Cookie the Elf

Our Elf, Cookie, did a lot of crazy things during the month of December. Max woke many mornings with plenty of giggles when he found Cookie fishing, paratrooping from the fan, conducting a train, reading atop a book tower, etc. Here are some of the pictures of Cookie’s shenanigans.

Pre-K Xmas Party

On Thursday I got to join Max at school for his Christmas party. It's always fun to show up at Max's school and see the huge smile on his face when he sees me. This week he was out Monday - Wednesday due to a very bad cold that he is fighting, so when he was able to go to school on Thursday I was relieved that he wouldn't miss his Christmas party.

I arrived at his school to a big smile on his very sick little face. Even though he was tired and fighting a cold he was super excited to be at school and have me there to help him build his gingerbread house.








After all the kids made their house's they got together and gave Mrs. Lisa a wreath with gift cards from all of her favorite places. This was super cute. All of the kids gave Mrs. Lisa a big Christmas hug.


Another school function that I am appreciative that I could participate in.

Weekend Update

Friday night Max and I had a mommy and Max date. We went to the restaurant of his choice and he was super excited for this.


For our date night, we also picked up ingredients to make Christmas cookies this weekend.


We went to see the Nutcracker this weekend and I was hoping to make it a family tradition. Andy and I decided to get Max excited for it, but let him decide if he likes it or not before we force him into this annual tradition. St. Nick did bring Max a Nutcracker book that played the music throughout to assist in getting him excited for the ballet. He was super excited, but he didn't realize what he was getting himself into. I mean we were going to the ballet, not a Paw Patrol Live concert, which might be a little bit of a comparison that I might have made.






We went, he experienced it and he only enjoyed two scenes: the sword fight and the Bon Bon girls.
He started out excited for it, but he got bored quickly. I believe it is because there is no talking at the ballet. He was a good sport about it though. We stayed the whole time and he knew how much I wanted to go, so afterwards he told me that he liked the Nutcracker. I said "Buddy, you really didn't like it, did you?" He said "No, I really didn't." It was sweet of him though to pretend since he knows how much I like the Nutcracker. We will see if we do it again next year as a family or if I just go with some friends.

Flagstaff

We spent this past weekend in Flagstaff with our friends. It was so fun and I have over 200 pictures from the weekend. We rented a large house and let the kids get crazy together while we also got to share some adult time.

Saturday morning the kids got to make their own pancakes with squeezie tubes, a griddle and fillings to choose from. This was a lot of fun for them. 

On Saturday night we went to the North Pole via a bus that drove through a portal and straight to Santa's workshop. The kids all wore the same jammies as they experienced the North Pole.

There are not many pictures of Max at Santa's workshop because he cried most of the time until we got to the room where we met Santa. Max said there was just too many people and that scared him, and all he wanted to do was see Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas.

On Sunday morning the kids made cookie wreaths and continued to get crazy together before we had to hit the road and head back to Chandler.

This might just become a family of friends tradition every year. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately there was no snow this year, but it was pretty cold. I guess that was a taste of what WI will hand to us in a couple weeks when we head back. 

Xmas Program

On Monday night we had Max's first Christmas program. It was beyond adorable. The kid were practicing their Christmas songs for weeks and Max was super excited to go.

He sat with his class prior to the program and throughout the program when the other classes were up on stage singing their songs. He was excited to sit next to his friends.


I was worried that he might not participate in front of a room full of adults he did not know, but he sang, rang the bells and shook the maracas.

They ended the program with all the kids from the preschool singing one song together.

It was not a long program, but it definitely was sweet. We ended the night out for dinner to celebrate such a fun event.

We are definitely proud of Max for coming out of his shy shell these past few months.

Getting Big

Last week I took Max to the doctor for an ear infection. While there we learned that he grew three inches in just over four months. That's crazy! He went from 43 to 46 inches in just over four months. I am assuming that's a lot. Soon he's going to be taller than me, or at least that's what he says.


This weekend we finally decided to start teaching Max to ride a bike with no training wheels. This was definitely long overdue. What better way to learn than inside going down our hallway? I mean, isn't that how all kids learn?








This weekend we worked on a couple projects. One was making candy canes to hang on the tree. Max liked making a pattern out of his beads and then he hung both of our candy canes on the tree. Our other project is a secret so there are no pictures to share.

This weekend Andy and I went to my company's holiday party while Tayler and Christian watched Max. He was super excited to have them over since he says he misses Tee-Tee. We don't see them much anymore, so when Max does see them he's pretty excited. We did not take one picture of us at the holiday party, but it was a good time and I won a beach cruiser. Now the whole family has a bike and we can go bike riding together.