A New Beginning

I have to brag a little bit on the pure awesomeness of our sweet boy, Maddox. Brad and I made the difficult decision to change schools for Maddox (and ultimately Paxton and Harper as well). We simply felt the opportunities at his new school are tremendous and they will highly benefit our trio of kiddos. We prayed over it, toured, re-toured the school and finally decided if we were going to make the switch to just go ahead and do it and start him for his second semester of Kindergarten.
Maddox is such a social, go getter kid and he took the news of the switch of schools like a champ. He was excited and never showed an ounce of anxiety or fear about starting new. As we walked him into his new school today, I could tell he was a little apprehensive but he never voiced it and assured me he was great and was going to make new friends. Well, sure enough he just marched himself into his new class sat down to listen to the story being read and never looked back. He LOVED it and already had kiddos hugging him today as he left.
I truly admire my child. He is brave. He is strong. He is fearless. He is confident. He is a socialite and a kid other kids love to be around. He sees the world in rose colored glasses and he handled himself with such grace today.
Oh my sweet boy, your spirit is breathtaking! You are going to change the world....you change mine everyday.

Harper Grace is 18 Months Old

Sheesh how is she already a year and a half old? My mercy time with her just goes by so quickly as I am chasing after her and her two big brothers. She continues to bring such joy to our family and I am more and more thankful for her every single day.
What are you up to these days Harper Grace?
-weighing about 25 pounds
-wearing size 12-18 month clothes (although getting close to needing the 18-24 month size)
-size 5/6 shoe
-size 4 diaper
-drinking organic, hormone free, lactose free milk (we attempted regular lactose free milk and she turned into a beast which is so uncharacteristic for her. We also attempted organic, hormone free REGULAR milk and she seemed fine with it)
-If you are tired at all, you will not eat anything. You like most fruits and anything you can hold and eat yourself
-you have been sleeping great. Going to bed about 7:30 and sleeping until 9am. WOW
-you LOVE baby dolls. I mean LOVE them like I have never seen a baby girl love baby dolls. You hug them, kiss them, carry them with you, sleep with them. You always want a baby with you and I think it is absolutely adorable.
-you LOVE your baby cousin Ruby Grace. I mean, love her like you want to hold her and squeeze her and never let her go kind of love. It's sweet and dangerous at the same time. Ha. We got to watch Ruby the other evening and I have never seen you get as excited as you did when we held you up to see inside the infant carrier. You get this super cute/kinda freaky giggle and you hug yourself while you look at her. HAHAHA. I was giving Ruby Grace her bottle and you carried your baby doll and bottle over to me and climbed up in the chair beside me wanted to feed your baby too. But let's be honest, it didn't end as cute as I have it pictured here, you got REALLY mad that I wouldn't switch bottles with you and let your baby doll have the real bottle while Ruby Grace sucked down the fake, watch the milk magically disappear bottle. Ha. Brad had to intervene and get you ready for bed. You were just too overwhelmed with all the babieness.
-you have an ornery streak in you. You think it is hilarious to steal Paxton's Ribbit (his most beloved sleep buddy) and take off running. He freaks out and you giggle. You have also started running away from me a few times when you know you need a diaper change. Not cool kid
-you are starting to talk more and more these days. You can officially say: dadda, momma, Gigi, doggie, see, ice, please (peas), baby, thank you (tank ew) and you've got a lot of gibberish
-you have started giving kisses. OH my mercy this is my favorite. You pucker up your lips and lean in to kiss and you even make a little smacking sound. I love to receive a dozen of these a day, but I also love to watch you kiss your baby dolls and your daddy. So precious.
Oh my sweet Harper you continue to bring us such joy and laughter. You are so much fun to be around and I love your laid back personality.

Christmas 2013

It's so sad that Christmas has come and gone (although technically we are still celebrating in our house since the decor is still rockin'). We had a fantastic Christmas with all of our families and I am so sad to report we did not get very many pictures to document the occasions. I will do my best to write out what we did so we can look back years from now and remember the Christmas of 2013.

Lets see, we started off with a road trip to Oklahoma City to visit Brad's parents and his brother and beautiful sister-in-law. The kiddos had a fabulous time and I have to brag on miss Harper. She seriously is the easiest baby (well the easiest we've ever had...hahahah). She traveled the 6 hour car ride and hardly made a peep. She slept in unfamiliar rooms like a complete champ and she easily adapted to the house at the farm without trying to destroy anything. I vividly remember how much I dreaded traveling with the boys were about her age because it was a constant task to walk behind them and keep them out of stuff. She just goes with the flow and has a great time doing it.

The boys did great as well. They get to stay with Grandma and Grandpa while Brad, Harper and I stay at Brandon and Ashley's house. The boys love it and are always anxious for us to leave for the night (they get to stay up later than usual, eat snacks and watch cartoons upstairs....heaven for little boys). There was a pretty big rain/ice storm while we were there, causing slippery roads, heavy heavy tree limps and some electrical outages due to the tree limbs breaking....but overall it was an easy trip for us to travel in (unlike last year...we had to leave on Christmas Eve due to a massive snow/ice storm that was heading towards OKC). We enjoyed our stay and made great memories with Grandmom, Grandad, and Brandon and Ashley. 

