Sleep Over!

Ellyn was back again!  We were throwing a New Years Eve party and I asked her to come and play with the kids so I could prepare for the party.  Of course she said yes!

All three of them sleep in the same room when she comes.  They love it.  Well this time Mallory requested to sleep on the floor next to Ellyn.  Of course she could.  Well then Max squished himself right in between the girls! 

He thought he was staying there!  We decided to give it a try.  There were a lot of giggles at first.

Then I remembered I didn’t make anyone go to the bathroom!  So I summoned one child out a time to go to the bathroom and then sent them back in.  Max is not yet trained, but I hear him say… poopy poopy.  Out he toddles from the room goes in the bathroom (lights are off) and he closes the door.  Waits a few moments comes back out and goes back to the room and crawls back in his spot between the girls.  Trying so hard to be a big kid too.

He eventually got restless and kept coming out and ended up in his crib.  The girls stayed on the floor together and whispered and giggled for a long time before they eventually fell asleep.

The Outtakes

Behind every good picture you have those pictures that happen that make you giggle and wonder how you ever got that one good one. 

I giggled at this next one… really hard!

Ah the life of a toddler!  Up… down… up… down…

And then we some how get a good one!

Christmas Morning

A few nights before Christmas I sent Jesse out to the garage with a Daddy project!  Build a castle for Mallory!  I didn’t want to spend Christmas morning putting it together – which was so smart because it took him two hours to put it together!

So we set it all up for her so in the morning when she woke up she would see it right away!  And she did!  She came and woke me up and said, “Momma!  There is something in the living room!”  What’s in the living room Mally?  “I don’t know.  It is really big.  Come see it!”

I was so proud of this castle!  I got it brand new in the box for $10 and the furniture brand new in the box for $5!!  Talk about a steal!

We had to wait for Max to wake up – and when he did Mally had to take him to see the castle.

Max is at that stage where he thinks he can fit in anything.  So he was trying to get in it and climb the stairs!

He got a little tiny play four wheeler and he kept saying “ride it.  ride it.  ride it.” he would hold onto the little handle bars and try to sit on it and “ride it”. 

Starting to work on his tractor collection.

Microphone Stander!!  “I knew I was going to get a microphone stander!”  She has been praying for one in her prayers at night.

Jesse got everyone electric tooth brushes.  Of course they had to try them out instantly.

Max got a drum set.  But it was also a crazy cheap deal and well I learned why… there is no way to put it together the proper way.  : ) 

Auntie Shannon got Mallory a guitar strap too.  She is all set up now with her mic stand and guitar!

Then in a mad dash and flash we were off to Jesse’s parent’s house to celebrate Christmas as a family with them.  Before we flew out the door I set up the tripod and did a quick family picture!

So glad I did!  I love it!!

Christmas Eve

I am horrible about getting my camera out when it is the holidays and we are traveling!  So I don’t have too many pictures from all the places we were at, but I have few.

Our first stop was Jesse’s Uncle Bobby’s house.

Isn’t it funny how little kids just instantly hit it off and play!

These little cousins (literally) only see each other twice a year, Easter & Christmas.

Max found the fudge table when no one was looking and helped himself!  We let him finish it!

Finger licking good!  These kids so have my sweet tooth!  Jesse doesn’t eat sweets.

Maxwell even had to get a little to-go bag of fudge to take home with him.  : ) 

Below is a picture of Maxwell sitting on his Great Grandma Kraemer’s lap.  This would be Grandma Mary’s step-mom.  (Mary’s mom passed away when Mary was a teenager.) 

Max is not my shy one.  He talks to anyone and sits on anyone’s lap.  Notice he is eating more snacks!

Uncle Bobby & his wife, Janice, have a beautiful house!  I was telling her that I love her kitchen and we started talking about tiles and she got her samples out and I found a favorite! 

She sent it home with me and it is sitting in my kitchen to see if I get sick of it.  : )  So far I’m still in love with it!  I love the shiny glass with the rough stone!

Then it was off to my parents house for our family Christmas.  I really didn’t bring out my camera much here.  I had to get it out though when Max climbed into Grandma Great’s lap!  Just because I got him with his other Great Grandma earlier in the day.

Maxwell and Great Grandma Hemmer

Mallory was gifted a leappad2 for Christmas this year and wow!  She is love with it!  I didn’t know I would have to put my three year old on a time limit with electronics.  : )  She had the batteries drained in 2 days!!  I’m not kidding!

She got a little carrying case for it too!  Her favorite thing to play on it is tracing letters.  Which has been awesome for her because she does everything really fast – and this makes her slow down and connect each dot in order for you to move onto the next letter. 

Jesse got his snowmobiling jacket – he wasn’t expecting it!  Big surprise for him.  We saw this a lot – him inspecting every inch of it and reading every label it had.

