First week of February 2016

Now that Maxwell has moved up to Level 7 at his swimming classes, here are the skills he's going to be working on. 

She likes to sneak and grab her dad and brother's glasses

Maxwell is so little compared to the other kids in his class (some are two heads taller!)

What a good dad - brushing Emmalyn's hair

He wanted to wear a tie to school... so of course, I helped make that happen.  :)

Maxwell in Kindermusik - he's wearing the red hat.  We have a new teacher - Ms. Carolyn. She reminds me a lot of my mom in her energy and passion.  I really, really, really like her and her teaching style.  It's fun for Maxwell to be back in Kindermusik (last semester there weren't enough kids to have the class).

Soccer skills class

Nice strong kick

Again, he's on the short end in his class.  This is going to be his life - sorry Maxwell!

Running the obstacle course

It was fun watching how his skills have grown.  I still don't like the coach and think he's too harsh on these little kids but at least Maxwell is improving.  

Her morning set up - ipad, cereal in a bag, and sippy cup with milk - - also known as "Bibad", "Cereal" and "Moak"

Peter and I went out so our favorite babysitter Bridgette came over.  The kids were happy to see her.

Maxwell is such a boy - - poop, "bottom", and farts are funny.  He sang jingle bells with "poop" replacing every single word and thought it was the best thing ever.

He has a crush on his aassistant teacher Miss. Shauna,  He told her when she gets married her last name will be Millar and he loves to help her and draws her pictures. It's pretty sweet.

Emmalyn counts to 13, She's really communicating what she wants.  For example: Jingle Bells is her favorite song and she asks for it continuously in the car.  She asks for "Frosty" on the tv, also asks for the iPad

Let's get this Utah vacation started!

After a good night's rest (although not as long as I would have liked), we were ready to start having fun in Utah!

Cute kids in pajamas who snuck into the yogurt pretzels.

Emmalyn quickly got to work playing with all the toys.

That morning I went to get my hair done by my favorite Utah hairstylist, Kacie.  She is so great and it's almost a necessity to go see her when I'm in Utah.  After that, I met up with my 3 best friends from my Middle School.  A few weeks ago a conversation got started with us and we figured out we would all be in town, but only for one day and decided to get together!  I haven't seen some of these girls for nearly 20 years.  We were such great friends in middle school but then we all went to different high schools.

It was really nice to catch up with them and talk about memories.  In some ways, it felt like we hadn't changed and were still 15 but then, we talked about adult things and remembered how old we are.  :)  I hope we don't have to wait another 20 years to get back together (two still live in Utah and the third lives in the Northeast).

Brittney, Jaime, and Erin

While I was having lunch, Alex was hanging out with Peter at Tammy's house but was gone by the time I got home.

After naps, it was time to go play in the snow!  I brought the snow gear that we were still miss key things like snow boots, a warm coat for Emmalyn, snow pants, etc.  We layered up the best we could.

Checking it out...

Emmalyn went right for it

,

We tried to have a snowball fight but the snow was so dry that it wouldn't stick together at all, it just felt apart.  No snowmen today!

Emmalyn had fun playing too

Love Maxwell's face in this.  He thought it was so cool.

Max showing us some crack.  

Emmalyn took her gloves off and quickly realized what a bad idea that was.

She was so unhappy and her hands hurt so we didn't stay out much after that.

Daddy trying to warm up Emmalyn's hands...

That night we went to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory with Aja and her family.  The wait was far too long but Emmalyn looked super cute so I was entertained by the people walking by and fawning over her.

I adore this coat/hat combo.  So glad we get to use it (Remember how Maxwell was wearing a t-shirt when we were at the airport in Dallas?  Yeah, no need for a winter coat yet at home.)

Maxwell quickly warmed up to his cousins and had fun engaging with them (He wanted to sit by Madison at dinner.  Not his parents.)

The whole group

John (Morgan's boyfriend), Korben, Me, Emmalyn, Aja, Maxwell, Peter, Madison

We finally got to connect with Tammy's family when we got back home.  It was fun that we had just had them at our house 2 months ago and our kids remembered them.

Amazed at the Christmas tree

The next morning when I got up, I found these two already hanging out together.  :)  Maxwell is in heaven and happy to be back with Maryn.  

Emmalyn crawled into Snowball's cage.  Silly kiddo.  I have pics of Maxwell crawling into the same cage.

Then it was time to get going on our busy day!

We went and visited Aunt Aja and family at her house before she had to go to church.

Then it was lunch with Uncle Mark at Cafe Rio!  (I spent half of it in the car with a sleeping Emmalyn.)

Then a quick trip to Costco to get stuff for dinner.  (well, sorta quick...it was laid out so differently than ours and took a bit to navigate through)

After Costco we got a visit in with Uncle Terry and Grandma Nelson.  Emmalyn was obsessed with Gizmo and he's such a great dog that he put up with it.

Maxwell showing something to Grandma

Emmalyn and Grandma's new (and not-so-friendly) dog.  I can't remember the name.

We wrapped up one Grandma visit and headed out to another one.  We had dinner at Grandma Blank's.

This girl made me nervous.  She's all over the place and so busy...and Grandma has fragile stuff out (I wonder how in the world she has managed to keep nice things so long given how many Grandkids/Great Grandkids she's got!).  I'm sure the other kids know just not to touch but because we don't live in Utah, they aren't experts at those unspoken rules.  :)

Hanging out with Grandpa

Maxwell venturing downstairs to play.  I smiled inside to see him scooting down the stairs rather than walking down them - those stairs are steep!

Grandma, putting around the kitchen preparing the meal, as always.

Having fun with cousins (one of Kearsten's girls)

Maryn teaching Max a new game "Logs".  Best game ever.  Lie there like a log and first person to move loses.  :)

These two...just melts my heart.

Playing games.  (even Max played)

Maxwell and Maryn wrestling with Preston.  The kids had so much fun!  It is still a "pinch me" moment when I realize that now it's my kids that are running around at Grandma's.  It doesn't not feel like it's possibly been that long.

Emmalyn sleeping in the crib that is probably older than I am.  It's been in the corner of the back bedroom, providing a place to rest for easily 30 babies (probably 40) at one point or another.  

Picture of Aunt Brenda, Momma, and Megan courtesy of photographer Maxwell.

Selfie

Selfie group pic.

It was fun to get to spend time with the family.  It was just a normal night with the Blank family, like we've had for 30 years.  I miss being able to be a part of those regularly.