He crawls!

About four days ago Jaxon started crawling on all fours. For about two weeks he has been army crawling to the couch and pulling himself up, but it wasn't until Monday that he figured out he could get there faster on all fours. He can also bother his sister a lot more now that he is on all fours...

Story Time

When some people go to the bathroom (for the long haul), they take a magazine or book with them. When Sydney needs to go to the bathrrom, she takes me with her. She feels that bathroom time is the perfect story time.

Usually, she says, "Mom tell me a story while I ...(you know the word)." Tonight, however, she said, "Mom let me tell you a story!"

I was curious to hear what she came up with. I thought maybe she would tell me the story of Goldilocks or The Three Little Pigs (my go to stories), but no, she made up a story all on her own. I thought it was cute (although slightly strange), so I thought I would share it.



The Little Boy and the Giant, by Sydney Young

Once upon a time there was a little boy. One day he saw a big, monster, giant. And the giant ate the little boy in his mouth. Then the daddy came out and screamed. The mommy grabbed the little boy out of the giant's mouth with her big hands. Then they fed the giant meatballs. The end.

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did! I think she's pretty creative for a 3 year old.

Snowstorm - GA style

Living in the Rocky Mountains, one quickly acclimates to snowfall and all that accompanies it. After 10 years in the Rockies, I was a snow pro, and snowstorms had lost their thrill. In fact, I gladly welcomed the change of climate when we moved across country last summer. I was so happy to not worry about shoveling snow, or driving on black ice…

Then, February rolled around and Donnie and I started to miss the snow. We realized that Jaxon and Sydney will not make snow angels or snow men, go sledding, eat snow…and we were a little sad.

Then March came, and all of those fears were laid to rest. Georgia had a “snowstorm.” Now, this was relatively mild compared to Utah, but this was the biggest storm since 1993 for Georgia. Parts of metro Atlanta received 2-4 inches of snow.

The snow started falling at our house around 11 a.m. Sunday, and steadily fell for the rest of the day. Churches cancelled services, and schools cancelled Monday classes. Jaxon ate snow as it fell from the sky, and Sydney and Donnie made a small snowman. Sydney was so happy to see snow! She wanted to play outside all day, but in the afternoon it started thunder snowing – I did not make that up, that is what they called it on the news, so she had to play inside.

Here are a few shots from our big storm.

At the start of the "storm," the flakes were falling pretty quickly - and they were huge! Sydney was so happy! She ran out of the house without a coat or gloves; at least she had pants on. She ran to the car and started eating snow off the hood (yuck!).

Donnie convinced me to come outside with Jaxon so he could check it out. It was really cold and my hair was still wet, so we didn't stay out for long. Jaxon kept sticking his tongue out to lick the snow as it fell, but finally he gave up and started licking the snow off me.

Sydney came inside for gloves and a coat, and then she and Donnie built a little snowman on the trunk of the car. Most of our neighbors built bigger snowmen, but I think Sydney's was the cutest :-).

From the start of the storm until the time we left for church wasn't very long - an hour, maybe two - but the yard was completely covered by then. The snow came so quickly and unexpectedly that even the local wildlife was thrown off. Donnie took a few great shots of birds hanging out in the trees looking confused.

Hmmm

I'm not really sure what to think of this, but today Sydney said, "Look! I'm a mommy!"

I turned around to see this:

Somewhat mobile

Jaxon is still trying to get his movements under control. He is great at sitting, rolling, grabbing, pulling (Sydney's hair), pushing, rocking, hitting... the list goes on and on. The one thing he is not very good at is moving forward.



This wouldn't be such a big deal if he wasn't so good at move backwards.



He starts out like this



















But he ends up like this


















Yes, he is under our couch. It takes him about 45 seconds to disappear. We don't encourage this :-).

Sydney's party

We decided to have Sydney's birthday party at McDonalds this year. It was perfect!

We arrived a few minutes early, and the two people assigned to help with our party already had decorated everything. They had place mats, plates, treat bags, and hats set out for everyone. They took our order and went and took care of the food. Whe we were ready for the cake, they brought it into the play area, with the candles lit, and sang with everyone. When it was all over, they cleaned everything up for us. All of the things that I dread - setting up, deciding on food, keeping everyone entertained, cleaning up - were done by other people. It was a very relaxing day :-).

The best part was/is Sydney totally loved it! The cake was yummy too.

















































































































































Here are a few shots of Sydney enjoying her birthday presents at home. She loves to dress up and to cook. She also loves anything girlie - dolls, purses, and Princesses.

A baker's outfit















She couldn't decide which outfit to wear, so she put on three of them!




















A new bed and princess blanket















A princess activity book and calendar.















A purse and sunglasses. She said this is her shopping outfit.















All of her new Barbies.

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 :-).