Hooray for Gym Time!

This past Wednesday was the last day of our Little Gym class for the semester. Family is invited to come see how the kiddos have progressed and so my mom, sister and neice were all there. Jackson had such a great time and really hammed it up for his audience!

Here we are about to go under the parachute--Jackson loves this now, as you can tell by his big ol' smile:)

Hanging from the bars all by himself--he hung for about 5 seconds! I was so impressed!

Going through the little obstacle course thingy--such a champ.

Very proud of himself for rotating all the way around the bar.

Getting his medal from Miss Laura.

Being quite the cheeseball for the group picture. We were really impressed that they all stayed put so that we could get some pics. Thanks, little ones:)

The Greatness of Sunday

This past Sunday was exactly what Jared and I have dreamed about since we got married. We always envisioned having a great backyard with a pool and being able to spend Sunday afternoons with our friends or family. Jared has been super busy at work for what seems like forever and usually has to work during the weekend. He decided to stay home on Sunday, though, and we were so glad that he did--what a perfect way to spend a beautiful day.

This was Jackson's first time in the water this summer. He was a little unsure at first, but got accustomed to it very quickly.

Soon he was "jumping" off the spa ledge and into his daddy's arms.


I think it's safe to say that he will be a little fish before we know it. We start swim lessons next week and I am really looking forward to that.

Fun in the Sun

Yay for summer time!! We are so excited that it's been such great weather lately. We've definitely been taking advantage of all the sunshine. This past Friday we met some friends at the splash park. Jackson liked it at first and then decided the really cold water was a little overrated:)

The Three Amigos : Judah, Presley and Jackson

Jackson quickly decided that Presley needed a big hug--I think he sensed some competition from Judah!

All the kiddos really enjoyed snack time under the shade of the trees. Jackson especially loved sharing some sour cream and onion potato chips with Presley, Madden and Chloe. Check out Teagan's adorable ensemble--she's even got a matching cover-up...so chic!

We went to Lake Texoma for the second half of the weekend and had a great time. However, the ONLY time that Jackson would nap was when we took him out on the boat. Here he is about to power down completely.

My two guys hanging out on the hammock. In hindsight, maybe Jackson would have fallen asleep if we hung out with him long enough in the hammock...hmmm, might have to try that technique next time.

All the little kids really enjoyed the baby pool. All, except for my child. Check out his pained expression. Cole (the little boy next to Jackson) said, "I think Jackson wants you to get in the pool, too."

So, being the cool mom that I am, I hopped right on in. Unfortunately it didn't work and Jackson continued to make the "ughh" face. We all got out shortly thereafter and had some delicious German Chocolate cake to celebrate my papaw's birthday. Jackson had some of my cake and then tried to eat some of Kennedy and Chandler's (the other two little girls) cake, too. He even snuck a swig of someone's Dr. Pepper before I could pry his hands loose! Needless to say, he was exhausting to chase after this weekend.

As a nice end to our holiday weekend, we went over to the Hays' for dinner last night. Here's Jackson and his grandparents relaxing in their adirondack chairs. Jackson really likes his chair...he carries it places and loves to lean his head back and relax--too cute.

Day at the lake

What a fun day at the lake! Jackson and I went up to my parents' house on Lake Texoma yesterday and had a total blast. When we got there, my mom was cleaning off all the outside furniture. Jackson IMMEDIATELY jumped at the chance to do anything with the water hose--his favorite thing of the day.

This is maybe 5 minutes after we got there--notice Jackson is soaking wet already!

Our neighbor up there let us borrow his blow-up pool. Even though the water was about 50 degrees, Jackson loved playing in there. His favorite part was filling up the pool:)

We also took the four-wheeler. Jackson rode it a little bit. Here he is doing some stunt-driving. For some reason he thinks it's much more fun to get on it backwards.

Miss Madison was also there. Here she is enjoying a relaxing time on the back porch.

Laid back and loving it:)

When Madison's mommy got a few free minutes, she got to play with her favorite nephew. Jackson loved it, of course, as is evident by his huge smile.

This was my attempt to make Jackson wear his hat and sunglasses. Notice he can't even stand for the hat to be on more than 1 second! In all reality, he spent the majority of the day either naked or nearly naked and loved the whole thing.

Back to the ever-exciting water hose! This is after I got him all dried off and ready for a nap...as you can see, he had no use for a nap. Those are for babies who don't get to play outside, I suppose!

We went for a little boat ride and J got to drive the boat with his Boom Paw. Right after this he completely konked out and slept the entire rest of the time out on the lake. Guess that life jacket was pretty comfy after all:)

Mr. Mischief

Jackson has been quite the mischievious one today. In fact, his t-shirt suited him perfectly.

