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!!!

My Jewelry

Post written 1/12/13

The other day when we were at the zoo, my sister Kimberly sent a text to Brittany and I showing us how she was wearing one of the bracelets my mom made.  I had to laugh because I too was wearing a bracelet my mom made.  So I took a pic and sent it to her.

One of the things that means the absolute most to me is the jewelry I have from my mom.  She left her jewelry to her daughters in her note.  My mom had a TON of jewelry.  It was something she really enjoyed.  She also really enjoyed making bead jewelry.  I was amazed at some of the complicated designs she did and how much time she had to put into making these beautiful pieces.  There were days that she didn't feel good enough to leave the house but she could put her focus onto beading.  I have memories of her hands shaking (a side affect from the medication) but she would still be sitting there beading.

So when we were going through her things, we divided up her jewelry and all got quite a few pieces.  We also sold some of it at the garage sale - there was just so much of it that to keep it all was silly.  I am appreciative of the money we made from selling her jewelry.  I know that members of our family, that she loved, also got pieces she made and I KNOW she would have wanted that.  Looking back I might have changed how we did it and given pieces to those she loved and love her but I wouldn't have sold it to strangers.

Her jewelry has brought me comfort and helped me feel close to her.  I wear a piece of her jewelry - either a bracelet, necklace, or earrings nearly every day.  When I look at them, I think of her.  When I get compliments on them, I proudly say "My mom gave it to me".  She had great taste.  She had a sense of style that I didn't inherit and did an amazing job of looking nice even when her outfit may have come from a second hand store.  I like to think she's proud of me for branching out and wearing pieces of her jewelry that might have been outside of my typical style before she passed. 

I miss her terribly.  I still have a great dad and a step-mom but it's funny to me that with the loss of my mom I have lost a big part of my foundation.  There are times I feel like an orphan.  She kept me connected with my extended family.  She got excited over my successes.  She listened when I needed to talk.  When a day is going by normally, I forget she's gone.  Then I will think about telling her something or see something she'd like and I remember that she's gone.  The worst thing is the finality of it - she's gone for the rest of my life.

But I appreciate the way I feel like I have her with me when I wear her jewelry.  She was extremely talented.  Thank you Mom!

ALL this jewelry was hers

A purple bracelet she made for me

She made such a variety of styles

Amazing detailed work

Happy Birthday Kallie!

Woo hoo!  I am now 32.  No day off for the birthday girl - I headed to work!

 Here's what I push to the car each day.  Max in the stroller, diaper bag on one handle, pump bag on the other handle, laptop bag in the basket under the car seat.

 My sweet perfect husband sent me flowers at work - he knows so well what I love.

 Brittany had In-n-Out waiting for me at lunch.  YUMMY!

She gave me this awesome baby food recipe book.  You'll see more of this in the future.

 Max showing off his drumming skills.

 My team did cake and sang happy birthday to me.  I chose a Red Velvet and Marble cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Ridiculously good.  My mouth is water just thinking about it.

 Peter had presents for me when I got home from work.  Max helped me open them.

 He was sorta into it.

What?  Peter!  You shouldn't have!  You are such a generous husband.

He gave me the super nice Canon Rebel.  Look for some better quality pictures on future blogs - wahoo!

Checking out the new camera's ability.  Yup - pretty good.  It captured how cute Peter is.

We went and picked up Panda  Express for dinner - - no cooking for me!

Video - So Max has this new awful habit of grinding his teeth.  It is the most horrible sound.  And I don't know how to make him stop!  Turn your volume up, there's some grinding right at the beginning.

It was a good day but was also a bad day.  Peter did everything he could to make it a special day and I really appreciated that.  However, regardless of that, it was just a bad day.  The entire day it just felt like something was missing and without that, it wasn't going to be a good day.  What was missing?  My mom.  I missed her terribly today.  I felt more alone and abandoned and sad without her than I did on Mother's Day.  There was no birthday card in the mail.  There were no presents in the mail.  There wasn't a phone call from her.  It just sucked.  I miss my mom. 

Mother's Day

Not a fun coincidence - My first Mother's Day is also my first Mother's day without my Mother. Seems unfair that now that I have a new gratitude for what it takes to be a mom that I don't get to share that gratitude with the one that deserves it.  I missed her today but the day was busy enough that I didn't have much time to dwell on it.

Love you, Mom - - miss you terribly.  I love this picture of you winking.  Such a fun loving woman.

My day started off great!  Peter took Max when he woke up and I got to sleep in a little.  When I woke up I had this waiting for me.  Peter and Max had gotten me these beautiful tulips and a thoughtful card.

Brittany's husband, Joe, was working in the morning so Peter offered to make us both breakfast.  He did a great job! (He always does a great job on breakfast.)

 Hard at work in the kitchen.

 My plate - so yummy.

We were so full after breakfast that we decided we had better go on a walk and work off some of that food!

 Max isn't a fan of his hat.

 Hayden sitting on the massive longhorn sculptures at the park.

 Landen and Maxwell in their strollers.

 Looks comfy to me.

 Peter and Hayden ran all over the park, including down the hill.  Peter has so much more energy now - wish he could share some of that with me.  I rarely have energy to do anything other than work and try to keep things running at home.

 At the park.  I am only including this extremely unflattering picture of me as incentive to stop being so frumpy...certain clothes are comfy, sure... but come on, Kallie! 

It's hard to care about doing my hair, putting on makeup, etc on the weekend.  (Not that I do that much of it during the week though.)  I am definitely in a glamour slump.  I have other needs, like sleep, or washing bottles, or pumping, or blogging.

Anyway, after all that walking and running around we were all hot so we walked to 7-11 for a drink.   It was a fun way to spend the morning!

In the afternoon we drove around showing Brittany some of the model homes that we had liked then went back to Brittany's to hang out.  Now that we have started looking for a house, we are spending a lot of time going through MLS listings and walking through homes.  Friday after work, Saturday, and sometimes Sunday.  Haven't found anything yet that we LOVE. 

 Check out the backyard in a house.

Max caught a nap in the swing.  He's a pro at naps in Brittany's swing but not so much a pro at naps at home.

We went out to dinner at Cici's (a cheap pizza buffet).  High-style-living for Mother's Day! (I tease though because it was great.  I like cheap pizza and I love not having to cook dinner.)

Shirt worn purposely for Mother's Day

It was a fantastic first Mother's Day.  I am blessed to have such a great husband and son.  It was fun to spend the day with Brittany and her family too.  That helped me not miss Mom all day.  We were originally going to do something specific to remember mom but we didn't get to it.  So we just talked about her and remembered her instead.