Thanksgiving 2011

I have a wonderful Thanksgiving week this year. I got to start it out by spending the weekend before Thanksgiving with my grandma in Illinois. I had been wanting to go visit her for awhile and I was so excited to spend this time with her. I got to see most of my dad's side of the family and met several of my grandmother's friends. I don't get to see her much, but she and my aunt are two of my very favorite people! I missed my kids, but it was so nice to focus on spending time with my grandma and not chasing the kids. I hope to go back to visit very soon! I got back late Monday night (waiting for my luggage at the airport is a whole other post, ugh).
I didn't get a chance to take pictures while I was there, but this is a picture of my grandmother and her 5 kids many moons ago. My grandfather died about a year and a half ago, but I would have given anything for him to have been there for me to spend time with as well. Oh how I wish heaven had phones....

We didn't do much on Tuesday other than clean the house and hang out. I missed my kids so it was nice to have a day just to hang out. On Tuesday, we went up to the church to assemble and deliver Thanksgiving baskets to families in need. It was a great lesson to the kids and a great "others" activity. After that, I went to see Breaking Dawn with some of my dear friends. We had a great time!

On Wednesday, I took Connor and Jaxson on a day date. We went to see "Puss in Boots" and ate at Ruby Tuesday. It was nice to concentrate on them since Kaden and Halle demand so much of my time.

On Thursday, we got up, got ready and went to Tony and Debbie's house for lunch. We spent a couple of hours with them and PawPaw and MawMaw. Brock and Blake went to the Aggie/UT game so when they left, we left to go to to Tracie's house.

It is not very often that we have the whole Jackson clan together, so it was really nice to have everyone together.

After dinner, I took the kids back to Tony and Debbie's so that I could do my Black Friday Shopping (that is another post as well).

On Saturday, we went to the Studio Movie Grill to see The Muppets...the kids and Brock loved it...I am not a big fan of the Muppets!

All You're Ever Gonna Be Is Mean

One day Halle just started belting out this Taylor Swift song. I'm not sure how she knows it so well, but I think it is super cute. I caught her on video singing it last night.

Halloween 2011

We had such a great Halloween this year!
Connor wanted to be something scary this year....
Jaxson was Harry Potter and was very excited about it!
Kaden was Spiderman and so excited to be a super hero. I was so excited because I got a Frankenstein costume at Children's Place for like $8, but he really, really wanted to be a super hero so Spiderman he is.
Miss Halle was a Fairy. She was very cute!
We had Trunk or Treat at church on the Sunday before Halloween this year. We loved having two chances to trick or treat this year.
Jax and Halle have a really sweet relationship. I believe he was casting a spell on her in the following picture!

Long Time, No Blog

I realize that I haven't blogged since we started back to school, but I don't think I have stopped moving since we went back in August. We have been so busy with everything. It has been an adjustment to have Connor and Jaxson both doing homework and having to study for tests and I am .

Aside from school, Brock is doing the radio broadcasts for Texas A&M - Commerce again this year. It is really very neat that he gets to do that and he is really good at it. I am so happy that he is able to see a dream of his come true. I am so proud of him. BUT, with that job comes a little extra work for me. He is obviously gone every Saturday for the football games and sometimes he is gone overnight which leaves me to take care of all 4 little monsters by myself. Again, I am SO excited for Brock that he gets to do it, but it is hard for me to remember that sometimes during the season.

This fall, Connor and Jaxson are both playing flag football and Kaden is playing soccer. That means that we have 3 practices a week and 3 games on Saturday. Luckily, since Brock is gone most weekends, he decided that he needed to take the boys to practice. So, I haven't had to really deal with the practices. Now, 3 games every Saturday is difficult. Add the fact that Brock has had to miss about 1/2 of them and several have been overlapped and sometimes I am a little overworked on Saturday. I LOVE watching my kids play their allotted sport, even though half of the time, I have no clue what is happening.
This was Connor's first season of flag football and he loved it. He has played a season of soccer and several seasons of both baseball and basketball. He is good too. He ran a touchdown, caught a touchdown playing quarterback, got a safety, and pulled several flags. Early in the season, he got a touch down, spiked it, and did upside down horns as he ran through the endzone.
This was also Jax's first season of flag football. He has played two seasons of soccer and a season of baseball. Jax also LOVED football. He is SO fast. He could blow past those other kids. He got a safety and pulled several flags. He loved playing the rusher. That is really the only placed he asked to play...constantly.

