Updates and Videos

O.K. so my sister Kim wanted me to post some videos since we are so far away and it's hard to really see our girls growing up, so here ya go. So here is Emma singing I am a Child of God.  She knows it pretty well, but was distracted by my mouthing the words to her. Here is Emma dancing at Universal Studios

Swim Party/Preschool

So, our preschool group is almost over for the year and we had a fun water party at our home last week.  The weather had been really nice this past month and Emma has been itching to get out and play in the water.  We have participated for 2 years now and it looks like there won't be enough people to get a group together for this coming year.  Now that she is 4 I am actually unsure of what to do.  We will probably just help her get prepared at home and get together with some other stay at home moms to help her with socialization.  I know it is not necessary, but it has been nice for all of us.  Vivian has LOVED being involved as well, she feels like such a big girl. Oh, I think you can also see our new swing set.  We have been wanting to get one for awhile, but were holding off until we knew if we would be moving soon.  Well, luckily we were able to get one before the weather gets too hot.  The girls have been LOVING it!  They both can't get enough of their new swing set.  Definitely money well spent. 

 

Promotion

So it looks like we will be sticking around Bakersfield for awhile!:)

Internal Announcement

We are pleased to welcome Michael Sharp to the R&D group. He will be taking on a role of Research Scientist with the Retail/Packaged products team.

Michael might look familiar to some of you; this is because Michael has been working for the Dreyer’s Technical application since 2009 and has worked in developing various products for the Dreyer’s and Skinny Cow name brands. Michael received his Master’s degree in Food Science from Ohio State and started his career in ice cream working for Casper’s Ice cream doing quality assurance and product development.

Michael has a beautiful young family with his wife Amy and two daughters Emma (4 yrs. old) and Vivian (18 months old). He is a "huge" sports fan (of almost any sport) and his favorite ice cream flavor is cookies and cream.

Michael will start his transition from the TA group to R&D on Monday, April 29, 2013.

We are all very excited to have a new colleague and someone that is already familiar to many of us joining our team. Please help us in welcoming Michael to the R&D group.

Disneyland 2013

Mike was lucky enough to win 2 passes to Disneyland again this year.  Woo hoo!  His work was having their annual work picnic at universal studios so we decided to make a weekend of it.  WE forgot to factor in traffic so our drive there was less than ideal, but we got there and it was perfect weather.  We got to see the princesses, go on small world, dumbo (Emma favorite), the canoe ride, pirates, buzz, and the new cars ride.  We did more than that, but those were the big ones.  Emma stood so well in line, but viv sure wanted to run everywhere.  We were pretty exhausted.  That night I went back to the hotel with viv and got her to bed while mike took Emma back to cars land and fantasmic.  We were fortunate enough to get a 2 room suite which made it so much easier to get out kids to sleep.  The next day we listened to the first session of conference and then headed out to universal.  That is really not the best place for little kids, but we had to get home so we weren't there too long.  It was a long and fun weekend, but we were so glad to be home. 

Easter

We had a nice Easter.  We colored Easter eggs and Sunday morning the girls, aka Emma, got to go on an Easter egg hunt.  This year we filled half the eggs with a piece of a picture with a scriptural reference on it.  Once we found all the eggs we went through and read about the resurrection and then Emma put the pieces together to make a picture of Jesus with children.  It worked out pretty well.  I had to get a picture of Emma after primary.  They sang to her for her birthday, and little Jerry, her preschool and church friend just cracked me up in his stylin suit.  So cute.  we were able to have some friends over to share an Easter meal with,  and it turned out to be a really nice day.  The messages in sacrament meeting really brought the spirt and our ward choir was able to sing. 

Wind wolves preserve

We were able to take advantage of the beautiful weather and Easter weekend by going camping.  There is an animal and wildlife preserve not far from us.  We camped there last year and it was dry and hot and pretty ugly, but this time of year it was beautiful. we had a nice time just being in nature, but trying to get Emma to go to sleep without waking Vivian up was a nightmare.  I think we remember more clearly now why we don't go camping more often.  We all crashed as soon as we got home.  Got some nice photos though.  Vivian and Emma loved picking up rocks and Vivian kept wanting to go jump in the tadpole infested pond. :-)

4 Years Old!

I can't believe Emma is 4 years old now.  She is just growing up so quickly.  We were originally going to go to Disneyland on her birthday, but plans changed and we decided to go this past weekend instead, so Emma had a very low key 4th birthday.  I wanted to have a fun "water" party with her friends and let them run in the sprinklers and kiddy pool, and have a hot dog cook out, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate.  Hopefully in a few weeks we'll be able to bust out the pool.  Anyway, Emma wanted pancakes with Buttermilk syrup for breakfast, and spaghetti for dinner.  I made her a strawberry ice cream cake, and she was so disappointed when she realized that she did not get to have her cake for breakfast.  She was also very confused when she came down for breakfast and no one else was there.  She kept asking where all the people were.:)  Oh well, we had our friends Irene, Tara, Steven, Quinn and Brooklyn come over for cake and icecream.  They have been so good to us, and have really taken Emma under their wing.  They SPOILED her rotten with presents.  We got her some play "ponies" and some nightgowns, and obviously a ticket to Disneyland, which is enough in itself, but they got her a Merida dress, a little couch with her name on it as well as a homemade quilt.  It was very kind of them.  Emma had some wonderful gifts from her grandparents, some crayons, coloring book, puzzles and some Littlest Pet Shops.  She really did get spoiled from so many people who love her.  We sure love you Emma!