Little Ladybug's Journey: 2012

Zoo Lights 2012

Mommy and Emily at the Zoo Lights

Last night we went to see the Oregon Zoo Lights, and I think everyone who lives in Oregon and possibly Washington also had the same great idea! We had to park in the shuttle lot, wait for about 20 minutes to board a bus, and then wait in a shorter line (thank goodness I am a zoo member) to get our tickets, and then we were able to see some pretty amazing lights on display! It was very COLD, but we enjoyed it tremendously, as did so many others who were there. Emily was a little disappointed that she couldn't see any of the animals, but we promised to go back on another day to see the new baby elephant Lily!

After the Zoo Lights we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Ernesto's Italian with our dear friend Joanie! Emily was having so much fun she fell asleep in the booth and slept all the way home! She was plum tuckered out! It was a great night! We love you Joanie!
Love,
Kathy

Cool gingerbread house

So pretty

Who is that all tangled in the lights??

Sweet butterfly!

Christmas Day 2012

Santa left some goodies...

Well, if you read the previous post, you know Miss Emily went to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in her head. Waiting for Santa to arrive is a tough one for the little darling, but all of the excitement from Christmas Eve and Santa's visit at Sherry's had worn her out. She was asleep within 15 minutes!

Christmas morning, Mommy and JuJu woke up before Emily as usual to make sure we had the cameras ready to catch it on film. And, as each year Emily has had Christmas, we had to gently wake her in order for her to have time to open and play some before heading out the door to Nana's.

When I opened her door to let the Christmas music playing gently wake her, she lifted her sleepy head and said, "Did Santa come yet?" To this I replied, "Oh yes, Emily, Santa did come." Well, that's all it took and she was out of bed in a flash and out to see her stocking and tree.

WOW... thanks Santa

Needless to say it was a flurry of excitement and yet she was so sweet and kind and wanting Mommy and JuJu to have turns opening too! Very cute! We did stockings and her gifts from Santa, and then moved over to the tree. We all enjoyed many nice things - Emily her slipper flip flops, movie camera, and hippity-hop from Santa, her Mulan toys from Mommy, and her new electronic tablet from JuJu! Mommy was thrilled that my white envelope gift from JuJu was a years worth of education paid for a child in a third world country. JuJu enjoyed knowing that her white envelope gift from Mommy was a goat starter package for a family in a third world country. They will receive a pen, food, and two baby goats. This will help them to get milk to drink and sell, as well as help them get more goats to make more money for them for a lifetime.

We headed out to Nana's after this and had a nice breakfast and gifts with Nana, Uncle Mike, Aunt Carol, Christi, and Jessica. Emily received a very sweet doll that can cry, laugh, crawl, etc. from Nana. She has now named it Olivia!

After Nana's we headed to grandpa and grandma's. Emily had a BLAST learning how to ride her new princess scooter! This has been a huge hit! Also, we all got to play some fun ping pong and had a blast! After a while at grandpa and grandma's, they took us out to a lovely Chinese dinner! We had a great time, and were all exhausted by the end of the day!

We hope you all had a very wonderful loved-filled Christmas as well!
Love,
Kathy

Just what she wanted from Santa, slipper flip flops

What cute tootsies

Her own movie camera from Santa

She also wanted books to learn to read from Santa

Thank you baby for my ornament made at school

New Princess movie

Pretty Belle shoes

Reading about manners with the princesses

Mulan toys from Mommy!!! So happy!

Emily's new tablet from JuJu

Learning to use the new tablet!

Scooter from Grandpa and Grandma

Love you "Bampa"

Emily loves her grandparents

Helping grandpa with the new scooter

Racing grandpa in the garage

My little princess on her new scooter

Learning how to play ping pong with grandpa

Christmas Eve 2012

Santa and Emily...so happy to see him!

