Emilia has some big news....

We are all pretty excited to welcome a new baby Jenkins come March!

28 days...

28 days is not that long... its less than a month, unless you are speaking of February, which I am not because is such a miserable month (weather speaking, not referring to my niece and nephews bdays!) and thats why it's so short, because nobody would want a 31 day February. Anyways, as I was saying 28 days is not to far away...the countdown is on, as is the (self induced) pressure. After completing school, graduating, and going through what seemed like 2 days orientation at my new job (but I assure you was much longer :) ) the day of taking boards is only 28 days away. I have every day between now and then mapped out with study plans, and if all goes well, I will be taking them September 15th. Sooo… I am hoping I can stay motivated between now and then to keep on my study plan, and PASS BOARDS! Wish me luck!

I blinked my eyes...

And now she's 5... I still cannot believe my baby is 5! None of her other birthdays have taken me by this surprise, but 5 is kind of a big deal... when you ask her how old she is, it takes and entire hand to hold up that many fingers! She is turning into quite the little lady, though, and I was so excited for her birthday, only because she was so excited to turn 5! Per her request, we had a Rapunzel theme party, complete with a 15 foot yarn braid and Rapunzel cake. I wasn't so sure about making her cake this year, because of the logistics of making a top heavy tower not collapse, but with the help of Cake Boss, my friend, Audrey, and Emilia's helping hands, we pulled it off!

 

 So if you have never seen the movie, Tangled, much of the party decor did not have any significance, but Emilia and I had fun hanging lanterns from the ceiling, and making our "orange " sailboats floating on blue jello under the floating lanterns, and making our own painted purple banners that were hanging in the town square in the movie (you can see them hanging above her when she was opening presents!)

She got so many presents, and has barely wanted to leave the house since, because she is having so much fun having new toys and art projects to work on!

She was happy Jenny was able to come, although I am not sure how she was walking after running 14 miles that morning (she's running a marathon this fall!)

Emilia's cousin Tala was too funny... after Emilia opened each of her presents, Tala made her own pile of her favorites... it was pretty cute!

Time for cake!

And I hope all her wishes come true this year!

Happy birthday beautiful girl... We love you so much!

Isn't she lovely...

Last Mothers day I blogged about the fact I had purchased my own Mothers day gift (weird, I know, but so glad I did!), which was a oil painting of Emilia, from a former NICU graduate's talented mother, Natalie. The proceeds she earned for this actually was donated to the March of Dimes, which was so generous of her to do! She managed to get this painting accomplished in the midst of a long bedrest, having a baby, and moving states away... impressive, right? I thought so too! She did an absolutely amazing job, and I was so excited to get this in the mail today, and I am even more excited to hang this in our home! Thank you Natalie for painting this beautiful picture... you are an amazing artist!

Alice and Wonderland...

My niece, Hannah, was in Alice in Wonderland for her spring ballet. She also was super excited to got her point shoes recently. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up...

PS look closely and you might notice Heather has another bun in the oven! She's barely showing at this point, but our family is super excited to have a baby in the family again!

Omaha

After graduation I had a few weeks off before I officially started working... the first week I opted to spend it reorganizing my house, and then we headed to Omaha for a quick weekend trip to Emilia's favorite zoo! This time we took a few more kids with us, though! My 10 year old niece, Hannah, 7 year old nephew, Garrett, and 4 year old niece, Lily, and then our own Emilia kept us busy on the trip, but it went well with only a few mishaps... more on that later, though! After checking into the hotel, we went to the Children's museum, which is like a hopped up version of kaleidoscope and Science City... this time I opted not to get my face painted, much to the kids dismay!

                                                                Garrett mid air!

  Garrett wanted his face like Batman

                                 Emilia was standing inside a huge bubble, preparing to blow bubbles out at us!

Our first night we went to the downtown area to get dinner and go to the candy shop. The kids of course all wanted balloons on their favorite animal, or sword in Garrett's case!

Garrett actually met his match with these two little boys, who were equipped with their own weapons!

See how its nice and sunny here? This lasted about 20 more minutes, and then a huge storm rolled in while we were eating dinner. Chris decided to be nice and run the 5 blocks back to the hotel and get the car to pick us up in, because at this point it was pretty much pouring. We were waiting in the candy store for him when Chris came back much later then anticipated with a horrible limp and already black ankle. Apparently the stone stairs he took by the water were slippery and he twisted his ankle pretty badly. Although many suggestion were made to "run by the ER," he opted to go to Target for a wrap and some ibuprofen.... Stubborn? Nope. So I took the kids swimming in the hotel pool while he iced his ankle. He still insisted on going to the zoo, and I didn't mind since I just figured we would rent a wheel chair, but once we arrived he refused to get in one and walked around the zoo ALL DAY LONG! Needless to say, his ankle got worse before it go better! Anyways, the kiddos enjoyed it...

Emilia had 3 butterflies land on her in the butterfly garden... she was so excited!

We found some monkeys just hanging around...

And others were reading the daily news!

It was a fun weekend... not a whole lot of relaxing, but fun none the less!

Happy Mothers Day/ happy birthday!!!

Mother's day always falls right around my birthday, so we decided to combine the celebrations a bit, and visit one of my favorite places in KC, but first to start the morning right with a nice pair of shoes... she's growing so fast she will really fit into my shoes soon enough!

We went to church early service, and then took my mom with us for the afternoon since my dad was stuck working. And then off to the Monet exhibit at the Nelson for a fun afternoon and brunch at the Rozelle Court Restaurant. They had a special activities for little ones that afternoon, so Emilia had a blast!

She was especially impressed with their dessert bar, while the adults ate our weight in their "fingerling" mashed potatoes... if you've never tried them, you should... they were AMAZING! Then as you will see below, "Dan" or "Ted" (depends on the day) joined us for brunch!. Chris's brother, Danny, brought her this bear when she was a baby in the hospital, and he goes pretty much anywhere with us now...

The scenery is absolutely gorgeous...

And then we went outside for some sun and more art.

They had this really fun area for the kids to paint their own version of Monet's famous painting, Waterlilies. I was reminded of Emilia's 1st introduction to Monet here when she was about 6 months old... I have to say she had a bit more appreciation when she tried to replicate his masterpiece!

Below are her and Chris with her own "version" of Monet's Waterlilies... I think we have a future artist on our hands. :) It was a lovely day and a great day to be a mom and enjoy what you love!