The PURRfect birthday!

Well,  Emma's best friend in the entire world right now is her very furry kitty cat Walle.  From the day she was born she has loved Walle.  During tummy time as an infant Emma absolutely loved wiggling her toes in Walle's fur.  Though it has taken time for Walle to warm up to Emma he seems pretty fond of her as well.  So, for Emma's 2nd birthday I thought it was fitting to have a black and white kitty cat themed party for her.  At first I thought there would be lots of ideas out there for decorating, cake ideas, etc.  Well I was wrong.  Everything I found was either Cat in the Hat or Hello Kitty.  But, I did find some really cute ideas and Emma's birthday was a blast.  I hope everyone who came enjoyed themselves and thanks for celebrating our precious little girl's 2nd birthday!

 

The Inspiration!

 



 

Emma wiggling her toes in Walle's fur!

Best Friends

Kitty Cat Party



I made cat ears out of headbands and felt for each of the children.  I think the boys thought it was too girlie, but Emma and Lainey enjoyed them!

Emma and her friend Lainey!  Don't they make adorable kitties? 

The yummy food!

Emma's kitty cat cupcakes!

We couldn't have a kitty cat party without some mice!

To keep the kids entertained we filled a tub with rice and added plastic animals! 

 

It was quite the hit!

Unwrapping presents!!!

She received a very cute dolly (Rita) from her Great Aunt Kathy.  Thanks Aunt Kathy!

Waiting patiently as we sing happy birthday.

YUMMY!

Eating her favorite pink ice cream.

(Prior to the party I scooped the ice cream into cupcake wrappers.  I definitely recommend doing this for parties!)

Our beautiful 2 year old!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!

During our stay with our families Emma turned 2!!!  Kent and I still can not believe that on February 4th, 2013 our little girl turned 2!!!  She has changed and learned so much over the past two years and we are so excited for the plan God has for her.  Since her birthday was on a Monday, we decided to have a her party the following weekend.  But, I wanted to make sure we celebrated her special day, so we spent the day doing things Emma loves.

Play Center in Gig Harbor

Emma absolutely loves to play on slides, so this was a special treat to slide down a slide in a tree!

Climbing through the tunnel under the tree!

She wasn't sure what these were for, but she enjoyed climbing on them and jumping off.

Playing in the magic sand with daddy!

Cold Stone Creamery

So, on our way to have birthday ice cream we asked Emma what kind of ice cream she wanted, her response was "pink ice ceam".  We definitely made sure she had pink strawberry ice cream which she completely devoured.

 



Posing before her pink ice cream ends up all over her cute outfit.

Finally digging in to her pink ice cream.



 

 

Presents

After ice cream we headed back to Grandpa Young's and opened a few gifts mommy, daddy, and grandpa bought Emma for her birthday. 

 



 

Happy Birthday Emma!  We love you so much!

 



God's Plan

It has been awhile since I last posted, but now that the Grunenfelder household is beginning to finally settle down I have time to write about our adventures over the past two months.  As many of you know Kent was laid off from work in December, so we packed all of our belongings and headed to Kitsap County to live with our families until we could find a job.  I am not sure what we would have done without our families.  We are very blessed for all of their support!

After we settled in at our parent's Kent began applying for jobs everywhere he could.  Kent ended up going to three interviews while we waited to here back from Snelson a company Kent had interviewed with in Sedro Woolley back in December.  Towards the end of February Kent and I headed to Gillette, Wyoming for one of the three interviews.  Right before we left for this interview Snelson called and offered Kent a job.  After not having any options we now had the opportunity to have multiple job offers and were very confused as to what we should do.  We were not very sure what God's plan was for us at this point because neither Kent nor I could picture ourselves living in Wyoming, but thanks to a long talk with a good friend we realized we needed to explore all of the options God was providing us before we made a decision. So we packed up our stuff and headed on a long road trip to Wyoming.  Kent really liked the company and the people he interviewed with, however we were not so excited about living in Gillette, Wyoming.  On our travels back to Washington we spent a long time talking about what we should do, what we thought God wanted us to do, and what was best for our family.

Well, during our road trip we realized that the biggest reason we needed to go on this trip was to spend the time just Kent and I discussing what Kent wanted out of his career and what our expectations were for our future.  God definitely sent us on this long road trip so we could find clarity without any distractions.  Kent and I made a decision on our way back to Washington to take the job with Snelson in Sedro Woolley.  We are so thankful to our family and friends who have prayed and supported us through these last few months.  We are so happy to finally be settling down in Sedro Woolley and look forward to what God has in store for our families future.

