More than just some fish

Yesterday our whole gang took a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. Some of us had been before, albeit quite a while ago, so it was a treat for everyone. The aquarium had so many neat animals. Let's see how many I can remember. Of course there were lots of fish, but therewas so much more. Let's see how many I can remember. There were flamingos, monkeys, birds, frogs, crocodiles, snakes, otters, turtles, a jaguar, penguins, bunnies, sting rays and my favorite, all the cool sharks:) It was so much better than I remember!

Dad, Boom, Gigi, Poppy, Memaw and Jackson at the entrance to the aquarium. Right after this picture, Jackson announced that he wanted out of his stroller. Thank goodness we had a back-up plan!

Gigi brought along this genius monkey "backpack" that's tail also doubled as a nice little leash. Jackson was so stoked about getting to wear a monkey backpack, that he didn't even realize the point of the tail. Bonus!

Jackson getting a little help from his daddy. They got to feed a blueberry to this pretty little bird.


What a fun family day. Thanks again to all the grandparents for braving the cold weather to go hang out in the rainforest.

Peter Piper Pizza Playdate

Our neighborhood playgroup met up at Peter Piper Pizza on Friday and Jackson had so much fun. The pizza was good and there were lots of cool rides and games to play. We got 176 tickets (no, I did not spend $100, we just hit the jackpot a few times!) and Jackson got to go home with an awesome new green dinosaur!

Here's the cool guy wearing his Spiderman shades while riding in Spiderman's car.

Of course, Jackson rode the motorcycle at least 5 times, too. The whole time he kept saying "dad" and making the vroom vroom noise that a motorcycle makes. Anything that dad does is definitely cool.

70 degrees in January!

Is anyone else finding it hard to believe that we have had multiple days in January that are in the 70s? We just had to take advantage of this greatness today, so we headed over to the park in Rockwall after Jackson got out of school. (School, by the way, is going fantastically well. He doesn't even get sad anymore when I drop him off and both of his teachers always tell me what a great day he had when I come to pick him up. He now eats lunch AND takes a nap. The nap has really shocked me!) Anyway, back to the park. We went with Gigi, Boom and Miss Madison and I think everyone had fun. I'm sure we'll go back soon and I'll take a few more pictures of all the really cool things at Harry Myers Park.

Jackson being his usual "mon-kee" self. If there's something to hang on, my kid is on it!

Riding in the side car while Gigi drives the cool yellow motorcycle.

And my favorite pic of the day. Jackson taught himself how to go down the slide head first! Oh dear. This kid is such the little daredevil.

Dino Day

Jackson and I headed out to the Heard Museum this morning to see all of the dinosaurs. It was really neat, although I wish I would have known it was outside (a tad chilly and very windy), and we both enjoyed ourselves.

Jackson's first dinosaur encounter. I thought he handled it like a champ. He looked right at the dino and said "Hi!"

Jackson meeting a tricerotops

The big daddy of the day--T Rex. The Heard Museum also had a live animal exhibit.

Jackson's favorite animals by far were the two cute little wallabys. I asked him on the way home if he liked the wallaby and he said "yeah" quite emphatically. Then I asked what the wallaby did and he said "hop, hop, hop!" It was so cute to see that he really did learn something new today:)

Posing at the end on this large lime-green dino.

What a cool way to spend a Monday morning!

Quite the character

Last night Jackson hung out with his Poppy and Mamaw while we went to dinner with friends. We went in to pick him up and he was upstairs laying down on the bed talking to Mamaw. I noticed that he was holding his black spider man sunglasses (guess they were still in his bag) and wearing his new belt (the fave from Christmas). We walked downstairs and Jackson decided that he now wanted to add the sunglasses to his already stellar outfit of pj's and a belt. To better set the scene, the house was dark...maybe 2 lamps were on, but he didn't care. In fact, he wore them all the way home in the car, too!

I had to run in when we got home, grab the camera and come take this picture.

After we got home he continued to wear them for at least 5 more minutes. Cracked us up! Two things are for sure, he's got a mind of his own and is NEVER borning. We love it!

Big day at the Little Gym

Jackson completed another semester at The Little Gym and had such a fun day.

It began with a good swing on the low monkey bars. (Jackson now tells me that he is a monkey, which is oh-so-true)

Then he moved on up to the "big" bar, which he LOVES.

After swing time, we ventured over to the air-track. He's never been a fan before, but today we had a break-through. He was running all over the place on this thing and loving every second.

