Second Week of January 2017

Christmas is over but we still have some Christmas stuff up.  It's a work in progress.  :)

Enjoying linking the beaters

Peter made some awesome crepes with the crepe maker pan that we got Brittany for Christmas.

All our crepe toppings

Working on some puzzles

Puzzle time for Maxwell too

Swim lessons with goggles!  She's legit.

Doing great in her lessons

So many faces from Emmalyn...  Smily

Silly

Cheesy

Upset

Shy

Happy Girl!

Getting my walk done (can't wait until it's not pitch dark at night)

Enjoying her baby toys from Christmas

Dress up time

Maxwell brings home a binder from school each day and if he misbehaves, the teacher will sign it with a note about what the behavior problem was.  He made it until January 11 without having it signed (pretty great!).  

I called the teacher afterward to talk to her about it because I've noticed that he's having a hard time staying focused like when he's at Kindermusik or waiting in lines.  My concern is that he is bored at school, not being challenged, and thus he's starting to act out.  His teacher pretty much dismissed my concerns and said that she hasn't noticed anything difference about Maxwell's behavior lately.  I've been asking her to challenge him more since the second week of school and nothing has really come of it.  It's frustrating.  At this point, my take on it is that she is either uncomfortable with how she can challenge him or she just doesn't have the skills to do that for a child in her class.  I can't wait for this school year to be over and hope for an awesome teacher next year.  :(  So much of what I have been told is that he is just only going to learn Kinder curriculum regardless of if he already has that knowledge.  So, we will just keep trying to challenge him at home and keep him growing.

Mismatched dress up day at school.

Emmalyn snuck up stairs to watch tv and eat cereal with Landen.

Funny faces with mom at dinner

Here are the boys

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.