Happy Birthday Emma!

Wow! It sure doesn't feel like a year since she was born! It has been a fast, but great year with her. Emma's Birthday was actually Tuesday, but we had a party today. We celebrated on Tuesday by me taking all 3 kids to the doctor to all get shots. Yippee!!

We had a small family party with Seth's parents. Emma enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, her presents , and of course the cake. Happy Birthday Emma!

Boo!

Update: Macy did make it the entire time trick or treating with the wig. Sorry Macy! The kids and Seth walked a few streets of the neighborhood and came back with their bags FILLED.

Seth is taking the kids out trick or treating right now and I am home passing out candy while Emma is sleeping, so I thought I would post some pictures from tonight. The church had our Trunk or Treat last Sunday, so this isn't the first time they are wearing them, but I was on the planning committee for that and way too nervous about everything, so I only like like 1 fuzzy picture of them at that. Anyways, enjoy the ones from tonight!

My little pumpkin:

She would sit for two seconds and then crawl away, she was much too busy for me to take pictures. This was Macy's first coustume. It is hard to believe that this time last year I was just days away from having her.


It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Superman:

Getting ready to save the day! The cape was actually mine from when I was little; it was a party favor from a friend's birthday. And finally, Dorthy!: I am doubting the wig has lasted the entire time they are trick-or-treating, but we will see.

A couple of the pumpkin, Superman and Dorthy together, what a combination!

First Ever Family Movie Night

Tonight we had our first every family movie night and watched the best movie ever, well, what I considered the best movie ever when I was a kid, "Babes in Toyland". I seriously LOVED that movie growing up and I sure my family can vouch for me in saying that I watched quite frequently.
A couple weeks ago Macy asked what was my favorite movie growing up and I of course told her "Babes in Toyland" and my mom surprised us by getting us a copy this week! "Babes in Toyland" is a 1960s Annette Funicello singing and dancing movie, so you can imagine Seth's excitement when I called him to ask him if we do have a movie night tonight and watch this. Anyways, we all enjoyed it (Seth enjoyed his nap) and after it was over Macy said "This is my favorite movie too now mom!". When I put them to bed I could hear Macy and Charlie talking a little bit and Macy hollered out "Mom, what is that guy's name who was in the movie?" and I hollered back "Tom." (Spoiler alert!: The main characters, Tom and Mary get married at the end and that is how it ends.) and then I could hear her tell Charlie "Tom and Mary have a real baby." Macy was in their room telling Charlie what she imagined happened after the movie was over and I thought that was pretty funny. It was as fun way to spend a Friday night!

Macy showing off the movie: Getting ready to watch!:

Beauty Sleep

Macy loves anything girly or remotely girl-related, so when I told her I was going to do her hair in rollers and she was going to sleep in them, she was super excited! She kept saying she looked like Grammy. I wasn't sure if she would last the whole night in them, but she did with only a couple falling out. In the morning, but before I brushed it.

New Lens!

I got a new lens for the camera in the mail today! It is a 50mm f/1.8D (Thanks Melinda!) I am so happy to be able to take pictures again without have to hold the lens just right or risking it fall to the ground. I just snapped a few pictures of Emma to try it out and I really like it! I still need to look at the directions and figure some things out (like it says the auto focus is possible, but how to I change it from manual to AF? Anyone?), but so far so good.

Maybe now I will enjoy doing laundry...

Because we got these delivered today! We have been using the set we bought at a garage sale about 6 years ago and it was definitely time to get a new pair and we (well me, Seth really doesn't care what I wash his clothes in) are very excited to have a brand new set! Yeay!

A plus for the kids of getting a new washer and dryer were the boxes! Seth made them a couple little houses and they have been busy playing in them all day.

Notice how Seth re-used the old dryer tube thing. Who needs cell-phones when you can have a talking tube!

Official

Charlie has been wearing underwear for a couple weeks (with the exception of nap and nighttime), so I think it is now safe to call him officially potty-trained! I have to admit I was dreading it and wasn't going to be disappointed if he was well after 3 before he was potty trained, but he was surprisingly easy and very motivated by m & m's. He has the occasional accidents, but for a 2 year old boy is doing very well. Way to go Charlie! (Of course, now that I am blogging this, he will have some HUGE accident at church or something.)

Here are some pictures of the goof ball to commemorate:

Camp Off 2009

On Labor Day Seth wanted to do a camp out (or camp-off as Macy calls it). He thought about doing it in the backyard, but we remembered that our church has about 4 acres of land about 2 miles from the house, so we decided to move it out there. We had a fun evening of playing, riding on the lawn mower, gathering firewood, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, letting the kids run around and just sitting around the fire. Seth was positive the kids wouldn't sleep in the tent, but we all did (except Emma, I put her to sleep in the office area in the pack and play.). Here is a few pictures from our fun evening together. Poor Emma isn't in any of the pictures because she was strapped to me in the Snugli, but I promise she was there:

Today was a great day for Macy

She started dance class! She has seriously been talking about taking dance for a year and half, so she was very excited to finally get to go today! Seth even came to watch her. She got to dance like a butterfly, learn to make her tap shoes go from heal to toe and even got to do the movements to "Lord's Army" (it is a Christian Dance Studio). She can't wait to go next week!I know this is a horrible picture, it was taken through the one-sided observation window:

When I was taking pictures of Macy outside in her leotard, I snapped a couple of Emma. Look at all the teeth she is growing:

And of course we can't forget Charlie in his spaghettio-covered shirt and in-need-of-a-haircut hair:

The Kids

Since I have been behind on my blogging, I thought I would do an updating entry about the kids.

First up, Emma: She is already 9 months! She continues to be a very easy baby; good eater, good sleeper, loves her big brother and sister. This week was a busy week for her. She had her 9 month well-baby check-up and also her cardiologist follow up appointment. Thankfully, she looked good for both appointments. The cardiologist said she still has the openings, (he didn't expect them to close in 3 months) and they haven't grown or anything. He told us to come back in a year, but even if she still has them, she will still have a "normal" heart and it will be considered normal and it won't be an issue in any way. We were thankful to hear that! I did take a quick picture of her getting the EKG. Poor baby:Charlie: 100% boy, enjoys "playing" all sports-especially basketball, golf, and baseball, enjoys shooting everything with his "gun" (the vacuum cleaner wand), and loves playing with his blocks and cars. He has a pretty good imagination and it is fun to watch him get excited about little things. His catch phrase right now is "last time" as in "Last time we go to the park". He says that all the time.
And last put not least, Macy: She continues to be super-talkative and super-friendly to everyone she meets! We visited a nursing home this afternoon and she did such a good job passing out the cookies and visiting with the older people. (Now her behavior at the end of dinner is a different story.) We are enrolling her in a dance class for the fall and she is of course super excited. Her highlights this week were getting a package from Grammy Kelsey and getting a bag of dress up clothes from someone at church. She was so excited! Here she is modeling as a "ballerina bride" (notice the unevenness in the bangs, someone got ahold of the scissors when I wasn't looking): I still can't believe we have 3 kids, and we are very thankful for all of them!