I took a bunch of Christmas pictures last year. Here's a few things I captured but never shared with anyone.

This is my cute little neighbor (Tanner's best friend). And now that Emma is born, she's not the only girl in the neighborhood. Whew, what a relief for her!

And this is her brother (Josh's best friend). I'm pretty sure he's in love with Emma! And vice versa. Actually, Emma probably thinks these kids are her family too with as much time as we all spend together.

Grandpa and Grandma from Texas got the boys a Wii last year. You should have seen the excitement!
Josh quickly called his cousins, Braden and Kamron, to tell them the great news!

Much to Josh's surprise, their daddy got them one too! (What a great year!!!)

Emma got presents too. Grandma from Texas knitted her a new beautiful blanket.

Aunt Kori gave her her first jewlery box.

And Aunt Kori made her a bow holder to match her room. The two ribbons on the bottom of the "E" go down a long ways. This has given me plenty of room to clip all her pretty hair bows this past year. We even have room for a few more.(hint,hint Kori).

Emma Update

We are heading to Little Rock again this Wednesday for the 3rd laser treatment on Emma's port-wine stain on her face. My mom is coming with Emma and I this time. The 1st and 2nd treatments were so effective at lightening the appearance of her stain. We are very hopeful that it won't take the 8-10 treatments they predicted in the beginning to remove the majority of her mark. She is responding so well to the treatments. The doctors told me that not everyone responds, so I am very thankful it is working for her. The doctors are going to do another complete job where they put her under for about 10 minutes or less. They have to do this because she will be getting her upper eye lid treated and they have to insert an eye shield which would probably be impossible to do if she was awake.

Today, Emma and I went up to visit a pediatric opthalmologist. He dialated her eyes to check for any problems. Many port-wine stain patients (if their stain is over an eye) end up having internal eye problems such as glaucoma. They say this is because of the conglomeration of blood vessels and the eye not draining properly. Since it doesn't drain properly, pressure builds up in the eye, which is glaucoma. But the good news is, it is fairly simple to treat with a daily eye drop.

The doctor said her eyes look balanced except for her optic nerve. It is slightly larger than the one in her good eye. So, he's sending Emma up to the hospital to perform the eye pressure test. (I thought that's why I drove all the way up to his office today.) But apparently most doctors can't perform that test on a 13mo. old safely without putting them out for a minute with a bit of gas in a hospital.

So, my next mission tomorrow is to try to organize the eye pressure test along side the laser treatment while we're in Little Rock. Getting knocked out once is better than twice in my opinion! Little Rock Children's hospital is really awesome! So I'm very hopeful we get it all scheduled together. The people there are so SO nice, patient, helpful, and happy. It is always nice to go there, because the people really show you they care. Plus, I love driving back through Arkansas during the fall. There are so many beautiful trees! (That's were Eric and I went to college, too.)

So hopefully in 8-10 weeks we will see some more major progress on Emma's red spot. It's really interesting how after the bruising from the laser goes away, the stain itself keeps fading and fading for several more weeks until finally, you can really see a big difference!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Elisabeth let me be an author on our blog now. HE HE!

Here's my first post.

Emma's 1st Birthday Pictures

My friend, Cara, came to our house the other day to take Emma's 1st Birthday pictures. I think they all turned out beautifully. Here are some of her in the tutu I made her. Emma had a great time running around in her fluffy skirt smiling for the camera. Isn't she adorable?

Eric LOVES Volleyball

I got way behind on my posts. Sorry for all the old pictures, but I don't want to skip over some of them.
These are some pictures at one of Eric's volleyball games. He loves the game dispite breaking his ankle here a few years ago.
He even recruited one of our friends from church, Angela, to play on this team. I got a picture of her serving. She's GOOOOOOD!
Josh and Tanner loved getting to see their daddy play volleyball. I don't think Emma was awake for most of the game, but I'm sure one day she'll love the game as well.
We had a great time meeting all of Eric's volleyball "family" and watching him play. Our daddy is the BEST!

