Emory's SECOND Birthday Party - MINNIE STYLE!

We had a fun Minnie-themed party for our families to celebrate Emory turning TWO!  Brynn wanted to wear her Bat-Girl costume, and you know what...sometimes you just say YES!

Thankfully Emory was good wearing a little Minnie Mouse dress... =)

I bought a package of Minnie ears and everyone had fun getting festive with them.  =)

Gigi and Mrs. Betty

Aunt Tina, Granny, and Grandma!

Pamaw, Mrs. Betty, and Aunt Kim

Two of Emory's great-grandmas...Gigi and Granny!  So special that they were able to celebrate with us.  My Grandma Sally is not really able to travel (she lives in Perryville), but it is amazing that three of the girls great-grandma's are still here and the girls get to see them on a regular basis.  

The kids were playing outside, but then we came in to sing Happy Birthday and start eating.  (Notice Ryan's celebratory outfit...Brynn begged him to wear his Batman outfit...HILARIOUS!)

Yep...Brynn wanted the mask in the picture...I have no words..

And then Ryan said "and we've GOT to take one without this!" HA! 

For mid-September, it was a GORGEOUS day.  Probably the BEST day in September we've had...we opened up the sets of french doors and let the air blow in.  It was WONDERFUL.  It was maybe 69 or 70 degrees, sunny, just beautiful!

The kids played outside...(and side note...I can't believe how far the back yard has come since this picture...Ryan's been moving dirt in and planting tons more grass seed, and WOW...I can't believe it looked like this two or three weeks ago..Good job honey!)

What a GREAT GREAT day celebrating our sweet and spunky little Emory!

FAIR PARADE!

The morning of Emory's birthday party (September 12) we got up early and made sure the house was ready for the party, and then headed to watch the SEMO Fair Parade!  It is SO FUN taking your kids to a parade...they get so excited about the candy and the bands and the horses...I just love it!  The weather was AWESOME!  It was almost a little chilly, and it felt like the perfect kick-off to fall!

Emory quickly got the hang of picking up candy...

And of course wanted to open every piece...

Prepping for the Party and BATGIRL!

First pic...this didn't load right the first time, but this is after Brynn got off her big roller coaster in Dollywood...She was SO PROUD of herself!  And so cool to get to ride this together.

The week after Labor Day was also the week before Emory was going to TURN TWO and we were having her little family party that Saturday.  We spent the week just going through our normal routine at school but also had so much fun getting party stuff ready and decorating for the big day!

We hung some big posters in the house and the girls loved posing in front of them with the "photo booth" props..

We hear all the time how Emory looks like my dad, and then also how she looks so much like Ryan.  These pictures are hanging in Pam and Rick's house and I just see so much of Emory in baby Ryan...

We were trying to get Emory to make the baby Ryan face...think she did pretty good!  HA!

Friday morning we worked on some treats for the college kids at church.  We baked some cookies and I was getting ready to bag them.  We talked about serving the Lord through making care packages for the college students and I was just hoping some of the teaching stuck in...I went to get Emory up and when I came back...I saw this...

this girl had BAGGED EVERY SINGLE PACKAGE OF COOKIES!  Thank you Lord for a reminder that sometimes things we say sink in =) and for giving her a servant's heart!  She loves to make things for people and one of the best things about Brynn is how she loves to give things to others.  =)

Now lest I speak too highly...our friends Staci and Kate came over to put the bags together and we asked the girls if they wanted to help assemble everything...but no, they wanted to go upstairs and color together.  =)  HA!

Once the stuff was in all the bags we headed to campus to start delivering...these girls were some good helpers!

We would have to go to the front desk at the dorms to drop the bags off for the students, and Emory kept trying to escape down the dorm hallways...seeing her in there made me fast forward and think "are we going to be dropping her off in a dorm hallway in 16 years???"  OH MY...insert ugly cry...

More decorating...

 Did I mention that we also bought Halloween costumes (or some of them) this week? HA!  We got a catalog in the mail and Brynn had been looking through it for quite awhile and decided she wanted to be Bat Girl.  When we were at Party City getting a few Minnie Party items we saw "Bat Girl" and costumes for the WHOLE FAMILY!  Brynn was SO EXCITED and we started thinking how fun it would be if we all dressed up together this year!  I told her I'd have to talk to Daddy before we got anything.  Our next stop was Walmart to finish getting party supplies and wouldn't you know that Wally-World had almost the exact same costumes (ONE FOR EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY) for about 1/4 of the price!  We found her size and I couldn't resist.  We also got Ryan's outfit to surprise him =) but they didn't have my size or Emory's yet.  When we got home she was SO PUMPED to dress up!

What a fun week!