Valentine Interview

Sunday, January 27, 2013

This weekend Emily had a friend over for a play date and we made Valentine Bark.  It might be a little bit early for Valentine's day festivities, but what the heck, right?  And they really had a good time.  This candy was just melted white chocolate and then pink chocolate on top with M&Ms and colored heart sprinkles.  Cute and very festive!

Anyway, later that night, I found a fun Valentine's Day interview to do with a child so I figured, why not?  Here are the results.  I might have to do more of these.  It was fun.

Q:  What do you think it means to be someone's Valentine?
     A:  To be sweet.

Q:  Do you know who St. Valentine was and why we named a day celebrating love after him?
     A:  Yes, because Cupid loves us.

Q:  Do you have a special friend you'd like to be your Valentine this year?
    A:  Yes, Saige, Gracie and Mackenzie.

Q:  How can you show another person that you love him/her?
     A:  Play with them and love their name.

Q:  Do you think it is easy to love other people or hard?
     A:  Hard because you have to love a lot of people.

Q:  What is your favorite Valentine Candy?
     A:  The Valentine Bark I made with Olivia (see above).

Q:  Do you like to make your own Valentines or buy them?
     A:  Make them.

Q:  Do you think it is fun or weird to give Valentine's to your friends?
     A:  Fun!!!

Q:  Do you know anyone who might not get a Valentine this year and how can we make that person feel special?
     A:  Yes, kids who are not good will not get Valentines.  We can make them feel special by doing things the like.

Q:  What do you this is better: to love someone or to be loved?
     A:  I love both the same.

Family Art Time - The Pottery Place

Saturday, January 26, 2013

 

This weekend was kind of cold and snowy and definitely not play outside weather.  So, we took the opportunity to go try out something new - The Pottery Place!  You get to go choose your own pottery to paint and then you spend the afternoon painting and decorating it.  Then you leave your creation and they fire it and glaze it for you.

We had a really good time and I think everyone was pleased with their creation in the end.  Daniel painted a coffee mug.  I painted a little owl plate (don't ask me what I will do with it) and Emily painted a unicorn of many colors.  The whole painting process took about two hours and it was family time well spent!  We can't wait to pick up our creations next week!

Great Job!

You know it is going to be a great weekend when you have a Friday this great!  Emily has been very good at school this week.  Her teacher even commented on it earlier in the week.  Today she was apparently helping a friend clean up blocks (they had built a princess tower) and she was "caught being good."  She even got a pretty satin ribbon.  She is very proud of it and I am very proud of her!

Ice Skating!

We took Emily to the South Charleston Memorial Ice Arena today, January 20, 2013, to give ice skating a try.  She loves Secret of the Wings where the fairies go to Winter Woods and skate on a frozen pond so we thought ice skating might be a hit...we were right.  We arrived a little after 12:00 and they had open skate until 2:00pm.

The first time around the rink was a little rough (ok, a lot rough) and she actually wanted to get off before we even got all the way around, but we encouraged her to keep trying and not give up.  A few more laps around and we could tell that she was feeling more confident.  It took her a while to understand that she could not just walk in the skates and that she had to just rock back and forth with tiny steps from one foot to the other.  But it wasn't long before she really caught on and we were all gliding around at a pretty good pace.  She fell a couple times, but our goal was to keep her on her feet as much as possible so that she would have a good first experience.  I would say we accomplished our goal because she skated all the way until 2:00pm!  Look out Kristi Yamaguchi!

Happy New Year!

Monday, December 31, 2012

 For some reason, Emily was especially excited about New Year's Eve this year. Well, she was basically just excited about the countdown part...and yelling Happy New Year.  So, we decided to have our own (preschooler-friendly) New Year's Eve party complete with a countdown...to 8:00pm.  We had all the appropriate party gear and food - pizza, pretzels and party blowers.  We had family game night until 7:59 and then our countdown commenced.  Emily loved counting down the last 10 seconds and it was pretty fun, really.  I have not made it all the way to midnight in many years so counting down to 8:00pm worked for me.  Happy New Year!

Family Pics

Friday, December 28, 2012

There were so many good family pictures from our Martinsburg trip that I just had to post some here to be included in next year's blog book.

FAMILY PICTURE!

 

 THE RIXHAMS

 

THE MILLERS

THE GREAT GRANDS!

 



OUR LITTLE FAMILY

 

 OTHER FUNNY PICS

 

Christmas in Martinsburg





Friday, December 28, 2012

After a wonderful Christmas at home, we headed up to Martinsburg for fabulous Christmas number two.  Luckily for Emily (and not surprisingly) Santa made a stop a Grandma Miller's too.  Even if Santa had not stopped, there was no shortage of gifts for Emily...and everyone else!

Uncle Andy and Aunt Laura gave her a Lalaloopsy doll and a Hello Kitty Game for her iPad.  Uncle Charles and Aunt Alison got her the Brave movie and a fun princess game called The Royal Ball where Cinderella and all her friends dance around on a little dance floor.  Too cute.  Grandma and Granddad gave her many, many wonderful gifts too including the Merida doll with horse Angus, a Barbie hair styling head, a new dress, Mulan and Lion King 2 DVDs...and the Baby Butterscotch horse pictured below.  It nuzzles, eats a fake carrot, and even says "neeeeeheeee." It is pretty cute.  Emily asked for it every time we went to Target but it was fairly pricey so...it stayed there.  But now, it has a home.

