Maxwell's 6th Birthday - August 19, 2017

This was the first week of knowing about my 3rd pregnancy (I took the pregnancy test on 8-11 and it was positive!)... mentally I'm all over the place.  It's a struggle to get moving... dealing with weight issues - - I've worked so hard to lose weight I don't want to gain it again.  I think the kids will be excited... feeling too old to have kids - no one is this old when they have kids!

I've been nauseas all day but no throwing up.  I'm just so tired - I yawn all day.  I just want to sit on the couch.  I feel sore and don't want the kids crawling on me.  

Today is Maxwell's 6th birthday though!!  He's excited for the house to be decorated and get his birthday presents.  We decorated the night before and I put streamers on his door.  When he woke up this morning, he immediately came in and said that when he woke up and went outside of his room he was totally surprised and then he said thank you and kissed me.  He's been so sweet on his birthday.   He was excited to be the boss but has been really sweet - - giving hugs and kisses and happy.

Sweetly sleeping

Breakfast burritos were his choice

He chose Top Golf as his birthday activity with family (since this isn't a year for a friend party)

It was fun having Britt and her boys along with us

He also wanted to have a lemonade stand for his birthday.  We went through a lot of lemonade!

Note to self... big solo cups aren't the best idea for a lemonade stand - you go through too much lemonade too quickly!

Some Independence cheer leaders stopped by and were so cute with the kids.

Her friend Michael stopped by for some lemonade 

He wanted mac n cheese and salad for his dinner.

At his 6 year well child check appt was really talkative with hi doctor.  He said that he didn't learn anything last year in school because he already knew it all.  HAH!  He said his favorite vegetable was salad - with "cucancumbers" and he also likes apples.

Stats for my 6 year old:

Height - 43 1/4 inches (14th percentile)

Weight - 45.8 lbs (51st Percentile)

He's been into wearing sweaters this weekend.  Love this kid!

3rd week of December 2016

(okay...today is December 15, 2017 and I'm blogging about the third week of December **2016**.  I am now a full year behind.  UGH!!!!! I need to get more committed to taking the time to blog.)

Silliness

Working on her number puzzle with Landen

One of her cute Christmas outfits

Peter and I went to our first regular season Cowboys game!  We had great seats that we had won in the last CROSSMARK Casino Night Silent Auction.  Our friends Tida and Jason came along.  It was a lot of fun (and FREEZING outside!!!)

The Stadium is so big

Cheerleaders

Tida and I went to get some food.  While we were gone, they scored!!!

Later in the game, we hit up some shopping and while we were out, they scored again!  So we didn't spend much time in our seats watching the game after that because clearly they only played well when we weren't watching.  :)

The game went into overtime and the Cowboys won!  It was a fun game to watch.

And yet another Christmas outfit (I am so appreciative to my neighbor who passed on all these adorable clothes from her daughter who has outgrown them.  She has given me bags and bags and bags of stuff.)

One of Maxwell's best friends, Preston, is moving out of state.  They went to preschool together and have remained friends since.  

There were tears and much sadness when it was time for this last play date to be over.  :(  (Tears from Preston...I'm not sure if Maxwell fully understands plus he's not an easy crier.)

Ready with our hot chocolate!  Let's go see some Christmas lights!

We went to downtown Frisco and walked around.

A collage of just some of the holiday outfits Emmalyn has worn.  It took a conscious effort to make sure they all got worn once!

Emmalyn wasn't feeling well so we headed to the doctor.  A year later, I have no memory of what was wrong with her but I'm sure it was just a cold or something like that.

Entertaining himself during her visit.

I took the day off work a few days before Christmas when Maxwell was already out of school and we had a date day.

We started off with lunch at a restaurant with Ms. Mary Ann

Then I took him to Top Golf.  (I had the best game I've ever had!!  I was killin it!)

He loves top golf!

Katherine came over one night and we wrapped presents together and enjoyed some wine and snacks.  It was a fun way to wrap (just a little less torture).

Kid update:

Emmalyn likes to cuddle if I'm sleeping in more  in the morning.  It's super sweet.  She will bring her iPad and climb up and sit next to me and keep watching.  Lately she has been getting up at 5 am, it's a fight to get her back to sleep.  (I sure don't want to up that early!)  She wants either cereal and milk or to cuddle in our bed. I try and keep her in her own bed until 6 and then finally give in and let her come into our bed.  She doesn't want to sleep in her open foot sleep sack anymore so it's just PJs and a blanket.

