Emmie Turns 4!

Our beautiful little princess turned 4 this weekend. She requested a ladybug party so that's exactly what she got, to the extreme! 

Princess getting ready for her day!

Ladybug nails

Jim got her 1,500 live ladybugs!!

Her brothers were very excited to go shopping for her. Logan had a hard time picking the perfect gift for her and spent a good 20 minutes in the "girl aisle" at Target. He wanted to get her everything!  Joey on the other hand had a hard time picking a gift that Emmie wanted, as opposed to a gift he would want.  In the end, Logan settled on a Princess Sofia doll and Joey got her a robotic fish. 

Her ladybug party was attended by friends and family and included strawberry ladybugs (strawberries with mini chocolate chips) and ladybug cheese appetizers.  Since Emmie loves tomatoes we did an Italian themed dinner with lasagna, spaghetti, tomato salad, etc.

Since Emmie's hatred of the "happy birthday" song continues, she requested we sing the "ABC's" instead.  I have no idea why she has such an issue with the "happy birthday" song, but I have to admit that I do love that she puts her own unique spin on birthdays.  She blew out her candles when we sang "...next time won't you sing with me!"

Halloween 2014

We did it - another Halloween in the books!  I took the day off to clean the house, get prepared for the evening, etc. and instead fell asleep and took a long nap.  Pregnancy really screws with your ability to get stuff done!

I did manage to wake up in time to head to the elementary school and watch the costume parade.  Logan decided to go with astronaut for school, and vampire for trick or treating.  Joey was a skeleton for school and a ghoul for trick or treating.  Emmie was the cutest witch on the planet for both!

Costume Parade

Kindergarten class pic

Seriously the cutest!

We got home to find a pumpkin full of chocolates at our front step from neighbors we don't really know. So sweet of them!  Logan immediately began working on a thank you note for them (I was so proud!).

Trick or Treating with our neighbors and their extended family was a ton of fun as usual.  We are so lucky to live next door to such wonderful people.  They have become great friends to all of us, we have never in our lives had neighbors like this and it is awesome!

At every door Logan said, "trick or treat!  Do you have Kit Kats or M&Ms?" and Emmie made sure to say, "thank you" then proudly informed her daddy (after every single house!) that she said thank you.  Two solid hours of trick or treating and Logan proclaimed this was, "the best Halloween ever!" - Until next year!

We missed Cheri last night though!  A bad cold had her out for the night which was a total bummer.  Hard to believe next year we will have another little one in tow - actually two more little ones in tow since our friends Easy and Christina are expecting too.  How fun!

First Day of School - 2013

As usual summer flew by!  Here are our handsome boys on their way to the first day of school! 

Art Beast

Jeff and Joey were off to their first Cub Scout Mt. Lassen Camping Trip so I had the pleasure of spending the day with my two youngest.  Determined to make the most of our day (so they wouldn't be too jealous of Joey's trip) we headed to Art Beast.  This very cool kid art studio is such a treasure!  We haven't been in a couple years so everything was new to the kids. 

Art Beast has everything a kid could need to create and use their imaginations - paint, clay, sand, play houses, instruments, the list goes on and on.

Logan set the table