Roll Over...

Maddie has been rolling over for about a week now and is getting quite good at it. I am sure she will be crawling in no time. Well, another month or two...

Yum-Yum

Last night was the birthday party with Mr. and Mrs. G. It was a good time and nice to catch up with them. They got Emily some foam hats and decorating bits, I do not know what they are called. Emily had fun playing with all of the little pieces while Nathan made a picture out of the foam stickers while Kayla and I decorated the hats. After dinner we sang happy birthday to Emily and ate cake then it was time to go upstairs and play Hi-Ho Cherry'O. After the kids went to bed it was time for the grown ups to play sheep's head. It was fun spending time the Grundmeier's, we are just sorry the fun the night ended early. Thanks for helping us celebrate!!

OOPS

Last night I was up decorating the cake and in my blind ignorance a put a #3 on the cake. It was not until after the kitchen was cleaned up and everything was put away that Paul said, "How old is Emily?" "2", I said as if don't you know how old your own kid is?? He then asked "Why is there a 3 on the cake?" I then looked at the cake and pulled back out the frosting and corrected my error. I was thinking of the 3 balloons and thinking, "We can put three candles on the cake one in each balloon, which lead me to putting a 3 on the cake. The cake was fixed and if I was not so honest, no one would be the wiser!! (Plus it is a kind of a funny story.)

Happy Birthday Emily!!

Emily's birthday started on Wednesday when she received a box from Gram and Pop with cupcakes and lollipops. The kids wanted to eat the lollipops, but I wanted them to eat the cupcakes, as I know I am able to refuse the temptation of a lollipop, but would eat ALL of the cupcakes within 5 minutes!! Thanks Gram and Pop!!!!

This was followed a package in the mail from her godparent's, the Caspers. The package contained a book about God and some stickers. Nathan and Kayla were very excited about the stickers and Emily enjoys hearing the story.

This morning Emily opened one of her presents, we were going to wait for daddy to get home this evening so that he could be here when she opened the others, however the kids had other ideas. This afternoon while I was on the phone with my brother, who had called so that the cousins, all 6 of them, could sing Emily a BEAUTIFUL rendition of Happy Birthday, they, and by they I mean Nathan, Kayla and Emily had open all but 2 of the presents. This was the conversation between Nathan and I when I asked him why he was opening the presents~

Me: "Why are you opening the presents?"

Nathan: "Emily told me I could."

Me: "Who should you have asked to open the presents me or Emily?"

Nathan: "You told me to ask Emily."

Now I will break in to say that I vaguely remember Nathan asking me something that had to do with Emily and I did tell him to ask Emily. I presumed this is what he was talking about. My final response to this was "Don't ask mommy questions when I am on the phone."

Emily's list of gifts is as follows~ Gram and Pop gave Emily a doll, book about the seasons, and baby doll clothes. Grandma Hellen gave Emily a Fisher Price pinball machine and some books. Paul and I gave her a bubble blowing lawn mower and some sidewalk paint. Grandpa Hellen gave Emily some money that Paul was too willing to put in his back pocket. Thank You to everyone for the great gifts and the phone calls for a Happy Birthday . We appreciate you and your thoughtfulness.

There was no birthday cake yesterday, but there was a cupcake, which was enjoyed by everyone. We are having birthday cake tomorrow night with our friends the Grundmeiers. I will put up one more post on Sunday, until then adios!!

We'll help you Emily.

Kayla, "It's a baby!!"

Paul made a picnic for the kids and they ate outside

Kirstin...

That last post had me thinking about the time when Kirstin came to visit us in England. Kirstin and I are 1 year apart, I am the older and MUCH wiser of the two!! When we were in grade school we would write letters back and forth and I do believe that New kids on the Block, NKOTB, was all the craze, at least I know I was in love!! I do not remember what was written in those letters, but they formed the basis of a great relationship between two cousins that lived miles apart, her in Pennsylvania and I in Oklahoma. So when Kirstin told me that she was going to come to England for about a month to help out when we had baby #2, I was so excited!! Kirstin showed up in February, not the best time to come to England for vacation. It was cold and wet, but she was a trooper. We even had snow the last week she was there. While Kirstin was there I tried to take her as many places as possible, but with the baby due any day I did not want to travel to far from home. We made It to Durham, which I already told you about, to Richmond, to York, Newcastle and to Hartlepool, which is known for hanging a monkey because they thought it was a Frenchman (you do the research). There were walks in the town where we fed the ducks and were bitten by the geese and walks around the neighborhood. We went for hot chocolate, but unfortunately I was unaware where to go for real hot chocolate so we settled for the powdered kind, I know where to go now!! Kirst even took a day to herself and went to Hadrian's Wall~ It is a rock wall that goes across England from East to West, it use to separate England from Scotland. Kirstin was there watching CSI on a cold and snowy Tuesday evening when I was laying ion the sofa in labor. She was there to answer the call when my brother called the house to congratulate me on having a baby. Kirstin watch Nathan so that Paul and I could go on a date fro Valentine's Day, she made arts and crafts with Nathan and was an inspiration to be a more active mother in Nathan's life. It was a great time having Kirstin there and we are forever grateful and look forward to her taking another month off to just com and hang out with us!! We love you Kirst!! by the way fix your blog, I miss reading about you!!

in Richmond sitting on the castle wall

in Newcastle at York~ York minster(above) My birthday dinner prepared by Kirst

In Hartlepool, Nathan did NOT like the tour guide

Snow Angels

Baby K