It's George Lightyear (Buzz's big brother)!

Jackson made it through his first week in his new class. The teachers are great! They expect the kids to be more independent, such as sending them on their own to the bathroom (in the classroom) with the teacher there by to help if needed. We soon learned that Jackson was going in there by himself, taking off his diaper, and then washing his hands - without putting on a new one. So funny! So, he's been wearing big boy underwear over his pullups. I think Ms. Angelique, Ms. Kathryn, and Ms. Kiva will help us get rid of the pullups!

This week they were learning about teddy bears. Each child was supposed to bring one from home, and we realized that Jackson really only had the 1 teddy bear that Rob and Stacie got him when he was born. We decided that it was time to take Jackson to build-a-bear this weekend.

They had a really cute little story about what to do with the heart to make sure that the bear "nose" you:

At the washing station, Jackson was so focused on getting him clean. He made sure he spent plenty of time in the bath and did a great job combing the bear's fur.

We had planned to just do the bear, but then we found a Buzz Lightyear costume...and you know we can't resist that!

Meet George Lightyear (Buzz's big brother):

Jackson loves the Curious George books. We read at least a couple of stories each day. It amazes me how much he remembers what we read! This weekend, Jackson decided to read to us instead:

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

It's been the summer of birthdays on this blog, hasn't it? We've had such a good time celebrating them! Tom was at DCI finals in Indianapolis, so he wasn't able to come unfortunately. (The Cavaliers did great and finished 2nd! Congratulations on a great summer and the fan favorite show! Click here for a portion of their show.) Jackson and I packed up and headed to Stillwater on Friday night, where Jackson played with Reese and Libby and I joined my parents and their card group playing Spades. We had so much fun! I'd still like a recount - Dewey beat me by 1 point. Steve and Cathy brought milkshakes for everyone to celebrate Mom and Dad's birthday's, and Denise made homemade cupcakes. So good! Denise also led Mom around the living room in a rousing birthday march that normally is done with her 1-2 year olds at the daycare. We're truly impressed, Denise! (and you're a good sport, Mom!)

On Saturday, we stopped in at the first weekly community breakfast at the Fellowship Hall. What a wonderful event! Between this event this weekend and a recent blog post on one of the blogs I follow, I was reminded just how fortunate we truly are, and we should be giving prayers of thanksgiving for all that we have. Thank you, God, for the roof over our heads, the abundance of food and our loving family that supports us, celebrating the good times and supporting one another in difficult times.

This was definitely a weekend of celebrations! We also went to the city pool, where Jackson and Reese had a blast sliding down the slide into the water. Reese is fearless when it comes to water. It was almost like she wanted to keep her head in the water! Later that evening, we had a great dinner at Freddie Paul's. After we put the kids down to bed (or at least tried to - Jackson kept getting up...after a while, he seemed to be playing a little game to see how much he could get away with!), we played Spades some more. Mom and Dad did really well until 1 bad hand....and then there just wasn't enough Brief Nudity (Blind Nil for those who don't know the code name) to even things up! We finally had to make the rule that we would stop when they made it back to at least zero. We were a little tired that next morning!

On Sunday, we all went to church. Jackson and Reese were soo good! Jackson was quietly coloring throughout the service and appeared to be listening to the sermon and the music - he'd nod his head at appropriate places. Afterwards, they had a church brunch where Jackson and Reese played with the other kids - Jackson even shared his Buzz and Woody. thanks for sharing, Jackson!

Here are some pictures from the birthday weekend:

Jackson painted several pictures for their birthdays.

Jackson picked out a (big) card for Gramma and Papa....of course, it was the loudest one of all of them! He was so proud of it. He kept showing us his card and opening/closing it so that it would play.

Jackson and Reese bought Papa a tractor book. I love these pictures - so joyful!
Reese was insistent that Gramma needed some ice, but she was having trouble getting it in her hands from the cup - it was really slippery!
Reese decided her mom needed some ice, too.
Jackson decided he wanted to be a photographer, too, and started taking pictures of everyone with Johnnie's camera. Some got into it a little more than others....that's quite the unique pose, Johnnie!

