Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Growing stuff

Jaxon got a hydro-dome for Christmas from Aunt Emily.
It's basically a small garden that uses water to grow in a little dome.
He's always excited about nature, science, and growing stuff!
He aerates it nightly and ensures that there is sufficient water.

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 Here's what we have grown so far...
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Supposedly, we should have some lettuce when it's all said and done.
We'll see how it goes, or grows I should say!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Our winter wonderland

Cooper stayed at our house this past Friday night.
The kids had lots of fun playing and running around crazy.
Near the end of the night, Jaxon and Cooper were out in the living room folding and cutting snowflakes.
I told them that they could hang up whatever they created on our living room window.
That got them so excited that they decided to create a "winter wonderland"!
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It's complete with a snowman (yes, made of unusually colors for a snowman.  I actually thought it looked like a turkey disguised as a snowman :)), a lake with a boat, snowballs, a tree, and lots of snowflakes.
I even got in on the snowflake making.  They're very fun and addictive to make...at least for me!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Christmas 2011 Recap

Yeah, I realize that Christmas is long gone now, but I'm going to share a quick recap anyway!
The kids loved every minute of Christmas this year.
It's so fun just watching their faces light up with excitement during the holidays.

We did our annual trip to the community building to see Santa.
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Jaxon enjoyed singing is his school's Christmas program.
They were pretty cute to watch.
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The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated with the extended Meller's.
Here's the infamous cousin shot on the couch (minus a few that were missing).
I'm sure that the kids do not appreciate the group shot, but they willingly participate since presents soon follow!
It's a really fun get-together!
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We hosted the Corum family Christmas this year.
Sadly, this was one of just a few pictures that I remembered to snap.
Not sure what I was thinking!
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Jaxon helped me make some treats for his school party.
Sorry for the awful yellow lighting look...I'm not sure why my camera does this in my house.
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Here's Jaxon and one of his best friends at school.
They were both begging for me to take a picture of them!  Cute, cute!!
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We made all of Jaxon's teachers a key fob.
Jaxon knew exactly what color scheme each teacher would want!
He was very excited to deliver them.
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Then, we also made his main teacher, Ms. Silvey, a few ornaments to go along with her key fob.
Crafting is always up Jaxon's ally and when it's mixed with nature (like the pine cones), he gets really excited!!
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Jaxon with Ms. Silvey as she opened her gift.
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The room mother for the class did an awesome job with all the activities and games for the kids.
They were definitely pretty excited...and a little hyper/crazy!  I'm not sure that I would survive as a kindergarten teacher (or any teacher for that matter)!
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And just to show you the ratio of boys to girls in his class, here are the two groups divided up.
Yep, that would be 15 boys and 7 girls...which makes the class even crazier (anyone with boys knows that they seem to be twice as active/busy as girls and their "listening ears", as the teacher puts it, don't work near as well!
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On Christmas Eve, we went over to my parent's house to celebrate.
Here's the three grandkids together.
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Here's a pretty typical shot of my kids lately.  
Jaxon looks as if he's in pain and Ava's eyes disappear with her straining smile and head tilt!  And yet, they are still so cute!
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Ava was happy to get some scarves!
Yes, this three year old requested scarves for Christmas!  

She also had baby dolls and underpants on her list.  
She's too funny!
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My sisters and Reid checking out some of his new toys.
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Fuzzy picture, but Jaxon's face was cute because he was so excited to get some giant pipe cleaners to craft with!
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Ava also got her own vanity complete with hair care stuff and make-up.
I don't think she left from in front of this the entire afternoon/evening!
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Reid sitting at his new big boy table!
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I didn't do too much crafting/sewing this year, but I did manage to make Reid some cute little pillow cases (this was a very easy tutorial and finishes the pillow case off so nicely with no unfinished seams).
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Then I made him a quick, little fleece blanket bound with various green scraps that I had on hand.
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On Christmas morning, Jaxon got up pretty early (not that early isn't normal for him, but he was up even earlier).  
He was so excited to see what Santa brought.
When we came out to the living room, he was taking pictures of their presents with Josh's cell phone and patiently waiting for Ava to get up.
His patience didn't last very long though, so he went in to get Ava up as well.
She was funny, because she came stumbling out of her room rubbing her eyes and just sat in front of her presents...mainly because that was what Jaxon told her to do so that they could start opening.  It took her a few minutes to wake up and then she was all about opening and having fun!!
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Here's Christmas morning with all the cousins at Grandpa and Grandma Meller's house.
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And, we of course had to do a goofy face shot as well!
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Me and my sweet Ava!
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Here's the handmade ornaments that my sister, the kids, and myself made this year for grandparents.
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We had another great Christmas!
Now, I just hope spring comes quickly. 
I really hate cold weather (not that we have had too much of it...yet), and the kids really hate when they don't get to go outside much!
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Thursday, December 29, 2011

My little cowgirl

Remember this post?  
Well, Ava latched onto the "sheriff" hat afterwards.
This is how we found her after getting out of the bathtub one evening...

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She just cracks me up!

I've got some Christmas pics to share, but my laptop has a virus on it; thus, it's got to be taken away to the computer-fixer-people to get all cleaned up.  Hopefully soon!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Lesson from Jaxon...

"Look, look, look...this is how a sheriff sleeps!"
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We have no idea where he learned this or why he thought we needed a lesson on sheriff sleeping while we were eating dinner!

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Polar Express

Last weekend, we traveled down to Branson with my parents and youngest sister.
Our first stop was at the train station for a ride on the Polar Express.
It was a really cool experience.
We read the book, sang Christmas carols, drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, met the conductor and Santa, and even traveled to the North Pole.
I think the actual train ride was probably the kids favorite part!
They spent a lot of time looking out the windows, as there was lots to see.
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When we made it up to the North Pole, Santa even came on the train for a visit!
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Near the end of the trip, the conductor came around and punched the kids initials into their tickets.
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Our next stop was Silver Dollar City to view all the lights.
It was raining by the time evening came, so we didn't get to stay terribly long there, but it was absolutely amazing to see the light detail on every building and tree!
We did manage to ride a few rides before we left too.
You can't go to Silver Dollar City and not ride on Fire In The Hole (at least in my opinion :))!
No pictures to share though, as it was too wet to carry around my camera.



Monday, November 28, 2011

Brothers and Sisters

I came home from work today to find this on Jaxon's door...
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Not exactly sure what prompted the signage, nor did I realize that this kind of stuff started so young!
Just a few short minutes after I spotted this, they were back to playing nicely together...just not in Jaxon's room!