family

this has been a busy time for our family. 2 days after our anniversary we celebrated another birthday in the van clan house!! emily mae turned 9 years old. she is our third child, second girl. emilys entrance into the world was a quick one! she was almost born in the car on the way to the hospital. and only gave the doctor 10 minutes after we arrived! today she is a sweet, gentle spirited young lady. she is always willing to help around the house and is often a second mommy to the babies. she has also taken on the role as family bread baker. she enjoys sewing, ballet and playing the piano. and today is her piano recital! she is playing "silent night". zaccy will be playing "we three kings". later tonight we will be celebrating with emily by taking her out to her birthday movie. we are going to see "hugo". well we get a break from family birthdays until february. that has its good point and bad points. it will be nice to fill that birthday envelope back up but we do so love celebrating birthdays around here! we are looking foward to this next coming week. we have our last recital for this time of year. a ballet/guitar recital. then it will be christmas break! we will enjoy a very much needed down time here :)