Holiday Greetings!

So my Christmas cards were lacking this year, and we took family pictures but our poor photographer had a baby 10 weeks early before she could get us a disc....we might send those out next year! So here's a small update on us and a few pics of the cute kidlins. Jax is busy as ever and has such a crazy imagination. He still loves dancing, especially after he saw auntie Tay dance for BYU's Christmas Around the World. We got front row seats and he didn't take his eyes off the stage. So now he does "preformances" for us all the time, costume changes and everything. He goes "backstage" and pulls all my clothes out of the closet and ends up in some outfits that Bryan doesn't condone...but hey he's just a toddler. :) He also says the funniest things, I've started keeping a page of quotes, some of his recent are:

"Mom, your handwashing was fantastic!"
(When I cleaned out his ears) "I had that there for decoration, I need it back."
"We're just a cute little family, out for a walk."
"I'm going to surprise you with a winter dance!"

Love that kid. And he's really just a great big brother. He love Bren and always take time to play with her. And of course she laughs hysterically at every move he makes. It's so fun to watch them together. And as for little Bren, she's been army crawling since 5 months, but she only does it with her right arm, it moves so fast :) She's rocking on her knees a lot now, but hasn't started crawling yet. Her latest trick though is standing up. Just yesterday she pulled herself up in her crib for the first time, it shocked me when I went in to get her from her nap. She wanted to keep practicing and spent half of last night doing just that...we ended up lowering her crib at midnight b/c we were getting so nervous about her leaning out. And then she'd pull herself up and get stuck and cry for us. When we went in she was just beaming, so proud of herself. She also found she could reach her mobile. So we also removed that after midnight...

We're all good and hope all of you and your families are too! Love you and Merry Christmas!














Does anyone else have a ridiculous time putting photos in?! Geesh... So in random order and all over the place, we have Jaxy's nativity he set up, an example of how I find Jax's pants all over the house, undies in tact :), proud Brenny when I found her after her nap today, the kids reading with Bry, Brenna propped on her side (she always sits like that it's our favorite) and Jaxy in costume :)

Not Funny

Just had to write two stories to remember that happened Sunday and tonight. Sunday, while in the adult Sunday School class, the nursery leader brings Jax into the doorway. He walks to the middle of the room, looks at me and announces (loudly), "I need to poop." Everyone laughs, of course. So as we're walking to the bathroom, he says, "Everyone laughed, but potty talk is not funny." So true. And Bry is out tonight, and Jax is so sad dadda isn't here. So as I left his room I just reminded him that he could pray for daddy if he was feeling sad. A minute later I hear talking in his room, so I snuck to the door and heard the tail-end of his prayer: "Please help dadda (sniff, sniff), I just wanted him at our house (sniff, sniff), please help dadda. I just wanted him and I was crying." He tried so hard to hold it together through it. I was proud he felt like he could talk to Heavenly Father though, even though it was breaking my heart! And a few sweet pictures of the kiddos doing what Jax and I have termed "baby-toy time" in the crib. They both love it. And a cute pic of an exhausted baby chilling with daddy.

Also, thanks so much to our Washington family for letting us stay SO long and showing us a good time! We love you guys! Sorry about the grumpy, tired kids.

Our cuties

We blessed Brenna yesterday, it was a great day! She looked so cute and slept through the blessing, also good. She's a special girl, we knew that already, but her blessing was really neat. I'm also going to stick a few pictures in here of things I don't want to forget. Like the way Brenna puts her little fist under her chin when you cradle her, Jax playing on the floor with Brenna, and Jax wearing his undies backwards. That's the way he puts them on and "I like it that way!"

Also, doesn't Bry look so handsome?

Don't freak out

Bryan: "Jax your undies are inside-out and backwards"
Jax laughs, then says: "Don't freak out dadda."

Pre-teen? I then proceeded to ask him to go take a potty break. "Mom I can't because a leprechaun stole my pee."

I love the things he comes up with. I'm trying to write them down so I don't forget and can tease him for the rest of his life. :)

Doing service

Jax kept himself busy for an hour today rebuilding a town that was lost to a giant and a "crazy windstorm." He said he was doing service for the people who lost their homes. He took it very seriously, and emptied his entire bookshelf :) What a sweetie! I hope those people appreciate their new homes.

We're here!

