Carrie Underwood

Trying to get these three to sit still is similar to catching three birds and asking them to do the same thing.  Good luck.

 But put on a video of Carrie Underwood, and they will be instantly mesmerized!

After breaking the spell that she had over them, Jackson jumped up and began rocking out on his air guitar with her duet partner, Brad Paisley.

 The kid may have a future on the big stage!

 This little goose danced so hard that she spun around and fell down.  Thanks, CMT for a few good laughs!



Luau Wedding Shower

Like I said, we have been really busy this weekend.  Yesterday we had Jackson's baseball game in the morning--he did great and got two doubles off of the coach pitch!  He didn't need the tee at all!  After that Daddo left with Poppi to go help Uncle Scott move into his new apartment.  While they were gone doing the heavy lifting, the kids and I went to have lunch with Meme and wish her a happy birthday.  When we got home from that, it was time to start getting ready for Lyndsie and Scott's wedding shower at our house.

Thank goodness I had some help!  Maria offered to come over early and was a big help getting all of the food ready.  She's also a fan favorite with Maddie:)

Memaw and Poppi came early too to lend a few more hands.  Love this pic--Maddie's doing her best "cheese" face and Lila is saying cheese while eating a goldfish.

While the girls were getting everything ready inside, Jared, Andrew and Poppi were working on the patio.  The guys hung lights and then Jared started grilling the chicken. 

Even Jackson was trying his best to help and really liked assisting me with lighting the tiki torches:)

Right after we got it all under control, the happy couple arrived.  Aren't they so darn cute?

Thank goodness everyone came hungry because we had plenty of food.

We found this child grass skirt at Meme's house.  She brought it back from Hawaii when they went sometime in the 1970s!  Jackson thought it was so funny and wanted to wear it for a little while at the party.  Love this kid.

J also got the best seat in the house and had his dinner outside, sitting in his daddy's favorite chair, so that he could watch college football on TV!

While he and Maddie ate dinner outside, Lila was busy holding court inside.  She loved climbing up in Uncle Scott's chair...

and thought wearing his big hat was really funny.

When it was time for presents, the kids all got a front row seat!  They were so excited to be able to come to the adult party, and for the most part they did pretty good.  The last thing J asked me before going to bed last night was, "Mom, was I good enough to be invited to another party?"  The kid loved him some luau fun.

The kids got Uncle Scott this very cool tool box and they got other really fun gifts, too.

All in all it was a very good night.  Jared convinced Maria to hang loose and it turned out to be my favorite picture of all of us!

Happy Birthday, Meme!

Meme's birthday was yesterday, but since we had such a jam-packed weekend we celebrated on Thursday night. 

We met Meme, Gigi and Boom at a fun mexican restaurant after dance and ball practice.  We don't know how to take it easy around here!

The reason we picked this one is because Marti the Magician is there on Thursday nights.  He is so good and the kids were totally amazed!  Maddie's jaw actually dropped after he did a really cool trick.

After he showed us a few tricks, he made all the kids balloon animals.  Lila got this cute little puppy dog...

Madison got this fun purple caterpillar...

Jackson got a super cool light sabre gun and Meme got an awesome birthday hat!

So glad we got to celebrate with the fam and enjoy all of the entertainment.  I really need to look into taking Marty to every restaurant we go to!

Opposite Day!

Today was opposite day at school for all of the four year olds.

Jackson and I got some good laughs this morning picking out his wacky outfit.  Mismatched socks and shoes, a toboggan with shorts...how fun!

As soon as I started taking Jackson's picture to commemorate this goofy day, the girls ran right over and said, "cheese!"  Aren't they the cutest stairsteps you ever did see?

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Every Tuesday and Thursday Jackson has ball practice.  Near that field is a park with the cutest little pond and tons of ducks.  The girls are not all that interested in watching practice, so we have started going to feed the ducks. 



Right after we got there they all started flocking towards us! Duck...




more ducks...




and a goose!




Since the geese were bigger than Lila (and much more aggressive), she prefered to sit on this bench and watch them!




But after those crazy geese had flown away, Lila Lou was all about chasing some ducks.




She loved it!  Needless to say, it was a tough task getting both of the girls back in the car.  They would have stayed there all night, I think, and cannot wait to go back on Tuesday.



We are Fam-i-ly!

I got all my sisters (and cousins, and aunts, and uncles) and me!  This past weekend my parents hosted the Jackson/Kendrick Family Reunion at their house. 




Meme (aka Lois Jackson) is one of 9 kids.  Her parents had 5 kids and then her daddy passed away.  Her mom remarried Mr. Kendrick and they had 4 more kids.  This reunion was for all of those people!  Lila, Maddie and I arrived a little early so we were there to greet all of the matriarchs and patriarchs:)

 


Seven of the nine are still living and six of them made it to the reunion. 




We started out the day meeting Benjamin.  He and Maddie had fun on the see-saw.




Lila was a little nervous meeting all kinds of new people, but she found her smile again in the toy closet!




One of the first big families to arrive were these folks from Oklahoma.  Brittany is my mom's cousin's child--here she is with her husband and 6 kids.  Yes, you read that right!  Four boys and two girls.  And I thought my life was hectic!




These two knew just where to find some toys to play with...




and it wasn't long before Jackson convinced a cousin to play football with him.




While brother was busy outside, Miss Lila was busy having fun with her cousin Evie.  This was her first time to meet sweet Evie and they just loved each other.  So sweet.




We tried to get all of the families together for family photos.  Here is ours.  Two of my cousins didn't get to make it, but my cousin Jenny did, along with her husband, son and parents.




After the adults had chatted a while and the kids had had lots of fun in the pool, it was time to eat.  One thing about family reunions--there will be plenty of good food!




I don't know how she did it, but amidst the chaos of 80 people in the house, Lila fell asleep.  Meeting new people is such hard work!




We enjoyed our lunch poolside and Lila was even asleep out there, that is, until a kid shot her in the face with a water gun.  In his defense, it was an accident, but Mama was still a little bit upset.




Thank goodness she woke up with a smile on her face and was ready to play with her cousin Calen.  They are two months apart and really enjoyed hanging out.




After lunch it was time for my favorite part of the reunion; the cake walk!! When I was little we used to have reunions every year.  I would always come home with at least three cakes!  These kids loved it so much...




just look at the J man's smile after he won the sprinkle cake.  We baked two cakes for the event and this was one of them.  I was so happy for him!




Lila won, too, and she picked out this delicious banana nut bread.  Good pick, Lila!



Since the festivities lasted all day, Jackson had to take a rest at some point.  I found him in the media room watching Austin Powers (oh dear!) and grinning like the cheshire cat. 





In addition to us having the reunion, we also celebrated Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dan's 57th wedding anniversary.  We had pictures of them that dated all the way back to their Junior/Senior Prom.  Love it!

 


After cake time I snapped a pic of the Lilley Family--many of them were unable to make it, but it was so good seeing the ones who did.

 




At the end of the party, we somehow got all of these kids off the playground long enough to stand still for a big family picture!






And when I say big, I mean super-sized big!  There were 26 in this crew!  Yes, 21 from Oklahoma and 5 from Texas.



We all had a great time and hope that our next reunion is sooner rather than later. 

Thanks, mom and dad for hosting!



Dancin' Darlin'



Madison has officially begun her dance career and is starting out with ballet and tap.  I'm pretty sure that the main draw to dance class is getting to wear a pretty pink leotard, pink tights and the dance shoes (especially the cool tap shoes), but she is super excited, nonetheless!




We weren't able to watch the dance class because the director told us it was too distracting for the girls.  Boo.  Guess the recital will be a big surprise for everyone!