April/May 2017 - Notes from my phone

I'm so far behind in blogging that I'm just going to post the notes from my phone so they are documented somehow even though there are no pictures...

April!

1st- Emmalyn says "restauronk" instead of "restaurant".  Maxwell loves soft things like fleece shirts, soft blankets, soft stuffed animals, sweat pants...he's all about soft. He asked his little friend at school, Brooklyn, if he could marry her and she said yes. They are pretty cute together - she's a head taller than him.  Emmalyn is throwing tantrums with kicking feet if she doesn't get her way. I remind her it works better to use her words.

27th - Emmalyn has had an awful week for potty training... Has gone pee in front of the toilet many times and had many accidents.  It's so frustrating!

May!

8th - At the dentist appointment last week, Emmalyn did awesome. She watched me during my cleaning/exam and chatted the whole time.  She was totally up and looking in my mouth.  Then it was her turn and she was a little nervous but did great.  She was really excited about "mr slurpee" and the sugar bugs. She was even able to do the fluoride treatment!  Then it was Maxwell's turn.  He wasn't as nervous but when things touched his tongue started coughing and would cough randomly. Could tell he was nervous but he was strong through it.  Then today Maxwell had a visit with the pediatric opthalmologist.   He did awesome during the visit.  The doctor said his eye is improving - it's almost as good as his other eye.

Emmalyn back to doing good on potty.  She can get herself into the big potty and so she goes there most of the time.  She sings Kindermusik songs all the time. She does pretend play with toys more often- will see her sitting there pretending and talking to her Minnie Mouse for example. She is riding her bike with training wheels!  And we have moved Maxwell's seat on his bike higher.

Second week of September

Cruising the neighborhood in the neighbor's ride

Maxwell had a ton of fun going through the neighbor's Pokemon cards.  He is really getting into those cards.

Not sure why her whole body is tanned 'cept her bum.  It's not like she's out in the sun only in her diaper.

The school asked for volunteers to help during Kindergarten lunch to help the kids as they get used to eating lunch there.  I took the opportunity to get to see Maxwell at school.  :)

His lunch box is all set up waiting for the kids to get in there (at 10:30 am!).  

His friend Avery

He was happy to see me

With his lunch

Landen at lunch.  It's fun that they go to the same school.  (Note the mom in the background totally feeding her child... I was taken aback to see that.)

I spent my time at the school opening juice boxes, wrappers, getting utensils, letting kids go to the bathrooms, etc.  

Doing some pushups with uncle Joe

Tennis lessons!

She's tall enough to get some water out of the fridge - crazy!  She just doesn't know when to stop, which is a mess.  She loves having ice in her water.

We visited the pediatrician.  I have no idea why at this point...it's been too long.

Movie night

Brittany's birthday!  Joe got her this delicious bouquet from Edible Arrangements.

Peter finished up his major project replacing the lining on the roof of his car.  

Enjoying the weather outside. Wonder where her shirt is???

She had her baby doll too

Emmalyn got a big bike from the neighbor.  It's still a little big and she can't totally do it, but she's very excited about the baby doll seat on the back.

Finger paint fun

Trying it with some paintbrushes

Maxwell painted the letters for his birthday photoshoot all by himself

I wanted Emmalyn to wear this super cute dress that she hadn't worn yet and she threw a huge fit about it.  I finally told her I'd take it off if she would let me take one picture.

Here you go.  Cute dress, cute girl yet the two shall never meet again.

My awesome cucumber and my pathetic strawberries.

Just so you can see how little they are - they are next to a sour patch kid. 

We went to dinner at Chik-Fil-A for Maxwell's School Spirit night.  It was super full of kids - just craziness.

We then went to sonic for ice cream for Grandma Donna's birthday

Update on the kids.
Maxwell gets up in the morning without calling for us to come get him and has been doing it for about a month because the webcam in his room is broken. He used to come in and let us know he is up but he doesn't even do that all the time anymore.  Instead he just gets up, goes to the living room and gets on his ipad.
Emmalyn wakes up grumpy and crying each morning but can quickly shift to happy if you get her out and talk to her.
She's saying 6 words sentences frequently and uses words like "both", "already", and "too".

