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.