Emerson's 4th Birthday!

Our little girl turned FOUR last month, which just seems crazy.  This means next year she will be in kindergarten, which means I am going to make sure we have so much fun this year before school steals her away from us!  :)  To celebrate, we had a pinwheel themed birthday swimming party with friends and family and I also took Emerson to get her first real pedicure at a nail salon.  For her party we had hotdogs, chips and some fun cupcakes baked into ice cream cups.  I hired the kid's swim instructor to also be a lifeguard at the party thinking it would be safer to have someone watching the kids to make sure there were no accidents.  The good news is there were no injuries during the party, though some guests did go under water briefly, and many of the kids were not sure about the lifeguard as he scared them. :(  Most of my friends were understanding and enjoyed themselves.  And most importantly, Emerson seemed to have a great time, especially when she got to open all of the presents.  Her favorite things were anything related to Frozen, which she got lots of!  The highlight for me was having my best friend from childhood, Melinda, in town with her sweet girls to enjoy the party, too.  

So, what is life like with a charming, creative, zealous, imaginative, loving and absolutely beautiful little girl??  It's wonderful and so much fun.  Everyday is an adventure if you play along.  I could just stare into Emerson's beautiful eyes all day and listen to her ask me a million questions, tell me how it is, and acting out her favorite scenes from Frozen.  If only I could bottle up this sweetness and save it forever.  Her explanations and reasonings are so fun to listen to, you just never know what she will say.  She is of course, very clever when it comes to convincing Cam to do things.  Usually it is getting him to help act out a scene from Frozen, or getting him to chase her, but she sometimes convinces him to give her his toys, which is not the nicest thing.  I have to hand it to her for her convincing ways, though... I think that skill will take her far.  :)

She loves to have her hair braided, something I will need to learn how to do even better.  For now we stick to the simple braid.  Emerson loves to dress up in play dresses, use her flashlight to explore, she always wants to wear dresses, likes Doc McStuffins from Disney, still loves cars, enjoys riding her bike, likes having her nails painted, loves swimming (even if she doesn't get far in the water) and really loves singing songs from Frozen.  

Her favorite foods are macaroni, rice (as in Rice-a-roni),  hotdogs, pancakes, cookies, snack crackers of any kind essentially, fruit, cheetos, chips in general and pizza of course.  

She is in size 4 clothes, not 4T as they are usually too short.  She also wears size 9 in shoes, which she lots and lots of.  :)

Emerson has grown up so much.  When she wakes up from nap time or in the morning she will get out of bed on her own, use the restroom and then will come downstairs.  It's handy that she has gotten even more independent.  

KK and MomMom took Emerson to her four year appt as we were on vacation with my parents and siblings.  Here are the measurements from her appointment:

Weight:  38.4 pounds  (75-90%)

Height:  42 inches   (75-90%)

Here are a few pictures from the party and some recent pics and videos of Emerson.