Party Time

 The fam before everyone arrived.

 Emerson with her grandma's...Grammie and Gaga. We decided to have a small birthday for a couple reasons but mainly because Emerson doesn't like HUGE crowds. She'd rather just play with a small group of friends.

 So besides family...Emerson got to invite a couple of her friends from church, Bible study, wherever and then Stella was allowed to invite one friend. Well, she lucked out because some of Emme's friends just happen to have older sisters that Stella LOVES.

 Here's the gang. Please ignore me. I tried to crop myself out, but editing is acting up. I asked Tom why he didn't get me out of the picture and he just laughed and said he didn't realize I was there. Ha!
Ok,,cute kiddos. Emerson's buddy Collin and his big sister, Amelia, Stella's friend, Cilla, the bday girl, Stella, Kaylyn, and Audrey with big sister Ashlen :)

 Emme Loved her cake. She even tried to hug it.

 These girls were amazing during the party. They seriously just entertained themselves and played so well together. This picture kills me because they all look SOOOOO old.

 Checking out her presents.

Playing with her buddy, Audrey.

I'm so glad we did "smaller" because Emerson really did enjoy herself. I know it'll probably be a big blow out next year, but this year was just perfect. And I still can't believe she's ONE!

Wordless Wednesday: Sisterly Love

Hoot Hoot...Party Details

 If look closely the birthday girls dress has owls on it. This was kind of my insipiration for the theme. I ordered it from a local boutique show in the fall and jsut went with it. Then I remembered i had a lot of owl stuff. It's kind of Emerson's theme:)

 We already had this stuffed owl. My mom found this cute owl frame at Hobby Lobby and thanks to pinterest she whipped out the ribbon wreath. I didn't get a close up, but it included owl ribbon.

 Do you recognize this banner? It's what my friends made for the shower they threw me LAST year. I held onto it and that's what inspired the colors of the party.

 More owls! My mom and I made the owl cupcakes (again, thanks pinterest) and my mom made two dips and so did my mother in law. I know...small party. Small party doesn't need to mean NO food :)
Plus the party included family, close family friends, and of course Stella got to invite a friend so the small party was more medium. But it was perfect and not too crazy. Anyway, more on that later.

 My mom made this cute flower arrangement, BUT please look closely at those COOKIES. Yes, those are edible and yes they're DELISH! Click on cookies to see Holly's work and order some, they're AMAZING

 And of course, Emerson's "smash" cake came from Ricks Bakery.

Look at the cute owl. And please notice the cute bib my mom got her with an E on it for her dive into her first taste of cake. We had a great time. I'll post more on the party soon.

Happy Birthday Emerson Kate!

 I know Emerson is going to kill me someday for posting these pictures, but I did it with Stella so I had to document the entire day.

 So since this birthday girls starts bright and early...she's a bit puzzled why I'm taking pictures so early in the day.

 Now she's a happy birthday girl. I CANNOT believe she is one.

 The big ONE year old before her little birthday party. I loved her dress! I made her wear the other outfit during the day so this would still be clean for her party.

 Loving ALL the attention!

This is by far my MOST FAVORITE picture of the year! Each year we mark the girls on their birthday to chart their growth. I promise Tom wasn't choking her...he was holding her head steady, but I LOVE her face.

OH Miss Emerson,
We Love ALL your sweet little faces! We have learned so much from you during your first year. There have been good times and some rough spots, but all have been sweet because we've had you. You melt our hearts daily, you make us laugh, cry, and crave sleep :)
We couldn't ask for a better bond between you and your sister. There has never been a moment of jealousy..you've been best friends since day one. You are more of a mommy's girl, but you light up with daddy is home and belly laugh when he plays with you! You're most favorite pass time is BATH time. You would stay in there all day long with we let you. Your eyes are a very pretty blue and we think your hair will be lighter than your sisters and daddy's hair. You definitely have your mama's white complexion.
You are social, but only when you want to be and usually only when you know the crowd. You tend to stare down strangers and give them very serious looks.
You are just precious and we love you more than you'll ever know.

Happy birthday sweet girl!
Mommy & Daddy

**more birthday posts to come, I promise!

Queen (and Kings) of the Kitchen

I don't know about your family, but ours LOVES to eat around the holidays. So that meant a lot of prep time in the kitchen. Of course, Emerson wanted in on the fun so we found a safe place for her to help out so we could be all hands on deck.

These cheese balls were excited to work some magic in the kitchen...

with Uncle Beau. I know this is a rare sight. Beau normally just eats the food...this time he was cooking with the kids (I forgot what) but they were excited. I love Hunter's napkin dew-rag.

Of course we decorated Christmas cookies. We didn't get to decorate  as many as we expected (one of the dogs ate an entire batch of cookies off the counter) but we had MORE than enough. We should probably thank our K9 friend for saving us the calories.

I think Sawyer enjoyed his cookies.

Very serious.

Lip smacking good!

O Christmas Tree

It's always fun to search for a REAL tree. Back home, in Oregon, there are tree farms everywhere. The kids did a great job and it looked beautiful!

Ho Ho Ho

 I love the excitement on my nephews faces here! This was really Santa's helper...not the real guy. This is really my dad (aka Papa). He got sucked into playing the man in red for the local firefighters kids/grand kids. So we tagged along what ended up being interesting to say the least, but Santa still showed and the kids LOVED it!

Emerson didn't seem to mind. She was clueless that it was Papa...or maybe she had an inkling. Stella was under the weather so she missed out.

 No worries...a couple days later it was off to see the REAL Santa. You know the guy downtown with elves and a REAL beard. Well, Emerson wasn't sure of this guy. He definitely wasn't Papa. And Stella wouldn't even stand near the guy.

 The Hart boys had no problems with Ole Saint Nick. They must know who is charge of the presents. But Santa wanted to hear from everyone so he gave up his "special" chair and viola we have a picture with Santa.

Then all of a sudden it clicked...this is the guy in charge of presents and EVERYONE was loving on Santa and making sure he knew what they wanted and that they were "good" this year.