Thankful Praise

Im overdue for an update so I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures from lately and explain why I'm thankful for them.... 

I'm thankful that after having a giant cup of ice water dumped on my by a waitress last night that she offered to give us a free dessert. I'm also thankful that the water which also went all over my phone didn't ruin it. And I'm thankful that Jaxton didn't realize we had this glorious dessert on the table till we were halfway done with it. 

I'm thankful that Lucas is walking quicker then my other boys. He was getting it down but then was sick for 8 days and did very little moving at all during that time so he has had to relearn how to walk but he's getting it! I'm also thankful that he doesn't care he's wearing girl leggings in this picture since I was washing all his jeans. 

I'm thankful that the stressful time known as "family pictures" is over. And that no one cried or fought or hated each other by the end of it. And I'm SUPER thankful that Eliott took the time to take the pictures for us! I'm just hoping for one where everyone is looking at the camera. 

I'm thankful that Jaxton can communicate with me to tell me when he needs to eat (hypoglycemic) and doesn't get sick of waffles. Also thankful he likes wearing warm pajamas since I don't like running the heater. 

I'm so incredibly thankful for this guy. He works so hard for our family and makes me feel happy & beautiful in a way no one else ever has before. And I'm thankful that my camera has a "beauty face" feature that makes our skin flawless whenever we take selfies! 

I'm thankful for toasted coconut cashews from Costco. I'm serious. They are my best friend and arch nemesis. And it such a bittersweet thing that Patrick is slightly allergic to tree nuts and can't eat these with me. More for me! Jaxton's just happy eating the crumbs. 

I'm thankful for boys who are good eaters. Especially this one. 

I'm thankful for bedtime. And naptime.
That doesn't make me a bad mom, that makes me an HONEST mom. 

I'm thankful that Jaxton isn't concerned with his appearance and will go out in public looking like this. Mismatched pajamas, a suit coat and no shoes. Not bad for 6am. 

I'm thankful that our old fridge fought the good fight and  lasted for 15ish years. But I'm oh so thankful for our glorious new fridge. And for stainless steel wipes without which fingerprints would drive me crazy. 

I'm thankful for boys who consider going to the library a "fun place" & that they enjoy reading whether with me or by themselves. Reading is my favorite thing to do and I hope they love it all their lives. I'm thankful that we live in a place where we can wear shorts in November while others are experiencing "Snowvember".  

I'm thankful that my boys are goofy and like to make me laugh.
"mommy watch this, I'm a doggy." 

I'm thankful that my boys look like me.
Some more then others. 

I'm thankful that even though he wants to be big and independent Preston will still let me pick out his clothes and do his hair on "special days" like picture day. All other days he does his own thing. 

I'm thankful for boys who love playing outside and cry when it's time to come in. We have great grass thanks to Patrick and we all enjoy it. 

I'm thankful for my body and how strong it has become over the past few months. It's been through a lot with growing all those boys but it's amazing. 

I'm thankful for making memories that my kids will hopefully remember and look back fondly on. Like going to the Gilbert Days Parade. 

And I'm thankful for Thanksgiving. My most favorite holiday. I think this one will be great! Full of food, family, fun, and good times. 

Jaxton Jeffrey Turns 3!

The day after Halloween Jaxton turned 3! Having a baby the day after Halloween seemed like a good idea when I was pregnant and wanting my baby out, but now that he's big and realizes it's his birthday it's hard. I feel like Halloween day is birthday prep. But thats ok! He's worth it!
He woke up on his birthday in a GREAT mood, which we were all thankful for! 

He picked donuts for his birthday breakfast and of course picked the biggest one they had and did nothing but eat the frosting off of it. 

We decided to go to the fair to celebrate his day. Lucas stayed home with Laura and the kids (and had just as much fun as we did). Jaxton spent the first part of the trip there cranky. Hypoglycemia is rough sometimes and he is an up and down roller coaster because of it. But eventually he ate some real food- french fries, turkey leg, blooming onion and strawberry lemonade. 

It was kind of a perfect day being overcast and we had a great time. 

On our way home Jaxton fell right asleep which is good because then we got a flat tire. But there were so many good things about getting that flat tire then- Lucas wasn't with us and crying, jaxton was asleep and not whining, Patrick was driving instead of me alone with the boys, we were right next to an offramp and as soon as we pulled off we found an emptry parking lot that was shady, it wasn't a blow out so we didn't lose control, and our spare was in good shape. It was really the best kind of a bad situation. 

Later that night we had a birthday dinner (pizza and crazy bread!) and invited my side of the family over. 

