my blog since Aubrey's first birthday! She's gonna be 2 in just 3 months! Yikes! SO much has happened, but having 3 little ones takes lots of time and something has to take a back seat. The reason why I blogged in the first place was to have all our memories stored in one place that we can go back to look at whenever we want. For that reason, I've gotta try and find some time...I have no clue when it'll be so I'm not holding me to it! Hahaha

Our oldest daughter and middle child, Emma, just turned 4 on May 5.  4. I can't believe it! Although most days it seems like she's a 16 yr old so I'll take that she's really only 4.  I'll try some day soon (Hopefully?) to write about her birthday party {Princess Sofia}.

For now I have the questions that I ask the kids every year.  It was fun to see how some answers changed from last year and how some stayed the same.

Questions with a 4 yr old Emma

1.             What are you going to be when you grow up?  A doctor {Thank you Doc McStuffins!}

2.             What is Aiden going to be when he grows up?  A robber  {Geez, I hope not!} Aubrey? I don’t know. Well she should be a princess if she was big.

3.             How old is Mommy? Uhhhh, 16!

4.             How old is Daddy?  Uh, 61? 

5.             What is your favorite place to go?  Yogi Bear’s! {A campground}

6.             What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy?  Watch movies with you

7.             What's your favorite thing to do with Daddy?  Play games with him

8.             What is Mommy's job?  Uhhh, buying stuff?? {My husband thought this was really funny and perfect!}

9.             And Daddy's?  I don’t know. Dada what job do you have?

10.          What is your favorite toy?  The princess one. The princess castle.

11.          What is something Mommy always says to you?  I love you!

12.          What makes Mommy happy?  When I don’t step on your toe

13.          Who is your best friend?  Aiden <3

14.          How do you know Mommy and Daddy love you?  Because you love me.

15.          What does Mommy do if you're not around?  Watch tv

16.          What is Mommy really good at?  Putting stuff together

17.          What is Mommy really bad at?  Fixing lights you’re bad at

18.          What is Daddy really good at?  Putting stuff together too

19.          What is Daddy really bad at?  Breaking glass

20.          What is your favorite food? Hot dogs!!! {And that's because the poor girl only gets them when we're camping or at birthday parties}

21.          What's your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my trike!

22.          What is your favorite thing to do with Aiden? Play Minecraft Aubrey? Play with her

23.          What are you scared of?  Spiders

24.          Who is the funniest person you know?  Gigi when she tickles me

25.          Who's the best dancer that you know? Mommy because you’re a great friend

                26.      What is your favorite color?  Pink and purple

                27.      What is your favorite tv show? Princess Sofia

                28.      What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? A cheese sandwich

                29.      What's your favorite game?  Minecraft

                30.      What is your favorite snack? Cheese string

                31.       What is your favorite animal? A baby chick

                32.       What is your favorite song? This is the Best Day of my Life by American Authors

                33.       What is your favorite book?  I am Not Going to School {This is not her favorite, it's just one we just checked out at the library and it was on her mind. We've only read it once!}

                34.       What is your favorite holiday? Halloween!

                35.       What is your favorite drink? Pink Lemonade

11 Month Comparisons

Yup, slacker over here.  I just have no time any more for blogging.  Aubrey is into everything and I rarely get a chance to sit still long enough to turn the computer on. Then if it's quiet and it's nap time, the other 2 wanna hang out.  I really want to get some things posted, so that I don't forget the memories for the kids, which is why I started this blog anyway.

With all that said, I guess I'll get posting the 11 month comparisons of the kids, you know, since Aubrey will be 12 months old in 2 days.  Yes, that's right, 2 days.  Get the tissues!!

Aiden @ 11 months:

 Emma @ 11 months: Aww look at this poor, no haired little girl! :)

Aubrey @ 11 months:

Flashback Friday

Okay, so if I'm being honest I take a ton of pictures of the kids and there is no way that I could pick just one to be my favorite.  Here's a flashback to one of my favorites that I got of Aiden and Emma sometime last summer.

Look at those sweet faces! My gosh they grow up too fast!!

First Beach Trip of the Summer

The day after Aiden's birthday party we took our first trip to the beach.

{Don't worry, this was before we knew that Aiden had strep.  We totally wouldn't have gone if we knew that was the case...well probably! :)}

We were lucky because the weather was beautiful! Not too hot, but not freezing cold either.  However, I thought the water was freezing.  Lucky for me, I don't go swimming in that stuff! I just dip the toes!

Aiden and Hunter jumped right in. Aiden only realized he was freezing when he came out of the ocean.

 

Emma stuck mostly to the sand at first.  She liked collecting rocks and shells and playing with Uncle Ron's boat.  Eventually she made her way into the water and had a ball splashing around!

 

 

I wasn't sure what Aubrey would think. It was her first trip to the beach {outside of my belly anyway}.  She didn't seem bothered by it, so that was good.  She touched the sand and would occasionally make a run for it toward her daddy who was at the water.  She let Patrick put her feet in for a little bit, but once I picked her up, she was not letting us put her feet back in.  I can't blame her! Like I said, that water was a bit cold that day!

 

 

 

It was a great first trip to the beach of the season! I can't wait for many more {though I could do without the mess afterwards!}!