Everett was a HUGE fan of Butterscotch!

Of course we also got the chance to visit with Great Grandma and Granddad Miller...and they had more gifts!  They gave Emily her very first full-sized American Girl Doll - Caroline, with ALL of her accessories and more!  They also got her a mermaid dress-up tail and a "real" mermaid fin for the pool this summer.  She will not be able to do it by herself just yet, but maybe in another few years.  In the meantime, it is part of her dress up collection.  It was her favorite gift by far!



We had a very full day on Friday opening gifts and visiting with family.  Jacob and Emily played together a lot and they enjoyed all their new toys.  On Saturday morning we took Jacob and Emily to Target.  Believe it or not, even with all of the gifts they both managed to get gift cards from Grandma and Granddad Miller for Target to go get yet more toys.  Emily had a very hard time choosing her toy.  She originally picked out a princess play-doh set and princess game, but then she came across a box of fairies.  The same fairies we already have but in slightly different outfits.  When I explained that she did not have enough money on the card to buy all of the toys, she really had a hard time.  Tears welled up in her eyes but she took a deep breath, thought a while, and ultimately chose the fairy box.  She never cried.  But I could tell the choice was agonizing for her.  Definitely a good teaching moment. Saturday afternoon Daniel and I escaped to the outlets for a while to do some shopping.  Then Saturday evening, all the siblings and spouses went to dinner at Outback.  That was a first and it was really, really fun.  Hope that becomes a tradition too!

Waiting for Christmas dinner #2!

We packed up on Sunday morning to make the trip home.  It was a wonderful visit but it also felt good to be going home.  Christmas 2012 was definitely one for the record books.  It was amazing!

Holiday Visit to Build A Bear

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The day after Christmas, first thing in the morning, Mom and I hit up Hallmark, Target and Kohl's for some 50% off Christmas wrap, ribbon, bows, gift tags, ornaments and other festive merriment that we could put away for next year.  It has kind of become a post-Christmas tradition and we have not missed it too many years.   From there we hit up Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then headed to the mall to let Emily go to Build-A-Bear and try out the new play place inside the mall.  We were also hoping to hit some of the sales, but that really did not happen.  We did manage to get to get to the mall Hallmark and Gymboree but that was about it.  Oh well.

Emily loves Build-A-Bear.  On this visit, much to my surprise, she actually chose a bear...and not just any bear, the cheapest bear in the whole store!  It was a Christmas miracle!  First we stuffed and fluffed her.  Then we put a little heart inside her.  Next it was time for her bath.  From there it was time to choose her outfit. That was the hard part.  She wandered all over the store for quite a long time looking at all of the many choices.  After much debate, she finally decided on a red and white stripped dress with little red sparkle shoes.  A great choice.  She named her Teddy and put 2 red bows on her ears.





I think she came out pretty cute in the end!

Santa Gifts!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

After all the family gifts were opened and cleared to the side, in came the Santa gifts! Santa delivered all wished for items this year, so someone must have been extra good. Santa brought Emily a Wall-E toy that folds up into a cube, an Eva that lights up and spins around, a Cinderella and Prince Charming wedding Barbie set, another Doc McStuffins talking toy with Lambie and friends, signing and storytelling Belle, and...

...the beloved, and most wished for Princess Castle!!!!  Great work, Santa.  You nailed it this year for sure.

 

Christmas Morning

Tuesday, December 25, 2012


Christmas morning began a little later than we thought.  Emily actually slept in until about 7:45!  We explained to her that the longer she slept, the more time Santa would have to bring her gifts.  We tried something new this year with the gifts too, partly because there were so many gifts that we just could not fit everything around the tree.  We did all the family gifts first.  Santa left all of his gifts for Emily in the living room under that tree and she did not notice right away.  So we opened the family gifts first. Unfortunately, about half way through the family gift opening, she realized that there were no gifts left that were large enough to be the princess castle she had been dreaming of getting.  She looked very sad, so we took her to show her that Santa had left his gifts in the living room.  Then we told her we would open then at the end once all the family gifts were opened.

Before we opened the family gifts, we let Emily open her stocking.  She loves opening her stocking.  She got 2 Doc McStuffins toys, a Brave game for her iPad, some Barbie shoes, a mini Belle tea set to use with her Barbies, new toothbrushes, a small box of jelly beans and a small bag of chocolate gold coins.  A very successful stocking!

She opened a few gifts and then we took a short break for Christmas breakfast - gingerbread french toast.  It was so yummy.  I am exercising self-control here by not posting a pic of it.

Among her many gifts, Emily received a holiday Lalaloopsy doll, Doc McStuffins playset, Ariel dress-up, Tiana dress-up, Merida dress-up, Merida's archery set, some new Aurora tennis shoes, 2 new outfits, and a set of Wall-E people.  I am sure there was more but that probably hits the highlights.

In addition to getting lots of great gifts, Emily also gave some really great gifts to others.  She picked out a sea horse, just liked her beloved sea horse, to give to Uncle Scott and Aunt Karen's baby-to-be "blueberry."  She also colored (and Daddy helped her wrap) a beautiful Christmas picture for me.  She also got Daddy a pair of new slippers as his old ones had a big hole in them!