Merry Christmas 2007!!!

It was a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve we went to my friend Amy Lopez's house. She had about 6 or 7 families over and we had a fun gift exchange. Then we hurried home and the kids "caught" Santa peering through our window. They ran next door to tell their friends Nicholas and Brooke to come see him. It was so cute. We said that Santa comes and looks in everyone's window to see if they are being nice before he heads out that night to deliver gifts. They were so excited. Christmas morning was so fun, the kids were grateful for everything they received. Luke got a scooter, moon sand, legos (from Grandma and Grandpa Rose), the Webkinz he has been wanting (from Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie), a Leapster game (from Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie), and some DVDs. Emma got the Elephant from Barbie Island Princess, a Barbie car, the Webkinz poodle she has been wanting (from Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie), a Leapster game (from Grandma and Grandpa Gillespie), a cute little high chair that can also be a doll chair with a little table (from Grandma and Grandpa Rose) and some DVDs. Then Matt TOTALLY surprised them with a Play Station 3. I think that was more for him :)...It was fun.

Happy 8th Anniversary!!!

Matt and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. It never fails that every time Matt and I have plans to leave the kids and celebrate our anniversary one of them gets sick, and sure enough Gavin was miserable with double ear infections! He was up all night the nights prior to us leaving. We weren't going to leave him, but my awesomely amazing neighbor Liz said "I'm not afraid of Gavin". She talked me into leaving him with her...which I'm so glad that we did. We stayed at the Portofino Bay Hotel that is located on the Universal Studios property. They have it decorated like Italy and we had a blast. We ate dinner then took a water taxi to City Walk, which is a bunch of dance clubs and restaurants. We kind of felt old seeing all the teeny boppers, but it was so fun because one of the clubs had a GREAT band playing. So we stayed and listened to the band and danced a little. The next morning we went jogging together, which we never get to do, and it was so fun because we could go jog around City Walk and near Universal Studios before everything was open! It was so fun.

Matt's parents visit 11/28/07 - 12/04/07!!!!

We had a great time when Greg and Wendy came in town. We got to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, they got to go to the LDS Church Ranch to check it out, and Emma got to take them to ballet to show off for them :) Not to mention it was fun to have them here to celebrate Emma's 4th Birthday! What a good time!

Luke got picked out of the audience to go up and parade around in the Lion King show!

Happy 4th Birthday Emma!!!

Emma's birthday was the never-ending birthday! We celebrated with my family when they were in town and then she had a little princess party with about 6 other little friends and they were all dressed in princess dresses. Emma loved it and she felt very special when after we played musical princesses she did her own little "birthday dance" in the middle of the circle of girls and felt like she was a star! It was pretty funny. And then we celebrated when Matt's parents were in town! Talk about spoiled :)

Emma and Ella share the same birthday, just one year apart and so we let them decorate their cake together!!! :)

Emma's princess party: Grace Eckhardt (neighbor), Noelia Martinez (from ward), Mannette Singh (neighbor), Ruth Dailey (from ward), Brenna Potter (from ward), Emma and Marin Lowe (from ward).

OK I know this cake looks like a sombrero...it was supposed to be a beautiful layered princess cake! Oops. But Emma thought it was beautiful and that's what counts :)

My Family Visits!!!!!

We were lucky enough to have mom and dad come in town 11/16/07 - 11/26/07 that's a record 10 days! I think that is the longest they've ever stayed...it still wasn't long enough, but we had a great time! While they were here Kim and Morgan flew in, we got to go to Disney with them, and then Tyler and Anna came in for Thanksgiving! It was wonderful to have them all here.

We celebrated Emma and Ella's birthday and they got to decorate their own cake!!!!

A budding artist...

Today was kind of an exciting day....actually really exciting for Luke! He was chosen as one of two artists of the week at school. It was he and a 2nd grader. So this morning Matt and the kids and I went to the school and he was on the Sunrise Morning News (the school has the cutest morning news broadcast with 2 anchors, a weather report etc.). I was very impressed with the set up they had. Luke drew a "self portrait". I've attached 2 pictures, one is of the t.v. screen during the broadcast, and the second is his work of art so maybe you can see the drawing of himself. The blue things all around are clouds....there is a robot, a mountain, a balloon, and a monkey in a tree. They framed it and it is hanging up right next to the principal's office! I was so excited for him! He was the first artist of the week for this year!




Luke is doing so great at school. I got to go and help with the Kindergarten Fall Festival last Friday. I helped the kids frost and decorate cookies. Luke was so excited to have me there helping, and I loved it even more seeing him interact at school. He is such a good little boy, he has really learned to make his own choices and not follow the crowd....going on yellow a couple of times helped him learn that lesson quickly. He is now learning to read and he is trying to spell everything. He loves to spell things out to me, kind of like Matt and I do to each other so Luke and Emma don't know what we are talking about. Luke likes to do it to Emma. He'll say "Mom after dinner can we B-O-O-K?" Meaning can we read a book.... And Emma gets all bugged because she doesn't know what he is saying, and Luke is beaming because he spelled, but most importantly because he knows he got to Emma! Oh the joys of sibling rivalry! It's a good thing I never bugged Kim when I was little!!!!!! I was an angel! :)

Emma is my little helper. She picks up Gavin CONSTANTLY! Which drives me crazy! But sometimes she can be helpful. Like when Gavin has his daily treat of toilet paper in his mouth, then she goes and squeezes his cheeks and he spits it out for her! :) Our new thing that has been fun is that my friend who lives about 1.5 miles up the road rides her bike and meets us with her little girl in the trailer behind and then I ride my bike with Gavin and Emma in the trailer and we ride to the grocery store and the girls get a free cookie from the bakery and then we ride home and they play with each other at either our house or our friend's house. It is so fun! The girls like to stick their little hands out of the trailer and wave to each other.

Gavin is my little Energizer Bunny! He is into EVERYTHING! And he is quick! He now has eight teeth! He is so happy and fun. His new thing is that he shakes his head no. The kids laugh so hard at him. His other new thing that cracks me up is that he loves when we go into a public restroom because it echoes! So as soon as I walk in he starts with these funny little screams so he can hear himself! It never fails...he did it Sunday in the church restroom and again today at the Library! Funny kid!

Well that's about it folks