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

4th week of January 2016

So January is almost over but in some ways the Christmas Holidays are still going on in my house.  Emmalyn LOVES to sing Jingle Bells and watch Frosty the Snowman.  (Max loves the movie too.)  It's all about the Christmas songs in January!  We listen to Jingle Bells over and over and over in the car.

I was out doing yard work and found this not-so-awesome break in the drip line for my sprinklers.  Some stinking bunny just HAD to see how it tasted.  But huge kudos to Peter who saw it, was immediately confident on how to fix it, and got it handled like it was nothing!

I finally took down the Christmas decorations... sad to put the holidays away but such a relief to have my house all nice and clean again.

When I was putting away the ornaments, I realized that this beautiful ornament my mom made for me and my siblings in 2010 was cracked.  This was the last ornament I got from her before she passed and I was super bummed to see it had cracked (maybe from the heat in the attic where I keep all the decorations?).  :(  I've separated it and will need to figure out how to save it before I use it again.  I'm super sad.

Good bye stocking and animated animals

Goodbye Christmas card door that was a fun reminder of how many great people we have in our lives.

Take 1

I tried to get a cute picture of both of the kids at Home Depot but it's never easy to get them both looking at the same time and smiling and looking cute.  :)

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4 - I give up!

Rockin' her shades

I took Maxwell shopping with me at Gymboree.  For the most part he did great and it wasn't as painful as I was expecting.  He was excited to pick out a shirt for Valentine's Day.

That hair in the morning!

We went shoe shopping as a family and I handed Little Miss my phone and she took a few pictures and a video that I found later.  

Maxwell graduated to the next level at his swimming lessons!  I wanted to get a picture of his card all filled out with his accomplishments but they had already cleaned it off when we got there.  (They were clearly planning on him moving up today.)  Here we come Level 7!

Getting to ring the bell and getting his certificate

Playing on the indoor playground...

(There are two days a week when Max and Landen are both in preschool, Hayden is in elementary school, and it's just Brittany and Emmalyn.)

... and playing outside too.  

It's awesome when days are sunny and warm in winter and you don't need a jacket!

Video - Emmalyn throwing a fit over her food.  Sometimes she isn't cute and fun.

We started Kindermusik again this week.  We are going to a different location with a new teacher, Ms Carolyn.  She's awesome.  In some ways she looks like my mom and she's so fantastic with the kids.  I really, really like her and her style of teaching.  Both Maxwell and Emmalyn are taking classes now.  Max still has his KiddieKeys piano lessons during the week with one of our old Kindermusik teachers, Ms. Leah.

This week, Max had a rare accident at school.  It's been a really long time since he had an accident.  Poor kid.
Max sometime struggles to look through his glasses, he lets them fall down his nose and looks over them since they are blurry to him.
We have added something to my nighttime routine with Maxwell.  I now ask him 3 questions at night.  #1 - What was your favorite part of the day #2 - What was your least favorite part of the day #3 - What is one nice thing you did for someone today.  He rarely comes up with an answer, but I keep asking because I'm trying to build a behavior with him and emphasize the importance of helping others.

I think Emmalyn may be teething again because the drooling is picking back up again.
She will say, "why momma" or "why daddy" when asking why.
She hasn't had much dinner lately.
Emmalyn is tired super early lately.  In face, I put her down at 5 this past weekend thinking that she would take short nap and she never woke up and stayed asleep all night.
Emmalyn is strong at being wiggly when she wants to escape, so strong willed!!!