Emily and I went out in the rain to play on the slip-n-slide.

We took Emily and Matthew to get some pictures taken, and here are the results. Click on either thumbnail to get to the full album of pictures.

We took Emily and Matthew to the Renaissance Festival on Oct 28. Also here are some pics from Halloween. Finally, EMily and Matthew had a combined birthday party at BounceU.

We packed up Emily, Matthew, 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 2 carseats, and 2 stuffed animals, and schlepped it all to the airport. Matthew couldn’t believe the amount of airplanes that he saw, as he screamed “Dada, AIRPLANE!” at each new one he saw. After being delayed 2 hours, we “blasted off” (according to Emily) and flew 4.5 hours to Seattle. We were told that the kids were VERY well behaved on the flight, but we were still ready to pull our hair out. But we made it, and started our first out-of-state vacation in Washington State.

We then went to Jennifer and Clayton’s beautiful house in Northern Seattle, and visited with them. We went to Pike Place Market, the Seattle Aquarium, and basically all around downtown. We got live crab at the market and Clayton cooked it up for us, and it was DELICIOUS!

As they were still working, getting ready for their wedding, and I’m sure needed a break from having four new people in their house (two of which being under five years old) we took off and drove to Mt. Rainier. This was a great trip, and we stayed overnight on the mountain at the National Park Inn, which we highly recommend.

Once we got back, we did some other shopping around town, getting ready for the wedding. Then we took off and stayed near the castle.
The next day was the wedding, which was a blast! The castle was really nice, the ceremony was really nice, the slideshow Jennifer and Clayton put together was incredible, and the dancing afterward was awesome. We stayed with Jennifer’s parents, Larry and Kathryn, that night, at their beautiful place in the woods.

Overall, it was a great vacation, and all of us had a great time. Emily loved meeting all of Jennifer’s and Clayton’s family, and talks about them a lot. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality! It was so nice meeting all of you.

Click here for more pictures from our vacation.

Click here for more pictures from the wedding.

And last, but not least, here is a video of Emily dancing:

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We (The Smith’s, Eddie, Martha, Jackie and Thomas) went over to Rebecca and Adam’s house Saturday night, and we got some cute pictures I wanted to share.

It was getting late, and we were getting ready to go home, when Madeline comes in and asks if Emily can spend the night. It must have been Madeline’s idea, because Emily has never even thought to ask before. This was freaky for me, because Emily has never spent the night anywhere except her grandparent’s house. She had a great time, and Rebecca said they were fine - once she got them to sleep. Ouch, she’s growing up quick. Click the image for some cute pics….

Here are some pictures from the first few days of school. Thomas started at Sugar Grove this year, and has Emily’s teacher from last year. Jackie started Kindergarten, and Emily is in the same class as Madeline. So far, so good! Click the image for more…

Here are a couple of new picture albums to view. The first one is from the SalvageSale summer party at the Astros game. We rented the top of Union Station which looks down into the ball park. Emily had a great time. The other album is some pictures of the kids taking a bath. The water came out crystal clear, it almost looks like plastic. Sorry future Matthew, for showing you naked on our website.

We took Emily shopiing for a flower girl dress for Jennifer and Clayton’s wedding.  Needless to say, we had to practically drag her out of the store.  She LOVED trying on dresses.  Click the thumbnail for more pictures.

We were playing in the back yard on Sunday, and here are some pictures I took of the kids.

Well, I said that as part of my 43things I was going to blog more about the kids, but then I’ve been writing about other things instead. Here is my first update on Emily.

• Emily weighs 39 lbs. and is 41″ tall
• She can sound out words now, so we have to be careful when we are spelling words we dont want her to know about.
• Emily’s favorites books are:
• Snuggle Puppy
• Any Dr. Seuss
• Emily is a great big sister! She loves to play with Matthew and they have a great time together. She wants to be his mommy and tries to scold him, so we have to remind her that she is not his mommy, and to leave the discipline up to us. They are so close in age, let’s hope their great relationship lasts, because Stella tells stories about her and Eddie that make my hair stand on end!
• She loves to ride her new 16″ Barbie Bike at the park.
• Emily is a VERY picky eater. We make her try everything on her plate, but she likes about 10% of what we make her try. At least she tries it. We’ve gotten to where we finish our dinner and make her sit at the table by herself until she has eaten. If not, then I get irritated having to remind her a million times to eat, and then everyone is unhappy.
• Emily loves to watch
• The Backyardigans
• Toy Story
• Tom and Jerry
• Little Einsteins
• Emily’s nicknames are: Spooky, Emmy (Matthew calls her that sometimes), and Goofball Jones

Emily and I tie-dyed some of her sleep shirts the other day because she doesn’t like plain white. They came out really well, click on the thumbnails below to see some of the pictures.

Click on the pictures for more.

Here is Emily’s School picture and some other recent pics:

Here are some great pictures of Jackie and Emily dancing to the Wiggles.  With her dress, Jackie looks striaght out of Woodstock or something!  :)  Click image for more…

Samantha had her birthday party at Sugar Land, and Matthew went a little crazy with the pasta strainer. Click the images for more…

Sugar Grove had their Spring (?) Program on Feb 16.  Emily and Jackie got up and sang Patriotic songs with their classes.  Click on the picture to see more…

Some misc pics. Click Images for more…

Here’s what I see when we wake up :)  Click the image for more…

Well, Emily got through the surgery fine. She was only in the operating room for about 20 minutes.  The surgeon, Dr. Edmonds, found an “obnoxious amount of fluid” in her right ear.  That is the ear that has been hurting her so much.  She recovered very quickly and was soon eating a popsicle.  Since she has had a little bit of soup, and lots of ::wikipedia(”Jello”,”Jello”):: and pudding.  :)  She still has a little pain in her ears, but that is to be expected for a while.  Her throat was sore in the beginning, but the pain seems to have completely subsided.  Thanks for your prayers!

Emily has been fighting some inner ear problems for a while now.  She continues to have chronic ear pain and now has a loss of hearing due to fluid behind both of her eardrums.  We noticed back in November (a week before her 4 yr. check up) that she was not responding to us.  We had her hearing checked, and she didn’t pass in both ears.  We have visited the pediatrician and an ENT several times since then and the decision was made to insert ::wikipedia(”Myringotomy”, “tubes”):: in her ears and remove her ::wikipedia(”Adenoids”,”Adenoids”)::.  Emily will undergo this outpatient surgery tomorrow morning around 7:30 a.m.  Please pray the surgery goes well and that Emily’s hearing is restored.  Also, please pray the surgery will result in a cure for Emily’s continuing pain.