Top Twelve of 2012

During the holidays I am noticed a new trend of posting on blogs or sending Christmas cards with the top 10 favorite moments or events for the year.  I have really enjoyed our family and friends Christmas cards and blogs with their families top 10 of 2012.  Since I have enjoyed this so much I thought it would be nice for some of our family and friends who do not get to see us or chat with us as often as we would like to see our favorite moments of 2012.  I am going to put my own spin on this new trend and instead of The Grunenfelder's top 10, I am posting our top 12 favorite events/moments of 2012.  I hope everyone enjoys The Grunenfelder's Top 12 of 2012!

12. Kent, Emma and I completed our second Bloomsday as a family of three!

 

11. Swimming lessons

 

10. We celebrated Grandpa Young's 60th birthday at a Mariner's game in April

 

9. Kent, Emma and Papa G. built Emma's swing set

 

8. We had a camp out at the Speer family reunion.

 

7. Emma sure loves her sand and watermelon

 

6. I completed my first Warrior Dash.

 

5.  Emma and I flew to Fresno, California to meet baby Riley and to visit Eric, Molly and of course Emma's boyfriend Micah!

 

4.  Even though Kent and I could not spend our anniversary together, we celebrated 3 years of marriage August 1st.

 

3. Family vacation in Mazatlan, Mexico

2. Emma turned ONE February 4, 2012

 

1. We found out we will be having a baby BOY due to arrive May 22, 2013!

 



Merry Christmas

Since we were not able to send all of our friends and family Christmas cards this year I thought I would post our card on our blog.  We are very sorry that we could not send a card to everyone and hopefully Kent will have a job soon and we can send a Christmas card out to everyone next year!  Thanks for understanding and we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Annual Gingerbread Houses

Every year our friends Jeff and Jenny host our entire home group over at their house to decorate gingerbread houses.  It has become a very fun tradition within our home group.  Kent and I are very sad that we will probably not be able to join them next year, but are so very blessed to have been able to participate over that past few years!

Our pre-decorated gingerbread house.

Everyone hard at work on their houses.



Mya and Lauren strategizing how to decorate their house.

The Allens waiting for their frosting to dry.

Kristen and Lainey

The front walkway to our house made out of chocolate covered sunflower seeds and twizzlers!

The Finished Gingerbread Houses of 2012

Kylan, Kristen and Lainey had some troubles with their house so they turned it into Santa's Garage!

The Allen's very colorful and yummy gingerbread house!

The Grunenfelder's gingerbread house.  Our gingerbread man caught his first deer of the season!

Celisse & Jacob's house.

Mya and Lauren's house.

 

 

 

Christmas 2012

Our Christmas this year was filled with lots of family, smiles, wrapping paper, and gifts.  We enjoyed our first Christmas get together on Sunday before Christmas eve with Kent's Grandma Dayton and his mom's side of the family.  Everyone pitched in making a very yummy brunch and then once our bellies were full we began opening lots of presents. 

We celebrated our second Christmas on Christmas Eve with my mom, Alex, and Grandma ABC at my mom's house.  For as long as I can remember my mom has had the elves come Christmas Eve night (or in this case Christmas Eve Eve night) bringing everyone brand new pjs for everyone to wake up in Christmas morning (in this case Christmas Eve morning).  After opening many more presents Christmas Eve morning we enjoyed some homemade ..... for breakfast and began our journey to the mall to meet Santa.  Emma had her picture taken with Santa and was definitely a trooper.  We were not sure how she would react since she does not like people in costumes, but she managed to sit on Santa's lap without shedding one tear!  I am so very proud of my brave little girl facing her fears!

Emma's new doll house.

For our third Christmas celebration we headed to my dad's house Christmas Eve night.  After opening yet more presents; which at this point we had an extremely hard to getting Emma to actually open her gifts. All Emma really wanted to do was play with the toys she had already opened, so mommy began to open her gifts for her.  After opening presents we headed into town for dinner and to browse for Christmas lights.  Emma loved looking at all of the lights on the houses and the elaborate decorations people put out in their yards. 

Emma in her Christmas dress with her new  and favorite baby from Great Grandpa Grunenfelder.

I wonder how I am suppose to play with a kitchen in a box?  Thanks Grandpa Dave!

For our fourth and final Christmas celebration we spent Christmas day with Kent's parents and sister.  We woke up Christmas day to more presents, but this time no traveling.  We spent the entire day relaxing, watching movies, and playing with Emma's new toys.  This was kind of strange for me to spend Christmas day in one place.  Since I can remember I have been traveling between family gatherings on Christmas day, so to spend a day in one place in my pjs was kind of strange, but definitely a needed day of relaxing. 


Thanks to all of our family for a wonderful Christmas.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. 

Here are some more photos from our Christmas in Pullman!

Emma seeing the presents under our Christmas tree for the first time!

Emma's new race track!

Santa brought Emma a doll all the way from Mazatlan!

Playing cars with her new muneca or doll!