Jaxton's 10th Birthday

Jaxton is 10!  He is so big!  He is definitely a "big kid" these days, doing big kid things and having big kid conversations.  Its really so much fun to have a big kid in the house.  Jaxton wanted a big outdoor party this year, so we threw him just that.  He invited his school class plus some others over and they spent their time playing outside.  We barbecued, they roasted smore's, and entertained themselves outside.  As it got dark they played flashlight games with glowsticks and then we put on a giant outdoor movie projected on the house.  It was a fun time for sure!! Here are some fun things about Jaxton at age 10:

1. Jaxton's favorite food these days is CEREAL.  He loves to eat cereal and will eat it 3 meals a day if we let him. 

2. Jaxton's favorite books and stories these days are the Harry Potter Series.  He is so interested in all the cool facts and mysteries of the books and all the spells.  Maybe he will be getting some interesting Harry Potter books for Christmas....

3. Jaxton is in 4th Grade at Oak Farm Montessori.  He loves school and is excelling academically.  He currently loves Math the best and will choose math work over any other work offered to him.  He is now in a math group with 6th graders because his brain is just too smart.  

4. Jaxton loves Baby Owen.  He has always loved babies.  Babies bring out the best in him.  If he is upset, a baby will cheer him up.  And he is so loving and fun with babies.  It will be so fun to watch him with Baby Owen as Owen grows.

5.  Jaxton's piano skills are strengthening.  He has a natural talent for the piano.  His songs are beautiful.  He memorizes everything.  He is always reaching for harder and more complex music that is different or unique from the norm.  And then he never fails to master what he's chosen.  He has a confidence about him with piano.  He has no fear with it.  He will sit down and play from memory with such ease and beauty, its an amazing thing to watch. 

6. Jaxton's latest niche has been running.  He is turning up to be a really talented runner.  He can run long distances without a sweat.  He has joined a running club at the YMCA where he gets to work on his running skills.  Recently we went to the Tin Caps baseball field to run some laps as a family.  He ended up running 15 laps which equalled 5 miles.  He hardly stopped and towards the end of that he was sprinting to the finish.  And he says he could have kept going and going, it felt that great.  Again, his confidence was boosted as he realized his ability as a runner!

7. Jaxton is a Webelo cub scout who is determined to finish his Arrow of Light in the next couple months so he can join the St. Vincent Boy Scout Troop.  He's visited the troop as part of his Webelos requirements and while he was there he learned to build a fire firsthand.  He loved it and is determined to join that troop sooner rather than later.  Im glad to see his motivation here!

8.  Jaxton's favorite quote was by Albert Einstein.  It says, "You only fail when you quit trying."  We've discussed this a lot lately because school work and responsibilities are getting larger as he is getting older.  Math is a breeze, but language and reading are getting more complicated and more difficult and more time consuming.  It's easiest to just give up and say you can't do it.  He's been tempted to say this sometimes.  But we remember Einstein's quote and he has learned to NOT quit trying, not to give up, but to persevere, and keep on trying, push through that disappointment and discouragement.  This big kid is getting some real life lessons these days!

9. Jaxton is very good with his money.  He works for Simplx cleaning the office building, taking out trash, cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, the warehouse, filing folders, etc.  He takes the money he makes and pays 10% tithing.  Then he divides the remainder between 4 jars: savings, spendings, college, and mission.  He never likes to spend his money.  He is saving it up for something big (probably electronic).  He's just fine with wearing high water pants so he can save up his money for something else.

10. Jaxton is a sweet sweet boy.  He is genuine, honest, kind, and brave.  He never has a fear of change or of anything new.  He goes to new events and experiences without a fear or doubt in his mind.  His confidence is contagious.  I never need to worry about him being afraid of something new or worried.  He just goes and does it.  He is a brave kid.

Happy Birthday Jaxton!!! We love you!!

Halloween 2016

 Halloween is always sooo much fun!  From my childhood, we would always make our costumes, not buy them.  And I love to make the costumes now for the kiddos!!  

For Nathan, he loves Minions.  So we put together the cutest Minion outfit.  He looks real!!  And he was so proud to be a minion!

Kaylee wanted to be Ariel.  So again, we designed and sewed her beautiful mermaid outfit.  It was sooo difficult to get the fin to look and work correctly.  I think it was tricky for her to actually move around very easily.  So I don't think she liked wearing it a ton. But she enjoyed being Ariel. Complete with the wig!

Cooper wanted to dress up like Donald Trump!  A little risky, but that's how Cooper rolls!!  He looked the part, acted the part, and said all the right statements lol.  

Jaxton wanted to be Abraham Lincoln!  And Dawson wanted to be an Incredible!

