Our TX Christmas

Pax and I made a quick trip to Texas to celebrate Christmas but more importantly to let Pax meet the rest of his family for the first time. We had a great time and it was definitely worth all of the travel to start these awesome relationships. Here's Pax with my dad, Grump:

Pax and I with my grandparents -

Pax and I with Ani and Sissy!

Caeli and Mr. Pax

Mom and Dad

Caeli, Pax, and Anica. Pax liked the rocking recliner so much I've considered getting one! If only I had somewhere to put it, ha!

Paxton and his cousin Lincoln. They were born 19 days apart. We were so excited to get to meet him for the first time.

Alyssa and Pax.

(Hi Ms. Alyssa! Thanks for reading my blog and posting such sweet comments. I loved seeing you. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying your break from school.)

My sisters and I!

We really had a great trip and Pax was a complete angel! I can't wait to go back again soon.

Christmas Day

What a wonderful Christmas we had! Here's a recap for you:

Our 3 boys! Yep, they look a little tired! Tristan and Aidan were sleeping beauties, we woke them up at 8:30.

Stocking time - this was probably the funniest thing of the day. Pax was extremely dramatic with his stocking.

What in the world could be in here?

What are these? Lollipops?? Are they real???

Yes they are! My favorite thing ever! WooHoo!!!

Throughout all of our Christmas activities - nothing was more fun for Pax than climbing the stairs!
Even Opal got a few gifts! So far so good too. We're almost at the end of the day and she hasn't torn it apart yet!

Pax's toys were a hit with the big boys too!

Aidan's such a great big brother! He put together all of Pax's toys for him.

Aidan and I had a deal that if he got all A's and B's for the first half of his 6th grade year he would get a new phone. I'm so happy to say that he did it!!! Way to go Aidan!

Here's the boys opening their last present. They both got an I-Pod Touch!

Ahhhhh Dad! You are the best!!!

Hugs from everyone!

And here's the aftermath! The boys had a fantastic Christmas which made my Christmas fantastic too. Hope that you all had a wonderful day filled with love and laughter just like ours.

PE is just like a playoff game - didn't you know?

As is Tristan's character - he goes all out in PE at school. The boy can not just play for fun. So, Wednesday afternoon I get a call from the school that he needs to be picked up and will probably need stitches. (Nevermind that I'm at work in the middle of pumping!!!) I get there and see him calmly laying in the nurse's office. He tells me that they were running sprints in the gym and he slipped and hit his chin on the floor. The nurse is pretty sure that he needs stitches and with one glance I am too. Off to the ER we go.

If you don't like blood please skip the next picture!!!!!

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I can't tell you how many times we heard, "that's a good one."

Two hours later he's all stitched up! 6 stitches and a pretty bruise. He was such a trooper, didn't shed a tear! Had lots of questions but the medical staff was awesome. He'll get them out in a week.

Weather

It's funny in a way that I've had to make the rule that the boys can't wear shorts unless the temperature for that day is expected to be above 57. Yep, that's right all of you Texas people - 57 degrees.

Guess that's Colorado for you.

Halloween Recap

How does a month go by so quickly? Here's a very late recap of our Halloween:

Pax and I in our matching outfits!

Us by the pumpkin that Aidan carved.

Pax's first lollipop! They are a favorite now.

The crew! Bet you can't guess who they all are! Left to right: Josh as a flag football player, Jake as a mummy?, Tristan with the gold skeleton mask, Jack as a nerd, Aidan as pumpkin face, and Brendan as a morph - whatever that is. Everyone ended up at our house again for trick or treating but that's just the way we like it!

Tristan's Thanksgiving

Tristan's team played a tournament over Thanksgiving in Las Vegas! They left early (4 am) Thanksgiving morning and returned Sunday night. Man, did I miss him!!! He had a blast and only had positive things to say about the entire trip.

The team waiting on their van in Las Vegas.

Their team prays before every game. Look at those mountains in the background!

Does that guy in white look huge or what? Love seeing T with the ball.

Here he is again! He had a very successful weekend on a personal level. 4 goals in 4 games! He scored half of their team goals!

It was so hard for me to get the texts and calls from the parents who were able to go. I was ecstatic that he did so well but sad that I wasn't able to watch it in person.

Celebrating one of his goals! Way to go Tree! The team finished with 1 loss and 3 ties. Even though they didn't win - their team needed this trip for bonding and the experience of it all. All I know is that I'm super happy to have him back home.

Our Brown Thanksgiving!

I had to post this picture because it's rare to catch Jeremy in a true smile. Here are the 3 Brown boys together!

Jeremy was able to bring his 3 children with him. Left to right: Terrance - 15, Marcus - 15, Jeremy and Laila - 10.

A view of the crowd before Thanksgiving dinner. We had 15 people in all. 8 family members from Texas, us, and 3 friends.

Sitting down for a second.

Josh and Paxton. He really didn't know what to think about all of our company.

The kids took over the dining room table.

All of us! Notice Tristan is missing? He was in Vegas and I'll blog about that next! We had a great Thanksgiving with our family. They rented a van and drove up here Wednesday and left Saturday morning. Our short time together flew by. Can't wait until we can do it again!

Pax's 9 mo photos!

Let's begin with our favorite - this picture captures Pax's personality completely!

And this one shows how happy he normally is!

Cutie pie!

Oooohhh, is that a scary blue monster?

This is my blankie. My daddy sometimes calls me Linus.

Paxton!

Happy Halloween to you all!