Sibling love

Tonight I'm playing catch up with my blog. My Tia Memi asked me the other day "How can you stand how cute they are? I'd want to kiss them all the time" Haha! Well truth is, when they aren't driving me up the wall, they are killing me with cuteness. I love when I catch them being sweet to one another without anyone looking. We made sure to get captain style seats in our car to give them each their space, but look what I saw on our way to school the other day. My precious babies holding hands!

So on to the fighting....Max got this bear for his first Christmas. He never played with it or even really liked it. It usually sat in a box or the floor. Fast forward a year or two and Maddie loves it. She wants to sleep with it, take it on trips, etc. Well, Mommy, being the genius that I am, must have mentioned that the bear was actually Max's. That started a big struggle of them crying over said bear. So another genius move I decided to take them to Build-A-Bear to make their own bear and stop fighting over Max's Christmas bear. Max got a camo bear with digital camo gear and he named him Rambo. Maddie got a super soft brown bear and dressed her as Cinderella and named her Cinderelly. They loved their bears and they cost us a pretty penny! Problem solved right?? Not so much. That night there was another epic fight over the Christmas bear. Honestly it's getting better, so I'll keep you posted. Gotta love kids and their personalities!!

One thing they both love is Mario Bros. I found this shirt for Max and he was so excited. And so was little sister. I tried to talk her into a cuter girly shirt, but she wanted nothing to do with it. It was cute though, she paired it with a tutu and a red bow.

So....

I haven't blogged all year!! That's so unlike me, but life has been a little busier than normal. I started working part time at the kids school. It's usually only 12 hours a week, but the preparation to make it all work smoothly is harder than I thought. Max has been great with it. He loves having me there. He is so sweet. When he sees me, his eyes light up. He always wanted to hug me, touch me, etc, but I told him at school I'm "working" so he needs to focus and listen to his teacher. It worked, now he usually just give me a wave or blows me a kiss. I'm known as "Max's mom", and I love that! Maddie's adjustment wasn't so smooth  but it has gotten much better. I love working at the church, I'm meeting great people and most of all it works so well for us right now. I see it as training for when/if I ever go back to teaching in public schools!!

Christmas Day

Wow, I can't believe u haven't blogged since Christmas Eve! Well here are some pictures from Christmas Day. We had a great time with the kids. They were thrilled with their gifts! Max got his Cars2 battleship and Maddie got a Cinderella castle, among other things!!
We were blessed enough to have my parents, brother, sister and Paul join us. We had a huge lunch, followed by some fresh pumpkin and chocolate pecan pie. We also played "Aggieopoly", like monopoly, but the Aggie version. So much fun.

Waiting on Santa

We had a great Christmas Eve with friends and cooking at the house. The kids Put out reindeer food, left cookies for Santa and we read Twas the Night before Christmas. They are exited for baby Jesus' birthday and their presents. This is the first Christmas they they "get it". Shawn and I are excited to see their faces tomorrow! Merry Christmas!

Pre-Christmas happenings 2012

We have been busy with Christmas parties, baking, family, etc the kids had fun at their school parties and I hit to attend them both. It is so cute to see them at school. They brought home goodies and precious pictures of them as Mary and Joseph. So cute!

Maddie as Mary

Cheese!

Max as Joseph

Hayride with the neighbors

Prou of his cookie with marshmallows, almonds, sprinkles, etc.

Cookies!

Growing like a weed

Maddie is growing so fast. In the fall I hit her size 8 and they are l fitting too snug now. Not only is her footing, but it's getting wider too. Thankfully her brothers Tony Lamas are the perfect fit. Love hand me downs!

P. S. Here is a picture if Maddie in her crib with all her buddies.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Thanksgiving cane and went, and we started prepping for Christmas. It seems like it took a while for December 1. With the kids at a good age we started putting up decorations, lights and fun outings.

Clark Griswold in the making

The kids love it everything about the lights

The kids were inspired to get our lights up after our trip to Santa's Wonderland. We went with the Currans on Thursday night. It was kind of a drive, but really worth it. The kids are still talking about it! The only real glitch of the night was the movie. They were showing The Grinch on the big screen. Max got scared and kept asking to go home. We had dinner there, sort of. I think the kids had coke and popcorn only. The trail ride was fun and it was actually my very first trail ride. The atmosphere was great. The kids and I even got on stage and sang Christmas songs and did the hokey pokey. Fun night!

Our first trip to Santa's Wonderland

Leah and Maddie - It was so fun to go to this fun place with the Currans.

It snowed and they loved that too!

They all got a fun treat from the candy store

Sunday we got together with our playgroup for our Christmas playgroup. Each of the kids got to meet with Santa and get their picture taken. I don't have our picture yet, but I hope to have it soon and I'll update. Max was anxious and excited to tell him that he wanted cars for Christmas. Maddie was excited at first, but then changed her tune. So we ended up all posing with Santa. The party was alot of fun and the dads got to hang out too. Great way to start the holiday season

Christmas party with our playgroup

Shawn has been disappointed he didn't get pecan pie at Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd make him one. I found a great Paula Deen recipe and gave it a try. It was so good, it's gone! Thankfully we shared with friends. This was so easy to make, I'll never buy another pecan pie!