4 Years Old

I really don't know where the time has gone...how can she be 4 already?  Our little lady is full of spunk and personality.  She has an incredibly sweet, thoughtful, and giving side, but is usually more comfortable being the center of attention and running the show.  Emmie loves music and has an incredible knack for memorizing song lyrics and actually singing fairly on-key for a 4 year old.  She has endless amounts of energy and doesn't stop moving until she goes to bed each night.  We love every moment (and every challenge) of being her parents.  We are so blessed.

Emerson usually has about a month-long birthday celebration because we celebrate with the family we are with at Thanksgiving and then at Christmas and everyone we see in between!  She is a lucky girl!  This year, after her breakfast of choice (french toast sticks dipped in syrup), we went to church, and then surprised her with lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's after that.  She was so excited and we had a wonderful day together celebrating her and the joy she is!

Emmie and Chuck E.

She got a Xia Xia crab for her birthday from us and she was so excited!  She loves sea creatures (wonder where she picked that up?)

 Nana came to visit a few weekends before her birthday and made her a special Barbie cake (oh the excitement!)  Emmie got to help bake and decorate and she loved every minute of her special Nana time :-)

When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, she said the "ice cream kind with the cookies on it".  She had a Coldstone cake for her 2nd birthday and apparently she remembered it so we got another!

Thanksgiving Surprise!

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lisa came home for a visit this month and we got to have dinner with them over Thanksgiving weekend!  It was such a blessing to get to see them.  We are so thankful for all of our amazing family.

Thanksgiving 2011

 We went to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving this year to visit Aunt Lyn, Uncle Doug, Michael, and Rachael.  Jeff, Lesley, Noah, and Koen celebrated the holiday with us too!  We had a wonderful time, delicious food, and lots of laughs!

The kids got to open their Christmas presents from the Owsiaks on Thanksgiving!

Emmie loved hanging out with Rachael (and her friends)

On Friday, we took advantage of the mild fall weather and the whole gang went to the zoo in Milwaukee (with the exception of Michael who had to work).  The kids had a blast seeing the animals and playing outside there (and we walked off some of the calories we consumed the day before!)

There were peacocks roaming all around the zoo

The elephants were so close!  It really felt like they could have stretched out their trunks and touched us!

Rachael and Emerson

Emerson and Noah

Come on, Koen!

After the zoo, we went home for a rest and then went bowling and had pizza!  It was a great day :-)

Uncle Doug did a lot of building over the weekend :-)  He's such a good sport!

For Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lisa...it works now :-)

Happy Halloween!

 Emerson was Rapunzel for Halloween this year!  She went back and forth between a princess or a mermaid many times, but on the day we went to buy the costume, Princess Rapunzel was the winner.  We didn't find a wig to match, but she found this lovely headband when we were at the dollar store getting some school supplies one day...doesn't it look beautiful? :-)  We went trick or treating down our street with our neighbors, but Emmie actually had more fun passing out candy at our house.  She stood by the door waiting and calling out "HI!" to anyone within earshot.  She got so excited when she saw someone walking up the driveway, she frantically counted how many kids and got the right number of treats ready for them.  It was adorable.

So excited for trick or treating!

Waiting for trick or treaters

Pumpkins!

Emerson got a big pumpkin from Grandma Liz and Grandpa Bob's garden (they are her babysitters)  She cleaned the outside, helped me scoop it out and bake the seeds, then Daddy carved the design that he and Emmie chose.  Once we put it outside on our porch, a hungry squirrel came along and ate most of the front the next day :-(  So we decided to paint the smaller pumpkins after that!

More Summer Fun

Emerson snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa Ross

 Emerson had lots of fun on her trampoline this summer!

2nd haircut ever!

She saw another girl at Snip-Its getting braids and she had to have them too :-) 

She slept in the braids and loved her wavy hair in the morning ("I look like Kenzie!")

Summer Fun

This summer, Jayce spent a day a week at our house.  Emerson loves him and he is kind enough to play with her :-)  Here are some pictures of one of their fun-filled afternoons together

Water balloon fight!

Sprinkler + tampoline=fun :-)

Emerson was a proud supporter of her daddy's washers team for Russellmania 2011.  Unfortunately the "Mustache Manglers" who were last year's washers champions came in last in this year's tournament :-(  We all had fun anyway!

Russellmania featured a giant blow-up water slide

When Emerson got to the top, she wasn't really sure about it but this new friend convinced her it would be fun

I love this face on the way down!

Finally getting tired after a long day of playing, sliding, bouncing, and running...

time to relax and listen to some music.  Emerson and her new friends became groupies for the band :-)

U.P. Summer Vacation (Part 2)

Well, once again, I'm attempting to catch up on the blog...sorry for the delay!  Here are some more pics from our U.P. summer vacation in August :-)

We spent a day exploring around Copper Harbor.  Here's Emerson on the top of Brockway Mountain

Family photo on top of the mountain...we should have thought to ask the kind stranger who took this picture to to on the other side of us so you could see the view behind us, not the gift shop :-( 

While we were staying with her, Nana completed a 1000 piece puzzle (with Emmie's "help")

Grandma Glo had Jeff, Lesley, Noah, Koen, and our family over for a delicious dinner one night

Emerson was a big fan of "Chutes and Ladders" in Houghton.  This picture doesn't do it justice, it's massive and she had so much fun there with Noah and Koen!

Love this action shot of her and Noah coming out of the slide!

We got to go out for dinner with Grandma Lowney while we were there too!  

We spent a very windy day wandering around McLain State Park.  The waves were huge and the water was freezing, but the rocks, driftwood, and scenery were so beautiful!

Family photo in Lake Superior...this is as close as I got to the water!  Emmie and Nick are much tougher and had a great time splashing around.

After a day at the beach, ice cream is always a necessity :-)

We took our time driving home and stopped for awhile at Tahquemenon Falls.  It was beautiful!