A Christmas Recap

Christmas was a little different from our normal "tradition" for different reasons. The biggest reason being that gigantic storm that came through and dumped 17 inches of snow on us! We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and brothers, Christmas day and Saturday and Sunday morning at Dannie and Sharon's with Josh's family. By the time we got home on Sunday, there was a drift in front of our garage door that was about thigh high!

Jax and his new hat that Janna knitted for him. I love his toothy smile :) It's getting even toothier, too, he cut another tooth while we were away from home and is working on one up top!
Cin'Que and Jax sharing bows.

Tina and Mini Mandi....or...LaNora.

Jax and Great Grandpa Jim

With Great Grandma Dorothy and Grandpa Dale ~ Dale got to leave the hospital for a few hours to come celebrate Christmas with us.

Keegan :) She is just over 6 months old now!

Great Grandma Dorothy, Grandma Linda, Uncle Dannie, and Great Grandpa Dale

Another new hat ~ at least his head won't get cold!

Christmas is exhausting!

My favorite gift and Uncle Jameson :)

Bows are so much more fun than the actual gifts!

Daddy helping him unwrap gifts.

Christmas Eve, hanging out before dinner

Video from Christmas Eve

LaNora Kendra-Dael

New niece! She was born on December 23rd, just in time for Christmas! :) You can tell from the picture that Mary is pretty excited to finally have a sister.

Cin'Que would hold her, kiss her, and then tell me to take another picture. He also did not like much when I was holding her and he wanted another turn. It was pretty cute.

Congrats to Tina, Keith and family! (For the record though, I will be calling her Mini Mandi, seeings how Mandi was supposed to be her name...)

Christmas!

I have no clue where the last 2 months have gone. They have flown by and Jaxon is growing like crazy. I have Christmas cards that will (hopefully) get mailed out soon. Today or tomorrow, perhaps? Either way, they're coming, I promise!

We are expanding Jax's food horizons and he is happy eating anything that comes at him on a spoon (with the exception of carrots, those make him gag). We go through cereal puffs like nobodys business.

I discovered yesterday that tooth #5 mysteriously popped up sometime between Sunday and Monday and he is working on tooth #6! 5 and 6 are both on the left side of his mouth and so once they've come in, his smile will be a little lopsided, but most likely adorable.

This year's service project at school was to make blankets for Project Linus and donate them to the pediatric and NICU units at Innovis (Josh, Jax and I will be delivering them tomorrow). Project Linus donates blankets to children through various places to provide warmth and comfort in tough times. We received one of these blankets while Jax was in the NICU and it seemed like the perfect organization to donate to through the preschool. I went into the whole thing hoping we would come out of the 2 days of blanket making with moms, grandmas, and aunts with at least 4 blankets. I am SOOOOO unbelievably proud to tell you that we will be delivering nearly 20 blankets to the pediatric and NICU units tomorrow!

Last night was the holiday program at school and Jax sat on the lap of a very special Santa. Recognize those eyes?

I can't believe 2009 is nearly over, it has been a busy and eventful year. Regardless of how the next couple days go, I gotta say, that Jax is the best Christmas present ever!
Happy Holidays, all! And keep an eye out for those Christmas cards! :)

Santa Village

Friday night, we took Jaxon to see Santa at Rheault Farms. It went better than expected ~ there were no tears or screaming. As you can tell from the photo below, he wasn't sure what to think really and so grabbed a good handful of Santa's beard (good thing it was attached!) and held onto that until Josh picked him up again. After sitting with Santa, he decorated a cookie with Mrs. Claus. He wasn't so sure about that whole situation either, but was ok with things as long as he didn't make eye contact. :)

Baptism

On Saturday, the 21st, we had Jaxon's baptism. Here are a few photos from my camera.

Jax, Josh, Grandpa Jim, and Great Grandpa Jim

Uncle JamesonGrandpa Scott, Grandma Joy, Grandma Linda, Grandpa Jim

Brandy and Mike

Aunt Shannon and Uncle Jeff

Us!

