Girls Trip...(Plus a few boys!)

This last weekend my sister, Jeni, and I flew to Spokane Washington to visit my other sister, Debi, and my brother Jami and their families! It was a really fun trip! We did a lot of shopping, went to my favorite place in the whole world, (Manito Gardens) and just visited. This was the first time in 5 years that all of my siblings have been together. My brother, as you will see in the pictures, is not big into taking pictures. But, I was able to talk him into a few! On Saturday morning we all went to a farm and picked apples from apple orchards. It was so fun! I kept thinking how much Emma and Derrick would have loved doing that. On Saturday night all the girls went to the Relief Society Broadcast. It was so nice to be able to go with my family. I was wishing my mom was there with us! The broadcast was really good and inspired me to work on several things in my life including becoming more organized and prepared. My sister is the Relief Society President and gave me the best handout. It is a sheet that tells you how to build up your food storage for a whole year on only $5 a week. It actually breaks it down and tells you what to buy each week. It does not seem so overwhelming when it is broken down like that. Now my organizing comes in. I need to find a place to put our food storage! But, back to the visit. It was a great trip and I'm thankful to Jon for giving it to me as a birthday present and watching the kids so I could go. Jon said the kids were great all weekend and I was so happy to come home to a nice clean house and dinner on the table! I have a great husband! I loved seeing all my nieces and nephews...I miss them all so much! On a quick side note...the craziest thing happened at the broadcast. After it was over a girl came up to me and said, "Did you go to Kino?" She knew my name and I knew she looked so familiar, but could not place a name. Turns out it was a friend of mine from Jr. High and she knew my sister Jeni because she had a sister that was her age. What a small world! We exchanged blog addresses so we can keep in touch. It was good to see you Meghann!

Jeni, me , Jami, and Debi

Me & Jeni at Manito Gardens

Dylan, me, Madi

Debi, Jeni, me

My nieces & nephews at the apple orchards

The girls before the broadcast

The girls at Manito

Manito Gardens

Dylan and me in his "hideout" under a huge tree!

Marlena's Wedding

Last night Jon's step-sister, Marlena, got married! They decorated with an Oriental theme and all of the wedding party (bride, groom and Marlena's kids) wore Oriental clothing made by Jon's step-mom, Louise. Everything came out beautiful! I did Marlena and the kids hair. I love doing up dos. They are so fun and you get to be creative. Emma and Derrick thought it was a great "party" and filled up on chocolates, fortune cookies and cake! Emma even got daring enough to eat noodles with chopsticks! It was a fun night! Congrats and love to Marlena and Chris!

Dance Time!

Derrick with Grandma Trafzer

Toshina teaching Emma the "Chicken Dance"

More dancing with Grandma Trafzer

Emma dancing with Grandpa Brenay

Maddie, Emma and Derrick

"Moment of Truth"! The cake!

Grandma Brenay & Emma

Grandma Brenay & Derrick

Chris trying to cut in on the father-daughter dance

Nice chocolate face! (It was also on his pants and all over my light skirt!)

Emma & Grandma Trafzer

Emma & Grandpa Trafzer

Emma trying to eat with chopsticks!

YUM! Fortune cookies!

Emma with Aunt "Lena"!
(For some reason Emma never says the "Mar" in Marlena's name so it's just Lena!)

The back of Marlena's hair

Our family!

Little Girls, The Elderly, and Cost-Co

I don't want this blog to come off the wrong way like I'm bragging about how cute my kids are (although I do think they are pretty cute) :). But that is not the purpose of this blog. I realized today why I do not shop at the Superstition Springs Cost-Co. I usually go the the Cost-Co in Gilbert, but today I was closer to the Superstition one so I went there. First of all, are the snowbirds back already or are there just a lot of retirement communities around there? I am not trying to be rude or offend the "elderly", but they happen to make my Cost-Co trip take a lot longer than usual today! It was all about Emma's hair! She usually gets complimented on it when I style it like this, but today was ridiculous! I must have had at least 8 or 9 people (mostly older women) stop and have to touch Emma's hair or ask how I did it, or how I get her to hold still to do it. I actually had one lady chase me down calling after me "Excuse me, excuse me, mom?!" She then made her husband come over to see it ( he was catching up with her because she literally CHASED me down!). Does her husband really care what my daughter's hair looks like? Then I would get questions like "Oh, are they twins? How close in age are they?" And of course, true to their personalities, Emma would chat up a storm with anyone who would listen, telling them all about preschool today, and Derrick would try and bury his head against Emma and not be seen at all. And honestly, my secret to this hair is that it is the only way to do Emma's hair and have it stay all day long. She can't pull it out and it doesn't fall out. If I know we have a long day this is the hair-do she gets! So, the next time I have to go to Cost-Co I will go to the Gilbert location and if I'm in a hurry I will let my kids go looking like rag-a-muffins and maybe we'll get out of there a little faster than we did today! :)

New Hobby!

