Emily's Dance

At our church Christmas Party on December 4th Emily got to participate in a small ballet with the other young girls in our ward. They danced to Toyland and were adorable.


It was very stressful convincing Emily that she would enjoy the performance and then to remember to actually try (she kept doing half leaps and having a pout on her face). But in the end she was a beautiful ballerina.....clumsy, but gorgeous!

Lost Teeth

On November 28th Emily lost her very first tooth! Such a big day for our big girl.

Christmas Decorations

David decided our house needed to be festive for the holidays. While Emily and I made a gingerbread house, David bought decorations and lit up the house. We had to buy a baby gate to keep Megan away from the tree ornaments. She likes all the shiny balls and candy canes.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we packed up the girls and headed to Idaho to visit David's family. It wasn't the easiest trip with a 5-year old and a 9-month old, but we survived the 2 hour flight and 3 hour drive. Some of the highlights from our trip included:

Emily & David shoveling the snow off the driveway (yes....for Emily that was an exciting day)

Eating Turkey
Having Megan meet her Grandpa Wayne for the first time
And of course playing with Grandma V's kitty cats (Emily LOVES Vinny)

Christmas Dresses

Grandma Wessel made two very special dresses for our girls. She took Emily shopping to pick out the fabric and the pattern and then created a masterpiece! The dresses look adorable on the girls and they loved them. Megan kept playing peekaboo with it while Emily twirled in circles.

Playtime

Megan loves to play....especially with her big sister's toys. She has claimed Emily's baby doll as her own and loves to suck on its hands and bang its head on the floor!

The Pilgrims & The Indians

Emily had a Thanksgiving Feast at school. All 100 kindergartners in her school dressed up as Pilgrims & Indians and they had a huge feast of pumpkin pie, breads, popcorn, fruits, veggies, and juice. Emily loved it and had a blast. Even Megan enjoyed watching and all the kids in Emily's class ran up and tried to hold Megan's hand and give her a hug. Emily enjoyed showing off her sister during her big day.

Indian Emily with her papoose.

Pumpkin Patch

Before Halloween we took Emily to a pumpkin patch inside a dairy farm. Emily enjoyed running through the hay maze, racing daddy to the top of the hay tower, sliding down the hayseed on sleds, taking a hayride around the farm to see the cows, learning how to milk a cow, throwing a lasso around a "sheep", and of course picking out her own pumpkin. Sadly, we did not get pictures of the pumpkins. (crazy I know)

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We all got to dress up and have fun.

Family

Here is a sneak preview of 2 of our family photos that Christy took for us in September. Thank you Christy once again! And thank you Mandy for the cute shirts the girls were wearing!

Emily's Birthday Cake

Here are pictures of the fabulous cake that Mandy made for Emily's birthday. It was AWESOME! Even though it melted and was tilting by the time it got to our house, Mandy was able to fix it and we absolutely loved it! Thanks again Mandy!

Hula Hoop

Emily got a hula hoop for her birthday from Aunt Christy.

Even Megan really enjoy it!

Ballerina

Megan was given a tutu at her baby shower. So I dolled her up and let her play.

Reading

I guess Megan is jealous that Emily is learning to read. So David gave Megan her own book and sat her in Emily's chair.

She thinks reading is tasty!

Sewer Problems

In August we experienced our first HUGE problem as homeowners. Granted, we've had plumbing problems a few other times this year, but none of the other problems have cost this much. Our plumbing pipes were completely filled by roots. We're not sure if it was from our neighbor's tree or the one from our property that was removed a few years ago, but the roots wiggled their way in and started taking control and destroying our old cast iron pipes. We had to have about 40 feet of pipe replaced - from our house to under the street where it connects to the city. It took the plumbing company 14 hours to dig up the yard and replace the pipes. But it is now done and we don't have to worry about the sewer backing up into our bathtub any more.

More Pool Fun

We kept the pool slide a couple extra days after Emily's party before we could return it. And what better to do while it was at our house than to invite Mandy, Jake & Zach back over for some more fun that the grown-ups could enjoy!

Emily enjoyed bouncing down the slide.

Check out David's launch!

Megan even had a blast inside the baby pool with Grandma V and Cassie.

Emily's 5th Birthday

Emily chose to have a pool party this year. Since we don't have much of a pool ourselves (just the small one shown in the picture), we were able to borrow the large pool slide from Emily's friend from Preschool. It was a huge success!

The backyard was full of screaming and laughing children for over 2 hours. I had originally planned games in addition to the pool fun, but there was no time for it. The kids just kept jumping in and out of the pools and sliding down while throwing water balloons at each other.

We were able to invite a few of Emily's favorite friends from Preschool and their families.

(Kendel, Heidi, Jaime, Bailey, Lori, Evan, Gabby, Emily, Maia, Addison)

Emily's favorite gift was her bicycle. David timed presenting it perfectly. All the presents were opened, including a bike bell and a helmet, and Emily was just starting to run away with her friends when David opened the garage and there it was. Emily screamed and ran to it. The only thing that got her off was the cake a minute later. (pics of the amazing cake coming soon)