Emmaline's Frist!

Thursday, December 1, 2017

For Emmaline's first birthday, we had a rainbow themed dinner party for her. In preparation, I had decorated a birthday banner with the boys. The boys drew a lot of interesting and silly things around the sides and helped me color the rainbow a bit. They’re very creative little helpers! I also made six different kinds of pancake syrup. Red: strawberry. Orange: orange. Yellow: lemon. Green: butterscotch colored green. Blue: blueberry. Purple: grape. I also baked her a round cake and colored the batter in six parts so that the cake changed color in rainbow order.

The morning of her birthday, I hung up her banner and some streamers. I hung the streamers in dipping curves above the kitchen entry way in rainbow color order. I also blew up some balloons and put them in the living room, for the boys and Emmaline to play with when they got up.

When Emmaline did wake up, I took a few pictures of her in her crib as the boys and I said good morning and wish her a happy birthday. She was very smiley and sweet. She can be so silly first thing in the morning. She loves to see her mommy come to get her.

Throughout the day, I held her a lot and paid her special attention. But, I also decorated her cake, cleaned house, and made a breakfast casserole. For her cake I made white, whipped frosting. I decorated the top with colorful fruit and piped frosting around the side of the top. I had also made a small “smash” cake for Emmaline, which I also topped with frosting and fruit

Around three, the kids and I all got in the car and I went to pick up my mom from the airport. We had a nice drive and the kids got a chance to nap a little.

After getting home, I showed Mom to her room and then threw the casserole in the oven and started making lots of waffles. Mom really wanted a tour of the whole house, so I told Jared he could do it since I was busy, and from what I could hear of it, it sounded like he did a pretty good job. Emmaline was really shy of Grandma Mary and cried when I let her hold her. But, it was something to get used to, and by the end of the visit she did and didn’t cry any more about Grandma.

Ryan was able to get a ride home from work and got home around five or so. We had dinner guest arrive at about six, we were all ready for our breakfast-birthday-dinner. For dinner guests we had  Julie (who is a baby girl about Emmaline’s age) and her parents, and our friends from church, the Shertliff’s. It turned out to be good company and we had a good time.

Emmaline wasn’t too interested in her dinner, but ate some fruit and some waffle. Everyone seemed to enjoy getting to try different flavors of syrup. Sarah, Julie's mom, made an actual rainbow on hers. I guess it was fun to feel like kids again for a baby birthday.

When we sang to Emmaline and she had her candle to blow out, I tried to let Bro. Shertliff hold her (since it was his birthday too) and blow out the candle with her; Emmaline fussed, but once the cake was in sight she was distracted by it and okay with him holding her. While we were singing she reached out and tried to touch the fire on the candle. Daddy and Mitch stopped her in time. (I told Mom/Grandma Mary later that it was probably because I had let her play with my flickering fake candle the past few days.) When she didn’t know how to blow out her candle, Daddy helped her to wave at it hard enough that it went out. =)

After she blew… waved it out, I sat her in her booster-seat and let her have her smash cake to do what she wanted with. She was pretty content with just looking at it, then dipping one finger again and again in the frosting, sucking the frosting from her finger. Big brother wanted to help, so Jared came over and stuck her whole hand in it. Emmaline was so cute. We enjoyed watching her for a while and let her enjoy herself, because she was pretty happy to have her own big (to her) cake. But, after a while I took her up to the bath.

When the house was quiet and guests were gone, we had Emmaline do her destiny crawl. The conclusion was that was going to do art and/or music, with some engineering/science as well. She also made a phone call on the calculator while she was at it.

After that, I went to take Emmaline up to bad, after all it was 9:30 or so. But, I quickly pulled her back out of bed, realizing she hadn’t even gotten to open her presents yet. So, I took her down to the basement, to Mom’s guest room (where I usually keep/hide presents) and we all sat on the bed while Emmaline opened her presents. The boys were a big help, because, while she did try, she wasn’t quite strong and capable enough to open her presents herself, and once one was open she just wanted to play with a toy instead of try opening any more.

Emmaline wearing her baby-hat form Grandma Mary.

It was very late by the time we were done having fun with her and her gifts, but when I did put her back in her crib, she was very tired and slept well and happy, holding her new puppy from Grandma. =)

Thanksgiving in Evansville

November 22-26, 2016

This was one of the most interesting Thanksgiving holiday's I think we've ever had as a family. There was Harry Potter food one night, then Star Wars another, then of course a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. We also had an air-hockey tournament, a 5k, and some other little board-games and games going on.

 There was also plenty of down time for watching movies, playing x box games, cuddling, and teasing.

Mandrake Root like in Harry Potter.

 

 Almost all of us were there, on Thanksgiving morning, to run the 5k. Ryan stayed back at the house to be baby-sitter for the little ones. In all my practicing over the summer, I hadn't been able to run a 5k under 30 minutes. On Thanksgiving day I was very proud of myself to be able to come in at 28 minutes.