4th of July 2016 - Parades, soccer, and fireworks

The kids were super excited because we were going to do a bike parade in our neighborhood.  It was raining in the morning but had cleared up so I rushed to finish decorating the bikes and we loaded up the bikes in the car to go to the parade.

When we got to the parade site, no one was there.  NO ONE.  I checked my phone to see if I had the wrong location and learned that the parade had been postponed due to the weather.  Unfortunately it was postponed to a date when we were going to be out of town, plus the kids were all excited about the parade so I decided we would still ride our bikes, wave our flags, and make our own parade!

Starting out on our parade

Maxwell led the way on our bike ride

Eventually we ran into some people who had almost missed the message and came to see the parade so we had a few partners in crime.  As we kept walking a few more families joined us. 

Maxwell quickly tired of riding his bike and wanted me to push his bike but I had to push Emmalyn's.  One of the moms who was walking with us was so nice and helping push his bike basically the whole way back.  I really appreciate the help of others even though it would be nice to not have to need it.  It would have taken a LONG time to get back to the car without her help.

Everything shoved back in the car.

The kids and I stopped for doughnuts on the way back.

A few pictures to show off part of our freshly stained fence (which needs to be touched up in some areas...I had no idea how unforgiving that stain would be)

We are ready to celebrate the 4th of July!!

A delicious meal with corn on the cob and burgers on the grill.  I topped my burger with bacon, jam, and goat cheese just like that slider I tried a few days ago.  It was again delicious.

Emmalyn got a festive temporary tattoo on her face

That night we headed to the FC Dallas game with fireworks after

Maxwell was wiped after a busy day and fell asleep in the car so we waited a while to give him a chance to rest since it was going to be a late night. 

Emmalyn was a good sport and hung out for awhile without being too noise.

Family picture attempt #764  Super cute...oh, until you look at Maxwell

and after 20 more tries... Super cute...oh, until you look at Emmalyn.  Sheesh, it's nearly impossible to get a good one of everyone!

Watching the warm up action on the field

We got to go down to watch the warm ups and then go on the field when they players run out!

We were super close.  

It was really cool to be so close although they warned us to be extremely vigilant about balls coming at our heads.  Thank goodness Peter was paying attention because there was a ball that came straight at us and he saved us!

See that camera right behind Emmalyn?  When I was holding her, it was aimed straight at us and we were on camera, waving and smiling!  Emmalyn's first time on TV.  The next week at work, someone mentioned that they saw us on TV.

After warm ups were over, we got to go on the field and waited for the players to run out.  It was so super hot.  No breeze, humid, high temps, pretty miserable.

Sweaty but still smiling

That's where the players are going to run out

Our neighbors took this picture from their spot - can you find us down there?

Here come the players!

Maxwell high fiving the players - he thought it was pretty cool

We finally made it to our seats and I was exhausted from walking all over and standing (mostly while holding a kid) for so long in the heat.

trying to hydrate

we brought her headphones so that the sounds of the game and the fireworks wouldn't bother her

The Barnes family was at the game with us too

Maxwell wanted to sit by the ladies - either Mary Ann or Jared's girlfriend Rachel

Waving our little hand fans that did little to help the heat (look at those crazy curls in the head)

Doing the wave!

Emmalyn thought the wave was pretty cool and started doing it on her own

She was such a trooper - it was so late.

After the game, we walked over to where we were all parked and got out chairs and watched the fireworks.

Jessica brought glow sticks for the kids.

A couple other neighbors joined the viewing party.

She had a great view and loved the fireworks!

As we were walking back to the cars for the fireworks, my knee started really hurting.  It hurt so bad I had to stop carrying Emmalyn and was limping along.  By the time I got home, it was even worse and I could barely put weight on it.  Nothing was bruised or seemed excessively swollen.  It was so weird because I couldn't remember tweaking it or doing anything that could have caused the issue.  I was super hopeful that the next morning I would feel better.  (Luckily, I did.  Still don't know what happened and caused such intense pain.)