Mr. Pax

Paxton has been giving me a lot of grief lately. I can't even remember all of the "horrible" things he has done lately (I probably need to call my mom and ask her because I usually call and vent it all out and then I forget about it...sort of). I do remember two major bathroom events that happened this past week though. The first involved poop being smeared all over the bathroom floor, toilet, wall, clothes, fingernails, etc... Now when he did this at 18 months, he didn't totally know better, but at 3 1/2....seriously. I can't even write how I was feeling because well--just use your imagination of curse words--that's how I feel about it. He needed to go #2 and wanted to use the bathroom his dad was using. He was throwing a fit over not getting his way and then ran to another bathroom. He's been potty trained for quite some time so I assumed all was well, that is until he came out with poop all over. I guess he didn't totally make it to the toilet and knew he'd be busted so he tried cleaning up his clothes by himself. Note to self: 3 year olds are not capable of such clean up.

The second bathroom episode was just a day or two later. Also involving poop. I was on an important phone call when I hear a "MOMMMM...I'm done!" He just kept getting louder and louder so I went in, quickly wiped his bum and left the room so I could hear the other person on the phone. I was off the phone a few minutes later and saw that he was out of the bathroom putting on his pants. I asked if he flushed the toilet and he says, "Yeah, the toilet paper won't go down though." I asked several times if he put all the toilet paper in the toilet and he kept telling me no. I go in to check and I see the roll off the toilet paper holder. I ask where the metal springy thing is to put the toilet paper back on the holder and he says, "In the toilet". WHAT? He continues to point and say he put it in the toilet. I think he's lying and just hid it somewhere because really can that fit down a toilet? Note to self: Many things can be flushed down the toilet. Again, insert curse words...No they are not said to him...they are played over in my head-repeatedly.

I think because I still am a little mad about these things, every little thing he does lately (like peeling paint off the walls, punching his sister for the first time, making other huge messes) makes me livid. I'm hoping the last couple of weeks are just a phase that will blow over soon.

He is still my super sweet, cute boy though. He still comes and gives me big hugs and says, "I just love you Mom." He still puckers up and wants to give me a kiss on the lips or cheek. He is full of imagination and cute little sayings. Just now he came up and told me, "I'm going to save the girl, and my life. I will fight the dragon." I'm sure he often feels mistreated or that he gets the raw end of the deal, because in all honesty he often does. Right now he understands more and is capable more than our other kids, so with that comes more responsibility. He's a special kid and usually very helpful. We all have bad days though, right?

Happy Birthday GRAMMIE!!!

We are so lucky you are our Grammie/Mom! We love you to pieces and can't wait to see you tomorrow :)

Love,

The Crazies

Boston's Blessing

Boston was blessed in church on January 31st. Justin did a beautiful job, as well as our little guy--he didn't make a peep. I have been blessed beyond words to have the gospel in my life. I'm so grateful for Justin and the choices he's made so we can have the power of the priesthood in our home. He's an amazing man, and I feel lucky to have him. It was a special day. We had a lot of family come to show their support and it means a lot. Thank you all!

The entire Echols family came for the weekend; perfect time to get it updated!

Trip to Animas

My Grandpa turned 82 on Jan 23rd so we went down to Animas for the weekend to visit my family. It was so nice to be able to see my grandparents and visit with them a little. It's always relaxing to be back "home". We also went to the homecoming basketball game that night. It's been years since I've been back to a game. I enjoyed my high school years and can still remember it so vividly that it really doesn't seem that long ago, but it has been 9 years so of course things have changed. I got to see quite a few old teachers and friends and it was pretty fun to catch up.

We Miss You Jojo and Trista!!!

The beginning of January my sis and her daughter came to visit and see the new baby. We loved having them back in town. I got so used to having them down the street (or the past summer- being downstairs); it's not fun to have them so far away. I used to babysit Trista while Joni did hair, so she is like one of my kids. Paxton and Trista are the best of buds and love to be crazy together. He treats her like a little sister. We really didn't do a whole lot while they were down because 1-I had just had a baby and 2-Is there really much to do in our small town?! We did actually go to a movie one night and of course got in lots of visiting-which is great! A sister is IRREPLACEABLE!! We love you guys and can't wait for the next visit! Thanks for coming and a special shout out to Tristan for letting them! You're AWESOME! :)

I love how Trista is looking at them like they're crazy.

I thought this picture was hilarious because we took a ton and they all look about like this. It really is impossible sometimes to get a good picture with so many little kids. Grin and bear it right? My mom kept saying "one more", but I think next time we should just go with the first picture and call it good.

