Introducing...

Now that we don't have just One Little Sumner anymore, since Emma is expecting a little brother or sister in September, it seems appropriate to document these days on our new blog:

League of Extraordinary Sumners

No guarantees that I'll post more frequently there than I've posted here, but at least I'll have a little corner on the interweb when inspiration strikes. 

The tradition continues

Ever since my first birthday, my dad has taken each one of us kids out for breakfast on our respective birthdays.  He's traveled to Khazakstan, Egypt, and Nevada to follow through on the tradition, and this morning was another birthday breakfast on the books.

There's been a combination of crazy (like breakfast on the 50 yard line of my high school's football field back in the day, another one at Sugar Shack in Huntington Beach when I got my surf board from a dear friend who's now passed on) and calm like this morning at Panera before the sun rose while Emma and Dan were asleep at home.

The point isn't that each one is memorable, or stands out above the last, but that they've been consistent. What I remember is that it happens each year, that our spouses were brought into the fold with their own birthday breakfasts, and that even as life gets busier my dad makes that morning a priority.  It reminds me that traditions are important...that having a couple things that are constant no matter what give us something to look forward to.  Life has taught me not to take those constants for granted, and to be grateful for things like birthdays that let us flip the page to the freshness of another year.

Flip.

One more thing

As little as I post here, it might be hard to believe that I really do process things by writing.  I guess things hum along pretty well for the most part, so I tend to write when there are bigger things happening, or when so many little things have added up that they equal a big thing.

Well, the one thing I didn't mention in my recent post that's also part of our story is that the day after Dan accepted his job, I found out that I was pregnant (sad ending, don't get excited).  We were speechless.  It was July 4, twelve days before we both started new jobs, and then the awesome joy of our littlest one on the way.

We dreamt of all of the possibilities; lifetimes of potential.  We had prayed for so long, and so many great things had happened within such a short time for us, that it made sense that this would be part of the amazing story that God was writing for us.

Not a day, and barely a minute went by (and still goes by) that I didn't think, dream, picture, and pray for our baby.  

But, for reasons that only God will ever know, we'll never get to meet.  The whole reason people wait to announce a pregnancy is because the first trimester is so risky, but the reality of that is so painful.  I was only about six weeks along, but the minute I saw "pregnant" on that test I was picturing a baby in my arms.

A few weeks have passed now, and there have been so many times when I remember my own words about the positive seasons of life providing reminders in the harder times about God's faithfulness.  There are just some dreams that are forever unfulfilled because of the nature of things, and unresolved air is the hardest to breathe.  

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Sweet little one,

I'll never forget the short time you spent with me, and I am changed because of the love and loss I feel for you.  You will always be part of my story and I'm grateful for your life.  I celebrated you, I miss you, I cry for wanting you so badly, but I know that God will bring healing and restore my hope.

Love,
Mommy

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For 12 years from now...

Dear Emma,
There will be times in life that you will wonder if God is real.  You'll look at your circumstances or situation and think that He's not listening or that He doesn't care.  When you start to wonder, sometimes the only thing you can hold on to are the stories of His faithfulness in other people's lives, and you'll still ask why you're not feeling His presence or hearing His voice in your own life.  There have been times that I've wondered.  There have been times when I haven't seen or felt or heard God, sometimes very long stretches of time.  That's when I've had to think back on the times when I knew He was present, and remember that He's the same God now as He was then, even if I can't sense His presence.

The past few months have given our family a story that we can hold on to and remind each other of God's faithfulness.  You will have your own experiences as you grow up, but this is one that you won't remember so I'm going to tell the story now even though you won't read it for a while.

On January 15, your dad was laid off from his job.  He really wasn't happy there anyways, so we considered it a blessing and knew that God was going to provide something better.  He's spent his time off taking care of you, and loving (almost) every minute.  But, as time passed and jobs weren't popping up we started to wonder what was on the horizon.

