Ballerina

We signed Emilia up for a summer ballet class through the city.  They learned first and second position, passe, jette, arabesque, and follow the leader, among other things.  Emilia absolutely LOVED it.  She had a grin on her face through the whole 1/2 hour class, every time.  It was just two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday, for 5 weeks.  Mira really wished she could join in, but the youngest they allowed was 3.  Maybe next year! :)

On the last day of class, they had a "recital." Parents and grandparents, etc. were invited to attend.  Since it was on a Tuesday at 10:30am, Steve was the only other person to make it.  I recorded the whole thing, except when the dance was about 1/4 of the way through, my phone ran out of memory. Darned electronic devices!  I'll add the 1/4 that I did get, though, cuz it's pretty cute. :)

If you looked up cute in the dictionary...

...I'm pretty sure you would find a picture of Mira. (Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure you would also find her picture under "strong-willed" and "stubborn.")

Mira eating cheerios for breakfast:

When her spoon stops working, she just sticks her fingers into the hole and picks them up that way.

Poor sick baby.

She loves reading with her grandparents.  I attribute her love of reading to a patient grandpa.

Emilia turns 5

Emilia's birthday was on the 17th of July and she requested a "My Little Pony Spa Birthday Party." This meant that she wanted to do the ponies' hair and decorate dresses for them at her party.  She decided to invite 3 of her friends and their sisters to join us.  Actually, the first person she asked to invite was Nana, so she was there, but I thought we should also invite girls her age. :)  She was very sad her cousins Jane and Meg were too far away--in Arizona--to come.  We were lucky enough to have my Aunt Jean and cousin Dot join us.  They were here visiting for a couple days, so they joined us to help and spend time with everybody.  It was a good thing we had some extra hands because things got a little crazy with 7 girls mostly under 5 trying to do pony hair and decorate pony dresses!

Here's the kitchen while the girls were getting ready to decorate dresses.

 I made pony cupcake toppers to go on her funfetti cupcakes.

 The living room while getting ready to open presents.

 Emilia's friend Gracie and her mom.

 Dot and Ariana.

 Megs and baby Febe.

 Emilia opening presents.

 More presents to open.

Emilia loved her gifts and had a great time at her party.  Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped me not go crazy! :)

Cousins

I loved having cousins my age growing up.  They were my best friends and we spent hours and hours and hours playing together.  I'm so excited for my kids to have cousins their age, too.  Emilia has Cari on my side, and Jane, Meg, Haley, and Davis on Steve's side.  Mira has Dylan on my side and Kate and Keegan on Steve's side.  And now Cecily has Lincoln and Febe on my side.  It will be wonderful to see their friendships grow as they get older.

Here are some pictures of the new cousins together.

Lincoln and Cecily when Lincoln was born at the hospital.  He is at the top.

 Febe, Cecily, and Lincoln--in that order.

Not too much

As you can see, it's been two months since I've posted anything.  Which means Cecily is a little over two months old.  We have been pretty boring in the last two months, so there hasn't been too much to post about.  Just getting used to having another member of the family around.

Cecily is a WONDERFUL little baby.  She sleeps easily and well, pretty much where ever I've hauled her for the day or in her crib.  She loves to look at you and talk, smile, and even giggle sometimes.  Her sisters adore her and she loves them.  She will often smile just hearing their voices.

At her two month appointment, she had gained 4 lbs.  That's better than either of my other two!  She eats well and she is starting to sleep up to six to 8 hours at night.  (Now if I could only get myself to go to sleep earlier!)

Some things we did do: redo our front flower bed, make some wall-hangings for the nursery, put up some blinds in the nursery (which I hope to change into Roman blinds in the next few weeks), celebrate the 4th of July with my family, a lot of swimming at Nana's and splashing in Springville's new splash pad.

I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few:
Steve was changing Cecily's diaper and I thought the scene was just so funny I had to take a picture.  Her hands are straight up in the air like it's a hold up and she's afraid for her life, and Steve looks like he's trying to defuse a nuclear bomb, he's concentrating so hard.

 Nana and Megan and her kids came over one day.  That's a lot of little ones!

 Cecily sleeping in her bouncy chair.

 Mira patiently waiting to go to the splash pad.

 Mira playing with one of the copper(?) statues around the splash pad.

 Emilia playing in the waterfall at the top of the splash pad (in teal and purple).

 I just thought she looked so small in there.

 Emilia thought her hair looked cute that day.  She had just gotten her hair cut a few days before.  I had to take a picture and send it to Nana.

 So cute.

 My girls love the laundry basket for some reason. :)  The cushion was off the chair because Cecily had pooped on it and it was being laundered.

 Her expressions are so funny.

 She fell asleep on momma.

 I love naked babies.  Look at those eyes, too!

 Taking a break outside with some Popsicle and fudgesicles.

 Ready for church.

 Finding her thumb.  You can see how much she is filling out in this picture. 

This is how our front flower bed looks all finished. I'm so proud of it!