Emily's 3rd Birthday!

Emily turned 3 on December 5th!
She told me back in October that she wanted a princess Aurora cake and that she wanted Daddy to make it. As time got closer though she decided that she wanted Mommy to make it, so I did.
I used 2 cake mixes and our Kitchen Aid mixer bowl to cook it in. It took 2 1/2 hours to cook so partway through I had to cover the top with foil so it wouldn't burn. I bought an Aurora barbie and wrapped her in ceran wrap from her legs to her waist and cut a hole in the cake for the barbie, then I used the barbie to push the cake out of the hole. It worked a lot better than I thought it would.

Emily absolutely loved it! She kept saying "Ooo, it's so pretty! We have to eat the cake, but we can't eat the Princess." She was watching me decorate it and the entire time she kept telling me to be careful not to get frosting on Aurora.

Emily and Daddy playing with her Cinderella and Aurora barbies. Emily, of course, has the Aurora one.

Sitting amongst all her presents!
Can you guess which one is her favorite?

Another birthday present came for Emily a few days later. It was a pretty green dress from Grandma and Grandpa Cutler!

Playing with her Princess Aurora and her Swan. Aurora's hair has a couple strands that change from pink to blue in cold water. Her bodice also changes from pink to purple in warm water. Emily was having lots of fun changing the colors back and forth.

We didn't have a Christmas tree this year because we were not going to be here for Christmas and since we don't have a fake tree we didn't want to buy a real one for just a couple of weeks.
We did put up some lights though

J.R. hanging lights over the curtains

Becky trying to figure out the best way to make the banister look good.
This is not how it ended up, but I guess I didn't take a picture of the finished product.

Emily's hair having major static problems!

So much static!!!

October and November

We got a piano!
Someone at church was trying to get rid of one and we quickly jumped on it!

I have wanted a piano since I left home and now we have one!

Emily loves it!
She plays it almost everyday

We celebrated J.R.'s birthday on the 26th!
He ended up with 2 cakes because the first one wasn't completely done in the middle. We hollowed out the middle of the first one and filled it with candy bars.

This is what I had in mind with the first one.
This one did get done all the way and J.R. really liked it.

J.R. with his candy bar cake

One of the girls in the ward decided it would be fun to have a Halloween cookie decorating party for the kids. She made most of the cookies and everyone else contributed the frosting, sprinkles and other decorating items.

Emily trying to get some sprinkles to come out of the container.
The holes were too small for the sprinkles that were in there so nothing came out.
(Is it bad that I was kinda happy about that?)

"Hmm, maybe if I shake the container the sprinkles will come out"

Emily put her little stuffed bear on the back of her tricycle one morning and gave it a ride.
She is so cute!

Emily was a princess for Halloween again, however, this year she went with all the accessories.


November!

J.R. and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on November 6th and that morning we woke up to snow! We went sledding in our backyard but that didn't last very long since the snow was melting fast.

We used the snow from the trampoline to make a snowbunny

Here is the finished product!

It died after about 2 hours

My birthday was on the 13th and my wonderful sister, Becky, made me this adorable panda bear cake. It took her 7 1/2 hours to do.

Laura, Emily and Becky with my awesome birthday cake!

Laura, J.R. and Emily

Emily in her "princess coat"

One day Emily told her Daddy that she wanted to read him a book and she wanted him to sit on her lap. This is how they ended up. I wish I had stepped back a little more so we could see Emily's feet sticking out from under J.R.'s legs. It was pretty cute.

Becky and Emily cuddling on the couch.

Emily in her pretty Christmas dress

So pretty

Emily's First Horse Ride, and September!

Emily's first horse ride!
The morning Kris was going to fly back to Arizona, Becky saddled Tucker up and we took Emily for her very first horse ride. She'd been wanting to ride on a horse for a long time because we have to pass horses every time we leave our house in Tennessee. When Emily saw Tucker she said "He's so big!" and I thought she was going to chicken out, but she didn't and I'm really glad she didn't.

