Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Family Time - Part 1

Because I don’t have too many pictures of our time with Nik’s family - I will give you a quick recap: relaxing days watching football, afternoon naps, Texas Sheet Cake, Peanut Clusters, late nights visiting, and time with cousins running and playing through the house. I’m sure there was more…but that’s just a nice little summary :)

Here are the few pictures I did take -

Opening Christmas Presents - new hats from Nik’s mom (homemade).


I tried to get a picture of Jaxen and his new tent - but he was too busy playing!

A remote control car for the win!

A little play time with his Mamaw Kay. 
They were also sleeping buddies. She let Jaxen sleep in her bed every night.
I think they both loved it!

A selfie with my precious little boy!

I had to share this picture below because it cracked me up…
We ran to Kohl’s this week to look at something and I let Jaxen push the cart.
By the time we left, he had piled a few items in the cart (most, without my knowledge)
all of which, were things he “wanted to take home”. Haha!
Needless to say - none of it went home with us!
(Thomas undies, goggles, Spiderman Camera and a Star Wars something)
This kid knows how to shop :)


We hit up Dairy Queen one day while we were here
and Jaxen enjoyed about 1/4 of this chocolate covered ice cream cone!


Kyleigh and Jaxen had the best time together!
I think the phrase I heard the most from Jaxen was “Run Kyleigh!"

They were sweet and gave each other plenty of hugs.



We had a great visit with Nik’s family. 
I’m so glad we were able to come see everyone.

Now on to Family Time - Part 2….

Monday, December 28, 2015

This and That

Last week, while packing for our trip - I decided I better pack a pair or two of Jaxen’s sunglasses. Because his daddy wears them - he loves them! So I gathered them together and texted a picture to Nik, asking which ones were Jaxen’s favorite at the moment. While taking that picture I realized how many actual pairs of sunglasses he has! There is 5 shown in the pic and I didn’t put out 3 others because I knew they were not in the top picks. He is three and has this many pairs! Funny, right?!



Also before our trip, I decided I better pain my toenails…going down to the “hot south” and all….little did I know that we would sit in a hall waiting out a tornado, and the desert town I grew up in would have more snow in one day than NY has seen all year….so I painted them. Jaxen is always fascinated when my toenails change colors and this time was no exception. Later that day - I found this - Jaxen sitting down, pretending to paint his toenails too! 



During our Christmas Eve Service, Jaxen got to hang out with his friends, The Eiss Family. They have two teenage boys that he adores. I was texted this picture that night…Mike was sharing his headphones and music with Jaxen. They were rocking out and he loved it!


Christmas Day we hit the road at 5:45am to head to the airport. While waiting on the first plane, Jaxen entertained himself with coloring.


And then on the plane, we spent some time putting sticker faces on these cute dinosaurs. He had a great time picking out the eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth, etc. And in the is case, even sunglasses!


Jaxen carried his big boy back pack for a few minutes at a time as we walked the airport (it was kind of heavy), but while he did, he thought he was so big! He loves the moving walkways and escalators.


We finally got him asleep on our second plane, and he took a pretty good nap. The bad thing…was Nik I couldn’t really move! His legs and feet were over Nik and his head was over me!

We have been having a great, relaxing time here with Nik’s family. I have a few Christmas pics I will post at another time. And I have to get a few pictures of Jaxen and his favorite new buddy, Kyleigh (his cousin). These two are cracking us all up! They love each other, follow each other around and are playing really well together…minus a few fights (which is to be expected!). 

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Pregnancy - Week 24

Baby Boy D - 23 weeks

Baby Boy D - 24 weeks

Just last night, I was sitting in the living room, watching TV with Nik and I told him that Baby D  was doing Ninja Summersaults in my belly! He was going absolutely crazy and was everywhere! This week was really the first week that Nik could feel the kicks. I’m glad we are to the stage where he can feel Baby D.

I have not felt nauseous in a long time - and in fact, I am feeling really great!

I went to the gym and worked out yesterday and I think I may have overdone it a bit. I started having some slight Braxton Hicks. I slowed down a bit and was fine the rest of the day. I need to keep working out though…I have put on the weight! Mainly in my hips, bottom and thighs (plus my belly and chest - as expected)….but I guess that’s just how it goes! 