Fast forward to two months ago (May 7, to be exact), and I had known for a while that the job I had wasn't my long term career.  I put my head on my desk and told God that I only had two months left in me because I was drained trying to put my energy into something that I knew wasn't for me.  That afternoon I got a call out of the blue from someone I used to work with telling me that a position had opened up in their HR department because of some changes in the company.  They wanted to know if I would be interested in talking about coming back, and I knew that God was hearing me.  So, I started conversations with them, but the whole time had a nagging feeling that what I really wanted was to start an HR department at a smaller company in an action sports style company.  Well, two weeks in to my talks with company #1 I got a call from another company of just over 100 people (the perfect size) in the action sports industry saying that they were looking for someone to start their HR department.  I was having conversations with both companies and setting up interviews, and at the same time your dad told me that he had actually applied for a position at company #1 as well.

We both couldn't have worked at that company because HR can't have relatives working there, but we knew that if we both ended up getting offers we would just decide amongst ourselves which would be better for our family.  I had my first interview with company #2 but found out during the interview that they have pretty expensive benefits.  I drove away thinking that the job at company #2 would be perfect if I could have the benefits of company #1.  I got home that day and found out that company #1 had called your dad to set up an interview, and that interview ended up being set for one hour before my interview with the same company on the same day.  Because the same person wasn't hiring for both positions, there was no connection at the company that we were both interviewing.  That week, between the two of us, we ended up having a total of seven interviews.  We were both exhausted physically and emotionally, but we knew that God was shaking things up for us and had a perfect plan for our family.

I ended up getting the offer I wanted from company #2, and just today your dad got the offer he wanted from company #1.  My company initially wanted me to start July 9, almost exactly two months from the day I put my head down on my desk.  I pushed the date back to July 16 so I could take a few days off before starting, and the funny part is that your dad starts his new job on the very same day.  We'll both have first days on the same day, and that means that you'll be heading back to days with friends and family, but we're trusting God for that too.

Sitting in church on Sunday, I realized that God has heard every single cry of my heart.  It reassured me that even in the times when He seems silent, He's listening.  Don't get me wrong; God is not a genie in a bottle that we can just order around and expect an immediate response.  But, when He chooses to honor our faithfulness and remind us that He's always here, it becomes easier to see Him move in other more subtle ways.

I have so many prayers for you, but one of them is that as you look back on your life you see the providence of God and the movement of His hand even in hard situations.

I love you more than I can ever put into words.

Love,
Mommy

Same ol', same ol'

I wish I had something new and exciting to share, but since February things have just been going along.  Emma and Dan have been having a great time together while he's been out of work, and I've been working on things like my garden, bread baking, yogurt making, lotion making, and we'll likely be getting some chickens within the next month (I guess that's exciting, but since we don't have them yet I'll have to wait to make the official announcement).  I'm working out some name options for my hens, but I just might have to see them first. 

This is a super boring post, but things have been fairly mundane around these parts lately.  I'm just trying not to let months and months pass without an update here. 

Daddy's girl

Emma is lucky in that she gets some good quality time with Dan each week.  His normal schedule is such that he's home with her on Mondays while I'm at work, then I'm with her on Saturdays while Dan's working. 

Well, starting today they'll have a lot more quality time because Dan is officially on the unemployed roster.  His position was eliminated a couple weeks ago, but they let him continue to work for a couple weeks and his last day was yesterday.  To be honest, I'm a little jealous of the time they're now getting together, but I'm so glad that they get to continue forging their daddy-daughter bond.

We are, of course, hoping for a quick return to the workforce, but in the meantime I think both Dan and Emma will be better off for a little one-on-one time.

Is this thing on?

Where does time go?  I think it evaporates into something called "the past." Nevertheless, a lot has happened since Halloween.  We had not one, but TWO birthday parties for our big TWO year old.  She was full of great big "cheese" grins at her first party with our family.  

Here's Emma with (from left to right) Dan's parents, Larry and Carolyn, my Grandma June (Emma's great-grandma), and my parents, Cindy and Mike.  In the chair with Emma is her Great-Grandpa Harold (my grandpa).  The one great-grandma who couldn't come still only lives five minutes away and Emma sees her every Tuesday.  I'd say she's surrounded by more love than she'll ever know what to do with.

