Special Visit

A very sweet family, who is so special to us, came down to visit in February. I taught their 9th grader, Betsy, in fourth and fifth grade and their 7th grader, Caroline, in fifth grade. Betsy did some babysitting for Jaxon before we moved to Mississippi and their mom, Stacey, was one of the special people who helped take care of Jaxon when I went back to work after he was born. We have grown very close to this special family and were so excited to have them come down to Arkansas to see us! Unfortunately, Betsy was too sick too travel, but we enjoyed mom, Stacey, 7th grader Caroline, and 4th grader Olivia.




Here is Caroline and Olivia taking Jaxon for a swim at the hotel pool. He had so much fun with these girls and did not want them to leave.



Of course we had to squeeze in some bowling! Caroline was so sweet and patient helping Jaxon "bowl".



Jaxon and Olivia watching out the front window. We call him street monitor because he spends so much time standing in his rocking chair watching cars drive by and people out walking.



His face says it all! He just loved having these girls here for a few days. He talked and talked about them after they'd go back to the hotel at night, asking where the girls were and if he could play with them.





Eating at American Pie Pizza! I have never had success getting this boy to eat pizza (I think my sister-in-law, Jamie, is the only person who has gotten him to eat it), but when he saw the girls eating pizza, he decided to give it a try.

It's My Birthday!

On Jaxon's actual birth day, we attempted to take him to Chuck E. Cheese, but due to the Arkansas blizzard (1/2 in of snow), they were closed. We ended up at Chick-Fil-A (which is better food anyway). We also let him open his gifts from Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa Hager that day.


Gift from Mommy and Daddy...what is in there?


My first bike!!! He's already enjoyed riding his trike up and down the sidewalk.



Opening his card from Mommy and Daddy, he loves getting "mail".


Excited about a new coat from Grandma and Grandpa Hager.




CHICK-FIL-A

"Hi Mom. Hi Dad."


Jeff and Caitlin came with us to celebrate Jaxon's big day. And Happy 2nd Anniversary to them!



He could not get enough of the slide. Once I took his shoes off and he realized how fast he could go without his shoes catching on the plastic, he was unstoppable.


And we couldn't leave without a "bahboon" for the birthday boy!

The Cake

Second year in a row I made Jaxon's birthday cake. This year I attempted a dump truck cake to go with the theme. I was very pleased with the outcome, just ran out of time to put windows on.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jaxon!

We celebrated Jaxon's 2nd birthday with a dump truck/construction theme. His friends across the street, the Riggs' cousins, and Memaw, Oupa and Ouma were all here to help him celebrate (plus a lot of Mommy and Daddy's friends).


Wearing his construction hat to build with Play-Doh. I had great intentions of getting all of the kiddos picture taken in their construction hats and tool belts, but got too busy and forgot.


Another brilliant idea of mine....We had a hauling/dumping zone in the kitchen. I was hoping for nicer weather so this could be taken outside, but it was a bit chilly. I filled a small pool with dry deer corn and put a bunch of dump trucks in it. It was a great idea and a lot of fun for the kiddos, until throwing it on the floor became more fun for them than keeping it in the pool. Thanks to my mom and mother-in-law for cleaning up all of the corn and preventing a heart attack for me.


Having fun opening presents and being the center of attention.



"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Jaxon. Happy Birthday to you."


Enjoying his macaroni with friend Erik.


Cousin, Braden from KS.


Cousin, Rowan from KS.


Friend, Kysha and cousin, Wyatt.


The kids enjoying their macaroni and snacks.

Dryer Spin

I finished folding the clothes in the dryer and disappeared for 3 minutes to put them away. When I returned, this is what I found:

Christmas 2009

Christmas was so wonderful this year. Jason got 12 days of leave time, so we packed up the car and headed north to Kansas City. We had a wonderful and relaxing time with family, which made it hard to leave. It snowed Christmas Eve and we had a beautiful White Christmas!





Grandpa and Grandma Hager's:

Hat on, gloves on, ready to head out into the cold.



He LOVES his Chuck the Truck Tonka truck. It's a talking truck and he follows it all over the house repeating everything it says!



Aunt Steph and Gary from Tucson, AZ came to KC for Christmas! We were so excited to spend Christmas Eve with them.



Miss Page concentrating on opening her gifts.



A new coat! Jaxon loves getting clothes just as much as he loves getting toys. He tried putting on all of the clothes as he pulled them out of boxes.



Jaxon got a K-State truck in his stocking. He LOVES trucks and was super excited that it had a "Mommy's Go Cats" on the hood.








Christmas morning with Mom and Dad:



Santa brought Jaxon a cool tool bench with electric power tools. He and Daddy have spent many hours "building" things with the power tools.



A tent to play in! Daddy is already planning their first camp out in the backyard.



I told you he loves clothes!




CHEESE! We woke up around 1:00AM Christmas morning and discovered that the "blizzard" had knocked out the power at my mom's house. It was a freezing 50 degrees in the house that morning, so we were all bundled up while opening gifts. We had bought Jax some cute Christmas PJ's, but they are somewhere under his layers of clothes at this point.






Memaw and Papa Schu's:

Cool new basketball goal from Memaw and Papa Schu.


He was really into opening gifts this year.



Page is lounging in her new KU bean bag chair.



Opening his stocking.







Ouma and Oupa's:



Poor Rowan! She and Braden are trying to play with her new Strawberry Shortcake toy and Jaxon thought it looked like a nice place to sit.



A teeball from Ouma and Oupa! Daddy is going to make an athlete out him yet!



A new book! Jax didn't waste any time getting Daddy to read to him.



Goofy face!



Jaxon and Wyatt thought jumping on Wyatt's new basketball goal was more fun than playing with new toys.