Emilia's 5th Birthday!!!

Yesterday was Emilia's 5th Birthday (yes, it's hard to believe that she's THAT old), and she has been waiting for this one because she knew what her big present was....her very own motorcycle helmet. She's now officially old enough to ride on Daddy's bike on the streets, but she had to have a helmet first. Mommy took in cupcakes and popsicles to school so that she could share with her new friends. She helped me make the little bitty cupcakes (just the right size for 4-5 year olds) the night before, but was surprised at the popsicles as an added treat! We stayed for a Karate demonstration where she got to kick the big bag and yell "KIA" (I was thinking, hey, that's what I drive!!), and then we came on home. She was in her jeans before Daddy even got home from work (he was only about 10 minutes behind us), just waiting to go for her first ride. Daddy insisted on another safety lesson even though she's had it many times over, just to make sure that all the rules are still up front in her brain! She was so happy and told me many times how much better it was to ride on the street than in the back yard. She did think that the helmet was pretty heavy and her little neck was having a hard time holding it up, so Daddy told her that she'd have to get a ride every day until Biker Sunday, just to make sure she's strong enough to go on the ride with him (since baby AND Mommy won't fit on the back with Daddy). Check out the pics below...

Can I put it on? Can I put it on?????

Check out that HUGE smile!!!

Getting yet another lesson on what NOT to touch on the bike and exactly how to get on....safety first, you can never have too many lessons on that.

Going down the street

Going up the street


Coming back from her very first ride on the streets....doesn't she look like a HAPPY girl?


After they got back, we had to hurry up and head out for practice at church, Tim would have normally skipped it, but since this Sunday is Biker Sunday, he really needed to be there since it's a big music day. We took her out to Applebee's for her birthday dinner after practice, and she had fun eating her corn dog and fries. When we got home she was able to open up (well, I may be a little loose with my words there, they weren't actually WRAPPED, hence the closed eyes!!), her presents from NaNa. We haven't been out shopping yet for her presents using her money from Grandpa and Grandma and Shray NaNa yet, but we will soon. She got a cool chalk stamp set and a Princess ballerina kit/toy/camping thing. She spent last night in her tent camping on the floor of her room in her sleeping bag...she thought that was pretty cool too.

waiting with eyes patiently closed

oooh...a sidewalk chalk, stamp thingy

HI
YEAH!! A Princess/Ballerina tent, sleeping bag, blow up chair and STUFF!!!

Checking out the loot

This is what is in the princess/ballerina pack

Princess crown AND a Birthday crown

Itty Bitty cupcakes

Emilia's (umm humm) do-it-yourself Haircut

When Emilia was supposed to be taking her nap last Thursday, she instead decided to have a little "Fun". She found an end piece of crayon and drew all over Abi's comforter, then she found a pen, and wrote all over the sheet. She also went to the bathroom (which is allowed, even during nap time), but instead of just going, she put on Mommy's deodorant ON TOP of her shirt!! The big one though, you know, the one that brought Mommy to tears, was that she decided to CUT HER OWN HAIR!!! Her hair was in braids, so she decided to snip the ends of her braids off, which made her hair pretty darn choppy in the back, but then she decided to cut off a huge chunk of her bangs.....now that one can't be fixed!!

She was not very pleased with herself once it was done, can you tell?

Here's a close up of the bang damage


The back of her hair, it WAS all as long as the longest piece there, clear down her back!

Another shot of the back


So, for her punishment, she had to call both of her grandma's to tell them what she'd done (humiliation works very well on this age, better than a time out or spanking!), and she also had to go to school with her hair different heights. There's not much that could be done about the bangs, but luckily, she accidentally left a big enough piece, that I can part her hair to cover most of the missing piece. The back really just needed to be straightened out, but we decided that since she'd done this because she wanted to have short hair (she's been asking since LAST school year), it was probably best to get it cut shorter like she'd wanted it. On Friday, after school, I took her to get her hair cut and here she is....MUCH happier, with her new cut!

it actually turned out much cuter than I thought it would

model pose of the new cut
Isn't she cute??

First day of School 2007

On August 13th, Emilia started her first day of Pre-K!! She is four days too young to get into kindergarten down here (don't get Tim started on THAT one!), but she needs to be around other kids, so she's going to a different pre-school this year. She's very excited to be going to school again, but this year she goes ALL day and ALL week, so it's quite a change for all of us. She needs to be there between 8 and 8:30 in the morning and I can pick her up between 3 and 3:30 in the afternoon. Her teacher's name is Miss Katrina, and the helper is Miss Diane. She's loving it so far, but has had to miss about a week already because of her tonsillectomy/adnoidectomy at the end of August. She's going to miss another week in the middle of September when we go back home, but it's definitely a necessary trip! This school is a big change for us since she was able to go to a Christian pre school last year, but we are in the south, so the kids are still allowed to say a "blessing" before they eat lunch if they want. She's having loads of fun in her new class!

Here she is posing by Mr. Tree. She still needs to tell him good morning every morning, and she says hello to him again when we get home!


