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.