On Wednesday, December 14th, Emma had her Christmas choir program at church.  I am one of five teachers in her class and we have had a very fun, eventful semester learning music and having fun!  We have 18 four year olds (some 5 already) in our class and it is always an action packed evening on Wednesdays!

Here is a picture of Emma before we left to go to the church.  Nana helped me spiral curl her hair for her big night!

Foster wanted to jump in… Here he is saying “Cheeeeeeese!”

Kinlye, Mackenzie, Emma

WOW, I look at this picture below and get emotional… several of these kiddos have known each other since they were babies and have literally grown up together.  I’m so thankful for sweet, Christian friendships for both she and Foster.  I also look at the picture below and see all of their true personalities shining through!  Including Emma… why is she sticking her tongue out???!!!

Mackenzie and Emma:

Singing on stage!

I think I see a smile in there….

Emma got to celebrate her Birthday at school a few days early, on Tuesday, December 13th.  This week is so busy at school with lots of Christmas celebrations so we decided to celebrate today!  I brought Birthday donuts from OK Donuts.  I decided to suprise Emma with how they were decorated and she was so excited when she saw them!

It melted my heart to see how excited Emma was to have me in her classroom.  This was the look on her face when she saw me outside her classroom…

She kept running up to kids in her class saying “My Mommy is right outside in the hall”- she was SO excited!  I couldn’t help but think to myself, “How many years will it be before Emma won’t love having me at her school???”  I pray that she will always love having me around.

I got to the school about 15 minutes before the party.  I loved sitting right oustide the door and watching her interact with her friends.  Here she is playing a pattern game with Taylor and Lindsey.

She came over by the door and played with play dough and kept turning around to giggle at me.

Mrs. Bradshaw had all of the kids come out in the hallway and sit around a placemat.  They sang “Happy Birthday” to Emma and then we served the doughnuts and chocolate milk, Emma’s choice!

After the party, Emma got to bring Clifford, the class dog, home with her.  We had to write in a journal what Clifford got to do at our house.  Here are a couple of pictures of Emma showing Clifford around our house!

Last Saturday was the annual Gingerbread party at our church.  This was Foster’s first year to participate so I recruited Robin to come help!  My kids were both so tired that morning and it really shows in these pictures!

Putting the graham crackers on the house with icing…

Busted!!!  Licking her fingers. :)

Foster really could not understand why we wanted to put candy on the house.  He really wanted to just eat the candy.  He even threw a fit one time when Robin put M&M’s on the house… so Robin took Foster’s gingerbread house and decorated it himself.  Foster just sat and ate candy!

Sierra, Hayden, and Emma.  Hayden and Emma had the same shirt on!

Daddy, Foster, and Emma with the final products.

I really debtated whether or not to post these photos. On one hand, they break my heart.  On the other hand, they make me giggle a little bit.  I know one day Emma will probably be really mad at me for posting these.  However, I decided that it’s part of her story and since this blog is my journal, I decided to include them.

Emma’s ballet/jazz class performed their Christmas dances for famly and friends last Monday afternoon.  She has done so well this year and I absolutely love her teacher, Miss Keally.  She is so good with the girls and teaches them so much.  She has so much fun with her good friend, Karter, from church. On occasion, they get “talked to” for giggling and talking when they are supposed to be listening. :)

They have been working on their Christmas songs for several weeks.  I try to observe through the windows in between chasing Foster in the waiting room and she has done such a great job with the dances… UNTIL observation day.  Robin and Aunt Judy took off work to come and Foster and I were there as well.  The room was FULL of parents with cameras and I think Emma was very overwhelmed.  :(  Just take a look at the picture below and you will see!

The music started and Emma just kind of froze.  Every once in a while she tried to dance a little bit but she was just so overwhelmed!  (we also had to chuckle a little bit because her belly button was peaking through that leotard!)

Judy, Robin, and myself all kept trying to give Emma encouragment.  We would flash smiles, thumbs up, etc. Judy and I even trying to mimick some of the dance moves so she would follow us!  I’m sure we looked absolutely hilarious.  Part of me just wanted to go rescue her.  Part of me wanted to laugh.  Robin said he truly FELT for her because he remembers feeling the same way as a child.  Emma and her Daddy are a lot alike. :)  He gets very overwhelmed by social situations, or at least he did as a kiddo.  She is also a lot like me in that I study every person in the room and evaluate everything going on around me.  Poor girl!

After one of the songs there was a little break and I quickly hugged Emma and gave her a little pep talk.  She did do a tiny bit better after that.

This picture cracks me up.  Ashley is the girl in the front- she is very dramatic with her dancing. Then there is poor sweet Emma in the back, just frozen.

