Emily and Her "Tangled" Birthday

Happy Birthday Emily!  I can't believe she is already 4 years old!

Here is my cute 4 year old. 

Emily has been planning and asking about her birthday ever since the day after her third birthday last year.  She would ask pretty much everyday if it was her birthday yet.  She loves birthdays.  Every Sunday since she became a Sunbeam and came into Primary she asked the Primary Presidency if it was her birthday so the kids could sing to her and every week we tell her not yet.  When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she told me a sucker from Primary (we give out suckers on the kids birthdays).  So finally this Sunday she got her sucker and the kids sang to her.  She was so excited. 

Emily wanted a Rapunzel birthday party with her friends and cousins so we went all out and made some fun food and decorations for the party.

I made the Tangled Sun on the cake and cute Rapunzel cupcakes with yellow coconut and licorice hair.  My favorite food decoration was the tower cake.  I think it turned out so good.  I made the tower out of mini doughnuts, a cupcake and an ice cream cone.  Then I decorated it with vines, flowers, and a long licorice braid.  Of course I mounted it on a small frying pan to tie in the movie.

I also made some fun decorations.  I braided a 15 foot yarn braid to use as a table runner.  This took me all day long to braid!  Because of all of the sweat equity put into the braid, I decided it was not getting thrown away after the party so I am using it as a decoration in Emily's new room.  I also made a purple Tangled Sun banner to hang like in the movie.  To go with the banner, I made tissue paper lanterns like the floating lanterns in the movie.  I also put up a bunch of Flynn Rider wanted posters.  Another fun addition to the party were these cute Pascal party blowers.  I put one of these in each guests' goodie bag.  The kids had a blast blowing them and making a lot of noise.

The night before the party we were busy making cakes:

Yes Emily is stirring her own birthday cake but she wanted to help.  She also helped me make the tower cake by telling me where the flowers and vines needed to be put.

On the morning of her birthday, Emily got to open two presents before heading to preschool.

The first one she opened was from Mom and Dad.  It had some new birthday clothes to wear for the day and a little white board and marker to use in preschool.  She loved them.  The next present she opened was from Paul and Alex.  Jen had sent their present in the mail and Emily had gotten it the day before her birthday.  She was so excited to get mail with her name on it.  She kept asking me if she could open it but I told her it wasn't her birthday yet.  When it finally was her birthday (the next day) she couldn't wait any more and opened it in the morning.  They sent her some fun Princess cups and hair pretties.

After playing as a family all day, it was finally party time.  While we were waiting for all of the kids to arrive, we colored pictures of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  Here is Emily with her friends Taryn, Trayton, Faye and Janessa:

The first game we played was "Pin the Nose on Flynn Rider."  We enlarged Flynn Rider wanted poster and took off the nose.  Then Russell drew a bunch of funny looking noses for the kids to choose from to pin on Flynn Rider. They all had fun playing.

Next we played "Duck, Duck, Goose" at the Snuggly Duckling tavern.  This was a fun game to watch and I think everyone would have played all night if we would have let them.  After everyone had a turn, we moved to the last game, Tug O' War with Rapunzel's hair.  Because we were using my prize 15 foot braid, I wouldn't let the bigger cousins play because I didn't want the braid to get ruined.  I was surprised that the girls liked playing this game more than the boys did! 

Then it was present time:

Emily got a lot of fun new toys from all of her friends and cousins.  She loved opening each present and was so excited to see what was in each one.  Colby just watched all that was going on with amazement.  He walked around holding his shirt up showing everyone is belly.

Then it was time for cake:

As you can see Emily was really excited about blowing out her four candles.  She blew with all her might.  Then we realized we needed to get her birthday on video so we lit the candles again so we could record her blowing out her four candles.  She was okay with blowing them out twice.

Everyone loved eating the cake and rainbow ice cream.  Luckily we were able to get rid of all of the cake and cupcakes so we didn't have any leftovers

After everyone had gone home and we had cleaned up all of the spilled ice cream so the ants did invade us any more than they already have, we got to look at all of Emily's loot.  She is definitely spoiled but she is worth it.  We love you Emily and are glad you are part of our family.  Happy 4th Birthday!!

