Beginning of December 2017 - let all the festivities begin!

One of like 20 (I'm not kidding) Christmas outfits that have been passed down to us.  I don't even know if we ended up wearing them all.

All the kids playing outside

Emmalyn had a play date at her friend Hudson's house (his mom is Katherine - my walking buddy).  She's been really wanting us to get our Christmas decorations up.  Well, I get a text from Katherine that when Emmalyn walked into the house she said, "Oh, your house is decorated!  Our house is not decorated yet."  Yup....shamed by my daughter.

I had to go out of town for my last trip of the year.  It sure is nice to be able to say goodnight to the kiddos with facetime.

Still committed to walking!  After our team dinner, I put my workout clothes on and walked the halls of the hotel before I went to bed.  I'm in a good place with staying committed to the walking, which feels good (Both physically and mentally)

Proof of the walking - BOOM!

We had our Perfetti end of the year meeting at the Bengals stadium.  

Peter sent me this pic of Emmalyn all dressed the next morning

He did her hair - way to go, dad!

Me and my friend, Oscar, the airhead.

I found this eggnog made from almond milk.  It's so delicious!! (and only 50 calories a serving!)

Maxwell brought home a book to read from school that was a recipe book for making salsa, so we mad it.  He did a great job!

We finally got around to putting up the tree at the beginning of December.

Never a shortage of helpers when it comes to putting up the ornaments.

Good job kiddos

Whew - the tree is done!

Ugh...now for the rest of it (so many boxes of stuff!) 

I finally got a set of stockings that all match.

Emmalyn bit me!  She's never done it before.  She wasn't doing it out of anger but holy moly it hurt.  

We took the kids to see Santa at a local church.  You have to buy tickets to get it but it includes breakfast, crafts, and of course seeing Santa.  The best part is that there are a ton of volunteer teenagers that wait inline for you - they text you when they are getting close to the front.  It was great because we were able to eat and do other things while a poor teen just stood there for us.

Making a beaded bracelet

Ta-da!

Group shot!  Emmalyn is standing next to her friend, Hudson and her other friend Michael is sitting on Santa's lap. (I don't know the rest of the people)

More holiday fun - we decorated Gingerbread houses with my friend and old boss, Michelle.  She brought Baby Jack who just hung out in the high chair and watch us.

Maxwell did it all on his own

Decorating the little tree in his room

We went to see Santa again (for our usual photoshoot) so the kids prepped some letters.  I wrote Emmalyn's and she decorated it.  She would like Peppa Pig toys, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Trolley (she rarely watches the show), and something from "Shimmer and Shine" (All tv shows)

Maxwell wants a karaoke set, a drone double wing, a pokemon book, electric ripstick, some type of wheels, and a delux morpher.  I don't even know what all of that is.

Ready to see santa

I snuck a couple shots - Maxwell was so excited

Emmalyn hung back and watched Maxwell go first.  She wasn't scared at all.

The boys

Second week of December 2015

I am loving the holiday season this year.  It's fun so far!

I accidentally took Emmalyn's baby carrier car seat with me and should have left it for Peter to use to take her to Brittany's.  Luckily, we had just ordered Emmalyn a new, big-girl car seat and it was sitting in Peter's office waiting to be installed.  Because he was late he quickly put it in and took Emmalyn the 5 minutes to Brittany's . I think she was pretty excited to be looking forward!  (Hope she didn't enjoy it TOO much... It's going to be another 4 months until she gets to do it again.  Gotta be 2 years old!)

Peter sent me this pic from the photo calendar I made from him.  How stinking cute was Emmalyn a year ago?!  I don't feel like she's grown until I look back at things like this.

Enjoying her broccoli

The big girl car seat is now backwards in Brittany's car.  Peter takes her to Britt's in her infant carrier and then I bring her home from Britt's in the carrier but while in Brittany's car she gets the big-girl seat.

All dressed up at the park

I took a day off from work to get some errands done and relax a little.  I started my day off with breakfast at Einstein's - yummy.

I did other things like dropping off dry cleaning, shopping, etc.  and then picked up some Mexican food and went to the dealership and waited for more than 3 hours for my car to be worked on.  It was temping to working but I avoided it as much as possible and spent some good time blogging.  It's really nice every once in a while to have a day to myself without having to do my work job or my mom job.

The fit I got to enjoy at home

All better, the ipad does that

Video - Emmalyn reading a book and showing off the noise that an elephant makes

I made some rice krispie treats.  Haven't done that for YEARS!!!  I kept Emmalyn busy by giving her some marshmallows to play with.

Maxwell was all dressed up to go visit with Santa and after wards we decided to go out to eat.

Selfie at Mooyah

"To Dad and Mom if your reading this then you know wener (wiener) is coming".  Apparently Peter told him to write that because he was getting a hot dog.  hm.

We put up the mini tree in Maxwell's bedroom and he had fun decorating it.  My Mom helped me decorate it the first year we put it up, she would have love knowing he was using the bows she created.

The finished product

He begged me to let it stay lit after he went to bed.  So I gave in and let it stay lit and at 10 pm (way past his bedtime) I hear him singing Christmas songs.  I go in there and he tells me the tree is distracting him, and was totally awake.  So I quickly turned it off.  :)

Two cuties in Costco

Look at that hair!  Too funny.  It cracks me up but as silly as it is, I enjoy being able to do something.

Having fun working on a puzzle.  She hasn't really shown much interest in them before now.

Emmalyn's drool is finally getting better and her face is healing!  I am so happy, I feel like she had those poor red bumps around her mouth forever.  We remind her to wipe her face when she's drooling and she will mostly wipe it straight up her face.

She is putting together phrases and simple sentences such as "I'm ready", "there it is", "stop it", lots of "thank you" and "you're welcome",.

She will make us sing goodnight to each member of the family and prompts you with the one she wants next.  She always remembers to gives kisses and say goodbye to each person (this includes saying goodbyes to each person at Brittany's which we are leaving).

Maxwell is doing a great job with his glasses. I don't have to remind him much and he's good at taking care of them.  He wants to take them off before he goes to the potty so they don't get dirty, 

Max is really into Christmas and asked me about how Santa can fit down our chimney.