Santa Claus came to town

They say that Christmas really is "for the kids" and I completely understand why now. Jackson has been so excited about Santa and Santa came through in a big way this year. We went to church on Christmas Eve with my family. The service was really good and Jackson was even better. Jared and I sat in amazement for an hour and 15 minutes as Jackson sat in "big church" and didn't make a peep. After church, we had dinner at Gigi and Boom's house and then got to open some presents.

Jackson was really good that night, but he did NOT want to take a picture with his sweet parents!! Guess he still is only 22 months old:)

Gigi and Jackson with me and Madison.

Such a great smile...love those dimples:)

The second present Jackson opened was a cookie jar. It was such a big hit that he didn't want to open anything else for the rest of the night! Whenever I'd hand him a present, he'd shake his head no and say, "Cookie!"

Santa worked very hard to put this Rock and Roll Pony together for Jackson. Good thing it was such a big hit!

Jackson's favorite presents from us were his belt and boots. Hmmm...think that has anything to do with him wanting to be just like daddy?

Playing on a toy from Gigi while wearing his new cowboy boots

We went over to the Hays' for dinner on Christmas night. Here's Jackson driving his new car from his Uncle Scott and Uncle Drew.

He got so excited about this that he ran into the Christmas tree and tipped over the car!! A minor crash, but it sure was funny.

After the car scare, he decided it was much safer to play with his new train set. Mamaw is showing him that his new Thomas the Train is also a flashlight...

BONUS!

The last toy of the night was the tried and true Sit and Spin. Jackson went in many a circle on this toy and loved every second of it.

One last pic of the gang before we all went home that night.

Thank you Gigi, Boom, Meme, Madison, Mamaw, Poppy, Scott, Andrew, Carolyn, Pa, Amy and Chris for a wonderful Christmas.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mamaw!

This is a little bit late, but better late than never. Last Saturday was Mamaw's (Jackson's grandma's new name) birthday. The whole gang was in town and we went out to dinner to celebrate.

Before dinner, Jackson helped Mamaw open her presents.

Then we all took a family photo for the Hays Christmas card. Don't worry, most of the group did change clothes before we went out, so we weren't the weird family in all white:) We had such a great time at Brio...if you haven't been there yet, check in out.

Merry Christmas

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day. Jackson certainly had the Christmas spirit. We had such a good time celebrating with both families.

Whenever he saw Santa or heard anyone say the word he hollered, "Ho Ho Ho!" He loves his Santa hat, too:)

Santa's Village

Friday night Gigi and Boom went to Santa's village with us. It was such a neat place and had lots of fun things to do. Jackson got to see Santa arrive in a fire truck, make an ornament, pet some baby animals and absolutely loved the whole night. Who am I kidding? I thought Santa's village was super fun, too.

Jackson and Gigi outside of Frosty the Snowman's house

Jackson meeting Frosty. He was such a nice snowman, but this is as close as Jackson would get to him.

In front of the fountain


Jackson petting all the goats. He's quite of fan of goats.


And he really liked the chickens, too:)

Fun with my cousin

Miss Madison came over to play yesterday and she and Jackson had a big ol' time. Mostly their time was spent destoying my house...truth be told, Jackson was the main culprit! Check out my house after they had been playing for a little while.

They managed to pull out virtually every toy that we have in the house in a matter of 10 minutes. I let them do this because I was trying to get all of my Christmas cards ready to mail. I think it was a win/win for all of us. They had a great time and I got my cards in the mail today!


Their expressions when I said "say cheese." Madison is such a natural and Jackson is the forever silly goose:)

I did manage to get one good picture of both of them.

Christmas Tree Shopping

This past weekend Jackson went to visit a Christmas tree farm with his grandma and grandpa. They had so much fun and took lots of pictures for me.

Grandpa, Jackson, Curious George, Bear and Santa...what a crew!

Look, mom! I cut down such a big tree!

Playing in the hay

such the outdoorsman

They even had a little area with animals for the kids to enjoy. I'm sure Jackson told this bunny "hop, hop, hop" about 32 times:)

Happy Birthday Hubby

Happy Birthday, Jared! Yesterday was a very big day in the Hays Household. It started out by us going on a breakfast date to Waffle House since it's one of Jared's favorite places.

The afternoon was filled with lounging around the house and lots of football. Here are my two guys enjoying some goldfish and cheering on the Cowboys.

For dinner we had my parents and Jared's parents over to the house. Both kids were really good--Miss Madison enjoyed eating her puffs while the rest of us chowed down on chicken pasta.

And now for the good stuff. Can you believe that Jared is 29?! I can't...probably because that means in only a few short months, I too will be just shy of 30. Holy moly.

Jackson was really excited about the birthday celebration all day and kept saying "Happy" and clapping his hands. He really liked singing Happy Birthday to Jared. So cute.

He was also a big help unwrapping presents this year. I cannot wait to see him dig in to all of his Christmas presents.