Sugar Plum Ball 2012

Emma and Brad attended the Sugar Plum Ball for the second year in a row on Thursday, November 29th.  Emma had a great time with Daddy and got to spend a little time with Libby Loo!  While Emma and Daddy were out on the town, Josh and I enjoyed a dinner date at the Purple Cow.

Emma Turns 5

Emma felt like pretty big business turning five this year since now she is "one whole hand."  The entire day was pretty much a big celebration.  Brad picked up donuts for Emma to take to share with her class and she got to wear the birthday crown all day.  For dinner, Emma requested pizza, which Win and Riri joined us for.  After pizza, it was on to presents and cake.  We had one tired 5 year old girl when it was all said and done.

 

The following day, Emma went in for her 5 year check-up, which included an eye exam and hearing test this year.  She passed both easily and finally tipped the scales at 40 pounds.  I can't remember height off hand but she stayed right in the 85-90th percentile.  I think it is safe to say that she is hitting all of her milestones since they asked things like, "Can she write her first name and recognize her last name?", "Can she count to 20?", "Can she recognize 5 colors?"  Uh, "yes, yes, and yes."  Happy birthday sweet Emma; we can't believe you are five!

Christmas Tree Decorating - Emma's Perspective

Just before Thanksgiving, we replaced our DSLR so Emma has had the opportunity to use the old camera.  She provided us a unique perspective on decorating for Christmas this year.

O Christmas Tree - 2012

We made it a quick trip to Cole Camp for Thanksgiving so we could get home and have time to decorate the Christmas tree.  Emma and Josh were great helps this year and really enjoyed hanging ornaments, especially theirs.    The end result turned out great!  Funny though, they had more trouble this year leaving the tree alone than any previous year. 

After tree decorating and a nap for Josh, the kids and I headed outside to oversee Brad putting up Christmas lights on the roof for the first time.  Thankfully the lights looked great after his hard work and he got up and down safely. 

 

While Brad was putting up lights, I put the kids to work helping me with leaves in the front yard.  We ran out of bags before the driveway could get done so Josh decided to go for a swim.

Thanksgiving 2012

We headed up to Cole Camp to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  Both kids were a little apprehensive about the fact that there would be two dogs this year but they came around for the most part although Josh isn't a terribly huge fan of Chugger after he was cornered on the couch and given lots of sloppy kisses.  It was a bit cold but we did get outside a little and also worked on some Christmas crafts.

Emma's Birthday - Fancy Nancy

It has been an eventful end to the year for sure but first to catch up on the events of November and December.  Our girl turned 5 at the end of November and this year, she decided that she wanted a party just with the girls.  Of course, she did have a pesky little brother to take part in the fun.  Emma loves, loves, loves Fancy Nancy so that was the theme of the party.  We invited all of her fancy friends to join Fancy Emma in the fun.  As our guests were arriving, we had Fancy Nancy coloring and activity sheets to keep them busy.  Once we had all of our friends, it was on to the spa for manicures and a little lip gloss.  The girls then adorned themselves with jewels and tiaras and then struck their fanciest poses in the "photo booth."  Finally, we learned some of the lessons for being fancy and then read a story before moving on to cake and ice cream.  Emma had a great time and Josh got in on the action and struck a pose in a tiara as well, thanks to Caroline K.'s Mom for catching that one for posterity.