First week of February 2017 - Maxwell loses his first tooth

Landen turned 6.  Emmalyn was excited to sing to him and be next to him.

Look at those cute cousins!

Maxwell's school had a science night with lots of fun experiments and hands on stuff.  The kids both loved it.  He's playing with magnets here.

This one was standing in a bubble

So much personality!

100 days of school!  Maxwell dressed up as an old (sloppy) man.

I'm feeling good about the weight I've lost and how I'm looking!  It's exciting to be able to wear clothes you've bought but never worn because it just didn't fit well.

Me and my girl

Love her

How she likes to go to sleep - on TOP of her stuffed animals

Learning some guitar with dad

We LOVE LOVE LOVE Kindermusik with Mrs. Carolyn

Enjoying the playground after Kindermusik

The kids in the hats we brought back from Jamaica

"trying" to get a good picture of them in the clothes we brought home

the best I got

Trying out the soccer outfit with the soccer ball

Silliness

Me with dreads - not a good look

Trying to teach Maxwell how to eat edamame out of the pod.  He likes it, it's just hard to get the hang of it!

A little ice cream treat

Guess who has learned to tie his shoes!  

Ready...set...

go!!! Playing football.

Our spread for the superbowl.  Just the Mejias and us, no big party.  Just lots of food.

Emmalyn playing at the mall with Brittany

Maxwell's first tooth was ready to come out!

...Before

He was excited when Peter was going to take it out with dental floss but then as Peter started trying to put the string on his tooth, he got nervous and scared.  It was tough for Peter to get the floss on his tooth which I think added to him being scared.  Once Peter got it on, he did a quick yank and the tooth was out but boy did we have to endured some panicked crying.

It's out!

Such a little tooth

After (you can't really tell it's gone!)

After

His tooth all ready for the tooth fairy.  He was talking about how he was going to sell it to her for $125.00 I told him that was too much.

She gave him $5.00!  (The first tooth is very special and worth more than the rest of the teeth to the tooth fairy.)

Those curls

Really loving her personality right now

She wanted to take a picture of me

Brittany and I took the kids swimming inside at the FAC.  It was fun to get in a pool!

Update on the Kids:

Maxwell loves soft things - blankets, pjs, shirts, sweat pants, jackets, stuffed animals, etc.  

Most of the time when I ask who he plays with at school during recess, he says himself..  That's how he likes it, I guess.

If he ever gets goosebumps when eating a food, he won't eat any more of it.

Emmalyn doesn't sleep peacefully like Maxwell does.  She cries out in her sleep a few times a night or whimpers.  It's sad but she's at least she's not waking up.

She is getting better at knowing her letters.  She still misses C, G (they are both E), N (calls it M), T (which is I), and W (which is U).

She's also finally catching onto her colors and will say most of them right but if you ask her what color something is, her default answer is "I don't know".  She knows black, brown, red, pink, purple, green, sometimes orange and blue but doesn't know white and yellow.

End of July 2016

Summer is 2/3s over! :(

She's so particular....first off she needs multiple blankets (on top of the pjs and sleep sack! Don't know how she can sleep with that much heat), then puppy goes on the left and turtle goes on the right but usually turtle isn't covering her face.

Emmalyn is making good progress during swim lessons.

Here's Maxwell's progress for his last class with Coach Katie. She's been his coach since he was 18 months and she is leaving Aquatots.  Pretty bummed about that but we are going to have her come over and teach Maxwell privately and take both kids out of Aquatots.  Maxwell has seen her every week for more than 3 years, it would be so sad if they didn't see each other any more.

Last class - with Coach Jada as well as Katie

Look at that face - she's up to something

She got a wound on her face but keeps picking it so I am keeping a bandaid on so that it can heal.  She is the worst at constantly picking her wounds!

Maxwell and Sanjinuh have been in the same class for awhile and developed a cute friendship.  They are good buds and it's sad that they won't get to see each other anymore.

Taking a nap with Uncle Joe.  Joe and Britt are going to move back in upstairs and so they have moved a bit of their stuff over to our house.

The kids got their passports!  We can all go international now.  Maxwell was super excited.

Look at that cucumber we picked from our garden!

Brittany took Emmalyn to the dealer to get some work done on her car and she sent me this picture and said that Emmalyn had a conversation with the giraffe, "I like your piggy tails.  I like your shoes.  I like your tail"  in the sweetest voice ever.  :)  She is certainly learning how to give compliments.

The owl that we are now using to try and protect the garden from birds.  For Emmalyn, he's another friend to play with.  (She told him she likes his eyes.)

At Kindermusik, Emmalyn decided she wanted to sit with Ms. Carolyn and not Mom.  

Giddy up horsey

I let Maxwell come to Emmalyn's Kindermusik class and he got to sit outside the room and play on his ipad.  The class is in a church that is empty on Saturday so he was safe but it felt like he was so far away and I kept checking on him throughout class.  Of course, he was fine.

Emmalyn likes to play peek-a-boo with the scarf and when she puts it on like this, she wants you to say "Emmalyn where are you?  I can't see you." and then she'll put it off and magically I can see her again.  :)

Last soccer game of the season.  These two have been a great team.

Look at Maxwell getting into the cluster around the ball!  Being around Preston's influence has really helped him be more aggressive during soccer.

Taking charge of the ball

Team picture.  The two boys to the right of Maxwell live in our neighborhood (Griffin and Kinsler but they are moving away which is a bummer.  We've played with them a couple times.)

Emmalyn is doing great at putting together these simple two piece puzzles.  

We spent more time at the FAC, mainly enjoying the lazy river which both kids love.

Tired post-swimming face (and those curls!)

Emmalyn riding her tricycle while Maxwell rides his bike with training wheels

We had a playdate at Luckshya's house (another boy from preschool - this group of boys is really keeping their friendships alive)

Remember how he always had his feet crossed when he was a baby?  It is still his natural tendency today.

Don't these flowers look awesome??  I didn't have to do a thing to get them.  They just came up again from what I planted last year - score!

A fun flashback picture my cousin found of my dad in high school.

I took the kids for dinner at Tokyo Joes.  Max liked using chopsticks.

We now have Coach Katie and Coach Jada coming over to give the kids private lessons next door.  Maxwell's lesson is an hour and Emmalyn's is a half.  I was hoping to stay out of the pool but because Emmalyn is used to having me in there with her for lessons, we are going to have to work on transitioning her to being in there without me.

Maxwell is acting like a teenager - - exasperated sighing and then whining all the time, talking with attitude, arguing and talking back so we had a conversation tonight about that not being okay and there will be consequences.  I sure hope this is a little quick phase.

Emmalyn tells you when she doesn't like something (like beans - "I don't like beans"). And, she's working on learning colors and her default is always purple.