Ophelia is Seven!

Tonight I was watching a few of the older videos of the kids, when Ophelia was just a tiny four year old, talking so well, being such a sweet big sister, always dancing or moving, never shy of the camera...This past weekend my sweet little girl has turned seven! In her own words, she is a big girl now! Sigh. In everything that she does, she strives to be independent. I don't need to meet her at the school bus stop at the end of the school day any more, she officially can walk herself home (despite it being a tiny short walk, it brought a lot of pride for Ophelia to be able to do it on her own). I can easily delegate responsibilities to her and fully trust that she will do what I asked her to do. She loves to do lists (the apple didn't fall far from tree here), and loves to help me with anything, cooking is one of her faves! Ophelia is very polite, still loves to move and dance, and is an AMAZING big sister. Most of the time the last fact is not as appreciated by Emerson as it should be. I love my "big" girl! And here is how her birthday weekend went.

Ophelia has been waking up lately to her own alarm in the mornings. This was mainly set up because the first week of school she would be so anxious about waking up on time that she would be up waaay before she (or me!!) should've been. So, on her birthday she woke herself up and got dressed for school. PJ, Emerson, and I got Krispy Kreme donuts for her classmates (two dozen of O-shaped goodness), a Happy Birthday balloon, and lunch from Chick-fil-a and came to visit Ophelia during her lunchtime. She sure felt special and loved! This was right before school:

After school Grandma took Ophelia shopping at the mall, AND got her ears pierced! While that was happening PJ took Emerson to the bouncy house. All this was planned out by the birthday girl weeks in advance. She not only included Emerson in her plans, but also got him a toy at the Disney store while shopping with Grandma. So super sweet and thoughtful! After the mall we all ate at Olive Garden, which she says is her favorite restaurant.

Saturday was the big Birthday Party day. I never meant for it to be big, but it turned out that we had 12 kids in total coming over to our house! I stressed out about it, but in the end two hours really flew by and it wasn't so bad after all.

The theme of the party was all about hamsters. For the past few months Ophelia has been saving money in order to buy a pet hamster. A nice lady from Craigslist gave her a cage for free, when she learned that Ophelia was saving money for it. It was a special day to go to the pet store a pick out her new pet, hamster Flurry. This brings our total family count to seven "people": PJ and myself, Ophelia and Emerson, Freddy the betta fish, Melody the robot vacuum cleaner, and Flurry the hamster :)

This cake was huge and delicious! We still have a third of it in our freezer. Yumm! Ophelia came up with a few hamster-related activities for the party: solving mazes, stuffing cheeks with marshmallows, and learning some neat hamster facts.

She also wanted to have a dance party, which we set up in the office, equipped with disco lights, loud music and her favorite songs. The kids had a blast!

The traditional gift opening ceremony:

And my favorite, but most time consuming part was the favor gifts. I found lots of used Zhu zhu pets on Craigslist, cleaned them up, fixed them up, and we gave them to each of the guests. They had such a great time playing with those things the last little bit of the party. It was a huge hit! If you don't know what those toys are, they are a motorized hamster toy that squeaks and goes all over the place. Kids loved them when they first came out about five years ago, but these days none of the stores carry them any longer, so that's why I had to go with Craigslist.

My favorite part of Ophelia's birthday was this: Babushka and Dedushka gave her an Amazon gift card to buy whatever she wanted to. The first thing she wanted to buy with it was a remote control car, but not for herself (because she already has one), but for Emerson because he has none!! So so incredibly thoughtful and sweet. Now we are starting a new family tradition thanks to Ophelia: the birthday girl or boy has to get a gift for the other one for their own birthday. Emerson was so very excited about it:

Even though Ophelia strives to be independent and a big girl at everything, there are lots of moments when she is still my sweet little girl. She tells me she believes in fairies. She has a fairy home set up in her room and keeps waiting for a fairy to move in. She also does not want to be independent when it comes to tucking herself in at night. When one evening I sent her to bed on her own, she came back a few minutes later in tears, telling me how much she misses me and wants me to come tuck her in.... I hope she will continue to feel that way for many more years to come!

The Third Decade Is Over

What a depressing post title... I know! It just has been a bit hard for me to break away from the twenties and accept the fact that I am thirty now. There is nothing I can do about it and time will only move forward faster from here on now, but I just such a great third decade of my life that I am going to miss that a lot! It started with me barely being a newlywed, then getting my degree at BYU (while having a great time being a student), moving to Texas, internship, buying our first home together, working my first grownup job, bringing two beautiful babies into this world, moving to Austin and buying our perfect little home... So many firsts and milestones! 