Christmas Eve was spent at Auntie Sherry's house with all of our family on Sandy's side. After we went to the 4:30 service at church we headed out to Sherry's where we were greeted with the aromas of lots of yummy delicious food! We had a wonderful time visiting with family, eating lots of great food, opening gifts, and seeing the big guy himself who showed up after dinner. Although none of us heard the sounds of reindeer paws on Sherry's roof, Santa did suddenly appear at her back door. Needless to say, Emily was VERY EXCITED to see him! She gave him lots of hugs, sat on his lap, and talked to him a lot! Santa had gifts for all of the kids and then stood on Sherry's ottoman and led everyone in some singing! It was a great time!

After coming back to JuJu's from Sherry's house we got Emily in her jammies, she put out Santa's cookies, dictated a note for Santa, and spread Christmas dust in the front lawn. Christmas dust is oats for the reindeer to smell and eat, and sparkly glitter to glow in the moonlight for Santa to find your house! Then it was off to bed to WAIT...see the next post to find out what happened!
Love,
Kathy

Chillin' with cousins Jeff and James

Hi Mommy

Makena and Emily, cousins

Need I say more...it's a cat

You're so funny Jeff

Cousins-Makena, James, Jeff, Emily, Linsey, and Karley

Emily, Mommy, and JuJu

Emily, Karley, and her friend Marissa

Emily wearing the cat's collar

Waiting for Santa is tough work

He's finally here!

When's my turn Mommy???

Santa on the ottoman leading us all in song

Thank you Santa for my gifts!

New flip flops from Santa

Is that the cutest gift ever??? I mean the big plush owl...

Emily does LOVE animals! Thank you Wunder family

Thank you grandpa and grandma..we love Cinderella

All ready for Santa to make his visit!!!

Christmas with Family and Friends

Fun new hair stylin' tools

This post is about the love we have for our close friends and family, near and far, that we were able to spend time with this Christmas season!

We had the joy of spending time with the Hochhalter family on December 19th and, as usual, had a great time! We enjoy spending time with Grandma Judi, Grandpa Mel, Auntie Heidi, and Kylie. We missed seeing Teri and Jeff, but we will catch them next time! Emily always has a blast with her "big" friend Kylie. She means tall, and in her eyes big, as the rest of her friends are ages 5-10. So to Emily, Kylie is big, and boy does she love her! Can you say glued to the hip??

Speaking of glued to the hip, or should I say velcro. On the 20th of December we drove up to Kirkland, WA to see our extended family the Liechtys and Smallmans, as well as our Aunt Pam.

Whenever Emily sees Mary Jo, whom she calls Auntie, she is stuck to her like velcro. For those of you who don't know, Mary Jo was also with me in China when Emily and I became a family! So, seeing her, as well as all the dogs and cats, Emily was in absolute heaven! Mary Jo has two cats and her WONDERFUL dog Sasha; Janice aka the Captain has Katie her Springer Spaniel; Darrell and Anne have their dog Spencer; and Mark and Robbie have their dog Bailey. Talk about Emily's kind of heaven!!! Emily also LOVED seeing and spending time with Mary Jo's daughters Olivia, Tammy, and Stephanie aka Stinky. We loved spending time together, baking, playing, wrapping gifts, laughing, opening gifts, and going to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue! As usual time spent with the Liechty/Smallman gang was a BLAST and oh so memorable!

Also on this trip, we were able to spend time with our Aunt Pam on Mercer Island. After seeing her and her cats Mo and Oscar, she was able to come with us to Snowflake Lane! Totally fun as Emily adores her Aunt Pam, and the fact that she had two cats was all the cooler in Emily's eyes!

After coming back from up north, we had our annual fun and memory making night with the Kingsella family! We always do our cookies for Santa and dinner and gifts and have oh so much fun! As usual the cookies turned out GREAT and the girls had so much fun together! We LOVE whenever we get to spend time with Belen, Titi, Miya, and Uncle Larry!

Thank you to the Hochhalters, Liechtys, Smallmans, Aunt Pam, and the Kingsellas for helping make Emily's and my holidays extra special! We love all of you!
Kathy