Jared and Ryan waiting patiently for food.

 

 The Thanksgiving day spread was delicious! There was such an amazing variety of homemade food! We all ate together at a long double-table in their basement room that looked like a lodge.

Jared and Karl having an air-hockey game.

 I think we all had a fun time with the air hockey tournament. Everyone participated, expect for the youngest two. Some of us were more competitive and others of us just did it for fun. Ryan and I ended up playing the final game, where I beat Ryan in the very last second at 4 to 3.

 Yay!! Pies!! I was especially excited about the pies this year. I was hoping to make two, and one of them was going to be an apple-cranberry crumb pie (one of my favorite for this time of year). But when I found out that that's what Becky was planning on making, that allowed me to pick another pie. So, I made Sticky-Toffee Pumpkin Pecan Pie and Banana Cream Pie (Ryan's favorite). They were all delicious!!

TIE fighters from Star Wars.

 Becky spent a lot of time in the kitchen, while we were there, doing what she enjoys, being creative with food. We're so grateful for all the work she did to make the visit special for us!

Emmaline enjoying a red light-saber (chocolate covered pretzel).

Karl falling asleep watching cartoons with Olivia.

Alfie in one of his comfie spots.

We're so grateful for all our family, those we got to spend time with and those who were far away. We're so grateful to have gotten to go down to Evansville and create such fun memories with our loved ones. :-)

Pioneer Girls

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Last year, our Holland Ward Relief Society had a goal to read all of Daughters in My Kingdom. I hadn't read the whole thing yet, so I decided this was a good opportunity. We read one chapter each month, so it was an easy pace. In November we had a RS Saturday brunch to talk about the book and have a special message.

We were told we could dress up as a pioneer or a woman who we admire or is a role model to us. I was given a pattern for bonnets, during the year, for babies and women. So I figured I'd try out making one for Emmaline and I each, so we could go as matching pioneer girls. I also planned of this kind of being a fun last RS activity for Emmaline and I to go to together, now that she was getting old enough to not really need to come with me to every RS meeting.

I just used some clothe we already had and that I thought would go with some clothes we had. When we were getting dress and everything, Karl at one time said I looked like a "princess" and at another an "angel." I thought that was really sweet of him. Ryan told me we looked like we were wearing big blue marshmallows. ;-) Haha! Thanks!!

We had a fun time eating and hearing the sisters testimonies of RS and sisterhood. Everyone liked our little matching bonnets, and Emmaline, surprisingly, wanted to keep hers on the whole time. After filling up on food and treats and the adoration of all the women, Emmaline was content to fall asleep on the way home.

Princess, Guards, & Subjects

October 28-31, 2016

Our family has a tradition every year to have coordinating family costumes. We struggled, more than usual, to come up with just the right idea this time. This was Emmaline's first Halloween, so I wanted her to have a decent costume. The boys wanted to be, in the end, minecraft guys wearing armor, or more specifically, as Jared put it, Jared as a warrior and Karl as a guard.

Emmaline and her little church friend, Julie.

What we finally decided was that Emmaline would be a Snow Princess and Jared and Karl would be her white guards (or guard and warrior), and Ryan and I would be her subjects (so we wouldn't have to dress up;)). I sewed Emmaline a little cloak and skirt, and bought her some dollar store jewelry. Ryan cut the boys some cardboard armor, which I then painted white. They also wore their minecraft helmets Ryan had made them a while back.

We went to our ward's carnival night, the Friday before Halloween. This ward does only carnival games, and no dinner or trunk-or-treat.We found it to work out really well in our situation with kids who typically don't care about sitting down to eat when they are in a fun place, and who are already getting a lot of candy from the games. So, we basically went around, for the hour we were there, playing games and replaying games. The boys loved it.

Emmaline was given a sucker very soon after we arrived, and she played with it 'til she was able to wear a hole in it and ended up eating the sucker. I think that's the first time she had candy. She was very content to lay in the stroller the whole time and watch the other kids while eating her sucker.

For the most part, I took Karl around to the games, and Ryan took Jared. Karl loved the dart shooting game and all the throwing games. He tried a matching game and didn't really get the concept, but got a treat for trying. Jared liked the pie eating contest. He did it once with Ryan and some others, and then again by himself.

On Halloween night, Emmaline and I stayed home. Emmaline played the keyboard for a bit with Alfie leashed close by. Ryan took the boys around the block. Their cardboard costumes ended up making it a little tricky for going up porch steps. But, with Daddy's help they managed. They each came home with a good stash of candy. Emmaline and I were able to give out a pretty good amount too, and it was interesting to see the different kids in our neighborhood.

Minnie and Vampire Mickey.

Karl trying on the crown.

Halloween Night.

I think the boys ended up having a lot of fun with their costumes this year, and it was a pretty fun first Halloween for our little girl!