The Last Three Months

Yes, I know it is shocking to see a new post here. Sorry it has been so long but I was busy living life and the blog didn't make my top ten "must get done" list. The following is a glimpse of our lives for the past couple months.

Emma had to patch for two weeks to help with her Amblyopia. The doctor was shocked at the progress her eye made in only two weeks and she should be fine with just glasses from now on. It is really amazing how fast their little bodies can fix themselves.

We mad a trip to the children' hospital to say hi to Ronald and get Allison's ears checked out. She has been complaining they hurt all the time but several doctors said they were perfectly fine. She also pulls on her nose to pop her ears a lot. The specialist said she just has large tonsils and adenoids and when its allergy season (which it always is in San Diego) then it can cause inflamation and ear pain. They gave her nose spray which seemed to help.

I finally put doilies on my throw pillows. I just love doilies!

Just a cute picture of Emma, she loves to pose.

When Grandma came to visit we went out to eat at old town.

We played at the zoo.

We listened to conference, the girls were so great.

I sewed Allison a new purse.

Emma has been drawing all the time, she is getting pretty good.

The building next door was attacked by a giant bug!....just kidding. We were up in a vacant Unit with Ben and this cool bug was on the window so I took a picture. My camera angle just added to the awesomeness (yes, that is a word!)

First Day of First Grade

Emma Turns Four!

Emma wanted to have a Phineas and Ferb birthday party so that is exactly what she got!

Hanging out with the boys before the party...I can't believe she is four already.

I made the bunting out of paper with pictures of all the characters and quotes from the show. I even had Phineas and Ferb climbing up the Eiffel tower...if you don't know why that is awesome you need to go watch an episode and then you will understand :) We had all snack food since Phineas and Ferb's mom is always having them come inside for some snacks.
Ben was a good sport to wear the Perry shirt I made him and I made myself an I love Aglet shirt."A-G-L-E-T don't forget it"

We played sticker tag which was embraced with mixed feelings. My girls and the Mitchell boys loved it but two other kids cried so ...I guess its not for everyone :)

Emma dressed for the occasion complete with a Lindana hair bow.

The kids got to play with the bean-bag-toss-inator.

They also had races to see who could crawl through the tunnel the fastest...John won. We used the parachute to toss around our plush characters trying to see who would stay on the longest.

Emma got lots of wonderful presents and has been enjoying them since.

We played "where's Perry?" The kids had to go find Perry the Platypus and inside were their goody bags.

The party was a success and lots of fun. Thanks to all those who shared Emma's special day with us.

Phineas and Ferb Friday: Belly of the Beast

Here is another way past due post...When my parent were visiting my mom got to join us for

P & F Friday and it was a really interesting one. A friend from church took us to his lab to see sharks and other sea creatures.

We even got to go onto the Scripps Pier which is for researchers only.

We got to see tiger sharks, abalone, cuttlefish, sting rays, star fish, sea urchins and anemones. The cuttlefish were my personal favorite along with the brittle star fish. Did you know if you lick a sea anemone it will make your tongue go numb and feel like you are eating pop rocks? None of us tried it but a few youth from church apparently have.

The Mitchells did a great job making a shark pinata and the kids had fun breaking open the Belly of the beast.

I love James face... I imagine he is wishing he had John's pile of candy;)

Phineas and Ferb Friday: Moon Farm

I am a little behind on updating...this was from two Fridays ago...

We ate Moon cake with the Moon Family and a bunch of our regular Phineas and Ferb Friday friends.

We made rockets that launch from straws.

And we made ice cream...really Ruth made ice cream and we all indulged in its greatness. We each got to add our own mix-ins and there were SO many choices. I mixed raspberries and heath bar into mine...it was pretty tasty.

It was another successful P & F Friday...Thanks to the Mitchell family for making all of our Fridays awesome!

Grandpa and Grandma Came to Visit!

We love when the Grandparents come to visit...we always have so much fun.

We went school shopping, ate Mexican food at Old Town, read lots of books and went to the zoo.

Our zoo trip was one of the best yet. We saw the baby tigers and hippo. The Koalas were awake and active which I have NEVER seen. They had brought in lots of milkweed by the bug house so there were tons of monarchs. The Galapagos tortoises are some of our new favorites...the one name Madeline loves to have her head stroked. And the one in the picture was the model for the character of E.T. they call him the movie star. :) We were also able to see the sloth right after she gave birth, the baby was clinging to her tummy so it was hard to see but I caught a glimpse.

