growing up so fast

It's been a great month. Jaxon has grown so much.  He is so much more alert and he likes to grab things that are in his reach or he will roll across the room to get what he wants.  We are in trouble.

First time at daddy's cabin with our friends Ryan and Erica- Missionaries in Ecuador.  

He loves the outdoors.

Had a play date with his buddy Parker, while I went to get my hair done.  My friend was nice enough to watch him.  She was able to experience what its like to watch 2 little boys by herself.  Parker liked eating Jaxon's shoes and feet.

6 month doctor appt went great.  He is definitely growing. He is wearing 9 month clothes with his cloth diapers, even though the pants tend to be a bit long.

weight- 16lbs  12 oz.
height- 2 feet 4 inches
head- 45.5 inches

Took dinner to our friends David and Lisa and met their new baby, Jospeh

Denise, Michelle, and Kate came to visit us and we went out to lunch.  Jaxon's first date with Kate it was supervised of course.  It was the 2nd time in the high chair.  He doesn't last that long in the chair. 

 I think he would rather sit in my lap.

Thanksgiving and a NEW HOUSE

Thanksgiving was at Mom and Dad's in Virginia this year. Jaxon does pretty good in the car.  Its about a 5 hour trip.  He had so much fun with Mimmie, Pop Pop, Cousin Maddie Grace, Aunt Meredith, Uncle Michael, Great Grandaddy, Great Aunt Celeste, Great Aunt Wendy, Great Uncle Jim, Cousins Ally, Lauren, Montana, and Bill.  He started sitting up by himself at my parents.   He was so proud of himself.  He tried bananas for the first time mashed up in his cereal.

We had the car loaded down coming home.  We are so excited to be getting a new house soon.  Brian and I will be homeowners together for the first time. So we brought home free moving boxes that dad found on criags list and boxes full of stuff that we had been storing at their house.

 Maddie Grace and Jaxon riding a horse

 

 bath time

 sitting up all by himself, so proud

 matching outfits

 matching outfits again, its reversible

 the Kmiec family

 Grandaddy with his grandkids and great grandkids

 getting packed up

 Mimmie and Pop Pop

Aunt Meredith 

I posted probably back in the summer about our adventure house hunting and the wonderful real estate agent that God allowed to come across our path.  We we've been taking our time going to look at houses and finding some online.  Thought we found one, but it was't in a good area and there were some major things wrong with it.  I was bummed it didn't work out.  But I knew that God had other plans.  Brian was working out at the gym one day and was looking in the real estate magazines and found one that was worth looking at.  We loved the house- sits almost on a acre of land, has well water, screened in porch, 3 bedrooms plus a bonus/attic, garage, plenty of room between our neighbors, and in a great neighborhood.  Its not too far from where we live now.  But the only thing was it was out of our price range.  We still looked into it some more and put in a low offer and worked our way up to our final offer.  We negotiated for about a week and were within $2,000 of our final price.  We were so excited.  Our agent said they listed it too high to start with.  So inspections were done, repair request was sent to the owners and WE CLOSE ON DEC 7. Its so soon. We have lots of packing to do and not enough hours in the day.

6 months old already

At the end of October we enjoyed checking out the Lexington Barbecue Festival for the first time.  We ate some good barbecue, walked around town, and enjoyed people watching.  They had live music and lots of arts and crafts for sale too.

a sand sculpture

 flying with daddy

a cool sign Brian found at the festival

I couldn't resist I had to dress Jaxon up as a giraffe for Halloween.  We went to our church for their pumpkin bash and then came back home to hand our tracts and candy. We had around 40 kids that came by.

This past week we had our Fall Global Celebration at our church.  We celebrated with our missionaries that our church supports, what God has been doing all over the world.  We had a picnic at a local park
and Jaxon enjoyed his first time in the swing.  We really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know our missionaries better.  We are so thankful our church puts a high priority on missions and gives us opportunities to get involved.

Jaxon loves his veggies.  He's tried butternut squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  He's so funny to watch when we feed him.  He opens his mouth and reaches for the spoon.  We usually feed him around our meal time or when its time for him to nurse in the evening.  He seems to eat better.  I also have been feeding him cereal after his morning nap and he is eating that better now.

We can't believe our little man is 6 months old now.  He had his photo shoot this weekend and was really cute posing with his pumpkin and then in his santa outfit I found at Target.  We can't wait to get the pictures back from our photographer.

I had to dress him up like Pastor Chris (the pastor that married us)

Pastor Chris wears sweater vests all the time

Just chillin and sitting up like a big boy

He loves to talk.  Well all he says right now is "Da Da Da Da" I would love to know what he is talking about when he is lying in his crib.  He loves to laugh and still rolls all over the place.  No crawling yet.  He also loves to chew on his fingers and sometimes he will put his whole hand in his mouth.  His legs are getting stronger to where he can stand up and hold on to the couch.  Of course we have to have our hand close behind his back so he won't fall.  He is still a little unstable.  He's not quite ready to sit up by himself. But I'm sure it won't be long.

