Many Christmases

Here is a post that combines all our Christmases together. We all had a great Christmas and Jaxon got a ton of presents. Although I think Mommy had the best reaction when I opened up our Wii that we got from my parents! I was totally shocked and very excited. We have used it everyday since we got it. The other surprise was a new TV! My grandparents got it for us. They had won it from a raffle. Re-gifting is the best!
We all love getting new stuff but the best part was seeing the family and having fun together. We're games people so we played lots of games, watched movies and had a lot of laughs! Definitely a good break and what we needed.

Topeka Christmas
We went to Topeka December 19 to my mom's sister's, Aunt Janelle. Here are the pics. My Aunt has a daughter, Aidan, who is actually a few months younger than Jaxon so they always have a blast when they get together.

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve was at my parent's. We decided to not have the traditional meal (which for us is ham or turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetable, rolls, and dessert.) We had a pasta bar with different pastas and sauces, salad, garlic bread, and dessert. I love Italian (so you know who's idea it was). I loved it! Jaxon did too. He has inherited his mommy's love of carbs and ate 2 platefuls. Jaxon was so excited all day to open presents and didn't get a nap. I just tried to keep him occupied. We made Santa's cookies (another post) and played. After we ate he went and sat on the couch while the adults finished talking and fell fast asleep. Our tradition is to open the presents under the tree Christmas Eve then Santa comes in the morning with his gifts. We had the Christmas Eve service to go to at 7:30 so we planned to open presents before. I hated to wake him but all I had to say was presents and he was up. The youngest one always passes out gifts so I read them and Jaxon passed them out. After everyone has their presents then we take turns opening one present at a time starting with the youngest or oldest and go in age order. Since we have Jaxon we've been starting with the youngest because it's hard for him to wait. Jaxon was still kind of out of it so his reaction was as excited as he normally would be but he loved his gifts. He kept saying this is what I wanted!
My dad got a guitar from my mom and brother and also lessons from my brother, Dustin. Dustin didn't want to wrap it so he just went downstairs to get it. My mom and Blake were holding up a blanket so that Dad couldn't see it then they were going to drop the blanket so he could see. Right as my brother got up the stairs and they were about to drop the blanket the electricity went out. Good timing! My parents have a generator so we were able to finish opening presents and the electricity was back on after we got back from church.

Christmas Day

Jaxon was so excited when he woke up to see what Santa had brought him that we could hardly get the cameras and stuff together before he ran upstairs. He actually slept in until around 8 so it wasn't too early (bonus of sleeping in the basement). He was a bit more alert and excited about what he got. One of the biggest things was a fish tank so he can have some pets. He could hardly wait to get back to Satanta. Again, he got a ton of stuff that he loved.
I don't have a picture but my mom gave me and my brother our high school basketball uniforms in a frame which is really special to me. I don't want to get all sappy but for many reasons such as it was my favorite sport, my friends and I had many great times playing, Lewis High School is no more, etc...
Anyway, we all had a great Christmas and we must have been very good this year or at least we fooled Santa.

Granny's
Christmas Day we went to my Granny's for supper and our last Christmas! My dad's sister, Aunt Jan, and her kids, Faith and Tyler, came through the snow from Kansas City to celebrate with us. Jaxon was so excited to see Faith and Tyler. We had our traditional dinner - ham, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, salads, bread, and dessert. Yummy! We all got great stuff. Jaxon finally gave the reaction we all wanted. He was the most excited for... wait for it... drum roll... a SLINKY! Can you believe all the stuff he got and the thing he was the most excited for was a slinky?! Anyway, enjoy the pics!

'Tis the Season

Jaxonism:
"Tis the season to be lolly! Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!"

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! We are at my parent's house on the farm in Lewis and will be celebrating tonight with good food, presents, and Christmas Eve service. Tomorrow we'll get our presents from Santa and do more celebrating at my Granny and Papa's house (still on the farm).

Merry Christmas To All and To All a Good Night!

Church Christmas Program

Last Sunday, December 13 was our Church's Christmas Program. Blake was sick and had to give his part away. Jaxon had a speaking part this year. I really didn't think he would say it though because he wouldn't even practice it at home. But he surprised me and did a great job! The day of I finally got him to practice it but he had to have his paper in front of him so he could "read" it like the older kids did. He couldn't say it if he didn't read it.

The preschoolers did knock, knock jokes. Jaxon's joke:
Jaxon: Knock, knock
Audience: Who's There
Jaxon: Wayne
Audience: Wayne who?
Jaxon: Wayne in a manger

Notice in the pics that Jaxon picked the most colorful outfit because it had yellow in it. There are also some pictures of our family friend's daughter, Emilia. She looked so cute in her old lady hat. Her parents were helping with the program so I was helping watch her during parts of the program so we did a photo shoot to keep her happy.

