Little Miss Emmy is 4

Four years ago, we never imagined how our lives would change with this little bundle of joy!  Emerson has always kept us on our toes.  She is curious about everything and doesn't miss a beat.  She loves music, Barbies, and Princesses.  But also critters and digging in the dirt.  She is kind, loving, and helpful and has ideas all her own. 



Loving on her big brother (can you tell which one likes pictures?)

She was super thrilled to get a fish tank!  Notice the pink rocks!

 Like many little girls, Emerson LOVES princesses.  Her favorite at the moment is Rapunzel, so she wanted a "Tangled" birthday party.  Thanks to Pinterest and the internet, we had more ideas than time to do them all.  Matt is so awesome and creative when it comes to cakes.  He designed Rapunzel's tower.

Rapunzel's long hair decorated the basement.

We made the banner from the movie

She is the best gift opener.  Everything is SOOO great and her expressions are priceless! 

 

 She got many wonderful gifts including clothes, a bike, scooter, craft activities, Barbies, and princess dolls.

Uncle Steven (who has to share his birthday with Emmy) had fun wrestling the kiddos

The kids made Pascal party blowers and also got to take Rapunzel paints home

Happy Birthday, Emerson Elizabeth!  God blessed us with such a wonderful gift when He gave us you!

Mother's Day and Craft Projects

I am blessed to be the mother of 2 amazing little ones.  It is so awesome to see my kiddos grow and learn each day.  I've never had a more challenging or rewarding job.  It is so fun to see all of the things they create and I can see why my mom saved basically everything I ever made for her! :)

We are doubly blessed to have both of our moms close by to celebrate special holidays and birthdays too.  Our moms have both been incredible inspirations and we're so lucky to have them watch our children while we're at work.  I don't know what we'd do without them!

Our project for Mother's Day this year was a glass container with the kiddos handprints on them.  We used the paint (see below) and worked on each side of the container.  Then after everything was dry, I spray painted a coat of clear paint on top.

Since I had the paint anyway, I painted some decorative bottles too.  I saw the idea on pinterest (LOVE!).  You put the paint inside the glass jar, then shake it up to cover all of the sides.  It's supposed to last longer and not chip since it's on the inside.  The one mistake I made was to put the cork in right after the jars were covered.  The next day, the paint had run down to the bottom.  But I took the corks out and let the paint dry and now I hope they're finished!

I hope everyone was able to let their moms know how much they are appreciated!  I know we LOVE ours!!

Spring Break Fun!

We had many little activities planned over spring break.  We are so blessed to all have the week off to spend together!  I got another Groupon this year for half off admission to the Concord Bounce house.  We kept the activity a surprise for the kids and they were quite thrilled to learn where we were going.  They always have a great time jumping and bouncing around.  This year Emmy was less reserved than last and she pretty much ran right onto the big slide.

We also actually had some nice days where the kids could play outside and a few days were even windy enough to fly some of their new Easter kites (they got 6!).  It seems like each year they get duplicates in their baskets of something between us and their grandparents! :) 

Our big trip was to Indianapolis to the Children's Museum.  We hadn't been there with the kids yet and mom and dad went down to visit Kristina and Steven in Bloomington.  So everybody (minus Steven who was busy with school) met in Indy on Friday.  Little did we know when planning the trip that Indy schools were also on spring break and the place would be packed!  Emerson was so excited, she showed up in our bedroom at 7:15 am, fully dressed, and said, "Is it time to wake up yet?"  As the kids get older, they are MUCH easier to travel with.  It also helped that Matt and I both got new phones over break, so the kiddos were able to play games we'd downloaded on our old phones.

Bumblebee used in part of the Transformer movies.

We built a bridge using the numbered blocks.

Em had a tea party with the 3 bears in the mirror maze

Landon LOVED the Hot Wheels exhibit.  It was PACKED with people, though so we didn't stay long.

After the museum we checked into our hotel to stay the night.  Then, of course, (at 6:30 am) Landon announces that he's ready to go swimming!  A little early, but we did make it to the pool.  We ended the week in West Lafayette to celebrate little Clella Berger turning 1!  Over all, we had a great week spending time with the family.

Easter 2013

Christ is risen! 

He is risen indeed!

Landon was so excited for Easter Sunday this year since, in his words, "Jesus riseded from the dead and that's why I call March thirty-oneth Good Sunday!"

We had a great time on Saturday with the Hahns, hunting eggs outside and opening Easter baskets!  On Sunday, our Sunday school class was in charge of the Sunrise Service so we were all at the church at 6:30 am!  Then, we had breakfast, an egg hunt, and came home to open our Easter baskets.  We had lunch with the Bergers and another egg hunt!  Now the kids certainly could've had 10 more egg hunts and it still wouldn't have been enough.  They LOVED finding those eggs (and the treasures inside were great too!)

Egg Decorating

We had Good Friday off this year, which was REALLY nice considering that Spring Break started the next week!  So we decided to dye eggs.  Emerson was very excited, since she loves all things crafty.  Landon got a little bored waiting for the color to take (we played Just Dance in the mean time!).

He was determined to put EVERY sticker on his eggs!

The kids had a great time using stickers, shrink wraps, and glitter to decorate!  Such a fun Easter tradition!

SNOW DAY!

Normally, I'm not overly excited about snow days because that means we have to make them up later in the school year.  But, for some reason, I was SUPER excited when I got my text that school was cancelled today.  We had quite a bit of snow and everyone was excited to go out and play!
We even got to go out a little earlier than expected because I neglected to tell my mom that school was cancelled and she got stuck coming up our driveway.  The kids were happy to help shovel the snow around the car.



Em was determined to build a snowgirl...no matter how difficult the snow was to pack!



The kids FINALLY got to use the snowman kit they got for Christmas...in March!

 And then a few hours after coming in from the snow, they were ready to go swimming again!

Time to Swim!

This past Sunday our Sunday School class went to Open Swim at the high school.  The kids were over the moon excited for a whole week before!  They were both very determined to be brave and swim without help from us.  I think everyone had a great time (adults included!) 



Tyler took this picture and it's really good especially considering he was shivering quite a bit when he took it!

 The Fervida's, Schmucker's, and Frye's then all joined us at Pizza Hut for a quick supper.  What a great way to spend a winter afternoon!

(Photos courtesy of Jess Frye! :))

Recommended for families with preschoolers...

Nothing makes a kid happier (or sadder) than a new balloon.  All Emerson wanted for Valentine's Day was a helium balloon.  Which was all well and good until the next day when it popped and the tears rolled down her face.  But don't worry, she now has 2 "pictures" of Rapunzel on her wall!

 Also a good recommendation for any family with kids is a sleepover.  Look how happy these kids are!  Now granted, we did not let them actually sleep like this, but it was pretty funny that they thought they could!

This has also been a big hit at our house.  We got the kids a new Bible for Christmas.  It has very short stories, lots of pictures, and questions for them to think about with each story.  It has very kid friendly language and even some "obscure" stories that I didn't remember.  We've read through the whole book once already.  If only I was as dedicated to finishing my Bible and rereading it like the kids (especially Emerson).