Decorating Gingerbread Men and Singing about Frosty

We are having a lot of fun this holiday season.  It's fun to have Maxwell old enough to really be into it.  It's fun to have Britt's family in the house and celebrating the season with us.  It's fun to have our beautiful Emmalyn around and boy is it nice to have had the decorations up from the beginning of the season!

This is what happens when 3 year olds start to accessorize...swim goggles, a glow stick necklace (because he kept his pullup dry overnight) and snow boots.  

And now he's modeling it??

The boys had fun decorating gingerbread men (that I bought last year and we never got around to doing)

Super intense on his decorating

The other great thing about 3 year olds is their "cheese" face you get when you want to take a picture.  It certainly isn't pretty or an authentic smile.

So then you, as the one behind the camera, spend lots of energy trying to get them to break out of their cheese face into their true smile so you can capture sweetness like this.  It's exhausting!

The three finished products.

That old gingerbread couldn't have been easy to take a bite of...

My little shortie who legs don't fill up her pjs so the leg end up dragging behind her

One of my sweet neighbors gave us this playhouse that she didn't need anymore.  I figured it would be fun to have when Emmalyn gets a little bit older but as soon as I brought it in the door, these two boys were all about playing with it.

Bedtime stories (it isn't always this sweet)

Landen adores Emmalyn and is her protector and care giver

Poor Britt has bad luck parking on the street in front of my house.  A few months ago, some guy scraped up the side of her old car (luckily the neighbors saw it and stopped the guy before he took off so he paid for it)...but then she comes outside and sees that someone broke off part of her side mirror (and didn't stop - we don't know who it was) on her new van.  Such a bummer. I told her she should park in the driveway after the first one but she kept parking on the street.  It's super unfortunate.  

We live off the main street in and out of the neighborhood on our side.  We didn't realize it when we bought the house because #1 so much of the neighborhood was still just a big field and we assumed of course they would have another outlet for drivers and #2 no one lived here yet so there was no traffic.  We know now to pay attention to things like this if we ever move.  I love so many things about our home but it is a big bummer to live on this main street because it's the longest street in the neighborhood and people just fly down it without paying attention to the speed limit, children playing and often not paying attention to the stop sign 2 houses away.  We will be more aware next time.

Climbing even in her dress

She likes to play with the doll house too

I love this outfit

Video - (Really it's more of an audio clip) Maxwell singing "Frosty the Snowman" while he's going potty.  His version is more like "Frosty the Snowman, was a happy jelly snow," instead of happy jolly soul.  :)  He loooooves the cartoon Frosty the Snowman.

End of September 2014

Look at those cheeks!!

Video - Emmalyn working on her sitting up skills

Reading books with daddy at bedtime

She was so entertained

I had my first trip for work.  I needed to go to Minneapolis to meet with General Mills and was able to work it that I just had to be there for a meeting and could take the first flight in the morning and the last flight out.  I was incredibly grateful that I didn't need to spend the night.

I did have to deal with pumping and flying with breast milk (went smoothly).  I pumped in the rental car a few times and then also at General Mills HQ.  They had great individual rooms for nursing moms all over the building.  It was a great set up.  So grateful for organizations that support nursing moms!  It sure was a hassle to travel with an extra bag for all my pump stuff but it was worth it.  

So glad to be back at home with my baby.  I felt like I was gone for much longer than 17 hours.

My adorable baby girl

Baking with dad

Maxwell helped his dad with some baking and a few other pictures...

I didn't take pictures of this but I took both Max and Emmalyn to the park to meet Max's Kindermusik teacher, Leah, and her son B (who is just a little bit younger than Max) and her baby I (who is 4 months older than Emmalyn).  I was really hoping Max would run around and work off some energy and I could just visit with Leah while we held the babies.  Nope.  Max didn't want to play at all - either with B or by himself.  He was just whiny and clingy.  We didn't end up staying very long and I realized how taxing it's going to be to go out of the house and do activities where I have to chase Max around while keeping Emmalyn happy.

Family reading time.  Emmalyn sometimes enjoys it.

We put her in a swing for the first time.  She loved it so much she fell asleep.  Success.  :)

Maxwell helped Daddy bake brownies from scratch.  Max really enjoyed getting to pour the ingredients and count out measurements.  Peter even let him crack his first egg.  It didn't go as plan - watch the video, it makes me laugh.  :)

Video - Daddy let Max crack an egg for the brownie recipe

Momma left to go to ladies' bunco and Peter sent me this pic

One of the ladies in the neighborhood custom painted the letters E and M to match Emmalyn's nursery bedding.  They will be cute additions to her room when she moves into it.

In the morning after she nurses and I am pumping, she typically ends up falling asleep on my bed in front of me.  I love watching her sleep but just don't have time to do that often so I enjoy the opportunity to do it while I am pumping.

Max was happy that we finally went back to Kindermusik!  He was soooo engaged during his first class back and sang a ton.  He even went and sat a little bit on the blanket for story time, which is a big deal because usually he doesn't leave my lap.  

Cute outfit, screaming baby

After Kindermusik we stopped at Hobby Lobby to look for something and I found this brown box and brought it home for Max to paint.  He LOVED it.

Things are going better at night and for the past few nights, I haven't had to "tap out" and give her over to Peter because I was exhausted from trying to get her to sleep.  I love when I catch her smiling in her sleep because I feel like it gives me a little peak into the future when she'll really be smiling and fun to play with.