Climbing Caches & Ready for Softball

Tim and Anna Kate love extreme geocaching. In fact, they have recently hidden two -- one on top of a bridge pillar and one very high up in a tree. It amazed me how much Anna Kate loves to climb, but it scares me to watch her.

We are all getting the softball fever. Anna Kate can't wait to play, and I have signed Emma up to play this year in the tee ball league. We have been to the park as a family to practice a couple of times. While out and about geocaching in Starkville recently, Tim and Anna Kate stopped by MSU softball field. Anna Kate thought it was neat to stand on a collage softball field. We hope to watch a few of their games this spring. We also are looking forward to watching New Hope play.

Birthday Lunch at Mi Hacinda

Our girls love Mexican food, especially at Mi Hacinda, so my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew took Emma and Anna Kate after church today for Emma's birthday. Emma got to wear the hat, was served a special dessert, and the waiters all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She has had a big weekend. Thanks to Samantha for getting these pictures for me.

She's 6!

It's official. Our baby is 6! Wow, I just can't believe how fast she is growing up. These pictures were taken several weeks ago to use for her photo birthday invitation. It was pretty cold and windy that day, but Emma did a great job. We had fun finding a couple of new places to take pictures. We love you, sweetheart! Happy Birthday.

Emma's Party

Emma had an awesome 6th birthday party yesterday at Skate Zone. This is one of her favorite places, so she was super excited to share the experience with a bunch of her friends and family.
She did a great job skating.

They all had fun skating, especially doing the birthday dance in the center of the rink.

Hannah Montana was Emma's party theme, which fit her perfectly. She enjoyed blowing out the candles on her Hannah Montana cake and opening all the great presents. Thanks everybody!

They also had fun in the play area. It was just a fun day all the way around.

Happy Birthday, Emma. We love you!

Ready for Birthday

Emma's 6th birthday is tomorrow. They called her name on the intercom at school yesterday, and she went to the office to get her birthday hat. We took her out to eat last night. Her party with family and friends is just a couple of hours away, and I am sure church will be fun for her tomorrow with that being her birthday. This is definitely a big weekend for her, and she is super excited.

Haircuts and Mardi Gras

We had a busy day yesterday: visiting my brother, getting haircuts, taking pictures, rearranging furniture at home, cleaning house/washing clothes, softball practice, and eating out at our favorite restaurant -- Mi Hacinda. I am thankful that I don't have anything to do today except for church. I am working on a great Nora Roberts book, so that's how I plan to spend my afternoon.
The girls have been begging me for weeks to take them to get their hair cut short. I guess I have been putting it off because I really didn't want Emma to get her's cut short. I love her beautiful, long blonde hair. But we did it, and she looks so cute. She cut about 6 inches.

Anna Kate got her's cut too, and it looks super cute. It will be a good cut for her with softball season just around the corner. As you can see, she didn't want her picture made.

After the haircuts, we snapped these couple of pictures real quick for Mardi Gras just for fun!

Olympics

We have really enjoyed the Winter Olympics so far. We like to watch pretty much all of the sports, but our favorite is the ice skating. We are looking forward to watching the men's long program tonight and will be cheering for American Evan Lysacek. It's nice to have something that we all like to watch as a family. Another show that we LOVE to watch as a family is American Idol -- so glad they are finally down to the top 24. Anyway, Emma made this Olympic flag at her Wednesday night Missions Friends class at church.

Our Sweethearts

Here are a couple of shots from this morning before we left for church. Aren't they cute with their sweetheart teddy bears given to them from Meme and Daddy Bill?

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures I took the other day of our Valentine's Sweethearts. Anna Kate and Emma, we love you! Love, Mom & Dad.

Valentine's Gift

Here's what Anna Kate got from her boyfriend Dylan yesterday. She was so excited.

More Snow

Well, we got more snow, but, for the second time this year, there was basically no ground accumulation. That's okay with me. I enjoyed watching it fall.

Valentine's Tea

Anna Kate's GA class hosted a Valentine's Tea for some of the elderly ladies in our church last night.
Here's Anna Kate serving some of the desserts.

Here are the GAs and their teachers. They had a fun night.

Making a Heart

After seeing a picture online of people making a heart shape with their hands, we thought it would be neat to try. Here are our two attempts. The first picture was from Monday, and the second was done today. I will admit it was pretty cold this morning, and Emma's hands are pretty small compared to Anna Kate's so it was a little difficult. Maybe we will try it again before Valentine's Day. If not, I think either of these will do.

Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

The girls and I did several projects this weekend to get ready for Valentine's Day. We did some shopping for a few special people, did a little decorating, got their cards ready to exchange with friends at school, and Emma decorated her Valentine's box for school. We also took some Valentine portraits outside. These will be used for Valentine cards for family. I will post a few of the pictures on Valentine's Day.
Anna Kate's cards are Jonas Brothers, and Emma chose Princess and the Frog.

Isn't Emma's Valentine's box cute? Talking about cute, she looked super cute Saturday dressed up in her birthday outfit for her birthday portraits. I can't believe she is turning six at the end of this month. It was SO cold and windy Saturday, but Emma did a great job posing for her pictures. I can't wait to get her picture invitations ordered, and I plan to post a few of the pictures on her birthday. Can't wait! I am so proud of how wonderful she did.

Science Fair

So glad to have this Science Fair project finished and out of my house. Anna Kate did a great job on this popcorn experiment.

More Birthday Pics

Here are a few more "birthday" pics of me with the girls. They were taken yesterday before we went to church. I like these better than last week's, so these are what will go in our photobook. The last one is my fav. Sometimes you just have to do a do-over!