Christmas Morning

Wow, I just found this saved as a draft. What a slacker am I. My kids had a great Christmas. Cameron and I spent a lot of time making some homemade gifts for each of the kids and we both learned an important lesson in procrastination.
He built Hannah a Barbie house, James a corral, and Emmaline a cradle. He finished building the cradle and dollhouse Christmas Eve and we painted them the following week. We told them we left it that way so they could choose the colors. ;) I also made the older girls aprons and James a pair of Schaps(sp) and vest. Hannah got of lot of Barbies. Emma loaded up on play food. The boy got guns and dinosaurs. Alice, well, she got some treats, a pop up toy, and a doll. Simple and sweet. We had a blast spending Christmas Eve with Cameron's family and most of Christmas day. We all had a blast relaxing and hanging out.

James' 5

I can't believe my little man is five. He's so excited because now he can go to Kindergarten next year. It's a very cool age.

He chose to have pancakes with holes in them, aka waffles, for breakfast. We went to town and got him a pair of cowboy boots and he got to open them when we got home. The next night for dinner we took him to El Mexicano, his fav, and had a great time with our little man.

At five he likes:
*Anything boy! Dinosaurs, horses, animals, cars, motorcycles, 4-wheelers, hunting, sports, guns....
*Riding his bike.
*Being loud. Everything is yelled. Car noises and hollers are part of every conversations. He also has a tendency to break down into tears and whine when he's tired or feels like he's received an injustice. We're working on that one, it's kind of annoying.
*Singing, and again very loud!
*Loves his dance class (don't worry, Cameron has thrown his own little fit about this one, but he's loves it and is really quite good)
*Friends. The more the merrier. Girl friends or boy friends and especially if he gets to go to their house. In the right frame of mind he can be friends with anyone and that makes his momma happy.
*His Wayne. We sit with Wayne at church and James is his little buddy. He takes him fishin' and makes James feel like he's worth a million. We love our Wayne.
*My cooking. He can make me feel like I'm the greatest ever with his exclamations of "This is the best dinner ever Mom. I love it when you make me..."

We love our little man. He's cute and such a character. Sometimes he still little and then he turns around and surprises me by being really mature. I love him in his suit on Sunday and the little pleasures he finds in the most simple things. He loves his little sisters, even though he's still hoping we'll get him a little brother. He recently moved Emma into his room and has been on cloud nine ever since. He loves his Alice and is very protective of her and likes to keep her safe (his form of safe, not necessarily mine). He's his Daddy's little man and loves anyone who will do stuff with him and he is a hard worker. He's well on his way to being just like his dad. Happy Birthday little buddy.

p.s Short story on the cake. After my last disaster with Emma's we opted for simple. He's wanted a race car cake forever, so I went to town and bought one in the toy isle and then Cameron helped me decorate it. I put on the finishing touches (like the words) under his watchful eyes. Since we finished the cake around 5:30 and I hadn't even thought of dinner I caved and we had us some cake and ice cream for dinner that night. The kids were in heaven. When they got done I pulled out some leftovers and tried to salvage what was left of our appetites. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast helping.

Ward Christmas Party

Our one and only trip to see Santa in 2010. The program was very cute and so were my kids. ;) They all had a blast.

Oh Sadness

At 10 months Alice came up with this sad sad face. It all evolved around me telling her no when she would try to pinch me. She'd start to mold her face into the funniest faces and then start to wail. Then would come the crocodile tears. It was hilarious and I was lucky enough to get the chance to capture this moment.

She's 3!

I can't believe my little Emmaline is three. Really, three? Where has the last three years gone? She picked pancakes for her birthday breakfast and was so excited. After we went to the doctor to check on her shoulder she got to...

Open her one and only birthday present. (No need to remind me that I'm a crappy mom. and no, I didn't purposely plan on having a child 4 days before Christmas) She was so excited.

I tried really hard to make her a cake. But it fell, and then it wouldn't release from the pan. The result was a less than desirable, but she was thrilled with her pink strawberry cake. Her Dad had a good laugh at my attempts.

Right now Emmaline:
*Talks in complete sentences and says the darnedest things.
*Is pretty inexpressive when you first meet her, or she's doing her "withdraw" mode, but get her going and she's a hoot and she makes the best faces.
*Loves Alice, maybe a little too much. She won't leave her alone. She also likes to do whatever the big kids are doing.
*Sits with Grandpa Herb every Sunday and loves him.
*Loves all her grandparents and has a special place in her heart for anyone who will pay her attention. To name a few: Aunt aNae, Uncle Maurk, Aunt Arwyn, Aunta Manda, Uncle Spenswer and Charwee.
*Loves to color and can spend hours sitting at the counter working on pictures. She even stays in the lines. I'm totally impressed with her skills. She holds her marker funny, but there's still time to fix the grip later.
*Plays house and gets totally into character. I love to hear her talking to her dolly's and making me food.
*If she sees me cooking she automatically comes over and pulls up a stool and joins the party.
*Has recently started singing. It's so cute and I'm in love. Her favorite song is "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and is often requested.
*Makes up her own songs on the piano.
*Asks me a million and a half "why" questions everyday even when she knows the answer.
*Is still my best listener and follows directions better than anyone.

Emmaline I love you. You are such a bright spot in my life and I am so blessed to be your mommy. I love just spending time with you because you always have so much to teach me. Thanks for your patience and for being my little princess.

The Sling

Here's a picture of Emma in her sling from the broken collar bone. I was a cool mom and whipped up another one in pink. She liked to use her arm too much in those first few days so mine had a strap around it that held her arm to her body. She soon preferred this one when she was feeling better because she liked using her arm. Poor Alice was only safe from being picked up and hauled around for about a week and a half.

I took her in to a follow-up a few weeks after the accident and got the go ahead to take the sling off, especially since it wasn't preventing her from doing anything. She's got a bump on the bone where it broke and has slowly gone down over the past four weeks.