It's GREAT to be EIGHT!

Today is Emma's eighth Birthday! I can't believe my Emma is ready to be baptized. They always tell you that time flies and to enjoy your kids while they are young - "they" are right. It does go so fast.

Emma was due on April 6, 2001. She was born almost 3 weeks early, on March 14, 2001. She was born at LDS Hospital at 2:30 in the afternoon and weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. (Good thing she came early - who knows how much she would have weighed by April 6th). She was going to be named Erin, however, when she was born, she didn't look like an Erin. We named her Emma Louise and gave her sister the name Erin four years later.
Emma got a new set of scriptures! She is official! Even as young as she is, Emm reads her scriptures every night and never forgets to take them to church.

Group hug! McKayly, Erin, Emma, Kailee, Caelan

Emm had a "princess party." The girls got to put make-up on and had fancy hair up-do's! Cari brought her Mary Kay supplies - they LOVED it!

If you know Emma, you know that she is a little beauty with a beast nestled inside. She definitely has a personality of her own. I am terrified of the teenage years with her. Hopefully before she turns 13, the screaming and stomping and slamming of doors wears off.

Here are eight things I adore about Emma:

8. Emma is the most compassionate and affectionate person ever! She loves everyone and meshes with people of all ages. Her best friend is her four year old sister, yet one of her favorite things to do is hang out with her grandma. She has two grandmas and three great grandma's and I have countless pictures of her loving them.

7. Another love Emma has is for animals. She collects FurReal Animals and has 13 of them now. But, I know if she had it her way she would have 13 real pets. Her dream is to work with animals in some way when she is older. As soon as she is 14, she can work at Hogle Zoo. Most kids look forward to getting their drivers licence, but not Emma. She just wants to be old enough to work at the Zoo.

6. Her hair. I know this is a silly thing, but I do. I love the girls hair. I always had thin straw like hair when I was young. She has a full head of gorgeous, thick hair.

5. Her giggle. This is something I can take credit for. My nickname when I was little was "Giggles." She definitely could take the name. It's contagious when she gets going.

4. Her talents. Emma is a natural at a lot of things.

3. I love Emma's love notes. I don't know that a day goes by that I don't get at least one love letter from her.

2. I love that Emma is a daddy's girl. Still, at eight years old, she loves one on one time with her dad. She loves to have "movie night" with the family so that she can snuggle with her dad.

1. And the number one thing I love about Emma is ... drum roll ... the dimple in her smile.

Happy Birthday, Emma Lou!

note to family members: Emma will be baptized on Saturday, March 28. I will send invites with where and what time.

Brynlee Babe

As usual, I have been crazy busy this week and am just now sitting down to blog about my new niece. I've been anxiously awaiting her arrival -probably not as anxious as her parents, but you know how it is when a new baby is born in the fam.

She was born Sunday evening at 6:44pm. She is a tiny little thing (takes after her mama). She weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches. She is absolutely precious. Congrats to Dev and Lyns! You made one cute babe!

America(n) On Stage

Emma has been asking to take clogging forever! So here's the interesting thing: I couldn't find an actual clogging class - they were all jazz/tap/combo classes. Now she's almost 8 and she had her first clogging competition Saturday (after only starting in December, mind you) and I found out that there are a lot of cloggers out there! Where were they all when she started asking 3 years ago? I'm so glad we finally found the teacher we did. April and I stumbled upon Jenny Powers with Xtreme Clogging while sitting at tumbling with the girls one night. We jumped on the opportunity and I'm so glad we did. Emma and Ella had so much fun at Thanksgiving Point. And, they surprised April and I by knowing their dance! The other girls in their class have been learning the dance since September, but Ella and Emma started in December. I am so proud of Emma - but even more, I'm glad she had fun. I have figured out that each child is so different and sometimes you have to try a lot of things before they find out what they really want to do. I think Emma has decided clogging is her thing.

They took 1st in Solo's and 2nd in Team. (April and I are guessing everyone took 1st and 2nd, but no need to tell the girls. They give all the soccer players the MVP Award and no one complains.)

Daffodil Days are almost here!

I'm so happy that it is March! We always seem to have one or two snow storms in March, but there's something about a blue sky, birds chirping and the daffodils popping up through the snow. It makes me so happy I could cry!

Jer has been in Denver for the last week, so I have been feeling overwhelmed with my motherly responsibilities. Why is it that when your hubby has to travel for work that everything else falls on the same week? I've been running from doctors appointments to dance and soccer and Young Women's and homework and so on... But, fortunately, it's Thursday and Jer is back and things can get back to normal. Okay, so still busy, but it sure is easier when there are two of you.

Josh's team started soccer practice again this week. He was so excited. Winter is rough on soccer players - especially when you can't convince them to play rec basketball to keep in shape. He did really well. I thought he would be out of shape, but he was so excited to be back to playing that he played hard and ran fast.