Happy 6 months little man!! You always make us smile.

Help!!!! What has my husband done to me

I really haven't been converted from city to country living. I just learned how to can.  Its all for Jaxon though.  We went to the mountains the other weekend we bought 1 1/2 bushels of apples, a box of sweet potatoes, and some pumpkins.  My mother in law came over today and we canned 14 quart jars of applesauce and bagged 10 quart freezer bags of apples for pies and stewed apples.  It really wasn't that hard just pooped by the end.  It was very messy. We had apples all over the kitchen.  I don't know if I could have done it by myself.

Cut and core the apples and cook it all (even the peel and core) with a little bit of water on the stove.

 We borrowed an attachment to our Kitchen Aid- called a sieve and grinder.  Once the apples are cooked you put it though the sieve and it strains it and it spits out the peeling and seeds.

Then you can them in a water bath canner.

Now we have a life supply of applesauce for Jaxon

Jaxon has been growing like a weed.  We can't believe he will be 6 months soon.
He is still sleeping great at night waking up anywhere from 5-8am.  

He is very active in his crib and loves to move around.  I will put him to bed on his back and not long after he will end up on his stomach.  He seems to like sleeping on his tummy now.  

He is holding his head up really good during tummy time.  

He loves to giggle especially when Brian makes funny faces or talks funny during play time

He loves to chew on his fingers and toes and thankfully his gums haven't caused him much pain

Cloth diapers are still working out great

He is wearing 9 months clothes but the pants tend to be a little long 

He doesn't seem to like cereal much, so we might have to try veggies soon.

He loves being outside and taking walks with me and most of the time he falls asleep in his stroller

He smiles all the time and is a pretty laid back happy child

We are so blessed.  He is so much fun to be around.  

Traditions and Chocolate

I love dark chocolate.  Brian has bought me some on a occasion but has to hide it from me and ration it out.  Otherwise when he gets home from work it probably would be gone, since I stay home during the day.  Its bad.  So I went to Aldis the other day to get some groceries and got a chocolate bar.  When I got home I had one piece and decided to stick it in a drawer.  I told Brian I had gotten some but didn't tell him where it was.  The next day I wanted some so I went to the drawer and I found a ransom note and this is what I found wrapped around one of the pieces of chocolate.  How mean, he took the rest of my chocolate.

Its been 10 years since I graduated from Elon University.  I feel so old.  So a friend of mine and her husband came to spend the weekend with us to celebrate our 10 year reunion at Elon.  We walked Friday night around campus to see the new and old buildings.  Both of my dorms that I had lived in had been torn down and they were building something new.  The campus didn't look the same.  Then Saturday we walked around again and visited different parts of campus and tailgated.  We watched students walk around campus and they looked so little to us.  How did 10 years go by so fast.  Friday night we left Jaxon with our wonderful neighbors.  They seemed to have fun together and Jaxon did really well.  He doesn't seem to mind when we leave him and we are so thankful that he usually does really well.  Saturday we took him with us and he had fun in his stroller.

our mascot- the fighting Phoenix

My old dorm- all torn down

the campus store- 2 floors with an escalator

We started a tradition for the past couple of years to go to the mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We like to buy lots and lots of sweet potatoes and apples as well as some cooking pumpkins.  We have the best time watching the leaves change colors and finding a trail to hike.  This year we were so excited to take Jaxon.

hiking at Stone Mountain 

Jaxon asleep in his hiking pack

5 months old

How is he 5 months old already- what a cutie.

Time with friends for Craft Day and then hitting up the consignment sales. Thanks to my friend Michelle and pinterest, we made this wreath for my sister for her birthday.  Brian said I might have to start selling them.

Kate and Jaxon together again

The Princess Birthday Party....My niece Maddie grace turned 2 this month, so we went to her birthday party. Jaxon had so much fun with his cousins.  As a favor to all the little boy princes they got capes, crowns, and swords. The little girl princess's they got tutus, tierras, and wands.

 all dressed alike

 The whole family

Ally and her cousins

 Prince Jaxon

 Birthday Princess

 All the cousins (Jaxon, James, Cole, and Maddie Grace)

Maddie Grace loves her cousin Jaxon

I couldn't believe when we went to the doctor last month for his check up that he said we could start him on cereal and then solids.  I didn't think my boy was big enough for that.  Time has really flown by.  We decided to wait until he was 5 months old for cereal.  He has been acting like he is hungry more often and felt like he was ready for cereal whether we were ready or not.  We fed him oatmeal and he seemed to like it.  We put him in his little highchair to feed him in but then decided the bumbo was better.  He is not sitting up on his own quite yet.  The bumbo supports him a little better.  He was falling over a little in his high chair.  We try to feed him cereal once a day in between a feeding.

Pumpkin Patch with his buddy Parker.  I couldn't resist, I had to dress him up as a giraffe.