saturday:  grandma and grandpa came over to hang out and do some crafts before nap. then they came back to watch the kids while neal and i went to his company christmas party. the kids went to barnes and noble and got a stuffed animal, went to dinner at brew pub, and then went back to the hotel to hang out and take a bath in the huge tub! they had a great time with their grandparents! THANK YOU grandma and grandpa for letting mommy and daddy have a night out!! 

sunday: grandma and grandpa came over for breakfast before they headed back home. we had cinnamon roll pancakes - YUM! then we had a lazy sunday! we made some play-doh and pretended to make cookies for a good hour! rex didn't nap at all and he came out of his room in a SUPER silly mood!! he was in pretty good spirits considering he didn't nap! malloy got her tv privileges taken away b/c she hit the bottom of the behavior chart - she was being miserable and spiraled downward in a matter of minutes!!! she regained her composure and was fine. i really like the chart - it's working!! rex cleaned up the puzzle he was playing with all on his own without being asked. i had him go move his name up one on the chart and while he was doing it, he said "i want to play the game. i'm gonna go ask nicely. i'm gonna say 'can i play the game with you please?' " so he gets it!! and if he's starting to melt down, i can simply remind him that there's a better way to handle the situation and he finds a better way to communicate!!! it's great!! 

guess who! 

malloy got to stay up later than rex because she napped.  cuddling and playing computer games with daddy! 

today we had a playdate with our friends!! we haven't all gotten together since the summer!! it's been way too long!! malloy was so excited to see her pal, brooke!!! all the girls played nicely together (and rex, too!) and malloy was not happy when we were the first to leave. (she handled it well, though!! no complete screaming melt downs!) both kids napped today, they watched their shows and then it was time for dinner. neal worked late so it was just me - they did great with dinner and cleaned their plates!! after we put pjs on, i put on some soothing classical music and we played a few rounds of guess who. then it was time for brushing teeth and stories, then bed! both kids went down without any issues. all in all,  it was a pretty good day without any major meltdowns. both kids ended the day on AWESOME on their chart and got to put 5 extra pom poms in their jars!!