Goodbye 2010... Hello 2011!!!

Well since we didn't get a Christmas letter out this year, I will take advantage of technology and do our annual letter via this post!

What a year we have had. Last year at this time, Dean had just come home from spending 7 months away in Pennsylvania working for a windmill company, helping erect a 67 turbine windmill farm. Jax was a year and 3 months - and we were waiting on the next windmill job to roll around. I had just recently quit my job working at Unum, and started the most amazing job of being a Stay at Home Mom! After a few weeks of Dean being home, and the next windmill job being pushed back, and back... and BACK again, we had to reevaluate our employment situation. Thankfully we had been smart while Dean was working the windmills, and had a small nest egg to fall back on for our bills, but nonetheless, we were in a very stressful situation. Then, at the end of January we were blessed with a new job opportunity for Dean, where he would be working for a consultant firm. Dean interviewed and ended up taking the job working for his current company, F.J. Flynn and Associates, LLC in Greeneville, TN. Dean and I made the decision that until we could get our house either rented or sold, that Jax and I would stay back in Nashville... so we spent the next 6 months living solo again with Dean coming home for weekend visits. We made it work, and Dean really enjoyed working at his new job and being so close to family in Greeneville.

In March, we were able to thankfully have a tenant lined up to rent our house. So Jax and I started the process of packing and getting ready to move to east TN. Over the next two months, it was total chaos trying to be a "single parent", raise a baby, AND pack all at the same time. Thank GOD for my in-laws knowing a thing or two about packing and moving, and they were all VERY willing to help us out. It's all still a blur to me, but somehow we were able to keep our moving dates, and move into our new home in Greeneville all in the same two weeks. We found a home to rent by chance, and were extremely grateful for being able to take our time to get moved in and adjusted. We are now only a few minutes away from Dean's parents and sister, Rachel, and a short trip away from his other sister, Sara and brother in law Al, in Knoxville. It has definitely been an adjustment, moving from the "Big City", Nashville, to the hills of Greene County - but surprisingly we all really LOVE it! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle country life and living, but it's soooo nice. It's quiet, peaceful, safe and very welcoming. Our biggest store here is Wal-Mart, followed up closely by K-Mart. Ha! I've been able to save money though with Target being in another county, and 45 minutes away!


Along with the simplicity of our new town - there are a lot of family things to do. There is a park that is perfect for Jax just around the corner, lots of places to go hiking, and exploring with the dogs. The lakes are just a short drive away, and again - we have family also right around the corner! There is also so much history in this town! At one time Greeneville was the capital to the State of Franklin, President Andrew Johnson started his political career and lived most of his life here. There are lots of museums to document Andrew Johnson, Davy Crockett, battles from the Revolutionary War, and not to mention just the beautiful scenery we have of the Appalachian Mountains in our backyard. Plus, we are only a 45 minute drive to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area (although we have yet to visit since moving here)!

Sadly with our new house came loss. Over Mother's Day weekend, we lost our beloved dog Chopper. It was an extremely tough loss for all of us, but mostly for Nash and Jax. We will never know exactly what kind of fun and trouble those two got into over the 3 days they were out and missing, but we are still so extremely thankful we still have Nash. Chopper was an amazing dog and friend and not a day goes by that we don't miss him. RIP buddy! In May we also "acquired" Lily the Cat. I know I know... those who know me, know I insisted I would never own a cat... We "acquired" her from our dear friends Michael and Annette, who were moving to a new home, and about to welcome their 4th baby, and decided she wasn't the best fit for them. So we took her in - and put a roof over her head... Jax adores her, and truthfully she is a saint. She lets Jax knock her around, jump on her, poke and prod, etc. Long story short... we are still giving her a shot...

With loss, comes happiness. At the beginning of July - we learned that we were expecting baby #2!!! We had been planning, but were pleasantly surprised with our timing, and are so excited that our kids will only be 2 1/2 years apart. We found out in the middle of October that we would be having another little boy, Liam David Ward! He will be making his debut hopefully in LATE Feb, or early March. Since we had previous complications with Jax, and he came 5 weeks early - we can't really go off of our due date of March 17th with Liam. We are so excited and can't wait for Jax to be a big brother! Not to mention we have pretty much everything we need, and we can keep our nursery and playroom colors all in BOY themes! My pregnancy hasn't been nearly as nice as it was with Jax, but I've been told that is to be expected. I've had a lot more pain and discomfort with Liam. Heartburn, backache, headaches, nausea - you name it. Plus he has been measuring big so far at every appointment, and so I've shown faster, grown faster, and felt his massive kicks, jabs and head butts faster... 2 - 2 1/2 more months... here we go!