Last, but certainly not least, is Kaden. This was his first season to play any sport. I'm not sure he was quite ready. The team K played on was on of THE youngest teams and K was one of THE youngest boys. He LOVED to practice, but he really didn't like to play in the games. He loves to play soccer for fun, but when those big kids were coming towards him, it really intimidated him. He got excited every Monday for practice, but was not happy on game day. So, I think that we will play soccer for fun at home, but he will probably sit out the next year or so.
Then, there is Halle. Miss Thing had to sit through 9 games for each of her brothers. Halle sat through 3 or more hours every Saturday and it wasn't easy but she did it. I'm sure that within the next few years, we will be adding another hour for whatever Halle is doing that makes her happy. She takes dance during daycare and loves it, but I do not have a chance to take pictures. I can't wait to see them perform.

My marathon Saturdays have come to an end for the fall. Brock has two more weeks of college football and then it is time for Thanksgiving and all of the holiday festivities. Connor and Jax will start basketball by the end of November. At least we will have about a month before practices for basketball start.

I love my family and thank God for it every day!!!!! Tired, but very blessed!

Back to School, Back to School...

Last week was the start of a new school year for us. I started back to work for my week of professional development and the Kaden and Halle started their new school.

Brock is taking the kids this year, so he was told to snap a picture for me. He said that Kaden was happy and went in without even saying bye to him! Halle cried a little bit, but was fine! When I went to pick them up each day, they were having a good time and seemed perfectly happy. Halle is already learning so much! It is amazing how spongy kids are and how they soak EVERYTHING in. We are very happy with their school. We will see what this year brings!

Jaxson and Connor with me on the first day of school! We had a CrAzY first day and I will explain all about that in another post, but I made time to get a picture of us on the first day of school.
My sweet 1st and 4th grader in front of the Hays sign at the front of our school. I have taken a picture of Connor here every year since the school has been open which just happened to be his Kinder year. Jaxson joined in last year. It is crazy to think that I have just two more years to do this with my Conman. I think they are extremely handsome!!!
Connor with his fabulous 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Barineau. I can't begin to express how excited I am that my BFF is my sweet son's teacher this year. Not to mention that I am also his teacher this year. We are departmentalized in 4th grade and Debbie and I team teach...so he has Debbie for half a day and me for half a day. It is going to be interesting, but I am very excited to get to know my son as a student.
Jaxson and his fabulous teacher, Mrs. D'Alessio. I was very excited that Jaxson got Mrs. D. She was my long term sub when I had Halle and then got a full time position at Hays the following year. She is an amazing teacher and I couldn't be more excited! Jaxson needed the right balance of love and discipline from a teacher and I know that Mrs. D is the perfect teacher for the job. He needs to know that she will make him tow the line, but that she loves him at the same time.

I am very excited about my classes too. I have a very sweet class and I can't wait to get to know the kids better. There are several challenges that I can't wait to tackle as well. All and all I am very excited about this year and where God is leading my family! Remind me of this in February!

So Many Emotions!!!

Today I am filled with so many emotions! Tomorrow I will go back to school and Kaden and Halle start...daycare. I have been so lucky to have been able to keep my kids out of daycare for the last 10 years and I could of this year, but it just seemed like the best thing to do.

Connor will be 10 next month. After I had him, I started working with my in-laws at their insurance office. For about a year and a half, I took Connor with me to work. As that got harder and harder, I started sending him to Mother's Day Out and my mom would keep him. I had started back to college, so mom kept him while I was at school. Mom continued to keep him and then when Jaxson came along, she kept him too.

Just when it was time for Connor to go to Kinder and I would have only one in need of care...along came Kaden. Mom kept saying each year that it was her last to keep kids, but I kept having kids, so she kept keeping them. We were both in agreement that there was nothing wrong with daycare, but that we didn't want them to go to daycare until they were old enough to let us know if something was not right.

Of course, just as mom was sure that she had kept her grandbabies for the last year, SURPRISE, I was pregnant....and so she helped again. The 3 little kids went to a MDO four days a week which did help matters.

The next year Jaxson started Kinder so I was back down to only needing childcare for 2 kids again. Mom was for sure done and I was so lucky that one of my good friends that I go to church with and teach with decided to stay home with her two kids and that she wanted to keep my 2 kids. We were very blessed to have her keep my kids and our kids became so close. I loved knowing that she was taking care of them and that I did not have to worry about them during the day. We had a great year!

This year we decided to make some changes. There are positives to the kids going to daycare and I definitely think that they outweigh the negatives, but it is still hard. Again, there is nothing wrong with daycare, but for some reason it is really hard.

I am really looking forward to Kaden going because he will actually be in a Pre-K class and learn a lot! I really think that he needs that interaction with the other kids. I will also be able to pick a day or two to stay late and get what I need to get done instead of feeling like I always have "unfinished business". Another big plus is that Brock can take the kids to school so that is one less thing that I have to think of or deal with in the morning. (I am a bit concerned about Halle's hair though.)

On the other hand, I LOVE my job! I love the beginning of a new year and the excitement of getting to know the new kids. I love where I work and the people I work with. I totally believe that I am working at the best school in the world and there is no other place I would want to be. I have no problem starting school...it's the fact that it is 9 months of waking up early, missing quality family time, and stress!

