Portland Japanese Garden with Nana

Emma was looking for Monsters

Mom flew to Portland on March 20th. We had a semi-nice day on Friday, so we went to the Portland Japanese Garden. The last time we were there, I was pregnant with Ryan! It's been awhile. You gotta check this place out...no matter what the season, it's beautiful!

Clara came to visit!

Hop, Nana, Adam, Jamee and Clara all came to visit this weekend. Mom had a Stampin' Up party at my friend's house. Adam had business in town, so Jamee and Clara came along. We last saw Clara at Thanksgiving, so she's changed quite a bit. She's now 6 months old and as cute as can be. Emmalee had a lot of fun playing with her, once Emma learned to keep her voice below a roar and stay out of Clara's face.

While the girls were at the stamping party, Hop, Adam, Ryan, Emma and Clara tried to go to OMSI. Sadly, Clara wasn't allowed on the submarine, so they went to icecream and to a park instead. It was a fun day all around.

Ryan! Will you marry us?

Wait...where'd he go?

Since Bob was at work, Ryan had to come to the tea party with me. Luckily, he came prepared with his rain boots and grubby clothes. He spent the entire time outside with Wayne, feeding the cows, playing with the dogs and hepling Wayne work on a fence. He came back in the house every once in awhile for some food, until Emma and Elise noticed that he was the only boy in the house and it was wedding time! That chased him back outside in a hurry! I don't understand why....what boy would run from two little girls in princess dresses, riding stick horses, holding flowers and saying that it was wedding time?

The Princess at the Tea Party

Emmalee was invited to her first tea party on February 16th. It was given by out friend, Judy. She decorated her house with roses and tulle; the girls even got to use real miniature tea cups. There were about 12 little girls there, all dressed in Princess dresses. Judy provided some Disney princess dresses if the girls wanted to change. Most of the girls stayed in what they came in or changed once. But not Emma. Every time I looked over at her, she was in some state of undress. She wanted to try out all of the dresses. She finally settled on this one because it looked like a dancing dress with a tutu and because it had a pony on it. After their lunch of shoe and crown shaped jelly sandwiches, they got to play with bubbles outside. I think that was Emma's favorite part. She loved chasing them around. I think that I'll stock up on bubbles for the summer...I have a feeling that we'll be spending a lot of time chasing them.

January 2008

It's hard to believe that we're almost through January of 2008! The kids have had a lot of fun already. Emma had to model her "Nana" dress, so Ryan had to get in on the picture taking also. On one of the rare semi-warm, sunny days, I took the kids up the hill to the flat road and Ryan practiced riding his bike. I hope to have him riding it on his own by the time Spring comes. Emma's legs were too short last summer for her little red bike; now they're long enough! She still hasn't mastered the skill of turning, but is luckily going slow enough that collisions with the curb don't hurt!

And then, of course, the fun you can have with a 7-year-old, a 3-year-old and an emplty Costco-size Cheerio box! Who knew that it would fit perfectly over Emma's head. I didn't attach the photos of Emma beating on Ryan after she escaped...but they do exist!

The kids got to play in the snow yesterday...that usually happens once a year here. Sorry...no pictures to download. My digital is broken. I had to use film! That felt pretty strange. Anyway, they had a snow ball fight and then went sledding down the hill in front of the house. It all melted by mid-afternoon, but we enjoyed it while it was here.

Emma had her 3-year check up today. I was very pleased to discover that she's gained 6 pounds this year! She's a wopping 28 pounds now. She went from being in the 5th percentile (since birth) to the 25th percentile. She grew almost 3 inches. Ryan didn't have to have a yearly check-up this year, but we measured him and he grew 3.25 inches this past year. Not sure on his weight, but I can assure you that you feel it when he tackles you now! He's no longer a little boy. We might have to come with a new nick name - Little Guy won't work for much longer!

I'll upload more pictures as soon as I get a new camera. Until then...

Greg and Holli cooked an awesome dinner. We ended up leaving right after dinner as we were a bit concerned that the melted snow would freeze to the roadways.

Today is Ryan's actual birthday. It's hard to believe that, seven years ago, Bob and I were in the hospital trying to figure out what we were supposed to do with this tiny little guy! Well, "Little Guy" is no longer little and "Little Chick" is almost three! Times flies...it's a nice reminder for us to take time to enjoy the little things each day. That's all for now...see you in 2008!

After all of the Pearcy's left on Christmas morning, we headed over to Greg and Holli's through the snow (they had forecasted a 1% chance of snow!). Ryan and Jordan spent most of their time on the Playstation, while Emmalee turned Holli's decorative reindeer into stuffed animal holders. Rick - sorry your photo is sideways!