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Happy 2nd birthday Jaxson!!!

Thomas the train cake

Not sure what is going on with all of us singing happy birthday to him!

Excited now to try and blow out his candles!

examining his presents!

We threw a birthday party for Jaxson on Sunday December 14th even though his real birthday is December 20th. Since we will be out of town for the holidays this was the best time to do it. I didn't get to do a real party for his 1st birthday since Nick was really busy during residency and I felt kind of bad about that. Dylan has had a party every single year. We decided to invite our friends over that have little ones close to Jaxson's age and who Jaxson spends a lot of time with. He likes to give my friends hugs and kisses and they are kind of like his second family so I am glad we had them to help us celebrate! We had pizza for the kids and Nick and I made chinese burritos for the adults. We also had some sides people brought to make for a delicious meal! Jaxson loves having kids over and was really happy the whole time. When he saw his cake he kept trying to grab the train off. He has gotten really into Thomas the train lately so I just had to get that cake! Dylan was really excited for Jaxson's party. He took it upon himself to open all of Jaxson's presents for him. I barely even got a chance to get pictures because I didn't know Dylan had started opening gifts! It was so funny to see Jaxson sitting on the couch surrounded by kids and having all the presents dumped on his lap! We also had balloons and treat bags for the kids, but half the balloons popped thanks to my popcorn ceilings! I don't think they cared too much most of the time they were all just running around being crazy. I am so glad we did this party for him and everything went smoothly! I am now wondering what I am going to do for Dylan when he has his birthday in February!

Happy Halloween!!!

Before Halloween a few friends and I got together and spray painted pumpkins. My friend and I got this idea from a magazine and it turned out to be pretty cute!

The girls. From left to right: Melanie, Angel, Jodi, me, Kara, and Erin

The guys. From left to right Greg, Nick, James, Zack, and Eric

Dylan showing off his ninja skills

My little pumpkin

Excited to go trick or treating!

Nick and some friends took the kids trick or treating in our neighborhood

Jaxson taking a little break to see what he got. He walked the entire time without being carried!

Some of our delicious treats for the party

We had a chance to have a little Halloween get together at our house this year. We had been planning on going to the big Halloween carnival at the Baptist church down the street but unfortunately it was canceled! We had originally planned to meet at my house since I live closest to the church, but since it wasn't happening anymore we decided the party must go on! The kids got a lot of candy going around the neighborhood, and we had a fun time hanging out and eating what everyone made! A lot of the food came from the same magazine as the pumpkin idea. We had a meeting before Halloween to decide what everyone was making. I made "the cheese ball" which was actually more of a dessert served with ginger snaps. Of course it wouldn't have been complete without the googly eyes you put all over it! I wish I had a close up picture since it was a fun thing to make for Halloween. Everything was really good and our friends brought stuff to make italian sodas which are always good! Our kids loved getting to dress up and even Jaxson got the hang of things pretty quickly. He loved getting candy and that was all he wanted to eat after Halloween. I put his basket on top of our fridge so he couldn't grab the candy out but every morning he would point to it and beg me for candy. He loves chocolate especially. He would seriously only eat candy all day if I let him! I wonder where he got his sweet tooth from? :)

An update.. FInally!

Dylan's last day of preschool

T-ball game

Trying to play tennis after swimming

Jaxson loves swimming!

Gulf shores Alabama

Playing in the sand

Dylan like to use his spider-man goggles and flippers at Lake powell

Jaxson on the boat

Nick showing off his skills

Dylan and his cousin loved tubing

First day of kindergarten!

I'm not sure if anyone still reads my blog anymore since I fell off the face of the earth for five months, but I decided to update anyways! I will try and sum up the past few months without making this post too long. We had a great summer and it went by really fast. Dylan went to a couple of bible camps, sports camp, basketball camp, and got a chance to play T-ball for the first time. He also went to an all day karate camp. Needless to say I was trying to keep him busy when preschool was over! Jaxson loves the water and has no fear when it comes to jumping in a pool (a little scary)... Nick had a great schedule since he was on an a nice rotation. He was done early every day, off on weekends, and took no call! It has been really nice. I went and bought a sewing machine this summer and made a couple projects. Never thought I would take up sewing but it I had to keep up with all the girls around here that sew for fun! We took a trip to gulf shores in August and we all loved the beach! There was white sand and the water was great! We hope to make some more beach trips while we are out here! We also flew out to Utah and made a trip to Lake powell for a few days. Dylan impressed us all by water skiing behind the jet ski like a pro! I was able to get up on the wake board even though it had been a long time since trying it. Dylan is also in kindergarten this year! He had been doing really well and enjoys it even though it is a long day for him. He leaves at 8:30 and comes home at 4:30 so it is a long day for him. The only other update I have is that I am pregnant! I am fourteen weeks along right now and it started off as a great pregnancy but then the morning sickness hit me strong when I was almost 11 weeks. I hope it all goes away soon! Besides that my only other complaint would be the extreme fatigue which has let up this past week. I am hoping this last baby is a girl but if not, I will just have to adjust to the idea of having three boys. I need to also adjust to the idea that Jaxson and this baby will be a little under 2 1/2 years apart yikes!!!

Nashville, Easter, check ups, and soccer!