Been a long time since we've posted anything! Baby Brenna is here and doing good-one month old now, and Jax is a great big brother! His job is to "pretect baby sister." He loves her "toesie woesies" and just laughs at how little she is. He is way into Tangled right now. He carries around a 5-foot long pink ribbon with him at all times that he holds to his head for his Rapunzel hair. He throws it down the stairs to pull dad up when he gets home from work. He even holds it riding in the car and at nap times. Long hair is a lot of work! So between dancing, pretending to be Rapunzel and playing dinosaur train, he's a busy guy. He also has a great imagination now, it's so fun. We're in character most of the day. The other day he came out of his room when I was trying to get him down for a nap, and he said, I found a note that said, "Get out of bed Jax." So obviously he had to come out. He is always saying things that make us laugh. He also knows who Lady Gaga is and knows when a song of hers comes on the radio. I have never introduced him to Lady Gaga (not a fan) and I seriously have no idea how he knows her music, it's kind of freaking me out.

Baby Brenna is so cute and doing great. She had to be under bilirubin lights for 10 days, which was torture for everyone, but she's been great ever since. Newborn sleeping is hard to get used to, but I'm finally getting the hang of it. We love having her here! She's just starting to smile and coo a little bit, and we're eating it up.

Just have to dedicate a section to my mom here. She is amazing!! She has helped us out so much the past 10 months and I can't thank her enough. Brenna has my mom's (and my) middle name and I hope she gets her qualities too. She's always bringing dinners down and coming to help when she can and she's so kind and loving and I just feel so grateful to have such an amazing mother! I hope she knows how much we love and appreciate her!!! The rest of my family's all right too..... ;) I love and appreciate you all! You've all been awesome.

Well I'll try to keep updated better. It helps me keep track of the cute things I want to remember about my kiddos.

Here's some pics!














JAx mowing the lawn with daddy, and below (b/c I don't know how to organize pictures on blogger.... ) is Jax trying on Brenna's dress - to be Rapunzel of course- Jax and Brenna holding hands in the car - they both fell asleep holding hands, so adorable! - and Brenna under her bilirubin lights- hate those things!!

Toddler Jax

Not so much new going on here, just working in the yard and working in general. So just wanted to make an excuse to post cute pictures of Jax. His thing lately - other than dancing - is dressing up. And he LOVES coloring. He can color for an hour straight if I give him pictures of dinosaurs. Also, he's been talking in his sleep the past few nights. It started with him yelling "wood!", I went in to check on him and he said "Granna, sit." (Granna is my mom). The next night he just yelled out "Crumpit!" (that's our new dog by the way...ok, so I do have a little to mention there). He gets it from him dad. If I haven't told you the story about Bryan talking about being sexy and successful in his sleep, just ask. :)

So we got a dog two weeks ago. It was kind of a fluke, but Bry fell in love with this English setter at the pound and we had to bring him home. He works me over. He peed in the house four times the first day (I kept forgiving him and thinking he wouldn't do it again...) then he peed on my leg and he pulled me into the dirt when I tried to walk him, still, he's cute.

Here are some cute pics of Jax, don't have any of Crumpit yet.















Jaxy and Jar drawing. Jaxy likes coloring at his own little table
















Coach and Jax watching "Just Haven't Met You Yet" music video. He loves it and asks for it - and that seriously wasn't my doing. Maybe I turned it on once, but who hasn't? My dad loves it.
















Jax in one of his many disguises. Towels are actually his favorite to wear. A very close second is the Buddy outfit from Bry's My Buddy doll. The pants are tight capris on Jax and the shirt doesn't fit over his head - and he loves it.

Jax chillin' on our bed. So much personality :) We love that kid!

Birthday girl

My birthday was last week but I told Bryan it wasn't over until the Buble concert (about a week after my birthday). I have a great husband to celebrate with me for a week. So the culmination of birthday week was the big concert! We were so lucky to win front row tickets to my most favorite artist of all time - Michael Buble - and it was so amazing! I never thought I'd sit front row at one of his concerts. And Bryan brought in his "Kiss my wife" sign (since that was part of how we won the competition), and Michael saw it in the middle of a song. His eyes got all big and he stepped back and smiled at me. It was really a fantastic concert, he was amazing live, and Bryan and I had so much fun. I'll never forget it! Thank you to everyone who voted, that was seriously so amazing. So, here are a few pics from the show, and a few cute ones of our darling Jax :)
















Oh my gosh, the stage is RIGHT BEHIND US!





















Pretty sure he was singing to me here.....





















This is not photoshopped...that close!!
















This is not photoshopped either, I came home from a church meeting and Bryan said, "I thought he was just drawing on the paper I gave him..."



In front of his new fish tank, we started with 12 fish, two frogs and three snails. 6 fish are still alive, they went shark on us and ate the snails and the frogs are holding their own. So nasty

Mo, Mo

"Mo" used to mean "more," now it's "no." He uses it so well!

