I whip my hair back and forth!

My kids have the best hair ever!

You see, when it's curly, it comes with frizz.

Believe me, I know from experience.

And when we do piggytails, sometimes this is the aftermath . . .

There was no additional fro'ing of the hair in this pic.  If there was, it would be much, much bigger.

Reminds me of this pic of Emmy, back in '09, about the same age as Kate is now:

Mmm-hmm!  That's right!

Dance Recital

Emmy has been taking a combo dance class this year.  She's been learning tap, ballet, jazz and tumbling.  And she loves it!

The recital was in December at one of the high schools in town.

McKinley, Emmy's friend, takes dance at the same studio.

Emmy was so excited to wear make-up!

And she looked beautiful!

Strike a pose!

Emmy did SO GOOD at the recital!!!  We were so proud of her!

Look at that little double chin :)

Emmy felt so special the night of her recital.  She loved getting make-up on and dressing up into a fun and frilly dress!  She is such a girly girl, like her momma.

Emmy loves to dance, sing and draw.  I can't wait to see how her talents develop!

Emmy turns 5!!!

I can't believe my sweet little Emmy is five years old!
This girl is growing up so fast. I'm loving her as a five-year-old.

On the morning of her birthday:

I made a special birthday hat for the special birthday girl.

Sisters!

We went and got manicures before preschool started (the bus comes to get her at 12:00) and Emmy LOVED it!  The girls just got their nails painted, but they felt fancy getting it done at a salon.

I took donuts and juice boxes to her class (Emmy's request) and she got to pass them out.

This is while everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her :)

Emmy with her teacher, Miss Kristy, and the aide's in her class

When daddy came home from work, she got to open her presents.  She was so excited to get Strawberry Shortcake!

After opening presents, we went to a movie (one of Emmy's very favorite things to do), had pancakes for dinner, per the birthday girl's request, and then went out for ice cream.  It was the perfect day for her!


The weekend after her birthday, we had a birthday party with all of her friends.  She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party, so that's what we had!

The Strawberry Shortcake tablescape.
We decorated with Strawberry Shortcake pictures, lots of pink and green balloons, strawberry cupcakes and cups with fancy straws for the strawberry milk.

The kids got to color Strawberry Shortcake coloring pages . . .

. . . play Pin the Stem on the Strawberry . . .

 . . . and decorate flower wands.  You can't go wrong with 3 to 6 year olds when you have stickers, jewels and glitter.

Emmy opened presents then we got to serve the delicious strawberry cupcakes!

Yummy, yum-yum!
Homemade strawberry frosting!

No five-year-old birthday party is complete without a pinata.
Emmy busted it on her first try :)  Not to worry, though - Jake and Uncle Derek saved the day by jimmy-rigging it so the rest of the kids could have a turn.

Including Kate.  Um, Kate, you're supposed to hit the pinata with the other end of the bat . . .

And it was kid-chaos when the pinata broke for real and candy flew everywhere!

 List of kids from L to R:

Max, Addison, McKinley, Emmy, Megan, Ella, Lilly, Emma, Hannah, Madelyn and Kate hiding behind Madelyn

What a fun party!  Emmy had a blast!

With her new age, we are trying to get her to become more independent.  We've started giving her chores (putting the silverware away, making her bed in the morning and putting her folded laundry away) and she's become such a good helper.  She loves helping!  That will be nice when we add to our family . . . don't worry, we're not making any announcements :)

Pumpkin Festival and Carving Pumpkins!

Every October, there is a fun Pumpkin Festival just around the corner from our house.  We always have so much fun!

The girls decorating cookies

Waiting in line to get the girls' faces painted - we waited for at least 45 minutes!!!  But you'll see why below . . .

So cute!  They did such a great job!

Kate sat still so good :)

Ta da!!!

Painting pumpkins

Beautiful artwork :)

We (of course) carved pumpkins with the girls for FHE.  They helped Jake get all the seeds out and clean out the pumpkins.

We carved a "K" for Kate and an "E" for Emmy.  That's as fancy as we got this year!  We were eating a yummy pumpkin treat called Pumpkin Fluff, and it somehow ended up on the girls' faces . . .

Silly girls!

And Emmy's pumpkin "E"!

Halloween 2011

We had a fun Halloween this year!

Emmy dressed up as the cutest Little Red Riding Hood (my mom made her costume - yes, she's amazing!) and Kate was the spunkiest little Witch!

{This girl loves to pose!}

{This face . . .}

{Little Red Riding Hood, off to grandmother's house!}

{My spunky little witch!}

{Picking flowers where she's not supposed to . . . she always does this . . .}

{Perfecting her witch cackle}

 {This is the best pic we could get of the girls together}

We went to the ward Trunk or Treat, which was on a Saturday, and then we went Trick or Treating around the neighborhood on Halloween with some friends.  The girls had a blast going door to door!

Jake and got to dress up, too - we had two Halloween parties to go to.

Jake wore grandpa Roy's old suit.  It's vintage, from the '70's :)

And I was . . . not quite sure.  I wore a flowery dress, also from the '70's.  But I looked more like a Geisha than a love child.

{Party #1}

 {Party #2 - I added a peace sign to my face . . . more love child-ish, right?}

I threw a fun Halloween party this year with my friend, Brooke.  It was so. much. work.  I'm still recovering :)  But it was a lot of fun.  We wanted to do all the food ourselves, which is why it was so much work!  But it turned out just how we wanted it.  Brooke and I are both a little OCD.  True story.

{Our fancy table!}

{We love the way it turned out!  That's my friend, Abby, taking pics of the table}

Halloween was a blast this year!
Stay tuned - I have a post about the annual Pumpkin Festival coming up . . .