Jax has had a huge year too! At 16 months he was able to recognize and recite his ABC's and count to 10! He loves Sesame Street and anything to do with learning. We've been so lucky that he loves to learn, and that he takes it so well. Over the summer, Jax enjoyed learning how to swim with floaties, exploring our new back yard, and spending lots of time at the park! In August, we enrolled him in a Mother’s Day out program which he attends once a week. He has made lots of friends, learned to share and his manners are something I am personally so proud of. He says please and thank you for almost everything. He is such a sweet boy, and always knows when someone needs a hug and kiss. He loves being read to, and he even "reads" to us occasionally.

He also loves cars, coloring, doing arts and crafts, helping mommy and daddy out around the house, and playing outside. In November he discovered he could climb out of his pack n play AND his crib, so we converted his crib into a Big Boy Bed!!! He has done so good with going to bed on his own, and does pretty good with sleeping through the night. We are currently in the process of potty training. Not entirely sure he's ready for it, but we encourage him getting comfortable with his potty on a daily basis. We also celebrated his 2nd birthday in November. What a BIG BOY we have! He is such a blessing to our family - and I can't wait for him to have a sibling to share "life" with.

At the end of August, we decided to welcome another Furbaby, Argo into our lives. I can’t say that he’s been the easiest dog to work with – and his start to life, sadly was awful. He was so sick and had a bad case of Parvo, but with help from our vet and lots of spoiling and TLC, we got him back to a healthy, playful puppy! He’s been a great companion for Nash, and Jax just loves him. He’s a hound dog, although we don’t know exactly of what breed… He’s quite the handful, but a very loving dog!


In September, Dean and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We’ve shared so many things in the 3 short years we’ve been married – but definitely look forward to many, many more!

We also did a lot of traveling this year. Not nearly as much as we did in 2009, but we were able to get 3 trips to WA, State in, and 2 trips to Disney World! We went to WA for an early spring visit with family, for my Brother Brain's wedding in April, and then we spent Thanksgiving there in the snow! In March for my birthday, we went with Dean's entire family to Disney World. It was a ton of fun, since the last time I was there, I was pregnant with Jax - and didn't get to ride all the rides. Jax was a little too young to understand what all the fuss was about, but in October we went back with the family, and this time we were able to focus on Jax. He thoroughly enjoyed all the things he was able to do that visit! We have also had several road trips to my Dad's house in AL, and got to spend the 4th of July with them!

We have been so blessed with all of the changes thrown our way in 2010 - and are looking forward to many more changes in 2011! We are so excited about bringing Liam into the world; starting Jax in Preschool, my brother and sister in law will be welcoming a baby of their own sometime in August. Family and friends coming and going and all the new things we will get to discover having two boys!

We sincerely hope that everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! We wish you all Health, Love, and Happiness for 2011!!!

-The Wards

Oh Christmas Tree...

What a Christmas we have had! Jax of course made out like a bandit, and I will now be going through all his old toys and putting them away for donations and Liam... I can honestly say it looks like a toy store blew up in our house! ;)

It was such an amazing experience to share with Jax waking up on Christmas morning. Of course we had to wake him up due to our travel plans, and based on what time we needed to leave our house... but after he saw what Santa brought, he was quite excited! The weeks leading up to Christmas were so special. Jax "kinda" understood the meaning of Christmas, but of course focused on Santa, and HO-HO-HO. Every picture he saw of Santa was followed with "Merrrrrry Christmas, Ho-Ho-Ho!" I am already looking forward to next year with him having even more of an understanding, and being so excited about being a "good boy".

Dean and I were very excited to help Santa out, and make sure everything went according to plans! We helped with stockings, and setting the tree up "just right". We have had a lot of decisions to make as far as how we are going to do things, but I think over the years we will get a true idea of how our family will do it. We left Santa's presents unwrapped and fully assembled for Jax to see when he came down the stairs. Ha, something that would have NEVER worked with me. Jax received the "Little Wheelies Stand Rampway", and booooy did he know what the was! Once he set eyes on it, it was hard to get him to focus on ANYTHING else. He just looked at it all ready to play with and said, "Oooh, yook! Carrrrs!" ;D After we finally got him to understand the rip and open concept, he enjoyed getting to the next present, only to be hung up on what THAT one was, and it being pried away for the next. He literally got so many cool things, and that was just from Santa, Dean and I, and my immediate family...

