The Miracle of Ketchup

Let me take a few minutes to extoll the greatness of Ketchup. Ketchup really has kept my child from starving the past few weeks. If not for ketchup (and a few pancakes every morning) Jackson really might have wasted away by now. Now, I do like Ketchup...mostly on french fries, chicken, and yes, scrambled eggs. I can hear some of you saying "ewww!" but I promise it really is good on eggs! Jackson has taken it to a whole new level.

Things that just taste better with Ketchup, according to Jackson:
1. French Fries (sure)
2. Meat Loaf (of course)
3. Chicken (go right ahead)
4. Carrots (really?)
5. Toast (yes, he dipped his nice sourdough toast in it last night)
6. Cinnamon rolls (yikes!)

The moral of this story is that there is no need to mess with pureeing broccoli and other vegetables and trying to hide them in casseroles, like Jessica Seinfeld and that other lady have suggested in their books. It's really much easier than that. Just Add Ketchup.

Cookie Mania!

Last Friday Monica hosted a cookie playdate. The morning began with some outdoor fun...

and then moved indoors for a little more domestic flare.

Jackson really loves playing in the kitchens...hmmm, maybe a future chef? Wouldn't that be nice:)

We attempted to let all the big kids make their own cookies. It began with them sitting down and putting on aprons.

That lasted about 2.7 seconds and the apron came off! Jackson was the only kid that flat out rejected the apron.

His daddy was so proud!

Some of the kiddos were really trying to roll out the cookie dough and use the cute little cookie cutters. Jackson pretty much said no thanks to the entire process. Oh well, his mama sure liked the delicious finished products--icing, sprinkles and all!

60 miles...in only 3 days!

Last weekend, Jackson's grandma was an active participant in the 60 mile, 3 day walk for the Susan G. Komen foundation. She was such a trooper and we are all very proud of her. All together, they raised over $7.9 million for breast cancer! Jared, Jackson, Warren and I all went out to cheer her on during the walk on Saturday.

Jackson and I made signs (ok, so I really made them and Jackson mostly hollered at me b/c all he wanted to do was mess with the tape...he even crawled up onto the kitchen table when I put the tape in the middle of it. Who knew scotch tape was that much fun?) Here he is practicing holding the sign for Grandma.

He did so good for the real thing! He actually held his sign for at least 30 minutes while we waited for Grandma. Now that's dedication!


Yay Shelley!

Gigi

Last Friday night Jackson got to hang out with Gigi (my mom's new name...mostly b/c Jackson can say it) while we went out to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Here they are right before I left.

Jackson is really into reading books right now, so he started bringing them to Gigi. After story time, she asked him if he wanted to go get some dinner at Wendy's. He agreed that a good cheeseburger sounded pretty tasty, so off they went. He even waved and said "bye bye." Wow. What a difference! So much for the old days of screaming whenever he thought I might be leaving. I feel so much better and so does he:)

So big!

My Meme bought this for Jackson before he was born. Back then I never dreamed that he would be too big for it! How things have changed.

He really has outgrown his big bear. Oh well...he still had fun sitting on it for a little while. After this, he drug it into the living room and put the new monkey that he got at the zoo on its lap. Then he sat down beside the monkey and was so happy with himself.

Fort Worth Zoo

Jared and I have been talking about how much we would like to take a trip to the zoo for what seems like forever. After Jackson came along, we got even more excited about this little outing. We were waiting for the perfect time and it finally arrived. Beautiful weather, Jackson being the "right" age, etc. were all factors into us deciding it was finally time to go. I'm so glad we did--such a wonderful day.

We began the day with a great breakfast at the Ol' South Pancake House. De-li-cious. Jackson chowed down, as did the rest of us. Here's the crew as we entered the zoo.

Grandpa, Jackson and Jared with a very large gorilla just hanging out behind them.

The silly monkey himself being a little bit goofy.

Grandpa and Grandma Hays with J and the elephants

The fam checking out the giraffes and ostriches.

Grandpa bought some food to feed the fish...Jackson would throw in only one pebble at a time:) Guess he wanted the moment to last as long as possible.

Big daddy lion just roaring at all of us. It was really cool!

Mama lion and her cute little cubs

Enjoying a safari ride

Checking out their wing spans. I'm pretty sure Jackson had no idea why they were all standing there with their arms outstretched, but he went along with it!

We ended the day by taking a short train ride back to the entrance. Our feet were so happy with this decision.

The silly little guy and his new monkey. He was asleep in the stroller before we made it all the way out to our car. Such a big day!

Happy Halloween

Halloween 2008...how fun! Jackson had a big day. It all began with a Halloween themed playdate with our neighborhood group. Since it was 80 degrees outside, Jackson went as Tony Romo.

His favorite part about this playdate was not the cookies, finger sandwiches or craft time. No, all of those were fun, but not nearly as great as playing with the beans and rice in this table. Who knew?! After some lunch and a nap, the dragon was ready to make an appearance again.

He did so good--the headpiece stayed on the entire night!

I couldn't believe it.

Miss Madison came over to trick-or-treat with us. She was such a cute little dragonfly.

Jackson had a pretty sweet gig. For most of the night, he got to ride in the wagon and just make pit-stops for candy. Our neighborhood organized a halloween parade and encouraged everyone to sit out by the curb with their candy. This was such a good idea and really made trick-or-treating a cinch!

Some of the neighbors stayed in their houses, though, so Jackson still got to go up to them and get some candy.

After the parade, we headed over to see what kind of candy Grandma and Grandpa Hays had at their house. Jackson got to hang out with them for the rest of the night while we went to a Halloween party. We had so much fun! Thanks, Rachavongs for such a great time.

Slash, Axl Rose, Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo

Us girls--unfortunately my camera blurred the shot of all the girls who were there, so this is the best one I have:(

All the guys.

There were some really good costumes...big props to everyone for being so creative.