Weekend Before Ems Bday

So even though my camera is at the Nikon repair store, I still had some photos from the weekend before Emily's birthday...Mo and the boys came out to spend the weekend and help out with setting up. This is how we keep everyone quiet until they are all up...notice the two year old doesn't look up from the screen.

While we set up and cleaned for the party, the kids were great! They colored and read and hung out together.

Emmy has a love-hate relationship with the "back-ee"...anything that makes loud noises tends to scare her still but she is finally accepting the common sounds and this is her so proud of herself for touching the vacuum. :)

The kids are in to "fixing" us, whether with tools or the doctor's kit, they think it is very funny.

These two love to read and do it a lot together...the other two are really only interested when someone else is reading to them. :)

I can't tell you how helpful it was to have my sister-in-law here for the weekend. She was an amazing help and so calm all the time! She helped me clean, make the cake, keep the kids entertained while we tried to do all that, plan games and decorate...what a studmuffin!! Thank you so much!!

Like I said, there is a lot of wrestling when the boys are here. The thing is that Y is almost as big as I am so it is an incredible amount of work to wrestle with him! I did my best but I am used to two little twenty pound girls. I can throw them with my pinky finger.

Speaking of weight, Emily had her two year check and even though this is her actual two year check (not her adjusted check which will be at the end of February) and she is already on the charts in both weight and height, she is barely behind her sister. She has made it to the fifth percentile and her sister was only in the tenth percentile at this age. I just keep wondering why no one thought to tell me that K was too light and too small!?!

Oh yeah and can't forget A...found these musical instruments at a garage sale and these two think they are great! They fight over the drum so we take turns but they always end up walking around the house like a marching band. So funny!

Well, all else is healthy on Emily. She has survived her ear infections and seems fine everywhere else. K is also doing well and even though she can't get the flu shot (egg in it), Em took the bullet for her and we shall see how this season goes!  God has been miraculous thus far this season since both M and I have gotten colds and so have several of their friends, but so far, the girls have had only allergies.  God is GOOD!

God Bless!!!

Emmy Turns 2!!!!

Ahhhhhh!! Yes, I have two two-year-olds!!!  Pray for me!  :-)

Emily Grace has made it through two full years on this planet and boy have they been crazy years!! Our little goofball...

...is turning into a beautiful little girl!!

We tried again for a family photo...some day Emily will look up for pictures.  :-)

This is actually Mommy's favorite one.

"Auntie MoMo" took most of these pics and went for the artsy shot of the cake and us.  Yes, that is a ball (Em is into balls, cars, dogs and her bike)...it got dropped and grabbed several times before the party, so it wasn't quite round by the time we took pictures. The funny thing is that I'm in love with the idea that it didn't matter to me.  Why?  It showed me how far I've come with learning to "roll with life".  Most of the time, in life, we can't control what happens, but we sure can control how we look at it.

Think about it...when you sit around and talk about what went wrong at your wedding, the people whose wedding went off perfectly don't get to share...meanwhile, I get to tell about how our photographer missed his flight and Auntie Margarethe had to step in last minute, with horrible lighting and a now crabby B!  It's funny now and makes for a great memory.  All I'm saying is that I no longer need years to look at those bumps and see past the imperfections, I look at those bumps - now - and see a memory of Emmy jamming her fingers into the ball.  She couldn't keep her hands off it and those divots are tiny little finger holes from my little baby girl...what a great memory...a perfect ball wouldn't have that.

Hanging out before the party with Nana and Poppy...

And lots and lots of wrestling!!  The nephews came to stay for the whole weekend and I think we spent the entire time wrestling.  It is so good for K to be around these guys...they are gentle and rough-house all at the same time.

A couple serious conversations...

And more wrestling...

Y even lets K "tackle" him and she thinks it is sooooo funny!

Once the rest of the guests started to arrive, the play turned traditional and all the girls got dressed up...only K didn't get her dress tucked all the way in and I got a kick out of her "tail".

We then played some "pin the butterfly on the flower", which, oddly enough, was a big hit.  The kids loved it...probably just cause they got to stick stickers on the wall, but who knows.

Emmy thought the idea was to stick the sticker on the other stickers...oh well, she tried.  :)

Then we went for a pinata.  We had to head out into the garage since it was raining.  It is not my favorite thing in the world that my kids were born in the winter...

The girls did not get the idea of hitting the pinata - at all - so this is K helping A try to hit it...

It took the boys getting up there to take a real swing at it before they caught on.

Some of the kids wearing their sunglasses...

You aren't going to believe this but after this picture, I stepped on the strap of my camera, ripping it out of my hand and it smashed on the garage floor.  It is totally busted and has been sent in to Nikon for repair.  :(  Good thing Auntie MoMo had her camera too so it wasn't the end of the world, but now I am camera-less and feel very weird about it.

Then we went in for cake...

Emmy devoured her cake.  I am not kidding.  She sat down and just kept eating and eating.  I normally can't get her to eat anything sweet, but not on this day.

She even picked the whole piece up and tried the shovel method!

J asked for the ball and when I gave it to him he was very surprised and very happy, so he took a big bite.

We played in the bounce house for a while...

Then we opened presents...

And hung out a little longer...A was 'hitting' me with the toy and I was pretending it hurt.

The new puppy was a big hit...especially with this cutie pie!...our nephew.

Dr Em takes a listen to her cousin...

Daddy was able to get half the day off to be there for his little girl.

Oh, we had coloring tables and the like too...I just like this one because it shows perfectly how Em holds her crayon. When I try to fix her hold, she just switches to two fingers, can't make it work, throws the crayon and walks away.  We will get there!

We sent everyone home in the hail storm that rolled in.  It was a good time had by all!

Emmy is doing well and growing slowly (oddly enough, she might be as big as her sister by her adjusted two year age).  She is developing at a much slower rate than most children but she continues to move forward and that is really what we want to see at this point.  Right now, we are seeing progress in her developmental gains, particularly her language, and these times are always encouraging to M and I.  We pray God will continue to heal her and bring her to the perfection He designed for her before the world began.  I hope you have a wonderful day!  God Bless!!