*** I am very behind on blogging.  Honestly, I didn’t take many pictures during the last month because we were sick for a week and half and we just didn’t have any big events.  However, I plan to catch up on the blog with a lot of pictures from my phone over the next day or so!***

It is very apparent to me that Emma’s primary love language is quality time.  There is NO doubt about it.  This girl loves to spend one-on-one time with the important people in her life!  A woman that I admire and look up to as a Mom at my church spoke about Children’s Love Languages about 2 years ago and I will always remember what she said about quality time kiddos “You know if you have a child who thrives on quality time… it doesn’t matter what you do together… even cleaning lint out of your drier together fills their love tank.”  At that moment, a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that Emma thrives on quality time.  Whenever she starts acting whiny or just particularly needy, I realize she needs me to drop what I’m doing and do something with just her, totally focused on her!  I’m really working on that!

So… that leads me to Emma and Mommy dates.  Last Fall, Foster just went to school two days/week in the mornings, just 3 hours.  It occured to me that if I let him go for the full 5 hours, I could have 2 hours with just Emma (because I pick her up around noon.) SO, I now pick her from school on those two days and we have “Mommy and Emma dates.”  She LOVES IT!   Every day she asks how many days until the next date.  We think up ideas for things to do on our date.  Most days I write out a list of choices and she puts a check mark next to the one or two ideas that she wants to do!  (so cute.)  Here are some pictures (all taken with my iphone) from our recent Mommy and Emma dates in January and February:

Making homemade blizzards with the new blizzard maker that Craig and Fallon got Emma for Christmas… There were a lot of steps but it was all worth it in the end!

Yummy!

This next date may be my favorite so far… We went to “Purse-a-nality” a local purse/jewelry boutique in Tulsa.  I had heard that they were having a major sale on hair accessories for little girls.. as in 10 for $1!  This included headbands, feather clips, bows, etc.  Emma tried on about 100 bows and we bought just about all of them.  I didn’t take any pictures of the bows but after bows she moved on to glasses… she is so so silly.

She was really excited to go to Cherry Berry with Mommy.  She picked out vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, sprinkles, gummy bears, and a cherry.  Mine was very yummy as well.

Bad picture of Mommy but I cherish the moment… We went to Nibbles, a cute little bakery/tea room in Tulsa.  We sat on the pretty red velvet couch- we always sit there.  They served us our lunch and we just cuddled and chatted.  Emma had chicken fingers and I had the most incredible shrimp crimpes.

Here is Emma at Nibbles eating a yummy flower cookie for dessert

We’ve had some beautiful weather in January and February here in Tulsa.  On this 68 degree afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and hang out outside!  We went home, packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park.  We laid on the blanket and looked at the clouds in between bites.  Then Emma played on the playground for over an hour.  She wanted me to do everything with her of course.  I got to teeter-totter, go down the slide, swing, etc.  Sometimes it’s fun to be a kid again.

Last week we went to Mazzio’s in Jenks to take advantage of Mazzio’s buy one get one free buffet.  Emma loves pizza (and who am I kidding, so do I!)  She especially loves ALL of their dessert pizzas.  After Mazzio’s we went to Reasor’s in Jenks and loved just browsing the bakery goodies and the flowers- what a great store!

That’s all for now… but many more dates to come!  I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to do this with Emma this semester.  Next year she will be in full-day Kindergarten and I am going to miss her so much!  She’s my little buddy.

I can’t believe my big brother is 40!!!!  Anyone that knows me well knows that I love my brother, aka “Boom” dearly.  We are super close.  There is no one else quite like Brandon Foster.  He’s witty, honest, and quite a character!  He’s had his share of obstacles throughout the past 40 years, and I’m praying the next 40 will be better. :)

We had a great time celebrating this huge milestone with our family.  We went to dinner at Outback- he and I love steak, and then we went bowling!  He’s such a kid at heart. :)

Mom and Boom

Here’s the family (minus me, cause I was taking the picture!) What an interesting crew: Robin, Brandon, Ron, his girlfriend Christi (behind the balloons), Nana, Judy, Foster, and Emma.  Nana is striking a bowling pose here, can you tell???

