Emalyn

Now for what 's going on in Emalyn's life...

First of all, she had her birthday July 29. She turned 5 years old!!
We made her a butterfly cake (with plenty of candy...) And she got some beautiful presents. Tyler gave her a musical make-up box (that she LOVES), Krysta gave her a crown and earrings, Daddy gave her a pink and blue bouncing ball, and her mom gave her a new school shirt.

She wanted to have a pinata at her birthday, and we had a lot of fun whacking it with our bat.

Aren't we all such talented dancers?

At the end of August, she had her first day of Kindergarten. I love the excitement that cannot be contained on this face. She was so excited. She LOVES school and her teacher.

We are so proud of our dear Emalyn. She is such a sweetheart. She has an amazing ability to have empathy for others, be sweet and loving to everyone around her and still be very assertive about what she wants and feels. She has had a lot of changes in her little life this year, and she is growing up faster than I can believe. She's very smart and doing well at school. She also has budding musical abilities-she started picking out some melodies on the piano this week, and making up songs to go with them. She is a wonderful big sister to Krysta, and they love to play together.

The Amazing Tyler-man!

I think, to catch up on the last few months when I took a hiatus from blogging, I'll just catch up on each family member, one at a time.

So first, it's Tyler.

Here he is on his first day of First Grade. He was pretty excited to finally get to eat lunch at school. As you can tell, it was pretty cold that first day.

He got to play soccer again this spring. We weren't originally planning on having him play, but another player signed up and paid all the fees and then was unable to play, so they offered Tyler his uniform. To say he was excited would be an understatement. He loved it. They never actually won a game (unlike last spring, when they won every game except one in which they tied) but they all had a lot of fun. Tyler is the kid in green walking in front of the kid in purple.Tyler had his 7th birthday on September 19th. When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted to have it at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house. Since it was on a Saturday, we realized we could actually do it. We kept it a surprise until the day before (since he had to pack). It was a lot of fun to be able to spend his birthday with family. He got bakugans from us, you can see him getting them out of the package here. And from his Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Ron, he got this hammock, which you can tell how much he liked from his expression.

I can't believe I have a seven-year old! He's growing up so fast. I am so grateful for his presence in our home. He has such a natural happy disposition and can find joy in almost every situation. He's a gentleman, who loves to take care of me and do special things for me (like get out breakfast for me in the morning, help Krysta get out of bed, help Krysta get into her carseat with her seatbelt in the van, get me drinks of water, find cans of whatever I need for dinner in the pantry downstairs, etc.). He's a wonderful brother to his two sisters. He really helped Emalyn get ready for kindergarten by telling her what to expect and all about Mrs. Gale, since he had her last year.

Heidi and Jaron bought relighting candles to put on Tyler's cake. You get to see some of Tyler's surprise here, but our camera battery died in the middle of him blowing out the candles. We eventually took the cake outside and had everyone help blow (or pinch) them out. It was pretty funny.

Lastly, on September 29th, he graduated from Eye Therapy. He worked hard for the last year, and his eyes are doing so much better. In this picture, he's standing with Dr. Alona King, who did the therapy with him. She's absolutely amazing with kids and helping them overcome esotropia and strabismus. We will really miss her!!!

Pity, pity pumpkins!

A couple of weeks ago, Emalyn asked if I would paint her fingernails. It's been so long since we've done that-and it was so fun! We did Krysta's too-and she really really loved it!
Emalyn loves colors-all of them-usually all at once-rainbow colored anything is her favorite-so she painted each hand and each foot a different color. I loved this picture, where she's laying down on the ground, showing off her fingernails. The nails on the hand on the right are purple, and the nails on the left are pearl. We didn't get her feet, but one foot was done bright red, the other in pink.

Blogger turned this picture on it's side, and I can't get it to change, but here's Krysta showing her fingernails and toenails. One hand is purple, the other is pink, and her feet are both bright red. She absolutely loved doing this-now she walks around showing everybody her hands and feet and saying, "I pity, I pity".

We had to pick our pumpkins while they were still green from our garden since it hit freezing temperatures in early September. Tyler and Emalyn decided to have a sleepover in the kitchen, with their pumpkins. As you can see, blogger turned this picture too. Sorry!

Anyway, just thought I'd better post some recent pictures, so you know we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. We've been having a lot of fun, with school, soccer, and trips to Utah, and they've been keeping us really busy.