Before Christmas-

Well it has been awhile since I have last blogged- it is so bad that I still have pictures of things we did before Christmas that I need to blog about. It has been very busy around our house and I decided to take a break from blogging, however I am back now and ready to update our blog with what we did before Christmas, and all the fun celebrations we had with our family's! This post I am just going to concentrate on what we did before Christmas. Brody was really into helping put up all of our Christmas decorations this year! He loved helping decide where things should go and help me put the ornaments on the tree.

This year was Brody's first Christmas program! I loved watching him up on the stage and was so proud of him for doing such a great job! He had to memorize a poem and sing two songs up there! He did great and could say the poem with the actions perfectly!
Marmee and Pops came to see him perform.
So did Aunt Brandy, cousin Traber, Grandma, and Grandpa.

Kaylee and I went up to party with him and his class for his Christmas Party.
Kaylee really wanted to eat some of Brody's food --- lucky for her, her big brother does not eat much and she got to share some of his yummy snacks with him! :)

We took a family outing to a church in town that puts on a great light show! It was fun for the kids to walk through the lights and see all the different things.
It was really cold outside so we were not able to stay long. Next year we are going to have to go earlier when it is a little warmer outside!! :)

Visiting Santa-
It looks like Brody is not enjoying sitting on Santa lap here and in the pic below- but don't let him fool you! This is all he could talk about for days and many times he has pretended to be Santa and will want Kaylee to sit on his lap and ask her what she wants for Christmas! :)
This picture is not the best but the one I got from Bass Pro is much better! If you have a bass pro by you it is a great places to take the kids to see Santa because it is free! Yes everything is free- even the picture they give you and they let you pull out your camera and take one of your own! Kaylee did exactly what we thought she would do- she took one look at him and started waving her arms and puckering up! :)

I don't know how I got such a great picture of him in front of our tree but I just love it! What a cute little guy!
I tried to get a good one of him and Kaylee in their Christmas outfits but she was not having any part of that and wanted to crawl over to me. This pic is funny because Brody is trying to hold her there! :)
Even though I really don't like how this turned out it was the best I could get. :)

Stay tuned for more Christmas Posts! :)

Coming Soon!

Update on Christmas coming soon!

Blogging by Jason

Well, I only make a blog post about once a year so I thought that I would do my 1 post before the year is up. I had the privilege of hanging out with Brody and Kaylee this weekend alot by myself. Emily was working at our church all weekend so I got to spend some quality time with the kiddos. It was alot of fun and I came away from this weekend having learned alot so I thought that I would share them with you. First off, I learned how hard it is to get everything ready to get out the door to go somewhere. Now, I am the one who hates being late and always likes to have everything ready to go the night before. I am used to getting things ready when Emily is here and letting her know the countdown of when we need to leave, but having to do this alone was a whole different story. The things my wife does to get everything ready each and every day I think I kind of take for granted such as:

The dreaded diaper bag- huge diaper bag that I usually complain about being too big and too many things in there happened to not be big enough for me this weekend.

Fixing Brody's hair. Somehow I can't seem to make it look as good as the way mom does it and Brody let me know that this weekend. He said to me in the car "Daddy, I like it when Mommy fixes my hair cause you don't fix it right".

Fixing Kaylee's hair. Not only do you have to fix a girl's hair, you have to put a bow in it and somehow keep the hair fixed as you slide a bow on. Then 15 seconds later she pulls the bow out and smiles at you

Getting lunch or dinner ready- OK, so I we came home from Church on sunday and Me and the kids sat down to eat Lunch in which Emily had already prepared for us that morning. All I had to do was put some rolls in the oven. Emily made it so easy for me and I really appreciate it. I say all this to say Thanks Emily for doing everything you do!! You really take care of all us kids and we love you for it!

This past weekend was a blast and I really enjoyed it. I know that Brody and Kaylee had fun. I have posted a few pics from the weekend. Enjoy!!

This picture is of Brody being his silly self. I was trying to put Kaylee down for a nap and he found all her bows and sunglasses and was playing with them. When I came out of Kaylee's room this is the way he looked. :)

Kaylee dressing up like a reindeer:)

Brody acting like a reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh

Brody and Kaylee on the sleigh together. It is fun to watch Kaylee cause she follows Brody everywhere he goes.

Thanks for the great weekend!

