New pictures

Last week my best friend Janelle was nice enough to take pictures of the kids. I know I may be a bit prejudice...but they are absolutely precious! I knew they would be good because the pictures she took of all 4 of us were so good, but these are adorable!

Fishies

On Monday I took Jaxson, Ella and Gabe to the aquarium. I knew it would be quite a task to take the 3 kids to the aquarium by myself but I needed to get out of the house and I knew the little munchkins would be entertained by the fish. Those of you that have 3 kids and take them places by yourself on a regular basis...YOUR BRAVE and I don't want to hear that it is no big deal to take them, or that they are perfect little angels wherever you go, because you are in DENIAL! Regardless of the fact that it was hectic trying to keep track of them when they all wanted to be looking at different things, it was fun to see their little faces when they were looking at the fish. I think the highlight for Jaxson and Gabe was the tank with the sharks, every time one would swim by the boys would say "Wow dat one is HUGE! I wouldn't want to be in da water with dat!" Keep in mind that this is a small aquarium and that the sharks are rather small, but to little kids they are huge. Ella would point at the fish and say "Mommy fishies! Mommy fishies! Fishies cute!" When she says cute it sounds more like toot, which makes it even cuter. Whenever I would tell her to come look at another fish she would say "Mommy I want fishies first." Which meant that she didn't understand that we would be looking at other fish, she thought we were done looking at fish and Ella wasn't ready to go. After we had seen all of the fish, several times and the kids had crawled through the little coral tunnel it was time to go home. This did not go over well with any of them and they all took turns throwing fits while we were walking out to the car. Later that night when I was putting Jaxson to bed he said "Mom, remember da octopus? He had a big head, just like Daddy!" Needless to say, this made me laugh! Nick thought it was pretty funny too.

I think next time I decide to take the 3 of them, I will have backup, I was out-numbered, but the kids had fun!

Miss attitude

Since I just blogged about how big Jaxson is and how fast he is growing up I feel that I should blog about how fast Princess Ella is growing up. She has always been our little princess, but now she really acts like a little princess...and sometimes it's not a good thing! She has mastered the art of temper tantrums and throws them every chance she gets. Ella know exactly what she wants and exactly when she wants it, and when she doesn't get her way, or when someone makes her mad, she does not hesitate to let you know! She is talking a lot now and her favorite things to say are "Princess Ella" "No Mom!" and "Ouch!" oh ya and "I had it first" which doesn't actually sound like she is saying "I had it first" but she is. If her brother has a toy that she wants, she takes it from him and says "I had it first" or if she plays with something she isn't supposed to she says "I had it first Mommy" she even says it with an attitude. She has figured out that it is really fun to run and she loves to say "Watch Mommy" and then run across the family room, then she stops and looks at me and grins! She has become quite a Daddy's girl lately and runs to him as fast as she can saying "Daddy! Daddy!" when he gets home from work. Sometimes she is even so much of a Daddy's girl when he is home that she wont let me wipe her hands and face off when she is done eating, or when she needs her diaper changed, only daddy will do for these tasks sometimes. Which I am totally OK with! It's nice to have a little break from doing those things sometimes. She still absolutely loves her big brother and loves to follow him around the house doing what he is doing. Just like Jax, she is growing up way too fast! She is so much fun (even with the tantrums) and she is constantly entertaining us.

Last day of Preschool

Today was Jaxson's very last day of Preschool. When he woke up this morning I asked him if he was excited to go to school and have "circus day" he said "Yes I'm excited for circus day, but Mommy I'm sad dat dis is my very last day of preschool. I will miss both of my teachers and all of my friends dat I have made." I told him that the last day of school means that it is summertime and we get to do all kinds of fun things...his response to this was "Does dat mean I get to run though da sprinklers whenever I want?" My guess is that he will be outside as often as he can running through the sprinklers and playing in the mud!