Oklahoma Land Run at Northmoor

Tanner had his annual Land Run at school. They dress-up in their old western clothes and made a stick horse so that they could re-inact what happened 119 years ago on April 22, 1889. There was about 2 million acres of land that needed established. So the government let anybody who wanted it, "run for it." There were around 50,000 people who turned out for it. The government had set out so many stakes, and the people took a flag and put it in place of a stake to call the land their own. They had to wait at a starting line until the gun was fired and then they could run and get their land. Some people hid out early at the stake of land that they wanted. These people became known as "Sooners." But by the end of the day, both Oklahoma City and Guthrie (Oklahoma's first capital) had established cities of 10,000 people. Literally in half a day, because the gun didn't fire until noon that day. Tanner had a great time with MiMi and Poppie helping him find a huge plot of land to "stake". Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Maples said he made a great choice of land. Then we all sat down on a blanket we brought and had a picnic lunch on Tanner's new homestead.

Tanner's Big #5, April 15th, 2008.

Tanner has had a great year. He celebrated his birthday this year with wonderful family and great friends. This year Tanner picked a chocolate cake with white rainbow chip frosting (which I have to say is also my all time favorite frosting!) Tanner got some swim gear from his cousins, Braden and Kamron and some art things from MiMi and Poppie. Mom and Dad got him the bike ramp he'd been wishing for, but is still to this day a little hesitant to try it out. But that's okay with Josh who's been breaking it in for him.
Tanner had a great start to school this year in Mrs. Reynold's Pre-K class. He learned all his letters this year which will give him a great start in Kindergarten. Tanner's teacher said that everyone in class really liked Tanner. One little girl, had a nick name for him, "Funny Man Tan". Tanner is always trying to get a smile out of people. He's got a great understanding of people. Even though he doesn't like to cry in front of anyone, he will always be the first to Laugh! We love you, Tanner! We thank Heavenly Father every day for sending such a sweet Spirit into our Family. Lucky Us!

Hair Scare

About 2 weeks prior to these pictures, my sweet Tanner got a haircut on his fifth birthday. That was the #1 thing he wanted. The night before these pictures, Tanner told me he was going to cut his hair because it was too long...LOL! (His hair didn't even have a chance to grow since his last cut!) Well, I hid the scissors that night and discussed with him that only the hairdresser cuts his hair. I guess he was a man on a mission, because after everyone went to bed he snuck up and gave himself a sweet hair cut. I was not nearly as happy when I woke up to little snips of hair all over the bathroom floor. This of course scared me to death because Tanner hadn't even woken up yet, so for the half a second it took for me to turn around and check on him in bed my imagination went thru the paranoid thought of... a 5yr. old+scissors=blood. Whew, to my relief there was only an stip of hair gone. So, we took a few pictures and went back to the hairdressers to try to even things out before Pre-K started that day.

I Love Short Hair!

I've always been a long hair kinda girl. I got my real first haircut in college when I was 20 yrs. old. Up until that point I was known by my long straight thick blond hair. Little by little I've been inching my way to short hair. And as time has gone by, my hair has also gotten darker. My amazing friend, Cara, can do wonders when it comes to hair. Ask anyone! She's been cutting and coloring my hair since she moved here from California in 2005. Lucky me! What do you think? I love the cut!

Emma's Milestones

Emma cut her 1st tooth today! She is 71/2 mo. old. I knew it was coming because I could see her teeth right under her gums. She didn't fuss at all. Her naps have been shorter for sure for a couple weeks now. But no fever and hardly any drooling at all. I hope the rest are this easy for her.
Another thing happened tonight... she rolled over from her back to her tummy. That's a 1st as well.
Before I forget, I have to mention a few of her milestones as of today. She smiled at only 4 weeks old. She sat up at 5mo. old (thanks to the bumbo seat). She rolled over April 5th from tummy to back at 61/2 mo. old. She nursed until 7mo. old and has now cut her 1st tooth. Way to go Emma!

Made with Love by Grandma

We sure were surprised to get this lovely dress from Grandma! It is so beautiful and Emma looks adorable in it! We love everything Grandma knits! The most special things she's made for the kids are their 1st blankets... even Josh still adores his and sleeps with his every night. We sure are lucky to have a Grandma so very talented!

Eric's Birthday

We celebrated Eric's birthday in March. He asked for an ice cream cake. We tried the one from Walmart a few years ago... not bad, but nothing special. This year we stopped by Marble Slab and it was a winner! There was a thin slice of cake on the bottom and the rest was made of this rich sweet cream ice cream with strawberries mixed in! We had to modify the candles so we didn't melt the cake! You may have to take yourself back to grade school to remember this, but... my nephew decided that the 3 candles on the top were in the ten's place and the ones on the bottom were in the one's place... Thirty-Two! Great idea and Eric blew them out with one breath. I hope he got his wish!