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.

Second week of March - First egg hunt

Sleeping sweetly (with her puppy dog and her turtle)

Emmalyn tagged along on one of Hayden's playdates.  She hung with the big kids pretty well.

Going down the big slide

Eating some food

This is what his hair looks like after a long day of school followed by playing around with his cousins.

I am so in love with the curls that keep growing!

She found her hat and gloves

Brittany did her hair pretty fancily (it's hard to braid baby-soft hair!)

Big mouth 

Cousins playing well together

video - Emmalyn can jump!

We are about to get a new tree!  So I wanted to get some pics of what our yard looked like before the tree arrived.  The new tree will replace the one that is dead but be placed in a spot that will give us more privacy from the massive balcony behind us. 

Time for another hair cut - I still swoon over that dimple

Looking good!

After his haircut, Maxwell came and waited patiently while I got my eyebrows waxed.  He was such a good kid.

I'm seeing the imaginative side of Maxwell get stronger every day.  It's fun to see.

We went to our first Easter Egg Hunt put on by the city.  The kids got balloons and played different games before the hunt started.

Ready to go!

Max stayed pretty close for a bit and then took off.  I had to keep an eye on Emmalyn but then lost sight of Maxwell.  It only lasted maybe 10 seconds before I found him but that was long enough for me to feel that sense of panic.  Maxwell was fine, of course, and had just focused on getting more eggs but he'd moved pretty far away and I worried that he could have gone the wrong direction to find me.  As a parent, it's hard sometimes to know how much freedom is okay to give your child and when to tap the breaks.

Emmalyn had a great time

Checking out their stash

We played a couple more games before heading home

We left right as it started sprinkling.  Good timing!

Wearing her big brother's hand-me-down helmet on her "bike"

Yeah!  Our tree arrived while we were at the egg hunt.  It feels like it's in the middle of the yard even though it really isn't.  As it grows it will provide nice privacy.

Grillin' and playing outside - is it summer yet???

Playing in a "fort" at Brittany's

4 silly cousins on a slide!