Family pictures with the Herbrandson's

A couple weeks ago we were able to get pictures with the Herbrandson side of our family. Thank you Renee for taking so many great shots! :)

Emi with her 'monga' (aka Grandma)

Grandma & Grandpa with their grandkids :)

My amazing husband and I!

Eric & Wendy

My super cute nieces and nephew.

DeWayne & Ruth

Our family

Me and my 'joy joy'

Daddy & 'boo'

Sisters

Emi wasn't really cooperating that morning, but Alyssa's always ready when Renee has her camera...here's some cute shots:

Veteran's Day Parade

On Veteran's day the girls and I headed to downtown Phoenix with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew to watch the parade. It was a beautiful day to watch the parade and celebrate those who have served & are still serving our country!

Emi's favorite part were the cheerleaders. She was cheering right along with them.

Whenever Emi is around one of her grandmas she doesn't leave their side!

Ava & Alyssa :)

Alyssa loved watching the 'princesses', aka 'Miss Arizona', etc. I love how excited she gets when she sees anyone in a fancy dress...."Look mom...a PRINCESS!!!" :)

Random videos from the past month

The girls loved this!!

This is Emi's favorite thing to do at Grandma's! :)

Emi just running...I love her cute little run and had to get video of it. ;)

Pat-a-cake

Emi

Emi's 2 1/2 now and getting SO big! She is so much fun and we all love playing with her and listening to all her new words...she'll carry on with a story for quite a while, I just can't wait to understand all she's saying! :) She still loves playing with her babies and trying to play with real babies. ;) Here's a cute video of Emi watching a baby Brooklyn video and then singing to her...

I've been meaning to do this post for so long that I've forgotten so much of what I wanted to say. :(

Some random new Emi things:

She's in her toddler bed finally!

She's doing really well on the potty...most days.

She calls Alyssa, 'Sissa' ... like Alyssa & Sister put together, I love it!

She loves praying when we eat and she prays so cute..."pray daddy, pray mommy, pray Sissa, pray chocolate milk, pray food, pray me!"

She's starting to color, on the paper and not putting crayons in her mouth...both huge accomplishments!

She loves wearing her backpack everywhere, even if it's just around the house. She'll fill it with whatever...pull-ups, play food, her baby's bottles & paci's, etc.

She LOVES singing 'I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart' and 'Jesus loves me'

She can almost sing the entire abc's.

She can count to 11, sometimes. ;)

She'll finally sit and watch a t.v. show...she likes OSO and Little Einsteins.

When you ask her a question now, she'll stop and think about it for a while saying 'ummmmm' and then she'll answer. I know it's not a good habit, but it's stinkin' adorable! ;)

She's such a goofball! No really, she has such a great personality and sense of humor, I can't wait to see it develop over the next months as her communication gets better and better!!!

That's all I can remember right now..maybe there'll be a Emi2 post later! ;)

We love you so much 'boo bear'!

Quick story...

(I have a couple really cute pics of the girls together but they're all on my phone and I can't get them to e-mail, this one of them watching a cartoon will have to do!) ;)

I have quite a few posts to catch up on, but wanted to share this cute story first. Stay tuned (hopefully) today for updated pics. :)

Alyssa invited me to play 'going camping' with her & Emi this morning. It consisted of telling spooky/princess stories, her and I staying up late while Emi pretended to sleep on her bed, and then roasting marshmallows. I don't think Emi's ever heard this phrase 'roasting marshmallows' before or ever seen it done, she looked pretty confused! ;) ...may have had something to do with the sticks Alyssa gave for us to roast with; a blanket for me and a Barbie hair brush for Emi??? She had no idea what was going on, but played along well!

The other cute thing Alyssa does now when playing with Emi is she pretends she's the mommy and Emi's the baby (mostly because she can then be in charge, but we'll stick with the cute part of the story for now! ;) ). Instead of calling her Emi or baby, she calls her 'sweetie'. It is so precious, she just walks around saying "come here sweetie", "are you okay sweetie", "let's play sweetie", etc.

It's been so encouraging for me to see their relationship grow so much lately...they really do love each other and enjoy playing with each other!!! :) What an answer to prayer this is!

Halloween!

We had a really nice night trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and passing out candy (the girls love this part...they pretty much run to the kids to give them candy!). Emi was so cute saying 'trick-or-treat' this year.

I wish I got video of the girls after the sugar set in...at one time both girls were running up and down our street screaming & laughing, back and forth, back and forth and then later Emi was just laughing hysterically and running in circles. It was so cute! :)

Papa & Grandma stopped by to see the girls.

Our next door neighbor carved this. Since Nate's a Vikings fan we had to take a pic...maybe next year I'll do a Cardinals helmet. :)

Running to the next house!

Some of the neighbors had their houses decorated so spooky that the girls were a little scared to go up to the door. ...they were brave though, knowing there was candy to be given! ;)

Halloween over the years:

2005 - Alyssa's 1st Halloween - Our Little Pumpkin

2006 - No family picture :( ...but here's one of just Alyssa being a cute little puppy, one with cousins Zach & Emma, and one with best friend Mercy.

Our family 2007 - Cute little bugs... Ladybug & Butterfly

Our family 2008 - Cinderella & Minnie Mouse

Our family 2009 :) - Dorothy & Ladybug

Fun dress-up/Halloween pics

We had the opportunity to have the girls get their pictures taken for a Halloween photo shoot for Leasure Designer Portraits...and they ended up on their flyer! It was so fun and the girls did such a great job. :)