After I dropped him off I realized that was the last time I would ever pull up in front of preschool and watch him walk up the driveway with his school bag on his shoulder, and a grin on his face because he couldn't wait to see all of his friends. I was sad driving home...however my princess daughter made me quickly forget that I was sad when she started throwing multiple temper tantrums and whining throughout the 2 1/2 hours that Jaxson was at school. When I got to preschool to pick him up and pulled in line with the other parents waiting for their kids I was sad once again. I wont get to watch him walk out of preschool with his arm shading his eyes because the sun is too bright, and looking down the line of cars to find me, then waving with a huge grin on his face when he sees me and getting into the car excitedly telling me all about everything that had happened at school. Luckily my camera was in my purse and I got a few pictures of him standing in the driveway waiting for the teacher to walk him to the car for the very last time. I can't believe he will be going to Kindergarten next year! He has had so much fun at preschool learning new things and making new friends. He even got a preschool diploma! I'm so proud of him and can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Soccer

Jaxson had his first soccer game on Saturday, the first few games were canceled because of snow. So he was really excited that he finally got to play on Saturday. Nick is the assistant coach and loves it! Jax was the main defender, although sometimes he would get sidetracked and not pay attention or he would be so excited to go after the ball that he would leave his post on the field and chase after the ball with the other kids. But it was so cute to watch and both of the teams scored a few goals. The highlight of the game was a giant worm that Jax and some of the other kids found, they were on the side taking their break and three of them came running over to me and very excitedly showed me the worm...it was slimy and disgusting but the boys thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. Papa Kirk, uncle Colby and Alex came to watch the game too. Jax cant wait for his game next weekend, maybe he will even be able to find another worm!

Easter

This post is a little late, I know I'm slacking on my blogging lately...I don't want to hear it!

On Easter we went to my Mom's house for our traditional Easter brunch, needless to say I ate entirely too much food. I think everybody ate too much, but the food tasted sooo good and none of us seemed to have a full button that day. After we had our delicious food we went outside so that the kids could have an Easter egg hunt. Jax and Gabe immediately started running all over the backyard searching for eggs and after about 30 seconds Ella caught on too. After the kids had found all of their eggs we went to the front yard for the adult Easter egg hunt. Every year my mom usually hides a "golden egg" for all of the "big kids" to find. Inside the egg is $100, for us poor folk that is a really big deal! Although I am ashamed to admit that Nick and I have NEVER been the ones to find the egg! This year Colby found it, and the years before that Dani and Derek found it. I think it's rigged...either that or Nick and I just really suck at Easter egg hunts. After the kids and adults had found the eggs the kids played outside with some of the things the Easter Bunny had brought them, then we went inside and proceeded to eat even more food. Which was totally unnecessary but so good and so worth it! As usual the Easter brunch was fabulous and we all had so much fun.

Daddy's Birthday

Yesterday was Nick's birthday...29, what an old man! Nick had to work for a few hours yesterday so while he was at work the kids got ready for Daddy's birthday. They both made him birthday cards, although Jax helped Ella a little bit with her card for Daddy. Jax even cleaned up his playroom so that it would be nice and clean for when Daddy came home. Jaxson and I made a birthday cake too, he helped me stir the batter in the bowl and while it was in the oven, he made sure he asked me AT LEAST every minute if the cake was done or not...he said that he had been waiting 30 hundred hours for the cake to bake and he was sick of waiting. When the cake finally came out of the oven, he had to wait another 30 hundred hours for it to cool down so that we could decorate it. When I told him that the cake had cooled enough for us to start decorating it he said FINALLY MOM! Jax and I wrote on the cake with red and green frosting, red is Daddy's favorite color and green is Jaxson's favorite color. Then Jax helped me put all of the candles in the cake, he was very proud of the cake that he made. Everytime I turned my back he would stick his finger in the frosting, the he would tell me to check on the cake and make sure that the frosting was ok. When Daddy got home from work the kids gave him a shirt and the special cards that they had made, then we lit the candles, I'm surprised the smoke alarm didn't go off...29 candles is a lot! Later that night Nick and I went and had some yummy sushi, JUST THE TWO OF US!!! It was so nice for us to be able to actually go out to dinner and be able to carry on an adult conversation....thanks to Dani and Derek for watching the munchkins!