Pumpkins

 

Pumpkin carving!  Always so much fun at Halloween!

Fall Leaves

 My favorite time of year is fall.  The leaves are the best.  Here we are waiting for big kids at school, rolling around in the piles of leaves!!  Happy Fall!

Cub Scout Fun

 Bear Scouts are a lot of fun - 3rd Graders! We cleaned the church building as a service project and carved pumpkins with our pocket knives, using our newly acquired pocket knife skills!  Melinda Ambrose is my partner in teaching the bears.  She is committed, thoughtful and dedicated to our calling, just as much as me.  We work so well together.  She brings a great amount to our partnership and we both have a passion to make this the best experience ever for these boys.  I am grateful for Melinda. 

Mary Todd - Piano

 

Jaxton and Cooper began piano lessons at Oak Farm with Mary Todd.  She is absolutely wonderful and is teaching them the Suzuki Method of piano.  Both boys are thriving.  Mary is very talented.  They are scheduled during the school day, so they leave the classroom for 30 minutes to work with Mary.  Its been the best!

School Photos Oak Farm

 

Jaxton - 3rd Grade

Cooper - 2nd Grade

Kaylee - Kindergarten

Pictures of Mom & Kay

 

Reader's Choice 2016

We won the Reader's Choice Award for the first time ever!  Simplx is a winner in our community!  This is such a big deal and we are so excited.  Here is the article we put out there! 

Preschool Fun

With our new preschool group, it has been a lot of fun getting back into fun preschool activities.  My first teaching week we did "All About Me" books which was a lot of fun!  We made pancakes with faces and traced our bodies with chalk outside.  Recently we had a field trip to Matea County Park and got an official tour through the woods.  The guide let Dawson let a monarch butterfly go that had recently come out of its chrysalis in the nature center.  That was exciting! 

We did another preschool day on "spontaneous delight" from the joy school curriculum and fingerprinted and built a fort to eat our stovetop popcorn and lunch inside.  

We took another field trip to Hilgars Pumpkin patch.  We had a hayride and Pumpkin story time and played at the farm.  Preschool has been loads of fun so far!

Preschool Fun

 Preschool for Dawson is a joy!  Crew, Keagan, Dawson, and Caleb love to get their hands messy and play outside.  Lots of fun this preschool season!

P is for: painting, popcorn, pancakes!

Tara's Baby Shower

Every pregnancy deserves a baby shower, even if it's your 6th!!  Simplx showered me with all things baby boy blue today, and it was a thoughtful, fun time.  Thank you team!!

Dawson plays soccer

 This was Dawson's first time playing soccer on a team.  He is all smiles.  He is such a happy kid!

Fort 4 Fitness Kids Race

This summer, the kids got registered for the kids marathon.  They attempt to run 25 miles throughout the summer and fall and the final 26th mile would be an actual race downtown at the Tin Caps Baseball field.  The 25 miles happened to be easy when they translate swimming, soccer, gymnastics, and all the other active things the kids do.  We took the big boys running with us on several occasions around the track at the gym.  And those boys are fast!!  Jaxton has great stamina.  He can run without stopping for long distances and then saves that crazy fast sprint for the last 30 seconds and will just take off!!  We will have to encourage him to do cross country next year in 5th grade.  And Cooper is also very very fast.  He is a sprinter for shorter distances.  

The kids race was pretty exciting.  We arrived just as they were counting down from 10 and the big boys and their buddies took off running as fast as they could!  Kaylee ran with her friend Keagan and they didn't stop the entire mile.  They were running fast and so excited!!  I ran with Dawson, who's run was as fast as my walk.  So lucky  me, being 9 months pregnant I got to walk ;-).  Dawson was a trooper.  He was motivated for this!  He would hear the music getting louder and it would motivate him that we were getting closer to the finish.  There were lots of people that offered him high fives along the course and he took every single high five with the biggest grin on his face.  He was loving it.  At the finish line he put his hands up and ran hard through the finish and got a medal put around his neck.  He was so very very proud!  What a fun experience!

Jaxton's friends

 

Raspberry Picking

I took Dawson & Nathan and friends, Keagan and Kennedy, to the raspberry patch at Cedar Creek Produce.  We went raspberry picking.  It was so much fun!  Nathan's bucket remained pretty close to empty since every raspberry he could find went straight into his mouth.  And he was so good at finding those little red gems.  Dawson worked hard to fill his bucket and enjoyed finding bunches of raspberries hiding behind leaves and branches.  Keagan and Kennedy enjoyed the trip too and we ate lots of raspberries for our lunch.  Fun times!!!