Our little Julia is afraid of dogs. But, she has been asking for a puppy anyway. In an effort to get her more used to the idea, Mama took her to visit a pet store. We looked at all the young dogs a couple of times, and she was willing to touch a few in the special petting area. This was her favorite dog in that we saw during this visit. Somehow, it seems to fit her personality. If you ask her what kind of dog she wants, she will tell you a little one.

As another attempt to get her ready for a dog, we will be doing some puppy sitting for two small dogs in our house. It will be interesting for all of us. Shhhh, don’t tell the girls though, they don’t know yet.

We went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Emily’s birthday. Some of Emily’s favorite things include staying in hotels and swimming, and we were able to make both of these happen. The weather was amazing for January and we enjoyed being outside despite a few rain showers that moved through. In addition to swimming, we played putt-putt, visited the aquarium, rode the trolley, walked the strip, shopped, discovered our way through a mirror maze, and rode the skylift. Emily loved discovering that the hotel had hot chocolate and cookies every night. The trip was fun and it was a delight to share the time with Emily and Julia.

Our little swimmers before they made their big leap in. The water was a bit cold so once we got out we didn’t want to get back in.

Daddy was a great sport and swam with the girls until Julia’s lips turned blue.

During the break in the rain shower we got a game of putt-putt in. The girls wanted us to take turns in the order we played. We only got one ball stuck and didn’t lose any of them. We consider this progress with our young golfers. The rules were treated as suggestions and more than once the hole was bracketed with feet to give a sense of success.

Despite our rule bending both girls successfully made hole-in-ones all on their own. This is Julia celebrating her successful hole-in-one. Quite proud! She hit the ball without looking and was holding the putter backwards, but gravity and some good luck was in her favor on the hole. Emily was not to be out done and made a hole-in-one on a later hole.

The six-year-old has some game and some attitude. Funny!

This was how we traveled this weekend. When Julia got tired of walking we gave her a push. Not a bad plan because one afternoon she gave out and slept for over an hour while Emily kept exploring.

Emily’s first visit to the aquarium had a similar photo to this one, but the fish was bigger than she was. She has now grown longer than the fish!

Dude!! We found Crush!

Mama and her birthday girl!

The girls love the fish bowl and Emily still fits in there. I think the only reason they looked at the camera was that the fish swam away.

While Julia napped Robby took Emily up to the top of the mountain on the skylift. Emily was so brave and the heights didn’t faze her in the least.

Checking out! Emily took charge of all of her and Julia’s clothes and special things. Mama loves the efficiency of giving the stuffed animals a ride on the backpack with a view.

What is a birthday without celebrating it with ice cream for dinner? We did offer other food later, but up to this point it was dinner. Yum! We had enough fun we might do this every year.

Emily is officially more than a handful of years now. What a blessing our big girl has been in our lives. We are thankful and grateful for her. She was looking forward to this birthday a lot. We kept teasing her that she could have two years at five and then skip up to seven, but she wasn’t interested.

Her first party of the day was at school. Her class sang to her and made her feel special. Then for lunch Mama ate with her. We shared blue iced cookies with her class. Then that evening we had a family party. She chose to eat Chinese in town for her birthday dinner. Then after dinner we opened gifts and had cupcakes. Her favorite gifts were a Merida dress-up dress and ballet classes.

Her assorted gifts and little mini-Emily figure that comes out every birthday.

Both girls got to spend their Valentine’s day with friends and sharing cards. They both opted for simple cards for friends. Julia decorated each with a sticker. Emily carefully wrote each name on her cards all by herself. She did a great job organizing by boy/girl cards and double checking to be sure no one was missed.

They both were up early and Julia’s greeting for both of her parents was a valentine’s greeting. She had made a drawing for each of us the day before and presented it to us as our card. It was very sweet. Emily loved going to school early to put valentine’s cards in teacher boxes.

Our family party will involve strawberry pancakes and strawberry milkshakes. Yum! Hopefully it will be a hit without a tummy ache.

We had some cousin photos taken while we had two sets together. It had been almost four years since the last group photo. They did really well for being 9, 7, 5-3/4, and 4. They really enjoy being together, just not always sitting still together.

The boys showed their true selves in their photos. It was terrific to have their self expressions captured.

The girls showing their favorite grins and some of their own self expressions.

We were invited to a cookie party at the Humphries. What is Christmas holiday without some cookie baking and decorating? What had a great time playing with dough, making the dough into cookie patters, decorating cookies, baking cookies, and eating the finished product. The girls were a bit shy at first. Once some of their little friends showed up and they got to know the big boys they were all for the fun.

Emily getting her dough ready for cookies!

Such a serious girl checking out the dough.

Getting the dough ready for rolling with Mama.

Rolling, rolling, rolling . . . Check out the excited girl in background.

So many cookie cutters to choose from! Wait, where did the glass slipper cutter come from? 

Aiden hanging with the big boys while the egg smearing step occurs.

Aiden giving some decorating input or maybe just hanging out.

This has to be the best step of the whole baking process. Of course eating is really the best step, but Julia did the eating step all the way through the process (note the sprinkles all over her face).

The White Hand of Flour!

Four little kids who skipped naps, made and ate cookies, and played hard were needing a bit of downtime. They got to watch Frosty the Snowman and relax a bit before going home.