Halloween Carnival and other fun festivities

 We enjoyed a Halloween Carnival, especially Maxwell.  He had a blast playing all the games and getting candy, of course.

Maxwell and I enjoying the Hayride.  He thought it was pretty cool.

So we were about done but we had bought some tickets to use and hadn't used them.  Maxwell had ZERO interest in riding rides (maybe he remembered when we made him do a ride last year?).   He had zero interest in doing a bounce house...the cotton candy machine was down...so the only thing we were left with was the cake walk.  

I had no idea what a cake walk was until we moved to Texas.  I think it's pretty silly but oh well.  For anyone who doesn't know, it's basically musical chairs but instead of taking a chair away, when the music stops the seats are all numbered and they pick a number.  The person sitting in that seat wins a cake or some type of dessert like brownies or a pie.

At first Maxwell wouldn't do it alone and I had to walk with him but after a couple times (and he wanted to keep going until we won) his confidence was up and he started doing it all alone.

Intently listening for who the winner was

Video - Maxwell doing the cake walk.  He's so little!!

He wasn't disturbed by the other costumes, he was so intent on winning.  Unfortunately we went through all 10 tickets and never won.  :(

At home the baby wasn't too happy that I was trying to give her avocados.  She does NOT like them.  She is so tiny in the high chair!

The 3 boys decorated their pumpkins.

Dad, Maxwell, and his pumpkin - - - a pirate for my little pirate.

Speaking of dressing up, can you find my cute husband in this pic?  

(from when he plays paintball)

Maxwell likes to pull my hair over my shoulder on one side and then say "you look like Elsa, Momma". :)  I sort of love it.

Maxwell has been struggling with staying dry during nap time at school the past 2 weeks and has had two accidents each week.  It's frustrating that they won't put a pull up on him and instead have to deal with completely changing his clothes and bagging up his wet clothes and nap mat (and then I have to wash everything so that it's clean for the next day).  Why not just let him use a pull up!?  ugh

At least he seems to be learning at school.  He is now writing some of his letters and as I've talked about, can write "MAX".  I think his experiences at school helped him do great at the carnival when we were standing in so many lines and he was so patient and well behaved each time.


Emmalyn is struggling with her naps during the day.  It's so frustrating and can take so much effort to keep trying to get her down.  The good news though is that she has no issues at night.  She is still up 2 - 3 times between 11 pm and 7 am to nurse.

She's solid in her ability to sit.  I'll let her just sit there and play for quite a long time.  She will move to her belly if she's done.  She also has the army crawl down.

The end of freedom...for decades!

This was it.  Our last weekend before Maxwell started preschool.  Once this weekend was over, we would be on the school path and that path wouldn't end for over 20 years.  Did you hear that - - OVER 20 YEARS!?  In a few days we will now have to plan our lives around school.  We won't be able to take a vacation at any time during the year with thought only to missing work.  While I'm excited for Maxwell to have the new experience and be challenged and learn more, it stinks to have to think about "school" already.  :(

Good morning sunshine!

We went to Sonic to use up a coupon he got in the city's summer reading program - Ice Cream Cone! 

Peter is now playing paintball with a bunch of men once a month.  They take it pretty seriously.  This stuff didn't happen back in Utah.  

Kisses from daddy

Serious face

Kisses for daddy

Huh, momma?

Sweet girl is starting to feel better after being congested and having her ears other her.

Maxwell hanging out in his Maxwell sized chair.

Silly daddy

Getting some good sleep the night before school.

My heart broke when I put him down.  I just wanted to hold him and cuddle forever.  I'm not ready to start taking steps like him going to school.  That makes him seem so old.  He's not that old, right?  I snuck back into his room a few hours later to just touch his face (and cry) and wish all the good things I possibly could on my sweet boy.  I'm such a lucky Momma and am so grateful I get to have Maxwell in my life.

Emmalyn's last few days as a 1 month old

Peter went with some co-workers to play paintball at a property in Denton but they ended up being rained out...I was glad that meant he was home sooner than planned!

Video - Max loves dancing to techno music.  It's a good thing he's too young for the clubs now.  :)

Pretty girl all dressed up

Wearing his sunglasses even early in the morning

I don't remember this happening so I must have been really knocked out

My new, awesome mascara!  It does great things to my lashes.

I find it so interesting how when she sleeps, her hands don't always relax and can stay flexed.

I've found that she goes to sleep easier if there's something on her head.  I'm sure it's super not-safe so I watch her closely when I do it and then I take it off her head as soon as she's deep asleep.

Cousins enjoying a cold summer popsicle after a hot bike ride.

I took Emmalyn up to work to show her off.  Everyone loved on her but she started getting fussy so I nursed her in my office.  While I enjoyed seeing many of my co-workers, it did not make me look forward to going back to work!

Soon I will be stuck at this computer but without those cute legs and feet looking back at me.

One morning, I felt things really clicked and like I was a great mom.  Usually Max is on the iPad for hours in the morning...while I sleep as long as possible until I need to nurse Emmalyn...then while I pump after I nurse Emmalyn.  It adds up to a lot of time in the morning.  Anyway, this one morning I had a stroke of genius and thought about an activity Max could do while I pumped.  I got out some little pompom balls from a craft bags and some little cups and gave it to him to play with.  I gave him challenges to complete while I pumped like sorting by color or size.  It was great!  He was engaged and unplugged and Emmalyn hung out happily to.  It was perfect! Wish all mornings could be like this.

What she does best - sleep while looking cute

Sometimes you feel like you are doing okay as a parent...for example, when Max says "excuse me" if he burps or farts.  It's nice to hear him be polite.  The other day he said, "When I was tooting, I was told to say excuse me".  So, at least he gets it.  :)

We are working on saying please as part of a sentence instead of by itself.

Maxwell is in a demanding phase.  If he is trying to get your attention and isn't getting it fast enough, in his opinion, he will come grab your face and talk right on your lips or he'll say, "Momma, momma, momma, momma, momma..."

He's showing more love to Emmalyn each day and gives lots of kisses on her legs or arms or head.  If we say something like, "she loves your kisses", he will remind us that she can't talk yet.  :)  He will talk about teaching her things when she's bigger like how to play soccer.  He has tried a few times to put in her binkie.

He just learned how to give a thumb's up!
He's really loving to eat "pan-a-cakes" (aka pancakes).

Emmalyn is getting bigger and stronger.  She will now let us hold her up and put some weight on her legs so she is standing up.

She has a little bit of cradle cap but it's not too awful.

She has had lots of gas and upset stomach problems this week.  Which means she doesn't sleep soundly.  Thank goodness it's mostly in the day.  She will just cry out in pain in the middle of sleeping.  Plus we are getting lots of spit up and drool.  Regardless though, she is really a cute baby.