It gives me hope that in the resurrection we are all going to be in our twenties :)

My birthday started in the rec center, on the treadmill. I was never the person who can eat whatever I want and never see it in my waistline. So I started the morning right knowing that the will be some calories eaten today :) The upsetting part was typing in my age on the treadmill: 3 0!!!! Gasp! Unbelievable! Feels just like 29! 

Like poring salt on the wound, when we drove to San Antonio a few weeks ago, I saw a huge billboard ad for weight loss and body surgery, that said: "Wanna feel 29 again???" Ahhhhh! 

Well, at least I did for my 30th something I've never done before, which felt good and exciting - I flew!! Doubling up with Mark and Camille, we went to iFly and enjoyed getting blasted with a massive air flow. It sounded not so cool to me at first, well, not compared to skydiving, but it was actually amazingly fun! It was challenging to keep myself airborn and also to try moving my body in different directions. At one point in time the instructor made us both fly up super high and then descend! It was a blast! For sure made me want to go skydiving! That will be something to look forward to this next life decade :)

Here we are suited up before the flight:

The handles on the suit are for the instructor to direct you or lift you or pull you down. We lovingly named them "the love handles"!

Matchees:

The team is ready for take off! Seriously we laughed so hard throughout the evening that I was close to peeing my pants :) (re-usable earplugs and Mark's reluctant flight exit strategy) these guys are the best to go double-dating with!

Mark with his post-flight beard:

Good times! After flying we went out for Amy's ice cream, which was heavenly delicious (sure was glad for that treadmill start of the morning).

When we got home, I had a sweet surprise waiting for me from my Laurels from church. They heart-attacked our house! The funny part was that PJ was supposed to tell his Mom about the secret plans, so she would be ready for them. Well, PJ worked so hard to keep it a secret from me that he kept it a secret from everybody else too. 

The twenties were wonderful, but I know that we have even better times ahead. Me and the love of my life cruising through life together, raising two beautiful munchkins, having joy in family life! Also, hopefully in a few years I'll be able to put myself back into the work field. Keeping the eternal perspective in mind I know that I am here to grow and learn and I am thankful for the years that I've been given and I'll need many more to learn how to be more Christ-like and how to faithfully deal with life's adversities. 

Here we go, fourth decade! Bring it on!

Of Princesses, Gentlemen, Dogs and Other Cute Little Creatures

October seems to have just flown by. This post is packed with pictures of the wonderful moments this months has been filled with. Here my two little munchkins. Oh, how I love seeing them being nice to each other, hugging, snuggling, and giving love. This must be how Heavenly Father feels when we are serving and showing love one to another in this world. It's the best feeling of warmth and happiness ever! 

Emerson building towers and knocking them down, one of favorite toys lately:

He also loves playing with Ophelia's "Sister Baby", a doll. Emerson holds her, rocks her, hugs and gives kisses to her, super cute! He also loves playing with Ophelia's little people house and the little Dora figurine...I think maybe it's time we got him some boy "little people" things :) I guess that's what happens when you have a big sister to live with!

Yet another haircut time for Emerson! I swear we have to cut his hair every two months..it grows so fast! We did the lollipop trick at home this time, but it didn't work as well as it does at a salon...Maybe it was the buzzer that made him uneasy, but after a few buzzes, Emerson started getting jittery, trying to move his head, taking the sucker out of his mouth. It ended up full of hair. Yuck! I licked it to clean it and gagged having all the hair in my mouth it was awful!

PJ was being a perfectionist and kept trying to fix little spots on his head. Well, we ended up with a screaming, sticky, itchy, hairy toddler. We put him straight in the tub and gave him a bath... I think Emerson is going to run for his life next time he happens to see a buzzer close to his head. Maybe we'll go back to the barber shop again next time...

New hairdo! Aaaawwww!

And here's the big sister, who stayed by Emerson's side the whole time the parents were trying to cut his hair (not kill him, as it may have seemed to the neighbors):

Here is Ophelia decked out in stickers. Kind of a waste of stickers, but it sure kept her quietly occupied for at least an hour in her room! This would be a great road trip activity.

The three cousins got their own kiddie table this time for dinner. They had a blast! Chomping away, giggling, and kicking each other under the table. Enjoy, kids! This will be a first of many-many-many-many kids tables for you!

