Mother's Day

Emma changed her mind about the bike helmet for mother's day. She told Daddy what she wanted to get me and he cracked up and told me that he didn't know what I would think of it but that I would use it a lot. I had no idea what to expect. That morning I went and ran a 5k. It was early and rainy so Dave and the girls stayed home to sleep. I went and ran and I ran a lot faster than I expected to. I was very proud of my 29.16 finish. Which put me at about a 9 1/2 minute pace. I come home from the race and get out of the car, a smiling Emma face peers out the window then runs out of the house and wraps me in a hug yelling "happy mother's day!" I came inside and she wants to give me my gift right away. She had told me the day before that she had picked out a music card just for me and I assumed she meant those musical greeting cards, she loves those and Dave had just got one for graduation 2 days before. Well, I open my gift and she got me a gift card for mp3's. Dave wanted to get a smaller denomination but she didn't like the color of that one so she got a bigger one. Then I open the big gift. It is a Hannah Montana pillowcase! Emma is so excited to give it to me. And of course I love it! We put it on my pillow right away. But the best part is why she got me a Hannah Montana pillowcase. The week before we had gone to walmart to let her spend her allowance. We checked out the clearance rack to see what they had. Emma found a Cheetah girls pillowcase that she wanted to buy. I explained that she could buy it but it would take all of her money. She asked if I liked it and I said yes, it was very pretty. In the end she decided not to buy it. But she remembered that I had said I liked it (of course I meant for her but...) and tried to buy me something I wanted. Dave said when they went shopping they didn't have the Cheetah girls one so they checked out the pillowcase aisle and she picked out the Hannah Montana one. I think it was just about the sweetest thing that she thought of something I said I liked. It just made it the best mother's day ever! When I put it on my pillow and showed her I guess my voice cracked and she said" Mommy, are you crying?" I didn't know what to say so I just didn't answer and she told everyone the rest of the day that she bought me a Hannah Montana pillowcase and that I cried when she gave it to me because I was so happy. It was hilarious and sweet!

Dave's Graduation

Dave graduated from UMKC May 8, 2009 with a Master Degree in Environmental and Urban Geosciences. We are all glad to have Daddy home full time again and I know he is relieved to be done. The graduation ceremony was a lot more emotional for me than I expected it to be. I am so proud of my scientist husband! This is a picture of him and his advisor JJ.

Here we are at graduation.

Dave and his Dad

Jenn, Dave, Tim and Russ. Yay Dave!

My girls!

My girls are so sweet. Emma wanted to take a bath by herself this morning so I put Sammi in for hers first. She could hear Emma singing in the living room and kept pointing. I said, "well holler at her" So Sammi gave it her best shot. "Ehba!" She has just started trying to say Emma this week and it always is Ehba. It cracks me up. She really wanted Emma to get in with her. If Emma is in the tub by herself Sammi comes in and gives her kisses and tries to climb in with her. Sammi is starting to say some words. So far she says, Mama, Dada, bubble, Papa and Emma. She also makes a dog noise (sort of, it is kind of like a growl) and makes an uh-oh type sound. Emma is really in to Scooby Doo and has started talking like SHaggy. She says "like" a lot and says "totally" a lot. She will say something like "I totally want cereal" or "it is like hot in here". It is the funniest thing. She sounds so grown up these days and her expressions when she talks are priceless. She does a lot of hand gesturing. We are very excited that DAve graduates on Friday and have enjoyed DAddy with no homework. Tonight I decided to start on taking down the wallpaper in the kitchen and we got all of the old paper down. I thought it would take longer but with his help it was a breeze. It came off really easy. Of course now I have to look at it until payday to buy paint. Emma is big into planning things too. She comes up with these elaborate explanantions for how we should do things. Today it was "mom, I will buy you a bike helmet for mother's day. Then we can ride together and have a family day on the bikes. NO, Daddy can push Sammi in her car and we can all ride together. but it will be after mother's day. I will get you a bike helmet."

Easter

So my girls are so funny and beautiful that they take my breath away everyday. I wish I could put into words the expressions that they make and the million ways they make us laugh. Samantha is so funny and silly. She is really starting to babble in this alien language. Sometimes she gets so high pitched and is almost like a screech or singing. And she doesn't really say any words but she understands a lot more than I think she should be able to. Last night she put her socks in the hamper when I asked her to. Of course then she got them back out to play with. Her interests are so different than Emma's at that age. She loves the big legos and puts them together then pulls them apart. Today she put two together then put them in a car. In and out they went. She gets really excited over balls. And she hugs and pats everything. She hugs the lego towers and pats it. Yesterday at a playdate our friend Hannah hit Sammi and she looked at her like "oh yeah, watch this" then she hit herself. She loved the plastic Easter eggs and played with them for a half hour at a time.

Emma is so 4. She is trying to find her sense of humor and makes up jokes all the time. They either don't make sense or are just statements. But she just cracks up. She likes to make up nonsense words, too. She likes to rhyme but with her nonsense words. I don't think she can think of a real word to rhyme fast enough so she just makes one up. At least she understands the concept. She has spring fever I think. If I am not telling her to sit on the furniture not jump I am yelling to stop doing flips. She likes to break dance (thanks Zane). It is pretty stinkin funny. She still ends up in our bed almost every night. She loves to snuggle and curls up right next to one of us. Right now it is usually daddy. She makes the most grown up expressions and I love to watch her when she thinks no one else is around. She was peeling a banana this morning and the look on her face was precious. She was concentrating so hard and you could just tell after she got started her mind was wandering. And she is so kind hearted. She loves to share with Sammi and tries to take care of everyone. When I was sick she kept bringing me sips of water.

Sammi wearing Emma's tiara. She already likes to dress up. Where did I get such girly girls?

Samantha loves drinking out of straws. She also loves blowing bubbles and spitting in them, so I was done with my water after this.

St. Patty's Day

Emma with her face paint at the Martin City Parade. She was in the princess of the parade contest with her BFF Ashley.
Emma and Ashley looking super cute by the trash can.
All the kids hanging in the Nau van. This is only 6 of the 11. Waiting for the parade to start.