Merry Christmas!!!

We had a great Christmas this year! The kids were so excited and it was a lot of fun to watch them open presents! Derrick would literally shake with excitement with each new toy! Emma got to leave Santa milk and cookies and he left her a note to day "thank you"! She got just what she asked for (Polly Pockets) and Derrick could start a toy car lot with all of his new cars! Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas Eve...

We all got the traditional pajamas on Christmas Eve!


The excitement is building...

Snuggled in bed with "Santa Baby" waiting for Santa to come to the house...

The presents were out and Christmas Eve was over!

The 23rd...

Let the countdown begin! Tonight was our Christmas party at Grandma and Grandpa Trafzer's house! We had a lot of fun and got some great gifts! If you're wondering about the hat Emma is wearing...she found it in the box of her old baby clothes! It is a little small for her but she would not take it off! Then when she did take it off, I made her put it back on because her hair was crazy!

Holiday outfits...

I took some pictures of the kids all dressed up before church today! Emma has been asking to wear her Christmas dress for about 2 months now! She was so excited to finally wear it! I was amazed to get any pictures of Derrick even looking at the camera!

A Night Out...

Last night was Jon's work Christmas party! We had a ton of fun! It was a formal-dress, mock Casino Night! It was a blast! It was fun to get all dressed up and do something we would not normally do! We played Craps ALL night! I can definitely see how someone could get addicted to gambling! At the end of the night I think we came out a couple thousand dollars up(fake money of course!)...so not too bad! Here's our pictures...
Blast from the past cheesy Prom pictures!


Andrea did my make-up for me so I wouldn't look horrible! She did a fantastic job! Thanks Andi!

Staying warm!

This is how I found Emma sleeping last night when I went in to check on her before I went to bed! The last few mornings she has been waking up with cold hands and feet! So, last night I told her she needed to wear socks to bed! Well, I guess she decided she would rather have her hands warm instead of her feet!

Emma and the Nutcracker...

I bought Emma the Barbie Nutcracker movie last week and she has watched it EVERYDAY!! She has actually picked up some of the dance moves from the movie and is doing pretty good! I loved these pictures because she was dancing with her Nutcracker prince! If you look closely you will realize that it is a Napoleon Dynamite doll! She danced with that doll all day! I think I need to buy her a real Nutcracker prince!

Emma's Dance Recital

Ready for her dancing debut...

Emma's 1st dance recital was last night! We were all so excited for her! She has not stopped talking about it for the last 2 months! Her class did a dance to "Mele Kalikimaka" the Hawaiian Christmas song! So here she is in her new swim suit (that I had to buy on ebay because, where are you going to find a swim suit in December?!) Her suit ended up being too big, but Grandma Clark saved the day by sewing it for us!
Emma was so excited that she got to wear make-up!
Here she is showing off her "sparkle wips"!

"Mele Kalikimaka"

This is the best I could do for actual performance pictures! We had to have the flash off on the camera, so not all the pictures I took came out! But, she danced her little heart out! I was so nervous for her, I actually had butterflies in my stomach as she was coming out on stage! I knew she could do the dance, I was just hoping the lights and a full audience didn't scare her! She was so excited when it was over she said, "I want to do that again tomorrow!"! Now I can't wait for her spring recital!

Best Friends!

I asked Emma a couple weeks ago who her best friend was. I thought she would say Derrick or maybe a princess, but she said "Ava!" This is Ava...Emma's best friend! They are usually inseparable during dance class! Their teacher has had to separate them during class because they would not let go of each others hands, therefore they weren't dancing! But, it is pretty cute to watch! Ava isn't big on taking pictures so this is the best I could do! But, they are funny to watch together!

The After Party...

Emma thought it was her birthday because we had everyone over for pizza, cake and ice cream after the recital! And, of course, she received gifts! She got a new Barbie car, flowers, hair bows and a bag of goodies from the "stage mom"!

Emma blessed the food at dinner and said, "Thank you, I did good at my recital and for my birthday!" She has been praying everyday this past week that she would dance good at her recital!

One big happy family! We were so happy for her!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year at Grandma and Grandpa Clark's house!



The kids were so excited to go...which explains the look on Derrick's face! Emma was especially excited because I told her that after Thanksgiving we get ready for Christmas! She already had her snowman ready to go! Now she asks every day if it is Christmas yet!


It's always fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house! They set up this leaf from the table for the boys to run their cars down, but it ended up being a really fun slide!



It was fun being with family, eating great food and letting the kids play together!

Emma & Derrick Sept. 2007

I thought I would post a slide show of the kids most recent professional pictures! They were taken back in September, but I know not all of you got to see them! My friend Melissa does these and she is wonderful! There is a link to her site under my family and friends!

New Pics!

I just thought I would post some new pictures! Not a lot is going on in our lives right now...just trying to get ready for the Holidays! Emma is understanding this year that she gets new toys for Christmas and that is all she talks about! When we go to the store she is yelling through the toy aisle "MOM I WANT THAT FOR CHRISTMAS!"! Jon and I were trying to teach her why we celebrate Christams and we told her that maybe we could go through her toys and give some to kids who don't have a lot of toys! Her reply was, "YA, then I can get new toys!!" We'll keep working on the giving thing! These pictures are from Sunday before church and of the kids watching a movie together and playing outside! If Jon ever teaches me how, I will try and post a video!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year! Emma was a Spider Princess and Derrick was a Scarecrow! On Tuesday night we went to Grandma and Grandpa Clark's ward "Trunk-or-Treat" and on Wednesday Jon's work has all the kids come in and trick-or-treat cube to cube in the office! Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Trafzer's to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood with Uncle Kevin and his girlfriend Stevi! The kids had a lot of fun and it didn't take long for Derrick to get the hang of it! Although, he wanted to go into every house that opened their door! Especially the ones with "goggies" (dogs)! Now we have more candy than we need and I know I will just sit at home and eat it all day!!