Tucker and Jamie Maxfield & Fam: A little bit of this, a little bit of that…Long Post!

I love seeing Peyton’s interpretation of the world. Grandma with green hair and HUGE eyelashes, for example. And all the teeth! So cute.

I had read, years ago, about a parent who gave their children a spot on the wall where they could write whatever they want. They said that even after their children were grown, they couldn’t paint over that spot because it had so many memories. So I thought we’d give it a try. I told them if I see any writing OUTSIDE of the tape, I would paint over it and they wouldn’t have it anymore. I’d never do this if my youngest was younger than 5. But it’s been pretty fun. Their friends sign it when they come over. It has caused some fighting because when one sister is mad at the other, she might go over to her wall and scribble something out. But it’s still been fun.

Lexi has had glasses for two years now. She’s gone through a couple different pairs. She definitely needs them 100% of the time since she is far-sighted in one and near-sighted in the other. But recently Mrs. Stone mentioned to me that she suspected Lexi has a tracking issue because when she’d do her reading tests she would notice her re-reading lines or skipping lines. She said that many eye Dr’s don’t automatically test for tracking issues, but that her eye Dr here in town does, and she trusts him a lot. So I immediately made her an appointment…and also because we needed new glasses anyway since hers had broken the week before. When we took her to Dr. Yamashita, he did suspect a tracking issue (her eyes are not lined up exactly, so one eye has to work harder to keep things from looking like two different images…which causes exhaustion. But to get an accurate prescription, he needed her to wear an eye patch for two days. THAT was a challenge! It felt uncomfortable, looked embarrassing to her and she hated every second of it. But she did it! And we have definitely noticed a difference with the new glasses! Mrs. Stone said she completely blew through her last reading test with flying colors! I am so thankful for a teacher who is so in tune!

These are the only pictures we got, but during Christmas break we had the Navison’s over one evening and we played games while the girls danced. Here are Kira, Jordyn and Lexi during a performance.

During Christmas break, we had some beautiful weather. One of the 60 degree days, I took the girls on a relaxing trip to the zoo. It was really fun! It had been a little while and they were really excited about all the animals! We all loved the monkeys the most. The Orangutans were 29 years old and they each had a baby hanging on to them! And the little black monkey obsessively swung back & forth, back & forth for hours. So cute. I was amazed that he is 44 years old!

(petting the sting rays")

On my last Saturday before school started, I had a free evening and it randomly worked out to meet up with my childhood friend Becky VanZandt for some dinner and catching up at Olive Garden.

Lexi got to have a little cooking time with Mom and learned how to make Texas Chocolate Sheetcake!

The fun pics the girls take of eachother with my phone. I believe this is Peyton’s “work”.

Shana and Derek had a huge scary experience with Maren right after we visited them in before New Years’s. Maren because ill and quickly lost her speech and mobility…and after an MRI they discovered she had ADEM, which is basically when a virus causes lesions to form around your brain and stop it from functioning. SOOOO scary. I drove up for the day during her two week hospital stay. It was apparently a “good” day and she could not walk, talk, and hardly respond. It was so shockingly different than the usual Maren. Thank heavens she is now doing so much better and is about 90% back to normal – thanks to the steroids AND Derek and Shana deciding she needed to do rehab at HOME as opposed to the hospital.

I just love watching how Paxton and Peyton mesh and mold their interests when they play together. He is VERY boy and she is VERY girl. So it can be a challenge. One of the things I love that Paxton will do with her is play Just Dance. But he will only do the “boy songs”, like the ones that look like robots or techno. It’s pretty hilarious.

We still have three rabbit. Here is Oreo. We love them all….but they are also very temperamental. Rabbits are definitely not trusting animals, but we love them anyway.

The funniest thing. So at Christmastime, Tucker’s family draws names for gifts. Apparently, the Gertson’s drew Lexi’s name…but somehow that was mixed up and when we got our package from them, Lexi did not have a gift. Tucker (of course) razzed Lynda Ann and sent her pictures of Lexi (fake) crying, telling her how sad she was that her Aunt didn’t love her. Putting on the guilt trip just to tease her, like brothers do. But we were totally unprepared for what they would do to make up for it. I lost count, but Lexi got around 6 packages in the mail over the next two weeks. It was so funny. She’d get home from school and I’d say..”guess what Lex”…and she was like “another package??”. I think she will really never forget that experience and she loved opening each gift!

I love this picture of Pey and Kayla. Cute little friends. We went over to the Navison’s one Saturday (again, before I started back to school and had NO Sat. to spare) for a 49er’s game. It was funny watching Tucker and Amir yell and scream the whole time.

Started a little painting at Lindy’s house…which turned into a mini-remodeling. New baseboards and tile too…it was Lindy’s first time painting! She probably thought I was the crazy older sister again, storming in and taking everything off her walls and moving furniture…but I think she’s happy with the outcome so far (which I need to get a picture of).

I have a lot more pics of Pey on my phone these days (I seem to be too lazy to get out my Canon since I always have my iPhone with me), but I think it’s because she’s with me so much more than the other kids since she’s just three mornings a week in Preschool.

It was fun to pay $1,400 to register our “new” (used) car with the state of California. It was also fun to get a letter in the mail that says the ticket I got going up to San Fran to visit Maren (going 81 mph) will be $410….FOUR HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS! WHat the CRAP????? I still could send threat mail to that cop. Pig. I see way way way more dangerous drivers than me going 81 with the flow of traffic on my weekly drives. Ugh.

Got to sub Lexi’s class for three days in a row a couple weeks ago. One of the days, I brought Oreo to class for the kids to pet and see! They loved it.

Jordyn and Pey decided to do softball this year. Lexi said absolutely not – she is taking a Glee class. So we had our softball meeting at McDonald’s…feeding my kids such healthy food ;-)

This tether ball is such a great investment. The other week we had a Monday with no school (love those) and I had to capture the moment of the three girls laughing hysterically playing together in their pajamas.

Zoo day with Peyton’s preschool! (again, more grainy phone pics)

Jordyn and Lexi had skit night with their Activity Days girls. Jordyn’s skit was about being kind and giving others a chance. Lexi’s was about dressing modestly. Daddy was not home from his business trip, but Grandma got to come support the girls.