Rock Star

Just another boring Saturday night until our local Rock Star shows up. Tyler was playing his guiter so Emma Ran down stairs to grab her "electric guitar" and rock out.
She told her daddy that she was going to pretend to be a rock star and he could stand across from her and pretend she didn't know him. She said he could be the people that watch her. She makes me laugh. Here are the Rock star pictures from my phone.....Rock star and back stage pictures....

Just arrived

Our newest family member has finally arrived! It seems like it took forever for her to get here but now she's here and I can't believe it! Nora is so cute! She definitely looks like her dad.

I took all of the kids to see her today. You don't realize how quiet everything is at a hospital until you take 4 kids into one. All of them were really good for about the first 30 minutes and then the glamour of the hospital started to wear off. Sara was so excited to see her new baby sister. She didn't want for anyone else to touch her. She is definitely the protector of her brother and sister. I think she is going to be the strength in the family; the strongest willed at the very least.

Sam, Emma and Tyler all took turns holding the baby too. It's amazing to me how they naturally have a calm and ease holding her. I think is not so secretly wishing for a baby of her own. I don't think the boys would mind a new addition to much either. I am happy with 3. I don't think I could handle a 2-1 ratio.

Zane came to the hospital after he got home from school. He was more interested in seeing his mom and eating the edible arrangement we got than in holding the baby. (I love the edible arrangments- they are so fun and you can eat them rather than watch them die like flowers do)After a while he did warm up to the idea of holding Nora. That lasted all of about a minute and then he was ready to go to Emma's house.

What an exciting day for Becca and Blair! They have now entered the land of imbalance between kids and parents. It is always a scary thing when your kids out number you!

Lauren's 1st Bday

I can't believe that Lauren is already 1. She has had so many struggles throughout her first year of life and yet she is all smiles and is rarely anything but happy. What a road it has been. We had a birthday party at our house since Keith and Rushell are still looking for a house and are currently living in an apartment. They were going to keep things small but I insisted that we needed to celebrate the momentous occasion of Lauren's 1st birthday.
I can't help but think back to Emma turning 1....it seems like it was yesterday. Then I think back to Sam and Ty turning 1. In the moment you don't feel like it's going by that fast but then you turn around and they are turning 14. I am trying very hard these days to stay in the moment and appreciate every little bit of my kids even if it is the teenage "I know everything" moment or the elementary school "Who, What, Where, When, Why and How...I must know everything about everything" moments or the preschooler who is 4 going on 13 and wants to be a part of every "adult" moment possible. It can be exhausting but the most satisfying thing I have done in my life. I am so excited for Keith and Rushell to have the same adventures with Lauren.

Her birthday was so much fun. She was dressed in the cutest outfit with black and white polka dots, lady bug shoes and a lady bug sweater. It is quite fitting that Keith and Rushell call her "Bug" because she is quite the little cutie bug . She had fun sitting on her dad's lap playing with his cell phone. She is on the path to becoming Emma (the most proficient 4 year old IPhone user going....far better at using it than I am) Rushell stripped Lauren down for the tradition of the 1 year old cake dive. We all sang happy birthday to her and then sat her on the floor to blow out her candles and dive into her cake. Everyone crowded around in anticipation of the event but as with any 1 year old with a mind of her own, she would have nothing to do with it. She just sat there looking at the cake like "What am I supposed to do with this?" Rushell tried getting her started but she just gave her a dirty look and wanted to be done. It was funny!

The craziest thing happened at the end of the party. Everything was winding down and we looked up to see a bug crawling on the ceiling in my kitchen. We could not believe it, it was a lady bug. How weird that on "BUG's" birthday there would be a lady bug on my ceiling. I have never seen lady bugs in the middle of winter but there it was right before our eyes. Maybe just a coincidence or maybe some strange aligning of the universe...either way it was pretty cool! Happy Birthday Lauren!

