Spring Is Here!

As much as I love winter, I am glad spring is finally here! While Tom was in Nashville, Jackson and I spent some time at the park. He just loves the park, especially the slides. He also had a lot of fun on the swings. Before long, the baby swings will be too small for you, Jackson! I can't believe how much you've grown. It seems like just yesterday that I was worried that you'd fall out of the baby swing!

Jackson is a huge fan of glasses, which also includes swimming goggles. He found these on the shelf in my closet and decided that they were the "must-have" accessory for his church outfit. Thanks be to God for such a sweet little boy!

I'm not quite sure how appliances do this, but our washer and dryer decided to quit at about the same time. The dryer had been going out slowly for the last 2-3 months (each load took around 3 hours to dry and the timer completely quit). We were trying to wash our comforter over last weekend, which was to be the first of MANY loads. Suddenly, we heard a really bad sound, and the washer completely stopped agitating. We decided it wasn't worth it to have a service call and just went out to buy new ones. We still laugh at ourselves because we didn't research it at all. We also told ourself that we didn't need anything fancy - just the basics. As you can see - that didn't last long....

Jackson started Amazing Athletes earlier this year, and he absolutely loves it. His favorite sport is soccer. Tom got him his own mini soccer ball, and we bring it everywhere. (We even had to bring it in the car to hold on our Spring Break trip). He is so cute kicking the ball. I cannot wait until he starts playing on a team. I'm really looking forward to being a soccer mom at the fields on Saturday mornings!

I love this picture of Jackson and Tom cuddling on the couch reading together. Jackson is reading along.

I'm not quite sure why Jackson has this on his head. I came out in the living room, and found Jackson sitting here waiting to be found - apparently, he was hiding underneath the towel.

Road trip! For Spring Break, we made a quick trip over to Hot Springs to see John, Betty, and Ryan (plus Gramma and Papa). In the short time we were there, we had a full trip - lots of swimming, eating, horses, running, hiking, climbing and even more running! Jackson was pretty tired by the time we got home. We had such a good time. We missed you, Johnnie and Reese! We really hope you get to feeling better soon, Jenna.

Not even out of the QT parking lot, and he's already propped his feet up on the chair and opened up the strawberries. Jackson sure knows how to travel.
Jackson absolutely loved swimming in the hotel pool. You can't tell here, but the water was absolutely freezing! We ended up swimming three times in the short time we were there. We'll definitely be doing swimming lessons this spring/summer.
Jackson's new creation - ketchup on salad. He loved it. Actually, this was my mom's salad, and she let him have a few bites. Before she knew it, he had slyly pulled the salad plate in front of him so that it was all his! Thanks for "sharing", Gramma!After dinner, we went back to John and Betty's house. We had fun watching Jackson play with all of their toys - Betty just kept going back to the closet bring back more and more! He really had fun kicking the soccer ball around the living room. He then practices his acting by pretending to lift the extremely heavy soccer ball. He's so dramatic! Betty also taught him lots of new things, especially how to make the action figures fight with each other! You're such a good influence, Betty! When he woke up the next morning, he immediately made Buzz and Woody fight with each other.

The next day, we decided to fit in a little rock climbing and a hike before going to the races. Jackson was still a little small to do the climbing on his own - maybe next year!

Family pictures from the "summit"

Rock climbing with Papa.

It was so good to see you, Uncle John and Betty! Thanks for coming out with us to go rock climbing, hiking on our 7-mile hike, winning at the races and eating the best Italian food!
Hmm...are we all related? Even Jackson got in on the action!
What?? I can't hear you! He does this a lot lately....I'm trying not to take it personal.
Thumbs up!
We made it to the top (again)!
Starting off on Jackson's first 7 mile hike.
Going off the trail with Uncle John taking the lead.
Jackson wanted Papa to carry him back from the hike - I love listening to his giggle.

Here they come! I don't think he could have leaned out anymore without being on the track!
Horsies!! Jackson absolutely loved them this year.
Jackson quickly learned how to cheer on the horses. Watch how excited he gets! After the very first race when they went by him, he immediately shouted "Do it again! Do it again!"

Is it real? Wait...never mind. That's what you do with gold, not dollar bills...

