Emma turned 8 this week! Where did those 8 years go? I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. That moment I first laid eyes on her is etched in my mind like a snapshot. I can still picture that little scrunched up face and swollen eyes.

Emma had a week long birthday celebration. First she had her birthday celebration at school. The we had a family party at the bowling alley. Our “little” party turned into about 20 people. We had a fun time bowling, eating pizza, and just hanging out. The party that Emma couldn’t wait for was her Build-a-Bear party with her school friends. She invited a few of her closest friends and they all went and picked our a bear and had a little celebration. It really turned out to be fun! Then she got to go out with Grandma Dava and Grandpa Russ for her special “grandparents birthday dinner”. She was thrilled to be the center of attention all week long.

This last year Emma has really started to look so much more grown up. She has gotten so much taller. She has lost all of her baby teeth in the front and her 2 front teeth are almost all grown in. It has changed her little face and made her look so much older. I really need to do a photo shoot with her soon to capture her cute little smile right now!

Emma’s interests have stayed pretty consistent over the past year. She still loves art–I think she always will. Most mornings she still gets up and heads straight to her art table to work on a new project. She is in second grade this year and she loves her teacher, Ms. Hendrickson. She is a fantastic reader. I am always amazed when I hear her read out loud. She truly reads better than most adults. She reads with such emotion. The best part is that she really enjoys it. She has turned into a really good skier this year, too. She is in the Learn to Race program at Park City Mountain Resort. I have been amazed at how good of a racer she is. She isn’t afraid to go fast. She says she wants to win a platinum medal by the end of the year! She still loves to dance. She danced in her dance school’s production of the Nutcracker this year. She is hoping to do it again next year.

I am so proud of the sweet person that Emma is growing up to be. She constantly amazes me and I am so lucky to have her in my life.

Happy 8th birthday, Emma!

Thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott and I were able to get married. At least, according to Emma.

She has been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr in honor of his recent birthday. Everyday she comes home from school with more stories about him. Earlier in the week she named all the kids in her class that wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Then, this weekend we were having lunch at my parents house. She started talking about him again. She talked about how people of different races were not allowed to be married before. She looked at Scott and I and said “It is a good thing for you that Martin Luther King, Jr. did what he did. Because if he didn’t you wouldn’t be able to be married.” We both looked at her confused and asked “Why?” She looked at Scott and whispered “Because you are black.”

We tried not to laugh, because she is really sensitive about that lately, but I have no idea where she got the idea that Scott is African American! Maybe because he is tan???

So, in honor of Emma, I want to say Thank you to Dr. King for allowing Scott and I to get married

Emma and Ian have been really into snorkeling on this years trip to Maui. They have had snorkel and mask sets for a few years. Last year Emma started playing around with them in the pool, but breathing through the snorkel was still really a challenge for her.

This year, though, she really started to get it. She practiced a whole day in the pool and then we decided to let her try out her new skills in the ocean.

My mom and I took her to Napili beach to do a little snorkeling for real. I went in with her and was surprised at how well she did. We swam out to a shallow reef and she really enjoyed seeing all the fish. She got a little nervous when the water got deeper, but she still really enjoyed it.

A few days later Bryan and Mary planned a snorkeling trip on a boat to Molokini. I didn’t think it would be a good trip for Ian and Nora, but I thought that Emma would really like it. Scott decided to take her and have a special daddy and daughter date.

I wish I could have been there, but I was happy to hear they had a great time. They rented an underwater camera and they took a bunch of fun photos.

Here is Emma going down the slide on the boat to start snorkeling.

They had quite and eventful day. They saw all kinds of fish, a sea turtle and lots of whales!

I am so glad that they had a fun time and so thankful that I have a wonderful husband who is so involved in our kids lives!

Emma has been taking dance since she was three years old. I was so not into dance when I was a little girl, so I was hesitant to even sign her up. But she really wanted to do it, so I signed her up.

She REALLY loves it. It suits her perfectly. She loves everything about it. She loves the costumes, practicing and she loves performing.

This year they asked her to be in the Nutcracker performance that that dance school puts on every December. She was absolutely thrilled! She worked so hard. She went to dance 3 hours a week every week from September to December. The last week she spent about 10 hours at the studio practicing. I expected to hear her complain and say she didn’t want to go, but she was happy to go to every practice. She was counting down the days until the actual performance.

The day of the show she woke up jumping out of her skin. She was SO EXCITED. She kept asking all day when it was going to be time to leave. Finally it was time.

We took her and dropped her off. I went back and helped her get her costume on. She was one of the first girls there!

It was a thrill to see her dance. She was a snow angel. She only danced in one dance and she had a relatively small part, but she was thrilled just the same. She concentrated so hard and she did every part perfectly.

When she came out after the show, she was just glowing. She was thrilled with herself. I was so proud of how hard she worked and I was glad that she felt good about herself. She is already talking about next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is what Emma is thankful for:

“My mom that cares for me. My dad that tickles me, and my cat that plays with me.” How cute is that?

