These are Alex’s favorite pajamas of the girls.  When Emmy was about 9 months old she wore these for the first time and Alex thought they were so cute he wanted a picture!  So then when Kaylee wore them at 6 months we had to get a cute picture of her too!  It’s really obvious who is who here so I won’t make you guess.  But those are two cute little girls!  And a cute dad to boot!

So “tweet”…I mean sweet!  (Get it…tweetie bird…very clever…)

Touch your head!

Touch your toes!

Shake your hips and do your best impression of Betty Boop!

This picture was taken on another day but since it was the same outfit I thought I’d lump them all in together!  The last day of camp was really rainy so the next Monday I had to clean the tent and all my gear off.  My mom came over and helped me.  While we were hanging the tarps up to dry little miss Emmy helped herself to some free entertainment.  She totally cracks me up!  She was drenched!

She kept swiping the water above her head then she’d look up and get a big face full of water!

What a silly and cute little girl!  There is never a dull moment when Emmy is around!  We love you!

First years have to go on a 3 year hike for their certification!  Here we are on our way back to camp!

The high adventure this year was rock climbing because the camp theme was “Rise Above”.  Bonnie Cardon gave a great presentation to the girls about how rock climbing goes along with the YW values.  I didn’t get a copy of her bookmark so I can’t include it all here but I will have to track one down because it was a really good thing for the girls to hear.  Anyway, here is one of the Junior leaders on her way up the mountain!

Here’s on of the entire cliff! I wish I could say that is me!  But I didn’t get a chance to go this time!  The Cardons said they would have another night so that the leaders could go!  I should probably start lifting weights now because I’m not as strong as those 12 year olds (not to mention I’m dragging a lot more weight up the mountain! haha).

So the stake leaders set up a water activity for the girls.  They told them to play a game where they passed the water balloon back and forth using these towels.  Then the priesthood leaders that were there got out a balloon launcher and launched balloons at the girls from a far.  It was funny to see how long it took for the girls to realize where the balloons were coming from and then all out war started!!

Here is a picture with the Los Alamos ward girls and leaders!

And here is the 1st year camp and leaders!  So much fun!!

While Christina was here she painted Emmy’s nails for the first time!  She had been begging me for a while (she is such a girly girl) and I told her Aunt Christina could do it when she came!  So as soon as we picked Christina up at the airport Emmy asked for her nails to be painted!  So Emmy and I went and picked out a color and Christina painted them!  She picked bright pink…who would have guessed!  She is trying to model them here but I don’t really see the color!  I do see some cute smiles though!

Emmy loves to play beauty shop!  The name of her shop should be “pain is beauty” or vice versa!  Aunt Christina loved it though!

Here’s Emmy trying to hide in the DVD cabinet!  She thinks if she can hide her face then you can’t see her!

Christina’s b-day was the day after she left so we had a little party for her while she was here!  She remembered that when Emmy saw Santa Claus at Christmas she asked for a care bear cake.  Since Santa didn’t bring it at Christmas…Christina asked for one for her b-day.  Emmy was ecstatic!  It was good practice for me because Emmy wants a care bear party for her birthday next month.  Only she wants Cheer bear…or in her words, the pink one with the rainbow tummy.  Anyway, this cake was really easy to make.  Here is what I did.  Using one cake mix I made 5 cupcakes and two 9-inch round cakes.  Put the two round cakes together and used 4 cupcakes as hands and feet.  Then I cut the 5th cupcake in half and made the ears!  I think next time I would use 2 mixes and make it double high.  Since I separated out the batter for the cupcakes the round cakes were kind of thin and having two layers would be a lot better.  Anyway!  That’s how to make a big headed care bear!   Decorate it however you like!

Baseball in the back yard!  Alex has been teaching Emmy baseball and she is always very excited to pass on her knowledge of the sport to anyone who will play!

Grandma and the girls!

Getting Emmy to look at the camera is getting harder and harder!  But she had a great time playing ball with Grandma and Aunt Christina!

“Here Aunt Christina…Let me help you finish that!!”  This was taken about 1 second before that entire plate landed in Kaylee’s and Christina’s laps. Perhaps I should have grabbed the plate instead of the camera!

Alex trying get Emmy to stick out her tongue!  Funny story about this picture.  At girls camp you can turn in your cameras and they make a slide show with all your girls camp pics.  However, I had about 5 pictures from home on mine and this was one of them…so the lady putting it together stuck this in.  So this displayed on the big screen for all the young women and their leaders to see!  Alex was thrilled when I told him!

