Oh my heavens! Emma is Seven!

Oh my heavens, Emma is seven!  Can you believe it?!  I really cannot!  I was joking with the kids if we only put 6 candles on Emma's birthday cake every year if she'd stay 6 and if we put 4 on Cal's upcoming birthday cake if he would stay four.  They thought that was pretty funny.  It's really hard to believe that our kids are growing up so fast.  Emma is really a big girl now!

Emma decided months ago she wanted to do a penguin themed birthday party!  So we did just that.  Here are the invitations we made together.  It's fun now that's she's so into planning too.  We came up with and prepared the games, food, and activities for her party together.

My mom found this cheeseball igloo in one of her cake decorating magazines.  So she made it, so stinkin' cute!  The penguins are olives, cheese, and carrots.  

First on the agenda - food!  We had sub sandwiches, penguin beak chips, blue ocean jello jigglers, and cantelope with purple grapes.   

We decorated with these penguin balloons.  

Aren't Lucy and Brody looking so grown up?!  These two are a crack up together!

Emma, Tayla and Amber are such cute girls!  Em sure has great cousins!  Emma was dressed in black and white (she wanted to dress like a penguin, ha ha!) but when Tayla came in her shirt that Emma has an identical one of, she had to go change to match her.  Silly girls!  

The BYU game was delayed and so it was happening during the party, and the Washington State game was also happening during this time, so everyone kept getting updates and/or listening to the game.  Go Cougs (the blue and the crimson and grey ones)!

Present time!  You gotta love the wrapping job on this one!  ;)  Must be from Grandma Sue!

Emma loves kitties and I don't think she's ever had a birthday that she doesn't get one!  She sleeps with a whole bunch of them and can't live without them!

Kaison and Cal, the crazy boys!

Mayela holding Coverton, while Stacy takes pictures of the party!

Emma's birthday cake.  She wanted to help make it this year, and she did do a lot of it!  She is quite the cake decorator!

Singing "Happy birthday to you!"

Happy birthday, Emma!  We love your cute freckles, your sweet nature, thirst for knowledge, fun giggle, how obedient you are, your willingness to help your siblings, and so much more!  We are so blessed you're in our family!

The kids were too busy having fun playing at the park, so we did activities when we got home.  I didn't take many pictures, but we had a great time anyways!  We played musical icebergs on styrofoam blocks, a fish ice-melt game, and pin the bow on the penguin.

We also did a few crafts - made penguin hats and made our own pom pom penguins and igloos.  This one was Cal's...he wanted it to have a mohawk, he he!

Then we had some ice-cream to top things off.  What a great night celebrating a girl we love so much!  You are too cool, Miss 7 Year Old!

Back to school

Monday it was back to school for Emma!  She was very excited about going into the 2nd grade!  Em was looking good, thanks to Aunt Julie, who took her on a shopping spree, where she picked out this shirt and a bunch of other shirts and pants.  Thanks, Aunt Julie!  I don't know if Hello Kitty will ever go out of style for Emma girl, she loves it!  We made banana muffins for breakfast, got all ready (no problems waking her up today, we'll see if that lasts), packed her up a special lunch with a note inside and headed off to meet her teacher and class!

More exciting than going to second grade was the fact that Emma gets to go to "Grandma's School", where Grandma Sue works as a administrative assistant and ground duty.  Grandma is also the Tolman Tiger on the first day of school.  Emma was so excited to see her!

Hooray for the Tolman Tigers - this is also where Dave went to elementary school!  Emma likes to walk around with Grandma, who brings her candy at lunch recess, which she thinks is pretty cool.  The first week was a success. It's kind of hard though, because Em will only be going to school here for a few weeks, until we can close on our house in WY.  I was kind of worried, I think Emma was going to have issues with that.  And I think she's a little hesitant to make friends again, because she knows she's going to have to leave them again, but she's done great, though she is a little shy!  Emma's teacher, Mrs. Simon, is super sweet and has been so good.  And it's been so fun having Grandma there.  Aren't Grandma's the best?

