September Trip to Utah Part One: Shannon's Wedding

We had a quick trip to Utah for our friend Shannon's wedding.  But first... a little tennis lesson...

Eating my face?

No, giving me a kiss.

Playing at Dallas Love Field Airport.  It's pretty great since being remodeled!

Now that she's old enough that she has to have her own seat, I let her have the window seat.

Max and Peter sat behind us which meant we were on man-to-man defense.

She's really into pretending to be a doctor lately

Woo - - look at those gorgeous mountains!

They didn't sleep on the plane, but they slept in the rental car once we got to SLC.

When we got to my Aunt Tammy's, Maxwell went out with Maryn to pick some tomatoes.

Maryn came with us to the store in the morning.  The kids were really excited to see her.

We dropped the kids off at the zoo with Aunt Aja during the wedding.

Shannon and her groom Colt got married in the same little chapel up at Fort Douglas that Peter and I got married in 13 years ago.  We hadn't been back since the day we were married.  They have switched the room around.  The back of the room now was the front of the room then.

We have a picture in front of these stained glass windows.  They were one of the reasons that I loved this chapel.

Pretending to ring the chapel bell that we ran 13 years ago.

It was fun to revisit so many of those memories from 13 years ago while celebrating a dear friend starting on her own journey in the same place.

The kids were having a great time at the zoo with Aja and her family so we spent a little more kid-free time enjoying some Cafe Rio and then drove up into the canyon to look at the fall colors.

Look at those colors!

I've been working to lose weight for about 5 months and I went shopping to find a dress for this wedding that I would feel good wearing.  I love it!

The kids had an amazing time with Aja and she sure spoiled them.

Maxwell and Korben got along great

Korben, Maxwell, Emmalyn, Ken, and Harleigh

Emmalyn took a few minutes to warm up (she was upset when we didn't go into the zoo with them) but then she was okay.

Cotton Candy, Ice cream, Pizza, oh my!!

They loved riding the train

Love that sweet profile and those baby fingers

Since it was a short trip where we got to see very little family, it was really nice that Aja was able to help watch the kids during the wedding so that they got some time together.

After the zoo we took the kids to the wedding reception with us

My cute family all dressed up and enjoying this fun night.

Maxwell was super happy to see Shannon

Family pic

Sibling pic

Maxwell was waiting all evening to get some time with Shannon.  It was super sweet.  We love her and are excited for her and Colt!

2nd week of July 2015

I moved out of the office I've been in for nearly 3 years and into another office so I could be closer to the rest of my team.  I'm sad about it, it was a great office, great location, by great people.  Oh well, it's for the "good of the team". 

Picture of the drawings from Maxwell on my white board

Maxwell having a play date with Owen and Avery

Derek and Julianne's tour was streaming live on Yahoo so we let Maxwell watch it until bedtime.  This was how he stayed forever - just watching it.  He LOVED it.  (It made me sad that I hadn't brought him with me to the show.)

Another week, another indoor soccer game

This boy scored his first goal for the Bear today!!

Best treats ever - Rita's Italian water ice.  Yummmmmmmmm (Swedish flavor plus some custard = heaven!)  

Derek and Julianne's show replayed for the next day or so and Maxwell wanted to constantly watch the show over and over.  Can't blame him, the dancing was amazing and it was incredibly entertaining.

When it's 7/11 and you are sitting at Goodyear waiting for you car to be serviced, what do you do for fun?  Walk next door to 7 Eleven of course!  Free small slurpees plus a couple big bites is totally a normal dinner, right? :)

Slurpee selfie

Ha!  I think they were all watching Wheel of Fortune.

Her hair curling over her ears, it's nice to finally have some more hair to talk about other than that curl on her forehead.

Bowling

I've been walking a ton and trying to hit 10,000 steps per day.  It's hard in the summer when it's so hot but I've been enjoying it.

EMMALYN UPDATE:

Emmalyn's been fussy I think because of her teeth coming in.  She hasn't been sleeping fitfully.

Emmalyn likes to sneak Max's bag of cereal in the morning (which makes him so mad)

She's wanted to climb on things.

She says "thank you" all the time.

She's been taking 3 naps lately but not all of them are very long.

She will nurse sometimes in the morning.  I'm still pumping at work and at home to try and get 3 oz of breast milk a day.  However, I have finally stopped all the little things that are supposed to help like mother's tea, fenugreek pills, etc.  I'm just tired of all the hoops I've been jumping through.  I will pump twice at work and once at home to get the 3 oz.

MAXWELL:

Maxwell is focused on winning and has been getting really upset anytime he loses something (like bowling) so we are trying to teach him it's about having fun, not winning.

Oh man...kids and bathroom behaviors can be rough!  Lately I have to remind Maxwell to check to see if he wiped all the poop away with toilet paper, not with his hand.  Ew!!!  Not just that but he just wants to adjust his penis all the time.  I've had to set some rules and tell him he can adjust his penis but needs to either be in his bedroom or the bathroom.  And it feels like it's constant reminding to flush the toilet.

He's been doing great on reading.

He doesn't always want to go to Brittany's in the morning...

We are always working on not whining, 

I've been scratching his back at bedtime the last week and he loves it.

He always wants to go to McDonalds.

He picks the wii over iPad at bedtime (he will specify that he gets to play with three players which means he wants mom and dad to play too).

He is talking like a cat a lot (I have no idea why)

And he has been calling names at Brittany's.

BOY!  Three years old is fun, eh??