My little school girl

 Natalie started preschool this fall. Her teacher is Mark's aunt Judy who teaches out of her home in a little classroom that has been added on to the house. Natalie LOVES it and has progressed so far already. She is acting more like a big kid and I can tell is learning more about interacting with other kids.

 Each morning she gets the apple with her name on it and puts it on the Learning Tree.

 Then she puts her backpack on the hook and sits down at the table to "warm up her brain" with activities like puzzles.

Her class had a little Halloween program. They got to wear their costumes and sing the cutest little Halloween songs. It was so cute I almost died. My camera ran out of battery halfway through but my sister Mel saved me and got hers out of her car. So fun!

He's fer real

 Well, Mark got sworn in as an attorney in the state of Arizona a couple of weeks ago. So now he's legit! He said some words about upholding the constitution, they took a lot of pictures and viola! Done. He mailed in his form and got his bar number and certificate in the mail a couple of days ago.

Mark's mom was able to drive out to Phoenix with us and his dad was able to meet us there. All the office staff and attorneys loved seeing Mark's kiddos. They behaved themselves very nicely and got to bring home a rose. I guess they give them out to their clients. So nice to be on THIS side of things! Adios law school and student life!

The fair!

We went to the fair today! Yes, I am blogging. Be amazed.

First we went to the butterfly exhibit. There were hundreds of monarch and painted lady butterflies all over and we tempted some with a q-tip dipped in sugar water so they would come near.

Natalie was very brave and loved holding the butterflies. But only on the q-tip.

Hannah, on the other hand, got the heebie jeebies about them and freaked out if they came near. She got one on her shirt and was not a big fan.

Hannah was ok with the caterpillars though.

We loved seeing the monarch caterpillars! Emily really wanted to grab them.

We let the girls choose one treat. They chose cotton candy.

They loved it but were done after a couple of handfuls. {yessss}

Emily got sweet potatoes. Jealous much?

Their favorite spot was the Toddler zone place. It was in a cool, quiet room with bouncy pads, a hale bay maze, scooter things, and sand to dig in. We probably spent an hour or more here. It was a favorite of all, including Emily.

We hit the carousel on the way out and called it a day!

I got Em to sleep in the sling for a while in the quiet of the gallery of art/photography.

Nice quiet trip home.

For some reason this pic is out of order but here ya go. This was on a bumblebee ride. They were so brave and cute!

Overall it was a very fun day. Mark got to take work off and go with us. It was so much better than last year, let me tell you! The weather was beautiful and breezy and I had lots of energy. It was really relaxing and fun for me to browse through the art and photography. Till next year!

Emily 5 months

 Can you believe she is 5 months old already? neither can I. She is such a little doll. I can't get enough of her! I'd cuddle and kiss her all day but I've got other kids to take care of. :-)

 Emily is 15.8lbs now. She can sit unassisted and of course loves to put everything in her mouth. She can locate sources of sound really well. She giggles all the time and loves to be cuddled. Hannah wasn't a cuddly baby and I realized I missed that. So I cuddle and squish Emily as much as I can.

 Her hair is growing in nicely. I trimmed the last few strands of newborn hair off the top of her head right after this photo shoot so it can grow in evenly. She got to be quite bald, the baldest of my babies, but her hair is also growing in the most evenly.

 This is her "about to smile" face. I can totally picture it breaking out into a big grin.

This is how she looks most of the time. With something in her mouth. I love it. Good thing we outgrow that, huh? Otherwise everyone would be mouthing stuff wherever we went. Gotta taste that shirt before I buy it! Hmmm, let me check the texture of that packaging. Nice to meet you, let me lick your cheek. ha

Emily's babyhood is flying by. I am trying to soak it all in! We love her soooo much. She is the celebrity of the Simonson house. No matter what activity is occurring when she wakes up, she instantly is cooler than it. I love it.

Emily 4 months

 Well, Emily is now 4 months. This post is a little late cuz we had to delay her 4mo appointment since she had a cold. She is now 15lbs and 24 inches (I think).

 She is finally growing some hair back. It's a uniform fuzzy length which leads many people to think she's a boy.

