Museums

In November we went to a couple more museums in Chicago we hadn't been to yet, and I wanted to throw some pictures up here.  We went to the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum.  We had a great day.  On our way home we even tried a new restaurant (to us) attempting to find doner kebaps like we had on our missions.  These were not the same.  Pretty good, but not the same.  Oh well.  We tried.  It'll be some other place next time.

Emma was a little cold on our way into the Planetarium.  I think Eric's hoodie is just a little big for her.

Emma thought the dinosaur footprint made a great seat.

Just outside the restaurant we tried.  I just really liked the brick wall.

Fall Photo Shoot

Yup, it's that time of year when we take Emma out to get some pictures of her.  It's always so much fun.  How could it not be though?  I love Autumn, love being outside with the pretty leaves, and love taking pictures of my girl.  It's also really fun to look back at the previous photos we've taken.  Here are some of my favorite shots.

I love the snooty look she has on her face here.  She can never be serious for too long!

But we always have the last laugh!

Can't Get Over Her

I just can't get over how much I adore Emma!  Not that I'm really trying to get over it.  I'm just constantly amazed how much love a parent can have for their child.  I am grateful every day that I have blessed to be able to experience that with Emma.

Apple Picking Again

Oh how I love apple picking each year.  I look forward to it all year long.  Especially when we will be picking honey crisp apples.  It just doesn't get any better.  Just thinking about all the yumminess that will come from these apples (including just eating them as is), makes my mouth water.

After picking the apples we went to another orchard just down the road where they make fabulous donuts and sell meats and cheeses and cider.  They have a big area with a few picnic tables and some hay bales for the kids to play on, as well as some goats you can feed.  Since this is an orchard and they also have apples you can pick, someone asked me yesterday why we don't just go there to pick the apples in the first place instead of going to another orchard and then coming to this one just for the donuts etc.  I think it's because our first time apple picking a couple years ago was such a wonderful day (it still ranks as my favorite day I've had here), and that this other orchard is the one that helped provide that day, I am now loyal to them.  Maybe it's a little weird, but oh well.

It seemed like half our ward was there apple picking that day and then everyone was eating donuts. Emma had fun playing with all the kids and enjoying the glorious weather.  I love this time of year!

Emma's Baptism

Last Saturday, the 14th of September, Emma was baptized.  I can't believe she's old enough.  I can't believe she's finally to this point in her life.  One of those amazing moments as a parent.  And the service was wonderful.  So many people came to support her and help us out.  She felt so loved.  I can't thank everyone enough who was there.  We pushed it back a couple weeks from her birthday so that her grandma and great-grandma could be there for it.  And it was great having some family there.  I knew that living so far away from family would make it difficult for anyone to come to something like this, especially at the start of the school year, but I am very grateful that they were able to be here for it.

It was amazing to see Emma during the service.  She felt the Spirit so strongly.  She has always been very tender hearted and very in tune with emotions, both hers and other peoples.  It's one of her best strengths.  After she had been baptized and before she was confirmed, her grandma asked her to come up and say the fourth article of faith, which she did, as she started to tear up a little.  And Emma doesn't get nervous in front of people.  These were not nervous tears.  She was very calm as she stood there, as the tears welled in her eyes.  At the end of the service, while we were singing the closing song, she was just sobbing.  The Spirit was overwhelming to her.  I just sat there holding her as she began her lifelong relationship with the Spirit.  It was so precious.  I am so amazed that I get to be her mom.  She is such a blessing to me.  This girl has so many precious gifts.  She is destined for wonderful things as she serves her Heavenly Father.  I am so happy I was able to witness this special day of hers.  The Spirit was very strong.  Several people came up to Eric and me afterwards and told us they had never cried at a baptism before, but they cried at this one.

We had some refreshments afterwards with everyone, and it was nice talking to them.  I appreciated so much their coming out on a Saturday morning to support Emma.  It meant so much to me.  After we finally left, we went to a nearby park to take a few four generations pictures of Emma with Eric, his mom, and his grandma.  It was an absolutely perfect day.

All ready to go!

I am so lucky these two are in my family!

I had these pictures out on the table with the programs.  Sort of a representation of Emma growing up along with a current photo of her.

Better view of the pictures I used.

The programs.  Emma drew this picture when she was 4 years old.  It's of her being baptized by Eric.  We've been saving it ever since to use at her baptism.  We did have a nice current photo of her on the back too, but just had to use this one for the front!

