A Day In the Life of Emma

In the course of 24 hours Emma went from this.....

To this (her Junior High Choir Concert)......

 To this...having her tonsils and adenoids removed. 

She doesn't get sick, but they were so large they were obstructing her airway.  They had to come out. 

 Here are her adoring fans waiting for her to wake up from anesthesia.  She did great, and lucky for us she is kind and patient when she isn't feeling well.  Oh wait.....well, she did great.  :)

 On the way home from the hospital Tessa saw how  much ice cream we were buying her, and she has requested that she be next to get her tonsils and adenoids removed. 

Tessa has been busy.....

Tessa has been busy.  She had her first day of preschool and could hardly stand the wait.  She.  Was.  Ready. 

She also learned how to ride a two-wheeler.  She is officially the  most determined (nice way of saying stubborn) 4-year-old I know.  When she wants something she does not quit until she gets it - and this time it really worked in her favor and she is loving riding a bike like the "big kids." 

Go Big or Go Home

Ted and I took a quick weekend trip to Texas - and it was big, and not all in a good way.  It was a BIG deal to fit it into an already jam packed fall schedule.  

It was a BIG headache coordinating end of season soccer tournaments, basketball games, birthday parties, and traversing to and fro (seriously - our babysitter had seven soccer games, two basketball games and two birthday parties scheduled - we didn't make it to all of them. :)

Tessa threw an enormous BIG fit one evening and wouldn't cooperate with anybody.  They were at the park and people were watching the babysitter thinking she was trying to kindap our feisty 4-year-old.

But...

While we were there we went to this BIG Texas stadium and walked around oohing and aahing at the Cowboys stadium (Ted's favorite since he was a kid). 

We watched BYU vs. TCU - and they lost - but it wasn't by a BIG amount. 

And I sat next to this guy for four hours straight with nobody asking for help going to the bathroom, nobody wanting to talk about Halloween costumes, Jedi attributes, gymnastics routines, soccer, space, or who knows what else.  And we needed that.  BIG time!

 Yeah.  I loved Texas. 

Lincoln turns 12!

This sweet boy of mine turned 12 today.  He is getting the priesthood in church.  He is about to attend Junior High full time (he already attends first period there for math and then heads back to sixth grade in elementary school).  He is growing up, and I can't stop it.  Dang it. 

For his birthday he wanted an NCAA football game.  That was it.

 

 But he was a good sport and was excited about the clothes and the scriptures that he got too.

For dinner he wanted bacon cheeseburgers. 

And he didn't even mind when his sister had to be in all of the pictures.  :)

But the real hit of the night was when he opened up his very own phone.  This is him doing his happy dance.  I couldn't even get him to sit still for a photo. 

Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

Grandma and Grandpa and the pumpkin patch

Yes.  It is almost Christmas.

But it's time for some serious catch-up.

This fall we were excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Wagner visit, and we tried to soak them in as much as possible since they were about to leave on another mission.  This time around Grandpa is going to be second counselor in the Paraguay Temple Presidency. 

So we visited our pumpkin patch for a small and "homey" experience picking pumpkins. 

The kids enjoyed a good old fashioned tractor ride out to the fields. 

They scoured the fields for the perfect pumpkin. 

And did some serious posing.  She is a pro.  Seriously.  (Heaven help us through the teenage years).

And to finish it off, the kids had some other activities they were interested in participating in at this "small" pumpkin patch:  Swings, jump houses, corn maze, hay bale maze, paying a small fortune for some homemade donut holes, and....

bull riding.  I think Linc lasted 2.3 seconds??

Nothing like a small hometown visit to a local pumpkin patch, eh?

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving week was an activity packed and fun weekend.  The week started off with Ted taking the older kids to the BYU game.  It was FREEZING, but they had a good time anyways.  I. meanwhile, was enjoying some good ol' girl time with my sisters and my mom at Time Out For Women.  I remember thinking how I wasn't sure if I was going to get much out of the presentations this time around - after all, I had been there only a year before.  Man oh man - was I wrong.  It was AMAZING and just what I needed to hear.  Tessa had  her own special date with grandpa and went to Build-A-Bear and McDonalds.  She really knew how to work Grandpa, too.  He was the nice one - I never let her buy the clothes at Build-A-Bear, but she came home with a bear who was fully decked out!  She had a great time! 


We ended the weekend by attending Music and The Spoken Word together.  We had a great time and laughed like crazy.  I even managed to get a little sleep after I switched rooms at 3 in the morning due to some extreme snoring.  :)




Ted flew home to work for a few days and I stayed through the week to do some shopping, some resting, and let the kids see their cousins.  We did manage to sneak in a visit to the aquarium which the kids loved.  They loved seeing all the giant fish, the snakes, and the highlight was.....

 



the STINGRAYS!  Sam even got so excited he just shoved his arm into the water and then looked at me when he realized he was wearing a long sleeved shirt.  :)

 

The kids went out to "help" grandpa with the leaves one day.

 And then it was Thanksgiving.  We ate at Liese's house and had a great meal.  However, all thoughts of pumpkin pie was gone from the kids' minds when they saw this:  a chocolate fountain.  Then the kids scurried off and played with cousins and the adults enjoyed the peace and quiet.  It was a great day. 

The following night we went to Temple Square to see the lights.  It was great to see the Wagner side of the family - I wish we could have seen them more, but we will take what we can get!  We were with the Rowleys, the Crandalls, and Rich and Megan's families - but I didn't manage to get pictures of everyone, but the kids had a great time hanging out together. 

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!