Christmas in Silver Dollar City

This past weekend we were able to go to Branson one last time this year. It was exciting to go to Silver Dollar City this time because they have all of their Christmas lights up and Christmas specials. We went with some of Jason's family and had a great time with all of them! The picture above is of Kaylee and Brody all bundled up because it was really cold outside!!


i was most worried about Kaylee with the weather being so cold. However she did great while we were there and really enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights, playing with Brody and her cousin Lilly, and sleeping in mommy and daddy's arms while we walked around Silver Dollar City. :)

Here is a picture of Jason holding Kaylee while she is fast asleep. For some reason she did not want to take her naps in her stroller! I think it was because of all the layers she had on and it was a little uncomfortable to sit in her stroller. So Jason and I traded off holding her while she slept. Needless to say our arms got a great workout!!

Here is Lilly and Holly on one of the kiddie rides. It was fun seeing Lilly experience the rides for the first time. I am sure as she gets older she will like them even more!

Here is Brody ridding the elephants with Jason's cousin Kristin. I think he had a great time on this ride!

At night they have a parade that goes through the park that you can watch. It was fun for the kids to experience and look at all the different floats and people in the parade. Here Kaylee and I are waiting for the parade to start. She is all bundled up and wrapped in a blanket to keep her warm. As you can see I am propping her up on my leg because by this time my arms were shot from carrying her around all day!!

They have a very big Christmas tree that lights up to music. This was one of Lilly's favorite things to watch! Here are Ryan and Holly watching it with her.

Of course Brody loved the light up train in the parade!

This little boy just loves this place and talks about it all the time! I love that he enjoys it so much and will have lots of fun memories there!

A couple busy weeks!

Before Thanksgiving my sister, Eric, and Drew came in town to visit. My sister and I went to a fun Christmas Party at my church- it was nice to be able to get out for awhile and spend some time together just the two of us... well and everyone else at my church! :)

I was able to watch Drew while my sister and Eric went to look at a furniture shop in town. It was fun to be able to spend some one on one time with him since both my kiddos were asleep. We played, ate and I got him down for a nap. :)

Here are all the kiddos playing at my parents house. This is a really cool toy that all three of them liked playing with.

Kaylee had a good time on "Trigger" my dad's old rocking horse.

Before they left both of the little ones were getting a little tired and fussy. So I bounced them on the ball and they both enjoyed it. :)

Brody was on the floor showing Drew how to play with this toy. I think it is cute that they are playing together. We hope and pray that they will be good friends one day! We had a great time with them while they were here! It was fun watching all the kids play together!

___________________________Thanksgiving________________________

We spent the Thanksgiving Holiday with Jason's family. Before Thanksgiving Jason's Dad had to have surgery to remove a tumor and ulcer they found. So during the surgery Drew and I (Heather's husband) watched the kids. Here Lilly and Kaylee are having a really good time looking at some books. It was a lot of fun being able to spend some time with Lilly and Luke ( one of our new nephews). I think Lilly and Kaylee had a good time playing together, they would follow each other around and play with whatever the other one was playing with. :)
Jason's dad's surgery went good and although the Tumor is cancerous they got it all out and he is recovering at home. They are going to meet with Doctors to see what happens next so please keep them in your prayers!

Here we are trying to get a pick of the babies (Luke and Traber). I think this picture is funny because Kaylee really wanted to go and touch one of them!!

Brody and Lilly had a blast playing together in Grandma and Grandpa's tent!

Here Lilly and I are coloring one night before bed.

Here are Jason and I holding the babies. I am holding Traber (Jeremy and Brandy's son) and Jason is holding Luke (Heather and Drew's son). It was our first time meeting Luke and we loved being able to spend a lot of time with him while they were here. One night Jason and I watched him while Heather and Drew went out and about for a little while. It was fun being able to do that since they live far away.

This picture is funny because Kaylee is looking at the adds for black Friday. It is a tradition in Jason's family to check out the adds on Thanksgiving and see if there is anything worth getting up before the sun comes up for. Kaylee seemed like joining in on the fun. I am sure it was heartbreaking to her when I told her we were not going shopping at 4:00 in the morning! :) One day little lady........

I think this is a cute pic! No they are not twins, Luke (right) is only a couple weeks older the Traber. I am sure there will be lots of fun times ahead with them being so close in age. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and are so glad we got to spend it with all of you!

Our life-

We went outside today to attempt to get a good picture of the two of them together. Ha! This is the best picture that I got of them both together! :) It does make me laugh!!! Brody loves Kaylee and since she was not to sure about the leaves when she first sat down he decided to put them on her head so that she would get used to them! What a silly little BOY! :)

I do not have a fancy camera (one day I will ) so getting a good picture of this little guy is hard to come by! However I really like this one!

