Wordless Wednesday...

The 4th!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!  We sure did, but it was a busy one!

Started of Saturday morning with a haircut which I was so nervous to take Jaxson to, but he was SO GOOD!  I say this a lot, but we are so blessed with such a well-behaved, well-mannered child even at 21 months!

I came home and got ready for a funeral of a retired co-worker and my in-laws came just in time to keep him for me for that.  

Ryan's parents came for the fireworks celebration at Ryan's bosses house!  It was a little sparce this year due to the rain, but we had a good time and it cleared off in time for fireworks!

Jaxson at 4th of July - 2009

2010-

Eating Ice in his playpen!  We put him in there while we all ate in the garage so he would stay out of everyone's food!

Last year Jaxson slept through the fireworks, but he was awake this year.  I wasn't sure how he was going to react.  He was really more interested in playing with his glow stick necklace, but when he would see one he would just laugh!

Watching fireworks with Uncle Zach

Laughing at the fireworks

They looked like "two peas in a pod"

We even found a frog!

It was so nice to have both sets of Grandparents together for the weekend with Jaxson.  I know he enjoyed it.  We spent Sunday visiting a friend in the hospital and had some Olive Garden then chose to skip out of the city fireworks, Jax was in bed early.  I was so blessed to have Monday off to spend at home with Jaxson.  I wished that it would have stopped raining so that we could have gone out for a walk or something, but we had fun together.  It makes me wish I had more days like that with him while he is still little!

Our Trip to KC!

We headed out on Friday night to Ft. Scott and stayed with my in-laws.  Then we all got up on Saturday and headed to KC for a little family weekend getaway!

Jaxson playing with Uncle Zach's phone on the way to KC

Uncle Zach and Jaxson!












We did a little shopping when we got to KC to pass some time before we could check into our hotel.  We got checked in and met up with Ryan's old church pastor and headed to Arthur Bryant's BBQ!  YUMMY!

Jaxson guzzled everything with a straw all weekend!  Here is drinking Papa's drink!










We got back to the hotel and did a little swimming in the pool....

Jaxson getting ready to get in

I took this picture as Jaxson was getting ready to get into the pool and as soon as my camera flashed I looked up and Jaxson was gone!
He didn't jump or lean into Daddy's arms, but walked right off the edge like it wasn't even there!  Daddy quickly scooped him up and no one was hurt, but we all took an extra sigh of relief

Grammy and Jaxson

Papa helping Jaxson down the stairs into the pool











Sunday we had breakfast with Uncle Dustin and Aunt Meg who drove up that morning and we all headed to watch the KC Royals play the St. Louis Cardinals.  Ryan's Dad and youngest brother are Cardinals fans so it was a nice rivalry.  The Royals won the game and we had a great time!  It was really hot there so we found some unoccupied handicapped seating where we could spread out and stay out of the sun with Jaxson.

Uncle Dustin and Jaxson at the stadium

Daddy and Jaxson riding the baseball bat and glove on the rides at the game.









I have a really great picture of him in his stadium seat, but it is on my phone so I'll have to send it later....

Uncle Dustin caught a flying Twinkie so here is Jaxson enjoying the Twinkie with Daddy...this is what he does when you tell him to smile for the camera.

Shoving the Twinkie in his mouth!!











I had to drive home with Jaxson by myself because Ryan was picking up a truck that he had sold from a dealership from Kansas City.  I was so worried about the whole drive home alone with him.  I thought he might sleep all the way home as he fell asleep before we ever left the stadium parking, but he sure didn't.  He was fussy for the first 30 minutes or so but after that he was an ANGEL!
 I just have to brag about my precious baby for a minute because Saturday night in the hotel he laid in his playpen alone in a strange place while his parents were in the room watching TV and put himself to sleep!  He was so good all weekend long even in the heat and being in the car a lot.  I am so blessed!

Here he is in one of the new outfits I bought him...so cute!  He also now has 2 of those hats since Grammy and I bought him one for the game and his fabulous Aunt Meg and Uncle Dustin brought him one to the game to keep him cool!

All night Monday he had this hat on and this glove...

"Daddy base-a-ball"  "hat"  " gofe"  (glove)  "Zach base-a-ball"

He must have had fun ;)

Can't wait until Grammy, Papa, and Zach come out next weekend for our 4th of July celebration!  This kid won't know what to do with both sets of Grandparents to have fun with!

