Big Steps!

This weekend Lauren traded these......
for this!

We talked about it all week and on Friday she went to Toys R Us and traded her binkies for a new shopping cart. She actually gave her binkies to the lady at the cash register, it was so cute. She loves anything she can push around and collect all her stuff, so the shopping cart was the perfect toy. So far she's done pretty well without her binkies, we're keeping our fingers crossed. The only sad thing is that now with no binkies it really feels like she's growing up so fast. Such a big girl!

All About the Ladybugs!

Emily's birthday party this year was a ladybug themed party. Lately she'd been really into finding ladybugs so we decided it would be fun! We had a great time. We started with a little game of Bean Bug Toss, moved to a game of Pin the Dot on the Ladybug and finished with the Ladybug Crawl race. For their efforts in the games, each of Emily's friends got a terrarium, tweezers and a net for our final event. Jason released real ladybugs and let the kids catch them. It was so cute, the kids were so excited. We ended the party with some "dirt" cake (freaked out a few kids, never really thought of that!) Thanks to all our wonderful friends who helped make Emily's day so super special!

Bean Bug Toss

Results of the Pin the Dot

Lauren with her great Ladybug form

Emily and friend geared up for the releasing of the ladybugs

Our cute birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Daddy & Emily!

4 years ago Wednesday, Jason's birthday changed forever. Never again would he be the only special person on May 13th. In fact, for the most part I think he gets a little overshadowed (allow I really do try to make it special for him.) But for what it's worth, he'll take it. He and Emily will always have a special little bond that nobody else can claim. Wednesday we celebrated them and how special they are in our family. We spent the day at Disneyland, where they were wished Happy Birthday constantly. I think Emily told every employee in the park that is was her special day. She is pretty proud to be 4. We followed Disneyland with a fun dinner, ice cream and presents. Although it's crazy to have two birthdays on one day, I also think it's pretty special. (Forgive Lauren in this shot, she had just woken up!)

What can I say about Jason? Except he's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing at just about everything he does. He's an amazing father and husband. I truly feel blessed to have him in my life every day. The girls ADORE him. They attack him each and every day when he walks through the door from work and hardly let him rest but he's a great sport and devotes all the time he can to them. He's patient, loving, constant, humorous, super fun, amazingly spiritual and a wonderful provider for our home. We love him.

And then there's this girl. What a fun kid! She has the biggest personality and an even bigger heart. She is a wonderful friend, sister and little girl. Although she's only 4, she is a mother in the making. In fact, I'm sure sometimes Jason feels like he has 3 mothers. She loves taking care of people, being in charge and making the rules. Fortunately for the most part, Lauren complys with those rules. She is the best big sister. She is so good to Lauren, is a great example and very protective. We couldn't ask for a better oldest child. Just like her mom, Emily has a tender heart and is brought to tears easily in an emotional situation. On more than one occasion she has been brought to tears during a touching scene of a movie, generally anything that involves a lonely child ( Fox & the Hound, Stuart Little, American Tail & the list goes on.) It is super sweet. Most of all, I love how much Emily loves life. EVERYTHING is exciting and wonderful to her. The seemingly most mundance activities or events put the biggest smile on her face. I hope she never loses that excitement for life. We Love our Big 4 Year old!

Mother's Day at PreSchool!

Today at Emily's preschool, all of the moms were invited for a special Mother's Day brunch. The kids had practiced a little program of songs and made several gifts for the moms. It was too cute. I mostly just loved home excited Emily was to be able to finally show me everything she had been working on. Emily has the cutest preschool teachers, they always do the most fun projects with the kids. They had a cute little brunch and had the room all decorated. It's crazy to think that this is just the beginning of all of the school projects and programs, but I'm excited too see Emily growing up so much.

Emily and some of her friends. She's apparently real excited!

Crafternoon Finished...Finally!

Ok, so Jen and I had a crafternoon a few weeks ago to make these cute wall hangings. If you visit Jen's blog, you'll see that see finished, I don't know, 2 1/2 weeks ago. As for me, I finally did it. I got them done yesterday. Jason had to go to a Dodger's Game for work (rough life), so I had the night to finish my projects. With these projects finished the girls room is nearly complete. It's been fun to have a room to decorate and even more fun to be almost done.
Letters E & L, in case you can't tell.

This cute little board provides a storage place for our crazy big stash of hair bows.