Emmalyn's Christmas Photo Shoot

I had wanted to get Christmas pictures done of Emmalyn similar to what I had done with Maxwell (click here to see). It's not exactly but it's close enough.  Emmalyn is so easy to get good pictures of...

Max's Holiday Preschool Party

I went to Maxwell's Holiday party at his school to help.  I was glad for the chance to participate in something else in his class besides reading to the kids during their library time once a month.

Miss Cynthia explaining the book "exchange"

(It was not a great process in my mind nor was it an exchange between two people)

Boys give to boys, girls give to girls

(Maxwell is sitting next to Sophia and Bella)

Max sitting patiently waiting for someone to want to exchange

So there was no method for the kids to know who still hadn't exchanged a book and Miss Cynthia just let them keep picking who they wanted to give their book to.  What happened in the end was that everyone had exchanged except Maxwell.  No one picked him to give their book to.  He wasn't upset about it but oh man, my Momma heart just hurt that no one had picked him.  :(  

There was another boy, Dylan, who was really upset about having to give up his book and crying so Miss Cynthia didn't make him give his book to someone.  When Maxwell didn't have anyone to give his book to, she told him that he could have the book Dylan brought later when Dylan wasn't focused on it anymore.  

So in the end, Max went home with Dylan's book and Dylan went home with Max's but there was no exchange done between the kids.

Stuff like this makes me sad and worried that Maxwell isn't making friends at school or kids don't like him.  :(  I don't want my darling, sweet, funny, kind, and timid boy to be the last kid picked for a team during recess in Elementary School!

Maxwell enjoyed eating the "treats" - they weren't treats in the normal sense of the word because Max's school is a sugar-free school.  It was fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, and juice.  He usually only gets water at school so he was excited about getting juice at the party.

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.

A visit with Santa Claus

We took both the kids to meet Santa at our photographer's house.  It was much better than dealing with the hassle of the mall last year!  (Although the results for Maxwell were not any better.  Poor kid.)

I love this picture!!  Emmalyn was so interested in Santa.

We tried to get Maxwell to even sit on the same couch as Santa and this is what he did.  Santa was so nice to Maxwell and tried to give him a candy cane or read a book with him...nothing worked.

 

Santa was so sweet and knew we wanted to get a good picture and so he went behind the couch in hopes that Max would not be as freaked out.  You can see that didn't work for Max and then Emmalyn wasn't happy either.

...the melt down continues...

I feel bad torturing Maxwell just to get a picture of Santa.  It shouldn't matter...  Maybe next year he will be excited to see Santa? (and Emmalyn will probably go full freak out)