We toasted the evening with a tea party using her brand new tea set and Emma rang in her new year in style.

Her second party was with all of her little friends, and it was a superhero party.  Literally, the night before the party I had about five BOOM, POW, ZAP signs printed out, and was at another friend's Christmas party when someone heard me talking about Emma's party the next day.  She said that she just threw a superhero party for her husband and had all sorts of decorations that I could pick up the next day (the day of her party).  So, I met this girl at 7pm on Friday, and at 8am Saturday I was at her house picking up all the superhero decorations I could ever want including the super rad cityscape below that people could "fly" over.  All the kids except Emma thought it was so cool.  She just cried every time I asked if she wanted to try it.  Still, it was a success all thanks to Amy whose generosity made my daughter's whole birthday.

And, here's the final shot of the day.  These two were wiped out by 6pm.

So, that's November and part of December in a tight little nutshell.

Happy Halloweener

Emma was a very happy Halloweener yesterday.  We started our festivities the day before Halloween because we're awesome and waited until the last minute to do any kind of celebrating and then showed up at the pumpkin patch with a dead battery in our camera so only got two pictures.  Fortunately our camera phones came to the rescue so we didn't walk away totally empty handed.

Here's our little flying dino-lizard (in rain boots and froggy pajamas cuz it was after bed time when we arrived at said pumpkin patch due to daddy's work schedule).

And, here's Emma's trick-or-treating crew.

We started the night at a friend's house for pics and headed out to take the neighborhood by storm.  At the first house, the guy answered the door with a scary mask on and screamed when he opened the door so Emma started crying...great start to the night.  But, after the next few houses she had the whole "trick or treat" thing down and was pulling me to the doors instead of me carrying her.  She ended up with a ton of loot that Dan and I get to eat.  There's nothing like some cute kids to amp up the take home.

It was a great night with our dear friends and their darling little guys.

Remind me someday

My sweet Emma,
You're 21 months old TODAY.  That means the big 2 is just a few months away and I'm already feeling like I'm forgetting moments of your babyness that I promised myself I would remember forever.  While I have little snippets on camera that I can look back on, nothing compares to the real moments experienced with you.  Here are some things I don't want to forget...

- The first time I heard you sing yourself to sleep with "Jesus Loves Me" on our deep sea fishing trip earlier this year.
- How you say "Bless you" to yourself every time you sneeze (you also say it to us to when we sneeze, cough, or make any other noise besides speaking).
- When we say "I love you," you respond with "too" because you're a woman of few words and you know that we know what you mean.
- That the first book you asked me to read was "Brown Bear."  I couldn't understand what you were saying at first and then you pointed to the book and kept saying "bunbay" which I then interpreted to mean "Brown Bear."  Now you basically have it memorized.
- Every time I pick up my computer you ask to watch "Harry the Bunny" on Baby's First TV website (that's what grandpa lets you watch when you're at his house...such a treat), and you ask for Boos Poos, otherwise known as Blues Clues all.the.time.
- You love tomatoes and pick them off my plant when they're two days away from being perfect, but sit on your playhouse steps and eat it all with the seeds squirting everywhere.  I guess if your guilty pleasure is a tomato off the vine then we're okay.
- You still crawl in the dog crates and close yourself in when I'm not looking.
- The main reason you like having stuffed animals in your crib when you fall asleep is so you can play with the tags, and if I hand it to you the wrong way you say "tag" until I turn it around.
- You love music and the other night when your dad was playing his guitar you went to the living room and got your own instrument (don't know what it's called, but it's from Africa) and started playing along with him all on your own.
- You think most little things that you pick up are "buggies" including watermelon seeds.
- I've caught you at least four times (so far) with a mouth full of dirt.
- You can put your alphabet puzzle together with one hand tied behind your back.  We have not, in fact, tied your hand behind your back, but considering that you usually just use one hand to put it together anyways I'm pretty sure you could do it if the other one was tied behind you.
- Your friends in the church nursery say that you walk around the room like you own it, and you're always soooo happy to go play with the other kids.
- When I walk around our yard picking up dog poop you stop every three steps, point down and say poopy even if there's nothing there.
- There have been several times when you adamantly say something and we just don't understand.  You're obviously much smarter than we are because you will learn our language so quickly and we will never learn yours.
- Your version of tickling is walking up to us and just poking our leg or foot.  We don't tell you that it doesn't actually tickle because it's just so funny seeing you giggle and "tickle" us that we laugh out of sheer joy.  You just walk up and say "tickle" and start laughing hysterically.
- Sometimes when we pray before dinner we ask you to pray and you just say "Jesus."  That's the perfect prayer in my humble opinion.

