Swim team fun!

Emily has always loved water and this year, she REALLY wanted to do swim team.  We're lucky because a bunch of her friends from church joined a local team, too, so it's been a lot of fun.

Swim practice is EVERY day after school, and then we'll have meets on the weekend starting at the end of the month (in addition to ballet where she's getting ready for a recital and soccer for Jacob), so it's been a time commitment for us, but I'm glad she's enjoying it so much! On a bright note, I think we'll both have nice tans by the time summer hits from being out in the sun every day!

Here she is waiting to hear from the coach about what's next!

Thanks Marci for the pictures! :)

Some fairy tales do come true!

On Thursday afternoon, Emily came home and said, "Mom, there's going to be a new princess tomorrow.  She's getting married, and I want to watch."  The wedding started at 5 a.m. our time and so, I told her maybe we could record it and watch it when she got home from school, but she was insistent that she wanted me to wake her up.  Jason told me I should go ahead and do it so she could see history being made!

I decided I would "try" to wake her up, but figured that she wouldn't be easy to wake and I'd just let her continue to sleep, but when I walked in her room, she jumped out of bed immediately.  She was glued to the television screen just like I was and we had so much fun looking at and talking about all of the different hates and dresses.  It was a mother-daughter experience worth sharing, even at 5 a.m.

I was almost 5 when Charles and Diana got married and I can remember watching the wedding and that kiss on the balcony over and over again and always being fascinated with Princess Diana when I was a little girl.  I've got memories of many of the "significant" things that happened during my childhood, and I think that was the most prominent memory I have of something good that happened.  I've always loved London and am grateful I've had the opportunity to go there twice.  It was fun to be able to show Emily all of the different places I had been while we were watching yesterday.

As Emily approaches 7, I realize that those days of believing in fairy tales and princesses won't be around for much longer and so I'm grateful, for one day at least, that we had the opportunity to share in the belief that sometimes fairy tales really do come true!

Happy 4th Birthday Jacob!

My sweet Jacob turned 4 yesterday.  It was a bittersweet moment for me.  I think 4 is such a fun age, but I can't believe my "baby" is growing up so fast. 

How did we get from this:

to this:

Jacob was so excited about his birthday.  When we went to pick out his cake, it was tough for him to settle on just one, but he finally settled on a "Buzz and Woody" cake.

We love his silly faces!

He was so excited to open all of his birthday presents!

Jacob has gotten so "big" overnight.  He gets taller every day and I figure it's only a matter of time until both of my kids will tower over me!  He just started soccer a few weeks ago.  This is his first real time being around boys his age and it's been an interested experience for him (he's got a bunch of girl cousins and even at daycare, he's mainly been around girls)

Here are some things I am absolutely loving about this age with Jacob:

-When he wakes up in the mornings, he runs in to find me and gives me huge hugs and kisses and says "I love you so, so much."  It's a great way to start the day!

-When I pick him up in the afternoons, he's always anxious to tell me about his day!  I love hearing all of his stories.

-He loves to sing along to the radio and will tell us to turn it up when his favorite songs come on!

-He loves his big sister and follows her everywhere!

-He has a sweet tooth unlike anything I have ever seen!  One night, I woke up at 2:30 am because I heard noises and found him in bed with a lollipop!  He had gotten up and snagged his goody bag from a birthday party he had been to.

-He asks great questions!  For so long, he was such a quiet little guy and I'm often caught off guard when I realize there's so much going on in that head of his!

-Every night, he wants to end his night snuggling with me.  I treasure those moments because I know that they won't be around for much longer.

We are so blessed and grateful to have this not so little anymore guy in our family!

Fun at the zoo!

I've been a terrible blogger, but I'm hoping to redeem myself over Spring Break this year.  We decided to do a "Staycation" and I decided to take the kids to a bunch of different places around the city (we've been to some of them before and some of them will be a first time experience for the kids).  Saturday was Day One for us and we decided to head to the zoo because the weather was supposed to beautiful and it was!  We had a GREAT day!  They've added a new area (the African forest) and the kids absolutely loved it!  We also realized that it's much more fun to go when it's 70 degree than when it's 100 degrees.

They have an indoor area with reptiles and fish.  Emily loves all the reptiles and is especially fascinated by the snakes (I was cringing the whole time and trying not to look!).  The kids got to crawl through an aquarium and both of them thought it was so much fun!  Here's Jacob taking his turn:

I had printed off the schedule of the day's events and Emily got to read it while we were in the car so that they could decide what they wanted to see and do.  Both of them said the "giraffe feeding."  I assumed that it was just going to be a chance for us to watch someone else feeding the giraffes, but I was so wrong!  As we headed over there, someone asked if we wanted a chance to feed them and directed us to a ticket booth and a side area.  They limit the number of people who get in and we were very lucky!  For both kids, this was definitely one of their favorite things.  Here's Emily waiting for her chance to feed the giraffe!

Here are a few pictures of Emily feeding the giraffe.  Jacob fed the giraffe, too (which surprised me because I didn't know if he would!), but he was too fast and I couldn't get a picture of him.

As we were leaving this area, we spotted another giraffe and both kids wanted to take their pictures with it.  They both said they wished it was a REAL giraffe!

The monkeys was another favorite for all of us.  They had these little pygmy monkeys that were super tiny.  I've never seen anything like it before, but there were really cute!  Both of my kids have always loved monkeys and after a day at the zoo seeing all of these different monkeys, they kept saying they wished we could get a "real" monkey.  I don't think that's going to happen any time soon!