After we were done with our tree, we needed to get all of us ready to head to Nashville for the rest of the day. So we piled up all the take-able toys, and headed out to Shelbyville, TN where Dean's Granny and Grand Daddy live. We only spent a few hours there, but had fun exchanging gifts. We even got to meet the newest edition, Kensey Stallings. Although our visit with that side of the family was short, we enjoyed seeing all of our family. After we left there, we were on our way to Lynchburg, TN for Harrell's side of the family's annual Christmas Auction. We hadn't seen this side of the family in waaaay too long. We usually alternate Christmas years of being in WA, State or in TN - and so the TN years, we usually jump around to several houses and celebrate with them. The Auction I must say is the most fun! It's a good way to sit around, catch up with friends and family, and exchange junk! Haha. This year we were good, and walked away with only things we "bought" (play money is handed out prior to the auction). Sara and Al weren't so lucky, and all that was auctioned off and bought somehow all ended up in their car lol...

Once we were done there, Dean, Jax and I decided to stop in at our friends Michael and Annette's to visit with them. We had a good time with their family. Jax got to see his best friend Easton - and we had a good conversation that didn't relvolve around diapers and Sesame Street!

It ended up being a late and loooong Christmas Day - but all in all it was wonderful.

With the snow Nashville received, our church plans were unfortunately cancelled - so we missed getting to see our family at Faith... We are planning a trip back in the next few weeks, and hope we can get to see them all then. We did meet up with MeMaw and PawPaw at Cracker Barrel before we all headed home. That was a lot of fun, and we exchanged even MORE gifts. We are so lucky to be having another little boy here shortly to share all the amazing gifts, books, toys and clothes that Jax has received over the last 2 years as the only grandchild, and only boy great-grandson! I definitely have my work cut out for me in the next few weeks to get all the outgrown toys packed up and stored away!!

We were glad to have had a safe trip back home. We had some pretty bad weather to welcome us home, and thankfully we were able to make it up the hill once we did get home! Now we just have to pack up all the Christmas decorations. Take the tree down (it’s still so alive and pretty though…), rearrange the house back to pre-Christmas state and count down to the New Year!! I am already looking forward to our next Christmas, when we have two beautiful little boys to share it with…

Hope everyone had an amazing Holiday Season as well! We wish you all Health, Love, and Happiness.

Xoxo
Shylah

Jaxon's Toddler Bed Debut...

We officially have a BIG BOY! I started to post this 2 weeks ago, but I've had a bunch of other things going on that I forgot to get back to this. 2 weeks ago we took the side off Jaxon's crib and converted it into a Toddler bed. *Sniff Sniff*. I was hoping that he would get at least another 6 months in the crib, but after all, he is 2...

He's only slept a few nights in there by himself, and all night long, but he's also not been sleeping well alone for the last month. Mostly because he's been sick, but also before we took the side of the crib off... after the first few nights of him crawling out, we were afraid he would do it partly asleep, so we would just bring him in with us.

I'm hoping he'll get the hang of it soon, and start sleeping through the night, but for now it just means mommy is up a lot at night getting him back to bed. Dean has had to come in several times and wake me up haha, but I'd rather get him used to someone in HIS bed, than getting him used to our bed again before the baby comes! So far he has thoroughly enjoyed climbing in and out, and of course bringing everything he owns in his bed, as well as jumping! When we ask him if he's ready for bed, he points upstairs and says "Jaxon's Big Bed!" We are so proud of the time he does spend in there, and will definitely reward him for being a big boy once he's slept in there all night long!

If anyone has any helpful tips on keeping them in their room, please share!!!

Love, Shylah

Washington Winterland...

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all those I failed to call, email or text on Turkey Day. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday with my family, so actual Thanksgiving day, was spent in front of the tv watching both of my football teams lose! ;(

Anyways... We were in Washington, State and had a great time. We had the whole family together thankfully, which I didn't think was going to happen as there were 7" of snow by the 5th day Jax and I were there. Cherie, Vito and Aunt Terry came down from Seattle, over the pass and through the snow. Jace took a train from Oregon, Dean flew in and managed to get to us on time for once, and everyone there locally all had time off to visit too!

