Emmi loves her bear-bear blanket

My aunt got Emmi this half stuffed animal/half blanket bear and who would have known that this would become her favorite bedtime staple besides a binkie. It is basically a furry blanket with a bear head with arms on one end and feet at the other. It even has a tail on one side of the blanket portion. Too funny! :)

When I put her down at night she snuggles right into it. She even likes to carry it around downstairs after she first wakes up or when she is winding down for the night.

The Cruise - Part Five - St. Maarten

The best part of our cruise vacation, in my opinion, was the day we spent at the beach in St. Maarten. Although the people on the island weren't all that friendly, they had a great beach and we all had a great time hanging out there!



A quick family photo on the way to the beach.



This is a photo of the big kids: Noah, John, Alex, and Nikki, as we headed off toward the beach.



My crazy sister-in-law Kim! She knows how to have a good time...can you tell?



Alex, my nephew, just as crazy as his mother(see above). And we wonder how kids get so much sand in their swimsuits?



Alex, Noah, and John enjoying the sand and surf.



Ken took Nikki jet skiing for about a minute, but she decided that she didn't like it, so he got to ride it for the allotted time all by himself. I think it scared her when he took off really fast on it.



A cute shot of Ken and the girls. Guess where I am? Seems like I am always behind the camera.



Nikki enjoyed the water, but I think she enjoyed the sand more (see below).





Especially since she could collect shells.



The kids ended up with quite a collection by the time the day was over...this is just a sample of what they ended up collecting.



Just like the big kids, Emmi really loved exploring the sand.









Isn't she cute in her hat and fishy cover-up?

And another...

Miss Emmi has got another tooth! Poor kid has had constant butt rash for what seems like weeks. This time it is the one on the top left next to her two front teeth that came through on Monday. The middle ones are really starting to show, so I will have to get around to taking some photos of her so you can all see the mouthful she is accumulating!

Another tooth...

So I was checking before I put Emmi to bed the other night (Tuesday night after my last blog post) and there it was, another tooth! This one is on the top right next to the two front. She still seems to be teething and has a bump on the top left next to the front two teeth, so I think that may very well be the next one to come in. She seems to be going from one new one to the next without hardly any break in between. I guess that is what happens when they wait so long to come in! She has been "toothless" for so long, it will be weird to see her mouth full of teeth! :)

Snow, snow, snow and more snow!

So both girls have spent some time playing in the snow this year. I took these ones of Nikki back on the 2nd of February when we were trying to have a snowball fight. I say trying because it had rained on the snow the night before and it wouldn't pack. However, Nikki discovered that the snow on the porch still packed so we played with that until we used it all up. She had fun getting me! Of course I had fun getting her too! Splat!

















The following ones of Emmi were taken on the 6th in the evening. We all ended up going outside to play after Ken cleaned the driveway off. Emmi seemed to like being pulled around outside in the little sled. She did however have a total meltdown when she went in with Ken until everyone was in the house for the night. It was kind of funny to see her standing at the door carrying on waiting for Nikki and I to come in. I am not sure if she wanted to come back out or if she just didn't think we should be out there. She can be such a drama queen sometimes!

The Cruise - Part Four - St. Thomas

Although I wasn't real impressed with St. Thomas, infact I thought it was quite dirty, I was happy to get off the boat onto some solid land after the storm we had been through. Go ahead and laugh, but while we were there two places we went were, McDonald's and K-mart, places we would have went to at home.





Emmi being silly at McDonald's.





Nikki having fun at McDonald's.



Ken and his friend!



Gas is expensive, but I am thankful we aren't paying this much back at home!



A relatively cute family picture. It is hard to get everyone to cooperate, especially when a stranger is taking the photo!

We also went up on the skyride and took some of the following shots of the St. Thomas area.