Becky and Emily riding Tucker with Dad holding the lead rope.

Having so much fun!

I love this one!

Emily calls Tucker "Tigger"


What did we do in September?
We went to Dollywood again!

Emily convinced me to get on the Duckie ride with her.
She absolutely loved it!

Emily and I rode on the flying elephant ride

Emily dressed up in her princess dress a lot!

Becky and Emily blew bubbles

Emily played dolls with her Daddy!

We had so much fun!

Family Hike

While we were in NH we went on a hike to Cloud Land Falls in the Franconia Notch. My brother, Kris, took along his professional camera and did what he loves to do...he took pictures!
Some of these are edited and some are not. I'm sure he won't appreciate me putting unedited pictures on here under his name, but I think they are great, even without editing sooo, sorry Kris!

These were taken after the hike. New Hampshire was colder than I remember it being in August, so I wore my Moms' jacket most of the time we were there. Emily decided that she was cold and wanted to wear it, so I let her and of course Kris picked up his camera and now I have these adorable pictures!

She was trying to dance in the jacket.

On the drive up to the trai, Kris took pictures of everyone in the car and since Dad was driving and Kris was in the back seat this was what we got of Dad.
I think it's pretty cool looking. It's his reflection in the rear view mirror. (The black spot on his head is where the temperature and direction are shown. I'm sure Kris probably edited that out, but I don't have that one.)

My adorable little girl!

This one is one of my favorites!
Kris didn't want to keep this one because it is slightly fuzzy and he couldn't fix it completely because he didn't shoot it in raw (or something like that) but I told him it was too cute to get rid of, so he kept it just for me! Thanks Kris!

Laura, Emily, and Dad walking up the rocky trail

Becky, Dad, Mom, Emily and Laura on the trail

Once Emily discovered that Kris was the camera man she would give him these funny, cheesy smiles every time he even looked at her. She is too funny!

Mom and Laura

After we stopped to look at a small waterfall Emily wanted to go back to the car because she decided that we were done. She got very upset and started crying, until Grandma told her that once we got to the top and saw the big waterfall we could go back to the car. Emily was still pretty upset and wanted Grandma to carry her up the trail. Grandma told her that she couldn't carry her up because by the time we got close to the top someone might have to push her up the trail. So, Emily decided to push Grandma up the trail right then and there and this is how she did it!

At the small waterfall.
Mom and Becky were trying to get Emily to touch the water.

There were several small waterfalls along the trail.
I think Kris captured them all.

I love how the water looks in these pictures

On the way back down Emily was not happy. She wanted me to carry her all the way down and no one else would do. I had carried her a lot of the way up and I was really tired. Not only that but there were tons of rocks and I was afraid of tripping on some rocks falling down the steeper parts of the trail with her on my shoulders so Dad carried her on his shoulders almost all the way down the mountain. She would only sit still and not cry if I held her hand so this is how we walked almost all the way down the trail.

hmm, she doesn't look to happy here

Looking at something

I love this picture!

Laura, Mom and Dad

At the top!
We could have gone farther but the trail got much steeper and since Emily was being carried on Dad's shoulders we decided against it. We also had a family dinner that we had to get back to.
It was very pretty! I love waterfalls!

Laura, Becky, Mom, Dad and Emily
We were all eating chocolate covered granola bars!

Mom took over the camera here so we could get Kris in the picture.
Laura, Becky, Kris, Dad and Emily

Emily going down the trail on Bapa's shoulders

Emily, Bapa and Mommy

I love how this water looks!

Dad and Kris

This has got to be my one of my favorite pictures of Emily, ever!
I love how it shows off her curls. It is just cute!

On Bapa's shoulders with a not so cheesy smile

I absolutly love this picture too!
I love her hair, her hands and the look on her face
You do an amazing job with a camera Kris!