3rd week of December 2016

(okay...today is December 15, 2017 and I'm blogging about the third week of December **2016**.  I am now a full year behind.  UGH!!!!! I need to get more committed to taking the time to blog.)

Silliness

Working on her number puzzle with Landen

One of her cute Christmas outfits

Peter and I went to our first regular season Cowboys game!  We had great seats that we had won in the last CROSSMARK Casino Night Silent Auction.  Our friends Tida and Jason came along.  It was a lot of fun (and FREEZING outside!!!)

The Stadium is so big

Cheerleaders

Tida and I went to get some food.  While we were gone, they scored!!!

Later in the game, we hit up some shopping and while we were out, they scored again!  So we didn't spend much time in our seats watching the game after that because clearly they only played well when we weren't watching.  :)

The game went into overtime and the Cowboys won!  It was a fun game to watch.

And yet another Christmas outfit (I am so appreciative to my neighbor who passed on all these adorable clothes from her daughter who has outgrown them.  She has given me bags and bags and bags of stuff.)

One of Maxwell's best friends, Preston, is moving out of state.  They went to preschool together and have remained friends since.  

There were tears and much sadness when it was time for this last play date to be over.  :(  (Tears from Preston...I'm not sure if Maxwell fully understands plus he's not an easy crier.)

Ready with our hot chocolate!  Let's go see some Christmas lights!

We went to downtown Frisco and walked around.

A collage of just some of the holiday outfits Emmalyn has worn.  It took a conscious effort to make sure they all got worn once!

Emmalyn wasn't feeling well so we headed to the doctor.  A year later, I have no memory of what was wrong with her but I'm sure it was just a cold or something like that.

Entertaining himself during her visit.

I took the day off work a few days before Christmas when Maxwell was already out of school and we had a date day.

We started off with lunch at a restaurant with Ms. Mary Ann

Then I took him to Top Golf.  (I had the best game I've ever had!!  I was killin it!)

He loves top golf!

Katherine came over one night and we wrapped presents together and enjoyed some wine and snacks.  It was a fun way to wrap (just a little less torture).

Kid update:

Emmalyn likes to cuddle if I'm sleeping in more  in the morning.  It's super sweet.  She will bring her iPad and climb up and sit next to me and keep watching.  Lately she has been getting up at 5 am, it's a fight to get her back to sleep.  (I sure don't want to up that early!)  She wants either cereal and milk or to cuddle in our bed. I try and keep her in her own bed until 6 and then finally give in and let her come into our bed.  She doesn't want to sleep in her open foot sleep sack anymore so it's just PJs and a blanket.

The kids are really good.  They like to get up early so Peter or I will get up and get them cereal/milk in the kitchen and they will eat while watching things on their iPads.  It let's us get a little more sleep.  :)

Max is usually up at 6 but just gets up on own, gets his iPad in the front room and is now at a point that he doesn't even let us know he's awake anymore   A few times he's come into our room at 4 am to cuddle because he had a bad dream (I got him to tell me the details of one once - he was in a pool that was 36.4 feet deep and he wanted to swim down and touch bottom but couldn't get back up)  He's excited that he has what he thinks is a loose tooth.  I tried it and it wiggles maybe just a little but there were a couple others on the bottom that feel a little loose.

"BUT MOM" is a common phrase out of both kids' mouths and it is driving me nuts.

1st week of February 2015

We sure live in a great neighborhood with some great neighbors.  It seems that there's always some party at least once a month at someone's house.  We got invited to a Super Bowl Party at some friends' house down the street.

Headed to the party

Max showing some personality (or super hero moves, I'm not sure which)

Max was really into playing with the barbies - it's the first time he's ever been around them.  I'm sure when Emmalyn gets a little older, he'll have plenty he can play with at our house too.

Back at home, both kids focused on their toys

Look at the pic of Max above and then look at the pic of Emmalyn below.  These two definitely have some similarities.