Nana teaching Foster how to choose a ball.  This was Foster’s first time to go bowling.

Who knows what he’s saying or feeling here!

This picture melts my heart.  Foster adores Brandon.  Many people tell me that Foster looks like my brother.  Every time Brandon comes to our house, Foster acts really shy for a few minutes and then quickly warms up.  Whenver we try to get him to act a certain way, we say, “Uncle Brandon would want you to be a big boy right now” and he immediately shapes up!  (not sure how long that will work.)  He loves to play soccer with Boom and play cars with Boom.

Daddy showing the kids his “skills.”  He took Bowing at Baylor. :)

Here is Foster taking a break while….. well you can tell what he’s doing!

Brandon has quite an unusual bowling technique

Each time after Emma let the bowl go, she got shy and turned around.  She didn’t like us cheering for her.  She cracks me up.

After cake!

My cute Mom bowling… wish I could have snapped the picture with her back leg kicked up!

Happy Birthday Boom!  I’m thankful you’re my big brother.

I’ve been so behind on blogging!  I think I got pretty lazy after the holidays were over.

Here are some random pictures from my phone over the past several weeks…

We’ve had a ton of beautiful weather days.  It felt very odd to be playing outside without coats on in January!  Someone needs to take care of all of those leaves!

Silly Daddy… We went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to shop one Saturday and he decided to try on the Croc that was on display.  The kids really got a “kick” out of this.

And here is Robin juggling for the kids during extended care at church.  This is always a fan favorite.

Handsome Foster- growing up too fast

And here is what marked most of January for us… sickness. :(  Foster had RSV and was sick sick sick.  Luckily he didn’t get dehydrated and we didn’t have to make any hospital visits.  Just 3 Dr appointments finishing with a double ear infection.  Poor Foster had a fever, nasty cough, and runny nose for about 12 days.  And he just wasn’t himself.  Then Emma got sick of course.  Her illness wasnt’ nearly as bad, just a milder cough, fever, and runny nose.  This picture of Foster breaks my heart!  It doesn’t even look like him!

Here the kids are during one of our sick days at home.

Uncle Brandon came over to visit one day and Foster fell asleep on him.  It was so sweet.

Last but not least, Mommy got to go get her hair done!  I was way over due and it felt so good to get pampered.  I told my hairdresser that I wanted to go blonde blonde blonde.  She delivered. :)

It was a beautiful day on Friday so we took advantge of the weather and headed to the park!  It was a really great park and the kids had such a good time playing!  Here are some pictures from our day.  Robin got me a new telephoto camera lens for Christmas and we had a lot of fun playing with it at the park!

Foster really enjoyed walking the “perimeter” of the play area.  He does this a lot when we go various places!   He likes to be by himself and just take leisurely walks!

Pops watching his Grandkids… he’s such a good Pops.

I love it that each year our kids get to have an Oklahoma Christmas and a Texas Christmas.  :)

On Tuesday, the 27th, we packed up and headed to Arlington for our Christmas celebration with Pops and Gigi and the cousins!  We stayed there the 27th through the 31st.  We had an awesome time just hanging out and letting the kids play together.

Gigi had a lot of fun things for the kids to do together.  Here is Emma playing with play dough.

Everyone arrived on Tuesday evening but we decided to wait until Wednesday morning to open presents.  We started a new tradition this year… Pops and Gigi hid baby Jesus from the manger scene and had the kids search the living room for Him.  They explained that we couldn’t have Christmas until we found Jesus because He is the whole reason we celebrate!  Pops helped Emma find Jesus hidden in the tree.  She was so excited that she got to hold him throughout the gift opening.

Here is everyone looking for Baby Jesus…

Here is Lylah holding her “payback” gift from us!  When Emma turned two years old Criag and Fallon gave Emma a HUGE stuffed dog for Christmas.  She loves that dog and carries it everywhere.  We have had it in our bed at times, in the carseat with Emma, on the couch, etc.  It takes up quite a bit of room!  So this year we got Lylah a huge puppy dog. :)

Lylah and Zane playing the drumset that we got for Zane

Foster loves his Pops

TRACTORS from Craig, Fallon, and Lylah!

