Scouting 100th Anniversary!

February is the 100th anniversary of Scouting. We participated in a number of scouting celebrations that month. The first was the tree planting on February 8th, the official anniversary date. Our pack and troop were part of the honor guard for the flag ceremony.

Peter, Brayden, and David in the honor guard

Michael speaking at the ceremony

Mesa and Manti Bailey, Jay Langley by the tree we planted.


Our next big event was our annual blue and gold banquet. We got this cool cake made with the centennial patch on it. It was very yummy!

The cub scout pack reciting the cub scout pledge

Pack 33 picture

The favorite event of all!
The boys had built catapults at den meetings and they fired off candy into the audience.
The kids loved it!

Our pinewood derby was held in March! Peter and Michael built this cool car.

(As you can see Peter is sporting his snazzy black cast
from breaking his elbow 3 weeks earlier rollerblading!)

One almost spring day

We had a beautiful day today.
It was high 60's!
We've been so cold that we are excited to have some spring like weather!
The kids went outside to play and Carina got this video of them. I love it!
Pay special attention to Carina and James' singing! It's soo cute!

Amazing!

For the first time, Emma slept the night in her crib! (minus 4 feeding breaks)
The good news was she wasn't sleeping in my bed!
Hooray!

Tired James

James fell asleep on the floor after breakfast... so tired!

Flower Clips

My sister, Mary sent me these really cute flower clips for Emma to wear in her hair with some headbands. They looked so cute that the older girls wanted to wear them also! So while Aunt Elizabeth was here, we made a whole bunch of big girl clips to wear!

Our flower clip collection! So fun to wear!

Megan!

I was lucky this last weekend to have my brother Ernest, myy sister, Elizabeth and and her little girl Megan, came to visit us! We were so excited and had such a nice visit! Megan is such a merry little girl and we enjoyed hearing her laugh and her delightful talking. She is very cute with her huge blue eyes and dark curly hair. She became a favorite with the kids. James still asks for Megan. He cried when she left!

Megan

Megan and James on the piano making pretty music

Annie, Megan, and Jared

Kathleen and Megan

Megan in her Sunday dress

Megan was such a good soft girl with Emma. She always touched her so sweetly and tried to make sure that Emma had her pacifier!

Emma and Megan

Lots of love...

Emma is such a sweet little girl. She elicits lots of affection from her siblings. (Sometimes to the point of a fight over whose turn it is to hold her!) Here are a few pictures of her with some of her siblings.

Jared loves his little sister. So much so that we have rearranged the bedroom furniture to accomodate this love. So Peter, David, and James are now sharing a room with a double/single bunk bed. Jared and Emma will share a room when Emma is big enough to move away from Mama. Right now, Emma still sleeps with me all the time.

Jared is very protective of baby Emma.
He hates to see her cry and will run to comfort her and to find her pacifier without even being asked. He is always ready to hold her while Mama finishes up a chore. He is a GREAT big brother.

James is still our cutie. He had a rough spell for a few weeks, but has adjusted to Emma's presence in our lives. He sees the camera and immediately says "Cheese!" This boy loves having his picture taken.

Emma with Jared, James, Peter, and Annie

James

Snow In Georgia

We had 4 inches of snow in Carrollton!
The kids have really enjoyed having a good amount of snow to play in!

The kids building a snowman! This is the second snowman we have every built in GA.

The last one was when David was 1!

David sledding down our front lawn!

James enjoying the snow!

Jared sledding!

Annie in her box sled! We had to improvise...

Kathleen!

Jared falling out the back of the sled!

David taking a turn

Kathleen enjoying the snow!
Peter with really cold hands...

Jared's self portraits!

Jared took these pictures of himself! They make me laugh!

Emma's Blessing

Emma was blessed on February 7, 2010, by her Father. Uncle Ernest and some friends from the ward assisted him. Emma was a doll in her blessing dress and behaved like an angel during her blessing.

Emma Ray Aldrich

Mom, Dad, and Emma Ray

The reality of taking family pictures!

Aldrich family attempt 2

Best family picture!

New pictures of baby Emma

Here are a few picture we have taken of our Emma over the past month.

Emma holding her head up on Aunt Elizabeth's lap! She's so strong!
Note.. her elf ears! (Michael wants to make them into vulcan ears... Nah!)

Emma looking at Aunt Elizabeth

Emma looking at Mama

I was trying to capture her first smiles!

So I was holding the camera off to the side and talking to Emma

Emma sucking on her thumb