Her birthday was a couple weeks ago, but true to form, here I am FINALLY blogging about it! This little pipsqueak is a joy and a pain, a "cutes" and a "poops," lovely and ornery, loud and shy, funny and serious, a good helper and a little lazy, honest and sneaky. How can one little person be so many things? I don't know, but most people that truly know Emmie, know all these things about her. Maybe she's just figuring things out and testing her limits constantly. If so, McKay and I have a long row to hoe! She's been this way from day one. Her birth was the least favorite of mine and yet she was the best baby any mom could've hoped for. I can't explain why she is the way she is, but I love her! She adds a special spunk and is, by far, the most loving to everyone in our family...even if we don't deserve it!
This year for her big 05 birthday, she decided to do a Halloween themed party. Totally fitting since her birthday is so close to the beloved candy feast holiday! This year she wanted to be a witch for Halloween and her party. BIG surprise....she's been a witch every year for the last 3, which is most of her life!
A close up on the cute little face that saved her rear many a time!
Just another part of who she is.....EEEEEE, eeeeee, eeeee, eeeeeee!
When her guests arrived we had them pick out a little pumpkin and start decorating it. After our neighbor Katie put dead grass on for hair, they all had to do it. It was AWESOME to clean that up!
The Elle girl...also dressed as a witch
The Morgs, previously dressed as a parrot and figured out she couldn't do much in that costume, so it came off. We're just lucky she had on clothes underneath!
The Kimberly, a pretty fairy. And she knew it too. Her first announcement upon arrival was, "I'm really cute today!" And I said, "Yes you are!" Too bad grown ups can't do that.
The Katie, aka leader of the hair movement, was also a witch...sheesh, add me in and we have too many witches around!
After pumpkin decorating, we played a relay balancing game with little rubber eye balls on baby spoons. That turned out to be "Way too hard", so we switched to normal spoons. Big babies!
As expected, the big girls were beating everyone...
Until Kimberly put her game face on! That little fairy was an expert! She beat everyone she went against!
Said game face...
Here she is crossing the little branch that was the finish line while Morgan was in the back ground making sure she wasn't cheating. Not sure how she coulda done that!
These two were hilarious! They were so concerned about going fast and beating each other that they kept having to start over because the balls would fall off the spoon
Elle won that one. What you can't see is the magnitude of disappointment on Emmie's face when she figured out that she hadn't won a single race and she's "the BIRTHDAY Girl!" Well, I say it's good for 'em! Can't win 'em all Emms!
Here's the start of another kimberly blow out!
And the face of achievement mixed with her game face!
Then it was on to the pumpkin pinata. Thank goodness for the little mexican market in town otherwise Emmie's Halloween party would've had a flip flop pinata from another grocery store...LAME!
Elle did pretty good her first shot, but she seemed more timid than usual so I yelled, "Hey Elle, pretend the pumpkin is Reese (her older brother) and he's being mean to you!" It was not a game anymore!
To make it a little more fair, we blind-folded the older girls.
Then it was present time! she got all sorts of cute stuff from her friends!
What I love is to see how excited the giver is about the gift they're giving
We had walmart do a Halloween cake and I thought they did a pretty good job!
The best part was that the black frosting turned your mouth black. They all thought it was "super creepy"
On the day of Emmie's real birthday, she chose Shrimp and pepper Kabobs for dinner. Keep in mind that for the most part we are a hamburger and hot dog grilling family. We've only done Kabobs once. But she remembered it enough, and that's what she wanted!
I wasn't thinking "blog picture" when we put the kabobs on our oldest cookie sheet, Blech!
She wasn't very excited about opening her presents....
The long awaited barbie scooter
We like to teach our kids the meaning of grateful appreciation for the blessings we receive and that includes receiving presents....where was she at that teaching moment?
That's a little better.
Me and my Emmi-nems
I am not a lover of birthday parties unless it's one I'm invited too, but I guess it's nice for our kids to know that we remember the day they were born, boy do we remember! And that we are willing to celebrate the momentous occasion of them coming to this earth to begin their own significant and unique journey. Just not every year!!!!
P.S. To those of you who gave me crap about not posting pictures for the lion king post, let me just say that you don't know my life! I really did went a picture of us before we want, you know, prom style, but we were running late. We went out to eat at this wonderful restaraunt known for their seafood and guess who was seated at the table next to us, Elder Dallin H. Oaks. It was kinda fun. He's somewhat a celebrity around here. No we didn't go talk to him, he got enough of that, and I don't want to be "one of those people." He was enjoying a lovely meal with his wife and another couple and I didn't feel it appropriate to start up a conversation while he was trying to consume clam chowder! But I smiled from afar and felt good about being able to see him in person. After dinner we waited outside for a transit thingy to take us to the theater. But it too was running late, so we barely made it in time, never mind snapping a few cute pics! After the show, we tried to stop outside and take a picture but there were so many people in the way, it was rediculous. So I had a brilliant idea of going across the street, and taking a picture with all the posters and the hollywood bubble lights behind me. Well, when it's dark outside and the camera is not fancy nor the photographer, all the pictures ended up either too dark to see, or blurry. So there! That's why we didn't have any pictures! Next time I'll try harder, mmmkay?
For her birthday cake she chose a yellow cake with Grandma Johnson's famous "favorite chocolate frosting" and reeses p.b. cups crumbled on top. She even helped make it! I'm not opposed to it!
Making her wish...probably for an iTouch i-pod. Don't ask me where she even found out about those. I'm blaming it on school kids!
She has been wanting one of these for a few years, but we were able to hold her off cuz even on the package it says"8yrs+." But she never forgot about it and realized this year is the year!
"RHYAN!" 
That's better...well, besides the glare off the box instead of Rhyan's head!
I can hardly comprehend how we got here so fast. And yet there were many a day when I was counting down to when she would be on to the next "step" in her life. Crawling, walking, talking, potty-training, sitting through a whole movie so I could get something done, etc. You get the idea. Now she can cook herself an egg and change Rhyan's diaper! I feel like I'm looking in to a mirror. She is my oldest, like I was, and I expect a lot out of her! And at the same time, I'm missing out on her in the process of growing up. I'm so concerned with her taking on that "oldest" role, that I'm afraid I'm being consumed with the younger ones and missing my opportunities with her! Maybe that's just how the cookie crumbles when you're the oldest. Just like how the middle child feels left out and the youngest can't help but be a little spoiled. We as parents do to them! I always say I won't, but here I am. Morgan is a wonderful kid and there is no doubt that she was meant to be my first child. For her and my learning experience!