I love the look of pure joy on his face. I sure wish I had his energy. I think Jackson must have run a mile during the day running back and forth to this wall. One of the spectators watching Jackson actually raced him one time, and then gave him a quarter when Jackson beat him. Jackson was pretty proud of it and had to put it in his pocket for safe keeping.
Look at that form!
Taking a breather in between runs.
Jackson's winning tickets.

Is this going to be Jenna and me when we get older??

Jackson's sharing some of his racing tips...
A quick hug for Ms. BeeBee.

Cheering on Dad's winning exacta - way to go, Dad!!

Betty won the award for most races with Jackson. Can you come home with us, Betty??Jackson kept pretending that he was stuck. Here you can see Jackson and Betty slowly wading through the sticky concrete. Jackson soon decided he wanted to race again. When he wanted to race, he'd crouch down and say "Ready, set...GO!" and run like the wind.

Doing the bunny hop in between races - thank you for being such a good sport, Betty! Really, can you come live with us?

We had such a great day at the races!
For those who are wondering, we are standing in front of the BEST Italian Restaurant - Little Italy in Glenwood, AR. Papa highly recommends the Salmon ModoMio (I did that just so you'd remember for next time, Dad), though we'll have to take his word for it - he wouldn't share!
It was so good to see you, John and Betty (or Unc and BeeBee). We'll be back!

We started out the week pretty rough, but it ended great! On Sunday night around 2:30, Jackson caught the stomach bug and got sick in our bed. I felt so sorry for him! He really had it bad. I ended up doing 3 loads of laundry between 2:30 and 8am...I did more that night than I had done all week! On Monday, he was still pretty sick during most of the morning. We thought he was better that night, but one bite of chicken noodle soup proved otherwise, so he stayed home with Tom again on Tuesday. Sounds like they had a great day cuddling together on the couch before going to run a few errands and get their hair cut (after he was better, of course). By Tuesday night, he was back to himself. Jackson was so excited to go see his friends at school by Wednesday morning. As I was getting ready, he kept coming in to say "let's go! Where are your shoes?" When we got to school, he ran to Ms. Rebecca and said "I'm not sick. I'm better. I did it!" He was so proud of himself for getting better. We're so glad, Jackson!

On Friday, Tom flew down to Nashville for the weekend, so Jackson and I had the weekend to ourselves. I decided to spoil him a little while Tom was gone. I always remember how whenever my dad would go out of town, my sister, my mom and I would all go to Western Sizzlin, get a steak to bring home and watch it in front of the TV or eat on our little table downstairs. That was always a fun memory - not that we wanted you to go, dad! So, after doing a little shopping at Target, we went and got ice cream at Maggie Moos. We had such a good night!

On Saturday, Johnnie and Reese came over to play. It was so fun watching Jackson and Reese together. They had a lot of fun in the ball pit and the jump.

Coloring time! Jackson did such a good job sharing with Reese.
Reese loves to read. Jackson wasn't far behind in the queue to read on my lap.

I think Jackson may have a future as a hairdresser. Lately he loves to pretend to give you a haircut and give you a really nice 'do. Reese was very patient. I love Reese's face in the 2nd pic - is he ever going to stop brushing my hair??

The finished product:

Both of them loved cooking in the kitchen. We went to Baja Jacks today for lunch. Jackson had to bring his purse with him....and had to carry it into the restaurant. He seemed quite proud of it.

Sometimes I really do wonder - does Jackson take after Johnnie more than me? Reese didn't quite know what to make of all of the hugs and just stood there with her arms at her sides. Jackson sure loves you, Reese!

Reese and Johnnie wore Jackson out. He wouldn't go to sleep unless he could wear his pirates hat. He even came out of the room after his nap wearing it!

We're so glad you came over, Jenna and Reese! We had a lot of fun. When the kids were down, we had a Sudoku rematch. All of the training I had done since Christmas paid off, though I choked in the last game when we were tied 3-3. Jenna won the last game....but I'm still not giving up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I'll always remember how Dad used to get all of his girls flowers - Jenna and I used to each get our own roses in our own little vase. You were so sweet to us, Dad! We love you!

Jackson's class had their Valentine's party on Friday. In this class, everyone has an assigned spot - and they all know exactly where they're supposed to sit.

