I have uploaded some new photos starting with some pretty neat ones that were taken by Shannon on this past Saturday while she was helping Lisa decorate the upper balcony for Christmas. I particularly like the picture of the tree - it is pretty stark and is a perspective I never would have thought to photograph.
The second set of photos are from Emily's birthday party. She had a blast and was really cute throughout the day. This is the first year she was really aware the day was all about her and she ate it up. Shannon was great with her and did a fantastic job of not trying to draw the attention to herself. A bunch of her friends (and their families) were at the party and she had a lot of fun running around the house with them chasing Joe. It is amazing how loud a stampede of 2-4 year olds can be.
Her party was "Dora the Explorer" themed and featured a cake from our local cake shop. Emily was really excited about the cake and her Dora balloon. At one point, when the balloon first came home, she ran around the house jumping and smiling she was so happy. It was really cool to see her enjoy the day so much.