Zane, Emerson, and Smith: Beginning of November

I'm finally catching up on the blog. November and December FLEW BY. Having a 3, 5, and 7 year old during the holidays was busy and the absolute best. Our kids are at such fun ages right now. It's so cool to just run out of the house with no diaper bag, no stroller and know that we have freedom to do whatever we want!

Emmy has been reading and writing a bunch more. She's so funny though, because she still wants so much help sounding out words when she can really do it herself. She needs to gain some confidence. She's also really really into art. She creates and colors all the time. She considers herself a true artist. She's about to start another play and took a hip hop class. She seems to be loving to perform for others, even though she's still pretty shy around groups. My sweet girl is growing into a good sister and helper to me. She's still extremely emotional and dramatic, but also amazingly kind and caring. She's still into princesses, American girl dolls, and can wrestle with the boys and dominate. Well rounded, right? Haha

This guy has been WAY into sports lately. He constantly has a ball in his hands. He begs us all day to play football or soccer. If it's cold outside, he sets up a soccer stadium in the basement. They even create signs and tickets for the World Cup in the basement and all have team names, a music playlist for the games, and the best is that Zane announces the play by play in a British accent, like the guy on his soccer video game. It's the best. My team name is "Pajama Pants" since i'm usually wearing my pjs when we play. For Chrismtas he asked for goalie gloves and soccer goals. Looks like we may need to sign him up to try soccer again.
But he's also still been loving football. He could play catch for hours, outside and he also loves playing catch in the pool. He gives so much effort and is a really encouraging team player. He "chest bumps" his teammates when they do something good.
AND he's been Zack's wingman Charger's fan. This guy is full on into the Chargers and Padres, just like his dad. He's learning about players, collecting cards, and really starting to understand the games and rules.
The is him playing football, with his mouthguard in.

And this little man is as crazy as ever. He is the sweetest and I mean sweetest little dude. And probably one of the roughest, silliest 3 year olds I've ever seen. LOL. He is obsessed with super heroes and fighting the bad guy. He especially loves Batman and Robin. He got a bunch of new Batman toys for Cmas and is loving them. He dresses in costume (or as he demands we call them, suits) every day and stays in character so impressively. He knows what he wants and is still pretty good at throwing huge tantrums when he's mad, but he does seem to be growing out of it a little bit.
When I get to spend time with just him while the other kids are at school, it is the best. He's so thoughtful and loving and so much fun to be around. He would be happy with me chasing bad guys with him all day long. He's getting so big too. He can keep up pretty well with the big kids.

Silly faces!

In early November, Nancy (Gigi) and Dennis came to visit us from Minnesota. The kids adore Gigi and loved spending time with her. We all went to the Aquarium one day, a place where they've wanted to go for a long time.

Being eaten by a whale!

The highlight, especially for Emmy, was seeing the mermaids perform. She was certain that they were real mermaids. Zane wasn't quite sure. They even got to meet them after the show.

Scuba divers

The other highlight for the kids was feeding the sting rays (with stingers removed). They got to hold a real fish in their hands, dunk their fist underwater, and the sting rays would swim over and cover their hands and suck the fish in. There's no way I would ever do this - where did these fearless little people come from?!?

They got splashed a ton and loved every second of it. Smith wasn't quite as brave, but he totally still tried it!

We got a package in the mail with some new Christmas decorations from Papa. He send a Christmas pig, Emmy's favorite.

This is just a quick shot of Zane on the left and Smith on the right...still look alike but not are becoming their own guys.

This picture cracks me up - Zane bought this homemade soccer stadium at his class auction. Its huge and we have no where to store it but he loves it. He earns "bucks" at school for all different things and then they have an auction where they bid on items, some that other kids make. So he can sell stuff too. He seems to always come home with such random things. But he also buys thoughtful things for gifts for others sometimes.

This little man has stopped napping (waaaaaa). He still needs to rest a lot of days and will sometimes zonk on the couch. He was also sick a lot of December, so he fell asleep a lot. Just a cutie.

Swim lessons with his buddies Owen and Molly.

Zane and Emmy's school is awesome. We are loving it. They do so many cool things and think of awesome ways to involve kids and parents. They had STEM week, which was all about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. So the kids did special activities all week and then on Friday night they held a huge carnival type things with fun centers. Emmy won a tickets in school to the indoor planetarium that came that night.
This is her celebrating having a ticket to the show. lol.

The 3 of us got to go to the first planetarium show. It was cool.

Then they got to do all sorts of experiments and hands on activities.

Hold cockroaches

Make goop

This is an example of all 3 kids being best buddies. They woke up together and didn't wake us up and just set up coloring stuff and books on their own and were happily playing together. I love that!

Cup stacker!

Emmy lost both bottom teeth in November and the new ones are almost grown in by now. Fast! Where has time gone, that my sweet baby is 5 and losing teeth. Sheesh.
She has pretended to lose teeth and has played "Tooth Fairy" for years now, so she was sooo excited about this.

Our Bug

Zane had a school performance. He got dressed up and was happy he got a big part in the show (holding up a sign at the end). :)

For Smith's late birthday gift, Jordan and Molly took him and I to a Yo Gabba Gabba Live show. It was at Paramount Theater. Smith has loved Yo Gabba for a while now, so it was the perfect show to go to. He was insanely happy to be there and danced and sang along the whole time. He and Molly even got to have Sprite and Popcorn. Thanks Jord!!