Jaxy's 3!

In June we celebrated Jaxon's third birthday. If you ask him though, he will tell you, "I am not three!!! I am five!"



I think he wants to be big like Sydney. Jaxy is such a sweet little guy. He loves to cuddle and give hugs. He is quick to comfort you when sad, and has an unnatural obssession with Band-aids. We go through a box a week if they are not well hidden.


Jaxy loves to wrestle and play any kind of ball - he likes the ideas of baseball and golf, but still is a little small :). Donnie takes Jaxy to play mini-golf quite a bit, and he tries really hard to hold his club just right.



Jaxon is a carbaholic. He loves waffles, muffins, cereals, etc., and will only eat cantaloupe from the fruit department. Vegetables are gross (I tried to give him carrots once and he asked, "Do you think I'm a rabbit?! I can't eat this."), but corndogs and chicken are delicious.


Jaxy has a sweet, little voice which he doesn't use a lot. He is shy and quiet, but once he warms up to you (which takes a while) he will chat your ear off. He loves the "Toy Story" franchise, and "Cars" also. He likes to have collections - rocks, coins, leaves, invisible trophies...


Jaxy likes to climb, jump, and, when he thinks I'm not looking, dance. He loves The Aquabats, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.


He says lots of silly things, but my favorite is when you ask if he needs to go potty, or if he is ready for bed, etc. he responds, "No thanks; I'm fine."


We love Jaxon so much, and are very glad he is a part of our family!


A few weeks before Jaxy's birthday, my mom became ill, and had to undergo a craniotomy. She spent the next 30 days in the ICU, followed by a month and a half in an inpatient rehab facility. Due to these unforseen events, we didn't have a big party for Jaxy.


On his birthday, we ate at Chick-fil-A, saw "Cars 2," and ate a yummy ice cream cake. We invited some family friends to join us, so it was like a mini party. Jaxon had a great time, and after cake, we stopped by the hospital to visit a little with family. We didn't want the kids to see my mom, so we visited with my dad (who never left the hospital), and my sister Jana and her fam.



Jana helped Jaxon and Sydney put on gloves and masks, so they were happy.

Random photos...

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean we haven't been busy over the last few months!


We haven't had a lot of play time, but we managed to catch a half dozen Braves' games (Jaxy asks every morning if we can go see the Braves), and spend some Saturdays at Stone Mountain Park 9the kids love, love, love it here :))


The other pictures are random ones I found on Donnie's phone...

Do you think it was this bad for Dorothy?

So the South was rocked by a series of tornadoes at the end of April. There was monumental damage across the Southern States, and many people lost their lives. In Georgia, the northern part of the state and then around the center were the hardest parts hit.

Volunteers from all over spent weeks helping people clean and sort, in hopes that they could one day rebuild. Donnie served with a group from our church who traveled to Alabama to help in some of the hardest hit areas there. They worked just outside of Birmingham over Mother's Day weekend (that's why Donnie was not around to take photos :), and why he didn't have a camera...plus he was a little busy)

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year we decided to take some photos of the kids and make little photo displays. Donnie is the photographer in the family, but he was out of town (more on that in the next post), so it was up to me :)



I asked the kids to put on nice clothes so we could go to the front yard and take a few pictures for their grandmothers...they came out in costume. So I dressed them myself. Freedom of expression is overrated, right?

Pre K graduation!

Sydney finished her first year of school in May. It was only Pre-K, but it was a lot like regualar school. She met at the local elementary school, attended 5 days a week, and she followed the same hours the other kids followed (7:55 - 2:25).

She had three teachers, and Sydney loved them all. She only had 19 kids in her class, 14 boys and 5 girls :). Two of the other girls live down the street from us, so they became pretty good friends.

At the end of the school year, Sydney invited the girls over for an "End of Pre-K Party." Then she told me about it :) We had snacks, made little purses and necklaces, and played pin the tail on the donkey - remember, she planned the party :)

She had a great time, and is now excited for Kindergarten!

Anniversary trip

For our anniversary this year, we took another little weekend trip to D.C. I really love it there :) And it was springtime, so the flowers and trees were in full bloom :)

We had such a great time last time that we decided to go up a day earlier this trip, and spend three days there. There is so much to do, and most of it is free, so we wanted to go to places and do things that we didn't do last time.

We tried different restaurants (and cupcakeries), different museums, and we even saw a play at the Shakespeare Theatre close to Chinatown (there are many Shakespeare Theatres). We saw An Ideal Husband, which isn't Shakespeare, but Oscar Wilde, and we loved it!

Our favorite museum was the Newseum - we spent 6 hours there! We watched documentaries on Hurricane Katrina, highlights in sports over the last 100 years, investigative journalism (this was in 3D, and was pretty cool)... We saw exhibits on the Berlin Wall, 9/11, Katrina, the First Amendment, FBI and the media (lots of really cool cases from gangsters of the 20s to the Unabomber, and the D.C. sniper.

There is a huge room full of newspapers, current and over 100 years old. There is a section dedicated to people who have lost their lives while on assignment for a media outlet, and a studio where you can try your hand at reading the news in front of a live camera.

The Newseum is one of the few places you have to pay for, but it was definitely worth it!

Donnie has a friend who works for Senator Lee (R - Utah), and he hooked us up at the Capitol Building. Normally, you have to set a reservation up for a tour way in advance, and wait months to get tickets to view Congress in action in their respective chambers, but Donnie's friend set us up when we randomly called a day before we arrived.

We met with his friend, and Senator Lee's intern (interns are who give the tours). They took us on a private tour. We even went to places the normal tour does not go :). We were able to step out on the back deck of the building - the place where the president gives his inaugural address. We were not surprised to see guards with M-16 assault rifles :)

We also went down a little stairwell with markings from soldiers who tried to storm the Capitol, but were fought back and killed, and saw a really cool bust of Washington. We also saw all of the normal things too, like the old Senate chamber, the Rotunda, the place where people lie in state, all of the statues, paintings, and even a few Congressmen (like John Boehner, who walked right past us with his security detail. He is even more orange in person...)

Donnie's friend also gave us tickets to the viewing area to sit in the galley in the House chamber (they were still in session). Unfortunately, we were near the front of the line when they had to evacuate the House because of crazy protesters (it was tax day after all). It was still a great tour!

Before the evacuation...

After the evacuation...

the rotunda

a bust of George Washington

This is the view from where inaugural addresses are given; they take out part of the front railing, and add a stage.

The guy in the far left is the weapon-toting guard.

The pretty springtime flowers in front of our hotel, and pretty much everywhere in D.C.!

In line to see a famous celebrity...

Just kidding! This was actually the line to buy yummy cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake.

An old newspaper at the Newseum

Hide and Seek

"1,2,3,4,5! Ready or not, here I come!" That is Jaxon's favorite thing to yell. At all times, and in all places. We get really strange looks at Target. At home, he usually hides behind the bathroom door, and laughs so hard that you can't help but find him. Last week however, he was gone. I could not find him! I looked everywhere, without any luck. Then, I went into my bedroom, and noticed the pillows were a little crooked...

This is now his favorite spot - game or no game.

He often carries around Toy Story Pull-Ups as well...