Transforming the Front Yard

Russell has been working really hard this past month to get our front yard done.  We have had dirt/weeds growing in it since we moved in and we finally got them taken care of and the yard looks so nice now!  Here is a before picture:

And the after!  Doesn't it look so much better!  It is not 100% done yet, we still need to add some gravel and a few shrubs to the east side of the yard but we probably won't get to that until next spring.  Russell had to redo the sprinkler system, then he laid the pavers for the walkway, laid the diamond block, planted a tree and finally laid sod.  A lot of work but definitely worth it!

The Hartshorn's convinced Russell to do a walkway out of pavers instead of concrete.  They lay pavers for a living up in Oregon.  They told him it would be a pretty easy job and gave him some pointers while we were up visiting them.  Richard Hartshorn said something like the roads in heaven are all made of golden pavers.  He said we had a choice, Pavers and go to the Celestial Kingdom, or concrete and go to somewhere else!  We decided we better make our walkway out of pavers!  Well the pavers were definitely a trial Russell had to go through so they must lead to the Celestial Kingdom.  The way the Nephi and Richard talked, Russell could have the walkway laid and done in a few hours.  Well it took a few days, a smashed hand, lots of fill dirt, leveling and more leveling, and cursing to get it done.  It turned out really good though and I think it does look a lot better than concrete.  We are going to plant bulbs like tulips daffodils, and irises in the planter beds along the walkway so that each Spring they will be so beautiful.  We love how it turned out and it is nice to come closer to finishing a big project.  Our next big project is painting Emily's room and separating the two bedrooms.  (A post to come.)

It's another....

BOY!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on September 12 and we were able to find out the sex of the new baby.  I think we were all surprised to find out it is another boy because we were sure it was a girl this time.  We are super excited though and I am glad that Colby will have a brother to play with now.   We were all convinced it was a girl because Emily was dead set that it was a sister and nothing could change her mind.  She had even named the baby Amelia Bedilia!  (I actually think Amelia is a cute name so that is what we would have named it if it had been a girl.)  We kept asking Emily what if it is another brother and she would just say no its a sister.  We were really worried that she would find out that it was a boy and be really mad.  We took Emily and Colby to the ultrasound so they could see their new sibling.  Emily loved it but Colby didn't really care.  When the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy, we were all happy.  She told Emily she would get another stinky brother!  I was surprised because Emily was actually really excited for a new brother!  She has not even mentioned a sister since then.  Her first words were " Yeah now we can name him Prince Eric!"  I told her we are not naming the baby Prince Eric so she said "OK how about Flynn Rider?"  I cannot seem to get her to change her mind about that name.

After the ultrasound, we went to show my mom the pictures.  By then even Colby was saying "Brother!"  So the only bad thing about having a boy is picking a name!  I think boy names are hard.  If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to let me know!  For now the baby is called Flynn Rider but I can tell you that is not what it will actually be named!  Any way, we are way excited but now the work begins to prepare the boys room and Emily's room and make baby stuff and pull out all of the boy clothes and just get ready. 

I went to the doctor on Thursday (20th) and he said that the ultrasound tech couldn't get all of the pictures they needed because of the position the baby was in.  The baby refused to move to a different position because apparently he likes laying on his belly!  So we are scheduled to have another ultrasound in a month. 

After leaving the hospital, we drove up to the Sun Bowl to see all of the rodeo animals that are here for the Dixie Round Up.

You can see in this picture that my belly is starting to stick out quite a bit.  I stinks because when I was pregnant with Emily and Colby I didn't really start showing until I was at least 6 months along.  With this third one, it seems like my body is like "Who Cares!" and I feel like I have been showing since month three!!  Well I am measuring right on and am 21 week along now which makes my due date still January 30.  Also in other baby news, Jess just found out she is having a boy too!! So I am sure they will be best buds growing up.

And Colby and Emily loved the horses and bulls at the Sun Bowl.  They wanted to pet all of them but of course they couldn't.  We didn't go to the rodeo this year but they loved the seeing the animals and watching the parade.   We have also been very busy canning pears (30 quarts or 40 lbs to be exact) and apples (we made 11 quarts of applesauce and dried a whole bunch for apple chips) lately.  We are also preparing for Emily's 4th birthday coming up next week.  Stay tuned for that.

Brigham City Temple

September 11 we went to the Brigham City Temple open house.  Our scheduled time was 10:30 in the morning so we left St. George the day before and stayed at a hotel near the temple.  The drive up seemed to take a long time because the hot light at Krispy Kreme was on so we had to stop and then we stopped for dinner at Ihop too.  Finally we made it up to Brigham City by 10 pm.