10 Month Comparisons

Aiden: (I don't have his weight at this age)

Emma: 21 lbs

Aubrey: 21 lbs and 21 1/4 inches(done at home so we could be a little off)

One things for sure, they sure do all have a pretty smile! :)

9 Months Comparisons

Being we're almost at 10 months already, I suppose I outta get these 9 month comparisons up here!

Aiden: 21.3 lbs, 29 in (I really need to find the original because this scanned in pic is horrible quality!)

Emma: 20.8 lbs, 29 in

Aubrey: 20 lbs, 9 oz; 29.13 inches long

So funny that the girls are almost exactly the same size at this point, Aubs is just a tad bit bigger! And her rolls in that picture? Love.

Emma's 3rd Birthday

Emma's actual birthday was the day after her party, so we still had a little more celebrating to do!  :-) She slept in since she stayed up late partying the night before. And I actually ending up waking her up just before 9.

(With Aiden and Emma since they were both born during the day, I take their picture each year at the exact moment they were born, at least until they have to be away from me at school.) Here's our sweet girl at exactly 3 years old, May 5, 2013 at 8:54 am.

 

Hahaha! Excuse her party hair/bed head!!

We headed downstairs for breakfast aka cake because it's okay when it's your birthday, and to play with some of her new toys!

 

We laid around for most of the morning being lazy.  After some lunch and baths, we decided to head to the store so Emma could buy something with her birthday money she got from her party.  She had wanted this garden table that she didn't get so we went to check that out or see if there was anything else she might wanted instead.  In the end, she decided to get a sand table, which I'm glad for because I think they'll all play with that longer than the garden table.

We also had to remember to measure Emma on our growth chart to see just how much she grew over the year.  I love looking at it to see how big they've gotten! It's funny how it always seems to be about the same amount in between each year. And in this picture you can see that Aiden was a bit taller at 3 than Emma is.  

We still had one more present for our girl that we saved so she'd have something to open on her real birthday and so she'd have a chance to open something since she refused to at her party.

A bike! Now she can ride like Aiden! We had to go outside once Daddy built it so she could test it out. It's still kind of tricky for her to go and keep going.  I guess riding bikes uses some muscles in her legs that she just hasn't gotten the hang of how to use yet.  She did get going a couple times and was so excited!!

 

We did get her a helmet just to be safe and obey the laws but do kids on tricycles really need helmets? I honestly don't know. She insisted that we get it out because it would help her go.  I just love this big ole helmet on her little head!

 

I still can't believe she's 3!! She's an awesome little girl and I couldn't be more proud to call her mine!

Emma's 3rd Birthday Party

Last Saturday we had Emma's 3rd birthday party.  She decided early on that she wanted a Doc McStuffins party so off I went looking for ideas for Doc parties.  Of course she hasn't been around long enough that they have Doc party plates and all that stuff so I had to think on my own what to do.  Then after I found some ideas I liked, she changed her mind.  She now wanted a Minnie Mouse party.  Luckily, I hadn't bought anything yet, so Minnie Mouse it was!

I looked and looked over the internet and found lots of cute ideas and decided on some decorations and invitations and we set off!

Here's her invitation: (I was too lazy to cover the phone number and address with paper so I just used the computer to "hide" the info, that's why that part is so ugly, I don't really know how to do it.) I found them here on etsy.

And of course you have to have a cute outfit for your party! Here's the outfit Emma wore.

Again both the dress and hair bows were found on etsy.  I love that place!!

All of our kids are pretty shy.  They know who they know and pretty much hide or give anyone they don't the silent treatment.  Emma is probably the most shy of them all and the day before her party she started to tell me that she was scared of the people coming.  Poor girl!

On the day of her party she was pretty excited running around the house, but she did mention again that she was nervous still.  Here she is before her friends came.

My goodness she's a cutie!! Of course Aubrey and Aiden had to wear their Mickey/Minnie gear too!

 

 

 

 

 Once everyone started coming, Emma disappeared outside to play with the kids and she stayed out there most of the time.  After everyone's bellies were full from lots of yummy food, it was time for presents.  Something just told me that Emma was not going to want to do presents because everyone would be looking at her.  Maybe it was the fact that she had told me several times she was scared.  :( I seriously considered just letting her open them after everyone was gone but I know that I like to see how people react to my gifts so I figured our guests might feel the same way.  So we went for it. And? She would not open her gifts.  She climbed in my lap and tried to hide, she sat behind me to hide.  Poor shy girl.  I tried and tried to get her to open something, anything. Take the tissue paper out of gift bags. Nope, she wasn't having it, so I ended up having to open her gifts.  She loved everything, I promise, but if you were here at that time, you wouldn't know it.  She stayed pretty straight faced about everything.

 

 I didn't want to torture her with singing happy birthday, but hey, it's party so we had no choice! :-)

 She handled the cake and singing, way better than the presents! She did ask Daddy to help her blow her candle out, but she sat in the chair by herself and that's a smile there in that picture and that was when people were singing!

Once the cake was done, it was back to playing with her cousins/friends for the rest of the day/night! She had a great time!! She's a lucky little girl that has many people who love her, even if she does try to hide from most of them! ;-)

Of course I have to show the details! I am in no way, shape, or form creative, but I decided I wanted to make some decorations for her party just to give it a little something more! Here are a few things that I made:

I'm quite proud of those things.  Now if only I had something to do with them...that's a lot of work to just throw away.  That's probably why I usually don't make them! :-)

Thanks to everyone that came and helped make Emma's day special!