Merry Christmas!

Jaxon

Jaxon has given us two scares recently. First with a skull fracture and then stitches in his tongue. (both from falls -- he's okay now) He is such an adventurous kid. But sweet and loving too!

This is his costume from his Thanksgiving feast at preschool. They brought their favorite snack and ate it while they heard stories and wore costumes. They got to choose to be a Pilgrim or Indian. I asked him a couple of days ago which one he was going to be a pilgrim or an Indian, and he said, “A duck!” I thought maybe he meant a turkey… So when I picked him up I found out he had chosen to be an Indian and he named himself “Dancing Duck”

He says the kids’ names with Y’s, except for Jonah.. it's Yacey, Yaren, Yaxon, and Nonah.

The other day Jaren was standing in front of the TV and Jaxon couldn’t see. Jaxon all the sudden yells, “MOVE OUT!” It just sounded so funny even though it’s not very polite. I have tried to teach him to say, “Excuse me” or “Could you please move,” so we’ll keep working on it.

Another thing that he started saying a few months ago during his prayers was: Please bless Jesus to be good in Heaven. I didn’t know where he had learned it, and his nursery teacher told me that he has the sweetest prayers. I asked her if that was something she taught him and she said no. Then I was helping Jonah practice for his Primary Sacrament Program part and he was supposed to talk about when Jesus comes again. I was saying something about Jesus coming again and Jaxon got so excited and said, “Jesus is coming??” almost like he was coming to our house for dinner. I said yes he will come someday. Now he sometimes prays that Jesus will come someday and that we can go to heaven someday too.

And he always prays for the Nish-you-dairies (otherwise known as the missionaries)

The other morning I asked Joe to help me get something. Jaxon said, “I’ll do it!”
I said, "It’s up high, so you won’t be able to reach it. "
He replied, “Maybe we can work together. I’ll sit on Dad’s shoulders.”
So he did and they got the job done!

Jaxon loves wearing his hand-me-down cowboy boots. One day he had his boots on and we were on our way out the door. I asked him if he had put socks on, and he said yes. When we were driving in the car he said, "Actually, I put on my invisible socks , Mom." He still likes to wear his 'invisible socks' with his cowboy boots more often than not.

We Love You Jaxon!

Jaxon Preschool

Jaxon started a two day a week preschool. He only goes for 2 1/2 hours, but it's enough for him to have some fun with new friends and gives me some time. I have been volunteering at the elementary library for 1-2 hours a week. That has been fun. It took a few times before he was willing to say goodbye, but now he practically runs in. He will get to go on a few field trips and he's excited about riding in a bus!

Three down...one to go :)

First day of school

6th grade (middle school)

4th grade

Kindergarten

Three kids started school today. One kid was very happy to have me to himself.
(Maybe I should help him get dressed :) )

A Great Date

I gave Joe two Rangers tickets for Father's Day. I'm glad he picked me to go with him (that was my plan all along) We had a couple in our ward babysit, and we were gone for a full 5 1/2 hours. :)

It was a great night. It wasn't too hot and the time went by way too fast.

We even stayed for a fireworks show afterwards. It just made me realize that we need to get out more. :)

Mom's Visit

My mom came and stayed for a week. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice to have her here. (and not just because she helped with the kids and the cleaning and the weeding and planting flowers and the laundry and all the other stuff! :)) We checked out a museum while she was here, and got Jacey's room all set up, and just had fun. The weather was still nice so it wasn't too hot outside.
Thanks Mom!
Come back any time! :)

Swimming Party

The boys wanted to have a "swimming party" in my bathtub. They had tons of fun swimming and the rug in front of the tub was soaked when they were done.

Jacey turned 9

Jacey had her 9th birthday on the 26th of May.

We went to Chuck E Cheese on Memorial Day (the day before her birthday):

We also painted her room and she got a new bed, dresser, and nightstand.

When my mom came to visit she helped us get the room all set up.

School got out..

My mom came down to visit a few days before school got out. Jonah "graduated" from 5th Grade! I can't believe he will be in middle school next year! Jaren "graduated" from preschool and will start Kindergarten. Here are some pictures of the end of the year parties and graduations...