Pastor Norm and Jaxon

Godparents, Pastor Norm and Us

Heirlooms?

The hat, boots and horse in the following pictures were Josh's when he was younger. The boots are still too big, but I had tried them on Jaxon a few months ago and decided today was as good of time as any to try them again. Don't worry, we'll try again in a few months and take new photos ;) Please note, I am not a cowboy hat wearing person and so if I posted any of the photos where Jax is wearing the hat backwards it's because I'm not cowboy hat savvy. I had taken a few pictures before I decided that it was maybe backwards, which it apparently was. (The first thing Josh said when he looked at the photos was "The hat is backwards." I was hoping he wouldn't notice.)

Moo Cow!

Appointments

Monday was preemie clinic ~ everything looks good. OT says that in the next month or so, we're supposed to start working with a sippy cup. Jax and I went today and got a few and tried one. Apparently, they're fun to chew on and if you happen to get a drink at the same time that's just a bonus. We go back to see Dr. Jay and Megan (OT) in January.

Tuesday was the 6 month check up ~ more goodness. Jaxon weighed 15 pounds, 13 ounces. He was 25.75 inches long. I guess everything looks good, but he's a little on the short side now (!) and and could be a half pound chubbier. We've gotten the green light to feed him whatever he'll eat. We're still working through fruits and vegetables, though, before we move onto meat and stuff. We'll see the pediatrician again in January also.

Thursday was Jaxon's eye appointment ~ again, no problems. The doctor said that unless his eyes start crossing or wandering, we don't have to have him into an eye doctor again until he's preschool age. She also told me that if he is tall when he's older, he'll probably be nearsighted? I didn't realize there was a correlation between your sight and your height?

So...he's healthy, happy, and growing. And CUTE!

Jaxon has started to get excited when Josh comes in the door from work. His face lights up and he will stare at his daddy until he finally picks Jax up. It is adorable. I think it makes his daddy feel pretty good,too. If Josh walks out of his sight before picking him up for hugs and kisses, Jax will start to cry (this is almost guaranteed to happen everyday, since Josh has to wash the nastiness from work off his hands first!)

A non photo update

So it's been forever since I've actually written a post and figure that since there's no school today, this is the perfect day for an update.

Jax has started eating fruits and vegetables with his cereal. So far we've just tried pears and carrots. Pears he likes (he better, we have enough pears in our freezer to feed him for a year off my parent's pear trees!). Carrots....not so much. In fact the first bite of carrots that he had, he spit everywhere. It makes Josh and I laugh to see the faces that he makes, which is probably mean of us but I'm sure our parents we just as entertained when we did the same thing as babies. Carrots are getting a little better, as we go into day 4 of eating them, but only if they're mixed with his cereal. He has also started eating cereal puffs and Cheerios. Josh was still a little skeptical about the puffs and Cheerios, with only 2 teeth, but Jax loves them!

Next week is a big week for appointments ~ preemie clinic on Monday, 6 month check up with shots on Tuesday, and eye doctor on Thursday. At least I know with the preemie clinic there are no shots or eye dialating. Tuesday will be more vaccines and we will start our monthy Synagis shots for RSV. Ick. I really think Josh should have to take Jaxon to one of these "fun" appointments for a change!

He's getting bigger everyday, working reaaaaalllllllllllllllly hard at rollling over, and thinks that our dog is hilarious. I miss the cuddly all the time stuff from before, but this is just as fun :)

6 month photos!

Teeth :)

Babysitting Keegan

This is them both actually sleeping. Keegan sleeps like Jaxon and peeks out one eye quite a bit.

Apparently, she's very tasty.

I kind of feel like they're saying, "I hope she's done taking our pictures, cuz I'm tired of looking at you!"

Apparently, Jax thinks that I bring other babies around him to use them as chew toys.

Look! If I stretch, I'm almost as tall as Jaxon is!