Four generations.

And finally, the girl of honor herself, in the lovely dress my mom got for her.

Family Visit

Eric's Mom and Grandma just came to visit us.  Their visit coincided with Emma's baptism.  It was so nice to have them here with us.  Eric's Mom has come before, but his Grandma has never been able to visit us here, so it was wonderful seeing her too.

Eric gave them the grand tour around town, we went out to Lake Geneva, enjoyed the shops there and ate at the Sprecher restaurant, enjoyed the beautiful weather while at a pumpkin farm, and of course had some ice cream too.  The best part was just getting to spend time together.  As usual, their visit was over way too soon.  We all hope they can come back to visit again soon!

Welcome sign from Emma in their room.

Eric and his Grandma

Eric showing off his twinkie sundae

Action shot of Emma and her Great-Grandma hitting a balloon around.  It was so fun to watch and hear both of them giggling!

Raspberries and Monsters

I love raspberries.  They are my favorite food.  Emma has apparently inherited this from me, and she loves to eat them as much as I do.  So it was a given that we'd go raspberry picking together.

Just getting started!

Does it get any better than this?

Just for fun, we put these stuffed animals inside Emma's closet recently.  It seemed their proper place.  Since most of them are from my mom, I wanted to share the picture so she could see them.

First Day of School

Emma started 3rd grade this year.  Yikes!  I just had to share these pictures with you.  She chose her first day of school outfit, and it looked very familiar.  Yup, she's worn this same outfit for the first day of school 3 different times!  I guess we've definitely gotten our money's worth our of these clothes!  She wore them on her first day of Kindergarten, 1st grade, and now 3rd grade.  I don't know what happened last year - guess she forgot or something.  I feel safe in saying that next year will be something different, because there's no way this will still fit her.  It still fits her well enough though, and if that's what she wanted, I wasn't going to argue.  It's just funny to me.  So here for your viewing pleasure, ordered oldest to most recent, are the first day of school pictures featuring this outfit.

Kindergarten.  The outfit was brand new at this point.

1st grade.

3rd grade.  The final first day of school for this outfit.

Turning Eight Is Great

For her birthday party this year Emma wanted to have a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory party, and wanted to actually watch the movie during her party.  Well, since that is just about as easy as it gets as far as planning is concerned, I had no problems with this.

Invitations

After some online inspiration, these golden tickets were inside the invitations.

The girls arrived (because Emma wanted a girls only party this year), and first had to guess how many pieces of candy were in a couple different dishes (the winners were announced at the end).  When everyone had arrived, they watched the movie.  Eric ran to pick up some pizzas, and when he got back we had an intermission for everyone to get their food and drinks.  Everyone loved the popcorn maker we borrowed from a friend, and almost everyone had at least 2 bags of popcorn.  Eric had no problem having this around for a few days.  He now says he must own one.

The table ready for drinks and food, the goody bags above, and the popcorn maker.

After the movie we did presents followed by cake.

The movie was all about chocolate and candy, so I went with this cake.  Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, covered in mini m&ms and surrounded with Kit Kat bars.  The fact that Kit Kats are Emma's favorite candy was just a bonus!

For the rest of the time while waiting to be picked up the kids played chocolate twister (just like regular twister, but with some chocolate perks added), and other games.  At the end of the day, if the birthday girl is happy I know we did our job right, and Emma had a blast.  That's all I wanted.

In the attempt to make it feel more like a candy factory, we made some giant suckers and other large sized candies and had them all around the room.  Emma is posing with a few of her favorite giant suckers.

Renaissance Fair

We went to the Renaissance Fair again this year.  Not much changed from last year of course, but we still had fun.  Here are a few fair moments:

Trying her hand at archery again.

She sped up the 18 foot wall fast and with hardly any effort.  I was impressed.  

So we let her try the 24 foot wall.  As you can see, she mad it up there too!

Just taking a moment to relax.

Some Beach Fun

We went to the beach with some friends and had a ton of fun.  The beach was almost exclusively ours.  This may have had something to do with the very strong wind that day, but we decided to make the best of it and stick it out.  It was too windy for beach umbrellas, which makes this very fair-skinned-and-burns-way-too-easy mom a little worried, but I just kept putting the sunscreen on and everything was alright.  Other than my attempts to thwart sunburns, the day was very relaxing.