Spring

Emerick Love

Emerick is a sweet baby boy. He is peaceful and alert and yes, he talks to his Daddy already. My labor with this babe lasted about four hours and the last 45 minutes was a lot of work because he was big and all his rolls needed to come in three different parts (thats right I pushed him out in THREE different parts)

I will tell him one day that we were a good team-he and his Daddy and I. I will tell him he came out and I held him right away against my chest in the birthing pool that was still warm and that we couldn't stop smiling.

A big thank you to Emerick's Aunt Jennifer who took these two week photos for us on a whim. Aunt Jennifer will have a boy babe of her own in a week or so which means Emerick will have a playmate. His Aunt Crystal will have one around the same time too. Three adoring sisters and two new boy cousins coming...lucky little guy? I think so.

Annabeth (from Percy Jackson), Medusa, and a Witch- they knew what they wanted to be and really played their parts let me tell ya!
Sunday morning happiness

A big thank you to Nani for always sending cute clothes!
Girls are so much fun!

and BOy oh bOY are we excited to have fun with this BOY coming in January!

Ava: 1st day of 2nd grade; Sophia: first day of Kindergarten; Esme: not pleased about it.

I remember when I met Dan I couldn't stop staring at his big bright blue eyes. Now I get to stare at them all day while he is at work.

5 and happy bout it!

Sophia turned 5 this past month. She loves all things nature- here she is at the beach this last weekend and below she is holding one of our baby bunnies. She spends her days outside looking for bugs and taking care of the rabbits. She would be quite happy living on a farm or in a beach house I'm sure.

This girl is one of a kind and we love her.

Christmas in April

Here a few pics from Christmas- Grandma made the girls matching nightgowns- just what mamma ordered. I love simple white cotton nightgowns on little girls! And Grandma did a beautiful job :)

Trampoline was a hit and the snow on Christmas day made it even better.

Maybe I will get to my Easter post in December :)

Stewart

No, not my last name my 3 month old nephew- with a great name I might add.  I was able to go eat him up for a few days...not long enough.  

Yes he smiles this much and yes he's this cute and yes he is already a stud!  

to Aunt Cassie ...

from E, Maren and Neevzies

we love you and miss you and hope you get good presents

This awesome girl turned 7 on December 22.  Oh how we love her so.  Love seeing her grow, develop her talents, teach her sisters, laugh out loud, set a good example, and just be herself.

She's been a bit busy the last few months.  She was recently in a play at the Dallas Childrens Theatre- "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"  18 performances or something crazy like that-running from November to December.  She was a trooper though and didn't get tired of it once. She had a blast and felt oh so important- I think autograph signing after the show was her favorite part :)

She especially enjoyed having two of her besties in the play with her!

Know what makes me happy?

The Bird Room

Rocking and changing babies in the bird room, art from good friends in the bird room, a little bit of anthro and some of my mama's sewing in the bird room, my children counting all the birds in the bird room (39 at the moment), Esme pretending to do her "homework" in the bird room, guests staying in the bird room, adding sweet gifts to the bird room (below). 

Yep, pretty much makes me happy.

Keeping those ears warm!

Move Over High School Musical

It's all about Harry Potter this year!  Ava is a reading machine and just started book 4.  Sophia and Esme get into it as much as they can with her telling them all about it.  It's cute because whenever we are at the bookstore or party store Esme will see something related to Harry Potter and run to Ava and say "Look Ava Harry Potta Harry Potta!"  They were excited to be two black cats this year and even more excited when Ava told them there are two black cats in Harry Potter.  

Here is our first little remodel.  The ornate vanity and mirror in the girls bathroom was nice but not what we imagined for them.  In fact I am certain people will wonder why we exchanged such a fancy piece for such a simple one but that is how we roll over here...

Plus two girls can brush their teeth at the same time!

Before

After

Our inspiration is this family's bathroom shown on Designspongeonline.com

Maybe one day we'll get this big (expensive) deep farm sink :) But we're sure pleased to have our (really inexpensive) one from IKEA!

HaAUNted HOusE

Second year in a row the Stewart Fam's have gotten together to make haunted houses.  The kids love it and we love that we are making it a tradition.  

As you can see we told them to look scary when we took the pic :)

BEACH!

Ahhh Surfside....Where have you been my whole life living in Texas?  

In just 5 hours we arrived at Surfside beach last weekend with some of these great peeps.

And their cute kiddos

We played in a lot of this!

They played a little of this

We didn't care about the wind in our hair

And enjoyed ourselves thoroughly in these waves 

An attempt at a little surfing

The face of a girl who got it right!

Speaking of faces- here is one we could not stop snapping pics of

We were lucky enough to spend some time with My bro Jason and his wife Glencora (and my nephew baking away in there-woohooo!) who live less than an hour away from this cute spot.  

It was nice to meet you Surfside.  If the two of us have it our way we'll be seeing lots more of you.