Eight is Great

Emma celebrated a big birthday this weekend.  Number 8!!!  At our house 8 years old is exciting for two reasons.  The first being that she has reached the age that she can choose to be baptized.  She is so excited and neither Allan or I can believe that our first baby is now old enough to take that step.  On Saturday as part of her birthday gift the two of us went shopping all by ourselves to find her a dress for her baptism.  She looked so pretty beaming in the mirror after she found "the one".  The second, though less important, exciting thing is that she got to get her ears pierced.  I think I was as excited as she was as she picked out her earrings, pretty little flowers in the color of her birthstone, and waited nervously in the chair for them to load the "guns" that would shoot the little studs through her ear.  She was very brave and barely flinched.

Then she spent the rest of the weekend checking herself out in the mirror every chance she got.

  

We had her family party where she was spoiled rotten as usual and then right as the night was coming to a close and she was ready for bed, she puked her little guts out from too much excitement and too much candy on her birthday sundae.  Luckily it wasn't the beginning of the stomach flu and she was able to sleep through the night without another incident.

We covered her door with a heart attack just like we do for every birthday at our house.  We fill each heart with words that tell her how much we love her and how special we think she is.  My favorite heart this year was Lillian's.  This is what she asked me to write on her heart for Emma..."Dear Emma, I love you.  I did like you when you're pretty.  And you are my best big sister.  I will say that you are pretty.  Dear Emma, I hope you have a good day.  You will see that I am seeing that you are great and pretty.  Love, Lillian"

So, to add to Lillian's list, here are my 8 favorite things about Emma.

1. Her beautiful smile

2. Her infectious laugh

3. Her artistic abilities

4. Her pretty songbird voice

5. Her determination, which also has the tendency to drive me batty at times

6. The way she nurtures her younger siblings, especially Violet, she is so good with her.

7. Her imagination and creativity.  She is such a good writer.  Author is on her wish list for a future profession

8. Her sweet and gentle spirit.  She has such a concern for everyone around her and always wants to do what's right.

Happy Birthday!  We love you sweet girl!

Walking with Dinosaurs

We had such a memorable outing with the kids this weekend as we took them to Walking With Dinosaurs, a live show with life size mechanical dinosaurs.   What made it even more fun is that we got to go with the kids' cousins Ava, Kendall, Jimmer and Carter and Uncle Shane and Aunt Susan, of course. I was so impressed with how life-like the dinosaurs were and the kids were completely captivated throughout the whole thing.  All of the kids, that is, except for Lillian who fell asleep within the first 15 minutes.  Allan was pretty certain that it was a fear induced sleep as she was very anxious about the meat eaters and their love of dino babies right out of the egg.  Luckily she woke up for the second half and, safe in Daddy's lap, got to see the T-Rex and her baby.

These pictures (that I didn't take) give you an idea of what the dinosaurs looked like.  It was very neat to have the "archaeologist" wandering on stage with the dinosaurs because it gave you an idea of the size of the dinosaurs in comparison.

As excited as the kids were about the dinosaur show I think that they were equally excited about the way that we got there... by train!!  The LRT (Light Rail Transit) to be exact.  Allan just told me what that stands for.  They could not have been more thrilled!  I was so glad that Allan talked me into taking them on it despite my much protesting about crowds and time and babies and pretty much any other excuse I could think of.

Watching for the train

Waiting for Dads to get the tickets

Here we go!!

I love the way that Walker is holding on for dear life.  He's such a good sport to put up with being the only big boy among this bunch of girls.

There's nothing we love more than outings like this with the kids, especially if cousins come along!

And because Violet was pretty absent from these pictures, here's one of her.

CUTEST THING EVER!!