Max received a Tag Junior to read books  and a remote control car!  I was totally surprised by a kindle fire!  I wanted it to keep track of recipes and create meal plans/menus… oh and to read books!  : )  I’m in love and I’ll be trying out my new plan on it next week!!  My laptop is slowly taking a dive – and I was using my cell phone a lot to look up recipes and well – it is just so tiny and to read recipes with dirty hands… so my kindle can just sit on my kitchen counter and display my recipes!  AWESOME!  Totally nerdy, I know!

Fresh Snow Gear

We got a big snowfall awhile back and I found out I just didn’t have the proper snow gear for both kids.  Mally didn’t have boots and Max didn’t have snowpants and neither of them had good gloves.  So off I went to get these items!  Then it was time to use them!

This boy right here!  He does not like gloves!  And that is putting it nicely!  He also does not like hats!  However I trick him and tell him he is an owl when he wears his hat.  So then he starts “whooo hooo-ing”.  I trick him so good that I don’t have to put his owl hat on!  He does have a winter hat that looks like an owl – but it is getting a bit snug.

We dug out the sandbox toys and she started digging a hole.  The snow was not packing that day so we couldn’t make a snowman.

We got a brand new black top drive way at the very end of fall and I can not resist sidewalk chalk!  We may have the most decorated driveway on the street this summer.  And um… I’ll be the one doing all the decorating, not the kids.  I’ll give them a corner to decorate!  ; ) 

We were going to walk and follow the snowmobile tracks.

The first big snowfall Jesse took the kids out on the snowmobile.  This was pre-winter gear!  He was out there with them for a long time.  When they came home their little faces were so red!  But they were both all smiles and the only words Max could say was “it was fun”!

Mallory talks about ice skating a lot.  I don’t even know how she knows about ice skating.

She found this little batch of ice and scooted around on it.

Then crashed!

She skated around on that batch for a long time

Then Max fell over and couldn’t get up.

Should we talk about him wearing pink boots?

They fit him perfectly and he is tough enough to wear pink!  They may or may not be boots with fur!  He is tough enough for boots with fur too!!! 

Adding Sparkle

We are totally known for not getting our tree until like a week before Christmas.  I grew up in that family… last minute tree getters!  It drove me crazy!  Here I am doing that to my kids!  *evil laugh*

I also cheated this year and we drove up to the gas station we all looked out the truck windows and Mally just woke up and yelled… I want that one!  And that is how we picked our tree!  Memory making at its best, right?!

Jesse was in charge of the camera and here are the shots he got.

Then Jesse went to put some sparkle on the tree and apparently he wasn’t doing it right by the looks of this next picture.

I then wanted to get a nice picture of the kids in front of our decorated tree and I couldn’t get anyone to cooperate with me.

Have no idea what was with the arm crossing this day.

I got them both!

But the silly poses continued.

Then Max’s phone rang and he was off to take care of his phone call. 

Little Cookie Making

We started to get ready for cutting out cookies and Uncle Adam was teaching Max naughty things – see that look on his face!  Must have been something real naughty!

Then Grandma took the lead – because that dough was just way too sticky and the non-baker that I am was having a heck of a time.

She got it all better and I tried to lead again.

Mallory “pushing” out a cookie.

And Max… puuuush!

He didn’t understand the part about one at at time and made multiples in the same spot over top of each other!  Time to get Grandma back in charge!  She has way more patience then me.  She lets Mallory help her roll out the dough.

She let Mallory get flour everywhere!  Mallory had a small snow bank beneath her chair!!

We were working too fast we had to let them play with the flour until the cousins showed up.

Mallory on the start of her flour-snow-storm.

Max still thinks he is making cookies!

They are here!! 

 

Garrett so proud of his pancake!  He kept saying, Momma, I’m making you a pancake. 

Then it was time for frosting!  I purposely hid Max and made Grandpa entertain him.  Frosting was not for Max.  : )  I needed a second set of eyes to keep on Mallory as she was dumping containers of sprinkles on one cookie and trying to eat the frosting by the scoop fulls.  “But I like frosting, Momma"!”

Then there is perfectionist El.  She carefully and artfully decorated each cookie.  She likes to dress up when she comes to Grandma’s house so she has toddler leg warmers on her arms!

We had to let go our two youngest workers as they were causing lots of trouble.  So they went to play and I found them snuggling on the couch.

Shannon doesn’t like cut-out cookies so she brought stuff to make these pinwheel rice krispy treats!  Once you have these you can never have a plain rice krispy treats again!  Delish! 

All the kids piled on Grandpa to watch a Christmas movie.

All these kids had a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa’s too!  I left pretty late (after their bedtime) so Max had a hard time with me leaving and then he bumped his head – so he really had a hard time with me leaving.  I do not like leaving a crying child.  But my Mom is holding him and smiles and says “good bye!”  So I took that as my cue as get going!  We are fine.  : )  I got home to an empty house – well not empty Jesse and the dog were there… but it was so weird!  We have never been at our house alone without kids – since we had kids!!  Never!  It was very weird.  I looked in their room before I went to bed at their empty beds and I told Jesse… I don’t like it!  : ) 

But in the morning when I got to take a shower and get ready and run to the consignment shop and wrap presents and do laundry and… I liked that!  That was refreshing!