Boston at 1 Month

You know that one month appointment I said to stay tuned for?? Well, here you have it (just almost 2 months late!) Well Boston is a healthy little guy, that weighed in at 9 lb. 2 oz at his appt.(need to look up the inches). He had gained 2 pounds in just 3 weeks! In about a week he will turn 3 months old and we think we is now between 12 and 13 lbs--we tried weighing him on big people scales with us. The transition to 3 hasn't been too bad. I still feel fairly sane anyway. We do great at home (as long as I don't stress over keeping our house nice and tidy). There are lots of projects and things I want to do, but time just goes by so fast and I don't get to it all. Someday I will be more efficient and organized :) As far as leaving the house and going shopping with all 3---I'm still chicken. I did take them to go swimming and the zoo though while in Phoenix a couple weekends ago (a possible post to come). We went with my sister-in-law, Britni, and her 3 little kids. It was an adventure, and I was a little nervous to go without Justin, but it really wasn't too bad. Boston is such a great baby though and is happy to chill in his car seat on our outings. He loves to be talked to and started trying to coo back a couple of weeks ago. At 6 weeks he started to smile and we can't get enough of it. Pax is always up in his face talking to him and trying to get him to smile

My sister came to visit at the beginning of January, and we tried to get some pictures of Boston. He is about 5 weeks in these. I've been waiting to post them because I wanted to touch them up and play around with them in photoshop, but it's not happening anytime soon so I thought I better get them up. I need someone to show me some quick tricks in photoshop because it is all too time-consuming.

More pics of Boston

These pictures are totally out of order, but here are some more random pictures of Boston and his visitors.

Our New Addition

For those of you who haven't heard, we had a BOY!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!! And he's already 4 weeks old! (I know I really am horrible at updating this blog).

Boston Cy Echols was born at 1:08 pm on Monday, December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day)

His Stats: 6 lb 12 oz--20 inches long--healthy and super cute!

Ok, now comes the boring journaling part, so feel free to skip to the pics. My due date was December 19th, but because my doctor was a couple hours away and such a nice guy he said he would induce me on December 7th. We were already going to be in Mesa for an Echols family gathering, so it worked out perfectly. I was scheduled to be induced at 3 AM (crazy early, but who sleeps at 9 months prego anyway) but they said to call and make sure there was a bed available before I went in.

Here's the breakdown of how the morning went:

*2 AM--woke up to call the hospital to see if they were ready for us. They weren't and told us to come at 4 am

*3 AM--Decided I wasn't going back to sleep, so I got up again to get things ready to go. We stayed in Queen Creek with my brother so we had a good 30 minute drive to the hospital. *4 AM-- Arrived at hospital, sat there twiddling my thumbs

*5 AM--Got put in our labor/delivery room

*6 AM--I was dilated to 3 cm and having sporadic contractions

*6:30 AM--Got hooked up to pitocin

*8:30 AM--Dr. Beck came in to check on me and I was still 3 cm, so he broke my water

*10 AM--Got my wonderful epidural

*11 AM-- Dilated to 5 cm

*12:30-1 PM-- I could feel my contractions pretty good, so I called the nurse in to see if I needed to push the epidural drug button. She checked me at 1:00 and said I was dilated to 10 cm. She went to call the doctor, but luckily he was just down the hall on his lunch break.

*1:08 PM-- After 2 pushes, our baby was born!! I was in total shock that he was already out. It was by far the easiest/best delivery ever! We didn't find out ahead of time the sex of our baby, so it was pretty neat and exciting at the time of delivery. I think everyone in our family had cast their vote as a boy being born, and we were all right!

Boston is great baby and we can't imagine life without him. The first couple of weeks he slept through the night. I actually had to wake him up in the morning because I would be in so much pain and need to feed him. I'm afraid we've created some bad habits though, and he would much rather be held while he's sleeping than put in the bassinet. He also agrees that our bed is much more comfortable than his (we're trying to not allow this to become a habit). Binkie's are also needed to sleep and heaven forbid if they fall out. Ahh...such is the life of a spoiled little baby. I wouldn't have it any other way. I think I could pass away the entire day and just look at him. It's amazing the power a sweet little newborn has on you. My productivity level has nearly dropped to zero and I'm actually ok with that. I know it won't be long before this little guy won't cuddle and sleep in my lap. He is changing already. This week his hair started falling out. Boo! That's all a wrinkled up baby needs-a receding hairline to make him look even more like an old man! haha!! He is still so cute though. People always ask who I think he looks like. Right now it's still hard to tell. Some days I think he totally looks like Kaybri as a baby and other days more like Paxton. Hmm...what else? At his one week appointment he weighed 7 lb. 1.5 oz and was 20.5 inches. He has his one month appointment this Friday, so stay tuned. I will try to do better, but there's no promises :)

Here I am the night before delivery at Jarom and Mel's house. Do I look excited?! I was!

Brand new baby

First family photo