Blake, Tiffanie, Emery, Everett, and Delaney: Four and a half years old

Emery Annabelle is four and a half years old. She's been waiting for so long to add the "half." Last weekend, someone asked her how old she was and she said with a bit of a sad face, "I'm regular four."

Emery is doing a great job with reading. She's still a bit hesitant to sound out new words, but with books she's been read many times (and memorized), she will often read along. Emery has a great memory for story details, song lyrics, TV quotes, and words in a book. She often says things like: remember that time when we.... and she'll recall something we did a long time ago with very interesting, accurate details. She also gets frustrated when I don't immediately recall the moment she's describing. Her coloring has improved a lot. She used to scribble pretty indiscriminately, and now she's much more intentional with trying to color within the lines. She's working on writing letters and numbers and writes some better than others.

So far this year, Emery went bowling twice, watched Blake run a marathon, traveled to Wyoming where she and I walked a 5K, swam underwater, and toured Washington, D.C. monuments and museums. She also got a new twin size bed. In a few weeks, she'll take her first class: Ballet and Tap.

In Wyoming, Emery fell head over heels in love with Blake's folks' dog, Jaxsyn. Jaxsyn is a golden doodle and the two of them had tons of fun running and chasing and playing together. Emery still misses her everyday. Emery also got to go fishing in the Wyoming mountains.

We got Emery a magnetic calendar and a regular wall calendar, and she likes to keep track of the date and day of the week. Mrs. Diana discusses the date and the weather with the kids too. She recently asked for a watch. Emery appreciates order and figuring out patterns.

Emery can use the TV remote to get a DVD started or find a show on her list on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. I only instructed her a few times and she got the hang of it. So far she still asks permission to turn on the TV and asks before she picks a show. Emery's favorite movie is Frozen. In the car, we often sing along to the Frozen soundtrack - I think I know the words better than for the albums I like. Emery also likes a funny little British show called Sarah & Duck, an Amazon show called Tumble Leaf, Curious George, and a Disney short film called Frozen Fever (about Elsa and Anna, of course).

Emery has been a little more adventurous trying new foods. She likes bell peppers, cucumbers, smoothies, and in Wyoming she ate buffalo meat. She laughed when I told her and she didn't believe me.

I started braiding her "pinktails" occasionally for church. Her hair is pretty long now, but still pretty fine. She likes having braids. She also likes putting bows in my hair, which I enjoy. Last Sunday she insisted on a certain bow that I didn't think matched her dress, so in order to agree to switch bows, I had to wear the one that didn't match. Yes, I walked into the church wearing a big blue bow in my hair (and maybe slipped it into my purse moments later).

Mrs. Diana's daughter got married this year, so not only did Emery attend a wedding for the first time, she got the behind-the-scenes look at all the prep work everyday. She got to see Becky's dress and invitations months before the wedding. Plus she got to help: she carefully removed straight pins while Mrs. Diana sewed Becky's veil. She also is convinced that she will one day get married, leave us, and move to Tennessee (like Becky.) She's very concerned with figuring out where she'll meet her future husband. Oh my.

We love our sweet, spunky girl!