Emma's Best Word is...

Jarod was asleep on the couch so I recorded this little movie to make sure he didn't miss out on this unparalleled display of affection! Emma's favorite word is also her favorite thing in the world.

Kids Update part 3: Emma

Emma is definitely "one of the kids" now, and no longer a baby - wanting to do whatever anyone bigger than her is doing. This was when Anna was getting ready to go to dance, and Emma came out of her room with the dance clothes that SHE wanted to wear. Sometimes we indulge her (just for the cuteness factor though).

I promise that this next picture wasn't taken on the same day, I guess this must just be her favorite dance outfit, but another of Emma's traits is that she is a GOOD dinner eater. She'll eat everything, and lots of it, especially if we allow her to feed herself. She's so good at dinner, that sometimes we forget to pay any attention to her and before we know it she's painted her arms with spaghetti sauce. Oops.

All clean again. (This WAS taken the same day. She looks so different with wet hair (or combed hair...)

A few weeks ago Emma fell and hit her face on the kitchen tile and got this huge fat lip. She was a trooper though. Tough girl.

And finally, even though she loves to be a big girl, she's still a baby at heart - i.e. still able to fall asleep in weird positions and still loves her bottle and twirling her hair to go to sleep.

Kids Update part 2: Anna

Anna LOVES to swing. In her pajamas. Or whatever else she happens to be wearing.

She also loves to go to dance and is especially lucky to be in a class with 3 of her cousins. Here she is on PICTURE day.

The kids all get to wear their costumes and actually dance in them - the only time other than the day of the recital. What you can't tell from the picture is that Anna was screaming hysterically as soon as she got the costume on because it was so scratchy and she just couldn't handle it. She calmed down in the car on the way to the dance studio and acted totally fine the whole time she was there. Weird. Of course, then I was dreading the day of the recital and more screaming, but in the end she wore a black leotard underneath and that solved all the scratchy problems. Phew. I stole this picture from my sister-in-law's blog (thanks Mistie!). Aren't they all adorable?!

Finally, Anna's other big news is that after 18months in preschool for Speech and Language she has caught up with her peers and tested out of the program. She gets to spend a year at home with me and Emma before starting Kindergarten in 2010. Yeah! We're so proud of her accomplishments and are amazed at her progress. She's a smart cookie, and someday she'll be able to articulate ALL of her thoughts to us, but for right now we are pleased that she can communicate well and be understood the way most 4 years olds are.

Here are some pictures from her last day of school, with her friends Avery, Dominic and Spencer.

And below, a last goodbye group hug from Teacher Pam and Miss Kate, who have been AWESOME all year long. We'll miss them (but even though Anna loved school, I don't think she will mind taking a year off :) )

Kids Update part 1: Jakob

Jakob played baseball again this "spring". He really enjoys it and was lucky enough to have the same great coach as last year, and a lot of friends on his team. He even played a little better than last year, though I would say for sure the most noticable improvement was that we got him some proper baseball pants to wear.

One nice perk was being invited to a Diamondbacks game to parade around Chase Field before the game with other Little Leaguers. You can see him on the JumboTron below, he's the one with black socks and really skinny white legs (that's what baseball pants will do to ya!)

Jakob also recently earned his Wolf Cub Scout award, which he had to retrieve by "wolfing" down a plate of frosting...get it?... "wolf". Anyways, you can't see it in the picture but yes he had those skinny little baseball pants on under his scout shirt because we had to leave the pack meeting right away to get to Jakob's last ball game of the season. Fun times.

Last, but not least, was Jakob's probably favorite event of the whole year, the "Fathers and Sons" campout where he and Jarod get to leave Mom, sisters and changing underwear behind, for one night at least. This year they tried something a little different and slept in the car (because all the seats can lay down flat) instead of a tent, and that seemed to work quite well. Also, Jakob was nursing a huge abcess on his tooth (which ended up getting extracted first thing Monday morning after the campout) but it didn't seem to hold him back.

What I've come to realise over the years is I know that Jakob has had a good time when he comes back filthy and grumpy.