One of the kids in Jackson's class gave out sheets of Disney and Cars stickers. Almost all of them chose to give each other their stickers rather than keeping them for themselves. Here Jackson is giving Joseph his last sticker.

Tom got attached by the dinosaurs during the party. I absolutely love Tom's faces as he plays with the kids.

After quite a bit of sugar from the Valentine's party, Jackson and his other buds had a blast jumping up and down in the loft area.

I tried to get a few good pics of Jackson and Nash - it's difficult with two kids!

Cupid went a little overboard this year, but I justify it by saying it's all educational....right? Jackson got several books, including a Backyardigans Tag Junior book from Gramma and Papa. He just loves those Tag Junior books; he's read his Curious George and Backyardigans book enough (already) that he's already unlocked some coloring pages online. He loved coloring those, too. He also got an ABC puzzle, which he's probably not quite ready for. I have to admit, the letter are shaped so weird that even I was having trouble for a short bit! :) He also got quite a few stickers, which are now everywhere on him. Jackson particularly likes showing them off on his face and the front and back of his hands.

We had another movie night this weekend. Jackson gets so excited - it's the one night where we don't have to struggle to brush his teeth or take a bath! This week we watched Up - we were not impressed. It was a bit of a downer. Jackson still liked it, though. Here he is getting all ready for the movie to start.

Here he's watching the movie in his Valentine's Day glasses from Ms. Melissa:

Nash and his big brother, Cooper, came over to play on Saturday. Jackson was so excited for Nash to come over. He even helped pick up! As soon as Jackson saw Nash at the door, he started shrieking. It was so cute watching them play together. Jackson was showing Nash everything. Here is Jackson pushing Cooper and Nash in his car....

Nash taught Jackson how to eat the ice. Jackson looks so pleased with his new skill.

They also had a lot of fun playing with the trains. I just love watching Jackson play with his friends.

They had a lot of fun together. The morning was spent playing with trains, coloring on the easel, playing with balls and lots of jumping in the Jump and ball pit. When Nash had to put on his coat, Jackson started getting really upset. He kept asking me to put on his coat so that he could go with Nash. For the next five minutes after Nash left, Jackson was wailing and asking Nash to come back or asking to go with Nash.

For the rest of the weekend, Jackson just keeps asking if Nash can come over again. This morning I asked Jackson if he had good dreams and what he dreamt about. His reply: "Nash. He come over to play again." We'll do it again soon, I promise! Thanks for bringing the boys over, Allison!

We're big into playing pretend. Tonight he was pretending to go shopping, but he had to find his purse before he could leave. I found an old purse of mine and gave it to him. Jackson filled the purse with his phone and some pens, grabbed his keys and turned to say "Good bye. I'll be back." He then turned, walked down the hall and opened up the door to the garage as he pretended to go to the car! Guess we'll have to be locking that door when we get home...or at least make sure the garage door is closed. You're growing up so fast, Jackson!

We found our camera!

I finally found our camera (hidden in a DVD sleeve box at work), so we finally have a few pictures again! It's been a good week. I got my big presentation (at least the first round) out of the way. Jackson is loving having Tom home and gets so excited to go see Daddy at the end of the day. All in all - it's been a great week! I can't get over how much Jackson loves his new class. The other day when I came to pick him up, he and Max were lying on the ground. His friend Julia was covering both of them with blankets and they were pretending to sleep. Jackson called out "Mommy, I'm a bedbug!" and "Look at me, I'm sleeping!". It was cute when Julia kept covering them up and then gave Jackson a pillow to sleep on. It took me over 5 minutes to get him up and ready to go home. He didn't want to leave!

Valentine's day is coming right around the corner, so we went and picked out Valentine's for his class. It was so cute watching him try to decide between McQueen or Buzz and Woody. Ultimately, I bought both. They both had little washable tattoos with them. I thought it'd be cute to put in his mailbox throughout the year.

On Saturday night, we decided to have a movie night. We rented Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and had a chocolate pudding treat. Jackson loves all of the animals in this movie. When we first gave him chocolate pudding, he kept saying "don't want it. Want cereal". What kid wants raisin bran over chocolate pudding with cool whip and bananas?? After he had a couple of bites, he turns to Tom and says "delicious!" Where did he learn that? As you can see, Jackson ended up really enjoying the pudding!