The girls in the van, waiting to go!!

For sure now, It's a boy!!

We had another ultrasound today on the big machine, and the baby now weighs nearly 5 pounds!!! He did turn this weekend (I can tell you for sure it was on Saturday because I was bawling on the bed because it hurt so badly!), so he's officially head down now and VERY low. I shouldn't be surprised though, the girls were low early also, there's just not a whole lot of room inside Mom to allow for dropping room. He's a bit too scrunched up to measure his length, but all the measurements they could take were right on track with the two other ultrasounds they've done downstairs.

Here's a cute picture of his little foot kicking the tar out of Mommy!





THIS is the shot Tim was waiting for, the for sure, no doubt about it, this is a BOY picture!!

Sea World

*** DISCLAIMER***
I realized after loading a couple of pictures that these are going to be completely backwards, so if you want to see them in order, start at the bottom.....sorry

So, we were able to go to Sea World this summer and of course, I hadn't put the pictures up yet, so here they are. Bush Gardens is nice enough to offer military members and up to three dependents FREE admission into one of their parks once a year, so we took them up on it this year and ALL of us got in for FREE (Shelby was too little to cost anyway)!!!! We also were able to find a GREAT deal on a hotel that had TWO rooms, TWO bathrooms, AND a kitchen for only $50 a night!!! That was so nice, the girls were in one room and each girl even got their own bed since there were two beds in the room and we took the pack n' play for Shelby. Mommy and Daddy had their own room too!! How nice. We drove down on a Tuesday, went to Sea World on Wednesday, and drove back on Thursday....not a long trip, but we had loads of fun and only used 4 leave days (Tim had Monday off too, but had to be back on Friday or we'd get charged leave for Saturday and Sunday too, and we want to have some left over for when the baby comes!). Anyway, enjoy the pics.....



Poor, tired girl, it was a LOOOOONG drive

Scrunchy Chipmunk cheeks

This is what greets you on Daytona Beach when a storm blows up.

Isn't it a pretty storm?

Ooooh, how dark!!

It was just like Baywatch when the storm popped up, the trucks drove up the beach and the lifeguards blew whistles getting everyone out of the water so that they wouldn't get hit by all the lightening. It was pretty though out over the water.

On comming storm.

Miss Emilia didn't want to get out so soon.

There's Daddy trying to herd the monkeys out of the water.

Abi photo montage..... This is when she fell, skinned her knee and found a sand dollar.

Trying to get up,

Up and running....

She's good, with just a slight boo-boo on her knee.

Daddy holding the littlest water baby, she LOVES water of any and every type!!!

Emilia picking up sea shells.

Daddy took Shelby FAR out!

And he got hit with a wave, Shelby loved it though.

Abi and Emilia picking up shells.

Shelby's first taste of the ocean. She practically ran all the way from the van down here, it kind of reminded me of my first trip back to the ocean right after my high school graduation, I just wanted to get to the water...it gets in your blood.

All four girls (plus a little boy inside Mommy) on the beach.

The "Believe" Shamu show

This was so great to watch...we left with not just one, but TWO girls that are more than ready to become Marine Biologists so they can swim with the big whales too.

Riding on a whale.

FUN!!

Abi's a bird chick, so I took a picture of this one for her, but just as I was snapping it, Tim yelled out, watch out, it's going to get you....

And the bird flew away from the HUGE whale!!

Aren't they sweet?

waving

waving with his tail

whale kisses

Good Job!

Whale surfing

underwater surfing

more whale kisses

Good whales

waiting for treats

Isn't it amazing how high those huge animals can jump?

MORE whale kisses...

Fresh fish, what a treat!!

Aren't the manatees beautiful? I know, they're kind of an acquired taste, but I did so much research on them in high school, back when I wanted to be a marine biologist that I just had to see some up close and personal. For being the closest relative to an elephant, they are so graceful under the water.

Beautiful sea cows, did you know that these animals were the start of the legend of mermaids? I think those sailors had to be out to sea for a LONG time to picture these as beautiful women swimming towards them!!

Abi and Emilia looking at dolphins under water.

Abi is in LOVE with dolphins, so this was her absolute favorite part of the day, everything dealing with the dolphins.

more dolphins

The dolphin tank

Emilia tight rope walking on the curb by the dolphin tank.

All three girls trying to touch a sting ray...yes, Daddy is holding on to Shelby, she's not hanging over the ledge by herself.

Daddy and Emilia checking out the sting rays.

Abi and Shelby with the rays.

Abi and Emilia at the entrance to the park by the pink flamingos. Did you know that they are pink because they eat shrimp?

OK, this one is totally out of place, but the big girls climbed into bed with Shelby one morning to wake her up, and the pictures were just too cute. I personally don't remember being small enough to fit three people in a crib, but it works for the skinny girls!

This one was taken by the Sea World people, but how cool that they got one of Abi feeding a dolphin....she was SOO excited about that!!

This is all of us feeding the dolphins, I was amazed that they were able to get all of us into one shot. We don't know who the chick behind us is, but she kind of reminded me of Courtney.