While Emma's at school, we do Mommy preschool!  We do our chore, workbooks, learn a new theme, and do an activity to go along with it.  We even made name cards to stick on our table when we're gathered around to learn.  The kids like doing our activity best - in this picture, Lucy's doing some science in the backyard.  

The kids are still doing well with Covie.  They love him and are so sweet!!  It's weird not having Emma around during the days again.  Cal doesn't mind though, more snuggle time for him!  He loves his brother!

Coverton turned 2 weeks old on the first day back at school and he is doing great!  He's totally a dream baby - sleeps well, eats well, and hardly ever cries.  Covie was 8 lbs, 2 oz. at his 2 week appointment and growing well.  The doctor said she couldn't believe how patient and good he was!

Amy's baby shower

My sister, Amy, is going to have her first baby in October!  And it's a boy!  And I'm so excited for her!  We had so much fun planning this shower for her and it was great to be there with our family, old ward and family friends!  Since Amy and Kolb are into all things hunting, we went with a hunting/camo shower theme.  

We had great food - camo cupcakes, camo chocolate pretzels, beef jerky, trail mix, tomato & cucumbers, camo chocolate popcorn.  Yum!

 With our "sister" Camille - love these girls!

Coverton is so excited to meet his little cousin Boji!  They will be best buddies!  He also had to dress up for the occasion.

Eating and shooting the breeze, what we women do best!

My sister, mom and I.  So thankful these amazing women are such a huge part of my life - what would I do without either of you?!  Funny story about the little camo booties, bib, and hat in the background on the clothesline.  I've been hanging onto these for over 6 years now!  Once when we were out shopping for Emma when she was a baby, I saw them and decided we had to get them for Amy & Kolby when they had a baby.  They were too cute and perfect.  So here we are 6 years later and I finally was able to give them to her.  It was worth the wait.

Present time!  The girls had a fun time being fashonistas with the wrappings and ribbons.  Am got some other neat things too, so hopefully she has a good start up for Boji!

My mom and Mayela made this adorable fruit baby.  After the shower, Emma had fun playing with it Mr. potato style and mixing things up.  She called this one the alien baby, ha ha!

Love ya, Am!  You will be one of the best mothers to walk this earth!  So happy for you!

End of summer...bummer!

This time of year is always a little sad for me.  I love, love summer and am kind of sad to see it end.  It seems like it always goes by so fast and we never get to everything we wanted to.  Around here, we've been enjoying a new baby and trying to enjoy what's left of summer before we go back to school and back to work.

We've been trying to finish up the last few things on our summer bucket list.  I think we've done pretty well (though sorry, Emma, I don't know if we'll check "get a kitty" or "go to Disneyland" off our list this year!), and have had fun coming up with activities and looking forward to something fun to do in the afternoons after we've finished our responsibilities.

Some items on our list are simple, and others take a little more planning and preparation.  But whatever its been it's been fun together!  I have been slacking with taking pictures this summer, but I did take some of a few of our activities.  I have heard that with your first child, you take pictures all of the time of everything, and by the 3rd, 4th, and subsequent kids, you're lucky to even get a photo or two of their major milestones!  :)  Hopefully I'll keep up and try to preserve our memories through pictures.  Well, here are a few of the fun things of our bucket list we've done lately.

Bubble blowing with home-made bubbles...We used all kinds of tools to try blowing them, but the kids had the most fun just using their hands!

Cov snoozes through most of our fun...but we're glad he's around!  

What says summer like snow cones?!

Our visit to Temple Square was awesome!  We loved the visitors centers, listening to the organist practice in the Tabernacle, and seeing the beautiful plaza and temple, of course!

Touring the Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate factory - drool on!

Bountiful Summerfest - we loved the music and dancing from all around the world!

Playing pretend!  We had a Princess, a football player, a fairy and Coverton got dressed up as a cowboy.