On to our first skill of the day...rolling over the big donut

and ending with a front roll. Good job!

On to the obstacle course, which he managed like a champ. Notice the "oh wow" expression on his face. He knows he's up on the highest thing-a-ma-jig.

Side stepping on the beam was the second skill of the day. Pretty sure that hands in the mouth are a nervous habit of his. Maybe he was intimidated by the two pretty teachers.

Jumping off the beam brought out the big smile again:)

Hooray! Got my favorite big, blue ball!

He really only plays with the blue ones. Showing off his basketball skills here. I think he impressed Landry.

Bubble time! He loves to get bubbles on his tummy. Cracks me up every time. The other day we went to a make-up class and had a different teacher. She didn't know about tummy bubbles and he ran up to her with his shirt held way up high. She gave me a funny look and I said, "just humor him, please."

At the end of class Jackson got his medal.

Yay little ones!

Little Rascals

Yesterday we went over to the Pointer's house for a get-together with some friends. They have a small water cooler that was oh-so-tempting for the J man. He was so fascinated with it being right on his level and just kept pushing the button and making water come out. After getting in trouble a few times for this he stopped messing with it...I thought. A little while later, Jackson and Presley disappeared. When I came around the corner this is what I found.

They were sticking their fingers where the water gathered at the base of the water cooler and then putting them in their mouths. Harmless enough, and as you can see, apparantly very fun! I went back to chatting with the girls and thought everything would be fine. When I came back a short time later, the entire floor was covered in water and Jackson was hollering "Uh-oh!" over and over again. Yes, dear, that was definitely an "uh-oh," but I'm glad y'all had so much fun making a mess!

Happy Birthday, Gigi!

Gigi's birthday is today and we went out to dinner last night to celebrate. Jackson and Madison did really well and we all enjoyed our yummy food.

Here's mom's birthday dessert medley. All five of those mini desserts were so scrumptious and the chocolate cake with the warm gooey middle was to-die-for!

Hope you have a great day, Mom. We love you!

Nap time, schmap time

At 2:10 this afternoon, Jackson fell asleep. It was right on cue for his normal nap. Every other day this week he has slept for 3 hours (I know, I'm very lucky!) but that was not the case today. At 2:25 he woke up and even though I laid down with him and pretended to be asleep for the next 35 minutes, he was done. After chasing after the little booger for the next hour, we decided to take a family trip to the park. I'm so glad we did...who needs naps anyway?

Jackson telling his dad, "Hi." It was so funny because he says it like an older englishman.

Us going down the big slide. It did get a little out of control on the way down--the slide is really high--but we recovered nicely.

He insisted that I, too, go inside the tunnel:)

Swinging on daddy's lap

Swinging all by himself. We were impressed...he held on really tightly and didn't come close to falling out, although you do have to be ready when he wants to get down. Not much warning!

First lesson on how to climb a rock wall

Ta Da! Great success!

Oh what a night!

Miss Madison (my sweet neice) spent the night with us. Actually she came over yesterday afternoon while Jackson was taking a nap. When he woke up and heard her downstairs he got so excited. "Madden" as he calls her is really one of his favorite people.

He likes her so much that he even let her hop on

and go for a ride with Trigger.

After a good dinner, it was time for a bath. Both cousins LOVE their bath time and were all smiles:)

Madison got such a kick out of Jackson splashing water like a mad man!

This morning we went to get Miss Madison and she was all smiles again. I put Jackson in the crib with her just for fun. Look how much bigger he is than her!

Jackson and Trigger

And the winner is...Trigger! Jackson has absolutely LOVED having his new horse since Christmas. He rides Trigger every day and enjoys every second.

Sometimes he's satisfied for Trigger to do a nice gallop.

Other times he gets Trigger going so fast that he almost gets bucked off! Whoa, boy...slow it down!

But he always makes a smooth recovery and gets Trigger to come to a nice stop. I think they are going to be great friends:)

Ringin' in the new year

Jared and I hosted a party on New Year's Eve. We had such a good time with everyone and really enjoyed ringing in the new year with all our friends. We played a few games; drinko (formerly known as plinko) and catch phrase were big hits. We had so much fun hanging out with the gang. Here are a few pics from the night.

Me and my hubby:)

Our special guests of the night were Kelly and Danny. We met them when we moved to Lubbock and always have fun catching up whenever we get together.

Group Shot



Taylor getting a little help from Jenny during her turn at karaoke.

Happy 2009!