Each Friday Ophelia gets to go to a "Girlies Playgroup" with her friends Carlie, Lily, and Heidi. We rotate each week whose house the girls go to. They have so much fun together. Ophelia looks forward to this more than to go to school each week. At Heidi's home there are a lot of pets. Ophelia got to hold a guinea pig the last time. She loves animals:

I snapped a few pictures the last time we went to Oatmeal. I LOVE this picture of Grandma and Ophelia:

Emerson exploring the outdoors, throwing rocks:

The other week Emerson got a few fire ant bites from playing in our backyard. He was pretty upset when it first happened and he still remembers about it. Once in a while he'll point to his ankle and say: "Ant. Bite." Pretty traumatic! I guess if you live in Texas you gotta learn early in life that the outdoors are WILD in Texas! For instance, Ophelia and Grandma had to sweep for snakes before she could climb on top of these rocks. A few weeks ago, Grandpa killed a huge rattle snake right next to the house...yikes!

Snuggling with Grandpa:

For the first time since our move here, we went to a pumpkin patch, Sweet Berry Farms. In the spring, early summer, one can go there to pick strawberries and other berries, for which we'll definitely be back! The drive was about an hour, but it was totally worth it, the kids had a blast! Here they are on a giant trampoline pillow thingy:

Emerson couldn't really steady himself to stand up on the thing, so he got a little upset:

We fed some goats. One of them had it's head stuck in the fence, trying to reach for people with food! One of the workers had to come and figure out a graceful way to pull the head back in again, it took a few minutes, but the goat was saved. Quite an experience for the kids to see the whole thing though!

Pumpkins! Emerson loves pumpkins for some reason. He wants to hug them and this time he was also rolling them and trying to lift them up:

Emerson looks so cute and plump and petite next to the pumpkins, and here is Ophelia, BOOM:

My friend Aubrey took these two with a nice camera of hers. Turned out adorable:

And here is the day that Ophelia was so excited about, when she gets to dress up as anything she wanted and go trick or treating. This year she first picked ]Curious George, then Olivia, the pig, and finally, her final answer was Belle. What a huge ordeal it is to find the right costume that's comfortable (not itchy), then, of course, Belle needed accessories, a rose (that was basically only wanted by Ophelia for the first five minutes, then she was done with it), and the shoes...that we never found, so had to resort to her normal sandals. Oh, and the lip gloss was essential too! Of course, how could I have forgotten!

Emerson was freaked out the first time I tried putting on Ophelia's old doggie costume. The second time went better and he smiled at his reflection in the mirror when he saw that he was a dog.

This is at the Ward Trunk or Treat. And Emerson's first crush, Avi. She is just a month younger than him, she is in the same nursery class, and Emerson just adores her. At the activity, he saw Avi dance, and danced next to her for a few moments, and there has not been a day since then when he wouldn't mention "Avi. Dance!" to me at some point during the day. He really thinks about her every day and remembers her dancing! So sweet :)

Hugging Avi:

I don't think that Avi shares Emerson's affection...yet. She is playing hard to get :)
Here is Ophelia dancing away:

Costume contest: Ophelia is at a hard age right now when she get easily upset if she doesn't win, or isn't the first. It surely is part of a child's egocentric world, but sometimes it just breaks my heart to see her try hard and not win. But that's my problem. I know that it's a valuable lesson for her to learn. There were tons of really cute costumes there this year!

Emerson's first ever trick-o-treating. When the first piece of candy was dropped in his bucket, he set it down and took the candy out to look and see what was put into his bucket. Then after he caught onto what was going on, he just went from trunk to trunk saying "please! please!"

Today I went to Ophelia's first school party, the fall festival. It was cute to see all her classroom friends and her classroom. The room moms did a great job with the activity, planning the games and activities for the kids. Here are all of the kids:

Digging in the rice treasure box, finding treasures:

Decorating cookies and, yes, eating some frosting :)

Painting a Halloween jar:

I took the kids to the City Hall today for some more trick-or-treating. Ophelia didn't want to wear Belle costume again, so we put on her Rapunzel dress from last year. I had to talk her into it, actually, because she said earlier in the day that she didn't want to be a princess, but I had to explain that there's no way we are going to get another costume this year, on the 31st of October! I changed it up for Emerson too, and he was a little Gentleman:

There were lots of fun things to check out at the City Hall, like a tractor:

Silly photo booth:

Touring a police car:

Babushka, this one is for you. Look what happened to your little Grandson:

It's been a fun month! Christmas is coming into the shopping scene already...too soon!