Emma is 9!

Emma is now nine years old!  The happy day came in early April and we had a great time celebrating.  She wanted a friend party this year.  We decided on an American Girl doll themed party and it was a lot of fun to plan.  Many friends came and it was a success!  Here she is on her actual birthday opening gifts.
 

We did a fashion show with their dolls.  The girls chose outfits to dress their dolls in and then they each took a turn walking the runway, complete with music and a spotlight.  :)
 
The whole crew!


 

 I made regular sized cupcakes for the girls and mini-sized cupcakes for their dolls.  So cute!

 

Being silly!


 


We had a family dinner the following Sunday and Emma requested red beans and rice, cornbread, a veggie tray, and fruit salad.  Yum!  This is her birthday cheesecake.  It was delicious!
  

We are entering the 'tween' years with this little girl and I can't believe it!  She still has her stubborn, strong-willed streak, but is also very sweet and funny.  We love her so much!

 

More Family Visits

My sister and my dad came out for General Conference weekend in early April. I haven't seen Alexandra in a year! We went out and played during the priesthood session, eating at Cafe Rio and getting frozen yogurt with the kids. Then on Sunday night, we had more family over for a big chili dinner. It was SO MUCH FUN. There was a lot of baseball-playing, Tinkertoy-building, hair-braiding, and laughing. Good times!

Easter

Max's first egg hunt! The weather was absolutely beautiful on Easter weekend, which made the egg hunt so enjoyable! He learned the words
 "candy," "jelly bean," and "chocolate." :)

 
Luke, our sweet tooth, ate all of his loot in record time.
 


Dyeing eggs on Easter morning. I loved doing this when I was a kid. 
 

Easter morning!

 A big creepy Easter bunny. So we were eating dinner over at my in-laws' house. I look out the window and see a giant bunny just wandering around outside (my in-laws have a big commons area behind their house) holding this big fake carrot. It kinda scared me for a minute! And then I called for the kids to go outside and meet the Easter bunny! Even shy Max was brave enough to greet the bunny and give him a little love. Such a funny, unexpected event on Easter Sunday. The kids were pretty thrilled!
Our Easter weekend was not as lovely as it usually is. We started refinishing our kitchen cabinets (pictures to come!) that weekend, which turned out to be a very difficult and exhausting job (but worth it, I suppose). Also, I caught a terrible cold and Ben was completely wiped out on Easter Sunday from doing the cabinets. But we still tried to do all of our traditions and I even managed to complete my goal of doing a mini-devotional each day the week leading up to Easter. It really made a difference and helped our kids learn more about Christ's life and gain a greater appreciation for this most sacred and special time of year. Hope all of you had a great Easter too!

Changes for Max

Max has had some changes in his life lately. First of all, he had his first haircut! At 21 months, we figured it was time and he was quite shaggy. The "before" picture.

Crazy hair getting prepped.

Snipping away. Looking good!

After. His new haircut shows off how handsome he is!

We rushed home to show daddy the new 'do and had to get a picture too! Love that cheesy grin of his.

Max also got glasses recently. His right eye turns in occasionally and the doctors were concerned it would become permanent. We are attempting to correct it with glasses. We are not sure if it will work, but we are hopeful. He looks so cute in them, and he hasn't even given me any trouble about keeping them on! THANK GOODNESS. I was pretty worried about that. This pictures shows how his right eye turns in a bit when looking at you. He looks a bit cross-eyed.
What a cute boy!

March

Whew! That was a blogging break. Let's play catch-up a bit. My parents came out at the beginning of March for my cousin's wedding and it was a lovely weekend. We got to see them a lot and do many fun things together. Chuck E. Cheese was one of them! The kids loved all of the rides and my mom and I always go for the skeeball.

At the wedding reception with my mom.

The two Rachels. My cousin was such a beautiful bride!

My brother DJed the reception and always does such a good job. Luke LOVED listening to the music through Cameron's headphones. He was so cute with those things on!

Oh, how we love Anna!

Earlier during the reception Rachel asked Cameron if he would dance with her when it was time for dancing. She was so thrilled when he said yes! Look at that grin!