Reese wanted in on the action, too! I wonder how many nose prints Jenna ended up with on the front lens!

Jackson and Reese took a bath together at Johnnie's. She had some really cool body paints (that were actually soap) that they both loved. It reminded me of the dobbers that we'd use when we played bingo with Grandma up in Iowa!

Uncle Casey recorded himself reading some books so that he could "read" to Reese at night. Jackson was enthralled with this and sat so attentive through the book. It was even better when he realized that Casey was reading his favorite books - Curious George!

Jackson is obsessed with Woody and Buzz lately. He's been wearing his Woody hat everywhere...even to sleep at night!

More painting...
Jackson was so excited to come back to the Kiddie Park. He had a little skip in step pretty much everywhere that he went.

Even with all of the other rides, the horses are still his favorite. He really wanted the orange one this time (orange and red are his latest favorite colors), but he realized too late that it didn't have the rope to ring the bells. Needless to say, he rode the green horse for the rest of the night!

There was a couple of clowns walking around the park that night. I wondered how he'd react to them. He seemed to like the clown that was handing out stickers.

Jackson had so much fun on the roller coaster. Look at that smile! I was surprised that I actually got a video of them riding the coaster - they're close to the middle.

Time for an ice cream break! It was so hot that night - at least in the upper 90's.
Jackson had difficulty getting the plane to go up and down this time...which actually was ok with me - seemed safer that way! He didn't seem to mind too much.
Jackson had become really quiet, so I started looking for him. Here's what I found when I walked into our room:
Playing dinosaurs with Nash and Max. I love watching them play together.
Crowding around the computer to play with Elmo.
Best friends are great, aren't they?
We'll miss you, Ms. Rebecca (and Ms. Teresa)!
Thank you, Ms. Melissa! You always wrote the best notes each day to let us know what (and who) he played with during the day.
It's been a great year in Foundations! We're sad to leave but also excited to see what's in store in his new class. We're so glad that all of his friends will still be together.

A slideshow of the pictures from the last two weeks is below. I tried a different type of slideshow. Let me know when one works better (either this one or the flickr ones in previous posts).

Have I mentioned we love our new camera? I LOVE taking pictures with it! Have a great week!

Happy Birthday Tom!

Happy Birthday, Tom! Since Tom was going to be away on his actual birthday, we celebrated the weekend before. Tom's parents came up, and they bought him his favorite turtle ice cream cake to celebrate.

Earlier that week, we had been looking through our recent pictures that we had printed out, and we realized that there was a big difference between the pictures on our camera and other's cameras. We started doing some shopping online to figure out what we should buy, and I liked the idea of getting one in between the point and shoot and the digital SLR (I was too scared to make the plunge!). If you're ever shopping for cameras, we found a great site that compares them (www.imaging-resource.com). They take the same picture with each camera in their lab, so you can compare how the cameras perform with color, textures, prints, etc. We saved each of those pictures on our computer to compare, and it was amazing to see the difference. It really made it easy to narrow down our choices.

Unfortunately, the two we really liked aren't usually sold in stores. Best Buy had one of them, so we went there to take a look. The guy who helped us knew a ton about the cameras and he ended up selling us the Sony NEX-3, which had just come out the week before. All of that research, and we ended up going with his recommendation! It's a digital SLR, but it's so much easier than I thought it would be! I love taking pictures with it! Happy Birthday, Tom! Glad you had a birthday so that we had an excuse to buy a new camera!

Jackson has totally figured out how the computer works. Whenever we can't find him, he's usually in the office. He has learned how to launch Big Bird by himself! The other day, I realized I must not have closed the internet after uploading some pictures to Walgreens - I found Jackson clicking through all of the pictures of himself. He somehow clicked on a screen where he could order all sorts of puzzles, mugs, etc with his picture on it. Fortunately, he doesn't know our credit card number (yet)!
I love watching Jackson play!