Ducks

When I opened the kitchen blinds this morning this is what I saw....It caused quite a stir with the kids when I said, "There are ducks in our yard!" They ran from the table where they were eating breakfast to watch the ducks. Jacey even brought Jamaica (our cat) to see. She wanted to go out and 'meet' them. One duck started across the street and the other two followed. Then someone walking past scared them away. And we went back to eating breakfast and fixing their lunches for school.

Preschool

I can't believe there's only a month left of school. I had a Parent Teacher Conference for Jaren this week (I know, a PTC for preschool??). The teacher gave me some of Jaren's work and I thought his self portrait was so cute! The first one he did back in September at the beginning of the year. The next one was done this week. There is improvement: more detail, arms, hair, background, etc. He has really learned a lot and has had a lot of fun. He will miss preschool in the summer, but is very ready to go to Kindergarten and be like Jonah and Jacey.

The Yacht

Joe had to travel for work last week. He was in Florida working on a Yacht! A 198 foot yacht!

the yacht had a glass elevator for it's 4 levels.

Where the yacht was docked

Update

It's been a while since I posted any thing. There was a lack of photos between the February Birthdays and Easter. I suppose it might be from the lack of major holidays. I have put together a couple of collages from the past few months; mostly Easter :)

Coloring Easter Eggs:


On the hunt...



Easter Sunday:

Jaren had a "Spring" party that strangely seemed like an Easter Party :)

We spend 3 or 4 days at the park after school when the weather is nice. I happened to have my camera on the day that Jaren had his school party so I snapped some pictures.

Popcorn Popping!

We have a popcorn tree! The kids are very excited every time we look out the window :) I have learned this is a Bradford Pear tree... not an apricot tree... but I didn't know that we had flowering tree in front of our house since we moved in the summer. All over the city we have popcorn trees... even pink popcorn and purple popcorn. They are so pretty to see and we get to sing the song over and over.

We also have dandelions, bees, and other pretty flowers coming up!! It's Spring!
We are supposed to be in the low 80's today!

Airport and Going Home

Our flight was delayed a half an hour because of the snow, so we stayed to visit with Grandpa for a little bit. Grandpa had the good idea to tag the kids with luggage labels so if they got lost someone would know who they were! I'm going to do that from now on when we fly, although I'd rather they just not get lost!We walked around to wear out the kids. They liked the moving sidewalks. :)
We played on escalators, and elevators, gave piggy back rides, went on the moving sidewalks again, and the elevators again, but after one of the kids pushed the 'alarm' button and sent an airport worker to meet us when the doors opened at the bottom, we were done with the playing around. We decided we'd better get through security and grab some lunch before we took off.

The plane ride home went well after we sat on the plane for 45 minutes while it was de-iced. The kids worked on their make-up work that they needed to hand in the next day. (Funny how we hadn't even thought about it the whole trip) Jaren was happy and Jaxon was WIPED OUT! He slept almost the entire flight! It was nice. I guess going to bed late every night and playing all day with cousins and grandparents will do that to you.

We saw this cute bear at the airport...

This is the tallest escalator I've ever seen! I admit I don't get out much, but I was pretty amazed by how tall it was. (I don't know why anyone would pick to take the stairs next to it!)

We had a great trip and it always makes us wonder why we live so far away. We will be back to visit soon I'm sure. Until then....

SNOW!

The snow was beautiful! Although it seemed more like Christmas than February. It just kept falling! I got some pictures: here's one of my favorites.

The kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. It was great!

Jaren's Birthday!

Jaren woke up to SNOW on his birthday! It came down all morning long! We were packing and getting ready to go to the airport. He was excited to fly on his birthday. He got one present in Utah, and then when we got home he got to open some more. Like Jaxon, he got a little shorted on his birthday because we were traveling, but we tried to make it special anyway. We got home late on his birthday so he didn't even get a birthday dinner (unless PB&J's count) or a cake. So we will finish celebrating his birthday on Saturday!

Jaren is very thoughtful of others. He is sweet and caring and says the most sincere prayers! I can't believe he's 5 already! He is VERY excited to start Kindergarten next year and be like his older brother and sister!

Happy Birthday Jaren!

Draper Temple

We were able to go to the Draper Temple Open House. We had a group of 25 of us. It was so beautiful inside. The wood work and chandeliers were amazing! My kids were so excited to go and see what it was like inside. Jonah and Jacey both said it was different than what they always imagined the temple to be. Other favorite parts were the cookie refreshments and the bus ride up to the temple! :)