Emily is 8

Emily celebrated a very special birthday a couple of weeks ago...our little girl is 8. Her baptism is in just a few days and every time I think about it I get all teared up. I feel so overwhelmingly thankful to have this little girl in my life, and so very thankful that she is so ready to take this big step in hers.

O.K., before I get too emotional, here are some pictures to document Emily's 8th birthday. This year was an off year for throwing a full out party...but we did have a few of her best friends over the Friday before her birthday for a special late-over. The girls had so much fun, and even though it wasn't an official birthday party, we still had cake... :)

Here are some pictures from Emily's actual birthday...
We let her open one present before school...a little pink CTR ring just like I had when I was a little girl. She loves it.

My parents were tending my sister's kids that evening so they all came out to open presents with us and to go out to dinner...

Emily and her new set of Scriptures...

Everyone wanted pictures with the birthday girl...

My Aunt Julee and Uncle Steve were visiting from Idaho, so they were able to come too! It was so nice to visit with them...

I wish I had some fancy program where I could cut and paste a picture of Justin into this picture because I think it would make a really nice family photo. He was way too busy playing with his cousin Josh to take one more picture. Oh well, here's a really nice ALMOST family photo...

Here's just one last shot of Emily and I from her Christmas dance recital. She looked just like a princess and danced like one too. :)

We love our Emily-girl so much. She is sweet, smart, and full of creativity and I am so thankful to be her mother.

The end.

Our Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Utah this year. We had a wonderful time visiting with all of our family there. Thanksgiving day was spent with my family at my sister's house in Layton. Dinner was awesome and we had such a great time together.

These kids LOVE turkey...

The spread...

The fam...

My mom making her AMAZING gravy...

We spent the day after Thanksgiving in Logan with the Gutke family. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins...

Eden and Ridley enjoying ice cream cones together and Justin meeting his newest cousin, Holland... (Justin's really not scared in the picture...that's just his camera smile. We're working on it. :))

Emily and her cousin Jessi had a lot of fun putting on puppet shows for everyone. The show consisted of some pretty awesome jokes, like.. "Why did the cow cross the road? To get to his friend cow", and "Why was the math book sad? Because it had so many problems."

Justin thought the jokes were so funny he kept falling off of his chair laughing...



Eden and Ada in their matching jammies...

We love visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Thanks for having us everyone! We had a great time!

Snow and Lights

Snow!

The kids got the chance to play in the snow while we were there. Personally, I can't stand the stuff, but they had a lot of fun!

The snow was really powdery, and not the best for making snowballs...but the kids made them and threw them anyway...

Eden loved stomping around in the snow.

(Until her hands got cold, then she cried.)

Lights!

We went to see the lights at Temple Square with my sister and her family. We hadn't been in years...so it was really fun for all of us...the kids really loved it.

So, I actually did it...for the following picture I stopped a friendly looking stranger and asked if she wouldn't mind taking a group photo for us. It killed me to do it, but I really wanted a shot of our families together. We made like 50 people stop and wait to go by us while our picture was being taken, which I felt really bad about...but it was worth it to get the shot (even though Eden isn't looking.)

Emily and Justin were excited to see the Temple where Dave and I were married.

So beautiful...

Off to see the lights...

Gabe and Justin...

Eden loved it up on Dave's shoulders...

A family photo...

Halloween 2009

We had such a great Halloween this year! Seriously, I love this holiday and this time of year. The weather was gorgeous (77 degrees) and our day couldn't have been more fun or festive.

So here are the kids in their costumes...all ready to party.

Emily dressed up as Hermione...

(note: when Emily told me that she wanted to be Hermione for Halloween this year I was totally surprised. I am actually a huge Harry Potter fan, but I didn't know she was too. She hasn't read any of the books (not yet at least...I think they are a little too scary for her still) and she has only seen the first movie. But upon reflection I decided Hermione would be just perfect for her. I have had the opportunity to observe Emily during school, during primary, and during FHE and she is totally one of those kids who raises her hand for every question and usually has her hand up before the teacher has even finished asking. She's funny like that. So Hermione stuck. :) )

Justin was Cowboy Woody...

(after two years as Buzz he was ready to move on, but not too far. :) )

And my sweet little Eden was Minnie Mouse.

(she had no say in the matter. :) )

I just wanted to mention here that we borrowed all of our costumes this year (and lent out a couple of ours as well.) :) It was totally a great way to go...it was so nice not to have to spend the money! I want to say thank you so, so much to Cortni, Cheryl, and Lisa for being so nice and lending us your awesome stuff!

Cutest. Mouse. Ever.

Finally time for Trick-or-Treating...(actually Trunk-or-Treating.)

Trick-or-Treating was SO much fun this year because it was Eden's first time ever. She was so funny...

Sometimes she would take the candy being offered...

And sometimes she would only stare at it...

And other times she would just plop herself down in the middle of the parking lot and stare at it some more...

My parents drove out to go trick-or-treating with us which was so nice of them and so fun for the kids!

Almost done...yay for candy!

Our happy family...

We love you, Halloween!!!