The girls always love going to soccer because they know there is going to be a playground somewhere close by. The wind was blowing, but that was okay because it still felt warm. It was good to get some sun.

Another reason I am super excited for March is my little sister. She is about ready to have her baby and I am so anxious. I know she is and she is probably sick of me calling/texting every five minutes, but I don't want to miss anything. We had a shower here last week for her. It was so fun to see all the family and friends that we haven't seen forever. Anne and Amy Astill, Karen and Julie Sabey, Jame, Leesh, Care, Rachel, Randi, Laurisa and her little guy, Cohen. It was great to see all the support Lynsee has from everyone - Linda, work friends, all of you! Love you guys!

above: Jamie, Karen, Julie, Rachel, Cindy

above: Rachel, Lynsee {and Brynlee}, Linda, Cari, Alisha

above: Randi, Laurisa and Cohen

above: Lynsee and babe

Mom, Me, Erin, Cari, Lynsee and babe, Emma

(This was at the shower at John and Lindas.)

Also, this month, Emma is turning 8. I can't believe it. She is so excited to baptized. Her birthday is March 14 and her baptism is March 28. It's crazy to think that Emma will be eight years older than Lynsee's babe. That's how far apart Lyns and I are. I was confirmed (back when they did that part in Sacrament Meeting the next day) the same day Lynsee was blessed. I don't know why that seems significant to me, but I get emotional when I think about things like that. Last week in YW, the lesson was on Family and it's hard for me to keep it together when I talk about my family. My sisters, my parents, my kids, my hubby. How lucky we are to have each other for eternity.

Anyway, thought you might want to share in my moment of cheer. I seem to get way freakin' cheesey these days on my blog. No more o' that. :)

I'm just not that into you

As you may know, I am not what some might call an "avid reader." In fact, with the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, I broke many personal records including: reading a book from cover to cover in less than a years time, finishing a book with more than 300 pages, reading a book before the movie came out, and so on. While I will openly admit, Stephenie Meyer is not the greatest writer (probably not even to be considered a great writer), I have had fun with her Twilight series. Especially books I and III. And, I loved the movie. And, in case you were wondering, I am an Edward fan. However, I have less than 200 pages left in Breaking Dawn and I will be honest - I'm just not that into it. Feeling a little disappointed. So, I'm looking for a reason to finish. I have a list of books that I want to move on to, but I don't feel like I can leave this one without finishing. I started Breaking Dawn in January and have read more than 500 pages, but man it's been a slow go. Help me. Motivate me. Dazzle me. Tell me it's worth it.

Go Grizzlies!

Apparently there are not a lot of Grizzly fans out there. Or maybe everyone was just really busy last Tuesday. I'm not sure. But, we went to an exciting game against Bakersfield. The Grizzlies won 5 to 2. We tried to warn our kids of the "different" crowd at hockey games, but you can't really prepare them for it.

Jer has a friend at work that has a connection with the Zamboni driver and had arranged for Josh to ride on it between the second and third periods (the real reason we went to a hockey game). Since hockey is so popular at the E Center these days, we got there about 3 minutes before the game started and bought our tickets at the ticket booth... row ten. We were sitting just behind the teams. That was exciting!


We started out with nachos and drinks and sitting back to enjoy the game. It didn't last long - nachos were not the focus once the players started throwing gloves on the ice and going at each other. Suddenly we were at an MMA match. Okay, not really. Fighting at hockey games is completely legal until one player pulls the other players shirt over his head. The girls weren't sure how to feel about the whole thing as the arena filled with adrenaline and testosterone. But, Josh was pretty pumped. The rest of the night he spent hoping for another fight. They all thought the penalty boxes were a cool concept - grown men (I think) sitting in time out for fighting.

I was worried about Josh getting over to the Zamboni and deciding it wasn't his thing, but he loved every second he was out there! The Grizzly Bear started quite the snowball fight with Josh. Josh wasn't feeling like it was a fair fight considering he was buckled in to a seat that was 12 feet above the ice. But it was entertaining none the less.

Emma caught a Rockstar hat and suddenly she became a rockstar. It was hilarious. They were throwing out all kinds of Rockstar paraphernalia and playing Pink all night. It put her in quite a mood. I love watching the kids personalities bloom when we do things together as a family. She reminds me so much of myself when I was little - crying one minute and giggling the next. Love her!

Erin couldn't concentrate on anything but the Grizzly Bear. When we scored the last goal of the game, he came running down the stairs next to our seats and was jumping around with his bag of popcorn going everywhere. She thought that was the funniest thing. And, when they were playing YMCA and showing the dancing crowd on the big screen - Erin was the first person they showed. She is such a show off.