Second Week of November - Shannon's yearly trip! and Maxwell takes on the stage

I was pretty impressed with this painting Maxwell did.

Trying out my new charcoal mask

I had cavities.  :(  I haven't had them in years.  It was weird to have that numb face feeling again.

Maxwell decorated his turkey for school like Super Mario

Time for another visit to the pediatric optomologist

He always does a great job and is a super patient.

His eyes are improving but not enough that we need to get new glasses unless the ones we have break.

I think I've finally found a hairstylist I'm happy with here!  Her name is Karen.

It was Maxwell's kinder teacher, Mrs. Garza's birthday so the other room mom and I took her a little cake and the kids sang Happy Birthday.  We wanted to do more (nothing crazy) but the principle put out a really strict set of guidelines about what could be done for teacher's birthdays...could only take 10 minutes at the end of a day, couldn't collect money for a present, etc.  It was obnoxious and overboard in my opinion but I followed the rules.

Play-do fun.

Tennis practice

I took the kids to JC Penney to get their Christmas card pictures.  They are going to be so cute.  I give myself brownie points because I did it all by myself - neither Peter nor Brittany were there.  The worst part is after the pictures have been taken when you are going through them all at the computer and trying to look at the pictures but also keep the kids entertained.

She really is this precious and sweet (just with a little spunk sometimes)

Being a silly kid

Donna moved out this week.  It just wasn't working out so she packed up her stuff and Peter took her to the airport to fly back to Utah.

Yay!  My friend Shannon came to town for her yearly trip.  We ALL love having her here.

I took her to a new foodtruck park in town.  I was thrilled to see that my favorite sliders foodtruck was there!

2 sweet and lowdown please!

Maxwell was invited to his friend Preston's birthday party at a kid's theater place.  The kids were going to practice and put on a show for the parents.  Maxwell wanted none of it and was super scared and crying.  I was at Kindermusik with Emmalyn while it was going down and he texted me that Max was doing the super hard-can't-catch-your-breath cry.  The Teacher guy was kind to Max and tried to help him calm down.

Talking and getting ready for the performance.  I wonder if Max will end up doing it?

He did!!!

Whew - that went okay!

Maxwell and Preston (who was the star of the show and a born performer)

We hit up Sam Moon, as always!

Delicious Mexican food for dinner

Spa night and staying up late talking

Maxwell slept in our room on the floor so Shannon could have his bed since Donna's room wasn't fully cleared out.  He thought it was pretty cool.

Shannon and I finished off our fun, but short, weekend with a pedicure where I let Emmalyn pick the color before I left.  She chose orange.

Maxwell loves Shannon.  He only wanted to cuddle with Shannon on the couch, not me.

Daylight savings happened which is awful!  The kids wake up so early, it's painful. Emmalyn keeps waking up early (like before 6:30 am) and only wants milk or milk and cereal.  She doesn't want to go back to sleep.

Love that cute bum in the air.

Emmalyn is progressing on the potty training.  She's had multiple accidents for both pee and poop.  We need to be better facilitators of this process but I'm just no ready yet for her to go out of the house in panties and she won't treat pull-ups like panties but just like a diaper.

First week of November 2016

Pajama day at school (and Maxwell participated!)

Playing at the park

Look who is wearing big girl panties!

With Grandma Donna (I think during the day with Britt)

My friend Beth at work

My friend Andrea came to my work and helped about 50 of us make these signs.  I made one with a "G" so I could give it to Maxwell's kinder teacher - Garza.

Crazy hair day at school

It certainly looked crazy :)

Emmalyn joined in the fun too

Playing at the mall during the day with Britt

"cheese face"

Yup, cheese face again.  Those ringlets!  No curling iron needed for this one.

Cuddled up with the kiddos

Maxwell practicing his Kindermusic rhythm cards.  He's doing a great job.

We took the kids to the "Festival at the Switchyard" in downtown Carrolton.  The kids had fun playing games.  (They took turns though because we were standing in a silly line waiting for face painting.  While I'm glad to see my kids now enjoy it, face painting is the WORST line wherever you go.  You spend at least an hour just waiting and then trying to entertain the kids while you wait.  This new trend of total face painting instead of the old way with a ghost on a cheek or a rainbow takes so much time!!!!

Maxwell waited in the stroller more than Emmalyn did

Emmalyn got some flowers (mom's choice) and Maxwell is the Pokemon Pikachu

We took the kids home and left them with a new babysitter - girl down the street and then we headed back to the concert for a free Barenaked Ladies Concert!

First we went out to dinner and while we were eating fireworks went off behind us - it was great show!

The concert was so fun!  The last time we saw these guys was at an Medal Ceremony Concert during the 2002 SLC Olympic games.

Being silly with dad outside of Costco

Loving the smiles and giggles

We had Souper Salad for dinner.  Peter and I used to go all the time when we lived in SLC so it was a little nostalgic.

So, we have been sort of potty training all week.  Emmalyn does great with pooping on the potty but then she will sometimes sit on the potty, do nothing, and then pee on the floor a minute later.  If she's in pull-ups she treats it like a diaper so that choice is out.  It's either panties, nude, or diaper.  She's having multiple accidents a day.  :(  When we went to the festival I just put her in a pull-up because I didn't want to deal with it.  That night with the babysitter she was in diapers but then asked to go potty before going to bed.  The next morning she said she needed to go pee and she actually did so that's a win!

Mornings are good.  Maxwell gets up around 6 am.  Peter will give him cereal or will leave a bowl with cereal in it and put a cup of milk in the fridge so he can do it himself.  Emmalyn wakes around the same time but I try to get her to cuddle with me in bed for an extra half hour.  She immediately asks for milk when she wakes up by saying, "your milk" and I'm still telling her it's empty.  After about a half hour she'll go to the kitchen and Peter will get her cereal.  Both kids watch their iPad while eating and can be independent which means we can get a few more minutes of sleep!mo