4th week of January 2016

So January is almost over but in some ways the Christmas Holidays are still going on in my house.  Emmalyn LOVES to sing Jingle Bells and watch Frosty the Snowman.  (Max loves the movie too.)  It's all about the Christmas songs in January!  We listen to Jingle Bells over and over and over in the car.

I was out doing yard work and found this not-so-awesome break in the drip line for my sprinklers.  Some stinking bunny just HAD to see how it tasted.  But huge kudos to Peter who saw it, was immediately confident on how to fix it, and got it handled like it was nothing!

I finally took down the Christmas decorations... sad to put the holidays away but such a relief to have my house all nice and clean again.

When I was putting away the ornaments, I realized that this beautiful ornament my mom made for me and my siblings in 2010 was cracked.  This was the last ornament I got from her before she passed and I was super bummed to see it had cracked (maybe from the heat in the attic where I keep all the decorations?).  :(  I've separated it and will need to figure out how to save it before I use it again.  I'm super sad.

Good bye stocking and animated animals

Goodbye Christmas card door that was a fun reminder of how many great people we have in our lives.

Take 1

I tried to get a cute picture of both of the kids at Home Depot but it's never easy to get them both looking at the same time and smiling and looking cute.  :)

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4 - I give up!

Rockin' her shades

I took Maxwell shopping with me at Gymboree.  For the most part he did great and it wasn't as painful as I was expecting.  He was excited to pick out a shirt for Valentine's Day.

That hair in the morning!

We went shoe shopping as a family and I handed Little Miss my phone and she took a few pictures and a video that I found later.  

Maxwell graduated to the next level at his swimming lessons!  I wanted to get a picture of his card all filled out with his accomplishments but they had already cleaned it off when we got there.  (They were clearly planning on him moving up today.)  Here we come Level 7!

Getting to ring the bell and getting his certificate

Playing on the indoor playground...

(There are two days a week when Max and Landen are both in preschool, Hayden is in elementary school, and it's just Brittany and Emmalyn.)

... and playing outside too.  

It's awesome when days are sunny and warm in winter and you don't need a jacket!

Video - Emmalyn throwing a fit over her food.  Sometimes she isn't cute and fun.

We started Kindermusik again this week.  We are going to a different location with a new teacher, Ms Carolyn.  She's awesome.  In some ways she looks like my mom and she's so fantastic with the kids.  I really, really like her and her style of teaching.  Both Maxwell and Emmalyn are taking classes now.  Max still has his KiddieKeys piano lessons during the week with one of our old Kindermusik teachers, Ms. Leah.

This week, Max had a rare accident at school.  It's been a really long time since he had an accident.  Poor kid.
Max sometime struggles to look through his glasses, he lets them fall down his nose and looks over them since they are blurry to him.
We have added something to my nighttime routine with Maxwell.  I now ask him 3 questions at night.  #1 - What was your favorite part of the day #2 - What was your least favorite part of the day #3 - What is one nice thing you did for someone today.  He rarely comes up with an answer, but I keep asking because I'm trying to build a behavior with him and emphasize the importance of helping others.

I think Emmalyn may be teething again because the drooling is picking back up again.
She will say, "why momma" or "why daddy" when asking why.
She hasn't had much dinner lately.
Emmalyn is tired super early lately.  In face, I put her down at 5 this past weekend thinking that she would take short nap and she never woke up and stayed asleep all night.
Emmalyn is strong at being wiggly when she wants to escape, so strong willed!!!

3rd week of January 2016

Pretty normal, non-exciting winter week

Rockin a puffer vest to school

Emmalyn and I went and enjoyed some delicious scone and candied bacon at Tida's shop.  They do it once a month on a Saturday but we never get to go because there's always Kindermusik.  But, we had a break so we went!