Happy New Year!

Sarah, Brandon and the boys and Jax shoveling, he is loving the snow!




Just wanted to post a little about our holiday adventures. It was a great season, we had lots of fun with family. Brandon and Sarah and the boys came out for a week right before Christmas - so brave! Jax had a great time following around his cousins and poking at baby Jonah. He just stopped trying to walk down the stairs like the cousins too. (Hopefully we can buy ourselves a little more time there.) They got to be here for Bry's birthday too, so that was really fun. The guys tried to go fishing, Sarah and I got some shopping in, it was a great time. Thanks for making the trek guys! Then for New Years, we flew to Texas with all my family to see my Uncle T and family. It was the first time ever we've all been together, and we had a really great time! They are really wonderful hosts and we have cute, awesome cousins, and I can't wait to see them all again. We got to go the Alamo, which was neat, the riverwalk in San Antonio - a must see if you ever go there - and experience real Tex-Mex (not as good as Uncle T's cooking). Here are a few pics from the holidays.





Here we are at the Alamo, Jax liked the rocks, and below is Jax enjoying a Christmas sucker and looking like a mess.












Oh wait, I have to say that Bryan got me the best X-mas present ever, tickets to Michael Buble's concert in March! Yay. And... Jax was adorable opening his presents, he would rip off the wrapping paper in tiny pieces and throw them, so it took a while. Also, best wishes to my grandpa Miskell, hope you get feeling better soon. Also, I need to see if I can post a funny video of Shelby chasing birds..can't forget that.

Jaxy-isms

Here are a few dang cute things I don't want to forget about our crazy toddler...



Jax LOVES helping. Every time he see us open the oven he runs and puts an oven mitt on. He also helps with dishes, whenever I turn on the water he drags a chair to the sink.




He loves playing hide and seek. His favorite thing is to put things under his leg and then put his hands up next to his head (the "I don't know" sign) when we ask where it went. He can do that over and over...and he does! It's adorable. He's also a little helper right now. If (when) he spills he'll say "uh oh" and go get a towel and wipe it up.
His little buddy got water all over himself the other day and Jax ran for a towel and patted him down. He also loves his daddy (and shoes "doos") and will run to daddy to step on his doos when he gets home from work. He also is learning how to rip his clothes off. He didn't quite get it the other day though, got it over his head (the cute pic on the left) and then ran around patting his belly, it was really funny.

We love that kid! Always something...

Before and after

Also had to post what's been keeping Bry and me up until nearly midnight every night for the past week. Been busy painting! Bryan actually sprained his ankle the night we (I) started, so he watched for the first few days, but thankfully, was able to really help out in the end. We really like the way it turned out!

We do exist . . .

Here's what we've been up to:
Okay, I have no idea how to organize pictures on blogger - lame! So here's the descriptions: Far left, Dr. Jax on Halloween with Nacho Libre (Jaron) - too bad you can't see his nylons and underwear over them! And then Jax on the phone is at the Children's Museum in TX, where Uncle T took us. Below that is Uncle T! We love him and had such a blast visiting. And down below is the annual tradition of tagging a Christmas tree. Didn't take too long this year and we mostly agreed! It's lots of fun and we always go to the candy factory afterwards, which is also a great tradition. :)

The House! and a haircut

Well I am finally posting pictures of the house for Brittney! Sorry it's taken me so long Britt! It's still not as clean as I want it to be....but if I wait any longer it will never happen. I've learned my house is never really clean, but I'm accepting it b/c I love the baby who makes all the messes!

Also, we cut off Jax's darling locks (sigh), so I have to post the before and after shots. And! Have I mentioned on here that Jax is walking all over the place? More like running these days. He worked up a sweat tonight literally running circles around us downstairs. It's so adorable. And he always has something in his fists, doesn't go anywhere without something, so things are getting lost.....

Okay, I'm putting all the picture captions up here b/c blogger is lame and I can't get a text box under the photos....

So, first is one angle of Jaxy's room and my version of "curtains" (working on it). Next is the downstairs living room (the playroom for now), then a few different angles of the great room upstairs. The rest of the bedrooms are boring, just white walls now. We have cool lofts above two of the rooms though, including Jax's, but we haven't done anything yet up there. We'll evetually make them little play lofts and put ladders up to them. I want to paint the great room soon too...probably tan? And our bedrooms is just white too, it's a good size though and we have a master bath, which is sweet!

And below the house, Jax's before and after hair-do pics. :) He looks like such a toddler with the new do.