Sweet girl, if you can't tell, there are so many things I don't want to forget and I'm sure so many things I already have forgotten.  I want to savor every second with you knowing how fleeting this time is, and even though each moment can't be etched in my memory forever I know that every experience we have is building on the one prior so the end result will be one amazing person with memories of your own and fun stories to tell.

Love you tons,
Mommy

OC Fair 2012

We have the distinct pleasure of living about five minutes away from our county fairgrounds, so we typically get the season pass and this year was no different.  What was different, however, was the awesome kids area that they put together for the first time this year.

The theme this year was Eat, Live, Grow, and there was a whole section where Emma got to practice being a farmer (startin' 'er young).

 Then, she took a lap on a tractor in her own tractor race (with a little help from dad).

Whaddayaknow...she got first place (good thing as she was the only competitor in a race we made up for her).

So, we had a ton of fun at the fair this year and even though we didn't get there as much as we would have liked (early bedtimes definitely derail the best laid fair plans), we can't wait for next year to see the new baby piggies, get the delicious grilled corn on the cob and the even more deeeelicious cinnamon rolls.  Hopefully we can get by for another year or two before Emma realizes there are rides at the fair (we'll just tell her that they're really scary and dangerous and fall apart all the time), but she already has a monster sized Scooby Doo from last year's fair and her new fave, a cute little stuffed piggy, from this year thanks to Papa so we're out of luck in convincing her that the prizes for the games come to life and eat little kids at night.  We'll just have to wait and see what she wins next year.

Recap of Aunt Becky's farewell

Before my sister, Becky, left for Africa she organized a family farewell at my parent's ranch in the desert at the beginning of August.  My parents go out there more than Dan and I, but we try to go a few times a year.  This was Emma's second time, and she LOVED it.  

She started by introducing her piggy and bunny to the "ranch dog" (the stuffed animal that my mom got from the carpet company when she placed her order...random, right?).

They all seemed to get along just fine which made Emma happy.

Then, we realized that this place isn't really baby proof and we're going to need to keep a close eye on our little one.  With a wood burning stove, sharp corners on tile, and big logs lying around it could have been a recipe for disaster, but considering that Emma was basically surrounded 24/7 by somebody it all worked out.

She took Papa on a ride in Big Foot, the 6-wheeler, and she most certainly did it in style.

And then we got Onyx, our third dog, named after the town where he's from.  Emma's just rollin' with her homey, but Onyx was a little unsure of the whole situation.  He's adjusting just fine now, but he is definitely a puppy.

Some other things we did at the ranch were: swim in the kiddie pool, Emma "drove" my dad's truck along the driveway while he threw weeds in the back, we went to the river and even though the water was freezing cold she had a great time splashing away, had great family time with my sister, and we slept, and slept, and slept.  Oh how I miss those long lazy naps.  I guess if I could sleep like that all the time I wouldn't get sleep deprived enough to really appreciate those times when they come along.

And, oh yeah, Emma pooped and peed all in her pack-n-play after taking her diaper off, then climbed out of said pack-n-play (because who would want to hang out in their own poop) to wind up sitting bare bottomed in our room all while I thought she was taking a nap...oh the joy.  At least she hasn't figured out how to climb out of her crib yet, but I'm sure that time is coming too.  

