Dear God

We always say prayers before Jackson goes to bed. Most of the time Jared and I take turns, but lately we've been letting Jackson lead the prayers. He starts out with "Dear God" and then begins to list the people that he is thankful for in his life. It really is such a sweet time that we get to spend together, but Jackson has begun adding his own touch lately.

Here are a few of Jackson's recent prayers:

"Dear God, Gigi, Boom, Maddie, Pa Grape (new name for Pa Hays!), Mickey Mouse, Jesus loves you, Amen."

"Dear God, Gigi, Boom, Maddie, Uncle Scott, Go to school, Pack-packs (back-packs), Amen."

My favorite might have been last night's prayer, though, b/c he mentioned someone that we never really even talk about. It went like this, "Dear God, Mommy, Daddy, Gigi, Boom, Maddie, Memaw, Poppy, Uncle Drew, Uncle Scott, Obama...Pres-i-dent Obama, Amen"

Cracks us up every time. Have a great weekend:)

That's what Mom's are for...

The picture I'd like to use for this post is one of my face. The reason I want to do this is because it would show you how tired I look (the dark circles under my eyes are especially nice). However, I'm just a little too vain and cannot bring myself to that much embarassment. So, you'll just have to trust me on this one. Here's a run-down of the last 16 hours or so in the Hays Household.

7:00 - 8:00 : Alternately cooking dinner and rubbing Jackson's back. Why? Because the little guy didn't feel too good and was crying for me to do this.

8:00 - Holding Jackson "like a baby" in my lap on the couch. I was rubbing his tummy and he actually fell asleep. That's when I knew it was going to be a long night. He NEVER goes to sleep that early.

8:45 - Attempt to lay him down in his bed. Not successful. Pees in pull-up and it gets all over the changing table. Change him into jammies, thrown clothes in hamper and begin rocking.

9: 15 - Have been rocking for 30 minutes and he's still awake. Lay him down in his crib and begin rubbing his back.

9:45 - Have been rubbing his back for 30 minutes, arm is tired now, so I lay down on the floor next to his crib.

9:46 - Sticks his little hand thru the crib rail and asks me to hold his finger. Finger holding begins.

10:30 - Veryly slowly pull my finger out of his. Yay! He's finally asleep (for now) so I get up, work on the laundry a bit and then go to sleep in my bed.

4:30 am - "Mommy! Mommy!" Jackson is crying and wants to come sleep in our bed. Not a good idea, so I convince him to sleep upstairs with me. Begins flopping around like a seal. Seal Flopping continues for a good hour...probably more like an hour and a half. Neat.

Needless to say, I'm a little worn out. After being a mom for over 2 years, though, I do know that things will be different very shortly so no need to get disheartened. Maybe it's time I develop a taste for coffee, though...

Birthdays and Bouncing

This past weekend Jackson went to Bounce town to celebrate his friend Cason's 3rd birthday. He had so much fun that I'm thinking this is where we might celebrate his next birthday!

Jackson made fast friends with one of Cason's cousins.

Karlie helped him go through the obstacle course and was so good with him. I was so glad since it meant that I didn't have to spend an hour in there and I think Jackson developed his first crush!

Hurling himself over the green thing.

Apparantly it was big fun...just look at that grin!

While he was on break from training in the obstacle course, he decided to challenge Matt in a game of air hockey. He did pretty well, that is, until he started scoring goals on himself. After a few minutes, he was off to check out another bounce house.

He got so carried away that his pants fell down!

All the kids looking sad b/c bounce time has officially ended.

They perked up real quick, though, when the juice boxes and pizza came out:) This time Jackson only ate 2 slices of pizza--he wanted save lots of room for cake.

Two peas in a pod--just like their mama's.

Happy Birthday, Cason!

Happy Mother's Day

Wow. What a great day--my third time to get to celebrate Mother's Day and we dedicated Jackson at church this morning. We are so blessed to have such a precious little boy.

Both families came to church with us and were front and center for Jackson's big day. Pa Hays even came all the way over from Fort Worth, which was so sweet. We loved getting to see you, Pa!

Walking out onto the stage. Jackson was ALL business at first.

Then he loosened up the crowd when Pastor Rob asked him hold old he was. His response..."29," and he said it with this big ol' grin on his face! It was too funny. He had the whole congregation laughing.

After church we all headed over to our house to enjoy some good food from Babe's Chicken. If you haven't been there for some reason, you should put it on your short list. One word--delicious. Ok, maybe two. Really Delicious.

After lunch, the silly goose helped Gigi and Memaw open their presents.

Then he decided that the tissue paper was better suited to go on his daddy's head!

He also got Pa to help him tie a ribbon around his neck,

and he took a piggy back ride on my back. All in all a very good day. Thank you to my sweet mama for being such a fantastic mother and to my sweet mom-in-law for always being there for me. Y'all have taught me so much and I love you both!

Hog Heaven

I love Fridays. Jackson does, too. There's just something fun about Fridays, I think. Today we went to visit a friend of mine who has three little girls. Jackson got to play with Clare for a while before her little sisters woke up from their nap. It's always fun to play with other toys. Here they are having fun with their masks.

Such a cute little cow and puppy dog.

That lasted for about 4 seconds and then it was on to something else!

The trampoline was a HUGE hit. Look how excited my little kangaroo was to be on this fun contraption!

Jackson found this baseball cap and insisted on wearing it the rest of the time we were at their house...nevermind the fact that it was pink and had all the Disney princesses on it! When he started playing with the pink computer at the same time I just had to snap a pic. After we got home and he took a good nap, I decided it was warm enough to put on our swim suits and head outside.

All spring I've been telling Jackson that as soon as it gets warm enough we could turn on the water hose. His love for the water hose began last summer and it is still quite strong! We had so much fun playing outside. My little worker bee "cleaned" the house windows, the pool equipment and even me a time or two!, and also filled up the spa and pool with more water. It really was such a fun way to spend the afternoon--I can't wait until we get to swim every day this summer:)

Photo Shoot

In honor of Miss Madison's first birthday, we decided to schedule a photo shoot. Since Jackson is one of her favorite people, he got to come along for the fun too. There are so many precious pictures--it was hard to narrow down for this post! Thanks, Jennifer. You did a GREAT job! If you'd like to see more of Jennifer's work, check out her blog at http://www.hauteshotphotography.blogspot.com/. I am having a hard time choosing my favorite one of Jackson, so if you have an opinion, please let me know. Enjoy the sweet pics.

Fire Station Fun

Last Friday we went on an outing to our local fire station. It was so cool and the kids were completely mesmerized. Here's Jackson on the front of the engine.

He's wearing his firefighter sticker and just in awe of being around the big fire truck.

The whole gang after our tour was over. The firefighters were really nice to the kids. They gave us a tour of the station, showed us what's inside the truck, put on all their gear (Jackson was a little unsure when the man put his mask on), turned on the fire engine lights and let the kids sit in the Captain's chair and "drive" for a little bit. What a neat day:)