Getting back to it....

I have really been bad about updating this blog lately...but GOOD NEWS!

I just added the ability to update my blog via my cell phone!  I had no idea I could even do that...I was playing around with a new design theme and header (which I still haven't decided on the perfect one :( ) and I found that option.  Lately, I have been taking fun little snapshots of Jax with my cell phone because it is usually more accessible than my camera and I can upload straight to facebook!  Well, now I can update you here also!
I know I don't have many readers and most of you are my facebook friends too so you don't miss out on much, but it is worth a shot!

So HOPEFULLY we'll have more new things to share with you very soon and a new blog layout if I can find something that I like!

Hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Our First Family Photos!

I am such a procrastinator and Ryan HATES pictures so these are our first professional pics together since Jaxson was born!  Can you believe that?  He is 18 months old now!  He has had some pics taken of him before thanks to surprises by both Grandma and Grammy, but none with us all together!  Most of these pics are of him too, but we got a great one of us together thanks to this lovely lady!!

Check these out!

The Wheeler's - 2010

Those are my parents, Dave & Sandi and my younger brother Roth!

Thanks again Laura!!  LOVE THEM!!

Now I just need to find some time to get some of these together into a new header or banner for my blog...although sweet and tiny the pics that are on there are so outdated ;)

Easter Weekend!

WELCOME BACK!  If you are still a reader...still can't find my camera cord so Ryan ordered me a new one and it doesn't work...UGH!  I had kind of quit taking pictures knowing that they would be held captive in there, but I got it back out and we got a new printer that reads my memory card so here we are!!

We dyed Easter eggs with Jaxson this year.  Of course, we did most of the work, but he did drop the eggs into the dye.

We made eggs for the whole family, but Jaxson's bright blue one was my favorite!

So while he was already undressed we figured it could be a messy spaghetti dinner night!  He made such a big mess and we headed straight for the bath tub!

We hunted Easter Eggs at Grandma's on Friday Night since we were heading to Ft. Scott on Saturday and my mom was recovering from surgery.  This was his first year to really hunt eggs and we weren't sure how he'd do, but he was a PRO!!  He collected them all!

We had to stop to pet the cat!

He had fun with the Easter grass too...he had it everywhere, including on my head at one point, but then he got his gifts...his froggy "Hopper" and his new froggy potty!!

Then we headed off to Grammy and Papa's for the rest of the weekend.  Ryan's Mom loves to find Easter outfits for Jaxson and this years was a little big, but too adorable.  We went to church and then home to hunt eggs also!  Jaxson also got some new books and a belt!  The kid is so skinny and tall with no butt and he has to wear jeans that are too big for him just so that they are long enough for him, but we hadn't been able to find a belt small enough to fit him...I think we will probably have that issue for the rest of his life!

Going to the Nursery with Grammy

Sitting in the "rock rock" in the nursery...He loves to rock!  Glad we just got new furniture including a recliner and a rocking love seat!  He loves them!  I'll have to post some pics of that stuff soon too.

Hunting Eggs

Found the big one!

New truck from Great Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler!

I hope everyone had a great Easter and I hope to get back into a regular posting habit!  I love reading up on everyone's blogs daily so I need to do better for everyone else as well as myself!  Have a great weekend...our friends Brian and Heather will be here from Arkansas and they just found out they were expecting, PLUS we have family pictures this weekend by this wonderful lady that I am super excited for and it looks the weather will be fabulous!

BABY ROBERT!

A lot has gone on in the Week and a half that Baby Robert Elam has been alive. I appreciate all the prayers of my *very small* group of blog followers has given him! Here is what is going on most recently.

They tested Robert off the ecmo machine and he did well so they determined he was stable enough for surgery. Robert was originally diagnosed with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia which causes the internal organs to crowd his lungs so that they don't develop properly. When they opened him up they found that he had no diaphram at all so they built him one! (modern medicine is amazing) He came through surgery well, but his lungs began to bleed which filled his chest with blood and caused a clot in his drainage tube. They have taken him to surgery to remove the clot and add new tubes for him. They have gotten him out of surgery and off the ecmo machine, but he is being supported by other machines at this point too. The doctors have given him a 30% chance of survival at this point.

The many prayers for Robert have helped him SO much thus far and now he needs the prayers more than ever to overcome the odds and survive! Thank you so much to everyone and I still have prayer ribbons left if any one wants them!