First crazy act:
Earlier today I was checking my email and Jackson was eating a snack right by me. He got up and went out of the room, but I could still hear him so I knew he wasn't far. I got up a few minutes later and he wasn't just around the corner like I thought. I did notice something a little odd, though. His blue snack bowl was on the third step of the stairs. I just thought he must have thrown it through the baby gate. I kept walking around to the other side of the stairs (we have a double staircase) and found him at the bottom of those stairs trying very hard to get out. Somehow Little Houdini had managed to get into the first gate, crawl up the stairs, then down the other set of stairs and was trying to fanagle his way out and back into the living room! I was completely dumbfounded. Baby Gate, do your job!

Second crazy act:
We went over to the Hays' this afternoon for a little visit. When we got there, only Andrew and Scott (Jared's two brothers) were there. We were all hanging out in the front room--Jackson was playing with some toys, but then decided to turn his attention to the computer. In order to distract him, we handed him the cordless phone...something he never gets to do over there, but I thought it was a good idea. (He plays with our phones all the time and the worst he's ever done is call my Papaw one night around 9:30). Anyway, soon after Grandpa Hays came home and so Jackson's time with the phone came to an end. About 30 minutes later the doorbell rang. Grandpa got up to answer it--lo and behold it's a policeman! Yes, that's right, a cop is at the Hays' front door. Do you want to know why? Oh, that would be because someone had called 911!!! Apparantly this runs in the family because after the cop left Warren told me about the time when Andrew called 911 because Jared was bothering him. He had heard to call 911 whenever you have trouble. Andrew said that Jared had been messing with his stuff, so he needed some help. Ha! Gotta love little boys:)




After all of that excitement, it was time to head home. I guess the little man wore himself out with all of those antics because this was him by the time we got to our house.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had such a good day yesterday and really enjoyed spending time with both families. Our day was jam-packed, but well worth every minute. Jared, Jackson and I started out the day by going to church. It was a very good sermon about the ideal mother and a great way to kick off the celebration of motherhood.

Here we are with some flowers that my precious little boy picked out for me. It's hard to believe that this is already my second mother's day!

After church and a little nap for Jackson, we headed over to my parents house for lunch. We brought Cafe Max (always delicious) and I made a pie. Here are all 4 of us moms and our children. Everyone was in such a good mood, especially the two little ones, that it made for a very enjoyable lunch experience!

After lunch, Jackson went upstairs and found the slot-machine. He had SO much fun playing with it. Jared and my Dad both helped him get the coins in the slots, although he mostly did it on his own, and then told him to press the big blue buttons, which he LOVED.

After another little nap, we headed over to the Hays' for dinner. Here's Jackson during one of his many laps around this vehicle. He gets such a kick out of surpising everyone on his way around anything. I think his smile pretty much says it all.

Jared rode his new bike over to the house. Here's Shelley with her three boys. What a nice looking bunch--Shelley, you did good raising these three:)



Our little fam with Jackson giving his mama a sweet kiss. I am so blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you God for giving me the opportunity to raise such a wonderful little boy and for such a great husband. I could not imagine a better life than the one I get to live every day.

Play time this week

Jackson has had lots of interaction with other kiddos this week. I wish I would have taken pictures at everything because there were many great "kodak moments." On Tuesday, we had a playdate with a new friend. It was a little girl who is a few months younger than Jackson. Keep in mind that they had never met until this week. Within the first few minutes of the playdate, Jackson wrapped both his arms around her neck and planted a big ol' wet kiss on her! Then he starting doing some "extreme hugging" and they fell down on the floor in a dramatic embrace! It was so funny--he just kept hugging her while his head rested on her tummy. Whenever I tried to get him off of her, he started hollering like nobody's business. Must have been love at first sight! On Wednesday we went over to visit Miss Madison. It's so funny, Jackson really knows who Madison is when you say her name. He doesn't have a clue what his Aunt's name is, but he's got Madison down pat!

Since we wouldn't let Jackson hold Madison, he told us that the least we could do was let him sit in her swing. I was so relieved that he didn't break it!

Today we had a playdate with Presley, Teagan and Judah. Here's Jackson "helping" Presley ride the Bat Mobile. He pushed her around our house for quite a while. Even though this often resulted in running into things like chairs, walls, etc., they really enjoyed it!

He especially enjoyed getting to ride the four-wheeler with pretty Miss Presley:)

One of Jackson's favorite things to do these days is climb up into his high-chair, which scares both me and his dad to death. Presley is a little older though, so she had no problem at all. Jackson was so confused here--he did not want Presley to be the only one who got the snacks! Never fear...they both got to eat chips, banana cookies, cheerios...if food is out, they will get to it.



In fact, Judah was just sitting down so nicely and enjoying his banana cookie. Before I knew it, Jackson had walked over to him, took the cookie and shoved it all in his mouth. Then a few minutes later, he found Judah's cheerios that were in a bowl on the kitchen table. Somehow "Stretch Armstrong" reached the bowl and dumped out about 100 cheerios all over the floor! We had such a good time with all the kids today. Looking forward to our next outing at the Splash Park:)