First week of January 2016 - a 20 year Anniversary!

Ah...The fun when you come home from vacation... you know, unpacking, getting back to a normal routine.  THEN, add in the craziness of a Christmas morning tornado that has been waiting for you for a week.  UGH!

Can you even find the little girl in this messy picture? :)

Peter put his new pancake batter bottle to work and made some special pancakes for breakfast (see Max's smiley face?)

Emmalyn loves her new castle

Back to school

Visiting with Maxwell at school (I don't remember why I was there...reading to his class?  bringing his glasses he forgot?  who knows)

I made homemade chicken noodle soup and rolls!  I was proud of it.  :)  That's more cooking than I normally do.

Little miss hanging out on her new chair

Maxwell's 2015 year in review

Max's self-portrait "A Litl Boy Maxwell"

I love all the little notes he comes home with or makes for us at home

Working on his math workbook

Cheerios - - good for many things including math

video - Max doing addition and subtraction

On January 7, Peter and I celebrated 20 years of being together.  On January 7, 1996, Peter asked me to be his girlfriend for the last time and the rest is history...  To celebrate, let's remember what we looked like back then.

Here are the two of us before we went to his Homecoming that fall.

Us at Husky Howl - the girl's choice dance around Halloween at my high school

Brittany picked Maxwell up from school because he was sick.  He had a 101.8 fever and ended up throwing up at school while he was at the front desk.  (He wasn't eating his lunch and that isn't normal for him so his teacher asked if he was okay, felt his head and he was hot and she sent him to the front desk to be checked for a fever.  He had one and while he was up there, got sick. )  I had small little signals that should have added up and I should have known he was sick, but of course I didn't put them all together and figure it out beforehand.  He had a small fever the night before (he felt a little warm to me) and then this morning he wanted to cuddle with me in bed, which never happen.  And then as we were leaving to school he said he was cold.  I thought, "hm...he might have the chills" but he was acting fine other than that so I took him to school.

Video - Emmalyn playing while counting with dad

Emmalyn is talking soooo much!  In her bath she talked basically non-stop.  It's fun to see what she says.  She was playing with balls and said "ready go" when she was throwing them.

Maxwell gets annoyed she she copies what he says.  She's really skilled at annoying him when they are in the car.  She will annoy him just by looking at him or she will keep saying his name over and over.

She now calls him "Mass" which also bothers him.  He wants her to call him MaX.  I explained to him that she can't say "x" yet.

Emmalyn can count to 10.  She will sing all the time and most of the time you can understand what she's singing.  She likes to sing ABCs, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Shoo Fly - Don't Bother Me, and the songs in our Kindermusik Animal Serenade book (She also says the words that go along with it).  She will also say some of the words when reading her favorite books.

More October visitors - Grandpa and Nana

We were all really excited to have my dad and Marriann come visit us.  It's been a few years since dad's been here.

The first night they were here, Dad, Marriann, Peter and I were all sitting in the front room visiting (the kids were asleep in bed) and all of a sudden we hear Max screaming in his room.  I run in and quickly realize he's throwing up.  Poor sweet boy has never truly thrown up in his life and it was scaring him.  So we get everything cleaned up and bring him out to the front room.  He wanted to lay with Grandpa.  So we got a bowl in case he needed to throw up again and he cuddled on Grandpa while we kept talking.

It was so sad to see him so sick.  :(

He ended up throwing up one more time while he was with Grandpa.  I joked with my dad that I was happy that he was here to deal with it since he was an expert from having 4 kids and I've never been through that before.  :)  He was a good sport and certainly a kind Grandpa.

We then put Maxwell back to bed and he was completely fine after that.  No more throwing up, no fever or other symptoms.  Not sure what could have been wrong.  It wouldn't have been food poisoning because he ate the same stuff we did and none of us got sick.

The next day he was fine and so he went to school.

That afternoon Maxwell and I went to the dentist.  He did a great job!

Pretty, white teeth

My helper at the grocery store

That night I was hosted a painting party at the house for some ladies in the neighborhood and taught by Marriann.

The spread

Two of my cute parents

The painting is underway!

This is serious stuff!  (It was stressful for me - I am not an artist! But Marriann made it doable.)

The finished product

We did it!

Grandpa kept the boys entertained in the media room while we were painting.

The next day Nana did some painting with the boys

Playing outside

Playing ball with Nana

Funny thing happened - the freezer door was open and Emmalyn saw a zip lock bag on the door and grabbed it when no one was watching.  She gets cereal in the morning in a ziplock bag so I'm sure she thought the bag held something delicious.  She was somehow able to get the bag opened and just when we realized what she was doing, shoved something from the bag into her mouth and goes "yum!".  What was in the bag?  Frozen garlic!! (I like to keep peeled garlic in the fridge because it lasts forever) Cracked us up.  Can't blame a girl for liking garlic... :)

Finishing touches on his painting

Here's Max's painting of the moon

If you ask Maxwell what Marriann''s name is, he will say "One-eyed Jack Nelson".  Not sure where that came from but he's sticking to it and calls her that (and also Nana sometimes).  It's pretty funny. :)

Bedtime with Grandpa, who is very popular.  Grandpa read to Emmalyn and Maxwell played his iPad next to him.  (Noticed how Max is always right next to Grandpa?  He really loves him.)

Everyone watching Maxwell

Maxwell talking to his cousin.

Peter and I had fun at my favorite work event of the year - Casino Night

I "won" a couple things in the silent auction - Cowboys Tickets and a big Sprint Giftbag (that will just be used as a present for someone else)

Thanks Dad and Marriann for watching the kids so we could have a date night!

The next morning, I took Emmalyn to the pediatrician for her flu shot. 

She's so big!