Footsie Pajamas

As you have seen, Jaxon wears only his underwear at home most of the time and bedtime is no exception. He pretty much always just wears his underwear (or pull-up) to bed. So I was surprised awhile back when he dug out some old footsie pajamas that I had put away and wanted to wear them. I told him they didn't fit anymore but he didn't care and somehow squeezed into them. He wore them for awhile. I've always loved those kind of pajamas on kids so I got him some for Christmas. We'll see if he wears them or only wants the ones that don't fit. Here he is in the stretched out pajamas.

Christmas Jaxonisms

We went to Kansas City this weekend to see my mom's side of the family and see the lights at the plaza. We had a great time and I'll post pictures of that later. For now, before I forget, here are some Jaxonisms from this weekend.

"I'm freaking out!" ~ Jaxon while trying to ice skate with his feet going crazy while my brother and I tried to keep him from falling and also ourselves upright. You really had to hear him say it over and over.

Jaxon had been bugging us the whole trip to go swimming because he thinks that is what you do when you go to a motel. Ours had an outdoor swimming pool so we told him we couldn't go because it was too cold - we eliminated the other facts like we didn't bring his suit or ours, didn't want to go buy them, and we didn't have time. After going to breakfast one morning, we had to walk by the pool and there was a girl in a bikini in the hot tub and Jaxon said matter-of-fact, "I'm going to marry that girl."
I'm not sure if it was the fact that she was swimming like he wanted to or the bikini - since he's a guy probably the bikini.

Last but not least:
"I think I'm going to cry when I open all my presents from Santa Claus that I asked for because I'll be so happy."

Christmas Cookies

The same day we saw Santa, Jaxon wanted to make Christmas cookies for him. Since Christmas was still about 2 weeks away, I tried to explain that they wouldn't keep very well. He wasn't having it but I finally got him convinced that we were practicing so it would be ok to eat them. He loved the eating part so it was ok.
Here are the pics of us making sugar cookies. I have all my cookies cutters stored together so inside he found not only Christmas cutters but also Halloween, Valentine's and Easter so you'll have to see if you can find any.

Christmas Visit

Last Saturday Santa came to Satanta! Jaxon was so excited and told me he was going to sit on Santa's lap and ask for a robot and baby sister. When we got there he was really watching other kids go before him in line but when it was our turn there was no way he was going to sit on Santa's lap. He would barely let me hold him beside him. He likes Santa but will not sit on his lap ever since he was a baby. I don't think I have one Santa picture with Jaxon on his lap except his very first and he was crying there. Oh well. Here are pics getting as close to Santa as we could and the community building.

Santa arriving


Watching other kids.


Some family friends, Ella and Emilia, with Santa.


We tried to get him to go with another friend, Alex, but he wouldn't even go with her.

Caramel Recipe

A lot of people have asked for my carmel recipe so here it is:

Caramels:
1 stick margarine
1 stick butter
1 c. white karo syrup
1 box brown sugar - 2 1/3 c.
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 t. vanilla

Microwave - This are approximates and you need to use a candy thermometer to go by the temps more than the time.

Cook margarine/butter on high - 2 minutes
Add syrup, brown sugar, and milk - stir well

Cook on high - 6 minutes
Stir
Cook on high - 6 minutes
Stir
Cook on high - 6 minutes or to temp of 220 - 240 degrees

Add vanilla and stir
Pour in well buttered flexible 9 x 13 pan (metal not glass)

Cool - put on board
Cut in pieces with pizza cutter then wrap in wax paper.

You can keep these even longer if you put in the fridge or freezer.

"My Best Buddy"

We put up a blow-up snowman in our front yard and Jaxon calls it his best buddy. Every day when we come up he wants to put up his best buddy. So he turns the switch and watches him blow up. Then every night he has to put him to sleep before he goes to sleep.
Here he is with his best buddy:




We also painted a sign to put out in our front yard. We all worked on it together so here are some pics of Jaxon helping and then with it outside.

Santa Letter

Jaxon wrote his letter to Santa last week. It was so cute. He wanted to write it himself so he was scribbling and saying out loud what he wanted. Mommy typed up a letter to send to Santa and I kept the one that he wrote to keep. He asked for a baby sister, Bumblebee Transformer robot, and a fish. He also told Santa he loved him and so did Mommy and Daddy.







His letter:


Mailing it

Christmas Outfit

Here is Jaxon with his dress-up clothes we got for Christmas time. He picked them out online and loved them. He kept asking me when they were coming in and wore them a lot at first. Here he is at Grandma's house and decided to accessorize with it.





With Grandma

Old Friends

Over Thanksgiving break, we got to see one of my childhood friends Adraina (Castaneda) Holopirek and her family. Adraina and I grew up together and even ended up both going to Emporia State University. We were both pregnant at the same time and were hoping to have girls together but Jaxon showed his stubbornness early and decided he'd be a boy instead - ha ha! So here are some pics of the Jaxon and Maddie when they were first born and over this Thanksgiving. Maddie is about 2 1/2 months older than Jaxon. Their second daughter is McKynzie. Maddie was more shy around Jaxon than McKynzie was but Jaxon really liked Maddie and thought she was cute.

Here is like 4 days after Jaxon was born.






This was when Jaxon was about 3 months old.




This Thanksgiving when they're 4.


All Three