The kids are really good.  They like to get up early so Peter or I will get up and get them cereal/milk in the kitchen and they will eat while watching things on their iPads.  It let's us get a little more sleep.  :)

Max is usually up at 6 but just gets up on own, gets his iPad in the front room and is now at a point that he doesn't even let us know he's awake anymore   A few times he's come into our room at 4 am to cuddle because he had a bad dream (I got him to tell me the details of one once - he was in a pool that was 36.4 feet deep and he wanted to swim down and touch bottom but couldn't get back up)  He's excited that he has what he thinks is a loose tooth.  I tried it and it wiggles maybe just a little but there were a couple others on the bottom that feel a little loose.

"BUT MOM" is a common phrase out of both kids' mouths and it is driving me nuts.

Spring trip to Austin

Kimberly was in San Antonio for work and was able to get permission to leave for the weekend and so we met in Austin along with Britt's family.

Brittany left earlier in the day and took Emmalyn with her.  They stopped at Magnolia on the way down (this is the shop owned by the couple on Fixer Upper - a show I've never seen but is really popular).

Best buddies

Enjoying all the fun things to do at Magnolia

Maxwell, Peter, and I drove down a little later so everyone else got to have fun while we were still driving (ugh -- the traffic between here and Austin can drive you mad)

Yeah!!!  Aunt Kimi!

We got to see her when we got there late that night.  Maxwell was pretty excited.  Thanks for the camo hat, Aunt Kimi!

Perfectly hidden away

We took Aunt Kimi to Top Golf for the first time.  We all had a great time! (I did pretty good since I had just played recently with Maxwell) :)

The only challenge was keeping this almost 2 year entertained (and away from the swinging clubs and edge)

Trying to get her to nap (it didn't work)

We hit up a food truck park for lunch.  I love food truck parks - so much variety, everyone can be happy. (Well...maybe everyone except picky foodies like Joe and Brittany.)

This food truck park had a playground which the kids enjoyed.

crawling along the pipe

She finally fell asleep in the car

We then went to our traditional Austin haunt - Westcave Cellars.

I played with the kids while the others did some tastings.  It was a little chilly but still a nice day and we had fun throwing a frisbee around.

Again, the biggest challenge was keeping this girl entertained.  She read books, for 2 seconds.  She played with toys, for 2 seconds.  She ran around, for 2 seconds.  That's just the stage she's in, there's really no "entertaining" her for long periods of time.

It is nice to have her have a binky though ;)

Family pic

Love this face (and that crazy hair!)

No vines to run around this time of year, it's so barren!

Max tuckered out on the way to Michelle's. 

When we are away from home and not on our normal schedule, naps happen more frequently in the car.

Finally at Michelle's!  Joe had fun kicking the soccer ball around with the girls.

We went to dinner.  It was fun because the kids sat at a table (minus Emmalyn) and the adults got to enjoy each other.

Maxwell and Natalie reading a book

Natalie helping keep Emmalyn entertained

These two had a lot of fun playing together.  Wish we had playgrounds at our restaurants here in Dallas!

The kids table!

The adults!

On Sunday we headed to Hamilton Pool (we were going to go the previous day but the wait was super long so we bailed).  I love this place, it's such a refreshing break from the typical Texas outdoors/landscape.

I think this is the first time we've been here that the water quality was good enough that swimming was allowed.  I couldn't believe the crazy boys that got in - - it IS March...brrrrrr!

Skipping rocks

All three of Britt's boys got in!

It's hard to see but if you look at the far end of the pool by the waterfall you will see Joe.  The crazy guy decided to swim across the pool!  (He said later it was super cold and he was a little freaked out too.  I was worried he'd cramp up and then Peter would have to get in and go save him from drowning.)

Joe on the other side resting from his swim (and preparing to swim back)

She skipped rocks too but her balance isn't quite good enough yet so we held onto her so she wouldn't fall in.

Three sisters

Hiking back up.  Emmalyn did a great job.

Maxwell led the way.

group shot

After that, we headed home because we had a photo shoot to get to.  Brittany and her family stayed a little longer and had lunch with Kimberly.  It was a really fun visit and I enjoyed getting to spend time together with family!