Highlights!

Highlights of our day...

Music blaring, couch cushions off and lots of energy!

Playing with Glow Sticks (all these pictures were taken in the dark):

Playing Fetch.

Emmett got a nerf shooting gun from McDonalds. Turns out it was a great investment. Emmett likes to shoot and Eisley likes to fetch!

Waiting for Daddy to get home.

Emmett looks forward to Daddy getting home each night. He goes running to peak out the blinds whenever he hears a car outside.

Latest

Just for documentation purposes. Here are a few of the latest things our kids are up too.

Emmett latest:

• I was on the computer when I heard loud music coming from Emmett's room. He told me it was "Sonshine" music, which was specifically Switchfoot. There he was in his room jumping around, dancing and working up a quite a sweat. Eisley was in there with him. It was quite darling. I brought my laundry in there so I could be part of the concert. He began jumping on and off his bed. Once he jumped off his bed onto his ottoman which then catapulted him off onto the floor. He rolled over and I ran to him to see if he was ok. He said, "I'm ok. No owies. I just did a summer roll."
• Instead of saying "later" he always says "tolater." I'm guessing it stems from "until later" or "for later". It's really cute
• Emmett is very into acting like a lion, roaring and showing you his claws.
• If he doesn't want something, including discipline, he'll say, "no thanks!"
• Still is very into wild animals and being a rock star
• He enjoys playing with trains, puzzles, legos/duplos, wild animals (schleich animals), hot wheels, playdoh, battling while wearing his armor

Eisley's latest:

• Says "thank you", it's actually "tay tdoo". She's been doing this for quite a few weeks. She'll just walk around handing you things and saying, "tay tdue" or if you give her something she'll say it as well.
• Today Emmett was being a lion at church. He was crawling around on all fours roaring at people. We asked Eisley if she could be a lion too. She dropped down onto her hands and knees and started roaring just like Emmett. It was too cute for words!
• "choo choo" when she plays with trains
• "mama", "dada"
• "aroo" for hello
• she likes to put things on her head - underwear, scarves, hats, blankets
• she loves to dig through the baskets of sippy cups and lids and tries to put the lids on the cup

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

In preparation for our Christmas card we did a little photo shoot while up at the cabin. Here's a preview of a couple of our favorites.

A collage of my faves. Total side note: I used Picassa to make these collages. Picassa did not seem very user friendly, I couldn't choose where each picture goes. Was I doing something wrong or is that just how Picassa is? Any suggestions for better (free) software for collage making?

One option for our Christmas card which we're not doing...

My all time favorite family picture.

Cousins, Bonk and Sleep-over

Warning: These next couple pictures will make you cringe. While playing with my two darling cousins, Emily (7 years old) and Lydia (almost 6), Emmett ran into the corner of the ping pong table. Turns out this sort of injury looks much worse than it is. Phew! Eric and I were freaking out!

Turns out, my head looked similar when I was his age:

And pre-bonk, the cousins were hard at work making beautiful masterpieces.

And they also attempted a sleep-over, but when Emmett turned into a lion and was crawling around under my parents' bed and roaring at his sleeping grandfather, he got taken back down to the lion cave with Eric and I. We didn't mind though, we really enjoy snuggling with our 3 year old little boy. He won't want to snuggle with us for long. We've got to enjoy it while we can!

Thankful

On this Thanksgiving I am thankful. I am thankful for many things. Here are just a few...

... that Eisley has a Nana who would never turn down an opportunity to read to her.

...to have cousins who love to play with my children (even if they don't always love being doted on).

...for a wonderfully loving family (in this photo we're missing my brother Elias and his wife Kristen).

...for my husband who jumps to his childrens' needs before I even ask.

...and of course, yes, we are all thankful for our little ones.

Kingdom Army

This is my knight in shining armor. He always refers to himself as being in the "kingdom army." I have no idea where he got that from, Eric doesn't know either. It's pretty cute though!

I had a great idea to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece out of little pumpkins and fresh flowers. I did it years ago and they turned out so cute. The only problem was that I never got fresh flowers. I still thought it would be a fun idea so I searched my house for something we could use instead. I found some silk flower leaves which I attached to wooden floral pegs (I do wedding flowers which I why I had these pegs sitting around. However, I rarely use silk so only had a few random leaves sitting around). Then I made "ribbon flowers" out of ribbon (obviously). The kids had a blast! They kept saying, "I like this craft!" They didn't turn out very beautiful, but isn't really about the final product at this age. I'd say, based solely on theenthusiasm during the process, that this craft was a huge success!

And the babies played with silk flowers.

Play-doh + candles + macaroni

Emmett's actual 3rd birthday is pretty uneventful. He woke up to 3 balloons in his room. A tradition we started last year - one balloon for each year.

Then we played all day!

Play doh + birthday candles

+ macaroni

= an awesome bug!

We even played outside a bit.

And I let Emmett wear his underwear on the outside of his sweatpants so he could look like Superman. Totally his idea for the record. It was his birthday, I figured he had earned it :).


After my nanny kids went home we spent the evening at my parents house. We opened a couple more gifts and ate a bite of cake.

My three year old boy brings me more joy than I ever could have imagined!

Happy Birthday Emmett!

In the morning 3 years ago today.

In the evening 3 years ago today. Our very first moments together. He was coming out lips first, hence the strange appearance and we had to do an urgent cesarean.

Day #2 of the 3 day 3rd birthday

Totally unintentionally, it turns out Emmett's 3rd birthday party celebration is lasting 3 days! How fun!

11/22, Day 1, Birthday Party Day:

Friend and family birthday party!

11/23, Day 2, Birthday Eve:

Family present opening because Eric works Tuesday nights.

11/24, Day 3, Birth Day:

Emmett's actual birthday. Not totally sure what this day will consist of, but since it's his actual birthday I figure we have to do something kinda special. I plan on making pancakes in the morning (which actually isn't that rare) but maybe I'll put chocolate chips in them or something. I guess we'll all have to wait till tomorrow's post to see what we did!

Here's my "not me Monday" moment:

Today I did not take a very rare moment alone in the bathroom upstairs while the kids played downstairs. While upstairs I did not hear many small things drop onto the ground followed by, "Mommy, blah blah, blah, blah, blah." And then I most certainly did not respond, "Oh ok, sweetie. I'll be right down." And of course, being the responsible mother and caregiver I am, I would never have taken my time finishing up while my son continued to holler, "Mommy, blah blah blah..." (however for the record, he really wasn't sounding frantic). So when I finally came downstairs (and for the record, I really wasn't up there that long, don't want you all getting the wrong idea) I most definitely did not find my daughter "dripping gum"...

...oh and of course, I did not run to get my camera before doing the extraction...

...and most definitely did NOT pull this out of her mouth...

Other highlights of the day...

George needed a piggy back ride.

Emmett got really fabulous gifts from friends and family last night. One of these gifts was a set of scissors and a cutting activity book. Emmett did a great job on page 1!

Emmett got his first "bideo dame", Wii Resort, from his dad, although he did tell Eric that "Mommy got this for Emmett aaaaand Daddy", sure, I'll take the credit! I watched him play, and man, if he plays this game too often he's going to be burning way too many calories. This kid really gets into it. It's adorable! Maybe this generation will never know the era of couch potato video games!