Dax turns 3

We had another birthday this week, Daxton turned 3!  The night before, McKenzie and Cambrie decorated the house for him, and were really proud of their streamer waterfall by the stairs and their birthday couch.   Daxton loved all of his balloons and promptly started popping the ones he could reach.  

It was a pretty chill birthday.  We went to church, came home, did cake and presents. Daxton insisted on helping me bake his birthday cake.  He's a good little helper...he just likes to lick things as we go along.

 Jeremy was in charge of the cake this year and he went all out.  The Bumblebee cake looked fabulous, since Jeremy is a fondant master by now, but he upped his game by adding sparklers.  Daxton wasn't quite sure what to make of them since they didn't blow out when he blew.  

The rest of the kids tried their best to blow them out too, but we just had to wait for them to blow themselves out.  Well done Jer.  Well done. 

Opening his gifts.

The gift he was most excited about were his dragon wings.  We made a pair of butterfly wings for Emma for Christmas, and Daxton was really upset we had to give them away.  The rest of the night the kids played dragon and knight, and ran around the house like crazy trying to slay one another.

Now Daxton is one interesting kid.  He's a handful, a cute handful, but a handful nevertheless.  Here's a quick list of things that make Daxton, Daxton:

~He licks up the syrup off his plate with his fingers.  Once he's done he waves his hands in the air until I can come rescue him from his "sticky hands."

~He doesn't like shoes.  He'll go barefoot whenever possible.  This was a problem during the summer when he dropped a large rock on his toe which split it open.  It took awhile for his "big rock toe" to stop hurting.

~He walks around with his hand stuck down his pants.

~He purposely drops food into his water cup.

~He completely disassembles DVD cases.  In fact, he destroys them and most often the DVD in there too.  I have had to hide our entire collection of disks in my closet so he can't get to them.  He has a handful of disks downstairs, but we've basically switched to digital because of this guy.

~He tears books.  I think he just is curious about what will happen and ruins a lot of things this way.

~He steps on all of our game boxes which means the corners are torn and every game box we have is falling apart.

~He walks downstairs in the morning and immediately tosses off every throw pillow we have on the couch.  If I clean them up, he'll follow right along behind me and throw them off again.

~He often sleeps on the floor because it wasn't his idea to go to bed.

~He snacks non-stop.  He is a grazer and won't eat his meals, but insteads munches ALL DAY LONG.

~He opens his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and eats the peanut butter and jelly off of the bread.

~He loves slides, but not swings.  He's growing into those.

~He can't stand having a dirty shirt and I find him in various states of undress during the day.

~He calls Optimus Prime, "Optimus Crime," Darth Vader, "Darth Mader," and magnets, "maggots." 

~He is incredibly stubborn and his rule is, "his way or no way."  He is constantly calling out, "I do it!" 

~He is a smart kid, probably too smart for his own good, and already knows the entire alphabet and the sounds most of the letters make.

~He also has one of the cutest smiles I've ever seen, which gets him out of a lot of trouble.  And when he comes to climb in bed with me, he'll put his little hand on my cheek and suddenly I don't care that he drives me absolutely crazy most days.

Wings

When the Pearce's were out last time, they wanted to go visit the Wings Over the Rockies museum.  Jeremy and Daxton were free, so they joined them.  They said that they had a blast and that Daxton was great, especially with the hands-on exhibits.  They were down there for nearly two hours so I'd call that a successful daddy-son-cousin-aunt-uncle play date.

"Don't touch," they said.  Oh my boys...

Slippin' and slidin'

The boys and I went exploring after speech, and found a perfect river of ice to play on.  They thought it was hysterical how how it was to walk and run on the ice.  My goal was to try to take as many pictures as I could of them falling.  Is that mean?  They kept falling left and right but didn't let that stop them from having fun.  

Kelton wanted to follow the stream to where it began, but we simply ran out of time.

  Daxton kept picking up chunks of ice and throwing them, watching them smash to bits.  

I tried really hard not to fall, because it was difficult, and liked looking at all of the patterns on the ice.  It was so much fun. 

