Company picnic at the Children's Museum

We had a fun time at the Children's Museum Saturday night! Shane's company rented it out for the summer picnic. We enjoyed playing, eating supper and then playing some more. Emma got her faced painted and we also dressed up and had our picture take in a photo booth (Bree choose not to participate...she just woke up from a nap and was a little grumpy). Afterwards we walked down the block and enjoyed our first experience with frozen yogurt! The girls loved choosing from the many toppings and it was delicious! All in all a fun time!

 

Wow!

Oh wow, its been a long, long, long time! I really need to catch up on here, and it is on my to-do list, but I have been busy! 

The girls are doing great and growing sooo much! What joys they are! They both are at great ages and enjoy playing with each other. Here is a quick run down on each of them!
Emma - I can't believe how tall she is, and so beautiful with her long dark hair and eyes, and passionate spirit! She enjoys riding her bike, playing polly pockets and barbies, movies, playing at the park and helping me in the kitchen and still enjoys cuddles (well actually demands them)! She is constantly talking or singing, and always wants to dance. She is curious about EVERYTHING and is always asking questions. She just finished her first week at Vacation Bible School and LOVED every minute of it! She has become a bit more challenging in that she is testing her boundaries, and is definitely a strong-willed child and doesn't like to be told what to do! We are both learning from the experience!

Bree - what a breath of fresh air this kid is, such a joy to have around! She loves barbies, polly pockets, babies and anything pretend. She too loves to sing and dance! The other day she went in her room and put on one of her sister's new summer dresses and came out and asked me to dance, I said of course! After twirling a few times, I asked her if I could 'dip' her, and she looked at me all serious and replied 'No Mom! I am NOT a carrot!' HA! She also crawled into our bed last weekend and snuggled between us and turned to her dad and whispered 'Guess what Dad?', and he asked 'What', and Bree replies 'Chicken butt'! Her first words to us of the day! This kids loves to make people laugh, smile and feel good! 

We took the crib gate off several weeks ago (when she finally started to crawl out of her crib) and attached the toddler rail to it. She has done awesome at staying in her bed, and often times if she does get up in the middle of the night, she just lays down beside our bed and covers up with her blanket and goes back to sleep! She has been going #2 in the toilet since last August, and has been doing really good about going potty too lately, but we aren't quite there to being fully potty trained...in all honesty, I haven't even pushed it...what she has accomplished she has pretty much mastered on her own!

 Have I not mentioned yet that we are building a house!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, and we are planning to close mid-July. If you want to follow along on that journey, you can check it out here.

God is good. Its almost been a year since we moved and I really don't feel settled yet, but am looking forward to moving to our new house and turning it into our home, meeting neighbors and getting past this 'transition' period. 

I will leave you with a few pictures from this year.

Christmas 2012

 Merry Christmas!

What a blessed season it has been! The girls are at such fun ages and watching them experience Christmas time is such a blessing!

This time last year, I never dreamed I would be spending this Christmas in a rental! ha! God certainly had some surprises in store for us this year!

So here is our run-down of how we spent our Christmas:

Shane came down with the stomach flu the week before and missed work a few days, thankfully, he was the only one in our family that had it! The Saturday before Christmas he was feeling better so we headed west to Brule to spend time with Shane's family. All of his siblings and their families were home, so the cousins had lots of fun playing! Christmas Eve morning we headed back to Lincoln in time to get the chili going in the crock pot and get ready for Christmas Eve Service at our new church.

Making our first ginger bread house the first week of December

And yes, most of the house was consumed in the days/weeks after

Girls opening Christmas outfits to wear to church

Dressed and ready for church!

LOVE these girls! Such joy they bring to us!

Love these next pics of Emma in the background!

Dad and his girls!

Mommy and her girls!

Girls opened their new pjs to wear to bed Christmas Eve night...matching Rapunzel nightgowns with princess slippers (all was a HUGE hit!)

Emma woke up first and found a 'princess dress up closet' left by Santa. Shane spent a few late nights making the closet, then got sick, and I took over painting it after the girls went to bed. It was kinda a last minute decision to make one, it was what Emma had been asking for for months, but obviously not the easiest thing to make living in a rental, with Shane's tools still mostly packed, etc. We are really happy tho we made it happen, the girls have LOVED it! It has served for several other purposes other than a place to hang their dress-up costumes, such as, bath tub, boat, doctor's bed and more!

Bree got Ariel underwear!

The Barbie Princess & the Popstar was certainly the theme this year with the girls' gifts!

Baby stroller for Bree

Emma giving Dad his gift...huge bag of skittles!

We also enjoyed some hot chocolate after we all went sledding...what a blast!

We had an incredibly blessed Christmas!

Bree turns 2!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday
Bree Scarlet!

Oh honey, how we love you! You are growing up so much, but at the same time you are still my sweet, little peanut! We celebrated with a family birthday party yesterday, December 1st. Your cousins, Mady, Parker, Londyn and Ryler came to play with you, and Grandma Sharon, Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Jared, Aunt Krista and Uncle Tanner came to celebrate with us too! You had a 'Cinderella' theme party that you picked out! Here are some things about you:

-You sing the sweetest 'happy birthday'

-Your smile lights up the room!

-You are the most appreciative little girl I have ever met, always saying 'Thank you' for everything...handing you a drink, making your supper, washing your clothes, etc!

-You love cuddles...and I love that!

-You love to play with babies, barbies and playing dress up!

-There are so many things that you do and say that are exactly like your big sister, Emma!

-You love tutus and and princess!

-When someone asks what your name is, you tell them 'Ariel'

-You are still a tiny little thing, wearing 18 months clothes mostly and finally a size 4 shoe, and size 4 diaper.

-You have gone poop in the potty consistently since August, with less than 5 accidents! So proud of you! You will occasionally potty on the toilet too, but aren't quite ready for that.

-You love playing in the bath.

-You love to sit in my lap and read books. And you love picking out books at the library. 

-You are not a big eater, but enjoy waffles, granola bars, chicken fries, hot dogs, pork loin, lots of fruit, especially apples!

-We have your 2 year check-up on Friday, Dec. 7th, so we will know how much you weigh and how tall you are then!

-You LOVE your nana, and when she is around, you want no one else but her!

-You are into Barbie's Princess & the Popstar right now, and love to dance and sing!

 

Baby Bree

2 weeks old!

2 weeks old!

1st Birthday!

1st Birthday!

Being silly eating her peas like a piggy!

Always wanting to wear sunglasses

LOVE her!

Emma 4, and Bree 22 months

Happy Birthday Bree, we LOVE you!!! And praise God for the gift of your life and getting to watch you grow!