A Saturday {Un}like any other

Saturdays as a family are a very rare and special treat since Dan's normal work schedule is Tuesday-Saturday.  This gives him Mondays with Emma but leaves us only Sundays together as a full "party of three" day.  When I found out that he had the opportunity to have Saturday off due to a schedule change with the other supervisor I was so excited just to have a normal Saturday with him.  Initially we thought we'd do all sorts of "special" things, but what we really ended up with was the perfect blend of normal that made it so special.

Emma slept until 9a.m.-ish, which meant that we got to sleep until 9a.m.-ish.  Then, the day started with some perfect hang time in the kitchen while Dan made his coffee and Emma sat on the counter eating a banana.  It might be boring to some, but with church on Sunday mornings we don't actually get to just hang out on the one morning per week that we have together.  Then we headed outside for some of this...

And some of this...

And some of this...

When Emma went down for her nap we decided to tackle a few projects that had been on the back burner, so we relocated all of my gardening supplies to the opposite side of the yard, and Dan got to hanging our surfboard rack in the garage AND fixing a side gate that was a little bent out of shape (so lucky to have a handy Dandy).

And then we went to not one, but two birthday parties that afternoon.  Usually Emma and I fly the birthday circuit as a duo because Dan's at work, but this time he actually got to come with us.  He even experienced Emma's first pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and her first hit of a pinata.

After making it home we were all stuffed full with Mexican food and monkey cupcakes so we put Emma to bed a little early and Dan and I totally cleaned up the side of our house and went to bed feeling extremely productive (and a little sore).  

All in all it was a perfectly plain, ho-hum, nothing extraordinary kind of Saturday which made it all the more wonderful.

Emma the Pacivore

Paci (pa-see) - noun-: short for pacifier; initially designed to satisfy a babies innate desire to suck; possible side effects include sleep, complete joy when paci is present, total and utter devastation including potential end-of-world situation when paci is absent or otherwise withheld.

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When Emma was born she wasn't super into the pacifier.  We didn't offer one for the first few weeks, and even after that we tried to meet whatever other needs she might have before resorting to it because we didn't want her or us to become dependent on it (ha ha).  Here she is, 20 1/2 months old and I know the day will come when we'll send her pacis off to the paci-fairy, but a this point we will only have two to send away.  Wanna know why?  Because I think my daughter is a hoarder.  Oh yes, at our high point we had about six pacis (give or take one or two).  Now we have one of those original pacis, have purchased three more since then of which we only have one new paci remaining.  Even our emergency paci (like, "break glass in case of emergency" paci) is MIA.

My theory is that Emma has a little hoard of pacis that she is keeping in case of her own emergency...such as when we send her other two away to the paci deprived children serviced by the paci-fairy.  Three separate times I have frantically searched her room, under her crib, her closet, her stack of stuffed animals, her diaper bag, only to turn around and see that she has one IN.HER.MOUTH!  Where are these pacis coming from (and subsequently disappearing back to).  I have thought several times about hot gluing a penny to the backside of all of them so that I can find them with our metal detector.  A paci-GPS may also be an option...potentially a higher initial cost, but I think many paci-dependent parents would put up development money for such an invention.

Two other times I knew that I knew that I knew (you know, those times that you just KNOW) that she had a paci in her mouth when I put her in her crib and I took her out of her crib without a paci in her mouth.  I searched the entire room only to find that the paci had landed on the top of the plug that is plugged into an electrical outlet between the bottom of her crib and the floor.  I mean, is she putting it there intentionally so I'll find another one and she always has a spare in arm's reach?

So, when the time comes that we send our pacis away in a few months (I say "our" because they are as much for me as they are for Emma), I won't be surprised if we go through a couple rounds as Emma clears out her stash.

If only she just weaned herself off of them, it would be soooo much easier.