I have been taking a flash photography course at the University of Utah for the past few weeks. I have had a Speedlite for almost 2 years, but I had no idea how to really use it. I learned quite a bit in the class. Last night was the last class where we got to actually use everything we learned. I brought my background stands and used all of my own equipment. I brought Emma as a model and I got to use the new petti skirt that I got for my birthday. (Thanks Vicky!) It was fun to set everything up myself and see that I can use what I have and get some nice studio pictures. Hopefully I’ll get to do more of it in the future. I’m thinking this winter is a great time to practice!

I did a little photo shoot with my own kids tonight. I just haven’t been photographing my favorite (HA!) subjects lately. My kids are so sick of my camera and it always ends in frustration for all of us. But I have really been wanting to get a good one of the three of them together. Tonight I took them out onto the golf course behind my parents house. There were so many great spots to use! I was able to get a few good ones of them together. Yippee! I have lots of keepers and a bunch to edit, but here is one to tide you over.

This week at I ♥ Faces the theme is “Back to School”. Of course on Emma’s first day of 2nd grade we got up early so we could take pictures I took a bunch of her at home that I really like, but for this contest I wanted to enter something that really showed it was the first day of school. I always drive Emma to school because we live too close for her to take the bus, but too far for her to walk. We got there a little bit early so we took some photos around the school. Here she is in front of her classroom door.

Be sure to check out I ♥ Faces to see all the amazing photos that were entered in this week’s contest.

Emma started second grade last Monday. I know that all moms say the same thing every year, but I just can’t help myself. Where did the time go? I can’t believe that I have a second grader! I have so many vivid memories of my own second grade year. I feel like I was so much older than she is now! I remember walking to school by myself. We lived in a nice neighborhood and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. I still live in the same town and go visit that house once in a while. I can’t believe that I walked all that way by myself when I was in second grade. I guess times have changed. I can’t imagine letting Emma walk to school by herself, even though technically we live within walking distance of the school.

Emma woke up early and was excited to go to school. Ian and Nora started a week later, so Emma got to enjoy the spotlight all by herself. I got her up a little early so she could take a shower and do her hair. I knew that I would want to get some photos, so she had to have cute hair

She got all ready and I drove her to school. I decided to park and walk her up to her classroom. It was also a great opportunity to get a few photos. Her teacher was just coming out of the classroom. I was really excited to get a photo of Emma and her teacher on the first day!

She was really excited to see all her friends and she didn’t seem nervous in the least bit.

I’m really happy about her teacher this year. I have heard great things about her, and Emma seems to love her so far. She is a really warm person, which is great for second grade. She also is very open to having parents in the classroom. I’m looking forward to being able to spend more time in the classroom since I have all 3 kids in school now–at least for a few hours.

I am sure that Emma is going to have a great year!

The morning of Emma’s surgery went really smoothly. Emma woke up in the morning in a really good mood. I am firmly convinced that the surgery class was a life saver. It helped her feel so much more at ease with the whole surgery ordeal. Ian and Nora spent the night at my parents house so that we could have a nice calm morning. We all got up and got ready. Emma couldn’t eat, so Scott and I skipped breakfast too so that Emma didn’t have to watch us eat.

We got to the hospital and spent some time in a few different waiting rooms. Emma was happy and calm the whole time. She brought her surgery buddy and spent time doing one of her favorite things–coloring.

After about an hour, they were ready to take her back into surgery. They loaded her into the wagon–which she was really looking forward too.

I was a little worried that when it was finally time to say goodbye, Emma might have a hard time. But she didn’t at all. They wheeled her down the hall and we said goodbye at the “See ya later door”. She chatted with the anesthesiologist the whole time about the pictures on the ceiling. We gave her a hug, but she barely noticed that we left.

While she was in surgery Scott and I ran down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Emma was gone about a half hour before they said she was ready for us to come back and see her. When I got back there she was still kind of out of it, but she was asking to watch TV and she already had a slushee.

The next few hours were kind of rough for her. She was crying and complaining that her throat hurt. She was also nauseated. They gave her some anti-nausea medicine and some pain meds. But it didn’t help much with the nausea. She started vomiting and pretty much didn’t stop until she went to bed that night. They kept us longer at the hospital hoping to get it under control. I think they finally realized that she wasn’t going to stop vomiting and they thought she would be more comfortable at home.

We got her home and got her tucked into our bed and put a movie on for her. She spent the rest of the day in our bed and we let her sleep with us just so we could keep an eye on her. The first day was rough. She felt terrible the whole first day and threw up until she finally fell asleep for the night.

Luckily the next day she was like a new person. She had hardly any pain and the vomiting finally stopped. Over the next few days she took Tylenol a handful of times and she was back to eating close to normal by the 3rd day.

Right now she is 10 days out from surgery. It seems like we are in the clear and that the worst is over. I know that at day 7-10 the scabs are supposed to fall off and the pain can be pretty severe again. I looked in her throat today and I can’t really see any scabs. Maybe they already fell off.

I’m really glad that we went ahead and did the surgery. I could tell the first night that her breathing was better. She slept silently for the first time in her life. She is also keeping her mouth closed and breathing through her nose. Hopefully both of these things will help her sleep and help to give her a better quality of life.