Heaven

On Sunday we decided to head up to the St. Louis Temple with some friends and see the beautiful flower beds that David has been working so hard on these past two weeks. It was a beautiful evening and the flowers smelled heavenly!

 We are so blessed to have a temple so close by and that David gets to work there every day. He loves his job and we are so thankful for it. What a perfect way to spend the day!

overdue for 11 months

We have had a busy few weeks but I didn't want to miss posting a few things. Emeline turned 11 months with a bang and contracted Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. That was fun. She had scabs and blisters on her hands, knees and feet, and inside her mouth. She had a fever for about a day before the blisters broke out so I thought she was just teething again. The boys both got it in a lower form but Caleb had to be picked up from the nurses office and puked in the car on the way home because his head hurt so bad. Poor guy. Both the boys were able to sleep it off in about a day but poor Emmy is still sporting a few scabs. She is back to her cheerful self, however, so all is good!

This is Emmy praying. She is so funny! Sometimes she will just stop whatever she is doing and fold her arms and bow her head. She is very serious about it too and makes sure everyone around her notices what she is doing.

 Emeline is my child that is into everything. She still loves to eat anything she finds and wants to be included in every one's activities. She is incredibly social and makes friends wherever she goes, whether they be 8 months or 70 years old. She really is a joy to be around and will often break out into dancing when some one's cell phone rings. Actually, she will dance anytime and moves her arms up and down enthusiastically. She loves music and gets so excited when we all dance around with her.

Em also started taking her first steps! She is capable of strutting her stuff across the living room but still hangs on to the furniture for support when she can. I am guessing she will be hands-free when her birthday rolls around.
She still only has the two teeth but we are optimistic that she will have a whole mouth full by the time she reaches kindergarten. Hopefully.

Could that bum be any cuter? I really don't think so.

Meet the Girls!

Or so we hope they are! We won't know for a few weeks what their gender is. Stay tuned for a post with the details.

Surprises

We are getting some new additions on Thursday or Friday! I am so excited and am having the hardest time not telling the kids, so I am telling all of you instead.  Stayed tuned for pictures! (There are bound to be a lot of themÜ)

Mothers' Day

 I loved this card that Caleb made in school for Mothers' Day. Enjoy! (I know I did!)

This has been a fabulous Mothers' Day weekend. It started off on Saturday morning with the Mothers' Day brunch put on by the cub scouts. Breakfast meat is always a good thing. Then we went home and hung out for a while and David helped me paint Em's toenails to match mine Ü I can't help but smile every time I look at them.

Then, we had a good friend come over and babysit the kids so David and I could go to a Cardinals game. She even put Emeline down for bed so we could stay for the whole game. This was a big deal. Pure bliss is all I have to say. Wonderful friends, (you know who you are,) thank you! We had a great time.

This morning I didn't wake up until four am (mothers' day present from Emeline) and then David let me lay in bed until 8 o'clock. Heaven. David didn't have to go to early morning meetings either so I  had his help this morning getting everyone ready. Mothers' day is one of my favorite days to go to church and today was every bit of special that I was hoping for. Jacob even stood up with the primary when they sang to the mothers!
I love how cherished my family makes me feel on this day and how inspired I am by the many women in my life who have taught me how to be a better mother. I love you mom and am grateful for all of your sacrifices for me, especially the ones I don't even know about. And this post is dedicated to your own mother, my grandmother, who we miss especially this year, today.  I am so blessed to be part of the eternal family that I have.

Caleb

I wanted to do a special post on Caleb today. He has been growing up so fast lately and I wanted to remember some of the wonderful things that he is learning and doing.

He wanted to make dinner for all of us the other day and so we asked him what he knew how to make. He thought about it for a minute then decided to make a menu for us to choose from. The funny thing is, is that he picked most of the menu items from a holiday cookbook. I picked the chocolate chip pancakes. They turned out great! He did get a little burn on his finger from the pan but his confident chef abilities quickly swallowed up the pain.

 I am constantly amazed at how patient and loving Caleb is with Emmy. He gets so excited to see her in the morning and plays with her every day. I will be in the other room sometimes and can hear him telling her how cute she is and that she needs to stay a baby forever. She adores him too.

This year, Caleb was 1 of 24 students chosen for the Valley Park Star Award. There are only two people in each grade selected and they have a big awards breakfast to honor each recipient. He was so cute and was just thrilled to be there. (and seriously enjoyed his chocolate muffin) His teacher wrote a cute little poem for him and presented him with a medal and certificate. She always says what a great kid he is and how lucky she is to have had him for her first year of teaching. She said that he is the kind of kid you can sit anywhere because he is kind and friendly to everyone. I love that about him.

 The boys finally got to play their first baseball game of the season on Friday. After being rained out three times, they were both really ready to play. How cute is that uniform? I could honestly eat them both.

 Jacob looks up to his brother so much. He cries when Caleb doesn't want to play anymore and asks me at least five times a day when Caleb will get home from school. Because of the rain out schedules, David and I had to split up for the games and I got to watch Caleb.

 He did really well and got 2 RBIs and a boy out at 2nd. He is really improving his skills and learning to love the game like David and I do. It's so fun!

 Caleb will turn eight in time to attend his first cub scout day camp so they had him help with the Mothers' Day Brunch fundraiser. He had fun scrambling the eggs and cooking the sausage. It was good to see him with all of the other little boys his age and they all worked really hard and had a lot of fun.

 We went fishing for Family Home Evening the other night and here is Caleb with his catfish! He was fine until it started flipping around. That face is priceless.