Gap

Prior to Emma getting braces, she needed to have some space created in her mouth for her teeth.  She had an expander put in which we had to "expand" by turning a key thing twice a day.  We did this for 3 weeks.  It will now just remain in the same position for 3 months until the expander is removed and she gets some braces.  You could tell it was working because over the course of the 3 weeks a gap developed in between her front two teeth.  This picture was taken at the end of the 3 weeks of cranking.  They tell us that within a week or so, now that we're done expanding it, these teeth will basically move back into place.  In the mean time, she looks funny with such a big gap in there.

School Spotlight

Each of the kids in Emma's class gets to be spotlighted at some point during the year.  They bring home and fill out a poster which is then displayed for the week at school.  Here is Emma's, including some close ups of each section.

This drawing was supposed to tell something about Emma.  She's a Packer fan who loves fried chicken.

As a wonderful ego boost, when I went to pick up the pictures I had printed to add to
her poster (the big one of Emma, her black belt picture, and the small one of her with Eric), they 
told me I needed a copyright release form to get them.  They thought they were professional
 pictures, and not ones that I had taken myself.  Yay me! :)

Wicked

I took Emma to see Wicked!  It was such a fun little girls night out with her.  I knew she'd love it.  And I loved seeing it again.  Afterwards we got some of Emma's favorite soup from Panera for dinner.  A fantastic evening!

Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year Emma went as an 80s rock star.  Not a specific star, just a general 80s rock star.  So we had fun trying to piece together her costume, including inflatable guitar and lots of jewelry, especially bracelets.  I crimped and teased her hair and she was set.  She dressed up for both our ward halloween party and on Halloween for the actual trick-or-treating.   You'll see in the pictures below, but there were 3 houses we saw while we were out that were decorated to the extreme.  Really fun to see, especially the Jurassic Park house.

At the ward halloween party

Emma invited her friend to come. 

Our pumpkins this year.  Went with a Peanuts theme. 

Just before trick-or-treating.  We changed some of her jewelry to be glow in the dark stuff.

Jurassic Park themed house 

They had a gate thing across the sidewalk that connected to their "electrified" fence. 

We waited, but no T-Rex ever came for this guy.

Re-enacting part of the movie. 

And then her friends also wanted to re-enact it.

Blurry picture, but they even had evidence of the T-Rex attack.
Again, if you know the movie, you'll appreciate this.

They had decorated their car to look like one of the vehicles in the movie, and
they were playing the movie on a screen in front of the garage. 

This stayed dark inside...

...and then lit up to try to startle you.

They dressed the part too!

Another house.  Every pumpkin is carved and lit.  I couldn't count them all.

Even had a pet cemetery with animal themed carved pumpkins.

The last super-decorated house.  Just basic halloween stuff, but lots of it.