There's No Place Like Home

Jaxon and I went home to Kansas City for a few days last week. It was extremely busy, as we went from place to place visiting loved ones. Jax and I enjoyed seeing friends and family, but we missed Jason terribly. We are glad that our next visit home, Christmas, Jason will get to come with us. We were in KC for about four days, and we realized that that is not near enough time to see everyone and everything we want. We will plan better the next time that just me and Jax come to KC. We look forward to seeing more people when we're back in KC in December.





Here's the little traveler on the airplane. Jason thinks it's pretty ironic that Jaxon has flown twice in his little 9 months of life, and neither time Jason has been with us. Jaxon was an excellent traveler to and from Kansas City. He slept a lot of the trip and just played in my lap when he was awake.





After a long day of traveling (we missed our connecting in Atlanta and had to fly stand-by for another flight out), we were relieved to land in Kansas City (only an hour and half later than we thought). Aunt Jenn and Cousin Pay Pay (Page) picked us up from the airport and we met my mom (Memaw) and Uncle Austin for dinner at Olive Garden. At this point, Jaxon and I were exhausted and you can see in his little face that he was quite serious. Everywhere we went during our visit home he seemed to just stare for the first 10 min and observe everything. After that, his personality would come out and he'd be all smiles.







The next day was Page's birthday, so we had the waiters sing to her and bring her some Olive Garden chocolate cake! Yummy!







On Page's birthday, Jaxon and I surprised her and showed up at her school with Mr. Goodcents for lunch. She came running to us when she saw us waiting in the school lobby for her. Later that afternoon, we went back up to school to help Jenn pass out birthday treats to Page's classmates. This is Page in her classroom loving on Jax. I think she really enjoyed getting to show him off to her friends at school - again a serious face for Mr. Jaxon.







Here comes trouble. Seems like every niece, nephew, and now grandchild, can't resist Memaw's Tupperware cabinet. I came downstairs one morning and found him like this. Looks like he was having the time of his life amongst all the containers.







Dawn Marie and Kelli Jo came out on Friday night to say hi to me and Jaxon. Seeing them made me miss coaching cheerleading so much!







Friday night we also went to see my dad and Nancy, Grandma and Grandpa Hager. Jaxon had a lot of fun with their dog, Sabrina. He loved watching her run after her toys and he even helped Grandma throw the toys for Sabrina to fetch. He played hard at Grandma and Grandpa's and eventually crashed on Grandma Hager's shoulder.








Between meeting Page for lunch and helping pass out her birthday treats, Jaxon and I had lunch with Aunt Jenn at a local coffee shop. There were no high chairs, so Aunt Jenn held Jaxon while I fed him lunch. We didn't make too much of a mess either!!







On Saturday night, the Christie's came out to my mom's to visit. We had lots of yummy food and played Taboo. We missed having Jason there for game night, so we'll have to plan another get-together when he's home in December.


Hollie and Troy



Aunt Titi (Teresa) cuddling Jaxon.



The future Mr. and Mrs. Justin Chrisie.




Hollie and Memaw enjoying a game of Taboo.




Our annual picture! Although the dogs have changed from time to time, Hollie and I have taken a picture like this for the last 14 years. This is Cozy and Hollie's dog, Tia. Maybe at Christmas we can take a picture with Cooper and Tia - that would be the first time that both dogs in the picture are not borrowed from one of our parents!!





On Saturday morning, Jaxon and I went to the Riggs' house to play. We had lunch at a local restaurant, then went back to Ouma and Oupa's house for the kids to play. This is our 2 year old nephew, Braden. He wore this K-State sweatshirt just for Aunt Mimi!! He enjoyed seeing us, but I think he was really missing Uncle Jason.




Here's Jaxon with his cousin, Wyatt. They are just 10 weeks apart. What fun they are going to have in the next few years! Wyatt was moving all over the place, but Jaxon was content to just sit and watch him. At one point, they reached out their hands and held each other's hand for awhile. My sister-in-law got some better pictures of their interaction, I'll try to get them up on the blog when I get them from her.








Monday morning, Jaxon and I went to Cedar Creek Elementary, where I taught for the last five years. We visited with the fifth grade teachers and made our rounds through the school. It was great being back in the school and seeing all of my co-workers. I really miss teaching and being with these great educators, but I'm not ready to give up my job as Mommy just yet.



"Aunt Casie" - fifth grade teacher


John - special education teacher. He had Jaxon laughing so hard!



"Uncle Blake" - fifth grade teacher



Lynnlea - fifth grade teacher and Mommy-to-be




What a great 5 days! Jaxon and I came back to Mississippi exhausted, but we are glad we had the opportunity to come home for a few days and see friends and family. It was really special to be home for Page's eighth birthday! The day after we got home, Jaxon and I stayed in our PJ's most of the day and just chilled on the couch. Neither of us were anxious to get in the car and go anywhere. By day 2, it was back to the grindstone. There were groceries to get, and Jaxon and I had a meeting with the other wives of our class.

Next week should be a pretty exciting week for us down here. Weather permitting, Jason could solo as early as Wednesday of next week. Thanksgiving we are planning to go to some friends' house on base. So far there are 25 people planning to have Thanksgiving together! These houses aren't huge, so it should be pretty crazy!