Ay Caramba!

Party time (again!) at our house. This past weekend we hosted a couples shower for our good friends, Jenny & Dusty. We're so exicted that they are getting married soon! We had a great time at our little fiesta and really enjoyed seeing everyone.

The hostesses (Taylor, Me and Megan) with Jenny. Isn't Jenny's dress awesome? It's actually the same dress that her mom wore on her honeymoon--so cool.

The welcoming committee! Price and Jared were in charge of greeting people at the door and giving them a delicious margarita. They embraced their roles and did a really good job! The ritas probably helped a little bit with that, but hey, whatever works!

The Pointers, Hays and soon-to-be Webbs.

The Newlywed game contestants. We had a tie for first and a tie for second--everyone did really well, which is a good sign, I think. Taylor and Price were the game show hosts and kept things quite entertaining:)

Jackson helped us clean up the morning after the party. Here he is with lots of crepe paper and is trying to put it in the trashcan. In reality, Jackson was not so much of a good helper! As we were cleaning up, he was pulling out all the pots and pans, pot holders, cookbooks and utensils he could reach. So we pretty much cleaned up twice!



He drug some more crepe paper all the way into the kitchen with his left foot. I was actually really impressed that he was able to walk so well with all that behind him!

Sit, Jackson

Last night when Jared got home I was still cooking dinner. He went over to the pantry to get a snack and found some Nilla Wafers. These are some of Jackson's favorite snacks and apparantly the dogs like them, too. I turned around from the stove and saw Jared playing "sit" with our two dogs and son. It was too funny of a scene that I just had to run and get the camera!

Jared had to be really careful when giving Jackson his snack because Sadie loves her some cookies and will just snatch them away.

I bet all three of them would have sat there for half an hour as long as the nilla wafers kept coming!




On a completely different note, we got Jackson a new swing for his birthday. It's hanging from the awning in our backyard and is so much fun.

When it was nice out the other day Jackson got to swing in it a couple of times. Since it's close to the grill, I even put him in it while I grilled some chicken! Worked out perfectly--he was having a much better time not being stuck in his walker and there was no chance of him falling in the pool, either!

Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Our baby turned 1 yesterday...yes, that's right, he's already a whole year old! I don't know how it happened so fast! Thank you so much to all our friends and family who came over to celebrate with us. He loves all of his new toys, books and clothes...y'all were way too generous:)

Here's the oh-so-delicious monkey cake. Seriously good cake here, folks. We still have some left and it's going to take all of my will power not to eat it for dessert every night this week!

Jackson helping me open his presents--this lasted for the first one or two presents, then he went on and started playing with his friends and toys again.

Kids at the party--Jackson (notice he does not have a bday hat on--tore it off the second I put it on his head), Hunter, Ava, Presley & Judah. Presley's little sister, Teagan, was also here--she was still sleeping at this point, though.

Jackson diving into his own little cake. He was pretty funny about this whole experience. I don't think he ate any of it...just got all the frosting on his hands and was kind of weirded out by it! He did eat cake later, though, with his Uncle Andrew and Gramma Hays and thoroughly enjoyed it:)

Afer everyone had gone home, Jared and I gave Jackson his presents from us. Here he is opening up his green alligator flip phone.

This cracked me up for two reasons. 1. He doesn't even know there is a bow on his head. 2. He is eating the wrapping paper and making a face like "ewww, this is so gross...why is it still in my mouth?"

Big Smiles for Valentine's Day!

"Get ready ladies, here I come!"

Wearing the onesie my mom got him for Valentine's Day. It says "Born 2 Break Hearts." So adorable!

Jackson's smile lights up my world every time.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderfully sweet little boy. Happy Valentine's Day to my two favorite guys--Daddy Hays and Baby Jackson (I know, he's not really a "baby" anymore, but he is to me!)

This past weekend our friends from Alabama came to visit. My Dad went skiing with Ronnie and Betty spent the week with my Mom. They all came over to see us on Saturday. Here's Jackson smiling perfectly for the camera--I think it's been months since he's done this, so I was very excited:) Betty, I think you may need to come to Texas more often!

Mama and her sweet boy!