I have a new hobby (or you might call it an obsession!)! I have finally jumped into the world of digital scrapbooking and I LOVE it! I used to scrapbook all the time until Emma turned 1 and then...nothing! I just never felt like dealing with the mess and the kids. This way the only mess I clean up is clicking the "x" on my computer screen when I am done! I like that I can still create and if I don't like something...I erase it and try something different. Now, I am just getting started so all you "professional scrappers" out there can't judge my work! :) But here are a few pages I have been working on!

Off to Preschool!

The day finally came for Emma to start preschool! She has been waiting for this for months now! (And so have I!) Her first day of school was Tuesday. Last week she had a "Meet the Teacher" and got to meet her class. She is very excited that Alli from her dance class is in the same preschool class! I have been looking forward to having a couple hours a day to just have Derrick. I felt like I accomplished quite a bit in 2 hours with just 1 kid! But, as I dropped her off my heart sank a little! I'm sure I will cry on the first day of kindergarten! Derrick and I went to Kohl's and Wal-Mart and cleaned the kitchen while Emma was at her first day of school. When we went to pick her up she got in the car and Derrick's little face just lit up and he said "EMMA, did you have fun?!" I thought Derrick would be fine with her gone, but I think he misses her. He asked where she was twice today and cried when I went to take a shower this morning because he had no one to play with! But, I also think it will be good for all of us! The first thing Emma told me was that she played with Barbie's at school! She also told me she had singing time, learned about the color red and that there was a naughty boy that said "Ehh" (in a grunting tone) to Miss Amber! She gave me the details of how he had to sit on the naughty bench for 2 minutes and then they sang silly songs to cheer him up and make him be nice! I'm glad she had such a good first day. Today she had fun again and can't wait to go back tomorrow! I can't believe she is such a big girl!

Ready for school!

She wanted to take a picture with Derrick! (How sweet!)

Good-bye my big girl! Do you love the black and white for a dramatic effect?! :)

Car Wash!

Labor Day weekend was definitely a labor weekend! We got a lot done around the house and then played a little on Monday. Jon and his brother were busy laying a new floor in the "salon". It looks great and I love it. They also did some work out in the back yard. While they did all that I was busy cleaning the house and catching up on laundry. On Monday we went for a walk/jog in the morning and then came home and washed Jon's truck. The kids were really excited to help wash daddy's truck! Emma was actually a pretty good little helper. Derrick didn't want to get wet and wasn't quite as enthused, but still had fun. He started having fun when I put him in the bed of the truck and he could just play back there, but he was very cautious. My little daredevil was crawling in the bed of the truck because he was scared he would fall! After nap time, we took the kids to see "Kung Fu Panda". They enjoyed it but, I'm not sure Derrick is ready for movies quite yet! They did pretty good during it though. After that we ate at Cheesecake Factory. It was a fun weekend to just spend time with each other and get a lot accomplished!

Just for Derrick

I've been feeling guilty that Emma has been getting all the "blog time". She has just had an exciting month! So here are some pictures of Derrick. He is turning into such a little man. We are still potty training. It seems like some weeks are great and others...not so great. But, I am surprisingly being pretty patient about it. I don't really care to push it and if that means he's in pull-ups for several months, I am fine with that! His eating habits are about the same as potty training...good one week, bad the next! Sometimes I just get so tires of fighting with him over food! But then I get so happy when he eats something new! A couple weeks ago he ate 5 grapes and I was so excited! He also had 3 apple slices and has tried 4 new dinners in the last couple weeks! We are definitely making progress, but an outsider looking in would never know it! (But, they may not have known how bad he was to start with!) But, I still love my little man!

"Star Light, Star Bright"...Emma's Wish!

Last night Emma, Derrick and I were on our way home from my parent's house and Emma, looking out the window, said "Mom, I see a star!". So, I decided to teach her the Star Light song.
"Star Light, Star Bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."
Then I told her to close her eyes and make a wish. We did this 3 times in the car on the way home (she thought it was great fun) and she had me in tears. It was just so sweet I asked her to do it for the camera when we got home. Each time it changed a little, but she always wanted to go to the star and see Jesus, Mila and President Hinkley and play with them. One of her wishes she said, "...and dance and be happy and always stay there"! I like how in the video she wants to "share nice, and do chores"! She is my little sweet heart and this definitely melted my heart!

Emma's Birthday Pictures!

Here are some of the latest pictures from Melissa Jackson Photography! We got these taken last week for Emma's 4th Birthday! They turned out wonderful as usual! There is a link to Melissa's website in my family and friends...if you ever want amazing pictures, check it out!