Family pictures

When we were in Williamsburg at the end of January for my brother's wedding reception, we had some family pictures taken with a wonderful photographer who is a friend of my mom's, Cathy Lachine. Check them out. For those of you who aren't familiar with my family, the pictures include my mom, grandma, and two brothers and their wives. She got some great individual shots of the girls as well.

Slumber party for one

Emma wanted to have a slumber party with daddy for her birthday. So that Saturday night, they got all set up in the family room, along with Joseph. They read together, first Cam Jansen read out loud, and then silent reading side by side. Then, it was time for lights out. Our living room couches, unlike the couch in the basement, are not comfortable for sleeping, especially for Joe, being tall. He pulled the coffee table up against the couch to have extra room for his feet, and they settled in. Joe has this amazing ability to fall asleep as soon has his head hits the pillow. Well, within a few minutes, Emma came to me complaining about Daddy's snoring. I told her to wait it out for a few minutes and see if it got better. After a little longer, she came back. Joseph had given up and gone back to his room to sleep. She still tried a bit longer. Eventually, she announced, "Daddy can't control his snoring." Welcome to my world. So she ended up sleeping in my bed, and Joe spent the night on the not-so-comfy couch, all alone. He did complain about his back hurting the next day. Poor guy.

Birthday Celebration, part 2

At Emma's request, we continued her birthday celebration the following day by going ice skating as a family and then eating dinner at Red Robin. I was the event photographer...ice skates don't agree with my feet, knees or back.

Emma's 7!

On March 6, Emma celebrated her seventh birthday. The fun started with presents bright and early before Joseph left for school, and then sugar cookies with her class, followed by her party with seven of her friends at our house. They had pizza, watched about half of Milo and Otis, ate about 12 bags of popcorn (plus about another full bag that ended up in my carpet), ate cake, opened presents, and ended the evening by running through the house screeching until their parents came. Oh, to be seven again!

Good Friends, Good Times

We had a great weekend when our friends, Cal and Christy Smith, and their gang (Elisabeth, Jeremiah, Rachel, McKay, and Abigail) came to visit. Their oldest daughter Elisabeth is BFF's with Katie, and the other kids have alot of fun too. We visited some Church sites with them, of course, and when we were home, we hardly knew we had kids around--they were all busy downstairs with the wii and other toys. The adults enjoyed a rousing game of "Ticket to Ride," which we, being good hosts, allowed Cal to obliterate us...twice.