I don’t really have much else to update…

So I will leave you with something really funny Jaxen said to me in the car yesterday….

“I tooted in the mouth!”

Hahahahaha! I informed him that was called burping. 

That’s all for today!


Sunday, December 20, 2015

(almost) Christmas!


~ Christmas (almost) Eve ~




~ Christmas (almost) Day ~

Yesterday (Saturday) we opened presents and celebrated Christmas together as a family. We are traveling on Christmas Day and Nik is working all week - so we decided (for a second year in a row) to do Christmas early. And honestly, I kind of love it! While everyone is hustling and bustling we are home, relaxing and enjoying a day with just our family :)


After Jaxen woke up, we all made our way downstairs and sat together in front of the tree.


We started our morning off with reading the Christmas Story from Jaxen’s little Bible.
While Nik read, Jaxen and I “acted out” the story, using the people/props from his nativity. 

It was a sweet time -
and then we moved on to the stockings!


Funny story… Jaxen had a few pair of undies in his stocking and the minute he saw them - 
he stood up and started stripping!


Once he had put his new undies on…we could continue! Hahaha!


He had a great time opening gifts!



And he loved everything he received!


Jaxen even bought daddy a shirt...


and mommy some new house shoes!


After the gifts were opened (and lots of candy was eaten) we spent the morning playing!


It was a great morning with my family!


Merry (almost) Christmas!!!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

All Things Christmas

Even though our weather has not felt much like Christmas this week - we have been in major-Christmas-mode around here!

Okay - well, this has nothing to do with Christmas…but I thought it was worth sharing. Wednesday morning Jaxen decided to play “Speech Therapy” with me. He did not call it that, but that is totally what it was!


He pulled out all his animal cards, held them up and wanted me to tell him the name of each animal! It was so funny to me! After that, we moved on to colors and shapes….and I made him match and tell me what the colors were!


Later that morning, I decided to make Christmas Cookies with Jaxen. We did this last year - but I can honestly say this year was so much more fun with him! I let him help me actually make the cookies. He poured in the ingredients, turned on and off the mixer and stirred!




 He even helped roll/pat out the cookie dough and used the cookie cutters!



And then the decorating….or eating of candy…




We had a great time - and when all was said and done - we had some pretty yummy, fun-looking cookies!

Later that day, we delivered Christmas Gifts to the church staff and gave them a big plate of cookies to munch on through the week :)  It is fun to watch Jaxen give/deliver gifts to people. After telling him the gifts not were for him, but that we were giving them to others…he got on board and enjoyed giving/throwing gifts to each person. I tried to get him to say “Merry Christmas” as he did it and give each person a hug. He did pretty well!

We still have some more gifts to deliver next week - and I’m trying to get them all wrapped and ready to go. 

More Christmas happenings…

We had our Youth Christmas Party Wednesday night. It was lot of fun. I have very few pictures of it. Nik sent the students out on a video-scavenger hunt and they all had such a great time making the videos and being silly. Afterward - they came back to the youth room to watch the videos and eat. That was my part…the food. 

I made a yummy punch (lemonade, cranberry juice and ginger ale) I topped it off with cranberries and lemon slices. It was delish! I love punch though…and am looking forward to having a cup or two of leftover punch this weekend. I would have some tonight…but my fantastic husband brought Jaxen and I home a treat from Sonic :)


I also made Christmas Crunch. It was a big hit! I had never made this before - but everyone liked it! To find the recipe click here: http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/12/christmas-crunch-funfetti-popcorn-christmas-style/


And for dessert (pizza for dinner) I made a big batch of Hot Cocoa and then made a float out of it, using peppermint ice cream and candy canes! It looked cute and tasted great!

Oh - and I finally mailed out Christmas Cards today!!!! A little late…but that’s how it goes I guess :)

Tonight I made Mexican Food for dinner - which tasted so yummy (especially with my vanilla coke) and I plan to finish wrapping presents and get caught up on my to-do-lists! I have a pretty busy night ahead of me, but my usual Thursday night obligation was cancelled and I took a nap today and I have a soda to help get me through!