Valentines Day 2016

We celebrated more of a "valentines weekend" than just a day.  For our "date", Peter and I did a progressive dinner with some of the couples in the neighborhood.  Every house had a different, and yummy course, and then we ended with dessert and games.  We shared a babysitter with one of the other couples so our kids hung out at their house and went to sleep there too.

It was a little stressful getting everything set up, cleaned up, plus having the food all prepped so that I just had to basically plate it when everyone got to our house.

The house was all clean and ready to go.

My soup/salad course - Coconut Curry Chicken Soup, and Thai salad with peanut dressing.  Delicious (I got asked for the recipe by a few people and some even got second servings even though they knew tons more food was coming).  :)

Mary Ann, Jake, Erica, and Chris

Justin, Peter, Me, Melissa, Clint, Jessica, and Mary Ann

Couple 1

Proof I was there - and look at Mary Ann's table set up!  Makes mine look like a night at the homeless shelter.  Sheesh.  Oh well... I put all my attention into the food!

hi, cute husband!

Heart shaped strawberries in the water - - - - she doesn't miss on even the smallest details

couple 2

The main course!  (I forgot to take a picture of the appetizer course and the dessert)

Couple 3

couple 4

Playing games late into the night.  :)

This group keeps me laughing for sure

Maxwell had chosen to sleep on the floor on his nap mat rather than on the guest bed at our friends.  The kids both did great (which was good because this was the only time we've used this babysitter - - she introduced them to Snapchat which was a huge hit with them apparently.)

Happy Valentines Morning snuggling in bed with my family

Sweet girl...

....no wait, silly girl

Maxwell chose to go bowling as a family

We let Emmalyn bowl this time but it was still tough since it didn't completely keep her attention and it was nap time, too.

Video - Maxwell bowling without the ramp and a nice little celebration dance.

Emmalyn bowling with the help of her boys.

Family pic

He asked for my phone to take a selfie

We also went to the library (where it's very important to Maxwell that HE is the one checking out the books).

Silly girl!

Video - Of course after they had fun with the babysitter, Max wanted dad to get snapchat too, so he did.  Here's the fun he had with dad playing around with the filters.

Happy Valentines Day to my sweet family.  I sure am grateful for them and love them so much!

Celebrating our 13th Anniversary

I had meetings with my team all week which meant early mornings, evening activities, and only seeing my kids awake in pictures.  

Emmalyn in her happy place - Hayden's beyblade stadium

He still won't swing on the swing on his bottom.  He prefers this way.

Peter sent me the absolute cutest group of videos.  I was only going to post one but each one makes me smile more and more.  I don't want to deprive you of lots of smiles - - - watch these!!!

Video 1 - Maxwell has determined the power he has upon his sister

Video 2 - those giggles are the best thing ever!

Video 3 - Got to keep her attention

Video 4 - Maxwell takes it to the next level in order to keep it going (clearly he enjoys making his sister laugh)

While I loved getting those videos, it stunk too because I was missing all this cuteness!!!  

My team and I were having our own kind of fun and that helped.

We did this great team builder called "The Go Game"  (It's awesome - if you have the budget for a awesome, but expensive, team builder... check it out)

That night I was down to my very last bag of frozen breast milk.  After that, Emmalyn would only get what I had that was fresh.  I was really happy to have made it this long past her birthday but it still stinks because if I really loved to have had more production at this point.  I had to remind myself that it's a win to go this long!  She was now to the point that I wouldn't have to use formula to supplement.  Sometimes it's hard to give yourself a "win" if you know that you are falling short of your own goal line.

The team in the training rooms with our fun decorations.  

That night we went to a Frisco Rough Riders ball game.  It was really windy and stormy (never rained hard while we were there but there were some droplets and we could see lightening).  I was wiped and happy when the group that hung in their the longest finally called it quits.

My group - -

Debbie, Steve, D'Neesa, Donna, John, Kristi, Chris, Milt, and Mike

All of Field Ops and Client Services for the Convenience Solutions Team

That night, Peter and I celebrated our 13th anniversary by going out to dinner (it was a quick dinner because we didn't have much time) and then to a musical.

Fancy restaurant called Stampede 66.  They carried the cowboy theme pretty far.  Napkins in the shape of bandannas?  That certainly paying attention to the details.

We saw Newsies and really enjoyed it.  I had no idea that Peter had never seen the real movie!

Emmalyn's Six Month Doctor Visit

Maxwell being sweet with his sister

Always smiling!  

Her first tooth popped through the day after she turned 6 months old!  Her first tooth was the center right tooth on the bottom.  Why can't my kids be late bloomers when it comes to getting teeth?  She got it nearly two months after Maxwell got his first though so I consider it a "win".

Max got this ribbon at swimming lessons for being great at floating on his back.  He was so proud.

She still likes sleeping on her side with her head pushed back and touching something

I got this bow during Shannon's visit thinking it would be cute...until I got it on her head!  My Goodness!  It was HUGE!  I left it on long enough to get a few pictures and that will be the ONLY time it goes on her head.  :)

It's like she can barely keep her head up with that awful flower.

Video - Emmalyn is starting to crawl (or scoot).  She's great at getting her belly up off the floor.

I took Emmalyn to her pediatrician for her 6 month check up.  She was such a happy camper!

Here's the questionnaire I filled out for her

The poor girl had to get shots.  I was able to nurse her right after and help comfort her. 

Here's her stats from her 6 month visit:

Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz, 4th Percentile

Height: 24 in, 2nd Percentile

Head: 16.3 in, 25th Percentile 

She dropped in % on both weight and height and then grew on her head %.  Her doctor has stopped even bringing up how small she is.

I did talk to him about how I feel like she is always congested.  He said that she had a slight cold but that it's common given that we are getting into cough/cold season and she has an old sibling in school.  He said that they tend to get 1 cold a month and the cold lasts 3 weeks so basically she could be sick all winter.  I'm not very okay with that explanation.

He wants me to do the "Infant led weaning" approach to her eating solids.  Basically it means that you don't do as much of the purees and instead give them solids sooner and allow the baby to just gum the food and feed themselves.  We'll see...maybe I'll push a little faster but I'm not about to give her a little piece of steak right now.

3 shots!  No fun.  :(

We visited Mary Ann next door that evening

Mary Ann insisted that we feed her something so she mashed up some bananas for Emmalyn.  Emmalyn loved her first taste of bananas.  It was sweet how excited Mary Ann was to be able to feed her.

I get the crummy mom award - - - I was trimming her nails in the middle of the night while she was nursing and I accidentally cut her finger.  I've never done it this bad with Maxwell or Emmalyn ever before.  I felt so awful. :(