The Meal of Many Blessings

Because this makes me laugh everytime I think about it I have to share. No pictures, but I'm sure you can only imagine what this was like.

Last Thursday, New Year's Eve, Brandon, Jackson, and I were still in Houston planning to fly out the next day. Brandon loves chicken fried steak, so we always try to get to the Saltgrass Steakhouse while in Houston to get him one. We called ahead and the 5 of us, including my mom and dad, sat down to eat around 615pm.

Jackson had not had a nap all day. Actually, he had not had a nap in probably two or three days. He had been hard at work at Nana and Paka's painting and helping clean the garage. There was no time for naps when work had to be done. There are two ways that Jackson can go without a nap - deliriously funny or insanely intolerable. Thankfully last Thursday night he was about as funny as I have ever seen him without knowing it.

We ordered our food and Jackson was a little antsy waiting. We had been going in Texas for over a week so his patience was about maxed out, but overall I thought he did a great job. The food arrived and we all started eating. Jackson had mac-n-cheese, which seems to be the food of choice these last few days. He was eating very well, then out of no where asked to hold Nana's hand. Then he told Paka to hold Brandon's hand. We were sort of confused, but then he instructed us to basically hold hands to form the circle. He said, with a mouth full of food, that we needed to say the blessing. So we obliged and said the blessing.

Jackson took another bite of food (that was spooned in by Nana) and then instructed us all to hold hands again. He then closed his eyes and started to say the blessing again. Ok - two times is fine. But then before we knew it we were blessing every bite. I started to laugh uncontrollably. I lost count on how many times we blessed that meal, but I know it was more than 5. Jackson saw nothing wrong with the situation. I'm not sure what the moral of the story was, but I know for sure that in Jackson's eyes that night you could not bless the food quite enough.

December Snow

It has been a fun few days. Thursday they predicted a winter storm that was approaching Delaware and expected to dump some serious snow. I planned ahead and went to the store on Friday during school to prepare to be home for a few days. We ended up getting around 15-18 inches. Santa came to see Jackson on Saturday since he knew that we would be in Texas on Christmas day. Here is Jackson with all his gifts....

Jack got a couple of additions to his Geotrax, a new train that is driven by Santa, and a Tag pen that allows him to read along with books.

I made taco soup since I knew the high was going to be like 25 and it would be a blizzard. We ate leftovers tonight for dinner too.

Here's me at my first attempt at making fudge. It went over ok - I didn't get the fudge all poured before it started to crystallize.

About 2ish we decided to venture out and check out what things looked like. Plus Jackson really wanted to get outside. The snow literally was coming down sideways and was drifting because of the wind.

Here are Jackson and Brandon trying to get through the snow. At this point the drifts were around a foot and a half.

I took a picture first thing this morning right when the sun was coming out. The snow looked beautiful - but there was a lot of it!

Here are our cars.....amazingly enough it only took Brandon about 30 minutes to get both of them out. The snow was powdery and light - easy to move.

You can see how high it comes up on Jack - the sidewalks were cleared first thing this morning, but there was ice all over the street.

The only thing we didn't plan ahead for was the shovels were out in the garage. We walked down there this morning to get them out.

Here's Brandon trying to make a path to even get to the cars.

Jackson climbed up on top of the big snow pile so he could brush off the top of the truck.

Jack did a little bit too much of this today - eating snow. He wanted to try it and try it....

Here's Jackson after he tried snow with salt on it! :)

After a movie and a little rest, Brandon and Jackson went out back and attempted to make a snowman. This was right after Brandon picked up a huge shovel of snow and threw it at Jackson. As you can tell, he did not think it was funny.

Jackson standing next to the snowman. He soon after demolished it.

So that's been our few days of snow-fun. Definitely will appreciate Texas when we travel on Wednesday to warmer weather!

Tomorrow is Brandon and I's 7th wedding anniversary. How time has flown. I'm suppose to have school tomorrow, but its been cancelled due to the snow! Hoping that maybe Brandon and I will be able to go to lunch or do something fun to celebrate the day!

Playing Catch-up

I am completely embarrassed that I have not stayed up to date with my blog. It really wasn't that busy of a November, but things just got rolling and never slowed down. Here are some highlights what has happened since I last posted....

Jackson 'Buzz Lightyear' taking in the Newark Halloween Parade. It was a great, mild fall day.

Brandon carving the Thanksgiving turkey.

Me and Brandon about to dig in!

Noni and Papa helping Jackson put together his first ever gingerbread house.

The end product....

Santa Jack and Dad decorating our tree for the season.

We did it!

Me and Brandon after Jackson's meeting with Santa

Jackson and Papa

Jackson and Santa - the request this year is a Ka-Chow!

And we are counting down the days until Santa arrives. Less than two weeks and we'll be in Texas! Hopefully he'll be able to find us there!!

One last thing....because it is quite entertaining - yesterday Jackson and Brandon went with me to a school bowling party yesterday. Jack wanted to try it out. Brandon got a video.....hope you enjoy it. He really did!!

Buzz Lightyear

We were up 202 on Friday and stopped at Target. Jackson ate such a good dinner (and let mom & dad enjoy dinner) that he got a special treat - Buzz Lightyear wings. So when we got home on Friday we suited him up in his Buzz pj's and put the wings on. Here are some pictures. He is hilarious with these things on.

Brandon adjusting the straps - it said for kids 6 and up? Not sure why?! Maybe its because 3yo's really think they can fly?

He actually doesn't mind having his picture taken right now - as long as he can look at it immediately after.

He looks so happy - but he really was!