The next morning we all got ready to go to the temple.  Emily kept telling us that she had to wear her white dress because you always wear white to the temple.  Unfortunately, we found out that morning that the white shoes to match the white dress were two sizes too small.  We had to make a fast trip to Payless to get some new white shoes on our way to the temple.   

The Brigham City Temple is so beautiful. We started our tour in the parking garage under the temple where we saw a video on the importance of temples.  Then we put on our special slippers over our shoes and headed inside the sacred building.  Emily loved walking through the temple.  I think Emily and Colby's favorite part was the baptismal font.  The loved looking in the big windows at the oxen and the pool of water.  When we walked into the baptistery, Colby immediately said "Water!"  My favorite parts were the Celestial Room and all of the beautiful chandeliers. 

Every time we go to the St. George Temple Emily asks us if she can go inside.  We have to tell her not until she is older or not right now.  We knew this open house would be the perfect opportunity for us to show her what it looks like inside a temple.  She loved it.  Each room we went to she asked us what the room was for so we got to show her where people get married, where we learn, and we also told her we come to the temple to feel the Spirit.  I think it was a great learning experience for her. 

The Brigham City Temple has a lot of the Brigham City history built into it.  Brigham City is known for their peaches so on the outside of the temple and also in the small round windows are cravings and figures of peach blossoms.  Also inside the temple are paintings of people picking peaches and farmers to signify Brigham City. 

Below is the cornerstone of the temple.  This piece of rock is not attached to the building until the dedication on September 23.  A time capsule will be placed in here and then as part of the ceremony, the Prophet will help lay the mortar around this cornerstone to seal it.

OK I lied, Emily and Colby's real favorite part of the temple was the fountain outside the temple!  Despite the million times I told them to get out of the water, they still couldn't resist the temptation to put their hands in it. 

Here are just a couple of pictures of us near the front entrance to the temple.  I love the sign above the door that tells everyone that this is "The House of the Lord."  I believe that with all my heart.  I love the temple and the ordinances and blessings we receive by going there often.  It is through the temple ordinances and the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we can be together as a family forever.

Catching Up

We finally got everything cleaned up and caught up from our trip to Oregon so I thought I would do a little post on the things that have happened over the last couple weeks.

First, Emily has been enjoying her fishing pole.  She practises her casting skills almost everyday.  We will have to get Colby a pole soon I think because he is always wanting to play with Emily's.  I made him a pole out of a stick and yarn and tied a fish to it but to him it is not the same.  He wants one he can reel in.  Here they are practising their fishing skills in the front room with their swimming pool.  Russell even made them Smores by cooking the marshmallows over the stove.  When I got home from presidency meeting, our house smelled so bad of burnt marshmallows!  But what can I say, they had fun.

Emily loves playing dress up.  Colby wants to do everything Sister does so the other day he brought me the Snow White dress and wanted me to put it on him.  I laughed so hard but he smiled so big when I put it on him.  After getting the dress on, he ran excitedly to go play with Emily.  Russell was outside working on the front yard and when he came in and saw his son in a dress he was soooo mad!  I just laughed and told him to chill because Colby was having fun.  I am sure Colby will be just fine.

August 31 was Emily's first day of preschool.  We are just doing a joy school program with a few other moms in the neighborhood.  There are 5 kids in the group and we rotate houses each week.  We are learning letters, days of the week, months, and counting.  They will also learning to write, count by tens, nutrition, world cultures, science experiments, and more by the end of the year.  Emily loves going to "school" and is doing pretty well for this being her first year.  This is the second year for the other kids.  It is also nice that the kids are all Emily's friends from church so she loves seeing them during the week.

On Labor Day we went up to Pine Valley fishing.  Emily's casting practise has paid off and she was able to cast her own pole into the lake to catch a fish.  We didn't catch anything which I think is a great day at fishing because not gutting, cleaning, and cooking fish!  Ha Ha! Anyway we cooked hot dogs for dinner and even roasted marshmallows over the grill for Smores.  They were really yummy!  This year has been really dry and a lot of fires so we were not allowed to have campfires this year.  That didn't stop us from enjoying our Smores though!

Russell is totally redoing our front yard so I will post the finished product soon...