The 18th day of Christmas break

On the last day of Christmas break I tried hiding in my room, waiting for all of my Christmas decorations to put themselves away, the Christmas presents to all find a home, the laundry to take care of itself, and the food to magically prepare itself.  I tried hiding but it didn't quite work.  So much for Christmas break huh?

Party like you're 9!

McKenzie's birthday came quickly after we returned from our Utah festivities.  Trying to catch up with life meant that we were able to sing, "Oh birthday tree, oh birthday tree!" just as frequently as we sang "Happy birthday."  

After McKenzie fell asleep the night before, Cambrie helped me decorate the house, and included a streamer wall to keep her trapped in her room.  What a great little helper!

Good morning Miss McKenzie!  (She made it out from behind the streamers.)

  

McKenzie's day was full of fun from a Sunday School breakfast at a ward member's house, a gymnastic clinic, and finally her birthday party down at Defy.  We ended up booking her party there just two days before, and I'm so glad it worked out.  We had never been to this place before but it was sooo much fun!  Our whole family was able to stay and play, and I alternated between helping Daxton reach the obstacles, and roaming between McKenzie's friends watching them laugh and have a good time.  There were trampoline grids, obstacle courses, giant foam pits, and some Wipe-Out type obstacles.  

I think the one that made me laugh the most was the rotating arm.  When Daxton couldn't jump over the low arm he was just swept up by it and proceeded to swing around knocking the next six kids off of their pedestals.  

Kelton loved everything, no surprise there, and had no fear when it came to falling backwards off the 8 foot wall onto a mat.  

We all ran around like maniacs have the best time, and were disappointed when our hour was up.  We moved into the party room for cake and ice-cream.  We had a party host, and I have to say that was the best thing ever!  I didn't have to lift a finger, Jose did it all.  The kids devoured their pizza, and were super patient as we had to sing two rounds of Happy Birthday as the candles just weren't lighting.  No matter, it still tasted delicious. 

 I was so grateful that even with the super late notice that so many of McKenzie's friends were able to come, (Ruth, Ashley, Stephanie, Maddie, Molly, Aubri, Brielle).  

We wrapped up the celebrations this afternoon after church.  We couldn't ask for a girl with a better heart than this sweet little 9-year-old.

Off to YW!

Big news for these ladies. 

 

With the announcement of the change for age progression for the youth, they all started Young Women's this week!  Now they won't have to be the tallest one left in Primary, or the oldest one to be the in Primary Program, or to watch their friends wander towards YW without them.  This new adventure snuck up on all of us rather quickly and I just hope they (and the moms like me), are ready!

Gift bonanza

Christmas break in South Jordan was low-key with a lot of gifts. We started off the gift bonanza with birthday presents for McKenzie and Daxton.  

Hedgehogs galore for this girl!  

Even truly British hedgehogs.

Daxton makes the cutest little cowboy, and now won't steal his brother's cowboy hat anymore.  

He also received a car mat for his new collection of Matchbox cars.  All the kids loved playing with that mat together.  

We didn't go for birthday cakes this year, but instead opted for some absolutely delicious sugar cookies.  

We also had our Rogers gift exchange.  The kids all had a blast opening their presents, and in some cases (like Daxton) opening other people's presents.  

I do like this picture of all the kids covering their eyes pretending not to peek at a gift come from the other room.  

We have new building sets, fashion design books, spa sets, more hedgehogs, helicopters, a giant Hogwarts book, blankets, triathlon shoes, freshly minted bills, a felt letterboard, clay, cars, candy, and walkie talkies to take home.  

In between all of the gift giving we hung out with the sibling and played a lot of games.  We were also able to meet Nigel, Cydney and Dantley's cute new puppy.  I think Dantley is practicing his puppy dad skills here.  

While the adults played, Cambrie was creative like always and built a fabulous ship ready to take them on a voyage.  

It's a good thing the kids love their family enough to put up with the driving across Wyoming.  They are super troopers.  Another successful Utah trip in the books.