I have had the priviledge of watching my cute little niece once a week while Joni goes to work. She is so cute and my kids absolutely love her. When she arrives Kaybri is constantly saying "baby", "brother", "Paxton". I guess we totally brainwashed her when I was pregnant with Pax, because she thinks every little baby is called her baby brother Paxton. And Pax just can't get enough of her. He loves to hold her, talk to her in high-pitched baby talk, give her binkie to her, load her up with toys, kiss her, and make her smile. He does pretty good, but he is a rough and tough boy, so we are still working on being a little softer. Today Trista got to sit on Pax's couch with him and he thought it was great! He is turning into such a big boy and trying really hard to be my helper...some of the time.

Swing swing

We were so excited that the house we moved into came with a nice swingset in the backyard. Kaybri looks out the back window and begs and begs to "swing". Swinging and movies are the two things so asks to do each day. And I know movies are probably the worst choice to give into, but thats what she gets every single day. Why? Because it's safe and I don't have to worry about her so much while watching a movie. And with swinging, I feel like I need to be right there in case she has a seizure. Her seizures have been shorter and little more mild lately, but she still has them pretty frequently. And if she's jumping, running, or getting really worked up it's almost inevitable that she'll have a seizure. I'm not really worried about the seizure itself, just the fact that if she had a seizure while on top of the swingset, she could really get hurt. Anyway, I need to just devote some time each day to going out and playing with them on the swingset, especially since it's been so sunny and nice these days. Ahhh...still not missing the Utah snow!

On this particular day we piled up all the leaves and made a soft landing for the kids to slide into. They thought it was pretty fun. They started getting really brave and going down head first.

A whole lotta rambling and pics

Before school got out for Christmas break Kaybri's class went on a field trip to the tree festival in town. They made decorations in class, and they went to go see their tree all decorated. Pax and I also went to go see the trees and meet up with Kaybri.

My good friend, Amber, took some pictures for us. Some of my favorites are included on our Christmas card below. I'm surprised with what turned out because there was of course no cooperation with the kids and then Kaybri had a seizure, so our time was cut short. Amber also took some pics of my family when they came for Christmas, she's awesome!

The weekend before Christmas we had a wedding to go to in Mesa. Justin got sick with the flu the day before, so we missed the wedding but made it later to the reception. We got to visit all of Justin's family and do a mini-Christmas together. A couple of days later we made it home and Kaybri and Pax started in throwing up. I was a little stressed because my entire family was supposed to come the next day and stay until after Christmas. Thank goodness none of them got sick. I was cloroxing everything and taking a ton of vitamins, and after a few days of not getting sick I thought I was in the clear. I was wrong. I got sick Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I was bummed, but glad it was me and not one of the kids.

Even through the sickness, we still had a great time. We attempted to act out the nativity, but ended up just playing dress up with the kids and reading the Christmas story later.

There were 5 little kids to open presents, actually only 3 who know how to open a present. They sure are spoiled! It was so funny when they ran out there. Paxton ran to Lydi's kitchen, Lydi ran to Pax's bike, and Kaybri actually went to her bike. Everytime we went to wal-mart and went by the bike section my kids were glued to them, so we thought they were going to be a hit for sure. Well they liked them for about 10 minutes tops; we haven't been able to get the kids to ride the bikes much since. I'm sure part of the problem is that they don't actually know how to ride them, but even when we push them on the bikes it doesn't last long. They just want to go play on the swingset, especially Kaybri. So I'm debating on taking them back and getting something else, is that horrible? I think it was a little overwhelming for Kaybri and she didn't want to open more than one present while everyone else was. She had done the same thing last Christmas because she was super grouchy and knocked out from a seizure. And last year we made the mistake of pretty much opening everything up for her. This year we just waited until everything settled down and let her do it on her own. She did a lot better and enjoyed her presents this time around.

We all traveled down to Animas a couple days after Christmas. We were able to visit with my grandparents some and see a couple friends. The boys also went coyote hunting. Justin's gone several times with my dad before and never had much luck, but this time he saw and shot one! He was pretty excited. Jarom and Tristan also shot one or two, or maybe my dad got one too, I don't know. There's pictures to prove it too, so if you're against that kind of stuff...skip on by.

We went back home and then spent New Year's Eve with my mom, dad, Joni, Tristan, and Dawn and kids. We partied all night and then got on the road again, this time to go to Mesa. Justin had the rest of the week off so we did a little bit of shopping and hung out with Jarom and Mel. And these 2 little munchkins below...I don't think they've ever spent so much time with eachother. They fought over nearly every toy but also were caught giggling, chasing after eachother, and dancing together. Paxton has developed a new love from hanging out with his cuz, he knows all the princesses now and would love to watch those movies if we let him! I'm pretty sure Pax taught sweet Lydi some new tricks too...like how to be naughty, and yell and talk back...sorry Jarom and Mel.

Wayyy Past Due

HA! I bet you all are thinking I'm talking about Christmas, New Year's, or maybe even something last week, but nope...Thanksgiving...I know it's probably like "illegal" in the blog world to be posting about something so long ago, but... oh well. I mean I never even posted about Halloween, so I guess I could put you all through even more torture, but I won't. I don't know what my problem has been. I get behind blogging and then overwhelmed with all the fun things I had wanted to blog about and instead of just doing it, I forget about it and check out everyone else's instead! But my husband is away, again...and I'm bored so I figured I would catch up a little. For what it's worth, I did start these Thanksgiving and Christmas posts a few weeks ago (when Justin was gone on the "man" trip four-wheeling), I just never posted them because I was embarrassed of how incredibly past due they were, so now...they're even later but I decided I don't care-they're for journaling purpose so PLEASE JUST SKIP! :)

Thanksgiving was spent with Justin's family in AZ. Dawn and Cory hosted and did a fantastic job. The boys got up early and played in their Turkey Bowl even though it was rainy and muddy-they loved it. We then had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with loads of yummy food, great company and of course lots of pies. Did I mention that the boys were amazing and did all the clean up?! Definitely needs to be a tradition. Some of us braved Wal-Mart early on Black Friday and then later that day we headed to the church to play games in the gym. It was so much fun and a great way to let the kids get out some of their energy that was being bottled up because it was too cold and rainy outside to play. We all played "line tag", a dress up relay, and kickball.

Pax loved being the center of attention during his turn of the dress up relay. He especially loved his daddy running super fast with him.
Jake was not a fan, but at least he did it.

Friday evening we had a surprise Birthday party for Vince and Marsha at El Charro. It was nice to have them visit. We need them to move back to AZ because we don't get to see them near enough.

All the Echols left on Saturday to go back home, but we did get some surprise visitors on Sunday evening. Jarom, Mel and the kids stopped by! They were traveling from El Paso and needed to take a break. So here's the Ellis grandkids in their jammies.