Getting ready for Christmas 2016!

Alexis definitely has a good understanding of what Christmas is all about this year.  Since last year she has talked about the Christmas tree a lot.  I came downstairs one night after putting Jaxon to sleep and saw Alexis just sitting quietly looking at the tree.  It was so sweet.

Last year she enjoyed taking down all the ornaments she could reach.  This year she has enjoyed rearranging the ones she can reach.  

We are going to go to NY next week to spend Christmas there.  It has been a little overwhelming thinking about the long trip there and back but I am hopeful that things will go smoothly.  Aside from the anxiety about traveling, I am really excited that we can go!

This is unrelated to Christmas but macaroni and cheese is a favorite.  Alexis is a picky eater but she loves to eat this!  

Jaxon has recently started to eat more food and he really enjoyed eating macaroni and cheese for the first time.

It made me laugh when I looked over and saw this.  I guess he was finished!  

Fall 2016

When Rachel was here she was able to take some pictures for us.  They came out really well!

There were so many great pictures of Alexis.  Audrey was Rachel's assistant and was really good about getting Alexis to smile and look at the camera.

There were a few great pictures of Jaxon thankfully.  He was so tired and we were taking pictures right at his bed time.  

Here is Jaxon at 9 months old.  I can't believe how fast the year is going by!  

And here he is at 10 months old!  

Alexis cooperates a lot more when I take a picture of her than she did even a few months ago.  She used to just try and grab the phone.  

This is her making her bunny face.  

I have never seen dinosaur pajamas for girls before so I had to get these when I saw them.  They are very similar to Jaxon's and she loves it.

I always love taking pictures of the cute things Alexis does with her toys.  She arranged her characters in a pan.

One night when I went upstairs I noticed that Alexis had put her bunnies to bed while I was doing laundry.  These are the ones on my side.  

........and these are on Brett's side.  

Alexis and Jaxon get along so well together and they definitely enjoy spending time together.

The love playing in the tent.  

It makes me so happy to see them playing together so nicely.  

I love it when they hold hands like this in the car.  It is just so sweet!  

The Andrew Family Visits!

We were so lucky to have Rachel and her family visit at the beginning of November.  I haven't been able to see much of my family this year so I was really excited that they were able to come.  The thing that surprised everyone the most was that Jaxon was scared of Felicity!  Felicity is just a few months older than Jaxon.  Poor Felicity would keep crawling towards Jaxon and try and touch him but he kept crying when she would approach him. They were fine in this pictures the first day they were here but then they bumped heads when Felicity crawled towards him and stole his binky out of his mouth and put it in hers. It was pretty amusing.

Phoenix was thrilled to be wearing the same pajamas as Jaxon!  It was so cute!  

When Alexis was a baby, Audrey wasn't quite old enough to hold her without supervision so it was really cool to see Audrey be able to pick up Jaxon.  Audrey is growing up so fast!

We had a few birthday gifts for Felicity.  Alexis was very interested in "helping" her open the presents.  She really wanted to just open them herself but she was good about letting Felicity open them.

Phoenix and Alexis enjoying an ice cream cone =)  

This pictures melts my heart.  

Jaxon didn't mind being held by Audrey at all.  It was just so cute to see the two of them together.  

One of the days we went to Muir Woods.  We had never been before and we all had a great time.  It is amazing how big red wood trees can get!

Audrey was busy with a little activity packet that the kids got with admission.  

It is hard to see in the picture but there were a ton of ladybugs on this piece of wood. Phoenix put several of them in his pocket.  There were still a few crawling out of his pocket several hours later when we ate dinner.  It was so funny.

These cousins love being together!  

Jaxon is so content most of the time.  It is nice that we can do things like this and not have to worry about him being fussy.

Jaxon with his Auntie Rachel =)  He is such a little koala.  

My mom got matching owl shirts for Audrey and Alexis and matching dinosaur shirts for Phoenix and Jaxon.  She thought it would be fun for Audrey and Phoenix to give the shirts to Alexis and Jaxon when they got here.  It was so much fun.

This is the only picture I have of the boys wearing their matching shirts together. 

One of the days we went to a kids museum in Sacramento.  They had a little area closed off for kids 3 and under so Felicity and Jaxon spent their time in there while the older kids were in the main part.

Phoenix and Alexis playing with sand.  

Alexis LOVED Felicity.  She kept saying how cute she was and she was so excited to finally meet her.

Alexis is such a big girl now but it was funny to see Audrey hold her.  

The visit went by so fast of course but it was so much fun and I am so glad they could come.  It was very special to be able to meet Felicity for the first time.  I am just sad I wasn't able to meet her before she turned 1!

Halloween 2016

Alexis definitely knew what Halloween was all about this year.  She was very excited and she loved talking about getting dressed up as "Peppa Pig" and wondering what kind of candy she was going to get.

She also loved answering the door last year and seeing all the different costumes that the other kids had on.  She was excited to answer the door again this year.

Jaxon had know idea what was going on but it was fun dressing him in some Halloween clothes and picking out a cute costume.

The cutest pig and little dog in the whole world!   

It seems to rain every other year.  Last year was very warm and this year we were due for some rain.  Luckily it wasn't raining hard and the kids didn't need to be out very long. Jaxon was very content to just be carried around and he was perfectly happy.

It was so fun to see Alexis enjoy Halloween so much!