I have noticed that lately Brody and Kaylee have been playing a lot with each other! He will "come and get her" and when he does she will just laugh the whole time and try to get away from him. It is very cute to watch! I pulled out Brody's old house so that Kaylee could play with it and they both have been having a ball playing with it! I love any toy that will entertain both kids at the same time! :) I pray that they will be best friends their whole lives!!

Our little girl is now 9 months old! Wow! She has learned so much and is getting to be a big girl! She is now on the move and is crawling everywhere! One day she just got up on her knees and decided to come after me into the kitchen and the rest is history! :) That has been a big change around our house, not only for Ja and I but for Brody as well. He is learning really quickly that he has to pick up his toys or she will get them! I always knew that she would start crawling just in time for her to be really good at it when we put up our Christmas tree. :)*

She is also standing up a lot and pulling up on everything! She can sign "all done" and sometimes "more". She is eating everything and anything that we give her and has loved everything that she has tried except cranberry sauce! :) She loves to read books and can turn the pages on her own and really likes the books with the flaps. She is now saying dada and waves bye bye, she can also say hi, all done, baba, gaga. She knows the meaning of no and will look at you when she knows she is not supposed to do something. She loves to play patty cake and clap her hands!!

I have had many people ask me if she pulls out her bows. She will not pull them out if she is wearing a head band, but if I just put the bow in her hair then she will pull it out eventually. She hates getting in her car seat unless Brody is already in the car distracting her with whatever he is doing! She is now drinking most of her milk except at night, out of a sippy cup and is starting to really enjoy dropping her cup and letting me pick it up at meal times! :) She now knows what some of her toys are like: book, ball, blocks, doll, and house and will crawl to get them when we ask her to. Seeing her learn all these things is so exciting and at the same time a little sad knowing that our baby is growing up!! :) We praise the Lord for giving her to us!!

If you are looking for a fun toy to give your little one for Christmas I recommend this one! Yes it does take up some room, but it has some fun things for them to play with on it!

Last weekend our nephew Traber Jackson was born. We were able to go up to the hospital when he was born! I just love this picture of Lilly and Brody watching Traber get weighed and have his first bath!

Here is the proud daddy holding his baby boy. :)

Here I am getting to hold him for the first time! Let me tell you he is a cutie!

Brody and Ja are checking him out. Brody wanted to give Traber a toy so of course we had to get him a train. It is a fun toy that makes all kids of train noises. Brody wanted to keep it as his own...... I know that when Traber starts to play with it Brody will want to play with it with him. :)

Kaylee is getting a good look at Traber here. She really wanted to reach out at him and grab his face. :) I guess it is her way of saying hi welcome to the world! :)
We are so excited that Traber is now in our family!! Congratulations Jeremy and Brandy!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween this year Brody was a UPS man and Kaylee was Tinkerbell (or a fairy). It was a lot of fun dressing them and letting Brody pick out his own costume. Brody went through a stage of getting really bored while riding in the car. So I started pointing out all the different trucks that went by and we would talk about them. This way it kept his interest and he would (and still does) look for all the different kinds of trucks. So when we let him pick out his costume we were not surprised that he picked the UPS man outfit since we always see the trucks drive by! It is my favorite outfit that he has worn and I think his as well. :) I loved being able to make a tu-tu for Kaylee! I found the wings at a sale and thought it would be fun to make her a fairy. I added some tulle, some iron on hearts to her shirt, and a fun little head peace to make her outfit complete. :) I love how it turned out!

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to let them see the kids outfits, spend time with them and to see Lilly. It was fun making a day out of Halloween.

Here are all the kids wearing their Halloween outfits. Lilly is a cute little cat!! Holly made her outfit and did a really good job on it! I know that all the kids are not looking at the camera, but you take what you can get with three kids! :)

I think this picture is so cute of Lilly! She is purring like a kitty cat! :) It is fun to watch her and Brody because they are noticing each other more and more every time we see them.

Brody and Kaylee with Grandma and Grandpa. :)

We then made our way to my Grandparents house to show them the kiddos. Here is Gammy chasing Brody around. :) I think this is such a sweet picture!

Gammy comforting Kaylee on her lap. :)

After the kids took naps we went over to my parents house for a yummy dinner and some trick-or-treating. :)

Marmee and Pops with the kiddos before Pops and Ja took Brody trick-or-treating.

Aren't these fun pumpkins that my mom has! They look so cute from the road!

Brody was so excited to go trick-or-treating and came home ready to look at all of his candy. It brought back memories of my sister and I always coming home and dumping the candy on the floor so we could see all that we got and let my parents go through it to make sure nothing had been opened.

I just love this picture!!

Brother and Sister! We had a great Halloween!