Us at the museum of country music

A really pretty park our tour bus stopped at

monument

A picture of the capital

Grandpa and the boys

Cool bar

Us at the grand ole opry

Graceland

When we got back to Memphis we saw Graceland

Nick's parents came out for a visit so we headed down to Nashville for the weekend. It was really fun and I thought it was a nice city and really pretty. We did a lot while we were there and I hope we can go back more often just for a change of scenery. When we got back we went to Graceland which I really liked. There was a lot of Elvis history there and surprisingly Dylan was really into it too. Everyone always asks us if we have been there when we travel and people know we are living in Memphis. Now we can say we have been!

Easter Sunday

Easter was pretty good this year. After Church I wanted to get some pictures but Jaxson fell asleep on the way home. He didn't even wake up when I put him on the coach for a picture! Unfortunately after Jaxson's nap I didn't get any nice pictures since it started pouring rain outside. My friend Starla invited us over as well as a few other families for easter dinner. It was fun spending easter with all of our friends and playing games afterwards!

Easter Egg hunt at Dylan's preschool

Ready to collect some eggs!

Jaxson figures out what to do pretty fast

Jaxson was scared of the easter bunny but Dylan was willing to let me get a picture!

Easter Egg Decorating

Dylan showing off his finished Easter eggs!

Dylan had fun coloring Easter eggs. Unfortunately I thought it might be a dangerous idea for Jaxson to participate. I actually got some dye on myself trying to help Dylan. Maybe Jaxson can get his chance next year!

Doctor check up and shots!

Hiding from the doctor

Playing around

Happy to get some stickers and a pencil after the dreaded shots!

Bowling that evening as promised for cooperating at the doctor!

Dylan and Jaxson were both due for check ups and immunizations. I was really nervous for this visit. The last time Dylan needed a flu shot we had to hold him down and he freaked out big time. I mean he was screaming like the nurse was cutting off his leg. So I knew this time he needed like four or five shots and I didn't know how to get him to be good. I heard a couple horror stories from friends which made me even more nervous. One friend had her little girl try to grab the needle which cause the needle to slice her and she needed stitches. Another friend's daughter actually kicked the nurse in the stomach! I decided to warn Dylan this day was coming a couple months in advance. I told him if he was good which meant we didn't have to hold him down and if he didn't start screaming we would take him bowling that evening. We talked about this a lot and he was excited for his shots until it was time of course. I reminded him he was allowed to cry but that was all. To my surprise he sat still and allowed the nurse to give him his shots and he was upset of course but I didn't have to restrain him or make him or worry about screaming. Jaxson did really good too. The funny thing is in addition to the shots he needed a finger prick which he was not prepared for. I had to sweeten the deal by throwing in a milk shake after the visit. I guess bribery is necessary sometimes! I plan on doing this next time he needs shots!

Go Hawks!!!

Dylan excited to play

Jaxson on his "leash" is the only way to get through a game

Dylan and his buddy insisted I get a picture of the back of their shirts!

Spring soccer has been going on since March and Dylan's team is called "The Hawks" I love their uniforms and we actually had to buy Dylan new cleets cause his feet grew a couple sizes since last year! The problem with spring soccer is nearly every game gets rained out! Practices have been rained out too! I guess that just goes with spring time. At least there are make up games!

PS: I can't believe I slacked on my blog so bad. I mean my last post was two months ago! I felt like we have had a pretty busy past couple months so that will be my excuse! I now need to check everyone elses blogs and see what I have missed. I can't believe we have been here a year already it has gone by so fast!

Who are you and what have you done with my child?

Dylan has not liked any green vegetables since he hit the toddler stage (except for peas which he barely tolerates) and he is usually pretty outspoken about it too. We have tried to get him to eat salad before but he usually gets a repulsed look on his face and then spits it all out. Well today I was eating a bowl of salad for lunch and he suddenly began asking me if he could have some too. I sprinkled some cheese on there and poured on some ranch dressing (his request) and gave it to him. I have to admit I was skeptical. I thought he might try and find a way to eat the ranch but not the salad. To my surprise he took a big bite and said "I love it!!!" Besides the green veggies he has always disliked eggs, any kind of melon, and peanut butter. In the past few months he has decided he loves eggs. So now we are just down to melon and peanut butter. Maybe there is hope for him after all!

Quick Recaps

Snow Day!

A couple weeks ago it actually snowed quite a bit here in Memphis. When I say quite a bit that means a few inches that actually stuck around for a day instead of melting instantly. Dylan really wanted to make a snow man and luckily Nick was home to help him out. I didn't buy Dylan any snow boots so I put my boots on him. He was wearing so many layers of pants the boots didn't fall off when I zipped them up! Dylan was so proud of his snow man but it unfortunately melted away by then next day! I'm glad we got at least one good snow day here in Memphis, so he could play in it!

Bowling

A couple weekends ago we went bowling with our friends James and Kara. We hadn't been bowling in a long time. Besides the fact I sucked worse than normal it was still a fun time. Nick took a bowling class at Utah state so he is decent at bowling. I really need to learn how to bowl so I don't embarrass myself next time we go with other people!

Party!

A couple weeks ago we planned a birthday party for my friend Whitney. It was supposed to be a surprise but that morning Whitney went over to Emily's house and she was in the process of baking her cake. Whitney smelled it and knew what was up. We had a great cake and played a few rounds of a game called Spoons. Her and Emily's sue dates are a day apart and we were trying to figure out who has the bigger belly. Those things on their chest are Survivor buffs (from the show) and no I am not sure why they are around their chests lol. Anyways just thought I should explain that picture! We had a fun night!