Sydney's birthday

Last week Sydney turned three. I cannot believe it! We are having a party for her on Saturday, so I will post more then, but here are a few pictures on her actual birthday.

Donnie made Sydney a cake.
















Here is the birthday girl with her cake.
















Donnie, Sydney, and Jaxon
















Amy, Sydney, and Jaxon


















Sydney enjoying her cake and ice cream.


















Sydney modeling her gift from Jaxon - a Snow White outfit.






















Sydney is such a girly girl. She loves to run around in high heels and play dress up. She also loves to cook, and play with her baby dolls. She has a lot of sweetness in her, but like her mommy she is oh so sassy. She likes to put her hands on her hips when she is emphasizing a point ("Hmm. I said...").


I love her energy and her excitement for, well, everything. She loves to talk, but she is most passionate about singing and dancing. She must dance when the mood hits her too. It doesn't matter if we are in the middle of a restaurant, or in the middle of a prayer at church, she will yell, "Mom! I just need to dance!" and then proceed to turn circles and skip around. Sometimes it is cute, sometimes not so much.


Sydney loves animals and each week she has a great new idea of an animal we should have in our backyard. This week it is a gorilla. Which is a definite improvement over the elephant, but not as easy as a jumpy squirrel (we have plenty of those already).


She is such a blessing and I couldn't imagine my days without her.

Pics

Here are a few shots of the kids from the past couple of weeks.

At night, Sydney tries to sneak out of her room and into the kitchen for a little snack. She does this about 3 times a week. The problem is she is not very good at sneaking. In fact, she is terrible at it! She usually comes out of her room with a blanket covering her head. We think she thinks that if she can't see us, we can't see her. The problem is she can't see anything and she slams into walls and the washing machine.

The other night she tried to make it to the fridge for a piece of bread and a slice of cheese, but chose a different approach. She sat in a baby doll stroller and put a robe over her head, and rolled her way to the kitchen. Well, this was even louder thann the usual washing-machine-slam, and I just had to take a picture.

By the way, she always gets a snack. We can't stop laughing long enough to tell her "no."













Sydney really likes to put on her wings from her Halloween costume and "fly."

We always know when it's time to give Jaxon a bath - his hair gets really greasy. However, when his hair is sweaty or whatever, you can get it to do cute things. So here is Jaxon's dirty hairstyle; interestingly enough, it looks like Donnie's when Donnie's hair is clean. Sorry honey :-).

Riding the Pink Pig

Today we took Sydney to Lennox Square Mall to ride Priscilla the Pink Pig. Priscilla is a child-sized train they set up on the top deck of the Macy's parking lot, under a big pink tent. The train ride takes you through a storybook tale of the famed pig (the front of the train has a pig's face and the last car has a curly tail).

The original Priscilla started in the late 1940s at Rich's Department store downtown. It was a monorail - not a train - then and it circled the toy department. It was later moved to the roof, and when the downtown Rich's closed, it was moved to the "Festival of Trees." Now, the original pink pig is in the Atlanta History Center, and the train runs at Lenox Square (it has been this way for some time now, but I don't know exactly how long).

Sydney absolutely loved the train! She thought it was great. Donnie rode it with her. It was really funny to watch a 6'4" man try to squeeze into a kiddie-sized train seat. She wanted to ride it over and over again, but we told her we would come back next year and ride again (tomorrow is the last day for riding). They went around the track twice annd then we went in search of Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate. They were all sold out, so we tried a few samples of peppermint bark (yummy!) and headed out of the mall.

We are trying to start new traditions for our family, and now we have added Priscilla. My only question is to Mom and Dad: Why is that I am closing in on 30 and I am just now hearing about this magical pig? :-)

Jaxon's half birthday!

Can you believe Jaxon is already six months old? I can't. Time has just passed way too quickly!

He is 18 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches long. He is a big boy.

He is still the best baby, but a few things have changed too. He is so chatty these days. He loves to babble and blow raspberries. He still thinks his big sister is amazing, and likes to eat A LOT!

He likes to play with toys now and laughs the hardest when we tickle his cheek with our noses. He likes to eat his socks and play with his ears too. He also likes to stick out his tongue - a talent he practices nonstop.

Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas holiday this year! Donnie finished the semester Dec. 13 and so we had a lot of time to spend together as a family. With how busy he has been lately, it was nice to just relax together and play with the kids.

Christmas morning we invited my parents over for breakfast and to watch the kids open presents.

Here is a shot of our tree after Santa dropped off his gifts too. He forgot to put together Sydney's kitchen. Also pictures of Sydney checking out what was left of Santa's cookies and the reindeer's Cheerios, cheering for her kitchen (she has been begging for one for months), and admiring her Barbie Diamond Castle doll.

Jaxon was pretty psyched about the wrappings and tissue paper in his gifts.Santa gave him a "musical zoo." It is really cute and he and Sydney love it, BUT it is way too loud!

That afternoon we went to my Grandma's house to eat and visit with the rest of our family - well, the ones who were in town. One of my brothers is living in Guam with his family , and my oldest brother went to visit his wife's fam in VA.

It was nice to spend time together and it is always nice to eat everyone's yummy food :-). After we ate we opened gifts. At Thanksgiving each year we draw names and buy that person a gift. Then we open all our gifts - youngest kid to oldest kid, one at a time. When we hit the adult ages it becomes a free for all. Jaxon is currently the youngest - at least until April, so he went first.

When everyone left, we visited with Grandma a little longer and then headed home to relax and let Sydney play with her toys.

Christmas Eve

Donnie's family has a Christmas Eve tradition of eating a "Shepherd's Meal" and acting out the story of the Nativity. This year we went to his sister's house to keep with the tradition (Donnie's family in Idaho got together too, and we had a little Web chat).

We ate things like Salmon ( I looked at it, but did not actually let it pass my lips), cheese, deli meat, crackers, bread, olive oil, fresh fruits, and veggies. I guess it was kind of like what Shepherds ate :-).

Afterwards, the kids "dressed up" like Mary, Joseph, a Shepherd, an angel (Sydney), and Baby Jesus (Jaxon). Then we all read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible and sang a few Christmas songs. Half way through the activity, Sydney disappeared. When she returned, her pants were missing. Go figure.

Our tree

This year we stayed at home over the Christmas break (my first time in 10 years :-)), and so we had a real tree. Well, we had a fake tree, but it was a normal size and decorated.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we put the tree together, and Donnie and Sydney decorated it. They did a great job too! Sydney only broke 3 balls - we are totally buying some unbreakable decorations next year. (Is that a word or just the title of a Bruce Willis movie?)

We also decided to make some ornaments to put on our tree - we want to do this every year now; well, we want to make ornaments, but I'll have to see the end product before they can go on the tree :-)

Family pictures

Here are a few shots of the fam. Enjoy!