Paxton at 2 1/2

Paxton turned 2 1/2 on February 27, 2014. This little guy brings so much laughter to our family. He is the "party animal" (as daddy likes to call him) of the family. Paxton can turn any situation into a silly one. He's always ready to play, laugh, tickle, tease, and love. He has a sweet and happy heart!

• Paxton's vocabulary has taken off! I was worried for awhile but now I can see that he will be just fine. He talks to me all day long about everything...says many things now but these are a few of my favorites, "love you", "brother", "Rowen" (rarely uses Roro), "Paxton", "tickle tickle", "show me" (means come with me, I have something to show you), says, "____________ so cute and so nice!" (Rowen, mama, dada, Grammy, Quinn, etc, etc), when asked if he's ok (after falling or getting hurt somehow) he says, "I fine", will find me to ask, "what you doin'?", has a very definite yet calm way of saying "no" when he doesn't want to do something
• pretty friendly- goes up to other kids to say "hi", talks to lots of adults who are friends or family
• gives mama lots of kisses
• doing more pretend play now, his cars will talk to each other and there is always a Mama and a baby in every play situation
• plays really well independently- for the most part :)
• misses big brother when he is at school, asks me, "where's Rowen?"
• says, "Dada at work" during the day
• says, "what Dada doin'?" "what Rowen doin'?" "what Grammy doin'?" when they are away 
• asks for cookies and candy several times a day- he has a major sweet tooth like his mama
• always waves to Rowen and blows him kisses when we drop Rowen off at school in the morning, sometimes yells "bye bye Superman!" as Rowen runs to the playground
• loves going to Cooper and Quinn's house to play, will YELL, "Cooper's house!" as we get in the car to go places
• adores Devri, he tries to leave with her when she leaves my house and he doesn't want to come home when I pick him up from her house
• every now and then sits on his potty chair while big brother cheers him on to go potty or poopy- so far nothing has happened but he sure has tried hard :)
•  wearing mostly 3T clothing, size 8 shoes
• is not a great sleeper- still!! wakes up once a night, crying for mommy
• will take a nap each day if I let him but then doesn't want to go to sleep until around 9-9:30 so I try to skip a nap most days so that he will be asleep by 8!
• still crazy in love with anything Lightning McQueen
• LOVES play doh! It is actually kind of a problem because he wants to play with play doh all day long and I just can't do that :).
• and like I said before he is always ready to laugh and make light of any situation- definitely our "party animal" :)

Rowen turns 6!

On December 27th, 2013 Rowen woke up to a few superhero decorations in the kitchen/dining area. Mommy made his favorite breakfast- monkey bread and bacon. Daddy, Mommy, and Paxton sang Happy Birthday to our incredibly clever, curious, sensitive, silly 6 year old.

Later that day we headed to Jump and Bounce where we met up with a few of Rowen's closest friends. The kids jumped and played for an hour before heading to Krispy Kreme for doughnuts (chocolate cake doughnuts from Krispy Kreme are Rowen's favortie!) and presents. Rowen is a very fortunate little boy to have so many amazing friends. Each one showed such kindness and generosity on his birthday.

That evening we invited family to our home for Rowen's favorite dinner, spaghetti and french bread (fettuccine and salad too) and more Krispy Kreme doughnuts and brownies and ice cream of course. Rowen opened more gifts from his thoughtful loving relatives.

A few days later Mommy gave Rowen another gift that Rowen had been asking for a long time- painting pottery together. We had a great afternoon spending some one on one time together and doing something Rowen loves- being creative and artistic :).

We love you more every moment, every day, every year Roro!

Gingerbread 2013

Gingerbread, our Elf On The Shelf, had a fabulous time exploring our new home throughout December. He arrived on December 1st with a special gift for the boys- matching Christmas jams! He continued to do all sorts of silly things while leaving and returning letters to Rowen. Gingerbread is great at acknowledging Rowen's positive behavior and answering all of Rowen's questions about Christmas, Santa, the North Pole, and many other random Christmas related things. Paxton was pretty much oblivious to the entire Gingerbread extravaganza this year. He seemed to notice him every now and then but wasn't too concerned or excited about him. Gingerbread is much beloved by Rowen so it was hard to say good bye on Christmas Eve, some tears were shed. However, of course we know he will be back again next year.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 started out with getting photos taken with Santa on the 23rd (with cousin Henry!) and a fun afternoon playing at Mobius with the Gill's.
Christmas Eve morning we spent at Grammy's house exchanging gifts and eating brunch along with Papa, Uncle TJ, Aunt Erin, and Henry. Later that day we went to Sky High to jump with the Gill's. After an hour of jumping our hearts out we went to the Gill's house for a delicious dinner and to exchange gifts between the cousins.
Christmas morning we spent in our new home. The boys opened their gifts right away from Santa and Mommy and Daddy. Then we ate monkey bread with Uncle Shon. The boys played with Uncle Shon for a few hours while Mommy and Daddy started to get ready for our Christmas dinner with Nana, Grandpa and Uncle Shon. Later that afternoon Nana and Grandpa came over and we exchanged gifts with them before eating another large, rich meal :). We ended the day watching The Grinch together.
Once again we were blessed with quality time with our family and watching our two boys marvel in the magic of Christmas.

December 2012

Leading up to Christmas 2013 we did so many fun, festive things.

CDA North Pole Cruise with Tim and Devri and our big kids, Rowen and Cooper.
It was a magical night. The boys were relieved to hear Santa call their names from his "nice list".

We enjoyed decorating our new house.

Rowen's class presented The Gingerbread Boy readers theater.

Rowen was the Gingerbread boy.

Papa and Rowen made our family's traditional Christmas cookies.

We spent our traditional Christmas Brunch at the Donnelly's house this year. The kids and dads played outside in the snow after we ate our delicious meal together.

All 6 kids in their jams.

Rowen created many Christmas crafts- sewing gingerbread boys and girls, making ornaments, drawing many pictures of Christmas trees, wreaths, snowmen, etc.

A few days before Christmas when T.J., Erin, and Henry arrived we painted all of the boys hands and made Santa hand prints.

Rowen and I went skiing a couple of times in December. He is becoming a great skiier!

Uncle Chris and Aunt Nina hosted our traditional Christmas cookie decoration and sledding day.

Both boys sang a solo at their Kindermusik Christmas party. Paxton "sang" a few random words that mostly included Lightning McQueen and Mama :).

What a blast we had throughout this entire month leading up to Christmas!