Emmalyn and her Momma

...always wanting to put those fingers in my mouth

photobombed by dad (Maxwell is the photographer)

Brittany and Joe and their boys moved out of our house this past week.  While it's nice to have my house back to just my family and it's much quieter, I will miss having them around.  There were a lot of benefits to having them live with us -- didn't have to take the kids anywhere when I went to work, Brittany was an amazing chef and often cooked, she helped with the housework, the kids always had someone to play with, Peter and I could go on a walk at night together and leave the kids sleeping in their beds.  Brittany just moved 7 minutes away so she's still close.

Emmalyn and Landen playing in Britt's new apartment

With Chef Brittany living in her own apartment, we had to start cooking dinners again.  Here's my first one. (Bourbon chicken and fried rice)

Here's another meal I cooked, chicken pasta with broccoli and side of asparagus.  Hopefully we can get back into the swing of things and keep cooking versus doing a ton of takeout.

Look how much natural curl my hair has.  Ugh...I want my straight hair back!  The curl seems to get more intense each year.

Emmalyn started Kindermusik!!!  She loved her first class.

I am so excited to be able to start going to Kindermusik with her.  Her class is right before Maxwell's so Peter will bring Maxwell at the end of Emmalyn's class and we will switch kids.  I will stay at Kindermusik with Maxwell and he will take Emmalyn home for a nap.

That's a pretty big mohawk

So tired after Kindermusik that she fell asleep without her sleep sack

We went out on a double date with Andrea and Jeff.  We had a great time at dinner and then hung out and visited until late.

We got cupcakes at a place where they inject and then frost them in front of you based on the flavors you choose.  They were delicious!

It was a big week for Emmalyn - on the first of February another tooth broke through.  It was her second tooth on her bottom left.  (I think that was her 7th tooth) Then on the 4th, her first tooth on her top right finally broke through.  It's so big and looks so painful!

She is starting to follow some commands like if I tell her to give me her binky or go give her daddy a kiss.  She is absolutely a morning person and is so incredibly happy in the morning.

After 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Max turns into a whine machine.  He's just so tired but yet fights taking a nap!  He doesn't want to feed himself or he doesn't want to eat.  He cries and whines - ugh!

He was reading little books with his dad and said, "I don't care."  He's never said that before.  I am not happy about that - where did he learn that?!

Max has woken up with a dry pull-up in the morning 3 times and twice from a nap.  Maybe we are getting close to where he can stay dry when sleeping?? (or at least close to where he isn't using the pull-up to pee in when he wakes up)

We hosted a Super Bowl Party!

Max has been really interested in the iPad lately.  He is quite talented with it.

We went outside to enjoy some nice mild Texas winter weather.

Max helped me sweet the sidewalk.

The boys and their tech toys.

Now that the projector and screen were up in the media room, we had the PERFECT place to watch the Super Bowl so we invited Britt and her family plus our friends Andrea and Jeff over to watch the big game.  I was excited to play hostess and use some of our serving dishes.  I really enjoy having people over to my house.

Max still crosses his feet all the time.

He spent a lot of time on the iPAD today while Peter and I were getting the food ready for the party.  It was a good thing he was so entertained with this and wasn't interested in making a mess elsewhere.  :)

We had popcorn, chips, homemade salsa, guacamole, strawberries with nutella, crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly, veggies/dip, and pretzels.

Mmmm...

The hot stuff - little wienies, pizza, velveta dip, firecracker appetizers, and a dessert I made.  I think it's either apple crisp or bread pudding but to be honest I can't remember.

Brittany made some yummy sliders and fruit salad.

Hayden and S. enjoying the backyard.

Andrea brought some yummy food too.

Max wore his football shirt for the occasion and loved playing with the kids while the adults watched the game.

It certainly was a big screen.

2nd row of seating

Max went to be while the party went on.  As I mentioned in my previous post, he likes his head in the corner even if it means he's scrunched up in order to do it.

I took pictures of my kitchen afterwards because everything was cleaned up (mostly thanks to Brittany).  I am bad about partially cleaning after people come over but not doing everything.  And then whatever didn't get done usually sits for a few days.  It felt great to go to bed knowing that there was nothing left to do in the morning.  Thanks Britt!

See?  Even the table is cleaned off.