First Week of October 2016

Maxwell writing love notes to family we've seen lately like Natalie and Aunt Tammy.

We are excited to be starting a new semester of Kindermusik!  

Emmalyn came with Maxwell and I to his pediatricians to get our flu shots.  She loves going to the doctors - always!

Woo hoo - we did it! (I think this might be his first time getting it in his arm.)

Emmalyn sat outside and enjoy a healthy (ha!) lunch of a McDonalds happy meal while Maxwell was in his Kindermusik class.

Maxwell has moved up to the "young child" class where he will be learning how to read music and how to play a glockenspiel - it's like a xylophone.

Rootbeer floats and a movie at home

Enjoying her candy bracelet from our "boo" stash (see last post)

Maxwell doesn't have homework other than reading but this particular book had instructions on making a treasure map so he had fun doing that.

Helping Momma with the gardening

Maxwell's sort of report card for writing.  Not bad to have all but one marked off when he's only been in class 1 month.  This is the form with the expectations for the whole year.

I had put up Halloween window clings and this pumpkin was destroyed by Emmalyn.  She's not horribly destructive but certainly more destructive than Maxwell is.

Comin at ya!

Peter and I really enjoyed seeing Rent together.  It's been more than a decade.  I really love the music, especially the first half.

Maxwell had spirit week and one of the days was walk to school day.

We didn't walk the whole way but we drove the car across the street into the neighborhood where the school is and walked part of the way.

Emmalyn loved tagging along on the walk with Mom and Dad.

One of the other spirit days was "wear your pajamas to school" which he has NEVER wanted to do and he totally wanted to this year.  That's a big change for him.

Sweetly sleeping during her nap - puppy on one side of her head and turtle on the other.

Britt and I took the kids to the Heard Museum to check out their live action dinosaur exhibit where the dinos move and make noises.

Maxwell was excited to use his map to guide us along.

The first dinosaur we came upon.  The kids all look happier than they really were.  We had some scared kiddos.

She would wave to the dino but only from far away.

Maps - always a win with this age

This one is called the "Utah Raptor"  It's pretty scary looking.

This one spits at you.  They were much more life like than I was expecting.

Playing in the wood town before we left.

Maxwell is doing tennis lessons outside and in the morning this time around.

Emmalyn and I checked out the pumpkin patch after Kindermusik one day.

My little readers

We stopped by Costa Vida to take a selfie in order to try to win free Costa Vida for a year when they opened.  We ended up meeting the owner and he let the kids come in and check out the restaurant and the bubble wall.  He was a really nice guy and we can't wait for them to be open!! (sweet pork salad - yummm)

Emmalyn is awful at picking at her scabs.  She just doesn't leave them alone and so they stay wounded forever.  As much as I don't like bandaids (they are addictive for kids!), we have had to put those on her to get her to leave them alone.
She says, "hip hip hooray" so cutely!
She will add "for?" on the end of questions. For example, "What are you going to work for?"
She can open all the doors in the house now except the back door because it's more sticky and hard to open.  This is both a good and bad thing because you can't keep her out anymore.
Emmalyn can take off her pajamas and diaper by herself in the morning (zipper pjs and shirts/pants pjs).
Twice in the last week she has peed on the rug on the bathroom.  GRRRRR.  One time, it was right after I had her sit on the potty and nothing happened.

Maxwell is now tall enough that he can turn on the lights!  Our lights are high on the walls and so he'd have to get a stool or something to turn them on.

December is here!

Not quite a milk mustache...but a whipped-cream-on-top-of-egg nog mustache :)

Woah - - putting up the Christmas tree at the beginning of December?  I must be on the ball this year.

Emmalyn put up a few ornaments... and took down a bunch...and put up a few...and took down a bunch...

Maxwell helped out almost the whole time.  It was funny having him help this year instead of just stressful.

Maxwell calls this our "fake Christmas tree".  He's very specific.  Ha!

Putting the star on the top

Emmalyn playing at the little playground at the mall with Brittany during the day

Waiting for his flu shot

Video - (Even if you don't normally watch my videos, you should watch this one!) Max is initially happy about getting his flu shot... until he connects the dots and realizes it will be like the *4* shots he had to get during his 4 year check up.  I think he's still traumatized from that.

He did a good job, whimpered and cried just a little but got over it very quickly!

I had an end of the year meeting for work in Cincinnati.  We had our celebration at the MLB park.  It was very cool.

They welcomed us up on the jumbotron

"Oscar" the airhead came to visit us during the meeting.  This is me and Michelle.

Nana arrived to my house while I was traveling home.   The kids were very excited to see her!

Eating ice cream with nana

Another day, playing in the sun at the park

Silly kids

Nana taught a painting class in the neighborhood.  We did these really cute trees.  She's such a great teacher!

Emmalyn is talking more and more..  she now says, "Um, I don't know" and then one night this week I told her goodnight and she responded with "Goodnight, Momma".

It's funny because she LOVES the little Christmas animated musical toys (looks like a stuffed penguin, for example).  They scared Max, even up until last year.

She can find the app on the iPad that has the animals sounds (the first app we ever got Maxwell).

Emmalyn lately has not been going to sleep often during her second nap.  She will just lay there for awhile and eventually call for us without falling asleep.  She has started sleeping with the purple puppy dog that Grandpa and Nana gave to her when they were here last.  Sleeping with the puppy dog only started because she threw a fit one night when I made her stop watching videos of puppies with daddy on his phone.  And now she will grab him at night to cuddle with him.

She still has that little rash on her face around her mouth.  I have tried washing it frequently and putting lotion on it, I've tried Vaseline, lavender, etc.  So many things and nothing has cleared it up for good.  I still think it's from all her drool and I sure hope it doesn't stick around util she fully stop drooling.


When I started to say "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite..." as part of our routine Max told me to say it at night because it gives him a headache.

He is so sweet and so smart but still not very social.  We were at our friends Andrea and Jeff's home this week and their daughter Sadie (age 6) was so frustrated because Maxwell wouldn't play with her.  I have be trying to get him more time with kids other than just his cousins.

Maxwell can count to 100!