Thankful Thursday

It's been a really long time since I have done this...not for lack of gratitude but more for lack of time! Here we go:

• Sleeping babies. Allison is so good at taking naps and sleeping all night. It makes my life so much easier.
• Family visits. I had two of my sisters visit with their kids in the past month. It was so fun for all the kids to play and to get to talk face to face with my sisters.
• Working from home. It's a tight balance sometimes, but it is just so nice to be able to have the satisfaction (and income!) of working but not have to sacrifice too much time with my kids and husband. I'm thankful that he works from home a lot, too.
• McDonald's ice cream cones. Normally I'm not a big McDonald's fan, but they have had 59 cent ice cream cones for awhile and they been a great treat for Emily and me on a hot day. They are really yummy, I can't lie.
• Blogs and Facebook. Both have helped me get back in touch with a lot of people over the past year or so, and it brings me joy to know what others are doing in their lives. Thanks for sharing, everyone!
• Fresh fruit. We are blessed enough to have it in abundance here in Fresno. I love it.

Roly Poly

Allison kind of looks roly poly with her huge thigh chubs, but now she has the "roly" part down. Yesterday she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time. Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment for a near 7-month-old, but considering her big sister never rolled over until after she was crawling, it's a big deal for us. Yesterday I just thought I'd put her on her tummy for a little bit to see if she would play like that, but instead, over she went. So we kept putting her back and she kept rolling over. Way to go Allison!

While I am posting videos, here is another one from a few weeks ago of Allison in the bathtub. She would kick her legs and splash for a few seconds, then look up at me as if to get approval. She went on this way for nearly half an hour. I was laughing so hard!

Catching Up

We've been so busy over the last month I have not gotten around to posting on the blog, but here is a short synopsis of a few of our recent activities:

Most notably, Emily turned FOUR YEARS OLD on June 10. Our little baby is no longer a baby, nor a toddler, but a full-blown little girl with ideas of her own and some attitude to go with it. Okay, I admit she still acts like a baby sometimes with tantrums and crying and all, but she is also getting big and smart and very independent. She learned to write her name all by herself a few weeks ago and likes to do grownup things like answering the phone and typing on her computer. She can type all the family's names by herself!
On the day of her birthday, we made cupcakes for her to take to her preschool class. She was excited to add the pink sprinkles on top and wear her favorite skirt outfit. She really likes to wear skirts all of a sudden, although we make her wear shorts under most of them so she doesn't end up showing off what's underneath!

I wanted to make Emily a special breakfast for her birthday, so I made her this parfait using green gogurt, blueberries, raspberries and an apricot on top. She was so excited about it that she didn't even eat it. I think she might have eaten some of the apricots off the top, but the rest ended up in the refrigerator for another week until I caved and dumped it in the trash. Next time I'll just put oatmeal in a fancy glass and call it good.

We let Emily choose anywhere she wanted to go for her birthday dinner. She chose Sonic Drive-In. It was a bit hot, but that's where she wanted to go, so that's where we went. I was kind of glad she didn't choose Chuck E Cheese or something!

The big 4-year-old birthday party was held at a place called "Pump It Up" where they have all kinds of inflatable slides, bounce-houses and obstacle courses for the kids to play on. It was a lot of fun for them and easy for us - we just show up, let the kids play for an hour, then go into a room for cake/ice cream and presents. Then we leave and don't have to clean up or anything. They even washed my ice cream scoop and cake server for me. It was awesome!

You might notice the random Aladdin and Jasmine figurines in front of the cake. Emily wanted a "Jasmine and Aladdin" cake for her birthday, but I didn't feel like trying to make one of those. So I made what I thought was a cute cake using her two favorite colors as decoration, thinking she would love it and forget all about Jasmine and Aladdin. Well lo and behold, when I excitedly showed her the cake in the fridge before the party, she asks, "Where's Jasmine and Aladdin?" Uh, oh. So I packed up the figurines, put them next to the cake at the party, and everyone was happy. Emily got her Jasmine and Aladdin cake after all.

In early June we also signed Emily up for a dance class (above) and a gymnastics class (below). She has fun and it keeps us busy when she is home all day.

Emily also had her very first checkup at the dentist. She did really well and had no cavities.

And Allison had her first taste of ice cream...

and popsicles. All in the same night. She loved them both!