Full Moon

When I was at the end of my pregnancy with Jackson my cleaning lady told me to check out the calendar and see when the next full moon was. According to her, this would be when I would go into labor. I followed her direction and saw that the next one was coming on February 16th, but since that was over 2 weeks before my due date, I totally dismissed it. A few more weeks rolled by and I went to celebrate a friends birthday downtown...a friend who was born on February 16th. I'd felt fine all day, came home that night and my water broke shortly thereafter.

Jackson was born the morning of February 17th. Yay!!

Needless to say, after that experience, I am now a believer in the "full moon" theory. So today I was casually looking at the paper and for some reason the next full moon caught my eye. Wanna guess when that will be? March 29! My 30th birthday!! I can handle going into labor that night, but let's hope that Lila waits until after midnight to make her debut. I so want her to have her own separate birthday.

The only difference...

between men and boys...

is the size of their toys!

"We can go to town...

but baby if you'd rather...

I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor."

Jackson is so excited that he now has his own big green tractor! He loves that song by Jason Aldean and asks to hear it all the time. Today he got to really ride his new toy and had a blast.

Baby Shower Bliss

This past weekend my sweet friends gave me and Lila a baby shower. It was so nice and really got me that much more excited about being able to finally meet her in a few weeks!

I am so lucky to be blessed with such great friends.

Lila got so many adorable presents...like this embroidered bib

and precious hot pink miniature tutu. Thanks, Dale!

She also got this awesome Bevo hooded towel from one of my college roommates.

Thanks, Carol! Maybe she'll decide to check out Austin one day, too.

Gigi gave me this beautiful diaper bag--it's so pretty I'm kind of afraid to put baby stuff in it! I'm sure I'll get over that, though. I had been searching high and low for one that I really liked and now that search is over. Thanks, Gigi.

Miss Lila also got this big hot pink and black tutu--ha! I see many photo shoots in her future.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate with me. I love all of you and can't wait until Lila is able to meet y'all.

3 year check-up

Jackson went to his 3 year check-up this past Monday. We have a new pediatrician and both of us are big fans. He did so good! I was such a proud Mom. He has grown up so much this past year and is really fun to be around...most of the time! He's got a fantastic personality, but can be a bit shy around people he doesn't know. Once he warms up, though, there's no holding him back. He is very excited about the upcoming arrival of his baby sister and we can't wait to see how he will be with her. He promises me that he will "rock her, hold her, feed her, sing to her and lay down on the floor with her." So sweet. Let's just hope he doesn't try to carry her somewhere...I can totally see that one coming!

Here are his stats:
Weight: 35 lbs (75th %)
Height: 39.5 inches (90 - 95%)
Blood Pressure: 84/52 (they said this was perfect...who knew?)
Memory: Excellent--the kid has an unbelievable memory. It's seriously better than mine sometimes:)
ABCs: Knows almost all of them
Numbers: Can count to 15 with only 1 or 2 mistakes
Colors: Knows them all but sometimes confuses orange/yellow and brown/black
Shapes: Identified a circle, x, rectangle and triangle for the doc
Potty training: Coming along! We have made great progress in this area recently. The only issue now is getting him to go when I'm not there. He'll do it at school, but otherwise, I must be present! Hopefully we'll get this mastered BEFORE Lila gets here.

Bounce Town

Yes, the celebration continues! In a big way! We had Jackson's birthday party this past Saturday at Bounce Town. The kid had a total blast and we loved watching every minute of it.

Right after we got there Jackson sprinted over to the bounce house, got in and starting jumping.

Jackson had lots of people come to help him celebrate turning 3. Pa Hays and Roxie drove over from Fort Worth and even shot a few hoops:)

Uncle Andrew drove up from Houston and got in on all the bouncing mania.

Amanda and her two boys came in town from Little Rock. Isn't Chase's smile the best? So cute!

We tried to get a group shot of all the kids. They were all pretty worn out after and hour and 15 minutes of bouncing!

It was definitely time to eat! I'm not so sure I've ever heard a room full of kids be so quiet. Guess they were all starving and spent from the bounce houses. Everyone chowed down on some pizza...

and then it was on to the cake. Jackson did great this year and blew out all of his candles. After eating birthday cake it was time for the last fun activity...

bring on the presents!!

Whew! It was such a big day that this 3 year old didn't last 5 minutes in the car before he fell asleep. We thought for sure he'd take a good, long nap.

We would have lost money on that! A mere 10 minutes after laying him down upstairs he popped back out and wanted to come play with all of his new toys.

This fireman jacket was a big hit!

Thanks everyone for coming to J's party and making is so special. It will be something he'll remember for a long time.

Birthday, Jackson style

Jackson had a very big day yesterday, to say the least. He went to school from 9 - 2, where he got to celebrate with his friends and eat cupcakes. After school, I picked him up and we continued a day filled with Jackson-friendly adventures. First, we went to the carwash.

The kid loves it and mama's car was really dirty.

Then we headed on over to Collin Creek Mall to ride the train. Gigi went with us and while this was the only item on our agenda at the mall, we ended up finding lots of fun things to do. Jackson saw the Disney store and promptly led Gigi into it. He came out with two stuffed animals; Woody from Toy Story and Donald Duck. After a little shopping for him at The Children's place we couldn't resist picking up some cookies at The Great American Cookie Co.

On our way back home, we picked up Maddie from school and then headed over to Gigi's for some swing set fun. These two little rugrats had a blast running all over their big backyard, climbing and sliding.

A little while later we met both sets of grandparents at Chuck E Cheese. Here's Madison enjoying the balloon ride.

Jackson insisted on hopping up onstage with Chuck E.

Then it was time to get down to business. He loves the "water game" and was so serious while showing his daddy how to play it.

On to one of J's other loves...cheese pizza!

And then of course, the big cupcake with candles. Notice how Maddie is licking her lips! She can't wait to get to that dessert!

Gigi and Memaw both got in on the party hat fun, too. That tongue's still hanging out!

But alas, the birthday boy didn't want chocolate cake, so he switched over to the white cupcakes that I brought! After dessert, he got to open some really cool presents. Of course, he wanted to take them all out of the boxes AT Chuck E Cheese. We convinced him it was best to wait till we got home:)

And that's just what we did the minute we walked in the door. His dad and I got him this guitar and microphone. They were quite the duo on their stage!

Thanks fam for celebrating with us. We can't wait for the big party on Saturday!