We interrupt this vacation recap for an important announcement!

After traveling back to California yesterday, we had our ultrasound this afternoon. Emma Grace is proud to announce that she will be the big sister to a.........



Baby.........







Brother!


Pictures to come soon!

What we did on our Thanksgiving... Part one

It had been almost a month since Emma had been on an airplane and she was asking for another trip, so we headed off for our Thanksgiving vacation.

First stop... The Beaches resort on Negril, Jamaica! We did not have our camera with us for most of the day, but imagine us playing in the pool, floating in the lazy river and playing on the white sand beaches. Dan also did some snorkeling and went water skiing. The main attraction for Emma at the resort were the "famous" characters she got to meet. Beaches resort is where the Sesame Street Characters go on vacation. There were tons of activities to meet and greet everyone. Emma was loving it!

Emma shares some"trash talk" with Oscar

Hugs from Elmo

Zoe does "the letter of the day"

Daddy was called on stage to do the limbo

Emma helped Ernie find his rubber duckies

At the character breakfast with Grover

Cookie Monster had the best dance moves

Emma also found an elephant friend

And had her first ice cream cone

We had a really relaxing week!
Stayed tune for Thanksgiving part two....Virginia!

Fall Fun

It is finally looking like fall here in Northern California! On Thursday, we met some friends at a park that had farm animals as well as a nice playground. Emma had a great time chasing and talking to the huge geese. They were almost as big as she is!

Emma checks out the geese

"Hello Goose"
This morning, we took Emma out to play in the leaves (and take some fall pictures). We went to a local park and Dan actually raked the leaves into a pile for her. Here are a few of my favorite shots of the day.

Emma's New Room

In preparation for baby 2 to come along, we have a few things on our list to do. Most of these have to do with Emma becoming a big girl and a big sister. Emma is doing a great job with her potty training, so we decided to move on to the next thing on our list; her new "big girl" room. We thought it was going to be a slow transition, but Emma made the decision last Wednesday to move in and she has been sleeping there ever since. We changed our guest room into her new room with lots of pink and frills, much to Dan's dismay :) Here are a few pictures of Emma's new abode

Emma's bed and reading area

Looking in from the hallway
I decided to get a little creative with Emma's old name letters, some old scrapbook paper, and modge podge (my new favorite craft product. Here is the result :

I also took some small canvases from Michaels and made a little wall art to match her bedding:

I have a few more blank walls to fill. Any ideas?

Butterflies!

On Saturday morning we drove over the mountains to Santa Cruz to visit a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Every fall, the Monarch butterflies travel south the warmer weather for the winter. The Butterflies were sleeping in clusters in the trees. Emma was a little disappointed that one did not land on her finger, but I explained that they were probably tired from their travels south.

Butterfly Cluster

Emma "reads" butterfly facts along the path
The butterflies were really near a beach and a group of tide pools so we checked those out, too.

Emma walks on the beach with her animal of the day, Google Bear

The beach is called Natural Bridges after these rock formations

Checking out the tide pools, Emma enjoyed jumping in the puddles

The Pacific Ocean

Emma's Fashion Guide

Emma has been accessorizing some of her outfits this week. We had our first rain since the spring last week and Emma broke out her rain boots for the entire weekend

and this morning Emma felt this was the perfect ensemble for the park:

She is definitely dressing to impress :)

Emma election funny

So Emma and I went to vote this morning before preschool. Emma must have misunderstood what we were doing and where we were going because as we were leaving the polling place, Emma said "but Mommy, where was the boat?". I guess in need to enunciate my words a little better :)
Happy election day! We will be going to enjoy our free doughnut and ice cream after I get weighed at my doctor's appointment today :)

(Emma is trying out nap in her new big girl bed)