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day. Ours has already started out very nicely. Jackson let me put him back in his crib around 7, which allowed me to make breakfast for us. Jared and I enjoyed a very rare morning together before he left for work--it was really nice! Both of us love some good pillsbury cinnamon rolls, eggs and OJ:) We're going out on Saturday night to celebrate V Day. My sweet husband has even made reservations and is keeping it a secret from me. I'm so excited! I love surprises and date nights, so this is going to be doubly special.

Big Playdate

We had our first big playdate this afternoon at our house and it was so much fun. Four of my friends from high school all have kids very close to Jackson's age, so I thought it would be neat to get them all together. Here's Jackson being very sweet to Miss Keeley. I think he really has an affinity for little girls--he was actually being gentle here and kind of hugging her. Awwww:)

Here's Hunter, Jackson and Keeley all playing with the same toy and miraculously all looking at the camera, or at least in the same general direction!

I think this was right after Jackson grabbed or touched Hunter's shirt--he was not too happy about it, to say the least!

Jackson took Monica's (Judah's mom) bag, put the strap over his shoulder and crawled all the way to Judah. This was after he discovered Judah's cup inside the bag and began pouring juice everywhere! Maybe he was taking Judah his juice:) I wish I would have gotten a picture of him with the bag over his shoulder--it was pretty funny.

I was really impressed with how well all the kiddos played together today. Our second part of the playdate was to go to Breckinridge Park. I was kind of expecting him to fall asleep since he'd only had a very short nap today, but I held out a little hope that he would be able to fight through. Alas, he could not and was sacked out in the car by the time we drove all of 5 minutes to the park! I even got him out of the car (still sleeping on my chest) and hung out for a few minutes to see if he'd wake up. No luck, so we just loaded up and headed home. My friend Taylor met us there with her little girls--I know Jackson is very sad he didn't get to play with Presley and Teagan. We'll have to have another park day soon!

Afternoon in the park

We took Jackson to the park yesterday and he got to play on the jungle gym for the first time. We started out with the kiddie swing and he thought that was pretty fun.

Then we moved on to the small slides and he had a total blast! He must of had 30 slides just on this blue slide. He'd slide down and then turn around to climb back up. Sometimes he went frontwards...

and other times he went backwards--lovin' it all! I think the huge smile pretty much says it all:)

For our finale, we decided to tackle the big blue slide. I wondered if it would scare him at all since it was really tall. No worries, though, the kid came down smiling from ear to ear. We had so much fun that we're going back today before the Super Bowl starts. Hope everyone has a great weekend--get outside...it's way too pretty to stay indoors:)

The Little Gym

Jackson hanging out by the beam

Judah playing with a ball near the pie shaped mat (the mat is a reference in this post)




Both boys hanging from the bars...notice how happy Jackson is here.

So we had our first class at The Little Gym yesterday. We had visited there once before for Judah's birthday. It was such a cute and fun place that I decided to take Jackson for a class. For the most part, he had fun. He loved ringing the bells, participating in "head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes..., " playing with the balls, practicing walking, running and jumping (all with my help, of course), popping bubbles and pounding the floor to the beat of the music (no worries, not a temper tantrum, yet anyway). The only part that really scared him was performing tricks in front of the rest of the class. The first time a few kids went before us--all rolled down the pie shaped mat very nicely. When it was our turn I handed Jackson to the instructor. She got him about half-way through the forward roll (he was screaming like a mad man by this time) and then he just flipped around and ended up landing on his stomach! Impressive, J! The next trick was to hang on the bars, swing a few times and then drop down. All 6 kids went in front of us this time. All 6 grabbed the bar, swang for a few seconds, then dropped down with smiles on their faces. It was our turn...we approached the bar, I held him up to it to grab and all I got were loud screams in my face! In fact, he never got to hang on the bars because he was screaming so hard. It was a little embarassing, but what are ya gonna do? What's even funnier is that no less than five minutes before, he had done both of those tricks with me, no problem. Guess he's not quite the performer just yet. I'm thinking that all the cute little girls in his class made him nervous:) We're going back next week, so I'll keep y'all updated on his progress!