Maddox asked me the other day "mommy, when you are old, and you die, will you just reach your hand down from heaven and grab my hand so I can go with you?"
Oh my mercy. I had tears in my eyes as I grabbed him close to me and hugged him as long as he'd let me. I love when I have the chance to see the gentleness of his heart.
The other day while we were waiting at Maddox's karate class, Paxton was becoming fidgety (he was not allowed to play a game on my phone as we waited because that was the day he hit people at school, so he was beyond bored), he continued to climb all over me and I asked him to stop and he looked at me with those big blue eyes and said "momma, I just want to love on you"
Oh my mercy, melt my soul and play me like a fiddle.
Harper has started crawling all over the place and I love that her favorite spot to crawl is right into my lap. All day long. If I sit down, she crawls and climbs until she finds her cozy spot on lap.

Paxton's Birthday Party

Choo choo. Paxton is 3!!! He requested a Thomas the Train birthday party. Murlon (brads mom) made a delicious and awesome Thomas cake and my mom made her delicious sugar cookies!!! We had a low key party at the house with family and close friends. Paxton had a wonderful time and was so blessed with awesome gifts from our family and friends!! Thank you all for making Paxton's 3rd birthday so special for him.

The dessert and veggie table

Train cars with goodies, the awesome cake made by grandma, and the yummy cookies

My sweet, stubborn 3 year old

Getting ready to sing happy birthday

He wasn't a fan of all the singing and clapping afterwards. Is anyone surprised? How far we have come in a year...last year he cried the entire time the birthday song was sung.

Blowing out the candles 

Presents, presents, presents. Thank you all again for your generosity towards our little boy. He certainly was one blessed little man

playing

Sweet Harper Grace. Sheesh, such beautiful eyes

Big brother!!!

Friends

What an absolutely amazing weekend!!! We celebrated Paxton's third birthday and my best friend Sarah, her twins and her hubby came and spent the weekend with us!!! Sarah is such a sweet friend and was my dearest friend during my journey to motherhood. She has such a special relationship with my kiddos (especially Maddox since they lived here when he was little bitty and was at the birth of both Paxton and Harper!) I am sad because I don't get to love on her babies like she did with mine, so these special trips when all our kiddos are together are certainly very sweet to me! I love watching our kids become friends.
We decided to brave it and load up all 5 kids ages 5, 3, 17 months (times two) and 9 months and head over to the science spectrum for some exploration fun!!! The kids did great and we all had so much fun together!! This was my favorite adventure yet as we watched our children become friends and play play play!!

All loaded up and ready to go

Waiting to head into the Children's Museum

Row Row Row your boat....Mason's going over board

Grocery shopping

Future news team

Baby girl had a good time too

Getting sleepy

Sweet sweet friends in the making

Sunny Sunday

It was such a beautiful spring day today (without any wind). We spent as much time outside as we could!!

Paxton is 3

Three years ago our precious Paxton James entered the world and changed our lives forever.  You are so full of life, love and a lot of attitude! You are spunky, spirited, stubborn and way down deep I can see such a soft spirit (however, you cover that up with 3 year old boy temper tantrums these days). Your laugh is still my favorite sound and you give the worlds best hugs. I love to watch you build with your blocks or play with your trains. You are so creative and very particular about where you want things.  You are determined and you know what you want when you want it and exactly how you want it (now if only we can help you gain some patience because the world does not operate on YOUR time schedule, but your determination is going to take you far). You love to work in the shop with your daddy and you love to hang out with the boys; however, you still love to be right by my side and I cherish that! I love that you come up to me and say "momma, I love you SO much" about 20 times a day. Just melt my soul. 

Oh Paxton, I pray this year holds a lot of wonderful memories in your sweet life. I pray that I can guide you to be the man the Lord created you to be. I pray you fall in love with Jesus. I pray you continue to thrive with your speech and continue to use your words in kind and uplifting ways. I pray we find a way to curb the attitude and bring out the kind and gentle side of your personality. You are naturally very aggressive and I pray the Lord gives me the tools in which to guide you and help you find an outlet for that aggression so that the fun, passionate and easy going Paxton can surface!! I pray we go on adventures and soak up life with you at the age of 3. 

Sweet Paxton James, I am so blessed to be your mommy! I cannot wait to see what this year olds for you my love!!!

Similar

Can you tell these two are related?

Paxton at 9 months

Harper Grace at 9 months

Paxton James had a rough rough day at school today. Apparently he decided to push the boundaries and hit a kid and when he did not get his way (he was wasted to not push a scooter down the slide...ha) he decided to hit his teacher. What!?! Paxton is by nature our more aggressive child, but I was still caught so off guard to hear of his defiant and aggressive behavior expressed at school. He had a firm talking to from me and he was not allowed an after school treat or the privilege to play on my iPad while we watched Maddox at karate. He also had a firm visit with Brad after work today. He certainly had plenty of opportunities to learn the lesson that absolutely nothing good comes when he chooses to hit. Oh Paxton, always keeping me on my toes.

"Little bunny foo foo I don't want to see you picking up the field mice band bopping them on the head."

Pictures

My dear friend Jessica was so sweet and took pictures of miss Harper in her Easter dress. I had her take some of Maddox as well (Paxton was in Oklahoma City visiting grandparents so he missed out on this photo shoot, but I'm super excited to get some pictures of Paxton as we near his 3rd birthday).

Sunday

 I did not purposefully coordinate the kids outfits for church today; however, after I realized how precious they looked together I had to capture a picture.

Gosh, we are so blessed with these three

Baby Giggles

I have mentioned several times of the amazing relationship that is growing between Harper and Maddox. They are the best of friends and they are happiest when they are together. They absolutely adore each other and Maddox loves to find silly ways to make her smile and laugh! My favorite part of parenting is watching these two together!

Easter 2013

We had a wonderful Easter celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior!! Maddox really seems to be gaining a vast understanding of the fact that we are all sinners (we make bad choices) and Jesus took our sins and died for us (taking our consequences for us) and defeated death when he rose from the grave. Maddox seems to know that Jesus is always with him! There is no greater joy than watching our kids fall in love with Jesus!!
We had several Easter festivities with family. Saturday afternoon we took the kids to an egg hunt at my Granny's retirement home. (Paxton spent the weekend in Oklahoma City with Brad's parents) Maddox had a great time and it was a lot of fun to watch the elderly people get so excited to see all the young kids. Granny seemed thrilled to show off her grand kids and I was so blessed to have that experience with my Granny!
Sunday we started the day off at church and tried our best to emphasize to Maddox the power of our Lord! We had a great evening fajita cook out and Easter egg hunt at our house with mom, Paul, Carol, Granny, Jason, Kameron, Mollie, and Henley. Paxton made it home early evening and he too got to hunt for his eggs!!! It was a wonderful day and I cherish the memories made with our family.

Maddox was reading Harper a story before we left for the egg hunt at Granny's

Maddox and Granny before the big hunt

Gigi helping Maddox search for eggs

Maddox, Mollie, Harper and Henley (sad to not have Paxton in this picture,  but he sure had a great time in OKC)

Maddox and Granny have the sweetest relationship. They can sit and visit for hours

Still trying to figure each other out

Harper enjoyed sitting in the bouncy house on Easter Sunday

LOVE this. Harper looks so prissy here!! (her hair looks SUPER red in this picture)

Finally Paxton arrived and hunted eggs!

Melt my soul. Daddy sure loves his baby girl

Maddox protecting Granny on the porch

Super Hero Bird Hunter

Gigi helping Paxton open an egg. Oh the anticipation