Vacation Bible School

Emerson was old enough this year to participate in her first VBS!  We are truly blessed by the children's minister and the children's program that he has created at Grace Crossing.  Emerson has already learned multiple memory verses in Sunday school and is learning how they apply to her day to day life.  Emerson LOVED VBS!!  I dropped her off every morning around 8:45 and picked her up at noon and then she went on to The Academy.  She was so proud of the crafts she made and could not stop talking about the fun activities that they did. 

My Little Fish

After our first few trips to the swimming pool and seeing the fact that Emerson had no fear in the water, we decided we definitely needed a round of swim lessons to learn some basic skills!  We enrolled in a Mommy and Me class at our new neighborhood pool.  It was 2 weeks long and we had so much fun.  She LOVED it.  I couldn't decide if she loved the actual swimming or just her swim instructor, Spencer!!  He couldn't believe she was only 3, saying that she was doing just as well as some of the 6 year olds in his other class!  She passed with flying colors and can advance to the tot class next time.

Practicing her kicks

Getting into her "front glide" position

Kick, kick, kick!

Kicking and getting big scoops of ice cream!  Boy did they know how to speak Em's lanuguage...anything involving ice cream and she is in!

So cute!!!

Playing "red light, green light"

Doing her "bobs"

Unlike many of the other kids, any time she came up from going under water she had a huge smile on her face!

High 5!

Let's Have Some Fun...

Braelyn is a lucky girl and gets to have several birthday celebrations.  She had one at school on her birthday, on Saturday we had one at home with Gransan, Jerry, and Janet and then she gets to have another one with Grandma, Papa, Sissy, Aunt Kristi, Uncle Jeremy, Tanner and Keaton when we get to Aztec.  It was a little too close to wedding time for everybody to make a trip to Houston!  Gransan, Jerry, and Janet made the drive down Saturday morning and we ate lunch, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream.  Braelyn actually did great opening presents and her big sister was a great helper!

Braelyn's loves to play ball...roll, throw, chase, you name it.  I decided that they had to be a part of her birthday theme and beachballs fit perfectly with the summer theme!

Woohoo!  It's party day!

Gransan helped me put the finishing touches on lunch.

Her cake didn't exactly turn out as I had envisioned but she told me that it was blue for a swimming pool and had little sugar cookie people in rafts.

The birthday girl snuggled up with Janet and Jerry to eat her lunch before we ate.

Her new shoes stay on for all of 2 minutes so I had to hurry for a picture of the whole outfit!  I guess I shouldn't say the whole outfit...I couldn't even snap fast enough to catch the headband!

The little birthday princess whipping up something in the kitchen.

Daddy, Braelyn, Gransan, Emerson, Jerry, and Janet enjoying visiting over lunch.

Present time!!!

Gransan, Jerry and Janet couldn't leave Emerson out!  She is such an amazing big sister!

This is great!!!

Emerson, it is a new train!!!!

Time for cake.  Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You!

Emerson helped to blow out the candle.

Apparently she prefers cupcakes!  She threw up her hands and started crying!  She wouldn't even touch her cake!

I put a little icing in her mouth and she actually gagged and shivered!

Get me away from that thing Mommy!

It was so cute...she wore that lei for the rest of the weekend!

The birthday girl loves her new train...thanks Gransan!

School Celebration

You have to have sweets on your birthday but Braelyn is the only one in her class that is eating table food so I took cupcake push-ups for Braelyn and her teachers.  She was decked out in her birthday outfit and looks like she loved all the attention that came with being the birthday girl!

Hey look at me!  I'm 1!!

The bow was apparently getting in her way!

Big Birthday Girl

Braelyn is ONE today!!!!!  Where has the last year gone?!  She is changing so much every day.  She now has 6 teeth and I am pretty sure more are on the way.  She can stand up without pulling up on anything and she will take 2 or 3 steps before she decides she can get there much faster by crawling!  She is bound to be in the midst of a growth spurt because over the last week she has been a bottomless pit!  She is wanting to eat just about every 2 hours!  I will update much more later but I had to put a birthday picture on here!

Field Trip

Hard to believe but Emerson is old enough to go on field trips!!!  Starting in the 3 year old class, they do a field trip each week in the summer.  She was SO excited.  I was so worried they weren't going to get to go because last night we had a horrible storm that had trees and branches down everywhere not to mention there was a lot of standing water.  Not exactly an ideal set up for a field trip to the park!  Somehow the park was spared and they had a great time!  They got to play on the splash pad, the play ground and had a picnic.  The funny part is the main part of the day that Emerson will tell you about is getting to ride the bus!

They all wear these special field trip shirts...so cute!

S'Mores

Shawn had bought goodies for making S'Mores one night when he had run in the grocery store.  Ever since, Emerson had been talking about eating marshmallows.  We haven't had the chance to fire up the firepit outside but that didn't stop Super Daddy!  I managed to get food poisoning so it was unfortuantely a pretty boring Saturday for everyone.  Daddy finished up the day on a high note with Emreson and they made indoor S'Mores!

Emerson raced to get her chair into position to help!

Marshmallows are the best when they actually catch on fire!

Emerson was trying to blow out the fire from a pretty good distance away!

Ready to dig in!

Yummy marshmallows!

I love how she is looking at her Daddy!