Each of the Grandkids got books from Pops and Gigi where they recorded their own voices reading the stories- I loved these gifts.  The kids love their books.

Foster and Zane playing with their car ramps

At the very end of the gifts, Robin found another gift from “Santa” under the tree.  Santa brought Foster and Emma and bounce house to Pops and Gigi’s house!  The kids had a blast playing in the bounce house over the next several days!

Dinner time…

We also celebrated Lylah’s Birthday (it’s in early January)…

Here are all 4 cousins: Foster, Zane, Emma, Lylah.  It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a good picture of all of them!  It’s hard to believe that 3 years ago Emma was the only Grandchild!

Emma and Foster playing football with Uncle Craig

Robin wearing his “Heisman shirt.”   On Thursday night we watched the Baylor Bears beat Washington in the Alamo Bowl!  It was exciting to say the least.  I almost woke up the kids screaming several times.

Foster is obsesssed with cars and trucks and knows that Uncle Craig drives a truck.  Whenever we talk about Craig, Foster talks about his truck. So, Craig let Foster sit in the driver’s seat and check out the truck.

Foster and Zane got along really well.  One day I walked in the living room and found this.  Adorable.

We had a great time in Arlington!  I’m so thankful that my kids have so many family members who love them.

We had a wonderful Christmas Day!

We let Emma sleep in our room on the floor because she was scared that she might run into Santa if she had to leave her room during the night. :)

She woke up pretty early but we held her off until 8:00 am.  Robin, Emma, and I headed to the living room and opened a few gifts before going to get Foster.  (Emma had a lot more gifts to open than Foster so we figured this would be ok!)  We decided to give one of the kids their big Santa gifts in Arlington when we went to Pops and Gigi’s house because we weren’t sure it would make it to our house by Christmas….more to come on that later!  Santa left Emma a note that he couldn’t fit her “big gift” on his sleigh and would deliver it to Pops and Gigi’s house.

Reading the note from Santa.  By the way… did I mention that Robin got really sick 2 days before Christmas?  We think it was a bad virus or cold.  He felt slightly better on Christmas morning Praise the Lord!  We had all been battling colds.

Foster’s main gift was a bucket for his matchbox cars… and about 25 new matchbox cars.  He was SO excited!!! (I stole the bucket idea from our friends, the Kreys.)  I had been looking for a good place to put all these cars and I knew he would love taking them out and putting them back in and carrying them all over the house.  Once he saw the cars, he was pretty much done for the morning. He took ever single car out and told us which ones were new. :)

Emma really wanted to pick out a gift for Foster so Robin and Emma went to Target on Chrismtas Eve.  She picked out a Thomas the Train lego set and a Color Wonder set so he could do his own artwork and it wouldn’t be too messy (smart girl!)

After we took our time opening presents at our house, we got dressed (well the kids stayed in their P.J.’s) but Robin and I got ready and we all drove to Nana’s house.

Emma and Foster in their Christmas P.J’s at Nana’s house! (you can tell that Foster wasn’t feeling too great.)

Of course Foster brought about 7 cars to Nana’s house…

Love this picture… some of my very favorite girls… Emma, Nana, Jill, Judy.  I’m so lucky to have my Mom and Judy- they do so much for us and help so much with our kiddos!  But wow, this picture makes me realize I really need to tackle those ‘extra pounds’ after the Holidays.  Oh well.

Stockings at Nana’s house

Monkey hat… I love this!

Foster was very excited about this school bus that was in his stocking!

Emma was so excited about this clock from Aunt Judy.  She has been wanting it for a while.  Not only does it teach kids to tell time, it also lights up different colors according to when it’s bedtime, when it’s ok to get out of bed, etc!  It also plays music!  It is so cool!  She used it on Christmas night and loved it.

Judy got Foster his very own coloring book and crayons.  He loved them!  Now maybe he won’t draw on Emma’s masterpieces.

Judy also got Foster this awesome CD player.  This boy LOVES music.  He often runs to Emma’s room to play CD’s on her CD player.  Now he has one of his very own!

I love this picture of my Mom and Boom.  She ordered this picture of him finishing the Tulsa Run… a huge milestone for him!

