Thursday, April 30, 2015

Haircuts!

Tuesday Nik and Jaxen went to get their hair cut - finally!
I was not there, but Nik said Jaxen was a good sport, and texted me this picture - 

And then these, once they got home - 

I took these pictures yesterday while we were hanging out at the house - 



And then the big finale…
Nik and Jaxen!

Notice the beard is gone?!?!?!


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

My Little Sickie

I have had a little sickie here the past few days. On one hand, I feel bad for Jaxen - but on the other hand, I am soaking up the extra cuddle time! (Except when he slept in our bed last night - I didn't like that. Haha!) He ran a fever Sunday night, but it was gone by Monday, and none since. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of allergy crud that everyone else in Upstate NY has right now (that we had managed to stay away from thus far). Poor guy. I know he does not feel good. You can see it on his face!

In other news... This is the week I was going to potty train! I was all ready to go (well, mentally ready) and then he got sick. The only thing I have left to do is buy fun stuff to put in the bribe/reward potty bucket. I have decided that Jaxen works well with bribes/rewards - so we are going to go that route. Don’t worry… I'm pretty sure I will share our entire potty training days in detail. (Lucky you.) That way, if it went well then I can remember what I did - and if I was a bust, same thing! Either way, I know it will be fun to look back on. 

Nik is doing well and has been busy here lately at the church and is currently planning for a summer soccer camp that will be hosted by our church this summer. It’s a lot to get together, but we are really looking forward to that!

I have actually been very busy this week too, with my side job. It's always good when I have to work, because that means money. But on the other hand, some nights it's hard to be gone from my favorite boys! Like tonight…they both went and got much-needed-haircuts!!! I’ll have to show you a picture another day. (Jaxen just went to bed with some tylenol in his body, and vicks rubbed all over his chest.)

Jaxen has been carrying these three animals around the past few days, and does not go to bed without them. Their names are “Monkey” “Baby” and “Checkers”. Ha ha. I love this kind of stuff, and don’t want to forget it!


That is all for now. It is time to hang out with my cutie husband. He took care of Jaxen, made me brownies, did the dishes and took out the trash tonight while I was working. Good man!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Playing Catch-Up!

Here are our Sunday Selfies!



And a few other pictures of Jaxen from Sunday…



Sunday, at church, I was greeting - so I had Jaxen help me out.
(never too early…right?!)
He handed a bulletin to every person that walked in, and had the greatest time doing it!


One thing I learned from this little exercise…
People smile more when a cute little toddler hands them a piece of paper.
I hope that in some small way, God used Jaxen to brighten someone’s day on Sunday!

Once church was over - I loaded Jaxen and his stuff up in the Jewett’s vehicle, with their 3 boys…
and Jaxen never looked back! He was so excited to be going with his friends.

I received these 2 pictures that day… 
Jaxen wanted to do anything and everything those boys were doing!



Nik and I took off to Syracuse, NY, for our church’s annual District Assembly.


I love this picture of us, for some reason. Don’t know why…but I think we are precious!

Tuesday we had a rainy day. Which called for an umbrella.
And Jaxen is happy walking with his umbrella!



I absolutely love those pictures! He is too cute!

I will leave you with this last picture.
It cracks me up.

Here is the story behind it…

There have been some things we want to purchase for the summer that are not necessities.
And we just bought a car - so the money is not always there for those purchases.
So I have made a new challenge for myself…
To sell stuff and make money to buy those purchases!
Good plan, huh?!
Well, I sold my first thing on Craig's List, which allowed us to purchase our first “want”.
A Bike Carrier.
This will hook onto Nik’s bike and Jaxen can sit in it, while Nik rides his bike.
I think Jaxen will love going on bike rides with Nik!
But then we had to purchase a helmet for Jaxen too.
The picture above is him trying on his helmet the day it came in the mail.

Now…we just need nice weather so they can try it out!!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Life Lately (in pics) - Last Week

I know, I know, I know…I have been a BAD BLOGGER! Forgive me. We were out of town a couple of days and then I have yet to be home one night since we returned. I am currently taking “day shift” with Jaxen and then Nik has “night shift”. Not the best case scenario…but we are making it work for now!

On with my post. Keep in mind, this was our life last week. This week it was cold, rainy and even snowed today. (Sad face)

**********

Thursday night Nik and Jaxen went out for ice cream - And I was texted this pic:
Nik assured me that it was only one scoop - and Jaxen ate it all up!

Jaxen still loves his headphones  - and was actually clapping when I took this pic!

At our Tuesday Tot Time, Jaxen was playing so well with these two little girls.
Makes me happy to see my boy playing nicely - ha ha!

After babysitting, Jaxen decided he wanted to sit in the Bumbo Seat and play like Sadie.