And there she goes again

I had to make sure I got this up before next week when my favorite (and only, but that's irrelevant) sister leaves the country for almost an entire year.  I don't know when she'll have internet where she's going, but she left this morning for Chicago for the week for prep before she leaves so hopefully she can catch this on her phone, but I wanted to put it up for everybody (i.e. the 3 people who follow the blog who don't even know her) to see.

Here's our attempt at a family pic from last night.  It was just a touch past Emma's bedtime.

My awesome sister, Becky, is a missionary and has gone overseas for a year in the past, but this time she's heading to a place where we can't even tell people because of the danger to Christians.  It's a heavily populated Islamic country where being vocally non-Muslim means potentially putting your life at risk.  Of course, her team is being safe and is prepared with emergency evac procedures and contacts and such, but still.

She's been watching Emma for one day a week basically since I started back at work after E was born, and I can only hope some of Becky's courage and boldness have rubbed off on my little one.  I certainly hope that Emma grows up with her aunt's sense of adventure, but most importantly her heart for God.

Sometimes I think that if it were up to me, I would just lock Emma up in her room until it was time for her to marry whoever we choose, have lots of babies (via immaculate conception, of course), and grow old and happy on a porch somewhere far away from any danger.  I mean, our kids are our heart just walking around outside of our body, so the safer the better.  Then, I look at my sister, and I hope that Emma grows up to be just like her...independent (to say the least), compassionate, adventurous, bold, courageous, beautiful, generous, and someone who puts God's will ahead of her own desires only to find that God's will is her desire.

Becky- if you actually are reading this I hope that your travels are safe and without complication, I pray that God allows miracles to happen through you and because of you, and that lives would be changed for eternity because of God's compassion and grace that is lived out through you.  While I know that we'll see you on Skype (and know that I'm just working out the kinks of the whole babysitting-via-skype situation...just when she's sleeping, right?), it's just not the same.  You already know the things that you'll miss by not being here, but we'll miss you too and I'm grateful that you're willing to make those sacrifices to follow where you know God has led.  You're the person I wish I could have grown up to be, so I'll just live vicariously through Emma who still has a chance.

You may be just the inspiration I need to update this blog more frequently.




Love you sister!!

Okay, seriously!!

Where have I been since my last post in JUNE??  Ugh, where to start.  We've been without internet since we moved in April except for one square foot where we pick up the wifi from our neighbors (who happen to be my parents).  So, I've been keeping my time online to what's absolutely necessary while sitting backwards on the couch with my computer in our bay window in that one square foot where I can sometimes pick up a signal, or what I can pick up on my phone.  The blog didn't fall into either of those categories.  Now I'm sitting comfortably in our recliner watching So You Think You Can Dance with a five-bar wifi connection and happy as a clam.

Since it's been a while, I'll start where I left off.  First there was the Fourth of July.  We had so much fun with various friends and family lighting fireworks on our street in front of our house like we've done every year since I was little (on the same street, just in front of the house next door now that we live right next to the house where I grew up).  Emma was definitely more into the fireworks this year than she was last year.

She also had fun on her new tricycle in the dress that I made for her for our celebration.  Don't get too excited though.  It's just two bandanas sewn together.  They're already hemmed so it was easy peasy lemon squeezy.  I cut some off the top to make it shorter while still leaving the bottom hem in tact and used the extra fabric as straps, then I used this awesome elastic thread around my bobbin and sewed 12ish rows to make it all elasticky on the top.  

Emma had some fun finger painting (and maybe a little tongue painting?).  I figured I'd forget trying to find a smock (aka. one of Dan's t-shirts) and just let her paint right before bath time.  It worked out and that newspaper will be worth some money someday.



We also got some photos (like 2,000) scanned using a couple Groupons so now we have electronic record of all sorts of things including our wedding since digital wasn't quite the fad it is today.  I might need to do some color adjustment, but here's a picture from our wedding {sigh}.  As I look back at all the wedding pictures I notice everything I'd do differently if my wedding were today, but the one thing that wouldn't change is the guy.

And here are some pictures of Dan and I when we were about Emma's age so you can decide who she looks more like.  Thoughts?  Realistically I should probably put up pics of some other family members too because there are resemblances to all of us. Now that the pics are scanned I have some seriously awesome blackmail material, but since my family all has copies of the same photo disc I need to harness my power and pull out the big guns only when absolutely necessary. The day will come but it's not today.

Now that I'm reconnected hopefully I'll be able to get on here more frequently.  No guarantees though (I'm under-promising with the hopes to over-deliver).

10 years!

Last week Dan and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and it was awesome!  We alternate the event planning, so I plan the odd years' celebrations and he does even years.  It works well for us, and then we never really have to go through the "what-do-you-want-to-do", "i-don't-know-what-do-you-want-to-do" conversation which inevitably leads down a path of total self-destruction. 

He told me to be home by 5:30, so I left work a little early to pick Emma up and while I was on the way to get her he called and said that he was picking her up instead so I could just go home and start getting ready (1 point for Dan).  We both got home and he took Emma next door because he had already made plans for my parents to watch her while we were out (2 points).

We headed out to dinner and he pulled into the parking lot of this cheap place we go all the time (huh?).  So, he parked knowing that I was looking a little confused but going along with it, then, only after we were both out of the car did he tell me he was kidding.  We got back in the car and carried on.  After parking at the beach we walked around to a little Italian place we went on either our first or second anniversary, Il Farro.  We walked in and on the table was a H.U.G.E. arrangement of the most beautiful flowers.

Dan actually has a co-worker who loves doing flower arrangements on the side, so she put this whole thing together for me along with a smaller bouquet in front of my seat, and had it delivered along with candles.  He sent her pictures of our wedding so she could pick out the flowers that we used, and she used the same ones in this massive arrangement.

We had a lovely dinner of yummy bruschetta and spinach gnocchi that was sooooo good, and finished it off with canoli that reminded me of our trip to Italy a few years back.  As we were walking out we actually got a round of applause from another table.  They were obviously as impressed with Dan's planning skills as I was.  Since we were at the beach, we walked around for a little longer before stopping at the store for milk on our way home.

The floral foam that the arrangement was in broke when we got home, but we pulled out all the flowers and it made seven different arrangements that we set around our house for decoration.  There were more flowers in that arrangement than I currently have in my garden. 

It was an awesome way to celebrate 10 years with the best man for me and the best dad for Emma.  Realistically, 10 years is just a drop in the bucket, but still worth celebrating.  We have a lot of great years left together and now it's time to up my game.  Next year it's my turn.

Some pics to make up for my pic-less-ness mess

Since my most recent post was full of ramblings with no cute pictures of my sweetness.  Here are some fun things we've done recently.  There are 21 pictures here (I'm a woman of extremes...what can I say).

Here she is in some super-fly jeggings and just overall cutie pie.

Riding in cars with boys already.

We don't get too many family pictures, but here's one of us at the park.

Moving, moving, and more moving.

Easter Eggstravaganza at church.

Emma and I at a baby shower in Arizona last month.

Our Arizona friends with Emma.

Emma L.O.V.E.D. the aquarium we visited after we got back from Arizona.

The aquarium was at the end of the pier at Manhattan Beach.  SoCal is SoAwesome!

FAMILY CAMP with our church.  Yes, we tent camped with our 18 month old and there were other families with even younger ones.  It rained the first night and the second morning, but we had a blast.

Emma couldn't get enough of the beach.  She loved the water, sand, and sun.

Another family pic on the porch of our new abode.

We had some visitors for a couple weeks...Emma's cousins and their parents stayed with us on their visit from North Carolina.  Don't you love the matching dresses that Emma and her cousin got? I'm a fan of Emma's piggies.

Just a little something I made for a friend's kid's birthday.  I named him Clyve.

Go Angels!!

My own little angel.

Planting sticks trees with her Papa Mike and great-grandma Vi.  I guess those trees will grow into something.

Emma with daddy and Papa.

Lest you think she always has a smile on her face.

Happy Father's Day to the two best dads in the world!