Emmalee turns 8!!

 Well birthdays in the Schimek household are over for a while. Emmalee's birthday marked 4 birthdays for our household in a month, plus 4 grandparents birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all in the timeframe makes for a jam packed month. Expensive too!! Thank you Lord for opening our eyes to budgeting!!

So today is our sweet Emmalee's birthday. I can't believe that 8 years ago I was cuddling my new baby girl in my arms and right now as I write this she is sitting her eating a bowl of cereal and talking to her sisters. 

We have tried to make it a point of making our kiddos birthdays special. Thru out the years how we do that has changed to fit John's work schedule, budgets, etc. We used to do special birthday breakfast when John worked afternoons(4-midnight), for a while we did birthday parties with inviting friends and classmates. Now what we do is dinner at the birthday child's choice of restaurant, then cake and presents at home with just us and the kiddos and sometimes a good friend. This works well for us and the kids really enjoy it. They feel special picking where to go and what cake they want. Sometimes they want a homemade cake, sometimes we buy one. As I get older I see that its not about how big of presents we buy, or having a huge birthday party. Those things are just fine. But for us and our kids, it really is about how special and loved they feel on their day. 

This year Emmalee changed things up!! She picked Qdoba for dinner and picked a homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and topped with chocolate frosting and chocolate covered coffee beans, which she and her friend help decorate. She enjoyed her night!! She had requested I make her a unicorn shirt. I found this beautiful dress with a plain white top and beautiful pink tulle with silver unicorns for the skirt. I bought a super cute svg file of Etsy and put it on with my cricut and heat press. I did her hair up all cute and we topped it with a JoJo bow. She looked like the beautiful princess she is!!

Splash Pad

This past week on John's days off we took the kids to the splash pad not once, but TWICE! Daddy decided after going last week that he would wear his suit and play with the kids. Mommy didn't want to get wet though and was enjoying reading a book and staying dry. Of course that was until JJ, Kennedy, and Livie decided they were cold and wanted Mommy to hold them.

The kids were all fighting over my lap. Livie was very upset that the others had the nerve to sit on my lap.

Daddy enjoyed playing with his Jet Plane.

 Kennedy was upset that Livie was taking up Mommy's lap.

 Livie thrilled that she ran off the other kids.

 Daddy playing with Alex.

 Everyone was tired of Ryan dumping water on them so he only could dump it on himself.

Cheesey smile!

365 Days of Christmas

Tonight was Platte Valley Academy's annual Christmas program. It was called "365 days of Christmas" and was so cute! The kids did such a good job! I was so proud to see my handsome little men up on the stage looking so cute in their suits.  I made all the kids dress up, so we were one good lookin' family tonight! It was a great night of fun and fellowship! Reminds me why I love PVCA so much!!

Here are some pictures:

Livie and her daddy

Kennedy, posing like a little princess

Mommy and Kennedy

 Me and John(hate how fat my face looks!)

 Ryan and me(even though he is making a face, he asked me to take a picture with him)

The kids singing.

What a good lookin' group!! Kennedy wasnt thrilled with getting her picture taken. lol

Had a really fun day with the kids today. I almost just kept us all home because I wanted to just veg for the day. But I decided to get us all out of the house for a while so John could enjoy a quiet house to sleep in. We all got ready and headed to Walmart to get a few things and to get Alex's haircut.

On the way we past the jail that they were tearing down the saw that it looked like it would come down soon, so we drove around the block, parked, and headed over to the courthouse across the street from the jail to watch the destruction. It was so awesome! I have never seen anything like that. When it came down I seriously sat their with my mouth wide open, amazed at what I had just seen. The kids that it was the best thing ever. Glad we stopped to watch. Don't get to see that everyday.

Then we loaded up and went to Walmart, got Alex's haircut, and then picked up stuff to make pigs in a blanket, veggie pizza, turkey roll-ups, and summer sausage plate for dinner in honor of the Husker game day. We then dropped all that off at home and headed to our next stop, which was a total surprise for the kids.

Ryan came home with a flyer for an event at one of the banks and so I thought it would be fun. Didn't figure it would be as big as it was. They had tons of carnival games, bouncy houses, face painting(I was a bunny), hair spray dye, food, fresh popped popcorn(thanks to my father-in-law), a really fun talent show, and a photo booth wear you could put on different funny props and get you picture taken.

