Emersyn is EIGHT...

This tiny tot went to bed a precious seven year old and woke up making us the proud parents of a darling eight year old. Y'all. How in the world did we get so lucky? 

At eight, Emersyn is creative - she comes to life when she is making something. A new piece of art, a fancy recipe or even a board game. I hope we can keep nurturing this gift in her to use in the best possible ways. 

She is kind - she senses when one of us is sad and needs some extra attention and is so quick to offer an extra hug. She's also not our snuggler so hugs and attention from her is extra sweet!

She is so quick to forgive - Landry isn't the easiest baby sister... she retaliates in the typical physical 6 year old ways like shoving when we aren't looking and Emersyn simply turns the other cheek. 

She is ours. And that's my favorite part of her. 

She wanted to celebrate at Freebirds which I think is funny because I feel like the only time we ever go there is on her birthday. Maybe we should go more often!

Her special request was to bring her cake (that she decided she didn't want at her slumber party) and share with the crew. 

 And what an awesome crew we have. Seriously, I love that we have a village that shows up to celebrate the big and small of life. That no one complains when they hear the restaurant of choice and shows up all smiles! 

No one's smile was as big as hers! We had so much cake that the kids decided to ask other customers if they wanted some, too. Y'all. Some of these college kids had the best reactions to FREE CAKE - some even opted for two pieces.  

Most importantly, our girl felt loved and celebrated by friends that are family...

family that added to our crew... 

people she idolizes... 

and people she's stuck with whether she likes it or not.

Eight years of loving her is one of the easiest things I've ever done. 

Party patrol...

As soon as we got back from picking Landry up at camp, we went straight into birthday mode for Emersyn. She couldn't decide between a pool party and a slumber party, so we decided to do both. Her friends met us at the pool late that afternoon so they could swim and work up an appetite before dinner. 

One of my favorite childhood memories include slumber parties. At my house or friends' houses it didn't matter... the evenings were filled with giggles and being goofy and all the girlie things. Too much make up, licking icing off cake and maybe sometimes freezing bras and undies. 

I still love the noise and the silliness and the make believe. I love the cooking challenges and the make overs and the movie marathons. There is just something so beautiful when you are in the company of other women... women that lift you up and know your secrets and simply just make you laugh. 

And on top of that... pick out the perfect gifts to celebrate you!

I have a little tradition of taking a sleeping picture the night before the kids' birthdays... my attempt at remembering them just as they were at that age. This picture is a total fake because I wasn't about to stay up as late as the girls to get one. 

I'm not sure what time they actually fell asleep - when you come from the school of Gigi you learn real quickly to just put away all the breakables and hope for the best. Regardless, they were all ready for some morning "cake and ice cream." I ordered her an actual birthday cake, but at the last minute she decided she just wanted her friends to sing to her the morning of her birthday with donuts and ice cream. Well... 

This may be the best birthday cake ever!

They all had the best time... even this guy... who was the hero of the party and survived an 8:1 ratio for 16 hours. 

Can't wait for the next (no) sleepover!

This is 6...

Every year I take a picture of the kids sleeping the night before a birthday. I just want to be able to remember them exactly as they were before turning another year old. Landry turning six solidified that we are out of babies in our house and as much as it breaks my heart, I'm also so dang pumped about this stage of "big". 

She is going to seize every moment of six...starting with her "birthday to do list"... 

For the first time ever, we woke up somewhere other than our house on one of their birthdays. But honestly, there's not a better place in the world to wake up on a special day than Gigi and Pops'... we tried talking her into donuts for breakfast but she just wanted cereal so I got as creative as I could with the "birthday breakfast" set-up... haha!

She threw on her crown and fancy new dress and we were off to check some items on that list... 

Pedicures and the toy store were up first... 

and then we hugged Gigi's neck and headed south to CS ... 

so we could hug Daddy's neck (who was putting finishing touches on their room), open presents and eat lunch.. 

The main attraction was obviously the bunk beds...

Landry is everything we never knew we always needed. I've repeated myself 1000 times but she came at such a sorrow-filled time... she was the rainbow after the rain when we lost Fely and she's been sunshine ever since. (Except in the mornings when she is the grumpiest person you will ever meet.)

She does things on her own time. 

She cries at sappy movies.... like tears GUSHING and we all love it so much.

She would eat "pasghetti" for every meal.

Dominos is her favorite pizza. 

