Happy 6th Birthday Jax!!!

My sweet, spirited little boy is 6! Jaxson is such a special little boy. I am so lucky to be his mommy! Jaxson's personality is very extreme. He is a very, very soft hearted little boy. We is my most affectionate child. He is definitely a momma's boy, but he loves to rough it up with his daddy. He is super sweet with him little brother and sister. He loves to take care of them and will usually gladly give up what he has to make them happy. He has another side to that personality, but we don't see that so often.

Jax is also quite the class clown. Most of the time when he gets in trouble, it is because he is trying to make his friends laugh. Luckily, his teacher is one of my friends and we stay in pretty close contact.

Jax is in Kindergarten this year and it has been a crazy year for him. In October, he got very sick and missed a bunch of school. It terrified everyone who loved him, but luckily he was treated and is fine now. He had a hard time learning his letters, partly because he missed so much school, but he is reading now. It is so good to see how far he has come!

Jax reminds us so much of his Uncle Blake. He has a volume control probably with his voice. He is usually yelling whatever it is what he has to say and we have to tell him to not talk so loud.

Jaxson loves to ride his bike, play games, play outside and read to me. He loves to play with action figures and watch TV with Connor. He loves playing on the computer and drawing.

Jaxson's favorite food is spaghetti. He also likes pizza, corn dogs, chicken, orange juice and pancakes. Jaxson does not like chocolate and ice cream. He may be the only kid that doesn't like ice cream.

We decided to wait to have Jaxson's birthday party until the summer. That way he could have a swim party and invite his whole class!

We love this sweet little boy more than you could ever imagine and I would not trade his little personality for anything in the world. To know Jax, is to love him.

Halle is 2!!!!

I cannot believe that my little girl is 2. Seriously, where has the time gone? I am really bad about keeping up with my blog, but I am going to try really hard to do better about blogging after the kids' birthdays.

I am blessed with wonderful children and God could not have given me a better daughter. She is literally the sweetest, prettiest, funniest little girl I know. I realize that I am quite biased but I’m okay with that.

Halle wakes up with a smile every day and usually goes to bed without fussing with just a kiss and a hug each night. She talks up a storm and loves to dance. I absolutely love to hear my little girl singing along in church or to the radio. I am always surprised by the songs that she knows or recognizes.

She is a big talker and she repeats everything that we say. She can count to ten with a little help from me, which I think is incredible. She recognizes some of her colors and can say her ABC’s.

Halle L-O-V-E-S her brothers and they are precious to her. They actually spoil her a bit too much. Connor is so sweet with her and she can get away with a lot more with him that Jax or Kaden can. Kaden and Halle have their times of disagreement, but most of the time, they are so sweet to each other and play well together. Jax is wonderful with her! “Jaxie” as she likes to call him, dotes on Halle. Halle does no wrong in his eyes. Halle will push him and I will get on to her and Jax will say, “It’s okay mommy”. He is always giving her piggy back rides and playing with her. She is one lucky little girl!

Halle loves to play with her babies and feed them. She loves Dora, Sponge Bob, bath time, and swinging. Halle is not a picky eater…she will pretty much eat anything that I put on her plate, but her favorite food is pizza. She loves chocolate, donuts, Pop-Tarts, bananas, grapes, and green beans. She will leave her place at the table to come and eat off of my plate. We could have the same things on our plates and she would rather eat off of my plate.

We had her birthday party at the park. Luckily my grandma was visiting from Illinois and got to be at the party. I love that she got to spend time with her! We had all of our family and close friends at the party. We ate pizza and cupcakes and played on the playground! She had a blast and she sure looked cute too!

Snow Day 2011

My kids are going to start think that it always snows in February! It never snows in Texas. I can only remember a few times that we really got any real snow. We do tend to get ice once or twice a year, but actual snow doesn't happen often. The first real snow I remember in Texas was about 8 years ago on Valentines Day. I remember it because it was the first year we were in our house and we got Simba (our dog) that day. I remember watching him jump around in the backyard in all the snow. That was the first real snow I had seen while in Texas. Then, last year we got a really good snow. It lasted for several days.

This week we have been out of school for 4 days. Crazy! That never happens here in Texas. At first it was for ice and then last night we received about 5 1/2 inches of snow. The snow is much prettier to look at than the ice.


It is great and all, but we are getting some serious cabin fever. We went out today and played for a little while, but since we just got back from Colorado and alot of snow...it is not that big of a deal and we are true Texans. It is too cold out there for us!

Colorado

I have to start this blog post by saying that this may of been one of the best vacations that we have ever taken! We have so many great pictures that I don't even know how I am going to pick just a few to post.

Gary and Laurie invited the whole Edmonds family to their beautiful cabin in South Fork, Colorado for Christmas. So we loaded up the car on Christmas Day and headed to Colorado. We left at like 1:00 in the afternoon. We drove to Raton, New Mexico and stopped for the night.

