Katie turns 2

We celebrated Katie's second birthday last Saturday. She had a fun filled weekend. These first pictures are from Friday night. She got a package in the mail that day from her Nana Christensen. She had so much fun opening it. It is really the first thing she has ever opened (she wasn't so good at wrapping paper this last Christmas :).
This little cow now resides permanently in her crib. It is so soft.

She wore these sun glasses and carried the card around for the whole next week. It was pretty funny. People the store would always ask her about her glasses. She also learned how to say birthday this week and would point to her card and say "birthday." She is a pretty smart chicky.
Thank you Nana! She loved every gift! She likes to change her outfit about 3 to 5 times a day so it was nice to have something new to try on :).

Since her birthday was on a Saturday, Dad got to be home with us the whole day. It really was all about Katie that day.

The other kids were so excited to give her her presents, we did it first thing in the morning (well right after breakfast or we never would have gotten Katie to eat :).

I had taken her to Target to get an idea of what she would like. I meant mostly to look for a baby, but when we went down the isle, she saw this purse kit and was glued to it. I had the hardest time getting it away from her and sneaking it back into my cart later. I really had to distract her with about 3 other toys. I was so excited to give her the purse on her birthday. She has taken it everywhere with her sunglasses in it. She loves the purse and the phone that came with it. Believe it or not. She really doesn't like the baby. I tried to talk her into other babies, but that is the only one she wanted to look at, so I thought it would be the one she would want. She won't play with it. I was a little bummed till I noticed that Emma and Joelle won't put the baby down. It gives me hope that Katie will like it more when she is older. Haha.

Katie loves phones. She is always sneaking into my purse to get my phone (or my gum :). She loves putting all her fake makeup, and phone, and glasses into her purse. she is such a girly girl!

Every morning when she wakes up she wants me to get her dressed right away. Then she wants a flower in her hair, then she wants to put on some of mommy's makeup (just lip gloss). I have to follow her routine or she get pretty sad.

That night we went to Mike and Amy's house for piano lessons (my sister-in-law Amy teaches my girls piano and we trade with making dinner for both our families each time - I get the better end of that deal for sure:). We had dinner and went swimming and then came it for the cupcakes that Katie and made with her Daddy that morning.

This was actually her second time with the candles. She did really well blowing them out.

She only ate about a quarter of her cupcake. She would much rather have candy.

Amy got her this bouncy ball. She loves it. All my kids think it is the best gift ever.

Grandma Glemser had sent her a very fun basket with all sorts of fun little thinks inside, things to color and a winnie the pooh book (Katie loves to read). But I wasn't home when John dropped it off, so the kids took it on themselves to give it to Katie. She loves it all, but I never got a picture of it all together. Thank you Amy and Mom for your gifts. They helped make her birthday so happy. It was her best one yet (wink, wink ;).

Swimming

We spent a lot of time at my sister Wendy's pool this summer. Katie loved jumping in to her Dad. She would do it over and over. It was very cute. He lets her go a lot farther under the water then I would. But by the end of the summer she could bring herself back up pretty well.

Katie also learned how to go down Wendy and Jose's waterslide this summer. She made me and David take her up there over and over and over. It was so funny to watch her. One of us always had to be at the bottom for moral support. She is so funny, very NOT afraid of the water.

Katie and David had tons of fun together this summer.

Kindergarten Graduation

Benjamin graduated from kindergarten in June. He LOVED kindergarten. Each class made shirts that showed something they had studied that year. Ben's class did under the ocean shirts. He loved his shirt and was very proud of it. It was a fun night.

All the classes had learned a bunch of songs to sing that night. It was so cute. The last song was "This little light of Mine" and they all had glow sticks that they waved around. It was really cute. Ben had a lot of fun that night.

My camera batteries were dying that night so all my pictures have a hazy glow. Kind of weird.

I don't actually know why Katie isn't in any of the pictures. She was there, being her crazy, funny, naughty little self.

Joelle and Emma went up close to take this picture for me. I love it.

Random Moments

I can not believe it has been so long since I blogged. Julie has been telling me for a while that I needed to update. Last time she told me my kids are too cute not to blog. Lets see what she thinks after these pictures :).

So here is Jake right after he found Emma's red lipstick. I thought it was hilarious. Who does he remind you of? Can you say "The Joker....... (insert evil laugh here)" He thought he looked pretty cool.


This is Emma and Samson right after they both had haircuts. He is a completely different dog with a hair cut. A shadow of his normal self really :). The first time he got a haircut we brought him home and Jacob took one look at him and got really excited. He kept telling me he couldn't wait till the girls came home to tell them "We got a Chihuahua!" (our dog is a yorkshire terrier by the way -best dog ever :).

There are many days when David and I will find Jacob asleep on the stairs. As long as this kid has a blanket he can sleep anywhere. Crazy!

Our little Emmalee Gail was baptized on March 14th, 2009. It was such a beautiful day, for such a beautiful little princess. She was so happy that day. She picked out her own dress from whiteelegance.com. I loved it. I thought she looked perfect. She was so ready for this day. We had long talks with her about what this meant and what a big step she was taking, but she said she was ready. We are so proud of her. Her baptism meant a lot to her. Thank you to everyone who came. It made that day that much better.
I know these pictures are so similar, but I loved them both. Who can really get enough of this girl anyway :).

