Taekwondo

After going to Griffin's birthday party we finally got Emmi to sign up for taekwondo.  I had bought a groupon over the summer since she said she wanted to do it but then never wanted to commit.  But she is now loving it.  She goes twice a week.  Marli has no interest although she does practice at home with Emmi as well as does the hiyas like they do when they are in class.

Here are some pictures of her in action.
Jumpin Jacks:

 They start off all classes doing sit-ups, push-ups, and squats.

 Here she is in stance.  Watch out.

The girls also got their haircut since it was long over due.

Here is a picture for Memere to let her know that we are taking good care of her car that she left here for a couple months before she makes the trip back down.  ;)

Playing Catch up....

The time from Emmi's birthday to today just seemed like it flew by.  Definitely stayed busy.....

From playdates and playing outside.

 To attempts at a Christmas Card Picture.

 To the return of Elfie, he is the elf on a shelf that comes from Thanksgiving to Christmas to report back to Santa how the kids are doing..

We also fostered a cute puppy, Roscoe, during this time who ultimately got adopted by our friends.

Marli had her Christmas show at school.  Typical fashion Moo was the hit as her antlers kept falling over her eyes.  Emmi also had a party but I was too involved helping with activities to capture any pictures.

We had a Christmas party in our neighborhood.  This was the first time the kids got to see Santa.

Marli and I had a day uptown so I could hit the dentist but since we had time to kill we hit Discovery Place.

 When attempting to take a picture of 5 kids note to self it just isnt going to happen.  We had gone uptown again a different day to see the singing bears.  This time we had our cousins and Emmi's boyfriend Robert with us.

 
 We also took in Breakfast with Santa.  Moo was not so much into sitting with Santa this time.

 We usually celebrate Christmas Eve with our friends the Perry's so here we are dressed and ready to go.

 We usually head to Ryan's parents house now that they moved here which we appreciate since it feels like we are part of their extended family.  Everyone just gets cozy and hangs out eating way too many cookies.

Here was our $10 tree this year.  We put minimal ornaments this year since the foster puppy was chewing anything within reach on the tree.

This years big present was a swingset.  The kids have loved playing on it although Christmas was a bit chilly but the days after were wonderful.  Santa had an elf that helped him make this happen since when they went to bed at night it wasnt there but when they woke up sure enough it was in our back yard.

The girls and I also went to Lazy 5 Ranch.  It is a drive through zoo of sorts where you can go in your own car or take a wagon ride.  Although it was warm enough for us to have taken the wagon we like the safety of our car.  The animals can get close to the windows to look eye to eye but they dont necessarily touch us like they do in the wagon.

 Of course we spent plenty of time at the gym.  This is a huge achievement of Jacob captured as he did a muscle up with a 20lb vest on.  Muscle ups alone are hard enough never mind with a weighted vest.

The 2 weeks of vacation went by too fast.  I had plenty of time off unfortunately Jacob didnt but we got to stay busy with plenty of fun activities.  Was sad to get back into the routine again this morning.

The big 6

An oddity is we had snow this week.  Gotta love our Southern Girls as they wanted to make snowmen and play in the snow.  This is what our backyard looked like:

Since we had spent last weekend in Atlanta celebrating Emmi's birthday we did a lower key birthday.  She brought goodie bags to her classmates, then she will have a playdate with her girl friends this coming weekend.  One highlight was that the P, A, B, C, clan came in for the Patriots Panthers Monday night game.  They all were great sports and went to Emmi's school for lunch with her.

We celebrated with a cake at home for Emmi.

American Girl & Aquarium

We prepped for the weekend in Atlanta with a spa day.  Emmi and Marli got manis and pedis.

American Girl Doll Store was the hit.  Not sure if Jacob or the girls were more excited.

Here the girls were with their dolls watching a movie at the store.

They have a cafe where you have to make reservations like a month in advance.  As you can see the girls totally enjoyed it since their dolls even have seats at the table.

 Then we spent the day at the aquarium.  Saw a cool dolphin show and many many tanks of huge fish.

Halloween & randoms

We did our usual routine of going Trick or Treating with the Perry's.   We headed over to their house early and hit their street.  Then came over to our street and hit houses with the rest of the neighborhood crew.  So many kids were you just hope your kid is in the mix because you cant see them anymore.  I usually make their costumes but when they saw the Power Ranger Costumes at Costco they had to have them.  They stuck to their guns and wore them.

This past weekend we unplugged.  That is right we shut our phones down to only calls and texts, put the computers away, tried to run errands on Friday and had tons and tons of family time.  This is going to be our new thing.  Family game nights, painting, and just hanging out.  As working parents it feels at times that life is just flying by especially during the week and then trying to catch up and prep for the week during the weekend.  So we are going to just try to embrace the slower times we have to have fun.

Speaking of work, almost a year ago my role shifted at work to where I am working on project stuff.  It has been going fine although stressful at times.  We are in the peak of stress as the huge project is about to go live on the 15th.  Please pray for me, send happy thoughts, etc.  It stinks when your stress relief of going to the gym is something that is not even happening.  So here is how I tried to brighten my day one day by just working on the deck.

 I was excited to get my hair cut this past weekend.  Had to take a snapshot as my hairdresser put curls in my hair.  I loved it enough to buy a curling iron to attempt to do myself.  Luckily we have the ABC crew coming in soon so Chloe has offered to teach me some tips on how to do it myself.  Woot woot.

 Oh is that another dog in our house.  We babysat my friend's foster dog while she had to go out of town.  As crazy as it sounds we get him back on Monday so we can be his foster.  Will see how this goes.

Terrific Kid & lost teeth

Each month at school they select a kid who wins the "Terrific Kid" award in each classroom.  They have to demonstrate good behaviors and this particular month they said was focused on honesty but good kids overall.  Emmi won.  They had a cute little ceremony, got ice cream, and a bag of goodies.  We of course had to be there for it.  So proud of our big girl.

 Then this week Emmi lost not only one but two teeth.  I should actually say she pulled them out.  She had a super wiggly one that came out Monday.  Then Today she pulled the other not as wiggly one out when she got home from school.  So I guess her Birthday list will be her 2 front teeth.

 We cant forget Murph who likes to lay on the kids trampoline when they are at school.

 We went to the church that Marli attends preschool.  They have a service called the Deep where they put on skits and sing songs.  Totally geared towards families and my kids love it.  The awesome part about going it Emmi gets to hang with her preschool buddies.  These are the 3 kids that she was in class every year but her last.  Robert is also her boyfriend.

 Here is a picture from near our library.  The kids and I have gotten into reading so we frequent the library.  Mostly putting books on reserve and then just picking them up.  This day was nice so the kids were running laps outside which is also near a train that you can go on.

Kindergarten reading and writing

While we were at the beach Memere came with us.  The perfect help as she worked with Emmi on her sight words and reading since she brought chapter books with her.  Emmi mastered an additional 20+ words while being there.  When we got home Emmi's progress report was excellent.  She is now reading books on her own which her teacher sends home weekly.  She also is starting to write sentences on her own.  Here is her first one she brought home.

It reads "I am growing red tomatoes" but in the learning process they write as they think it is.  So hers is written "I em goen red tmatos".  Such a cool thing to see as a parent how it all comes together.  She is definitely loving learning.  We have to put books on reserve at the library to read as we finish each chapter book.