 She loves to smile and laugh at her big sisters. I love how her limbs flail excitedly when she sees them.

 She can roll from her tummy to her back, and from back to side. She is almost ready to roll completely over.

She can grab her toes and hang on. I just love that developmental stage. She still does the breathy cooing sounds but has also discovered how to shriek. She is the most perfect beautiful baby ever and we love her so much!

Father's Day

We just love our daddy. He is the best! The girls and I made this shirt for him yesterday. They had a great time and he wore it all afternoon. I'm so grateful for him and all he does for us!!

Emily 3 months

Emily turned 3 months old a few days ago. She was so kind to allow a quick photo shoot.

At 3 months:

• She has lost a lot of hair
• She almost laughs, but smiles easily and often
• Has slept through the night for 4 nights now!
• Rolled once from tummy to side so far. 
• Drools a lot
• Can grab a toy and bring it to her mouth
• Loves to look at colorful pictures
• Went swimming for the first time last week

We love our little peach!

Look alikes

 Mark at almost 3 months.

Emily 3 months. 

We got a kick out of how much they look alike!

We are DONE!

Mark graduated from law school yesterday!! We are soooo proud of him. Also glad he doesn't have to make that hour long drive to and from school all the time, write papers, and study for tests. Of course now he has to study for the bar, but at least he can do that mostly on his own time (and all of his time).
Here are some pics to remind you (and us) what life was like when he started school:

Natalie was nineteen months old. We thought, "wow, when he graduates she'll be FOUR!"
First day of law school. That smile didn't last long, haha.

And I was preggo with Hannah. We ended school with two more kids than when we started. How crazy! Good-bye, Phoenix School of Law!

Emily 2 months

Emily is two months old now. The time is flying so fast, it's scary. I know all moms say that but really. She is growing so fast. She had her dr appointment on Tuesday. She is 12lbs 5oz (90%) and 23.5in (90%). A big girl! She is healthy and had her vaccines. I've never had a kid react much to a vaccine, just an occasional small fever and irritability, but Emily was soooo cranky for two straight days! She hardly slept, cried a lot, wanted to be held all the time, and was feverish the whole time. Not that fun. After the two days though she was back to her cheerful mellow self.
We just love this little punkin!

Easter

Better late than never! Just a few pics from our Easter fun. We try to separate the Easter Bunny, chicks, eggs, etc from the real meaning of Easter by having "Spring Day" the day before Easter. That's when the kids hunt for eggs and all that. Easter is a regular Sunday without all that fluff. (except leftover candy).
We visited a nearby feed store to check out the baby chicks. They were soooo cute! Too bad they grow into chickens. We would have loved to take one home!

The primary Easter egg hunt. This was not exactly as fun as my girls expected. First of all, they got totally scared by everyone running off, so both started crying. I was telling them to hurry and get some eggs, but they both wanted me with them. The junior primary (ages 3-7) section was in a different place than the nursery (age 18mo-3) so I couldn't go with both girls. Another mom came and got Natalie and took her out with her son while I tried to persuade Hannah to pick up the eggs she saw (she didn't realize there was candy inside yet). By the time Natalie got there, the eggs were all taken! So she cried some more. But never fear, some kids got way too many and shared theirs with her. THEN, the candy inside was all hard, round candy that I don't give to my kids, especially not at a park where they are running around excitedly with friends. Natalie had an almost choking moment and refused to eat any more, so basically they didn't even get any candy out of it. Oh well.
Us trying to look happy after the traumatic experience.
Later on we had a hunt at my mom's house. These pics are out of order for some reason, sorry.
This handsome young man (my nephew Tommy) was celebrating his first birthday that day and much to his mother's chagrin, got chocolate all over his clothes.
Kids looking at baby chicks.


We were running late-ish on Easter Sunday, so this is the best shot I got of me and the girls. I used a tripod and the timer cuz Mark was getting ready still. Poor Han only got half her face in. Oops!

It was a delightful season. We did a fun egg activity (no pics) where we hard boiled some eggs, then set them on an inverted water bottle lid to hold them up. After it was dry we colored some designs with crayons on them. The hot eggs melted the wax upon contact with the eggs, and made for some fun coloring. Will definitely do this again!