Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Jaxen - take 2

I posted my last post (about Jaxen) a bit too soon…

Since then, he has been to the dentist and has come away with a few very small cavities. We are going to try to correct those cavities ourselves (didn’t know you could do that) and go back in 3 months. Here’s to flossing (his teeth are still separated…not sure how this is supposed to go…) and a new mouthwash!

On another note…last weekend, Jaxen got to hang out with our friends, the Clardies, all by himself! And he had a blast. They sent me some pics of his time there. So here you go!









So cute, right?!


Sunday, November 26, 2017

All About Jaxen

Let’s see…what do you need to know about Jaxen right now?

First off, we will start with my most recent favorite he brought home from school:

Psu = Pizza.
I just love it!

He knows all of his letters and can write them. However, he sometimes writes them backwards when he is writing ‘words’. If he writes them individually, he gets them correct. He is also learning some sight words and wants to spell everything. I can tell he is really learning a lot right now at school, but school is not his favorite anymore. In his words, “it makes me exhausted.” And it does. He is so tired every night. We have his bed time about as early as we can get it. But he is just tired. I try to let him catch up on his rest during the weekends - but it doesn’t always help.


Jaxen recently told me he loves Zane because “he is so soft and squishy!” You should see him loving on Zane…all he wants to do is cuddle and touch his cheeks and Zane does not care for it one bit! Jaxen gets defensive “Zane…I’m just trying to hug you!”

A magnet with a painting Jaxen did at school, with his picture and facts about him on it:
I am in kindergarten
I love all of the colors
My favorite foods are cheese tortillas, pizza and McDonalds
I want to be a police officer when I grow up
I love to play with my nerf guns
I am Jaxen

Jaxen really loves doing crafts. Any kind. He constantly wants me to put together “centers” for him. Basically, craft stations he can rotate through. I’m really trying to think of ways to encourage him in this area (and I’m not the craftiest person to do so) but when he had to decorate a turkey for Thanksgiving he kept saying how he was no good at it. And how the other turkey’s his classmates brought in were so much better than his. And you could tell it really bothered him! That hurt my heart. I told him being creative came in many different forms and not everyone was creative in the same way. We worked through it…and this is how he wanted to decorate his turkey:


And it was pretty cool, because I got to see his turkey on the wall at school!


I got to meet Jaxen for lunch one day last week for their Thanksgiving lunch and I had the best time! I met him in the hallway and got in the lunch line with him. He showed me his little routine….

picking 2 drinks

getting your main course

getting the sides himself

and then sitting down with his friends, eating!

I enjoyed my time with him so much!
It was fun to be with him, in his element. And I think he enjoyed it too!

Jaxen’s favorite place to eat is Taco Bell. He loves the mini quesadillas (minus meat, minus sauce). Basically, a cheese tortilla. But Taco Bell’s are the best. Ha!


And lastly, his school picture!


Here’s a look back…
top left = age 2; top right = age 3
bottom left = age 4; bottom right = age 5



Friday, November 24, 2017

Turkey Day Recap

Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Shopping (maybe…for some of your Black Friday shoppers)!

We dropped Jaxen off with some friends for the weekend
and then Nik, Zane and I hit the stores up!
Well…one store, then lunch with friends, then 2 more stores.
We really only looked at one ad and was not serious “Black Friday Shoppers”
like we have been in the past.
We went when the crowds were down (some) and just had a great time!
Anyone else have a pile of stuff to return?
I do! Haha!
Really, because I bought 2 sweaters and didn’t try them on in the store,
then got home, put them on and didn’t like them.
Oh well.

Anyway…
Here is how our Thanksgiving Turkey Day went down….

Wednesday night I made this Peanut Butter Pie,

and this beauty of an Apple-Pecan Pie! Both were yummy!

Thursday we were awake by 7 and eating cinnamon rolls while watching the parade by 8am.

I made this Broccoli Salad that morning,

snapped a quick pic of Nik and I,

and was out the door by 10:45am to go to the Robbins for lunch!

Our menu included:
Bacon-wrapped breadsticks (my favorite from the day)
Butter-Herb (or something amazing) Turkey & Gravy
Apple-Pecan Stuffing
Sweet Potato Balls
Green Bean Casserole
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Broccoli Salad
Fried Corn
Rolls

I think that was it!

It was delicious - Diane is one of the best Holiday cooks!!!

We ate lunch, cleaned up and then headed back to our place for 
dessert, football and Christmas Crafts.
Yes that’s right. 
Jaxen wanted to have Christmas Craft Stations.
So we had stuff to make Christmas Cards, Snowflakes and decorate Stockings.

It was a fun day with friends!

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Our Anniversary - 15 years

Last week Nik and I celebrated 15 years of marriage!


My day started with Nik cooking me breakfast, 
starting (and scraping the frost off) my car…then continued with
lunch out (Thai food), flowers (for home) and a plant (for my office)….then continued with
a wonderfully cooked dinner (hamburgers) and ice cream out!