After the movie, he decided to try and hide in the cabinets.

Jackson is really starting to get into dressing up. We haven't got to the point yet where he's putting on the clothes, but he's taking them all out of the bin, telling us what each one is. In the last few days, he's really started liking his cowboy boots. He's so proud that he can put them on by himself!

Here are a few pictures of Jackson painting some more pictures at his easel. And yes, I forgot to mail the previous ones! Don't be offended if you didn't get one. All my fault!

I love how intent Jackson is while trying to paint in this lower area. Have a great week!

Congratulations, Dad!

Congratulations on your retirement, Dad! We had a party for Dad at the Alumni Center, which turned out great. Over 90 people showed up and I think we laughed all night. Mom created a Reader's Theater for us to go through - she is so creative! Jackson did really well that night - he was there from 4:30 - almost 11 and didn't break down! We all had such a great time. Congratulations, Dad! Enjoy your (partial) retirement! We haven't seen our camera since the party, though, so for the time being, we don't have any pictures to share. Bear with us until we either find it or get something else.

I knew it had to happen someday, and it finally happened. Jackson said his first bad word at 2 1/2. He had just gotten up from his nap, and I was watching Julie and Julia, which up until then had been curse word free. He laid there watching it for a while when there was a verbal fight on TV...and out came the b word. Jackson looked over at Tom and said "Tom, I'm a B!&'*H" and just kept saying it over and over. It's very hard not to smile because he does say it so cute...but still. Finally we started turning it around and said "Jackson, you're not a bridge. You're Jack. You're not a bridge." So now, he thinks it's a bridge instead of the real word...crisis averted for now. I just hope he doesn't go back to school and start saying it.

He's really paying attention to everything we're saying. This weekend we were driving out in the snow and ice, and like usual, people were going way too fast and tailgating. Tom was getting irritated and said (fairly quietly) "Get off my ass, buddy" and the next thing we know, we hear from the backset "Get off my ass, buddy". Oh my goodness. We quickly changed the subject. We're hoping he doesn't remember that.

On a good note, Jackson is becoming even sweeter - if that's even possible! He likes to play games where he purposefully changes the names. Sometimes he'll say he's Daddy, and I'm Jackson. After that goes on for a while, he'll shake his head and say "Silly Mommy" or "Silly Jack". And he still burst out in the shortened version song of "I love ___, he's small!" Sometimes when he's getting ready to go to sleep, we'll have to sing that for everything surrounding him - pillows, blankets, Woody, Buzz, Quackers, and Petey. The other night, he laid down and put Quackers, Buzz and Woody on his head...just like we used to do with our soft pillows. I wonder where he got that?

Jackson is so smart. He's really getting into reading books and is starting to calm down enough to actually finish some of them! He's also learned how to use the computer. We have two Jackson games on our computer - Elmo and Big Bird. He has figured out how to open both from the main page of the computer, so every once in a while, we'll lose track of him, and then we'll here the Elmo's World song. He has totally figured out how to go from screen to screen and find the game that he wants to play. Amazing! It's so cute watching him get excited when he gets an answer right. Before long, he'll be teaching us how to use our computer. Starts early!

Jackson absolutely loves his new class. I think it helps that Nash is in his room again. He likes to climb the stairs to his new class in the morning...and then take the elevator down at night. He has even taken me through the back way to his class, and he didn't seem lost at all. Thank goodness he doesn't have my sense of direction! As we're walking up the stairs, he starts peeling off his jacket. Once it's off, he tosses it to me and races into the room to be with Nash. The teachers actually have to ask Jackson to tell me goodbye! The teachers do a FABULOUS job of writing notes throughout the day about what he did that day. It's so nice to be able to ask him more about the books he read, the theme of the week, playing in the home living area with Nash, Cort and his other friends, or playing on the train outside on the playground. It's wonderful!

Jackson's been painting up a storm lately. He's made pictures for everyone, so I'll be sending you soon in the mail. He has a story for each one of them. He'll have to tell you about it in person, though.

Keep your fingers crossed that we find our camera soon! There have been so many times in the past few weeks that we wished we had it to capture a cute picture.