First Time to Meet SANTA!

At the library there was a special Christmas storytime today. Jackson went with his friends Copeland and Madeline. The kids sang songs, heard stories, saw a puppet show, and there was a special visitor.

Jackson was very excited to go. I think think storytime is his favorite thing we do all week.
He is showing off his 3 bottom teeth. He has 3 on top too.
The puppet show....
He loved watching the puppets and he got a jingle bell (one of his favorites things because he loves to make music.)
Sitting on Santa's knee... he was not so sure about it but there were no tears!
Here are a few pictures from last weekend when we got together with Tiff, Keith, Sarah, and Neil. It was Jackson's first time to open a present.
"What's going on? Mama, what are you doing?"
There were jingle bells in the box! So excited!
He had so much fun playing with his friends Ayden and Luke!!!
Merry early Christmas!!!

Halloween 2010

We had a great night on Jackson's 1st Halloween!
My "Jack"-o-lantern... the pumpkin has four teeth just like Jackson.
Ninja Zephan let Jackson ride in his wagon with him to go trick or treating.
He loves playing with the plastic pumpkins.
He does NOT love sitting in the grass... I'm just not so sure why the grass is so scary.
Got tired of riding in the wagon even though we only went to a few houses. It's fun to ride on daddy though!
Trick or Treat!
Some action shots of Jack crawling....
I love that smile!
We looked away for 2 seconds and he found some cheerios and spilled them all over! These are a much better snack than the candy he got trick or treating.
We stopped by the Ritter's house after trick or treating. Annabelle, Jackson, and Copeland had fun playing a little bit.

Pumpkin Patch

Jackson went to the pumpkin patch for the first time yesterday. He had a good time but it was all a lot for him to take in. They had a fun train ride around the property and lots of great places to take pictures. He usually is all smiles, but was just not want to smile for the pictures. His Mawmaw, Pawpaw, and Grandma came with us to take pictures too. Here are a couple that we got before it started raining on us.




On the train....
He was holding on tight... first time in a wagon.
Jackson is getting so big! He is crawling and pulling up everywhere. He loves to clap and wave bye bye.... everything he does is so cute! I love him so much!

Busy Month

We have been doing lots of playing at home, but it has been a busy month. Here are a few pictures of JackJack playing at home. He loves putting those rings in his mouth!
"I get to drive now Mom!" No, my bed is NOT made in the background... it just wasn't a priority that day. :)
On July 16th, Matt and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We spent the afternoon at the Gaylord Hotel showing Jackson around. This is where we stayed the first night of our honeymoon. He loved looking around in there, especially all of the water features. This was his favorite spot. It was a water fall and a pond with big gold fish inside.
It's just as good as the aquarium, but free!
Here he is with Daddy. He just loved the fountain too!
My mom watched him that evening so that we could go out to dinner at Bruno's, where we had our rehearsal dinner. It was very romantic! Jackson loves being at my mom's house... look how happy he was in her pack n play! I don't think he missed us very much.
The next morning we took a little road trip to Houston for Matt's cousin's wedding. It was a short but fun trip. It was really good to see all of the family members. Jackson did great in the car for the most part. He loves this taggie blanket that a friend made....those ribbons are so fun to suck on.
On Monday last week, we celebrated my mom's birthday. Here is Jackson helping her blow out her candle.
It has been great having Aunt Janie in town for the summer! We have really enjoyed getting to spend more time with her.
This last weekend we went to Annabelle's 1st birthday party and Bridget's wedding. That was Jackson's 6th birthday party and 3rd wedding to got to! He is quite the party animal! I leave you with this video of him doing all of his favorite things...talking, laughing, blowing bubbles, and sucking on his toes.

Domestic Diva

I truely believe that it is really important to be a life long learner. That's probably the teacher in me coming out. So now that I am a stay-at-home mom and have more time at home, I would like to learn how to do more things around the house so that I can become a better wife and mother. My plan is to start with a couple things now and build on that as I go. The first domestic task I decided to work on is cooking. I have three goals here.. to make our dinners healthier and tastier while saving us money. I know that the more I practice, the better I will get at it, so I decided to make it a family rule to never go out to dinner on a weekday night (except for special occasions). I have been trying a lot of new things and some dinners are better than others, but I definitely have been improving. Ok, too much talking, here is a picture of my sweet baby from yesterday:
From cooking, it naturally progressed into baking. So I signed up for the Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's. Last night was my second class. Below is a picture of my cake. It is actually my first time to make a cake from scratch and not from the box! It is a heart for Matt because Friday is our 5 year anniversary. I love you sweetie!
The next domestic task I decided to learn is sewing. I have had a sewing machine for years but have had no idea how to use it. So I got it down, set it up, and spent an evening after Jackson went to bed reading the directions and learning step by step. I haven't actually created anything yet. I thought it would be easier if I just customized things, so I'm starting with that. Here is my first project. What a cute little model! And my second project... that ribbon gave me a little trouble. At first I almost sewed the pockets closed... but don't worry they are still functional. I probably will add more, but I had to take a break after the ribbon problems. I have a few more project planned for next week. I will show you when I get them done.

5 months old!

He just loves to be naked!
Happy fourth of July! He was waving the flag... too bad I didn't get a smile.
He still loves playing in the "Jump jump". Wow... look at that frog spin!
We babysat his friend Annabelle last weekend. They had so much fun playing. This is her "baby cage" (6 baby gates that make a hexagon). I would love to get one once JackJack can crawl... maybe for my birthday. :)
I think bath time is his favorite time of day... here his is chilling in his bath robe.

Lake Travis

We took a weekend trip to Lake Travis with our good friends... Tiffany, Keith, and Luke & Sarah, Neil, and Ayden. We had such a fun time. The Texas hill country is beautiful! Look at that view behind us!

Jackson loved playing in the pool with his friends! Here he is in his frog float swimming with Mommy.
On the way there we stopped in Waco to show Jackson where I went to school. He was mesmerized by the Baylor Bears.

All Smiles!

Jackson has the sweetest smile. He has been practicing sitting up.Will you please read me a story?
He loves to sing songs and read books. Well, he loves to listen to his mommy and daddy sing and read to him. He thinks you're supposed to eat the books. Everything goes in his mouth!
He just loves going places!
He has started sitting in his high chair while we eat dinner. He will get to start getting baby food in about a month because he will be 5 months old in one week! He is really getting to be big boy!