I will be fine and I can't wait to pick them up tomorrow and hear how their day went...and see how Halle's hair looks....yikes! lol

Potty Training

So, my sweet, sweet little girl has been ready to potty train pretty much since she turned 2. It was just hard to push with her being so young and me not being with her all day. So we have been trying to potty train on and off since April or so.

She was probably more ready than I was. I never used Pull-Ups with any of the boys but I decided I would use them with Halle since she was so young. I think it was a huge mistake. I think it confused her more than anything.

I kept saying that as soon as summer hit, we were going to start potty training hard core. Well, it is really, really hard to potty train when you are on the go constantly and in a pool the rest of the time. I can't not put a swim diaper on her when if there is ever a time that she wouldn't want to stop doing was she is doing to go to the bathroom...it would be while she is swimming. I definitely couldn't take a chance on her pooping in someone's swimming pool.

Long story short...she has been doing really good when she has panties on. She has had very few accidents and it is usually at night when I forget to ask her if she needs to go. I decided today that we are completely done with diapers and Pull-Ups...no matter what! Every single week there is something that prevents me from having her wear panties full time. So, no more!! She will only wear a diaper during nap and bed time.

We went to dinner tonight and she didn't have an accident. We are going to try church in the morning with panties. We have to try sometime....why not now?

Wish me luck! We also climbed out of her bed this morning. I guess it is time to convert her bed into a toddler bed. Yikes...I'm not sure I want this to all happen at once. I am seeing visions of Connor getting married and Halle going off to college...ugh...I think I'm gonna be sick.

Swimming, Swimming, and More Swimming

My kids are seriously fish. There is question about that! They would swim all day, every day if I let them! So for about a week and a half all we did was swim. We swam in about 3 different friends' pools. We were sooooo tired, but we had so much fun it didn't matter. Here are a few videos of the kids swimming!

My sweet 4 year is fearless. He had no problem, actually he loved jumping off the diving board. He would come to the surface and I would just say, "Head in and swim", and he would do it!


Halle is doesn't really get that she is 2 and not able to do every single thing the boys do. She thinks she can swim. She actually does pretty well without her floaties on. She will jump off the diving board with her floaties on and swim to the side of the pool!


Jax has been doing so well this summer. He never wears his floaties and he can swim all the way to the bottom of the deep end of the pool and back up. He is really becoming a great swimmer!


I feel bad. I never got a video of Connor swimming. He is a great swimmer and has been for a couple of years now. We hope to get many more fun-filled days of swimming in before school starts and we have to go back to our "real world".

Kaden's Birthday Celebrations

Kaden has had his last two birthday parties at the city pool. This year he wanted a Chuck E Cheese birthday party. He kinda got 1 1/2 parties. His cousins, Kennedie and McKenlie, had their party at Chuck E Cheese the weekend before his birthday and involved him as well. He got to do the ticket blast and they put a candle on the cake for him. We had a blast at their party and it was so nice that they included Kaden on their party. He even got to go home with a Chuck E Cheese balloon.



On his actual birthday, we met dad at El Fenix for lunch!
After we ate, we went to see the movie "Rio". It was a great movie and the kids loved it.


The day after his birthday, we had Kaden's Chuck E Cheese party. Of course, he had a blast! Somehow, I have misplaced my camera and can not post pictures from his party. I will update this post as soon as I find it....

Happy 4th Birthday Kaden Samuel

My sweet baby boy is 4. Wow! I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. I get so bogged down in the day to day "stuff" that comes with having 4 small children, but I definitely thank God every day for all of my blessings. Kaden is one of them!

Last night I laid in bed exhausted from a full day of swimming. We went to a friend's house to swim. We were there from 11-3 and then we went swimming again from 5:30-9:00....so I was exhausted. As I laid there, I thought back to Kaden's "beginnings". I previously called Kaden one of God's blessings, but he was also one of God's surprises that I didn't think I was ready for. Brock and I had two kids and we were unsure whether we were going to have another child or not. Brock was determined that our kids would be about 4 years apart because of the cost of college, so we definitely had no plans of having any more kids for awhile. Jaxson was only 18 or 19 months old. So, one November day, I was not feeling all that well and we were eating dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Brock and I started talking and I couldn't remember exactly when my cycle should start, but I thought that I might be late. So, Brock begged me to stop on the way home and get a pregnancy test just for peace of mind.

I stopped at CVS to buy the test, of course I saw one of my student's parents and tried desperately to hide the test because I definitely didn't want everyone talking about it before I even knew if I was pregnant. I got home and took the test and it was a faulty test (or so we thought). It just never turned to anything. Brock was desperate to know at this point and wanted me to go out and get another test. I was not driving back to Rockwall so I told him that I would go in the morning. That was not good enough so he decided he would go up to the Dollar Store in town right before closing to get another test. I took it and it instantly showed that I was indeed pregnant. I was really scared...I didn't think that Brock was ready to have another one, I didn't think that we could afford another child, my worries were plentiful.