We arrived back to Lubbock started to prep for Christmas Eve with just our family of 5. We attended church, ate snacky foods for dinner, opened new pajamas, a movie and board game. We read the Christmas Story from the kids bible and ate a gluten-free (or as we call it in our house Paxton OK) cupcake as we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. We had to get the boys out of bed to put cookies and milk out for Santa because this momma forgot. Everyone slept great and we had to wake everyone up to see what Santa brought for them. They kids loved it. Maddox got a plasma car, a projector drawing thing and new handcuffs (that Santa knew that the little brother and broken his last pair of handcuffs...sneaky Santa). Paxton got a balance bike, a new car track and blue car....he was very specific with Santa that he wanted a new toy blue car. Harper received a little tykes shopping cart, a new baby doll and a toy cash register. It was a success.

We got everyone loaded up and headed to Christmas celebration and my Mom and Paul's. We were all spoiled rotten and loved every minute of it.  The kids are at such a great age where opening presents gets easier and more enjoyable. Harper and Henley are still a bit young but they are both so laid back that they just go with the flow although Harper certainly LOVED her new baby doll and little baby doll bed/carrier. She lit up and hugged and kissed that baby in pure joy. The boys and Mollie-Moo loved everything in every new box they opened and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. Our Christmas lunch was delicious and it was fun to watch the kiddos play together.

We waited until the weekend to do our final Christmas celebration at my Dad and Kelly's. It was a wonderful day there as well. Once again the kiddos were blessed with so many new clothes and awesome toys, the cousins played well together and our lunch together was nice. Brad had to work that day and we had company coming so I had to gather everyone up after lunch and head home for naps.

Whew. 

With all the new toys, it sure has been nice to have new entertainment in the house, especially for the boys. They eagerly go play in the basement and haven't started arguing nearly as much (I know my time is limited on this one, they are only 5 and 3, but for now I will take it and appreciate it while it lasts)

Sweet

Paxton gives the best hugs and is so sweet and sensitive to receiving a kiss on the cheek. If you kids his cheek he always pats it on and will return the favor with a kiss and a sweet pat on the cheek. Even on his oneryest of days, he is so sweet with his kisses. 

Now, with the added Christmas decor in our house, whenever I give him a hug and a kiss, he catches them and "hangs" them on the Christmas tree so they will decorate our home!! How sweet is that!?!

Paxton...AKA, super why hanging out at his school Christmas Party. 

Seriously

Ho Ho Ho. Santa's little helpers, cute as can be, cuddling together by the Christmas tree!

(Seriously, how cute are these two. I'm not sure what I love the most about this picture....the fact that Paxton, unprompted, put his arm around Harper, the super cute Santa hats, the precious smiles or the adorableness of Harper having a baby (or two) in her arms at all times.

Little Momma

Harper Grace LOVES baby dolls. LOVES them. She "talks" to them, loves on them, pats them on the back to burp them, carries them all around the house, wants you to join in when playing with dolls and never ever leaves the house without a baby under her arm. I'm telling you, she LOVES baby dolls. It is so fun to watch our little lady with her babies and watch her sweet nurturing side.
This week, we had the amazing opportunity to spend some great time with Kim, Austin and my niece Ruby Grace. Can we just say...precious! Oh my mercy, Ruby Grace is just so darn cute, tiny and the sweetest little baby girl.
Harper thinks so too. In fact, Harper does not understand why she cannot hold Ruby as her own baby doll. It is adorable. She will follow anyone around that is holding Ruby and she mimics everything. When Kim gave Ruby a bottle, Harper tried to feed her baby, when Ruby was burped, Harper burped her baby. So sweet. Harper just talks and talks in her precious, tiny baby girl voice to her new BFF. When Kim and baby Ruby left our house, Harper cried and cried. Sweet girl, she loves her cousin so much....me too Harper girl...me too!
Oh how I pray these sweet girls grow up to be the best of friends!!

Harper sat at the table like this for SO long just chatting it up with sleeping baby Ruby

Seriously!!! How precious is she!!

Sweet Moments

So, the other day Paxton came up to me and asked "Momma, do we have a park bridge in our pantry?"
What the what? I stood there dumbfounded as I tried to sift through what he said and figure out what he was asking. In a few minutes I heard Maddox singing the 12 days of Christmas and I finally figured out the riddle. Paxton was asking if we had a Partridge in a Pear tree.
Oh the things I never ever want to forget!

We received a Christmas card in the mail today from one of Maddox's dear friends. When I showed him the card he said "Mom, Tagen is my most favorite friend......but do you know who is my favorite friend all the time? Jesus. He is with me everywhere I go"
Oh the passion he is gaining for Christ is breathtaking. I adore him.

Thankful for sweet and funny moments with these boys....especially when they make me want to pull my hair out. Ha