Welcome to My Garden

Yesterday morning when I came out of the shower, Emma told me to come and see the garden. I was amazed at the beauty. I know there was a lot of effort put into it and this gardener certainly has a green thumb.

Soccer Star

This is what I came home to today after work. Emma was playing with her new soccer ball in the front yard. She and her Daddy went to the store and she got shin pads, cleats and a new soccer ball. Emma is so excited to play. Here's a quick video and some pictures of her new gear.

Yippee and Boo-Hoo!!!

YIPPEE!!!! As a special surprise for Mommy and Daddy, Emma came home a day early. She came home yesterday instead of today!!! We were so happy to see her. She couldn't stop giving us hugs and kisses.

Boo-Hoo!!!! I got three really great shots of Emma's excitement when she entered her room for the first time after the makeover. I DELETED THEM FROM THE CAMERA!!! ##$%#% electronics!!!! Anyways, she loved the room, kept jumping up and down with excitement!!!!!

Emma's Bedroom Gets a Makeover

Emma left early Sunday morning to go to Williamsburg VA with Kevin's parents and boy am I missing her. This is the first time that she has been away from home for this long. She's stayed at my cousins house overnight but hasn't been away longer that 24 hours. We've spoken on the phone about 4-5 times a day. She is having a blast. The condo that they are at has three pools. One indoor, one outdoor and a kiddie pool.

Kevin and I decided that while she was away, we would re-do her bedroom. I asked her before she went on vacation if she could pick any color, what color would she want her bedroom to be. She picked purple. So, off I went to the paint store and found the perfect purple for the room. I thought it would be a simple paint job but, nothing seems to be simple anymore. There was some wallpaper that had to be removed but, I didn't realize that there were two layers of wallpaper with paint in between the two layers. It probably took us longer to remove the wallpaper than it did to paint the room. There were also some holes in the drywall that when they were repaired, only a piece of tape was put over so, Kevin respackled and we had to wait for that to dry and then sand and respackle again. So, the small project of just painting turned into two days of work. But, the finished product was well worth it.

We can't wait for Emma to come home on Thursday to see her new room. Let's just pray that she'll want to sleep in her room now.

(That's a whole other post about her sleeping habits)

Here are some pictures of the finished room.

The bed looks huge in the pictures. It's just a twin.

HOW COULD YOU....

.....NOT LOVE THIS FACE??

S'more Pictures from Camping Out

My cousin sent me some more pictures from the night that Emma and I stayed over at the lake. Emma's first experience of ooey, gooey S'mores!!!

Family Fun Contnued

My sister Kimberly and her husband Eric and my four nieces and nephews came to visit this past week. We had such a good time. This is the first time that I've been able to post some pictures of the visit. The troops all arrived Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, Kevin and Eric took the three older children tubing down the Delaware River. Kimberly and I stayed home and just relaxed with Emma and Madison. We did sneak out to the park to tire out the girls a little.

On Monday, we all (except for Kevin) went to Sesame Place. As busy as it was, we were able to get on all the rides, saw a show and then played in the water part of the park. Here are a few pictures from Sesame.

Kimberly and Eric left late Monday night with their two children and my sister Lisa's two children stayed with us until Thursday morning. On Tuesday, Emma and I took Josh and Haley to Pt. Pleasant, NJ. We had a blast. The weather was perfect. We went to the beach, swam, built sand castles and ended the day on the boardwalk. We had an exellent dinner. Josh even thought it might have been a Five Star Restaurant. Here are some pictures from Pt. Pleasant.

I had to go to work on Wednesday. It felt like I had been off for a week. I can't believe that summer is coming to an end. We always enjoy the time that we spend with our family, I just wish they didn't live so far away.