Meet Emma!

It's Emma's turn for a spotlight. This is Emma. She is 8 1/2 and is my middle child, she is definitely a middle child. Last week, we got some great news about Emma. She was asked by our school district based on last years end of the year testing scores to test for Spectrum. Spectrum is the Gifted & Talented program in our school district. They only have the program at 3 of the elementary schools in our school district, one in Bountiful, Layton and one at Burton Elementary here in Kaysville. Burton was our first choice, so I was worried a little when I heard that Burton was very hard to get into, and that we might get offered another school as a second choice. She took the Spectrum test in February, along with 100's of other kids. We just found out that she was accepted into the program! She was so excited, she is really looking forward to being pushed academically, it will be a great fit for her. Another great thing is that some of our ward goes to Burton, so she will already know some kids. Also, all of the Burton kids will be going to our junior high, whereas, at our current elementary school of Windridge, only like 10 kids from our ward will go to Kaysville junior and the rest of the school goes to Farmington junior. So we are totally happy for her.

Emma's latest picture

Now let me tell you a little about Emma. As you already know, she is super smart. But she is also multi-talented. She takes ballet and piano, and excels at both. She got a perfect score at the piano Federation Competition last month. She is very social, and she enjoys spending time with friends. She is very driven to succeed. She insists on going to bed exactly at 8 pm every school night, not because she is tired, but because she wants to do well at school and heard that getting enough sleep is important. In fact, she is so strict about her own bed time, that she chose not to go see "Wicked" with me and Hannah, and her aunts, grandma and cousins this Thursday because she heard that it didn't start until 7:30 and that we wouldn't be home until 10. I had bought the tickets months ago for her as well, and she has said she didn't want to go because it was too late, but I thought surely she would change her mind. Guess what? She didn't change her mind, so just yesterday, we invited Hannah's friend Hannah Stevenson to go with us instead. Even though I told her she could take a nap that afternoon, and that it was ok to stay up late one night, she didn't want to stay up too late. What a good girl!

Emma at her ballet recital with Grandma Betty & Grandpa Ray

Another great thing about Emma, is that ever since she was a baby, she has been so obedient and easy. She does the right thing because she knows it is right. She is also the best cuddler of any of my kids. She has these fuzzy flannel jammies, that I love to cuddle with her, she feels just like a big stuffed animal. She is my best friend, even she will tell you that I am her best friend.

Emma bowling with cousins

Emma is also very spiritual. She is the one who reminds us to have family home evening, and to say prayers and to read the scriptures. When she was 7 she asked to have her very own set of scriptures. I usually wait until the kids turn 8 to give them scriptures for their baptism, but she wanted her own set sooner, so I did. We love Emma so much and are so glad that she is in our family!

Emma on her baptism day

Earth Week Activities

This past week was Earth Week. The school must have made a big deal about it, because I had forgotten about it. Hannah and Emma and their friends took it very seriously. Every day they had a different plan about what they could do to help the environment. One day, the neighborhood girls went to the "forest" which is the vacan lot behind our house, and took garbage bags and picked up the garbage in the forest. Another day, they made an egg mulch to put in the garden as compost. Another day, they designed a picture which they wanted to put on a t-shirt. The picture had an earth and talked about helping the environment. I liked the fact that they were so involved in the project, so I wanted to encourage their take charge attitudes. I thought about taking their design to a t-shirt place, but I was at Walmart one day and saw these premade Earth Day shirts were for sale for $4. I thought there was no way I could print their shirts for less than $4, so I bought one for them and all of their girlfriends. Here they are in their cute shirts.

(Sisi, Nelly the dog, Ian, Kami, Hannah, Emma, Brie and Hannah S.)

If you can see, even Ian is wearing an Earth Day shirt, but I bought him a brown one. Also in the picture is our neighbor's puppy, Nelly. Another day, the girls drew 2 posters and hung them on the brick wall near our neighborhood. Here they are in front of one of their posters.

(Lauren, Hannah, Kami, Hannah S. Emma, Ian & Sisi)

I am so proud of the kids, and their initiative to do something that wasn't for school or church, but entirely on their own. They were so happy, and it was fun to help them accomplish their goals.

Spring Pictures

Last week was our spring break, and the weather was beautiful (for the first half of the week anyway). So I decided it was time for new pictures of the kids. Here they are at the Layton park. You can't see it in this picture, but the Ian was sitting on a tree branch which was almost horizontal while his sisters propped him up. Just moments after this picture was taken, Ian just about slid off the tree, so fortunately we got a few pictures before that happened.
Here's Ian. He was a pretty good sport through most of the session, but you could tell he was getting restless and wanted to go play. He cooperated much more because I wasn't the one taking the photos. He is really starting to warm up to the camera. We could never get him to look at the camera and smile until just recently.

Here's Emma. She is our little model. She will do any pose and any smile you ask. She loves being in front of the camera. I love her 8 year old smile, those teeth are adorable.

And last but not least, here is Hannah. She had just gotten her braces on the day before, so her mouth was still very uncomfortable, but she didn't let it show. She also is a natural in front of the camera. I love this picture because it captures her personality really well, cute and playful.

They turned out well. Thanks to my friend Melissa for being the photographer. At least that is done for a few more months anyway.