Today after Jack watched the Incredibles he wanted to put the wings on again. He did not take a nap and was super tired, but was REALLY funny because he was jumping off of his chair saying 'To Infinity....and Beyond!' Here's a picture....

And of course.....a video!! So priceless.

Remember When

So, I thought it would be fun to look at the past Halloween/Fall pictures and see how much Jackson has changed in the past few years. Just for fun. This will be his 4th Halloween and this year he will be Buzz Lightyear. We figured out last year that it wasn't worth all the money in buying him an elaborate costume. He really likes the pajamas that you can get at Wal-Mart that makes you look like you're dressed up as something. So, we got the Buzz Lightyear ones this year for $10 and he's already worn them several times. Last year he had Superman pajamas and loved them (notice the pictures below). He found them tonight in the 'Jackson's too big for this' pile and decided that he needed to wear them. So he's wearing too small Super-pajamas to bed.

Enjoy the pictures - time flies. I'm not sure what we would do without pictures!

Fall 2006 - Jackson was a black cat in honor of Grizzly :)

This is while I was home on maternity leave so I got creative with the shots! I remember starting to dress Jack in Halloween clothes on October 1st that year!

Fall 2007 - Milburn Orchards with Nana and Paka to pick apples. They had a large selection of pumpkins and Jackson claimed this one as his.

Fall 2007 - He was a Cowboy. This was a cute costume that was just a jumpsuit. We trick or treated in Bill and Nikki's neighborhood.

Being goofy since I'm sure it was WAY past Jackson bed time!

Fall 2008 - This was at the UD farmhouse with Brandon's group carving pumpkins. Jack was really starting to talk a lot and really liked carving pumpkins.

Here's the Superman git-up. This was at the Halloween parade in Downtown Newark, also Fall 2008.

Lots of fun looking through old pictures. We plan on going to the parade again this year in Downtown Newark because its during the day and all the downtown businesses trick-or-treat so its nice to do that then instead of Halloween night. At least I prefer it!

We'll continue to make memories and be able to look back at these pictures and laugh. Jackson is growing up so fast - I have to slow down every once in a while to remember these fun moments we've already experienced. Thankfully, there are many more to come :)

Fall is here

Well, the date definitely says it is fall. We've passed the start of Autumn and the Harvest Moon was out tonight. But boy, it still feels like summer! I guess that's how I know we've lived in Delaware too long when I think mid-70s feels warm! Getting passed the weather, it is fall and we are starting to do fall things :)

Today we went down to Townsend and visited Blackbird Heritage Farm. We received the invite through some connections I had a work and we had a great time! The neat thing about their farm is its a local, sustainable/organic farm that operates as a CSA. If you're not familiar with them, its sort of like the farm hosting its own, regular farmers market. They have lots of different vegetables and lots of animals. This was really fun for Jack. Here are some pictures while we were down there today. Also, notice the shirt - he wore his farm shirt today :)

There was a mini-playhouse there and Jack set up shop, decorating the ledge with pumpkins and gourds.

He looks so thrilled. I was trying to get him to smile at the camera, but of course no luck. I'm hoping those days are almost done!

Here is their resident rooster. He was quite aggressive, but Jackson thought it was hilarious. The rooster would chase him right back into the house.

The rooster wanted to let the kids know who was in charge of that house - so he jumped up on the roof!

Here we are going out to the pumpkin field to pick our pumpkin. Jack and I were having the serious discussion - was this the one?

And yes it was - perfect size.

So there will be many more fun, fall activities as we head deeper into the cooler time of year. Leaves are slowly beginning to change and Halloween is right around the corner. Such as fun and festive time of year. Look forward to all the fun it brings!

A Chick-fil-a Birthday

Wow! What a day.....this morning was Jackson's 3rd birthday party. His first 'real' party at an establishment. There is a brand new Chick-fil-a in Elkton down the road from us, so we thought we'd check them out. They had a great deal we couldn't really pass up - they cook, clean, and get the cake. PLUS the kids had a playground to play in. It was a blast. The party started at 1030am this morning, but the kids played hard for a good 30 minutes before sitting down to eat. Here are some pictures....

The decorations when we got there. Everything was already put up and together! So nice to not have to worry about that!

Jackson of course made a bee-line for the playground. Luke was already there and they started running around like crazy!

Coming down the slide.....

Here's a look at all the kids playing around! We took over that place!

Cute shot of all the kids coming down the slide.....I'm surprised I got this before Jackson mowed over Lili and Rachel to get out and keep going!

So, the cool thing about Chick-fil-a is that they had all this extra stuff that was included - tableclothes, cows, and the party blowers. It took Jackson a while, but he got the hang of it.

Well, they slowed down for like 5 minutes to shove chicken in his mouth and get back to the playground!

Here is when they brought the cake out.....there were like 5 Chick-fil-a employees that brought it out and sang happy birthday to Jackson! Even the manager! It was too nice!

Here's Jackson's cake - they did a great job! Curious George and all (and it came from Bing's!)

Jackson plowing into his cake.

Jackson and Logan getting their picture taken with the cow!

The beginning of the presents....Jackson decided to start with chewing through his wrapping paper.

Jackson getting plenty of help in opening his gifts.

I have to say, I'm tired. But overall I was completely impressed with Chick-fil-a and their party throwing abilities. I highly recommend birthday parties there! Jackson had a great time and they did a really nice job putting everything together and not making us feel rushed at all. It lasted about 2 hours. So thus ends the birthday week.....I think Jackson is birthday'd out too because he told us tonight his party was over :) He did a great job today and really played great with everyone. He's growing up and its fun to see the little boy he's becoming.....