Sunday dinner with my family. Cameron and Anna were kind enough to host and let us fill their little apartment with lots of noise. :) This was the last night we got to see them before they flew home and there were lots of sad goodbyes.

Don't you love my dad's whiskers?

18 Months

Max turned 18 months shortly before Christmas and I wanted to blog about our sweet Max at 18 months. Here are a few pictures of him at this age. Max loves this outside push toy. The last time he got to use it was late November! Sigh. May spring be here ever so quickly!!!

Christmas morning with daddy

A few things about Max at 18 months: 

• LOVES to be outside.  This harsh winter is killing us!
• He points out the moon and even some stars whenever we are out in the evenings.
• He can make all of the animal sounds.
• He is constantly tripping, falling down, bumping his head, etc. but he is so tough.  He mostly just gets back up again, with nary a whimper.
• He is the first of our toddlers to not being shouting "NO" at 18 months.  He never says no, unless one of the kids asks him to (which I profusely discourage....).  :)  We are certainly enjoying this short-lived stage.
• Even though he doesn't yet say no, he is starting to not want to share sometimes and gets bugged when other kids try to use the same toys or get in his way.
• He doesn't like ANY vegetables, sadly, unless they are in soup.  But he does happily slurp up spinach smoothies.
• He doesn't like any form of pasta either.  Isn't this weird for a toddler??!!  
• Loves to cuddle and wrestle with his dad.  He gets right in the fray with his big siblings when it's daddy time.
• Sucks his thumb quite a bit.  Whenever he is bored, tired, hungry, or riding in the car.  Which basically means I am trying to get him NOT to suck his thumb all day long.  :)  
• Can stack a tall tower of blocks all on his own and is mastering his shape sorter.
• Loves peek-a-boo and hiding games.  He especially loves to play these with his sisters.
• Likes to lift up people's shirts and blow raspberries (we call them "zerbets") on tummies.  This is pretty darn hilarious to watch!
• Knows all of his body parts.
• Has a vocabulary of about 30 words and likes to try saying new words.  My personal favorite is "Costco."
• Really starting to love books and brings them to me while backing up into my lap to read.  Love that.
• Can blow bubbles in the bathtub already!!!  I can't believe he can do it.  Maybe he'll learn to swim super early.
• Loves to get into my makeup (especially my eyeliner) and markers and tries to draw all over everything.  It's lovely.
• He can  drag a kitchen chair over to the counter to "help" me when I cook. 

He is a super sweet baby.  He really is.  He is so tender and loving and gives the best Eskimo kisses.  We love him so much!

Christmas 2012

Grandpa invited us to go to the Festival of Trees in early December. Ben wasn't up to going and so I took the crew on my own and met Grandpa up there. It was very crowded and loud, but very fun. We liked the yummy scones and entertainment and were in awe of all of the many creatively and beautifully decorated trees.

We have to make gingerbread cookies every December! I love them just plain, right out of the oven. So yummy.

Visiting Santa at our ward Christmas party. I think Emma was off at the amazing hot cocoa table when we took this picture. Max was starting to lose it here, but he did sit on his lap without crying for about 30 seconds. I was proud of him!

Grandma Bergin hosted a cookie-decorating party and we all had a good time.

Christmas morning! Rachel's big gift--a cupcake baking set for her American Girl doll!! It is super cute.

Luke's big gift--a Handy Manny crane set. He loves it!

Max sporting his new Superman shirt, courtesy of Granby and Papa. Luke has one as well and they love to match.

Emma's requested Orbeez. I think they are way over-rated, personally, but she was so happy that she actually got some.  Notice the Wii behind her.  Santa got us a Wii!!!  We have had a lot of fun learning to use it.  We especially love the Just Dance for Kids game.  It is a workout!

We invited Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Susie over for Christmas dinner. We made a big turkey dinner and Grandma brought delicious pumpkin pie. It was so fun to relax together and celebrate Christmas at our house.

The kids loved showing off all of their cool new gifts to everyone. Oh, Christmas is so fun with kids!

It was a wonderful Christmas and we enjoyed the season so much. I have to say, though, that it feels great to get back to normal!