She loves getting dirty and playing rough with Radley.

And also being girly and dressing up with Emmy. 

Reading is not her favorite but she's gaining confidence and I'm so proud of her. 

She hasn't decided if Spanish is something she loves or not. 

She is fiercely loyal - don't mess with her siblings or besties. 

She is perceptive and offers love right when you need a hug.

She's totally cool with recycling all of her school work. 

"That's ok, Momma" is one of my favorite phrases bc sometimes I just need "it" to be "ok". 

She loves being a gymnast. 

She loves Jesus and says the best prayers. 

She's the perfect caboose to our crew. 

We had the best day celebrating her as we checked off her list... go to a park, eat pizza, watch a movie... 

This is six.

And I'm so ready to watch her rock it!

Pre-Party...

If I learned anything in college, it was that the pre-party is just as (if not more) important than the actual party. 

(I learned other things, too, Mom and Dad. This is just one of those life skills things). 

Landry's birthday falls during Spring Break which means that her party is hit or miss with friends. This year we decided to avoid that all together and celebrated two weeks early! I picked a car load of giggly girls up on Friday afternoon and away we went for the celebration!

The Munson crew plus another pre-k friend met us at Altitude College Station and we had the place to ourselves for the next hour and a half.

(Quick unsolicited plug for Altitude - they let me purchase two frequent jumper cards and use them for 10 kids which then meant I got two free hours to use at another time. They also let us jump until 5pm even though we paid a little after 3:30pm. They win the day!)

I couldn't really keep up with them, they were all literally jumping all over the place and were barely still long enough to get any actual pictures. 

I eventually forced them to pose and I melted. 

Not pictured: Gabe and Radley rolling their eyes at all the girls

Millie has obviously been in our lives since before she was born and Claire is a sweet friend from preschool that Landry insisted meet us there because she "misses her so much!"

Altitude also has an section of "rock climbing" that the kids love - I was pretty darn impressed with how high they made it!

Ryan met us at Altitude because although Myrtle can do lots and lots of things, she can't fit 11 people safely inside. We headed home and arrived precisely as pizza was being delivered. We had a happy crew!

They ate, ziplined, gymnastic"ed", chased, pretended, played and then finally sat down to eat some cake!

The smile on her face while her friends sang happy birthday is a sweet little moment that I don't ever want to forget!

Then we moved on to what everyone was waiting for... 

PRESENTS!

She made sure to give every single friend a big ginormous hug after each gift she opened. I don't know if she's really every been so happy... and this was no Pinterest worthy party. This was a little girl, surrounded by her friends, feeling loved and celebrated big. No fancy theme, no big decorations - I didn't even create invitations, I just emailed parents. But this day was exactly what she wanted and I am so glad that she felt all the love that she deserves. 

She ended with a giant pallet, falling asleep to her bestest friends and having the sweetest not-quite-six-year-old dreams you can have. 

Happy pre-birthday, Landry! May you always feel this loved and celebrated!

This is 39...

39 is hopping in the car for a kid free overnight trip with the besties. 

39 is rushing to change clothes so you can catch an uber and make it in time for the most amazing birthday surprise ever!

39 is realizing the concert does not in fact start at 6:45pm and instead discover that the rodeo (as in the Houston Rodeo) starts at 6:45 and Garth will come on after those crazy bull riders are done. 

39 is a mini reunion with your college roomie. 

39 is going on a shopping trip to Giddy Up Glamour to get the perfect "rodeo outfit" for the occasion. 

39 is cold beers and gray hairs. 

39 is sleeping late (7:30am), enjoying the complimentary breakfast, driving home, running by the mall, and eating lunch outside with your man.

39 is closing your day coaching the best basketball team in the history of co-ed youth basketball teams.

39 is being way more into said basketball team than you anticipated. 

39 is being grateful for the gift of saying yes when you desperately didn't want to add one more thing to the list of things.

39 is a quick dinner out with friends before coming home for presents.

39 is following instructions by sitting on your throne and smiling for all the pictures that your children insist on taking of you. 

39 is celebrating extraordinary through all of the ordinary.

39 is being content.

39 is loving life just as it is. 

39 is being confident.

39 is being grateful. 

39 is being eager to learn more.

39 is empowering.

39 is freeing. 

39 is simple.

39 is love.

39 is laughter.

39 is here and I am so ready for what's to come!