Emery's song

Emery looooves to sing, especially at the top of her lungs. My favorite is when we are at the store and she is singing as loud as she can. We get lots of funny comments and smiles about it. I've started working with her to not sing quite so loud when we are in public because while I think most people enjoy it and I love that she does it, it's probably good to learn about inside singing voices. But at home or in the car she really gets into it. I've tried so many times to capture the songs she makes up or the ones that she mixes together (I am a child of God eee-i-eee-i-oooo next time won't you sing with meeeee) but every time I get the camera out she stops. I was lucky enough to catch a few snippets of one the other day while driving. The video is terrible because I was at a light and I didn't want Emery to see the phone so you'll just have to listen.

If you can't understand her she is singing, "Please be nice to my baby monster!" And then she sings, "Please be nice to the missionarieeeeees." So cute! I love how she sings with her whole heart and soul. What a little diva!

Love this girl

Bella's field day

Bella  had field day a few weeks ago so Emery and I went to cheer her on. It brought back a lot of good memories for me as I remembered how fun and exciting it was for me as a kid. The weather was actually pretty cool in the morning and didn't heat up too much as the morning wore on. I was so glad. 4 1/2 hours is a long time to be out in the sun!

Bella did great! They don't really compete like they did when I was growing up, they just do races and relays and have a good time. It was fun to watch them. It also gave me some good ideas of things to do this summer!

This one was kind of goofy--they had to run this little obstacle course while holding the octopus on their head. Who thought of that?! The kids loved it.

Emery was such a champ. I was so proud of her. She's started a phase where she runs away from me as fast as she can any time the opportunity presents itself and I was concerned about bringing her with me. But she sat in her stroller for a long time, just watching and cheering Bella on. Then when she got out she would go stand quietly next to Bella or come and stand by me. It was awesome. I think Bella liked playing the big sister role too. She kept carrying Emery around (which is a sight to see because Bella is super tall but so is Emery!) 

And Emery loved all the attention she got from the girls in the class:

At the end of the day all the kids got a popsicle and Emery asked me for one and I told her only the field day kids get one and she didn't throw a fit or get upset at all. I'm so happy she's such a sweet girl. We still have rough days because she's two and a half and that goes with the territory, but I'm so proud of all that she is learning and how hard she [usually] tries. 

Easter eggs

I didn't post about this yet, but we did dye Easter Eggs this year! After seeing other people's eggs masterpieces on facebook I realized we are going to have to seriously step up our game next year! One color is not going to cut it!

Emery liked the green dye and would ONLY put her eggs in the green one. Haha, I don't know why, but that's what she liked so we had lots of green eggs.

Isn't she getting big? 

I didn't get any pictures of our finished product, which is too bad because it will be fun to see how they progress over the years. I was just happy that none of the dye cups spilled. 

We had such a fun Easter. The Texas Family which consists of Gavin's brother and family and two of my cousins and their families all gathered at our house for food and festivities. It was so much fun and the food was amazing! Whitney had fixed a ham in a crock pot a few weeks ago so I tried to do that for Easter. I waaaay over cooked it but it was still delicious. 

Fruit sale!

Something I've really missed since moving to Texas is WINCO! One store for all my grocery needs was so wonderful. They typically had delicious produce, good prices, and an awesome bulk section. They have some good stores here, but none to replace Winco.

Even though I miss Winco, I have found a new love: Sprouts! It's a grocery store, one of the smaller ones with lots of healthier foods and produce. Cheap but delicious produce. They built one really close by about a year ago and I am so happy they did!  I am not good at shopping, I have very little endurance for it. Going to more than one store for grocery shopping used to make me want to curl up in a ball and cry (yes, I'm a wimp, but I seriously don't like it!!!) but the prices and quality at Sprouts makes a second trip soooooo worth it. Plus they have KILLER sales. A few weeks ago they had a one day sale on strawberries for $0.80 per container and Valencia oranges for $0.10 cents per pound!!! Can you believe that?! I bought 18 LBS!!! Do you know how many oranges that is? A LOT. We gorged ourselves on oranges for 2 weeks and it was awesome. And I only paid $1.80 for it. I was worried they would be dry and nasty and we wouldn't be able to eat a lot of them but I was very happy when I cut into the first one and it gushed sweet, delicious juice. The others were the same way. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Today the sale was on blueberries. They were $1 per container. Once again I bought a HUGE amount. Emery helped me wash and separate them for the freezer. We are going to have strawberry blueberry smoothies, blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes for a few weeks. YUM!

Emery is taking a picture of the blueberries too. 

Date night

Gavin and I had the best date night a few weekends ago. A friend set up a group date for go-karting, laser tag and mini golf. We had so much fun! It's been so long since I've done any of those things. And I've never done them with Gavin so it was extra fun. It was a busy night so we couldn't all ride the go karts together so just the girls went first.

Here I am by the pink car of death that I got to drive.

The last time I did go-karts like this I think I was 14 or 15 years old and my dad took us. I remember it being super fun...those were not the feelings this time around however. Go-karting scared me silly! I didn't even enjoy it for the first 75% of the time. Whipping around corners, peeling out, skidding, pedal to the metal, on the verge of being out of control, need for speed, etc, are all feelings I AVOID when I drive! And then I'm trying to recreate them for fun and I'm supposed to enjoy it?! There was a little bit of disconnect there for me. Finally I chilled out a bit and by the last few laps I was actually having fun and was sad to stop. I wasn't at all surprised to see I was the slowest go-karter that round! I came out and told Gavin my experience and then he went in for his.

Gavin got a pink car too! He's number 6

When he came out (I think he was 2nd fastest in his round) he just grinned like a little kid and said, "I liked that 100% of the time!" Haha, I knew he would and was glad he liked it so much.

I did redeem myself a little bit by rocking it in Laser Tag. That is my favorite game! I love sneaking around and hiding out in corners and tagging people as they come by. I came in 4th! I was Ace and Gavin is Legend. Notice how I got him 3 times and he got me none? What a nice guy. In my defense I only shot him once on purpose (where I knew it was him). The other times he was probably far away and I didn't know who I was shooting.

We had so much fun but didn't end up making it to mini golf. Oh well. Next time!

Emery's blessing dress

I probably posted about this when Emery was blessed, but the dress Emery wore to be blessed was made by my mom for me when I was a blessed. When Emery was blessed she spit up ALL over it. I thought I had cleaned it up well enough but when we moved I took it out and the stain had yellowed and looked terrible. I was so nervous about washing it because it's so delicate, but a friend suggested soaking it in oxyclean and then gently rinsing it out. It totally worked! I was so relieved. It's as good as new!

It's so delicate and dainty! I can't wait to get more use out of it one day! Emery's chubby baby arms barely fit in there but we squished them in. It's hard to believe she was once that small.