Nicest Dog Ever

I'm sure you've all heard, but it has been a trying 10 years with our black lab. If you've ever read the book "Marley and Me," that's what I'm talking about! She goes crazy at even the thought of a thunderstorm, shoot, what am I saying...just a little rain freaks her out! If I'm not home when this happens, she will jump up on our bed and pee right in the middle of it. Yes, a 75 pound dog has peed on our bed numerous times, which is why I have often threatened to give her away. Even with all her flaws, though, Sadie really is the nicest, most tolerant dog on the planet. She lets Jackson pretty much do anything to her and very rarely gets upset. If she does get annoyed, she'll just walk away. I'm not sure what she thinks about his latest antics, though...

Last night Jackson decided that he would ride Sadie like a horse. To my surprise, she actually sat there and let him do it for a long time.

He was bouncing up and down on her and she was such a good sport. Thanks, Sadie! You're slowly redeeming yourself:)

First Day of School

Yes, I finally did it. I mean, we finally did it. We put on our big girl and big boy pants and went to school. Yesterday was Jackson's first day of Mother's Day Out and it really went well, all things considering. The day could not have started out much worse. First, the spring on our garage door broke at 8:40 am. Jackson was just finishing up his pancakes when we heard the loud kaboom in the garage. I went out to investigate and couldn't see anything right away, so I decided to open the garage and check the outdoors. After I pressed the garage door button it only opened about 3 inches. Arghhh!!! I have an intense hatred for malfunctioning garage doors and did not have time to mess with it right then! After a few frantic calls, I finally found someone who would let me borrow their car.

(quick pic before we flew out the door)

A few minutes later we took off in a mad dash down the street (school started at 9am) and hopped in our neighbor's car. That's when I noticed problem number 2...Jackson had peed and somehow the diaper had failed, a phenomenon that still baffles me. Of course, I didn't have a change of clothes, since it was our first day, so off we went to school. The teachers were really nice and told me they would take care of everything. After a tearful goodbye, I left my little guy for a day of fun.

Jackson loved wearing his "back back" and looked so old to me!

He had such a good time at school and got a glowing report. I am such a proud mom! After we got home, I went through his school folder and found all of the activities that he did--letter and shape of the day, made an angel ornament decorated with glitter and a few other arts and crafts. I know this is going to be such a positive thing for both of us. I cannot wait to see how much he learns over the next few months. And one more thing, the five hours to myself were pretty good, too:)

Weekend get-a-way

This past Saturday Jackson, Jared and I headed up to Lake Texoma for a little weekend relaxation. We really enjoyed our time together, just the three of us...didn't do a whole lot, which was the whole point of going up there, and it was so nice!

Jackson playing outside. He decided that he's no longer boycotting hats and opted to wear his daddy's. Pretty funny that it almost fit him. The kid has always had a big head!

Jared (aka Jackson's new BFF) and Jackson

All three of us went for a spin around the neighborhood. Jackson was mesmerized with the golf cart and loved driving it. He actually spent an additional 30 minutes pretending to drive the cart after we got back and parked it inside the garage:)

Newsboy

Another edition of "Where's Jackson?"

Every morning I get to read just a tad of the newspaper. Jackson often likes to look at a section and check out the latest happenings in Dallas. Now, Jackson was just reading the Metro section, but I can't find him all of a sudden. Where could he be?

There he is!

Happy Turkey Day!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving Day with both families. Good company, lots of delicious food and plenty of football. Go Horns!

Jackson was in a great mood all day long. This kid was such a wiggly worm, though, that it was really challenging to take his picture. This is the best fam shot we got:)

Jackson and Madison with their Gigi

Jackson is teething right now, hence the fingers in the mouth, but I love the big bow in Miss Madison's hair!

Jackson got to visit with his Uncle Andrew

and hang out with his Uncle Scott, too. What a fun day!

Ho Ho Ho!

Earlier this week we went with a group of friends to see Santa Claus. It was pure genius. Not really because all of the kids loved sitting on his lap (most of them hollered like he was this terrible, scary being) but because there were only 2 people in front of us! Awesome! Last year we waited in line for 1 entire excruciating hour just for Jackson to holler like a crazy person once I put him on Santa's lap. This year he still hollered, but everything else went so well it was just fine. He did show some promise at the beginning. He told Santa "hi" when we walked over to see him and then he started saying "ho, ho, ho!" a lot, so I thought it was all good. It was, until I walked away to let him take the picture. That was not a popular decision, so once again our yearly Santa pic has Jackson, Santa and me in it!

It's very snowy at the North Pole!

Our Santa Excursion group

After a little lunch, we went down to the play area. Jackson had such a good time there. We might just have to go back sometime soon. Mama does like to shop:)

My hat is off

A few days ago I offered to watch Madison for a couple hours and thought "no biggie, it's only for a little while." Whew! That sure was an understatement! Both kids were really good and played so well together.

Love that smile:)

Here they are at the beginning of the afternoon. Jackson had so much fun pushing Madison in the jumperoo and she LOVED it...just look at that huge grin on her face! The difficulty came when I decided that I would try and get them both down for their afternoon naps. I somehow got Madison to sleep first by just rocking her in J's room. As soon as I tried to lay her down, though, she woke right up and looked at me like, "what exactly are you trying to do?" Then I decided to take both of them for a car ride. As I suspected, Jackson fell asleep before we got half way down the street. This was encouraging, so I drove around a little bit longer, just to ensure he was good and asleep. We came back home and I got him out of the car first, but before I got him all the way into his crib he woke up. At this point I was starting to get a little bit flustered! Now Madison was screaming in the car and Jackson was hollering b/c he wanted out of the crib. Arghhh! After about another half hour of rocking Madison and getting her back to sleep, Jackson decided to start making noise (why he wasn't asleep by now was beyond me). I didn't want him to wake her up, so I went over to his crib. He started whining and asking to be held, so I had no choice but to pick him up, too. And that's how I got myself into this conundrum...

After about 30 more minutes of rocking both of them, they both fell asleep! Only problem with that is that I was stuck in the chair. My mom did come back and rescue me. Hallelujah! My right arm (the one under the 30 pound child) was completely asleep.

My point to this long story is that my hat is off to all of you moms who have two kids. Those of you with more, like Hayley E., I have no idea how you do it on a day-to-day basis! You are AMAZING!