Catching Up...

We've had quite a whirlwind the past few months and I've been terrible about updating what we've been up to. We moved out of the hotel in Peoria, IL the last week in October. We moved home to KS and lived with our parents for several weeks. Jason left the day after Thanksgiving for Puerto Rico and spent two weeks there. On December 13, the kids and I drove up to Pekin, IL and reunited with Jason, then closed on our new home up there December 14. Our moving truck arrived December 17 and we spent five days trying to settle and move in to our new home. On December 22, we packed our suitcases and headed back down to KS to spend Christmas with our families. We will be in KS until the first of January, then we'll board a plane for California and spend seven blissful days on a cruise along the Mexican Riviera.

I will update with more pictures later. Our house is a mess of boxes (and currently, could qualify us for an episode of hoarders), but when we finally get "settled", I will take some pictures of our new home and post them on here. For now, enjoy looking at our cute kids!

Dakota Says Hi

Excuse the big spit-up stain of peas on Dakota's jammies. Other than that, this is a pretty precious video of her saying hi.

Sunday Best

Every Sunday, I put my kiddos in dress clothes and think, "Boy, I should really take a picture of them all dressed up". Sometimes I even say it out loud and ask someone to remind me to snap a pic or two after church. But every Sunday it's the same story: we get home from church and start rushing to get lunch on the table, kids in to play clothes and get them settled in for a long afternoon nap. And in this mad rush, we almost always forget to take a picture. Well, a few weeks ago, I remembered to take a picture before church, knowing I would forget once we were home.





Daddy's sweet girl.


Handsome dude!

Happy Thanksgiving

We were excited to spend Thanksgiving at home again this year. Wednesday, we spent the evening with Jason's family at Ouma's and Oupa's. All of the cousins were there and it was a fun (and very loud) evening. Thanksgiving day, we went to Aunt Ninny's house for another Thanksgiving meal. We had a great time with cousin, Page, and Page's cousins on her dad's side.




OUMA'S AND OUPA'S:

After listening to some very loud squeals, Jason went to investigate and found kiddos running through Ouma and Oupa's bedroom. Here are two of the culprits.


Then, they started helping each other climb onto Ouma and Oupa's bed.


Here are four of the cousins!




AUNT NINNY'S AND UNCLE AUSTIN'S:

Page was sword fighting with her cousin, Mason, while Jaxon looked on.


Happy Dakota with Aunt Ninny.


Sis, eating her Thanksgiving meal.


Hi Page!


Jaxon spent a lot of the day wrestling Page's cousins and uncle.

Fritz's Railroad Restaurant

Memaw had a day off work, Page was out of school, so we all decided to head down to Crown Center for the day. We've been dying to take Jaxon to Fritz's Railroad Restaurant.



Memaw and Dakota all dressed up and ready for a day out on the town. Dakota's kitty from build-a-bear is next to her. Jaxon made it for Dakota, with Ouma and named the kitty, Sissy.



My cute kids posing in the railroad cart outside the restaurant. Jaxon would not sit still for a picture, he was so excited!



Our Little Engineer.



Once everyone at your table knows what they want to eat, you "call" in your order on this phone.



Jaxon had to "talk" to the lady of course. Luckily no one picks up until a button is pushed, because he wanted to "talk" on the phone all day.



Then this cool little train heads out on the track to deliver your meal.



And down comes your food, right to the table.







After we ate, Jaxon wanted to go outside to Santa's Playland. There were trucks, cars, tractors, and firetrucks for him to "drive".




It was pretty chilly outside. Sis stayed warm by burying herself under a blanket.


Jax and Page driving a tractor.

Special Family from School

Last week, we were able to meet up with our very special family from Cedar Creek. It's always so nice to see them and my kids ADORE them.



Miss Olivia, now in 5th grade, holding our sweet girl.



Jaxon LOVES Olivia. She chased him all around Panera until he was laughing so hard.



What beautiful girls! Caroline, now in 7th grade, Betsy, sophomore, and Olivia with our cute kids. I taught Caroline in 5th grade and I was Betsy's 4th and 5th grade teacher. Betsy now has her own photography business and she is mighty gifted!! She took our family pictures this year for our Christmas card.

Visit With Old Friends

Our dear friends who lived across the street from us in Little Rock (and currently live in Liberty, MO) invited us over for dinner this week. As you remember, their son, Levi, was born the day after Dakota. Then we were even more thrilled to learn that they had invited some other friends of ours from Columbus. Our friends from Columbus have Avery, who is just seven months younger than Jaxon. We had a great time catching up with old friends and really loved watching all of the kiddos play together.




Dakota and Levi:



The whole group (you can imagine the difficulty of trying to get four kids under the age of 3 to look the same way for a picture):






Jaxon and Avery (November 2010):


April 2009


September 2009





Here's Sis! She has been battling some eye funk for several weeks now. Her doctor put her on something for pink eye, but it wasn't pink eye. Then we took her to a walk-in and they put her on some drops for an eye infection. Pretty sure it wasn't an eye infection. When Levi's parents saw it, they agreed with me and thought it was a blocked tear duct. They gave us some of Levi's cream for that and it has looked remarkably better ever since. She goes for a well visit in December, so we'll see what her doctor thinks then.






Dakota and Levi (November 2010):


May 2010


June 2010

Page is 10!

It is so hard to believe that 10 years has come and gone, but Miss Page turned 10 on Sunday! She celebrated with a basketball-filled weekend. On Sunday, we took the kids to her basketball game, then we went to her house for taco bar and cakes. Jaxon has spent every day since then, bouncing the basketball "like Page".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAGE!

Happy Halloween

We made it home, to Kansas, for the second Halloween in a row. We went to the Fall Harvest Festival at College Church on Saturday night and met the Riggs cousins up there. Then Sunday night, we trick-or-treated Grandma and Grandpa Hager's house and Aunt Ninny's, Uncle Austin's and Page's house.




OUR LITTLE LADY BUG:




OUR TRAIN CONDUCTOR:







FALL HARVEST FESTIVAL:

Having fun sliding down one of the bouncy slides.


There was even a small area for Sissy to play.




Decorating a sugar cookie.


Mmmm...


Making a picture with Memaw's help.


Ouma and Oupa loving on Kota while Big Brother works on a craft.


Working hard on his picture.


Climbing through an obstacle course in one of the bouncy houses.







TRICK-OR-TREAT

Ready to trick-or-treat Grandma and Grandpa Hager.



Knocking on the door to trick-or-treat Aunt Ninny and Page.


A big hug from cousin Page, who we haven't seen since July!






Meeting Page's guinea pig, Harry, for the first time:


Up close and personal.