There is a new African Forest exhibit at the zoo, and we loved it!  There is a section with rhinos, which Emily was really excited about because that is her school mascot.  We had seen a stuffed rhino at Cabela's a few months ago, but she was so excited to see a "real life rhino."

These huts were part of the African Forest area and both kids said they were ready to go camping!  I'm not so sure about camping in a hut.

We got to see the elephants taking a bath.  There were two baby elephants and they were so cute playing in the water!  Of course, we had to stop and take a picture with this elephant and Jacob loved being tallest for once!

I always love to get pictures of the kids with the lion water fountain.

It's amazing what a difference a year makes.  This picture was taken when we went last August.  Jacob looks so little to me!  He is growing up to be such a big boy!  Emily is looking more grown up, too, and I'm so glad we decided to grow out her bangs!

They have a big Children's Zoo area, which includes a playground and a petting zoo.  We have always started on the other side of the zoo, so this ends up being our final stop before heading home, but I think next time we go, I'm going to re-think that because the kids are always so tired at that point that they don't really get to enjoy it.

Here's Emily petting the goats, though.  This was another highlight for her.

Our last trip to the zoo was almost a year ago (August) and it's amazing to me what a difference almost a year makes.  I was surprised at the number of animals that Emily was able to name on her own and when she wasn't able to tell us right away what the animal was, she would go read the sign and tell us all about it.  She's getting so big and is quite a little reader!  Jacob asked some great questions about the animals, too.  He's getting so big, too, and is definitely not my "baby" anymore.

Recap of Jacob's 2010

I can't believe how fast Jacob is growing up, but I try not to think about it because when I do, it makes me so sad that my "baby" is getting so big. 

Jacob is a very friendly and social little guy.  I love that when we go out to run errands or to the playground, he smiles and waves at everyone.  He talks so much and says the cutest things and you would never believe that he had speech delays early on.

He loves his daycare friends, but this year has been an adjustment for him because he went from having all the older girls (there were three five year olds who went to kindergarten this year) who "mothered" him to being the oldest kid there.

A big accomplishment for us this year was when we finished potty training.  The whole process was actually quick and easy because he basically decided himself that he was ready and once he decided, there was basically no turning back for him!

He absolutely loves his big sister.  The first question he asks when he gets up in the morning is "Is Emmy awake yet?"  He loves it when she reads to him, plays games with him, and lets him play in her room.  I love that they get along so well...most of the time!

Here are a few "fun" things that I love about this age with Jacob right now:

When he wakes up in the morning, he crawls up on my lap and wants to snuggle.  He also wants snuggle time before he goes to bed at night and lately, he's been crawling in our bed at night claiming to have had a bad dream for more snuggles.  I know this stage probably won't last much longer, so I cherish all these hugs while I can!

When I pick him up from daycare, he always says, "Mom, can I tell you about my day?"  I love the stories and love that he is so eager to share!

He is all boy and loves running around, pretending to be Buzz Lightyear, playing with his cars, and playing with his trains.  He just got some new tools and a workbench for Christmas and it's been fun to watch him pretend to fix things around the house.  He's also been having a great time with the marshmallow gun he got Jason for Christmas (before Jason even had a chance to open it, he blurted out - "Daddy, I got you a marshmallow gun and we can share it!!")

He is a total chocoholic (I'm guessing he gets that from me...)  He goes into stealth mode and steals whatever candy he can get his hands on (Emily has lost more than a few goody bags from birthday parties this way).  Here are a few pictures in case you don't believe me.

We are so grateful to have this sweet little boy in our family and can't wait to see what 2011 holds!

Recap of Emily's 2010

2010 was a BIG year for Emily - lots of "firsts"

She "graduated" from kindergarten

She lost her first tooth!

She celebrated her 6th birthday and she rode her first "BIG" (or real if you prefer to call it that) rollercoaster and we quickly discovered that she is a complete daredevil and can't get enough...unfortunately, she's just not tall enough yet to ride all of the rides she'd like to!

She started 1st grade and is doing an awesome job!  We are amazed at how far her reading has come!

She started a dance class and absolutely loves it!

And she got to go to the Alamo for the first time!

It's been so much fun watching Emily grow up this year and experience so many firsts (although sometimes I'd like to just press the pause button and slow things down for a little while).  I can't wait to see what this next year brings.

Jason calls Emily "mini me" and she is so much like me that it scares me sometimes!  I've always loved reading and she seems to share that love.  She gets so excited when her Scholastic book orders come home and wants to order every book.  I remember those days!  She also seems to be interested in history and was so excited to visit the Alamo and learn more about what happened there.  It took me back to my first trip to the Alamo - I was about a year older than her the first time I went.

Here are some things that I love about Emily right now:

She may be a "mini me" but she is definitely a daddy's girl!  Jason takes her to school and picks her up when he's able to and they have their own special traditions that go along with that (like going to get special treats in the afternoon and not telling mom!)  She loves riding in daddy's truck.

She is a GREAT big sister and Jacob absolutely adores her!  She is also a great help to me because she will entertain Jacob (and keep him out of trouble) so that I can get things done around the house.

She's got great artistic abilities and is constantly coming up with new art projects all on her own.  She also has such a big heart and is constantly putting her talents to use making cards and pictures for other people.

We are so blessed to have this little girl (who is getting bigger every day) in our family!