Mack Daddy Hays

Jackson has always been partial to cute little girls, but he really showed his skills with the ladies today. We went to Peter Piper Pizza for his friend Cason's second birthday party. Out of the blue, Jackson just decided to attach himself to one of Cason's relatives. Her name is Faith, she is 4 years old (yes, 3 years older than him) and my son was completely smitten with her. The pictures really speak for themselves...

This is how I found Jackson. Such a sweet little boy, giving Miss Faith a good hug.

When she tries to back away, though, Jackson really doesn't want to let go!

Faith gives in and decides to humor him a little while longer. Awww:)

Then all of a sudden Jackson decides that both of them need to go somewhere. Logically, he grabs her shirt, not her hands, to take her to this new place.

He tried the pulling for a little bit, then decided that pushing her would work better! Look at how he's grinning...who really knows what goes on in his head sometimes. He was really happy with the whole situation, though. Too cute:)

Sweet Cousins

Jackson and his cousin have known each other for all of 6 days now, but they have progressed tremendously! Here's Jackson checking out Madison the first night they met.

The first day Jackson didn't even realize that Madison was a real, live baby. The second day, though, she started crying when we went to visit her at the hospital and that tipped him off. I was trying to change her diaper and since she doesn't like to get out of her blankets, this was not a popular decision. Jackson was in the other room, but as soon as he heard her crying he came running. He started crying and wrapped both arms around my leg! It was quite a scene.

We've been to visit them a few times since they came home from the hospital. The first time, Jackson did not like me getting anywhere near Madison. One time I was walking over to hand someone a bottle to feed her and he got in between us, pushed my shoulder and grunted. I think the grunt meant ,"Whoa! What do you think you're doing, Missy?" A little later that night, I was holding her while sitting on the couch. Jackson climbed up me, wrapped both arms around my neck and got his point across very effectively..."this is MY mommy!"

Yesterday was so much better, though! He even kind of gave her a kiss. It was really sweet. He tried to touch her gently, and that didn't so much work out, but he no longer went crazy every time I touched her. I am so excited! Now maybe we can be more of a help, rather than a hinderance, when we go visit:) Yay, Jackson!

Miss Madison Reese is here!

Madison Reese arrived yesterday morning at 10:13 am. Colleen went into the hospital at 10:00 the night before to be induced. When she got to the hospital, though, she found out that she was already in labor...she was dilated to 5 1/2 cm and was having contractions 3 minutes apart! Obviously, the contractions weren't too bad yet! My mom called me a little before midnight and told me I should probably go ahead and come since things were progressing much faster than anyone anticipated. We were up there all night and Miss Madison just didn't feel like it was quite time. She arrived the next morning, but made the delivery very easy on her mama. My sister only pushed for 23 mintues! She was amazing. Without further fanfare....here is my precious neice.

Madison was 7 lbs 5 oz, 19 3/4 inches long. She has a full head of brown hair and a dimple on each side, just like Colleen. She's doing great and only gets upset when you unwrap her from the blankets. She likes to be toasty and warm!

Aunt Crystal right after Madison arrived yesterday morning.

Uncle Jared with Jackson and Madison. Doesn't he look so good with two little ones?! I think so, but we're still not going to jump into anything just yet!

We were all wondering what Jackson's reaction would be to Madison. I don't think that he even knew she was a real person since he never heard her make a peep. Maybe he'll figure things out today when we go visit!


Jackson and Madison with Colleen. My sister looks SO much like my mom in this picture! Jackson looks HUGE compared to his tiny little cousin.

Little Evel Knievel

Jackson has turned into quite the little daredevil the past few days. I know that a trip to the ER is definitely in our future, I'm just hoping for the best at this point! He loves to climb on anything, especially things that are unsteady. It all started last week when he drug his high chair tray over to the living room and set it on the floor. He then stood on top of it and tried to "surf." This was really funny because he happened to be wearing a polo, shorts and sandals, so he totally looked like a little surfer dude. Anyway, now he has graduated to much more substantial heights. Just take a look at his antics from this morning...

"Surfing" in the rocking chair.

When I tell him to sit down, this is as far as he will go--the squat position. Then it's right back up again!

Moving on over to scale the zebra chair. He actually fell off of this yesterday, but it doesn't seem to be registering with him today. Oh my, I really thought that made an impression.

Climbing from our leather living room chair onto a small end table. Pretty pleased with himself, as you can tell.

Then over to the other (much less stable) end table. He did this yesterday, too, and almost gave me a heart attack! Notice he's still got that huge smile on his face. Hopefully he'll find something else that makes him this happy and we can move on to less dangerous things. Jackson, for my sake, please stop being so crazy!!

Time to Celebrate

These past few weeks have been SUPER DUPER busy. I honestly do not think we could have packed anything else into them! The festivities all started on Thursday, March 27th, when my sweet husband took me to see Chris Rock. It was my birthday present from him and we had a great time. The next night we celebrated with our families at Carrabbas and had some seriously delicious food. A few of the waitors even serenaded me with Happy Birthday in Italian...at least that's what they said they were singing! It's not like any of us would have known the difference:)


Jackson got his first taste of ordering off the menu at Carrabbas. He was so funny. I turned my head for maybe 2 seconds and looked back to see him shoving half a grilled chicken breast into his mouth! The look on his face was like "what? I'm hungry, lady!"