We woke up Sunday morning and attended church there in Raton. It was really a blessing. The church we went to were only expecting 2 members to show that day and we more than tripled their numbers. After church, we ate lunch and drove the rest of the way to Colorado.

The drive from Raton to South Fork was beautiful! I loved driving through the mountains. We were so happy to get to the cabin and to see everyone. We ate some yummy chicken spaghetti that Laurie whipped up and just hung out.

On Monday, we went sledding. The kids LOVED it! It was so much fun!

Monday night we had our "Edmonds Family Christmas".

On Tuesday, we went on a sleigh ride. It was so beautiful and that it didn't look real! I can't even explain how beautiful it was. We were all cuddled up together with big blankets to keep us warm.

Tuesday was also PawPaw's birthday so we celebrated with a big dinner and cake. We all wrote special letters to PawPaw to let him know just how much he means to us.
On Wednesday, we wanted to take the kids sledding again. There was a snow storm coming so we decided to leave early to try to beat the snow storm. We got up the mountain...barely. It was not safe to drive up there, so we changed our mind and decided to go to another town down the mountain, Creede. It was the neatest little town. We had a lot of fun with Laurie, Gary, Emily and Caroline.

The whole time we had been in Colorado, I was looking forward to seeing some wild life. I saw NONE. I was very disappointed that the bears were hibernating because I want to see one up close really bad. I kept talking about going to some of the caves and just taking a peak in. WELL, we spotted one on the way back to the cabin, so Laurie stopped so that we could try to get in. Emily, Caroline, and I climbed up but we weren't sure how we would be able to get down. Needless to say, we aborted that mission. I was happy that we at least tried! Thanks Laurie!
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We had planned to leave on Thursday, but that was up in the air because of the snow storm. We watched the news to decide what to do. We ended up deciding that it was better to leave on Thursday morning because we thought that the roads might be better on Thursday than on Friday. I wasn't quite ready to leave, but I believed it was best.

Thursday morning we got up and packed to leave. The first two hours of our drive was adventurous. First, we saw a truck lose control and run through three fences before flipping in a field. We stopped and Brock got out to help the motorist not knowing what he was going to find. Surprising to us, as well as himself, he was fine and just had a few scratches. After the paramedics arrived, we were on our way. The one mountain pass that we knew might be tricky was that and a lot more. I was so scared.

There were two times that I really feared for our lives. At one point we skidded completely sideways and a few minutes later, the snow was blowing so hard that we couldn't see the road. After we got through the mountain pass, we were safe! We drove to Amarillo to stay the night. It was raining pretty hard that night. We were excited to get our room upgraded and we got a jacuzzi bathtub. Connor decided that he wanted to take a bath...he makes me mention that he never takes baths. He takes showers! Anways, I put a little bit of bubble bath in the tub and this is what happened!


Friday morning, we drove the rest of the way home...it seemed like it was taking forever but we were so happy to be home. We stopped to eat at a Dairy Queen too.

Christmas 2010

Usually, our Christmas starts at PawPaw and MawMaw's house the weekend before Christmas, but since we were all meeting in Colorado this year, we decided to do that when we got there. We usually go to Tony and Debbie's house the day after Christmas, but again, since we are going to Colorado, we went to their house on Christmas Eve for lunch.

The kids have a great time any time they go to Papa and Nana's house. Of course, it was no difference this time...they were opening presents. We usually have so many presents that we can't fit them in the car!

Next, we went to Papa and Mimi's house for dinner on Christmas Eve night. This is always fun and a bit crazy. It is so crazy because there are 10 adults and 9 kids. It is crowded and fun!!!! Again, we usually have so many presents that we can't fit them all into the car! This year was no exception.

The kids watched the computer to track Santa all night. They were so excited!
I always read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before setting out milk and cookies for Santa.



Connor always writes a letter to Santa, and this year Jaxson was able to write one as well!

We had a great time Christmas morning. Santa brought Connor and Jax a laptop and a Kinect, Kaden got an iXL, and Halle got a new kitchen. We had a nice, big breakfast, opened presents and then played for awhile before packing up to leave for Colorado.

Christmas Cookies 2010

Every year, we make sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies and decorate them! This year, the day we were planning on making them, Tracie called and said that Briona wanted to come over. So we invited Bri and Charlie over to make cookies and spend the night. Then, we decided to call Kennedie and McKenlie too. McKenlie wasn't quite ready to spend the night away from mom yet, but Kennedie came over. We had a blast baking and decorating. It was a great time and memory. Who knows, maybe we have made a new tradition. We may all have to make cookies together every year...McKenlie and Braleigh will have to join us next time.

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite holidays. I love spending time with our families and having time to just hang out! This year, we went to Gary and Laurie's house for lunch.


If my boys grow up to be 1/4 the men, their great grandfather is, they will be amazing men. They are so lucky to have such a strong male role model.
Jax is such a cutie!

I love, love, love pictures of Brock and Halle. I can't wait to see their relationship flourish over the next 10-20 years.
Halle and my daddy. K Man, Halle and Braleigh at my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner.