Cedar City Surprise

For the weekend of Martin Luther King day we traveled down to Kellie's place and surprised my family! It was so fun! Mom had mentioned to me a few weeks before that they were going up for Emma's b-day. I originally didn't think we'd be able to go, but the next week we decided we could go. So I called up Kellie to make sure she would have enough room for us, in addition to my brothers and mom and dad. She said she did, so we got everything ready and headed down there the next Thursday. It was such a fun visit and I'm so glad that we got to go. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't tell my family we were going to be down, so they were utterly and COMPLETELY shocked!!! I don't think I've ever seen my mom's mouth go into a perfect circle before (I also don't think I'd ever been squeezed so tightly before, either). It was great!! It was really fun for them to see Xander (My mom was the only one who'd seen him yet) and I wanted them to see him while he was still "little". (Although he's not so little anymore, though. We're talking 80th percentile, here). We also enjoyed the time we had with Kellie and Brandon before my family arrived. It was a really, really fun trip.

We're excited to be able to go down in April for my Dad's birthday!

Mom and Xander the night they arrived. Mom did not recognize Xander AT ALL! And really, who could blame her!!

As I mentioned, Emma had her 3rd birthday while we were there and that was a lot of fun to be there for that. It was the first time in a loooooong tim that I'd participated in a little kid b-day party and it was fun to help Kellie plan it out. It makes me less scared to do a party for Michael in about 5 weeks!

The b-day girl

All the kids who came to the party.

Michael coloring his Mickey coloring page. Just a little note about his coloring: I was really surprised with his ability to color in the lines. I don't really have any coloring books for him to color so I haven't even thought about if he could do that. But he did a really good job and seemed to really concentrate and focus on trying to stay in the lines. I guess preschool is helping him out!
The kids also played Duck, duck, goose. Every age just gets funner and funner. A few weeks ago I taught him and a friend the games Mother may I, Simon says, and red light, green light. It was so fun because he actually got the concept (for the most part) and he really enjoyed playing.

Another game they played was "Put the sticker on Mickey's nose". Kellie was blindfolding the kids, but Michael didn't want to be blind folded, so she just spun Michael in a few circles to try and get him dizzy. It sort of had a delayed reaction. He walked right up to the picture, put the sticker on the nose, and then started acting dizzy. Either he was incredibly determined to get that sticker in the right spot, or he was faking being dizzy after...Who knows!

The cupcakes Kellie and I made. She had a really good idea for the toppers. She went to a dollar store and bought Mickey Mouse Playhouse stickers and we stuck the stickers together with a toothpick in the middle. I thought it was a really good idea and it looked really cute!

Emma getting ready to blow out the candles on a big sheet cake. Does anyone else think it's kinda gross to blow out a candle on a cake? I mean, I know it's fun, but especially with little kids, can you imagine how much spit must end up on the cake! Gross! That said, it's certainly not going to prevent me from having Michael do the same!

Look at those cheeks! She must have blown about 5-10 times before the candle blew out!

Michael taking a big bite out of his cupcake

After the party Emma opened some presents from Kellie and Mom. One of the presents she got was a pink telephone. Here are Michael and Emma talking on their "phones" with eachother. You can see Michael on the stairs and he has a small baby phone and emma is on the floor with her new phone.

It was really fun to watch Emma and Michael together. I'd say they played really well together. But poor Michael! He must have been so confused by the end of the stay! Obviously we were at Emma's house so all she had were "girl" toys and it seemed like he was always being told not to play with that toy and go play a different one! Especially after Emma opened her presents. She got a baby doll and a bottle and sippy cup came with it. He really wanted to play with the baby, and he did get to a few times, but not with out some male telling him it was a girl toy. He really did look confused!

Michael looking very pretty in Emma's very girly helmet.

And here are some more fun pictures from our weekend:

Michael and Emma riding in a wagon and being pulled around by Bryce.

Xander smiling. He's got the cutest smile!

Cute, happy boy!

Now not so happy!

Michael and Emma giving hugs before Emma went off to church and we headed back home. This dress Emma is wearing was from my mom. Isn't it the cutest thing! She looks so cute in it!