Here he is back at our house--we all got to have some Champagne cake and I opened presents. Thank you Mom, Dad, Jared, Jackson, Warren , Meme, Aunt Ruth, Colleen and Trey for a great night.

The next night was my actual birthday--I am now officially in my late twenties!! The big 28. We went to Mi Cocina, celebrated with friends, and drank some very good Mambo Taxis:)

The next day was my sister's baby shower. She's due in a few weeks, but will probably have the baby by Monday. I'll keep everyone posted. The shower was really nice and we got some good pictures of the three Raines girls out back.

Onto the next weekend--Jenny and Dusty's big wedding. Here's us at The Iron Cactus with The Pointers and soon-to-be Webbs. The rehearsal dinner was fantastic--very yummy fajitas and such a neat restaurant.

Jared and me at the reception, and yes, I did do the airbrush tan! It was my first time, and I must admit I was a little apprehensive, but I'm so glad it turned out well. Way to go, babe, on matching my dress. (He claims it was an accident, but I think he secretly planned it)

Mom and Dad came out for the festivities, too. Doesn't my mom look so good?! She's a hot little number! Dad, you're a lucky man, but you probably already knew that.

We all had SUCH a good time at the wedding. All of us, even our husbands, danced till we couldn't dance any more! It was a lot of fun celebrating with such great friends. Hard to believe I've known Jenny since we were five and all of us girls have been friends since 9th grade. Love you girls!

The last 10 minutes

Sometimes I feel like I live with a crazy, wild man. His name is Jackson and he is ALL boy! I decided to document the last 10 minutes of activity in our house this morning. Here's Jackson with his new tunnel. We played in one at a neighbor's house the other day and he loved it, so of course, I went to Target and got one for our house.

He's checking it out from the side

Thought that was a little boring, so he decided to tackle it instead.


Crawled through it a time or two...

Then began lifting it into the air like it was a huge slinky. Notice the "grrr" look on his face. It's appropriate that he's wearing his little dinosaur pj's this morning.

This is how I found him after I walked less than 10 steps to get the camera--he's so proud of himself. He recently began climbing on things, but usually doesn't stand up. "Oh my" is all I can say to this new trick. I'm in such trouble...

At least he knows how to get down correctly--I'm waiting for him to try to dive off, though. It'll come soon, I'm sure.

Back to the tunnel--he was crawling towards me at this point--very pleased that he "got me."

Moving on to the next toy--he no longer enjoys regular play with toys. He'd much rather see if he can move or shove them over. He does this with the stroller, chairs, vacuum cleaner...etc. After he knocked over this toy a few times he moved on.

Which brings us into the closet under the stairs, where he went next. Jackson now goes in there on a regular basis. Not because there are lots of toys...

But because the real fun can be had playing with our nice, new vacuum cleaner! He LOVES this thing, y'all! It's extreme love, that's for sure. The other day he played with it for 45 minutes. I didn't say a word to him, he just pushed it all around the house, took off the attachments, opened up the compartment that holds the bag, pushed it over on its side, whatever he could think to do, he did.

I'm worn out just trying to document his antics. If you're wondering where he is right now, no worries, he's contained in his crib. He was playing nicely in the closet for a little while, but then I found him chewing on the vacuum cleaner cord, so that had to end. I put him on his little train and gave him a ride thinking that would entertain him for the 10 minutes or so that I wanted to work on this post, but alas, it only worked for 20 seconds. He marched out of the study and into the dining room and began pulling out all kinds of candles and such from a hutch. So, I had to resort to the crib--all I can say is thank GOODNESS he hasn't figured out how to get out of it...yet!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day with your family. We sure did! We began the day by all three of us going to church. This was quite the monumental outing, being that Jackson has never been to a nursery or anything of the sort. I was so nervous that we'd be paged within the first two minutes and I'd have to miss the whole sermon! He did GREAT, though. As far as we could tell he just played the whole hour and didn't even miss us--this is such a big break-through! Way to go, little man:) After church and a nap for Jackson, we headed over to my in-laws for a delicious lunch. I was in charge of dessert.

Here's me with one of the two bunny cakes I made for the day. I got the idea from a friend's mom (thanks, Diane and Stephanie) and was so excited that both cakes turned out good. I must confess, I felt a little like Martha Stewart:)

The three of us in the Hays' backyard.

Jackson playing with some spoons and sitting on his Great Grandpa Hays' lap.

Jackson and Jared looking for eggs in the backyard. Most of the time Jackson insisted on carrying the basket, even though it was pretty big and spilled a lot. He got the hang of the hunt very quickly and was soon searching the yard for more eggs to put in his basket.

After another nap, we went over to my parents' house for dinner. They had some very fun toys waiting for Jackson. Here he is with one of his favorites--the Batman Fourwheeler. He drove it all around their house--I couldn't believe it, he was a little Mario Andretti. We can't wait to go back and let him ride it again:) Thanks Gran Gran and Boom Paw!