Happy Birthday Joelle

Joelle's birthday was a while ago, but apparently I forgot to blog about it, so here I am doing it now. I am a horrible mother sometimes :). Joelle really had a birthday month. She loved it. We gave her money and took her shopping (she spent her money so wisely that it took a couple of trips for her to use it all). I had gotten her a gift to give her on her actual birthday, but silly mom left it out in the shopping bag with all the other groceries and (for the first time ever) Joelle decided to see what mom had brought home from the grocery store. So she got that present early. It was a very fun birthday month. The only thing she wanted to do on her actual birthday was go to Josie's house for piano lessons, dinner and swimming. That is what we did. We had spaghetti (her favorite) and then vanilla ice cream for desert (also her favorite - she is kind of a Plain Jane when it comes to food :). Of course the pictures were taken after they went swimming. She does look happy, doesn't she?

Sorry about the bright spot on the picture. Don't know what happened there, but it is the only picture of the only present she actually got on her birthday. Amy and Josie got her a Chihuahua webkinz. She loved it! Thanks guys! We love you!

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!"

David got away to Utah this week to go on a camp out with all the boys in his family. They do it every summer and he lives for it. He came home late, late, late Friday night. So the kids and I were pretty excited to have him home on Saturday. We decided we would take the kids to the Superstition Mall and then go see Monsters VS. Aliens at the dollar theater. We had a terrific time. When we came out of the mall and were headed to the movies, Emma said "Mom, this is a great family day." "It is like Family Home Evening!" I think we are going to count it since Dad wasn't home Monday night. :) We had a lot of fun.

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!