Playing with Woody and making him fly. Hint: you have to press the button on his holster (1st picture) to get Woody to fly (2nd picture).

The first of many soccer goals in our future.

Playing with our new camera while playing outside with the water table. I can't get over how much crisper our pictures are now!
You can just see the wheels in his head turning, figuring out how the water makes the wheel turn.
Cooking breakfast and learning to make scrambled eggs. Tom is braver than I am!
Jackson hates getting dirty, especially his hands.
Playing intently with Thomas:
When I was growing up, my mom would always take us to Western Sizzlin when my dad was out of town. My sister and I hated to see dad go away on business trips, but we sure did have fun going out to eat when he was gone! I decided that I'd try to recreate that with Jackson, and Jackson decided that Cracker Barrel was going to be our special place. We go there whenever Tom goes away on a trip. As you know, we have such a hard time getting Jackson to eat. But not at Cracker Barrel! On this trip, he ate 1 full pancake, 1/4 of my dinner, all of his eggs, and his bacon. I asked Jackson where it all went, and this is what he showed me:
Calling Dr. Jackson......
I was in the other room when things suddenly got quiet - never a good sign. I came out to find Jackson climbing up on the couch arms and then falling back into the cushions.
Jackson decided this particular morning that he was too big for his seat and wanted to sit in my seat instead. Doesn't he look like so much older in this picture? (And really, mom, can't you get me some new pajamas that at least go to my ankles rather than these capris?)
Who says you just have to sit there? Jackson decided to liven things up with some drum beats.
I wish I had video of Jackson dancing to his own music. Never gets boring with you around, Jackson!
Tom found a hooded sweatshirt in Jackson's size and decided to get it in preparation for colder weather. We had Jackson try it on, and he loved it so much he didn't want to stop wearing it! He added the boots himself. Quite the fashion plate, don't you think?
Jackson's modeling his shirt that he bought - it starts so early! Mac came over to babysit. After they ate at Baja Jack's, he told her he wanted to go shopping. Their first stop was Old Navy, where he picked out this shirt (and Mac bought it for him). She said that he had fun looking at himself and dancing in the mirrors. After Old Navy, he told her he wanted to go to Target. He also picked out the bouncy ball that he's holding in this picture sometime on their shopping trip. He loved his shirt so much that he decided he was going to wear it to bed....and for most of the day the next day! Thanks Mac!
Aargh! Pirates go on the potty, too!
Tom has been working hard this summer helping out with two drum corps: Crossmen and Cavaliers. The Cavaliers came to the Broken Arrow show in July, and Tom was going to go on the road with them after the show. We weren't planning on spending the whole evening at the drum corps show, but Jackson really wanted to see all of the drums. We found Kristen and JP and joined them up in the press box.
Pictures of the Caveliers (or as Jackson calls them - the Green Superheroes) getting ready to perform. You can see Tom in the front of the marimbas getting ready for their performance. It was a great show - very cool! Tom says they are the crowd favorite at most shows they go to. They still have a chance for first place!
I'm not sure who didn't want to leave more - Tom or Jackson! Jackson was holding on tight. It was the first time I think he really understood that Tom wasn't going to be at home for a while.
Jackson really didn't want to let go of Tom. It was sad when it was time to go.
Jackson was really glad to get to talk to his dad on the phone.
I'm a sucker when it comes to toys while we're out shopping (I've warned Tom that when he's gone, we go out on shopping trips for something fun to do...sometimes I wonder if it'd be cheaper if he didn't go! :) ) I've tried to limit the number of action figures and big, bulky toys. This last trip we found a watercolor set with pictures of Buzz and Woody - perfect! Best $7 we've spent! This has kept Jackson busy for tens of minutes at a time!
Can you tell how proud he is of his picture of Hamm?