So of course before we left we all got decked out all goofy and took a series of pictures. It was so much fun and such a good memory. The best things about it all was that it was all free. The whole thing did not cost me a dime. Oh and they had a nice petting zoo with miniture baby horses, a calf, chickens, rabbits, llamas, lambs, and A BABY PIG! Livie loved all the little animals.

So we had such a fun morning/early afternoon. Loved spending times with the kids, just wish John had been able to come. 

More Pictures

Friday we had a picnic with John's aunts and uncle and a bunch of cousins. Afterwards we walked over and let the kids all ride the rides. Here are some pictures from that. I have to say that I think my husband is the best looking man! He is such a sweet, sensitive, wonderful man. I can't imagine my life without him! We have been together 14 years in October and married for 9 years.

My friend Laura invited us over for the 4th of July. The kids had a bunch of fun. I think John enjoyed being able to light off some fireworks and blowing up some things. Too bad my brother didn't come down because then they would have had a ton of fun having a roman candle war like they normally do.

Here are some pictures of the kids from tonight.

"Don't bug me I am eating my cookie"

Some pictures of our fun week

Wanted to share some pictures from this week from my new camera that my totally amazing husband bought me for my birthday.
Here is my birthday cake my sister bought me and surprised me with at my grandma's. Here is a picture of my brother, Livie, and me. Casey and I are very close and I can say that he is truly one of my best friends. Plus he happens to be one of John's best friends, so we enjoy having him come visit. John and I met through Casey.

Here is a picture of my sister Ashley, Livie, and me. Ashley and I are about as different as you can get, but we get along great and I love the big jerk. lol. Just kidding. But really people are surprised to find out we are sisters, because we are so different. But she is an amazing sister, especially since she bought me a super yummy birthday cake. This is John's Aunt Jackie and Kennedy. Jackie married John's uncle Jack(isn't that cute, Jack and Jackie) after meeting on E Harmony. They met, fell in love, and got married a few years ago when they were both in their 70's. Jackie lives in Kentucky, and so they would live part of the time here and part of the time there. Jack was so happy after meeting Jackie. Seriously was the only time I saw him truly happy since becoming part of the family. Jack passed away about 2 years ago, but Jackie has continued to come back to visit every summer. We love this woman!

Jackie made us pose for a picture of my "sweet family." I love this man standing beside me and praise God for bringing us together and blessing us with 4 beautiful children!

John surprised Livie and I with a strawberry cheesecake blizzard cake from DQ for our birthdays. We are still going to have Livie a birthday party but this was for both of us.

Alex and Uri, the crazy cousins. Uri is actually 4 months older than Alex and at one time was bigger than Alex if you can believe that.

JJ, Phinehas, Uri, Alex, Elijah, and baby Cana. All the boy cousins enjoying the day at Island Oasis

Mikaiah, Kennedy, Makayla(John's uncle's granddaughter) and Gracie, all the girl cousins except Livie

Been a month of learning

This past month has been a big one for Livie. She has learned many new things this month. She no longer wants to eat baby food. She either wants to feed herself or just nurse. She also wants new things to try. And is getting where she spits out food if it isn't what she wants to eat.

She also has learned to pull herself up on furniture. This comes in handy for her when the kids put food on the coffee table to keep her from getting it.

Livie has also learned to FINALLY crawl. I actually thought she would just skip this since she is almost 11 months. Figured she would jump ahead to walking, but now she is crawling all over.

And she has gotten the baby doll bug. She will cry if Kennedy walks into the room with a doll and doesn't give it to her. Not only does she want the baby, she will hold it up to her shoulder, snuggle her face close to the baby's face, and rock it. It is quite cute.

So there are just a few things Miss Livie has learned this month. She is growing so fast and I can't believe my baby is almost a year old!

My good friend Sheri took new pictures of my kids. They turned out so great! It is crazy to think that almost 3 years ago she took Kennedy's first birthday pics as her first go at professional pics and since then she has taken some many pics of different families. She did an awesome job with Kennedy's first pics and has just gotten better with all her work since. Here is the latest ones of the kids. I am so happy with them!!