February

It's pea planting time!

Jaxon placed them so carefully

And this helper followed him along and dug up and ate each seed.  She's sorry.  And wants to play ball.

This pair is always together.  Jaxon throws rocks in the water and Sugar blows bubbles and roots around until she finds it.  Jaxon thinks it's hilarious!

This sweet boy is 4!

Happy birthday, Bubby!

I sure do love these 3

Frog eggs!

Important lessons

They caught two tiny fish and released them

Homemade Valentines

Jaxon had to get in on the action too

It has been such a wet winter.  But February means the very beginning of garden season.  Jaxon loves to help in the garden.  Mostly he digs holes, picks up mud clods, throws them and watches them break up.   Sugar tries to catch said clods and knocks over anything or anyone in her way.  They both think it's great fun.  Luckily there's nothing in the garden yet, so there's relatively little to destroy.  But that will change soon.  Jaxon and Sugar are inseparable when we are outside.  He loves to throw things for her to chase and she follows him around just like she did when she was tiny.  But she's not tiny anymore.  She weighs 60 pounds now but still has so many puppy tenancies.   Apparently Shepherds are high maintenance pups until they are at least 2.  Awesome.  So we've got at least another year of craziness.  Despite my constant frustration with the holes in the flowerbed, the muddy nose and paw prints on all of my windows, the shredded newspapers (the problem is we don't even get the newspaper..... oops), and the random toys that she steals from the neighborhood dogs, it's pretty sweet to see her and Jaxon together.

Amidst all of the rainy days, we've tried to get outside as much as possible so we don't go crazy.  We've taken several hikes up on Starker land and we took the kids fishing at a nearby pond.  Sierra was so serious about it and wanted to do everything right and catch lots of fish.  She got frustrated when that did not happen instantly.  Jaxon helped by throwing giant rocks into the pond and scaring off all of the fish.  He could really care less about fishing.  After finding a spot farther away from Jaxon and I, Sierra and Jess did manage to catch two tiny fish.  Sierra got to let them go and she was pretty happy.  No fish for dinner,  but some sweet memories made.

Jaxon turned 4 this month.  He's learning to read 3 and 4 letter words.  Learning his letters and sounds so early has really made it quite easy for him to sound out words.  His love of cars has not wavered and he has started memorizing their symbols and calls out "There's a Dodge/Ford/Jeep!"  as we drive around town. He has gotten over the dependent stage he went through after Christmas break, and is back to playing on his own quite a bit.  It's a huge relief to me.  It's so funny how a change in schedule can rock their little worlds and they don't even really realize it.

Now that he's turned four he is finally starting to sleep through the night without ending up in our bed.  Ever since we moved him into his big boy bed at around 2 years old, he's been sneaking out at random times in the night and slipping in next to Jesse.  Jesse is a hard sleeper and generally doesn't even know it's happened.  Usually I wake up between 3 or 4 and peek over to see Jaxon squeezed between Jesse and the edge of the bed snoring away.  Depending on the time of night, we sometimes haul him back to his bed.  Some nights he sleeps in his bed for the rest of the night, other times he makes his way back into our bed at another point.  But just in the last month, he's consistently staying in his bed until morning.  We tend to make a big deal out of it in hopes that it will continue.  I'm not sure why all of a sudden his little clock has changed but it's really been nice.  It still might happen once a week or so, but compared to nightly, that's a huge deal.  I remember reading recently that you can't expect full nights of sleep until a child is 5.  It was definitely that way with Sierra, so I guess Jaxon is ahead of the game?  Whew.  All I know is that 5 years feels like a lifetime when you don't sleep.

We had a small birthday party for our birthday boy with Jesse's parents, my Grandma, and a family friend that I've known since middle school. Jesse's mom made him a Blaze the Monster Truck cake, he got to play with his new toys, and my friend has a son pretty close to Jaxon's age, so he was in heaven.  It's easy to keep parties small before kids get into school and start making friends. :)  It's still heard to believe he's 4.  That means kindergarten is another year closer.  That is terrifying for me on so many different levels, but for now we will revel in what 4 has to offer.  Most days, anyway. :)