2nd breakfast for Foster…

I would like to point out that with the hundreds of new gifts that Foster received on Christmas morning… Foster kept running to Nana’s toy closet and pulling out the OLD (as in 35-40 year old) toys that he always plays with when he goes to her house!  These are oldies but goodies!

Foster loved playing with Ron and Christi!

We all had a fit over this wrapping paper that Christi used… isn’t it adorable?

Foster loved this seek and find book from Nana…

This was hilarious…. Ron and Judy and Christi gave this James train to Foster… it is battery powered and moves on it’s own.  He was really excited about it when he first opened it.  Then when we put it down on the ground and it started moving he ran into my arms frightened and said “James chasing me!”  Then he asked to see Thomas on my phone- like Thomas was his security blanket!  Now, I am happy to report that he carries James everywhere and loves to watch him travel around the house.  It’s like James is Foster’s new little puppy dog!

We had an awesome Christmas with my family!  We were very excited to go see The Curry clan in Texas… more Christmas to come!!!

Christmas Eve was a wonderful day!  I had worked the night before so I did have to do some cleaning the morning of Christmas Eve to get ready for family.  I also had some last minute gift-wrapping to do!

Here is Emma right before our family came over for Christmas Eve dinner…

We had Ted’s catered for dinner… yummy enchilladas, rice, and beans.  It was very good!  After dinner we played several games- a family favorite is always “Scene It” where you watch movie clips on DVD and answer movie trivia questions.

After games we had peppmermint ice cream with fudge topping (a famly tradition.)

Then Nana let the kids open a gift- Christmas pajamas!

Then Nana read several Christmas books to the kids…

Grainy picture… but here is Nana reading the Night Before Christmas!

We made cookies to leave for Santa and here are Emma and Daddy writiing their traditional Christmas Eve note to Santa.

One of Emma’s friends from school gave everyone some “reindeer food” at their school Christmas party.  So this was our first year to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn to guarantee that the reindeer would find our house!

Luckily the kids settled in to bed fairly well so Santa could get to work!

One thing I like to do every Christmas time is go see Santa Claus at the Bass Pro shop in Broken Arrow.  This Christmas season was so busy and it seemed like we never had a free evening or weekend to go see him.   So… on December 23rd Robin had the day off work and we decided to venture to Bass Pro.

Apparently, a lot of people waited until the last minute to see him!  When we got there we found out the the wait to see Santa was about 2 hours long!!!  I had to work at the hospital that day at 2:00 so it just wasn’t feasible to wait for 2 hours. :(  Emma was pretty disappointed.   We opted to just take some random pictures with snowmen and bass boats!

We made the most of our trip by picking up a Christmas present for Uncle Ron while we were there- a Bass Pro fleece and some fishing lures. :)  We let the kids pick out the lures- Emma picked hot pink!

We promised Emma and Foster that we will make plans to visit Santa early in the season next year!

On Emma’s actual Birthday, Sunday December 18th, we got to go see the Nutcracker ballet in Tulsa!

I bought Emma a new pretty dress and purse for the special occasion.

Here is Emma waiting fo the show to start- she was so excited!  Nana, Emma, Aunt Judy!  Fun girls’ day out!!!

Sparkly nails for the special occasion!

After the show, we found our friend, Bo in the lobby!  It was very difficult to get a good picture of them standing together!

Being silly after the show!

Immediately following Emma’s party at the Little Gym, our immediate family came to our house to open gifts from family.  Nana, Judy, and Ron all came over.

There was a theme to several of her gifts…. she got this beautiful Ballerina jewelry box from Judy, Ron, and Christi…

Robin and I gave Emma tickets to go see the Nutcracker ballet on her real Birthday with Mommy, Judy, and Nana.     This was a suprise for Emma and she was very excited!

Ballerina Nutcracker..

Emma also got a great ivory coat with fur from Nana and some clothes that she loved! (bummed that I didn’t get pictures!)

Judy, Ron, and Christi also gave Emma “Just Dance for Kids” for the Wii.  EmmA and Foster loved playing it that same afternoon- I can tell it’s going to be awesome for this Winter when we are trapped inside!