Saturday we ran across a little area that let kids explore a Fire Truck and an Ambulance.
Jaxen loved the big trucks!
The above pic cracks me up for a number of reasons:
1. My kid needs a haircut.
2. His pants are high-water but I refuse to buy him new ones, because it’s almost “shorts” season.
3. He is wearing a super hero shirt, and won’t go near them.
(They had Spiderman, the Hulk and Batman there for the kids as well. 
Jaxen was scared of them!)

We also happened upon a garage sale with this little treasure:

It is an electric Mater-Truck. And Jaxen had the best time riding it!

He rode up and down our neighborhood multiple times and he thought he was the coolest thing ever!

For some reason, when I see him on it - 
He reminds me of a little old man going on his scooter to Wal-Mart. 
Not sure why that is the image I get…but it cracks me up!


If spring ever sticks around…we will have lots of fun with Mater!

Saturday, April 18, 2015

The Best and Worst Days

We have had the best and worst couple of days this week!

Best - I watched 2 sweet little girls Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - which meant that Jaxen had the best time playing with them all day, each day. And I didn't even mind the 40 min sharing session that I had to referee over the beloved doggie guitar. In case you are wondering, it went something like this:

Ok Leah, you can have it for 2 minutes. 
Jaxen wait. We are sharing. Wait. Don't touch. 
One more minute Leah. 
Wait Jaxen. We are sharing with our friends. 
Ok Leah, Jaxen’s turn. 
And on and on...! 

These 3 kiddos played the best together that I have seen them play. Usually there is a lot of taking toys away, or rough playing that results in injuries or something of that nature. But not this week! They got along great and Leah even said over lunch “Jaxen didn’t hit me! He gave me a big hug!” Proof right there, that there is improvement!

Although my time with Jaxen was split this week, I still had a good time keeping the girls. It is always great to see your kid happy and having fun! And there were a couple of times over the past two days where I was just so thankful (again / still) that I am able to stay home with my son. It is a wonderful privilege and one I don’t want to take for granted.

Here are some pics of them having some fun together -

They had a lot of fun with all of Jaxen’s toys. 
They were “new” to Leah - so that made everything better!

They decided to take pictures of me, since I was taking pictures of them.

Sadie did this every morning...

 The best part about the last 3 days - was that we could go outside and play!!!


 Sadie and I sat together while they played.

 They had fun laying on the floor and watching part of a movie after lunch.

Or “camping” under the rug!

 And they even went on “hiking adventures”!

I love this picture!

Their adventures were complete with a campfire.

 And then, of course, they had to “pretend” to get me wet!

I made them take a selfie with me!

Naptime on Thursday…I had all 3 kiddos sleeping at the same time!!!!
I felt like “Super Babysitter!"


Ok…on to the worst…

Worst - This probably started because Jaxen did not take a nap on Wednesday. I am used to being home every afternoon and giving Jaxen my full attention to his nap time. That is what I do. So throw in 2 extra kids and naps and I really didn’t know how to handle it. So 2 out of 3 kids got their nap. The napless kid screamed at me for 2 hours solid. Don’t roll your eyes and think I am exaggerating (which I do, a lot). This is no exaggeration. Just ask the 2 that (mostly) napped through his screaming!

It also had a lot to do with the fact that Jaxen has learned the word NO and uses it in every situation whether he means it or not. And uses it not-nicely (to say the least). So he would scream “NO” at me - at the top of his lungs - every time I opened my mouth. Needless to say, I was worn out and at a not very good place by the time Nik got home - then we had to eat dinner and head to church.

Jaxen was fine at church but when bedtime rolled around…the tantrums started again. The details are vague (probably a good thing to forget the majority of the night) but here is a quick recap for you: He was in bed late because he would not go to bed / Between Nik and I - we had multiple trips into his room once he was finally in bed because he was screaming his head off / He finally fell asleep only to wake shortly after midnight / And then did not go to sleep again until well after 3:30am / Nik and I were awake the entire time (I even cleaned a bathroom and did some laundry) / A number of things were thrown that night / And at some point he figured out how to climb out of his crib / I have no idea how and he only did it that one time!

All in all - a ROUGH NIGHT!

After a 24 hour period like that, you begin to reflect on some things:

1. I say NO too much - and have been trying to do better at “re-phrasing” some things.
2. This kid is mine and acts just like me. That is not always good!
3. Naps and sleep time are important and I need to continue to do my best to make it a priority.
4. Give myself some grace. It was one day.

So that was Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were back to the best of days!

I do have to say - Friday when the kids went home - I loaded up in my car and took off! I ran some errands that were neglected throughout the week - the most important being…a Sonic drink. I was gone a few hours and enjoyed my “me” and “quiet” time.


Happy Weekend! 
We are headed out of town tomorrow for District Meeting (no Jaxen). 
I have some other great pictures to share from our weekend, so I will try to do that soon!