Friday night our friends, the Chandlers, agreed to keep the boys!
So Nik and I headed out for a fun date night and morning.
I very much enjoyed my time with Nik
and all the little thoughtful things he did to make our 15th Anniversary a great one!

And in keeping with our 15 years of marriage,
here are 15 reasons why I love Nik (in no particular order):

 He is kind
 He puts gas in my car for me
 He is patient with me 
He charges my toothbrush when it gets low (before I even notice it is low)
 He initiates hugs
 He cleans the house and does laundry
He brings me Sonic “treats” (a drink) a couple times a week
 He makes me laugh
 He tells me he loves me all the time
 He knows how to grill yummy meat
 He supports and encourages me
 He loves our boys big
He works hard at showing me he loves me
 He is always up for an adventure
He loves road trips


We both work hard at our marriage. 
Marriage is fun. and hard. and easy. and tough. 
Marriage is full of love. and forgiveness.
And it is worth it!

I am thankful God gave me Nik for these past 15 years.
And I pray we have 15+ more years together!


Sunday, November 12, 2017

Transitioning - Part 2

In these “transitioning posts" - I will be answering the following (common) questions
I have been asked a few times:

How is Jaxen transitioning to his new school?
How is Zane transitioning to Nik being at home instead of Carla?
How is your family transitioning from small town to city?
How is your family transitioning from a house to an apartment?

I have already answered the following question in Part 1:
How are you transitioning into working full time from being a stay-at-home home?

and (today)...

How is Nik transitioning to being home full time and taking care of the boys?

Considering Nik has held a job since he was 15…this transition has been a little weird, I guess is the best way to describe it. After we moved to KS, we both knew that Nik needed to take it easy for awhile. To try and keep the stress and anxiety at bay. To get some rest and take some time to get healthy (he had some blood levels that were out of whack), and that is what he has done! For the most part, anyways. It is a little bit hard, because he is up at least once every night with one of our boys (some times both and sometimes multiple times). That just makes for a tired person - when you can’t sleep through the night. (I do take one or two nights a week, being up with the boys to give him a break). None the less, he is a bit tired! 

I think he has enjoyed the extra time with the boys - especially Zane. They have a great little routine down each day and Zane is smitten with his daddy. I think it’s been good for them both to have that time together. Nik got some good time when Jaxen was younger and I’m glad he gets to have this time with Zane.

Nik does all the things. He grocery shops, runs errands, takes and picks Jaxen up from school, cooks dinner, cleans the apartment, laundry….seriously. All the things! And he is great at it. No complaints. He lets me know if there is something he needs me to do, or I ask how I can help him - but really - he is the one keeping things running on the home front. I’m so grateful for that!

The hard part is the lack of outside communication. We are still new here and don’t have many friends and there are not “Daddy/Baby Play Days” (although I’m looking into a few possible ideas). So he gets a bit lonely (he is a very social person). We do try to have our friends over some for dinner, or travel to see another set of friends, or Rusty and him will get together and watch football - so that helps!

So overall, Nik would say he has transitioned well and enjoys being home with the boys!


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Road Trip - Springfield

This past Friday night we took off to Springfield, MO. Nik dropped me off outside of Second Baptist Church around 6:30pm, where I met up with my friend, Misty, for the Fresh Grounded Faith Conference. It was really a good conference. Pictured below are the  main people who were there as speakers and singers (from left to right):

Some Australian guy (?), Jennifer Rothchild, Liz Curtis Higgs, 
Candace Cameron Bure, The Getty’s (married couple). 

While I was at the conference, Nik and the boys hung out with the rest of the Clardie family
 and even went to Krispy Kreme (while the light was on) Saturday morning!

That weekend we also celebrated Misty’s birthday! 
Chad made great food and amazing blueberry cake with blueberry icing 
and some kind of blueberry compote in the middle. 
Amazing!

We had a fun weekend with the Clardies and we are looking forward to seeing them a bit more often 
(now that we only live 3 hours away)!

Before we left on Sunday, Jaxen and Zane were playing in the leaves and 
Ciersyn and Caidyn caught some great pics…






We then realized that Misty and I had not taken any pics together -
so we got our picture taken too!

We were home by 5pm and the boys were in bed around 6pm…
they were exhausted!

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Road Trip - Texarkana

This past weekend, we took a road trip down to Springfield, MO. It was great and I will blog about it soon(ish). But before I do that - I thought I better blog about the road trip Nik, Jaxen and Zane took a few weeks ago :)

Jaxen was out of school for a few days and so Nik took the boys down to Texarkana. They left on a Wednesday (1/2 day of school) and came home Sunday. They had a great time seeing everyone! Jaxen and Zane both loved the time with their cousins (and aunt, uncle and grandparents)…but I think the cousins were their favorite! Haha! Here is a few pictures that were captured during their time there...










Fun times! I think we are all happy that this most recent move of ours got us closer to both our families - and we look forward to many more road trips!