He is REALLY into Pete the Cat right now- its a childrens book that we read about 5 times a day, so I made him a Pete the Cat cake. He was pretty happy with it and I love making my kids happy. 

Then the next day, Sunday he had another birthday party with Patrick's side of the family. He's going through this phase where he doesn't like showing you that he is smiling and gets embarrassed when he is happy, so this is the face he made when opening up his presents and saying thank you to people. 

That night he enjoyed playing with his new toys and his new pajamas! 

The next day was another big day for him and he started preschool! He qualifies for the same preschool that Preston goes to because of his speech delay. He goes Mon, Tues, Thursday from 9:15-12:20 and has the same teacher that Preston has which is GREAT since we have spent a lot of time at school functions for Preston so Jaxton is familiar with the class and teachers. He was pretty excited to go, and I was nervous he would cry after I left him since he's so emotional and VERY attached to me (seriously he wont even let someone else open the bathroom door for him but me) but his teacher said he did great! No tears! He was cranky when he got home- overstimulated. But today he was just as excited to go, and he got on the bus with no issues. I think this is going to be very good for him. Preschool helped Preston grow so much and come out of his shell and I'm praying it does the same thing for Jaxton. 

Oh JaJa. You are a handful but you are OUR handful and we love you so much! 

A Whole Lot of Halloween

Halloween seemed extra long this year. But we did have a lot going on.
We made some new Halloween decorations to spruce the place up! The paper plate candy corn banner was super fun! 

We wanted to hang up this scary face above our arch by the front door but the ladder we own wasn't tall enough so we improvised and put it above the kitchen doorway instead.
Gotta admit I was pretty happy to take it down so that we could quit ducking down under the teeth. 

We decided (with the help of Andrew) that our costumes year would be the characters from the Lego movie. See bellow picture for reference and if you haven't seen the movie you should because it's pretty great. It's one of my more favorite movies that the boys watch. 

The hardest part of it all would be constructing Lord Buisiness's head piece. But cardboard is free and duct tape isn't expensive at all, and that's pretty much all it took for all the costumes! Plus a lot of spray paint. 

The boys costumes were pretty easy. painting them was the fun part. I had made Lucas a lego body as well but he wasn't a fan. So for his Batman costume I just got him a shirt, leggings and I ordered him a batman beanie to wear but he wasn't into that either. We pick our battles these days and so I let him pass on that. My costume (Wyldstyle) was easy also with black hoodie and pants and I painted them as they should be along with a black wig that my boys were not too happy with me wearing. 

Our first Halloween celebration was a new one for us. It was called Haloween Balloon Spooktacular. It was held in Scottsdale and there were hot air balloons set up that the kids could trick or treat from and vendors and food and things like that. It was fun! I'd never seen a hot air balloon before (they are quite warm to be next to). I'm not sure if we will go again next year. It was quite crowded and far. Anyone who knows my kids knows that they cant stand to be in the car for longer then like 10 minutes without freaking out. Their costumes were a HUGE hit. People were making comments left and right about them. Which always makes a girl feel good :)

We did carve pumpkins this year, which we hadn't done for the past few years. We carved one and then we let the boys color one with markers. 

Next was our Ward Halloween party. Always fun. Lucas did not want to wear his hat- again we choose our battles so I styled his hair into "bat ears". 

Me in all my Wyldstyle glory! 

And here we are! All together! 

Someone made a comment at the party that they had high expectations for our costumes after last year, but I thought we did pretty good. 

By the next morning Lucas's hair was still just about perfect. 

The next day was Preston's school Halloween parade/party. The kids all paraded around the field and then after we went back to the classroom for some games. Jaxton came along to the parade and it was so cute to see Preston holding his hand walking him around the field. Such good friends!!

Halloween dinner included mummy dogs! 

Reminds me of Professor Quirrel from Harry Potter...

And then the real Halloween!
By this point the boxes were starting to fall apart and Preston was asking to not wear the box, but he made it through. Most people knew who he was. Others called him Bob the Builder or a Firefighter. 

They did great Trick or Treating. Jaxton didn't say much to anyone, but Preston did great and if he forgot to tell someone thank you he would run all the way back up to the door to tell them. We beat our time from last year by 10 minutes so all that training we did paid off! 

Then when they complained about being tired (jaxton) or that their candy bucket was too heavy (Preston) we went home and handed out candy. Preston took charge of that one and really liked it. 

And that was it. Almost too much Halloween. Especially since the next day was Jaxton's birthday. But as long as they enjoyed it it was worth it.