Here is the finale pose. They were supposed to strike a pose at the very end.  Here is her pose… hands half-way up, not overly commited to the pose!  I love this girl so much!

After the dance they had a little party with yummy cookies and drinks.

I didn’t get any pictures because I was busy recovering from my mini heart attack!

After the party we got home and got Foster down for a nap and then I sat down and talked to Emma heart to heart.  I told her how proud I was of her for dancing.  I asked her how she felt during the performance and she said, “Mommy, there were just so many people there.”  It broke my heart.

I know that this is just part of who Emma is and it’s one of the things that makes me love her so much!

Christmas is only 12 days away and I’m just now posting about Thanksgiving!  This has been such a busy month but we are loving this season of family, fun, and celebrations!

We had a great, low-key, Thanksgiving in Tulsa.

It has become a tradition that we have my family over on Thanksgiving Eve.  My Uncle (Mom’s Brother) Danny, and his son, Dillon, try to come every year for Thanksgiving and it is the one time of year that we get to see them.  The family came over on Wednesday night and we served Hobo Stew and cornbread.  Then we watched the Thanksgiving episode of “Modern Family” which is currently our favoroite show.

Dillon is SO good with Emma and Foster.  You would think he has younger siblings, but he doesn’t.  He played with my kids non-stop for 3 hours.  They played hide-and-seek, played trains, even baby dolls.  Emma and Foster just adored him!

On Thursday morning we all go to my Mom’s house where she and Judy always prepare a phenomenol Thanksgiving Feast- one that could be compared to Martha Stewart’s!

Here is the most amazing, tender turkey ever!

Great-Uncle Danny showing Foster the turkey!

Brother and Sister hard at work in the kitchen

Waiting in line for dessert… my Mom’s pumpkin chiffon pie is always a huge hit.  It was my Great-Aunt Auntie’s recipe and I’m so glad she passed it down to my Mom!

I really wish I had gotten more pictures on Thanksgiving Day!  Emma was wearing a dress that was mine when I was little.  Auntie made me a dress with removable patches for the different holidays and Emma is wearing the Turkey patch. :)

I had to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving evening.  It was very hard to leave the comfort of my Mom’s house and my family to head to work but luckily it was only for a few hours.

We have so much to be thankful for and I praise God for our blessings!

On Saturday, we met up with Robin’s family at Red Lobster to celebrate his Granddad’s 85th Birthday which is this week!  They traveled from Lubbock to Waco for Lynnette’s wedding and we were thankful that everyone was able to make it to spend time together.

We had 4 kids 4 and under at the table and it was WILD!

Zane, Pops, Foster, and Gigi… the kids all fought over who got to sit with Pops and Gigi!

Great-Grandmom, Emma, and Great- Granddad:

Tommy and Zane… notice Zane’s t-shirt.  He is going to be a big Brother next May!!!!  We are so excited to have another niece or nephew!

Foster loves Uncle Tommy.  He kept bouncing him on his lap and Foster would come up to him and say, “Tommy jump, jump!”

Great-Granddad… he will be 85 this week!

We gave him a President Obama Birthday card just to be ornery. :)

After a yummy lunch, several of us took the kids outside to play.  I tried to get some good pics of the cousins playing…

Foster and Lylah holding hands. :)

Emma and Zane really adore each other

Foster, Pops, and Lylah

Foster and Gigi

At the Wedding… I didn’t get a ton of pictures but here are a few.  Emma at the table waiting for the wedding to begin

Right after Emma’s Thanksgiving Feast at school on Friday we got on the road to head to Waco.  Robin’s cousin, Lynnette got married in Waco on Saturday night.  We stayed with our good friends, The Kreys for two nights.  They recently moved into a new house and it was beautiful.  The yard is really beautiful and the kids had so much fun playing together outside.  Here are a few pictures from our time in their backyard.  I really wish we had gotten a picture of all of us together… we usually do but it’s getting harder and harder now that we have 5 kids between the two families.

Time for a little half court basketball in our pajamas on Saturday morning…

Foster loved exploring in the backyard… he kept running around the perimeter of the yard… I guess he was exploring his boundaries!

Thank you Kreys for your hospitality… you are welcome to come to Tulsa anytime!!!  We’ll be waiting. :)

Foster’s “real” Birthday was on Thursday, Nov. 17th.   We had his party the Saturday before but still wanted to make sure he felt super special on his actual Birthday too.  We started the day by waking him up and singing to him while he was still in his crib.  We also brought him breakfast in bed, aka. doughnuts!

After we got Foster dressed he dined at the breakfast table.  Here he is sharing his doughnuts with his baby.

And here is the plate of doughnuts after he was finished with them… he took one bite out of almost every one of them!

While he was eating his doughnuts he wasn’t sitting in his chair very well and when he reached over to get a doughnut he missed the table, fell out of the chair, and landed on the tile floor.  He bumped his head pretty hard and as a result got a 2nd goose-egg on his head for the week. This time it was on his upper left forehead. The one he got on his actual Birthday was much worse than the one he got on the day of his party.  I guess he is letting us know he is going to be “all boy!”

Foster went to school on Thursday morning and his teachers were very sweet to him.  Then after naps and a fun lazy afternoon at home we met Nana and Daddy at Chuck E. Cheese for an impromptu last minute pizza dinner.  Foster had never been there before!

Here are a couple of pictures of him playing.  At the end of the night, he loved turning in his tickets for prizes. He got a set of Chuck E. Cheese stickers and some smarties.

Happy 2nd Birthday Foster, we love you so much!

Today Emma and Foster were being especially silly while hanging out before ballet.  They have really started to play with each other and it brings so much joy to my heart

Foster’s actual Birthday is on Thursday, November 17th, but we celebrated a little bit early on Saturday, November 12th.  I decided to have a “Thomas the Train” party because Foster is VERY into Thomas and all things TRAINS.  Rather than serving typical Birthday cake, I chose to make him a waffle Birthday cake because he loves waffles, especially when Daddy makes the real ones rather than the frozen eggo waffles!  My main goal for Foster’s party was just to focus on Foster and see to it that he felt special and loved.  We had our family over and we had an awesome evening together.

One of the most special parts of the day for me was seeing the excitement that Emma had for Foster’s party- she was so excited to surprise him with gifts and decorations.  She could hardly contain her excitement!  She loves him so much!

Foster went down for a nap at about 1:30 on Saturday and while he slept Emma and I decorated the kitchen and Daddy put together Foster’s big gift- a train table complete with train set!

When Foster woke up from his nap I carried him to the kitchen to see the Thomas the Train decorations and the look on his face was so cute!.  He screamed “Thomas, Thomas, Thomas!”  I had put three little wooden trains in the center of the kitchen table and he sat at the table for an hour and a half and played with the trains while I finished getting stuff ready for the party!

You may notice a bruise on Foster’s forehead in some of these pictures.  Unfortunately Foster ran into a door frame while he and Emma were running through the house on Saturday morning.  This is his first real goose egg… on the day of his 2nd Birthday party!

Nana and Foster… Foster is saying “Cheeeese” in this picture!

Looking like a big boy here

Blurry, grainy picture of Mommy, Foster, and Daddy

Here is the waffle cake that I put together… made of 3 waffles (made by Daddy) and pastry cream, strawberries, blueberries, powdered sugar, and syrup!  You only live once, right?  Funny thing though…. Foster refused to eat his cake. He wanted a plain waffle!  So we gave him a plain waffle and I had several bites of his cake- it was yummy!

Judy held Foster while we sang “Happy Birthday” to him

After we sang Happy Birthday and Emma blew out the candle (because Foster didn’t want to) Foster asked us to sing Happy Birthday to him about 10 more times.  He would look at Nana and say, “Happy Birthday to you Nana?”  Then Nana would start singing and we would all join in.  He got the most adorable, sheepish grin on his face each time we sang to him.  On about the 5th go-round, he started singing with us!  It was a precious moment.

Sweet sweet big sister Emma

Foster talking to the stuffed puppy dog- telling him it’s his Birthday.

Part of the crew… The people who came to the party were: Mommy, Daddy, Emma, Foster, Nana, Judy, Uncle Brandon, Ron, Christi, Haley, and Sara.  I made a breakfast casserole, bacon, and then we had a waffle bar with strawberries, blueberries, pastry cream, whipped cream, bananas, syrup, and powdered sugar!

Daddy, aka “Professional Waffle Chef.”

Judy, Ron, and Christi gave Foster his very own Pottery Barn Kids chair so he and Emma don’t have to fight over Emma’s pink chair all the time.  He LOVES his new comfy chair.  The look on his face when he first saw it was adorable!

One of his presents from Mommy and Daddy was a box of matchbox cars.  He took the time to line them all up on the arms of his new chair.

Opening the “Thomas the Train” pillow pet from Nana- love his face here!  He loves his Thomas Pillow and carries it everywhere!

His big gift from us was an Imaginarium train table. Robin put it together earlier in the day and covered it with a sheet in his office.  After all of the other gifts had been opened he and Uncle Brandon carried it into the living room and took the sheet off.  The look on Foster’s face was priceless but we didn’t catch it on camera.  He loves the train table and to my surprise so does Emma.  We spent the last hour of the party watching Foster and Emma play with the trains.

It was a special night.  I can’t believe Foster is almost 2 already!  Where did the time go?  I hope your party was everything you dreamed of my little man.