Emma Turns 5

First time EVER that Emma has requested something non-princessey for her bday :). She is currently into Jake and the Neverland Pirates that plays on Disney Junior. So a friend from our old ward that is a professional cake decorator owed us a cake from Cade helping put Christmas lights on their house from the year before. She made this amazing cake for Emma's bday!

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bleak's house and celebrated with our cousins! We had a pirate piñata with pirate loot in it :). It was simple but great!

Some updates on Emma:

- Little dancer. She loves turning on music and just dancing to her own beat. She has some awesome moves.
- Has been attending Little Red Preschool this year and is a natural leader in her class. She loves being at the center of attention as well.
- Got her first ear ache in over 3 years! She got them all the time in her two years of life but luckily didn't get them for a while.
- Such a friendly, happy girl.
- Great older sister and loves to play with Reese. They love to play dress-up together and be princesses.
- She loves hide-n-go seek, playing chase, and ANYTHING artsy. She will sit at the counter and color, paint, cut and glue for hours. She is a good little artist.
- Loves cuddling and being close to mom and dad

We love our sweet Emma!

Princess Halloween

Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays. I LOVE the costumes, pumpkins, trick or treating, parties, and especially seeing how excited my girls get about everything. This year they got their birthday presents early. They have been asking for "Elsa" dresses for almost an entire year and their wishes finally came true. They were SO excited to show off their pretty dresses!

Trick or Treating at Fishbowl, Daddy's work, has become a favorite tradition...

Brielle Tooke (one of Emma's best friends)

Emma's dance class…

Bryan and Jennie came over Halloween night with james and Noah to go trick or treating around the neighborhood. Then Grandma and Grandpa Bleak came over for soup and watching Harry Potter. It was good times! James was so dang cute just running to keep up with Emma going from house to house. Such a cutie!

AZ trip- Phoenix Temple Open House and Time with GMA & GPA Close

This is the first time I think we've gone down to Arizona in October but it was so fun! Phoenix was having an open house for a new LDS temple in that area so we invited most of Cade's dads side to go through it with us and see the inside before it's dedicated and only members of the church can go through. It ended up that we went to dinner with a few, but Eric and Tamara (Hughes) Seigfried actually walked through and did the tour with us. It was beautiful and so wonderful to see Tamara and Eric. We love them!

Miss Liberty let Nora try on her cute hat :)

The first day we were there, Tammy and Dale were not so we got lots of one-on-one time with Great Grandma and Grandpa. It was so fun to get lots of talking time with them. We of course had to go to Taco Don's with them too :). It was great.

Grandma and Grandpa Close also took us to Morimer's farm and pumpkin patch. We got to see lots of animals, go on lots of ride, get balloon animals and pick out a couple pumpkins. It was so much fun! The girls had a blast. One of their favorite things was dancing to the country band they had playing! They heard music, saw a dance floor and danced their little hearts out. I love my dancing girls :).

On our way home we got to spend time with some cousins. I got a cute pic of Taft holding Nora, but of course don't have a single picture of new baby Shepherd! Well, I guess he is in the background of this picture :). Emma and Reese talk about Ashur and Taft all the time. They miss them so it was fun to see them for a bit.

Family Pictures 2014

Nora made our family pictures! A friend from high school, Andra, did our family pictures again this year. We did them in her indoor studio and we love how they turned out! I especially love the ones of our beautiful girls together!