It didn't take me long to get out of the shock that I was indeed pregnant and start getting excited that I was being blessed with another baby! This pregnancy wasn't as easy as Connor and Jaxson's, but I didn't have any big issues.

I desperately wanted to have a vaginal birth with Kaden because I had one with Connor and it went perfectly, then I had a c-section with Jaxson and it was horr-i-ble!!! Well, that didn't happened so I really wanted to have my c-section scheduled for 7-7-07 because I thought that would be a really cool birthday for him. Well, that didn't work either and they scheduled it for 7-13-07...FRIDAY, the 13TH. Okay, that doesn't sound like a big deal to most people, but I'm not most people. I am the biggest wimp and scaredy cat and to get completely cut open on Friday the 13th didn't sound like a good idea! It ended up being fine and it wasn't nearly as painful as it was with Jaxson.
All of it was worth it because I was blessed with this little one. The minute I saw him, I noticed his chin...Brock affectionately calls it his "butt-chin". We instantly thought of my grandfather...I have an "indented chin" but my mom's dad really had one. I wanted to show him to my mom right away because my grandfather had passed away a few years before and I knew that my mom would get a kick out of it! We named him Kaden Samuel Callaway. Connor actually came up with the name Kaden. Samuel is my grandfather's name and he is one of my very favorite people, I was so happy for my son to carry his name.

I won't lie to you...the transition from 2 kids to 3 kids wasn't easy but it wasn't because of Kaden. He was a great baby. Jax acted out quite a bit when Kaden came home. He would go into Kaden's room when I was pre-occupied and take all of the wipes out of the container...one by one. This happened quite often and drove me crazy!

Kaden has always been a good boy. He is loving and a bit ornery.

On his 4th birthday, he is sweet. Everyone loves his voice and he makes us laugh every single day. He does not try to be funny, he just is. He loves to swim. He is a little fish. He took swimming lessons this year and Mrs. Laura said that she has never seen a kid as young as Kaden do the things he does in water. He loves to watch Wow Wow Wubzy. He loves to do anything his older brothers do. He has beautiful eyes and dimples and some times it is just way too hard to say no to him. He loves to be naked.all.the.time. We are constantly having to tell him to go put underwear on....seriously! He does by many names...Kaden, K, K-dog, Samuel, Sammie, K-dog squarepants. He does not like to wait his turn and he has very, very little patience. He eats pretty much anything. He loves pizza, chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, chocolate milk and he LOVES donuts.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Kaden's 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese with his friends and our families!

Kaden Samuel I love you so much and I am blessed every day by your sweet smile and your big hugs. I love you to the moon and back!!!

4thof July

We have been so busy so it was so nice that we had nothing to do all day until 7 or 8. It was a nice restful day! We have a great view of the Rockwall fireworks from the lawn behind our church building, so every year on the 4th of July, we go and watch from there with all our friends from church.

We had a good time. Connor went to Harry Myers Park (where they are setting off the fireworks) with one of his friends, so that is why there are no pictures of him!

Family Day

On the Sunday before July 4th, my family went over to my parent's house for a cookout and to swim. We always have a great time when we go to swim! My kids are fish and would stay in the pool all day, every day if they could.


Jaxson and my dad playing in the pool.
Jax and his cousin Kennedie. She is only 4 months younger than Jaxson.
McKenlie (almost 2), my dad, Briona,Charlie, and Halle.
Brock and 2 of his little boys. I have some handsome boys in my house!


My niece, Charlie, with Halle in the pool.

My other handsome son, Connor.


My pretty little girl, Halle.After swimming and eating, we waited for the Rowlett fireworks. They were the best I had seen in a long time. There were several fireworks that I had never seen. While we waited, mom and dad had bought sparklers for the kids.

This was the first year in a long time that no one cried! Kaden and Halle had both been scared of fireworks before. Halle is very scared of thunder and lightning. I really thought she would be terrified of the fireworks. She was scared when they started, but as soon as she saw how pretty they were, she was fine. We were excited and ready for fireworks the next day, which was the 4th of July.

The 4th Week of Summer

After the crazy week with swimming lessons, baseball camp, and basketball camp, we didn't make a lot of plans. I didn't want to have to be anywhere at any certain time.

We went and saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Connor loved the movie. Of course, he had already read the book...read the book in probably 2 hours and had been waiting patiently to see it.

We also went swimming at my mom's house one day, but I didn't get any pictures! :(

We had a class social with our Sunday morning class at church. It was Harry Myers Park. We reserved the pavilion and the kids played at the sprinkler park.