Happy Birthday Aunt Christina!! We love you!

“Oh, hey mom!  I was just doing some light reading…”

“Okay, really, put the camera down and get me out of here!!”

Emmy to the rescue!!  Emmy finally came and told Kaylee how to get herself unstuck.  This picture cracks me up because it looks like Kaylee is really deep in thought about what Emmy is saying!

And finally she makes it!!  I don’t have a picture where she is totally out but she did make it and even lived to tell the tale!!

There are some really cute pictures of Christina and the girls to follow these up!! But you will have to check back tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion…

I started with a picture of her attacking a bear!  But unfortunately she sees the camera before I can get the pic…

Quickly she is up on all fours and ready to pounce…

“HEY LADY,  I SAID NO PICTURES!!”   She gets so annoyed with the paparazzi!

Once she realizes that I’m not going to hand over the camera she decides to do a little climbing! Here she goes…

And we are up!  This was immediately followed by her falling and then attempting to get on top of the coffee table (this was much encouraged by Emmy I might add)… and crashing…which was followed by…

mom plopping her down in her bouncer!!  Not that I’m not super excited that Kaylee was already standing at 5 months old…but sometimes “Stationary” is a beautiful word!

“Cheese, Fuzzy pickles, Cheese”

I just thought they both looked cute here with their crinkled nose smiles!

And finally one of them looks at the camera!   Success!

Enjoying our big afghan made by Grandma Kath!

Okay, I think Emmy’s arm looks like I have a giant double chin!  Hopefully not a vision of things to come!    Good thing I’ve been sticking with my elliptical!

The next two funny things were the cake and ice cream.  Ray came over the night before and Emmy kept asking Ray if he wanted some ice cream.  She had seen me buy the big tub of it for the party and wanted to share.  But I didn’t want Alex to know we had ice cream or he’d know something was up.  So I kept telling Emmy we didn’t have any when she’d bring it up and she seemed so sad that I wasn’t telling the truth.  Finally I got a chance to talk to her alone  and I reminded her it was a surprise!  Then she came back in smiling and was like “We don’t have any ice cream daddy becuase it’s a surprise”.  Then the next day I made the cake while Alex was gone.  But he got home early so I had to quickly move the cakes into the laundry room so he wouldn’t see them.  Emmy who had been in the kitchen with me when Alex got home ran out and told Alex to come see the cakes…but by the time she came back around the corner with dad in tow…there was no sign of cakes.  Emmy’s face was so hilarious becuase she was so confused!  Anyway, Alex found the cakes anyway and knew something was up!  Oh well!  Anyway, above  is his 2009 Graduate Cake!

It was a kind of cold and drizzly day so a lot of us ended up inside to eat!

Here is the yummy food!  We made hot dogs, hamburgers, and potato salad and everyone else brought a side!  It was great!

So the one surprise Emmy and I actually managed to keep was that I bought a bunch of fancy bottled sodas!  These were a tribute to Alex’s BYU graduation. Being the poor college students we were while at BYU bottled sodas were quite the splurge!  They still are…but they were so worth it!

Here are our guests who were tough enough to eat outside despite the miserable weather!  You guys rock!

Alex and Ray enjoying their rootbeers!  Cheers!

I think I mentioned in the last post how much Emmy loves cake!!

All the excitement put Kaylee to sleep!  What a sweetie!

“All our guests are gone and there is nothing left ot do but clean up! Sigh” (PS…This picture is not staged at all!)

UNM reads all the graduates names at both their commencement and convocation ceremonies so we got to hear daddy’s name read at both.  This first picture was taken at the commencement ceremonies in the morning!  It was a very New Mexican ceremony complete with mariachi band.

The first graduation was in the rodeo grounds and it was a really windy day so the sand in the face parking lot kind of aggravated the girls (not to mention their mom!) BUT, The second ceremony was a lot smaller and in a much cooler and less crowded building which was nice for the girls!  Here is pic of Grandpa entertaining a very restless Emmy!

Just by luck we sat right accross the aisle from Alex so we got to take some fun shots!  Here is Alex with the rest of his Computer Science Master Student friends!  What a good looking college boy he is!

Here is the first picture of Alex after he officially graduated!  Does he look different?

Alex and his cheerleaders!  (Emmy by this point knows that there is cake in the lobby so she is eager to go!)

Alex, Emmy and Grandpa!

And finally a picture of his graduation hood!  Becuase I think it looks cool!