It was fun to visit with both Tida and Jason while we were there.

cousins

Maxwell is doing awesome at swimming lessons.  He's swimming the whole length of the pool, no problem and really working on improving his strokes.  He does freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and his coach just introduced the kicks for the butterfly.  He did awesome with them and she was pretty stunned.  He just seems to have a natural talent for swimming

We went to Max's pediatrician because he's been having problems with his bum being irritated, red, itchy, and hurty... to the point that he doesn't want to sit on it and we've tried oils, making sure he wipes his bottom well, and diaper cream and it's not getting better.  Turns out he had rectal strep.  Did you know you could get a strep infection in places other than your throat?  Yup... you can.  One of the great little things I've learned in motherhood.

He weighs 38.8 lbs.  Growing up!

I took him to lunch after the doctors.  It sure is fun spending time with him.

The other day, Max was pooping (which can be a 15 minute process) and he called to me, so I go in there an ask if he's done pooping yet and he says, "not yet, I just wanted to tell you I love you."  :)  ...and my heart melted.  He is an affectionate boy and has no problem giving hugs and telling people that are important to him that he loves them.

Second week of January 2016

I had these two pictures pop up at me while I was at work.  These kids certainly have similarities.  Man, I have some really cute kids!

My thoughtful CSM, Donna, brought a some sparking juice to our staff meeting to kick off the new year.

Max got to wear Peter's headset while he was playing on the x-box and felt so super cool.

We made popcorn and had movie night on Friday night.

Emmalyn loved it

Maxwell loved it

Oh, and the movie was fine too (but the popcorn was the real super star)

We went on a double date with Brittany and Joe to go see the new Star Wars movie.  It was fun and something I don't know if we've ever done together without kids.

Playing at the park when it's cold but not cold enough to stay inside and miss a sunny day!

All bundled up

Her hair is long enough that if you don't do it, she just looks so disheveled and unkempt.  

Playing peekaboo but then realized that it was hard to watch her ipad like this. :)

Maxwell loves his turtle.  It's his favorite stuffed animal and sleeps with him every night.

Max's vocabulary and use of words continues to amaze me.  It's so fun to see your children learn and grow before your eyes.  :)  And each new things feel so special and awesome (well, the good things...the bad things they tend to learn aren't so awesome)  Anyway, the way he talks is sometimes so mature and formal.  For example, he will say that he finds things "odd" or he will say "I can not" instead of "I can't".  He was talking about a broken toy of his and he asked if when we got home, could we help him "repair" it.  I have to think that most 4 years would just ask if we could fix it, not repair it.

Cute girl!

Head first down the slide.  No fear with this one.

Chillin' while she's sleeping

Uh oh...starting to explore places she's never done, like the silverware drawer.  

There's that cute little curl just like the one she had as a newborn, just a little bigger.

Emmalyn at 21 months...

Loves to sing, especially in the car and will not let up when she wants you to sing with her

Loves shoes, especially her boots

She's got such a big personality whether it's cuteness, sweet, giggly or mean and agreesive

Wants to be just like max and say what he says or do what he does

She says "math" not "Max"

Loves dogs

Persistant about getting your attention

Loves watching frosty the snowman

She doesn't play with her toys much lately

Loves playing on her iPad (asks for it in the morning and when we are in the car on the way home from Brittany's)

Still using her binky  - just when sleeping but has to have it and when I try and pull it out in the middle of the night she wakes up and cries for it

She climbs on everything - she is so fearless

When she gives you a hug, sometimes you have to remind her to use her arms (she will just lay them on your shoulders otherwise)... but then you get a really good hug

Likes to give 'noses" kisses to momma

Will tell you she loves you

She is inclusive - if you are talking about "Do you love Brittany?"  she will go, "and Landen...and Hayden..and Jo Jo." so no one is left out

She sometimes will call her dad "daddy" and sometimes "Peter"

She knows some of her letters

She can count to 10

She will say a couple colors but I don't think she knows them at all

Knows a lot of her animals -

Her favorite foods are applesauce and "cereal and milk"

She wants to sleep with her blanket and her purple puppy dog from dad and marriann

She wants to brush her teeth on her own but it's nearly all just sucking the toothpaste, and often it's a battle at night when we try to brush them for her

She is a super screamer and super strong

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.