Aunt Amy (Glemser) made her jewelry. Emma wore it everyday for a week after Amy gave it to her. It didn't really match her school clothes, but oh well, she felt beautiful - that is all that really matters. :)

We got to the church early so David could take more pictures of her. I'm telling you, the weather could not have been more perfect. She is great in pictures. David took a lot of fancy ones. He hasn't blogged them yet, but I will make him do it soon :).

All the kids were excited about this special day. I'm not actually sure where Jake and Katie were at this moment. I'm such a good mother :).Emma and Daddy, enjoying the moment.

This was right after she got baptized and changed into her pretty dress again. She and her dad were so happy. Thank you Emma for making such a good choice. We love you!

I had to throw this picture in. I love taking pictures of David taking pictures of my kids. I don't know why, but I just think it's so cute. He's the best!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Benjamin turned 6 years old today. He is such an angel little boy. He had a great day. He woke up this morning happy as always. We had one gift ready for him to open before school. He got the Narnia movie "Prince Caspian." He has been asking for it for a long time. We gave him the choice of having us buy him his gifts or he could go to the store and pick out a few things that he wanted. He chose to go with Dad and pick out his own things. He had so much fun.



They stopped in the pet section to check out the fish. He didn't want to get one he just wanted to look.



Then they went to McDonalds to get a kids meal. He has been wanting the spiderman toy they offer there :). He also got to play the game they have there. Just him and Dad, pretty fun night.





Then he came home and made a Star Wars cupcake cake. Pretty exciting, don't ya think. He picked these cake toys at Walmart. I think they are pretty slick looking.



Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes. Katie had already had 4 that weren't frosted. That girl can eat cake.



Silly face I know, but I just wanted to show his gifts. He is a very happy boy tonight. We are just finishing "Prince Caspian." We let them stay up way past their bed time. Oh well, great days end late right? At least that's what my kids think.

Happy Birthday Emmalee!

Emma turned 8 on Friday (March 6th). She had a great birthday. She kept telling me "8 is Great." She woke up that morning and found her gift that grandma had brought for her (a gift card to Micheal's - her favorite store). She looked so cute for school dressed in this amazing little outfit that she got the day before from Nana. I totally think green is her color.
Our friend Kim had come into town for the day and she and I went to help in the classroom that day. It was fun to see Emma pass out her treats and be all cute with her classmates. They were all so sweet to her.

This is Emma's favorite picture of her dress. I think her hair is so cute in ringlets.

That night she got to choose what she wanted to do. We went out and had a girls night (me, Emma, Kim, and my little sister Julie) Emma had a list that she wrote down and we did everything until they were all checked off. Our afternoon started with a trip to "Build-a-Bear." She has wanted to go there ever since Fiona chewed up her other bear a few years ago. We just never remembered at the right time. She remembered now, and it was the right time. I, of course, was lame and kept forgetting to use my camera at the right time, so my pictures only show the aftermath of everything. Lame, I know, but we were having so much fun I just forgot.

The next thing she wanted to do was go to a "fancy restaurant." We had a hard time choosing where to go. In the end we settled on Carrabba's. We were at the mall and it was the closest, fanciest place. This is wear I remembered to use my camera. She loved the food. She got spaghetti and meatballs (the meatball was her favorite thing - it only came with one), and a bowl of Mama's something or other soup. She loved that too. In fact she said next time she just wants a bowl of soup (so I guess, that was her favorite). She was so full she couldn't even eat the ice cream they brought her for desert. It was so fun and so yummy.

We couldn't believe they had a David Archuleta shirt at Build-a-Bear. Emma was in heaven, He is her favorite. She has a poster of him on her wall next to her bed. She named her bear Samantha (the name of her best friend at school).

After dinner we went to the LDS bookstore for her to get her own scriptures. She is so excited to be baptized on Saturday. She had so much fun picking out her stuff. She got black scriptures with gold trimmed pages. Julie inscribed her name on the cover in gold leafing (Emmalee Christensen). They are very pretty. Kim got her a real silver CTR ring and a pillowcase that she can color, iron, and keep forever. It has a picture of a little girl being baptized by her dad with some inspirational writing all around it as a border. She has already almost finished coloring it. Emma is our artist so that was right up her alley. Kim had to leave then to catch her plane.

The next thing that was on Emma's list was to go home and watch a movie, but she realized we were right next to the temple and begged us to go there. I love that on her eighth birthday, all she wanted to do was go to the temple. She asks to go there a lot, but since we are kind of far, it doesn't happen all that often. So we went. She loved it. She says the temple is one of her favorite places to be. She will just stand in the visitor center and listen to all the little shows and things they have available. She really has a sweet little spirit.

Afterword, we went home with Julie and Aunt Tiffany came over and watched a movie. We watched a Hallmark film called Lucky Seven. It was a cute little romance film. We popped popcorn and checked everything off her list. She loves being eight.