Medieval Times!

Paxton had so much fun on his first trip to Medieval Times.  We had Nana and Pops watch Blakely so we could give our undivided attention to our little man.  He got such a kick out of his crown and sword and loved watching the knights on their horses.  He rooted for and waived his flag for the black and white knight to the point that his flag came loose from the handle.  Paxton also enjoyed eating his meal medieval-style, with his hands.  If only he was allowed to eat like that at home...oh wait, he does.

Thomas the Train

Thomas the Train was in town and we knew Paxton would absolutely love to see him.  So, we bought our tickets and were off to Grapevine to ride the train.  Paxton was so excited.  On the shuttle to the train, all of the little kids were saying, "Thomas this" and "Thomas that"...the grin on Pax's face was so adorable, you could just see the excitement in his sweet facial expression.  He had so much fun meeting and riding on Thomas the Train.  He put his head out of the window and enjoyed the nice breeze blowing back on him.  We'll definitely have to bring him back next year when he's in town again!

More pics of our adventure at Thomas the Train can be found here

Broken Bow Tradition

We have a yearly tradition with some friends of ours to go to Broken Bow, OK each year.  Usually we go toward the end of the year, but this time we decided to go in March.  The weather was amazing!  This year, the Elias and the Boyd family joined us.  So, we had 6 adults and 7 kids.  It was so much fun watching all the rugrats running around having the time of their lives.  We rented a condo with a huge backyard area that included a swingset.  The kids loved that!  We tried to go fishing one day, but had no luck.  Then, at night, we had a huge camp fire and made smores...so delicious!

Evan and Paxton - best buddies

Miss Ashlynn - she is a great babysitter

Cole and his twin sister Lexi

Blakely taking a snooze

Sweet boys

Putt putt

Happy New Year!

We got to ring in 2013 with our sweet little kiddos!  Although both were sleeping, Blakely happened to wake up just in time for the ball to drop.  So blessed to have such an amazing family!

Christmas 2012

It snowed!

Instead of taking the kids to see Santa at the mall this year, we went to have breakfast with Santa.  Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman were there too.  They had a craft station and a place where you can mail letters to Santa...it was a neat set-up.  Paxton kept saying he wanted to go up to Santa and his friends, but every time he got close, he ran back to me and clung onto my leg.  Needless to say, Pax didn't get a picture with Santa this year :-(  Blakely did though, she had no problem with him.

Unlike last year, Paxton definitely recognized who Santa was now that he's older.  Every time he saw a billboard or an inflatable Santa in someone's yard, he'd be sure to point it out.  Alan was having a guy's breakfast at the Original Pancake House one morning with just him and Pax.  A rather large man with a white beard walked by their table and Paxton pointed and said, "SANTA!"  Not sure if the man heard him, but Alan sure got a kick out of it.  Pax was so cute, he would go around saying, “Happy Birthday, Jesus!”  Once we were at the grocery store, and he saw some big candles painted on the window.  When he spotted them, he acted like he was blowing them out and said, “Happy Birthday, Jesus!”  Love it!!!  (Video below)

We had a fun Christmas.  Other than being down with the flu, I made sure I didn’t miss our first Christmas as a family of four.  As we always do, we went up to my parents’ house on Christmas Eve and stayed through Christmas day.  Paxton and I baked some cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.  He had so much fun using cookie cutters and then frosting and decorating them with sprinkles.  I’m pretty sure he dumped the entire container of sprinkles all over the place.  We made a mess, but it was great!  Before he went to bed, he picked three of his best cookies and put them on a plate.  We poured a glass of milk and put that and the cookies out on the table for Santa.  In the morning, Paxton woke up and quickly remembered he had set the snack out for Santa, so he immediately asked me about it.  We went to the table, and Paxton was amazed that Santa had eaten most of the cookies and drank the milk.  He even left a letter for Paxton and Blakely!  Pax wasn’t too interested in what Santa had to say though, he just thought it was pretty cool that Santa liked his cookies.  Later on, Colby, Jayla, Carsyn, Carlie, and Cade came over.  Brad was already there at the house visiting from Texas Tech.  We all opened gifts.  Blakely and Cade slept through it all.  Paxton had fun opening a gift, and then insisting that we open the package and let him play with it.  We had to keep telling him to open the rest first.  The best thing about Christmas this year was that it snowed!!!

Santa was here!

"Happy Birthday, Jesus!"

"Cookies and Milk"

Look at the snowman I made!



Blakely meets Santa

She's not so sure about this Rudolph character

My first Christmas

Santa brought me a new drum set!



Here are some family pictures we took this year:

Silly cousins

The 5 cousins:  Carlie, Cade, Carsyn, Blakely, Paxton

"I'm two!"

Here are some more pictures from Christmas!

Ears Pierced!

I had been contemplating getting Blakely’s ears pierced for a while.  Do we do it now or do we wait until she can tell us she wants them?  Alan and I talked about it and agreed to get it done now for many reasons…one being that she wouldn’t remember the pain and another being that she wouldn’t mess with them at this young age, whereas when she’s older, she probably would and they’d get infected.  So, we found a reputable piercing studio and took our little 3 ½ month old to get her ears pierced.  We decided it would be her first Christmas gift.  We picked out some cute teeny tiny diamond earrings and the lady pierced her ears with a needle.  They assured us that it hurt less than getting a shot, thank goodness!  Blakely cried for only a minute.  She looks absolutely gorgeous with her new bling!  So proud of our little lady!



Sitting on mommy's lap, about to get her ears pierced




Look how beautiful they are on her!