Grandma Glo's visit

Grandma Glo came for a visit in January.  She spent lots of time with us while staying with Aunt Marcia and Uncle Bill.  Aunt Nina and Izzie drove over for a day while she was here and we girls had a great time together.  Emmie loves her little cousin Izzie!

Reading to Izzie while she was getting her diaper changed

Emmie thought Grandma Glo would like to learn all about Squinkies

4 Year Stats

Emerson is growing so quickly!  Here are her stats now that she's 4:

Height: 43 inches

Weight: 49 lbs

Likes: Barbies, princesses, dolls, fairies, horses, reading, games, snow, gymnastics, soccer

Dislikes: most fruit, alligators, sharks, spiders

Favorite foods: black olives, carrots, apples, mac & cheese

Favorite color: red

Favorite music: Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum ("Lady and the bellum" :-), Sugarland

Favorite shows: Octonauts, Team Umizoomi, Dora, Kai-Lan

4 Year Pictures

We had Emerson's 4 year old pictures taken by Nikki Loren (who took her 3 year old pictures last year).  It was a chilly day in late fall but we were able to get some done outside.  Emmie was a complete ham but I love the variety of pictures we got--they really show her personality :-)  Here are a few of our favorites:

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 :-)