Doctor Doctor

We have been winding down from Emma's birthday party although it hasn't really felt like much of a wind down. We had our third birthday celebration today at Emma's pre-school and I have to admit I am thankful to be done with the celebrating. It's not that it wasn't a lot of fun but it was exhausting. We celebrated with family on Sunday, had a friend party on Monday, and then wrapped it up with an ice cream celebration at school on Tuesday.

When we got home from school, Sara came over to play while her mom went to her doctor's appointment. Emma loves it when Sara comes over. I love it that the two of them are best friends. They fight like sisters one minute and then you turn around and they are the best of friends the next minute.

They didn't have much time to play so they headed straight for the dresses to change into costume. They started out by dressing up as Snow White (Sara) and a bride (Emma). It's funny to watch them play because they will rarely pretend to be the characters they are dressed up as. They usually go on with whatever game they have started or they will play house in their costumes as though they are in their regular clothes. Today they decided to play doctor. Sara was the doctor for the My Little Pony and Emma was the doctor for her Baby go By By. Emma had her stethoscope from her new doctor's kit and was checking everyone's heartbeat. Sara used her kaleidoscope as a "stethoscope" for her pony. Emma checked her baby, then herself and then she tried to listen to Sara's heart beat but it tickled a little too much. It was funny to watch.

Birthday Party

Emma had her birthday party this week and she had so much fun. She had all of her favorite people there to celebrate. She had a princess and pirate party so that both boys and girls would want to join in the fun. Emma, to my surprise, wanted to be a pirate rather than a princess. In the end, I talked her into being a pirate princess so she would wear her princess dress. I had a picture in my head of how everything would go at the party. I set up stations for the kids to rotate between to keep them active and having fun. I had face painting, crown and pirate hat decorating, ice cream cone cupcakes to decorate and a game of pin the crown/patch on the princess.(Mike's brother Tom drew the princess for me and it was amazing! He is so talented!) Tyler, Brandon and Sam were all on hand to help the little kids with the stations. The older two disappeared quickly but Sam was a trooper helping every little kid he could find to help! I couldn't believe how fast they got through everything and the it was chaos. I had kids running in circles around my house, half of the kids went down stairs to play in the kitchen, Isaac got into the books and started reading and Livie and Canyon got out some puzzles to put together. I had forgotten how quickly things change when you are dealing with 4 year olds. I can't even say it was controlled chaos...just CHAOS! We finally got to the presents just before everyone left. Everything seemed pretty calm at that point UNTIL Zane, Rya and Arden had a chain reaction break down over the presents. None of them understood why they couldn't have the presents. It was so sad to see them cry. Emma, who was getting all of the presents, didn't understand what was wrong with them. She ended up offering to share her presents with them until they left. What a fun day for Emma!!!

In attendance: Rya, Arden, Abbie, Finn, Megan, Isaac, Zane, Sara, Tyler, Sam, Brandon, Olivia, Canyon, Lauren, Keith, Rushell, Misha, Tom, Bama Pam, Grandma Kaye, Grandpa Tom, Aunt Staci, Aaron, Dad and Mom,

birthday cake

I woke up this morning and I feel like my life is flashing before my eyes. My baby is turning 4 and I don't know where the time has gone. Emma was at grandma's sleeping over last night so I didn't get to see her first thing. I took advantage of the time and wrapped presents and made a fun cake out of cupcakes. I made a huge mess in the kitchen which is to be expected when I am cooking. Because I decided to do this on a whim, Mike had to run to the store and try to find candies to decorate with. He ended up getting candy heart and gobstoppers which were perfect. We had to seperate all of them by color so we could make sure we had enough of the colors we wanted. Interestingly enough the major colors in candy hearts are pink (of course) and white; green and orange had the least. In the gobstoppers there were more yellow than any other and green was the least. Just a little bit of trivia for anyone who wanted to know. (Mike said he had always wondered which color they gave you the most of....I on the other hand never cared!) It was so fun! I think anything where I can be creative is fun, so I go a little crazy. Anyway, I think it turned out sooooo cute and she seemed to love it!

