My 4 Year old all grown up!

I can't believe it's been 4 whole years since Emma entered our family! Four years ago she was in the NICU less than 3 and 1/2 pounds and trying to learn to breath and eat on her own. She has grown into such a beautiful, fun loving, crazy, entertaining, sweet little girl. We love her so much and cannot imagine life without her.

Emma is so full of life. She gets excited about everything in life- from seeing a dog on the side of the road to seeing someone she knows from church or preschool- she just screams with excitement. She loves learning and really enjoys going to pre-school. And anytime we see our extended family, she'll run up and hug everyone. And she makes friends wherever we go. Almost every person she meets is her "best friend". It's great to see her wanting to make friends with anyone she meets.

Emma also is a great sister to Reese. She plays with her all the time in her bedroom and teaches Reese so much (hopefully it will continue to be a good example :)). She always says, "Reese come follow me!" or "Reese, let's play hide 'n seek!" She loves having a playmate and even though they fight and scream over toys and sharing, they really play well together most of the time.

Emma is so sweet. There will be random moments when I tuck her in for a nap, or we cuddle together and she'll look up at me and say, "Mom, I just love you." It is so sincere and never has to be prompted. She is very polite and always says please and thank you.

She really likes routines and what's going on during the day. Every night and every nap time, she won't be satisfied unless I sing her "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" and "Mary's Lullaby". Even though those songs are getting a little old....I really enjoy that time with her.

Some of Emma's favorite things are:
Blue suckers
Playing hide 'n seek
Playing Duck, Duck, Goose
Anything princess (that hasn't changed!)
Tea parties and dressing up like princesses
Playing with her friends
Pizza and ice cream cones
Any animal, especially little dogs
Going to Kangaroo Zoo (blow up toy place)
Taking naps in Mom's bed

Cade and I are so grateful for this little gal in our lives. She is so full of life and personality and is going to be such a good big sister to all of her siblings. We love her very much!

Fall Pictures of our Cuties

For Christmas cards this year we just wanted to take pictures of the girls. So one day after work, Cade and I got the girls ready and walked down the pathway in our backyard to these pretty vines that look really cool in the fall. Luckily the girls will do anything for a sucker :). AND...it's sure helps to have Cade there with me getting them to smile. Reese actually cooperated for almost 10 whole minutes! Love these cuties!!!

Halloween and Fall Fun

We have had SO much fun this fall! Since being released from Young Women's it's seeemed like we've had a lot more time to do fun things as a family and Cade and I have really enjoyed being able to both do a lot with our girls together. This first picture I had to put in here :). This is Cade's second year participating in our Youth's activity "Where's Waldo?" He does such a great job disguising himself. Someone in our ward said, "Cade is like a chameleon! He can change his appearance so well and become whoever he wants!" I agree...he can look like anyone he wants. The best part of his change this time was his kitty shirt. And all the youth LOVED it and thought he was so cool :).

We went to a pumpkin patch and went on a hayride with the girls. Reese didn't know if she liked the hayride, but picking out our pumpkins was really fun! We also had the girls paint pumpkins, Cade carved pumpkins and I made pumpkin sugar cookies. It was a really fun night.

The weekend before Halloween, we had Grandpa Close come visit us and both girls LOVED seeing him and just having fun. Emma really didn't want to leave his side the entire time. It was so cute!
Cade and Grandpa got to go to a BYU game together and spend a whole lot of time hanging out.

THEN, the week of Halloween Grandma Close came to visit! Her visit was planned for months. Grandpa coming the weekend before for the game was kind of last minute, but their plans didn't collide together so we got some extra time with them! We got to do lots of fun things with Grandma. We played at Castle Park, went to Daddy's work Halloween party, rode the Nightmare Express train in Lindon, got to carve pumpkins and trick or treat. It was great!

For Halloween this year Cade was a wizard and i was a witch. Both girls were of course, princesses :). I REALLY wanted Reese to wear the Nemo costume that Emma wore 2 years ago, but she would NOT have it! She was determined that she was going to be Snow White (again). That's what she was last year too. Reese had to be a pretty princess just like her older sister. Emma's favorite part of her costume was her red hair just like Ariel :). She walked around just as if she was a princess.

These pictures were at the Fishbowl Halloween Trick or Treat. We love this tradition because it gives them one extra day to dress up and it's inside so you can actually see all the costumes without coats on. 

Boose-Boose wore her poodle PJ's that she brought back from Europe :). That's what is awesome...it's not a costume..just something "normal" that Boose wears!

Getting ready to ride the haunted train with Grandma!

The got to dress up for dance class the week of Halloween as well as for preschool where they got to do a little parade :).

The girls had SO much fun trick or treating around the neighborhood. It was me that got too tired to keep going this year. Being pregnant, wearing high-heels and carrying Reese for part of the time just did me in!

Emma loved running into her friends during the night. The best costume was her friend Berklee...a devil :). It was SO funny and like her mom said, "fits her perfectly". Hillarious!

One of my best friends, Sarah Robinson. We don't work in the Young Women's together anymore so we don't see each other two to three times a week anymore. Love her to death!

Halloween night was sure a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it had to end with Reese falling off a chair with a sucker in her mouth and getting blood all over :(. Kind of fitting for the holiday, but was so sad!

And just for kicks, I had to add these pictures of the "Nacho Libre" gang in Santa Barbara. I'm so glad Kristen and Andrew decided to have Jaxon be Nacho Libre. SO funny!