Emma turned 3!

Emma turned 3! We celebrated her birthday throughout the week. Wednesday morning we had cinnamon rolls (from Trader Joe's, I highly recommend them) for breakfast. Then we had our friends the Browns over for swimming and lunch and cake/ice cream. Then after naps we got balloons, picked up Brandon, and went to Chick Fil A for dinner. Then she opened presents when we got home. Friday we had our friends the Lewises over for pizza and movie night and more cake/ice cream! Saturday the Lewises came swimming with us and Emma helped me make a rainbow cake. Sunday was her actual birthday and Father's Day too. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we also had bacon and orange julius. After naps we had a yummy special dinner of pulled pork, mac n cheese (also from Trader Joe's, also delicious), rolls, and corn on the cob. Then we Skyped with grandparents/etc to sing happy birthday to her and have more cake/ice cream (the cake ended up having a weird texture so it didn't taste great but was fun to cut into at least :-)) and one more present.

One thing I really admire about Emma is how easygoing she is and goes with the flow, she's a great younger sister because she gets excited to do most things Josh suggests and isn't too possessive of toys. She's her own person and does what she wants but doesn't get stuck on what she's doing, she's easy to switch gears, if that makes sense. Of course there are times she really wants to do a certain thing or play with a certain toy and rightly so but overall she's easygoing and fun. She's a good sport and is willing to do almost any activity or play any game, she just wants to be where the party's at. And she makes it a party, she's so fun to be around.

She's also very affectionate and complimentary. You really feel her love for you all the time because she expresses it in multiple ways. I hope she always feels that love reciprocated because I want her to always feel like she can express that love all the time and that it's accepted and expressed back to her.

She gets really excited about things and I love hearing her tell me about something that she's excited about, like her birthday: she just said all the time, "it's my BIRTHday!!!" and you just want to rejoice with her because she's so sincere, heartfelt, expressive and just adorable in every way. I just try to soak her in all the time because it makes me happy. Brandon and I say to each other soooo often, "man, she's just really cute."

Chick Fil A

Swimming with the Lewises

Her REAL birthday. It's official now- she's 3!

I was outside with Emma sitting next to her at her little picnic table while she played with her new kinetic sand and it was like 95 degrees outside, really hot and humid, and I noticed a few little sweat beads on Emma's upper lip and nose. I thought it was so cute and just started at her perfect face and wanted to remember all the details. They change so much as they're growing.

These two were both celebrated yesterday. We sure love this guy.