Ready to pop

Becca and Blair came over for dinner tonight. All of our little ones were over having a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we had dinner at our house. Tyler and Sam were here but they weren't very interested in our conversation so they played Rock Band most of the time. They came up stairs just long enough to eat a little dinner, make shakes and go back to Rock Band. We had a nice quiet evening with Becca and Blair. I almost missed my picture opportunity for the day so I hurried and snapped some

shots of Becca with her baby belly that is about to pop. She is the cutest pregnant person I know!

She was all worried about how to stand or what she should do for the pictures so we did a combo of funny and side shots. I can't believe that she is already at the end of her pregnancy and she looks this good. Can you

believe her belly?....not a single stretch mark. What would that be like; I'll never know. Regardless she is Very CUTE!!!!

It is so exciting to have another baby coming into the family. It makes me want another baby but Mike is convinced that I will always want another baby no matter how many we have. He's probably right! I think I'll just concentrate on the three I have. I am blessed to have them and they keep my life very full!

I have a dream

Sam was so excited today when he came home from school. He has been learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in school. His class ended their week long discussion with watching Dr. King's speech "I have a dream". Sam told us that he thought the speech was awesome and that when Dr. King spoke his voice boomed. He was amazed at the amount of people who attended the speech. Sam and Bama swapped historical stories that each of them know and then Sam was off to the computer to watch the speech on YouTube. He was at the computer for a while but I didn't realize how long. He told me tonight that he watched the speech four times. I am so proud that at the age of 9 he understands the importance of the event. He told me and Bama that if it weren't for Dr. King then Barack Obama wouldn't be president. I am always amazed at Sam's wisdom and the depth of his understanding of the world. He makes me proud!!!

heavenly

Rushell came over to visit with us today. While she was here Emma decided to do her hair. Both Rushell and I love having our hair done by Emma although sometimes it takes some convincing to get her to do it. We act as though it is all for Emma's benefit when we secretly we love it more than she could emagine. There's nothing like the soft touch of Emma styling your hair that can relax you like nothing else. If I could bottle the feeling and sell it, I'd be a millionaire!

Dance like no one is watching

Today, Emma is once again the focus of my photos. I take her to dance every week and I can't believe how she is improving all of the time. She loves to dance which I can say is due to her favorite Aunt Tiffany who also teaches her dance class. She makes me laugh all of the time because she is such a people watcher; half the time she won't even pay attention to the dance just so she can watch what everyone around her is doing. Emma, along with all of the other girls in her class love to do their jumps over the little balarina doll that Tiffany placed on the floor. As you can see in the pictures, Emma was instructed to keep her head up which she did. Then Tiffany told her to swing her legs which I think she did for the first time today! It was awesome and I luckily captured it!!! Then they play this game where everyone pretends to be sleeping and they are awaken with the fairy wand. Emma is very persistant at this game that she is picked last so that she can put the wand away in the closet. It's quite funny to watch when girls come near her....she will shew them away until she is the last one to be awoke and then she runs with the wand to the closet. I laugh every time and try to explain to her that she can't choose to be last every time. The joy she finds in little things is amazing. I guess I should be greatful for that!

life's lessons - day 3

So once again I am completing two days in one. It was the end of the day yesterday and I still hadn't taken any pictures(shame on me!) I had a very busy day and I am trying to figure out how to get my business up and running in the middle of this economic crisis we all seem to be going through right now. Anyway, I was exhausted and little frazzled by the end of the day but of course Emma gave me some perspective. When all is said and done, all you can do is enjoy yourself. She was about to get ready for bed but had to take 5 minutes to turn on her Christmas cd, throw on a crown and dance to her heart's content. She loves to dance and sing and no matter what is going on in life she will always stop to do what she loves. I'm going to make a point to try and have this approach to life because if you're not doing what you love and having fun, what is life about anyway? I love it when life's lessons are taught by those who have the least "knowledge" about life.