Jax was amazing on all of our flights. I was nervous to see how he would do flying again, since it had been 7 months since our last flight, and I figured both of us had lost our travel touch. This was also Jaxon's last "free" trip, which means that he had to sit on my lap... so I was dreading how that would go with a wiggly toddler, a pregnant belly and somehow thinking we would have the lap tray down to watch video's. Surprisingly we managed. Jax and I both were able to get some sleep in on our first flight. Jax feel asleep before the plane even took off, and woke up only because I made him, 10 mins before we landed. We had one layover in Denver, and so we just hung out at our gate and watched Sesame Street videos. Our second flight wasn't too bad, but not as good as our first. Jax didn't want to sit still, and really wanted to sit with the man next to us, who thankfully gave the go ahead and was extremely helpful in keeping Jax seated.

Once we landed and got to mom's house, Jax was a giddy little boy at Gramma's. She had toy's galore out for him to play with. Some new ones and then some that we had left there and forgotten about from the last trip. ;) He was a very happy boy!

On our third day there, we were excited to have Jaxon's Godparents

"Shooie and Papa Vito", and "cousin" Landon come to visit. We had planned a day of visiting, Chuck E. Cheeses, Pictures with Santa and just letting the boys play together. Well, we still managed to get all of this accomplished, but in about 5" of snow! Chuck E. Cheeses was exhausting. I think I can do without seeing that place again for a while. The boys had fun though, and we got some great pictures of them together.

The next few days we got more and more snow, and then the wind came in with it as well. It was sooooo cold. All I wanted to do was play with Jax in the snow, but with the wind it was almost unbearable to be out. We had about 7" by the 5th day we were there. It was really pretty, and Jax loved looking out the window at the snow!

When Dean flew in, my vacation started. Daddy was much more willing to get bundled up and go out in the cold, so Jax eventually got to play in it. It took us about 15 mins to get him dressed each time he went out, for oh... about 5 mins of play. Lol. We went and visited Grandpa each day, and even though it was a chore for us to keep him out of all Grandpa's "fun things", the look on Grandpa's face showed he just loved having us there!

On our Thanksgiving, Friday, we had the whole family there, and surprisingly it went very well. We all ate really great, and then celebrated Jaxon's 2nd birthday! He got some new books, two new dvd's, a Sesame St. guitar and cell phone, Lego's, and an awesome ice cream birthday cake!!! I am not sure who enjoyed his birthday more. Me - getting to eat ice cream cake AND pumpkin pie, DJ and his free arm workout throwing Jax around for 2 hours after ice cream was consumed by Jax, or Grandpa just being oblivious to it all! ;)

I sadly didn't get around to visiting all my friends as I had hoped. The weather kinda screwed me up there, so I apologize for those I didn't get to see... ;( I am thankful for the friends and family I did see though, and for everyone spoiling Jax! I don't think he was disappointed at any house we visited between dogs, cats, toys and cookies!

It was so nice being in WA and getting to spend Thanksgiving with my family, seeing all the snow and catching up with everyone, but coming back home is always something I look forward to! Thankfully our trip back home was a breeze! I had so many people willing to help with Jax and all of our things! He even got his own seat on both flights! The first flight, we again both slept, then almost missed our connecting flight in Denver. We were on the same plane that we flew in from Pasco, and only had about 30 mins before our next flight left. I had to use the bathroom, and they needed Jax and I to deplane, so I had asked if I had time to go, get Jax changed, and get some milk. We came right back to the gate and were starting to get situated in the waiting area, when a man came up to us and said lets go. I assumed he just wanted us to be on the flight first since he knew we came off the plane already and were continuing on. NOPE! The gate crew had already pushed the ramp away from the plane, and THANKFULLY this man was the Captain of the plane. He too was told he would have time to go to the bathroom, etc. So he was able to get us on the plane with no problems, and again gave us our own seats, and even helped carry all of our stuff on board. Tis’ the Season!!!

Once we got back home, I had two crazy puppies excited to have us home and Lily… the annoying cat. Jax was also very excited to be back in his “playroom” with all of his things! Now if we can just get him to sleep in his own bed again… *sigh*

Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Love Shylah