ava turns 7...

i'm not sure exactly how it happened, but one morning i woke up and ava was 7!  seriously.  time.stop.now.

 i took the day off of work so we could spend her birthday together.  she woke up and said she couldn't wait to see what her "special birthday breakfast" was. um, what? she proceeded to tell me that every year she has a special birthday breakfast. um, okay, sister. so donuts it was! ha! we went shopping and had lunch, and then came home to get ready for her little birthday party.  we kept it really simple this year with a family-only gathering because we were leaving for destin the next week, and wanted to keep it small. 

the birthday girl.  she woke up and said she couldn't wait to see what her "special birthday breakfast" was.  um, what?  she proceeded to tell me that every year she has a special birthday breakfast. um, okay, sister.  so donuts it was! ha!

she got some great presents.  favorite this year was hands down the ben 10 ds game from her aunt sarah, uncle brad, and preston.  she was super excited because we had told her that it was sold out everywhere, and that she shouldn't be disappointed when she opened her presents and didn't get it.  priceless :)

then it was time to sing happy birthday and make a little wish...



and of course, eat some cupcakes!

no emerson gathering would be complete without the mandatory family photos.  this first photo definitely captures what really goes on behind the lens, followed by the picture that would normally be posted.  gotta love reality :)

happy 7th birthday, ava!

preston sleeps over...

oh how these two kiddos love each other. When they first get together, you hardly know they are there because they just go off and play. 

we were so excited to have p-diddy come and stay the night with us over the summer.  he was in heaven with all of ava's toys and costumes!



they loved sitting at ava's little pink table for dinner and breakfast :)

and it only took about 20 minutes for a's room to look like this...

a sure sign they had a blast!

preston was in love with one of ava's dolls that he affectionately named "baby sarah".

i think he definitely needs a baby sister :)

they went to sleep in ava's bed, and did great all night.  the next morning after breakfast we headed to the playground for some morning fun.

we are looking forward to many more sleep overs!!!

anniversary weekend...

have i ever told you that i have a pretty sweet job?  if i lived in a fantasy world, i'd only work a few days a week to get out of the house, but that isn't the reality.  i have to work, and i'm lucky enough to go to a job that i really enjoy.  i'm an event coordinator, and vendors are sweet enough to send their products for me to test out [mainly food & hotels...not a bad deal!]

the new omni here in the big d offered me a room to test, and we decided to use it to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary.  brad and sarah's anniversary is 11 days before ours, so we asked them to celebrate with us. [let's be honest, we love spending weekends with them!]

we headed to dallas on saturday afternoon and got all settled in our room with a view.  after getting all fancy, we headed to the tower club where brad and sarah tied the knot 3 years ago. 

7 years...

 3 years...

After dinner we headed to the bar at the hotel for some drinks.  someone [cough-me-cough] had a little too much fun, but it was well worth it.

we slept in the next morning and woke up to a pretty great view...

then it was back to our kiddos and reality :)

i can't imagine celebrating my 7th anniversary with anyone else!

the one where we pretend...

lets pretend....

let's pretend that it's not been months since i last blogged.

let's pretend the the posts you are going to see over the next few days have been here for the last said months.  i want to be able to look back on these posts years from now, so i'm going to do my best to get caught up [atleast post the highlights!].  stay tuned for the following...

anniversary weekend
7 years on july 22...

preston's sleep over

ava turns 7

3 emersons + 3 emersons = 1 family vacation

first day in second grade

we bought a...house!