We also went to LEGOLAND.

Emma was finally old enough to drive the cars and tall enough for most of the rides.

Star Wars Mini land was pretty cool. What they create from Legos always amazes me.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful visit, the new clothes, and for everything else you do for us. We love you!

Amblyopia

Until last week I had no idea what Amblyopia was, honestly I still have a lot to learn, but I do know that it is the technical term for lazy eye and Emma has been diagnosed with it. At her last well check they gave her a vision test where you read the letters or in her case shapes from the poster. Her Dr. said she hadn't passed but it could be just her age and she was playing. I am grateful our pediatrician is a new mom and errs on the side of caution. She recommended we take Emma to the ophthalmologist and so the next Tuesday we did.I knew from the first test they did that something was truly wrong. She had to do lots of tests and she even got her eyes dilated. They gave her some awesome sunglasses to wear the rest of the day. Thankfully the doctor and his staff were wonderful and patient. The doctor told us we were lucky to catch it early and that Emma's vision will eventually be nearly perfect. He also informed me that we will become good friends over the next couple years and that this will be hardest on me. I have to make sure she wears her new glasses and perhaps a patch in the future. I will have to deal with any temper tantrums and may have to use bribery but as long as I win the battle Emma will be just fine :)

She has had her glasses for 24hrs now and we have had to clean them about 10 times but she has been pretty good about keeping them on. She looks so darling in her little glasses and she has been getting lots of compliments which she likes and I think it helps her want to wear them.

Face Paint

I love the joy that comes with getting your face painted!

Phineas and Ferb Friday: Summer Belongs to You

This is one of my favorite episodes...the music is great. I downloaded the songs to my phone so we had the soundtrack to go along with out adventures.

We started off in our plane that crashed into Tokyo. Where we ate some Ramen, California rolls, and edamame.

The we went to Paris and made some cream puffs.

And finally we went paddle boating because in the episode they turn their broken plane into a raft and this was a good raft like activity. We had fun feeding the ducks and paddling around and I got a good leg workout.:)

Phineas and Ferb Friday: Light, Candace, Action

This was such a fun day...we made our own Phineas and Ferb episode. We came up with costumes and ideas and then set to work filming. Lizzy is still editing and adding music but as soon as its available I will post a link to the video, it should be pretty awesome.

Allison played Isabella and Emma was her dog Pinky.

Phineas and Ferb Friday: S'winter

We love Phineas and Ferb and so do our super awesome and creative friends the Mitchells. They decided to make every Fridays during the summer into Phineas and Ferb friday. They invited us to join in on the fun and up first was S'winter!

What is S'winter?

"It's a unique and logic defying amalgam of winter and summer."

-Ferb Fletcher

First we made winter gingerbread men but decorated them in summer attire.

Then we went ice blocking, it was so much fun!

Summer Fun

We have been trying to keep ourselves busy this summer here are a few of our fun adventures...

Playing with friends

We celebrated the Fourth of July with some family time and fireworks.

I have been busy trying out crafts for Super Saturday...which I have been put in charge of.

We have done the summer reading program, enjoyed free Slurpees for 7-11's birthday, done art at our local Michaels, and Emma grew enough to be able to sit in a booster seat.

I was tired of my girls telling me they were bored so I made a boredom buster jar. It has lots of activities and ideas for fun so when they say I am bored they get to pick something out of the jar. One of the first one said turn your room into a forest. They decided they wanted to turn their room into pixie hollow instead. They gave their polly pockets wings...one of them even flew around on the fan.

We made a temple out of sugar cubes.

Emma and I had fun at a park while Allison was at dance camp. We love summer but the countdown to school has begun...Allison can not wait to get back.

Utah Part 2

For the second half of our Utah Trip we visited the Smurthwaite side of the family.

We played at parks and had lots of snowcones...seriously snowcones with cream are so yummy.

We went to the Zoo, the girls get a little disappointed at other zoos since the San Diego one is so great. But they thought the dinosaurs were awesome at the Hogle Zoo.

We played red rover and duck duck goose the girls had a blast.