Life at its best

Sibling Differences

2010-08-16T18:13:00.013-05:00

Jackson - January 15, 2007

It's interesting having a second kid. The first time around you're not sure about anything. You don't understand how they sleep, eat, burp, poop - you name it. It's a myth as to what makes a kid work. Everyone is different at how they handle their children and every kid is different on how they react to any given situation.

Having said that, I think we don't necessarily have the extremes, but we have two very different children. With Jackson, the whole pregnancy and L&D were by the books. We knew what was coming, it all made sense, and things worked out great. With Mollie, the pregnancy was exhausting for me, the L&D was far from normal, and pretty much the whole time we didn't know what to expect in the end.

When Jackson was born he was a pretty normal child, easy to understand as far as eating goes. Mollie, so far, has been very easy to understand with food, not much different than her brother. She is a clockwork child - eats on the dot every time.

Sleeping was a different story. The boy wouldn't sleep. He sat in the dumb papasan chair and we had to turn the vibrator on every two seconds for him. I remember the stress that we went through trying to understand what would make Jackson happy and how we could get him to sleep through the night. I never kept track of exactly what worked and when it worked, but he finally sleeps through the night with no problems. Naps are different question, but we won't go there.

Mollie, July 25, 2010

Mollie, from day one, has liked to sleep. She seems to not fight it at this point and understands when she's tired she needs to nap. She goes to bed every night around 730pm and pretty much sleeps through the night! I feed her around 10pm and then she usually wakes up around 5-6am and that's it. We're really blessed this go around with a smooth transition into having two kids. I can't imagine doing it the other way around and being disillusioned to the fact that all kids are perfect. I know what we experienced and I wholeheartedly appreciate every night.

Who knows about the future - only time will tell. I think it will be fun though seeing the similarities and differences in the two. So far I am very happy that we have a boy and a girl. I know I would have been happy with either, but Mollie is exactly what we needed :)

The Beginning of Birthday Season

2010-08-14T20:48:00.005-05:00

It seems that Mid-August is the beginning of birthday blow-outs. Today we went to Logan's birthday party at the 'gym'. Before Gymboree was a clothing store in every mall, it started as an actual gym? Yep - and it was really quite entertaining and PERFECT for our child that has energy in every bone of his body 24/7. We had a great time celebrating Logan turning 4! Here are some pictures....

We got there a little early so they let us go into the gym area and just free play. There were lots of places to climb and jump.

Trampoline!

Monkey bars where at least here if he fell he fell on padding!

Helping to make Logan's 'cake'. He was adding things to the barrel - his contribution? Sprinkles.

Inside the barrel. He was suppose to jump up and down on the stuff - he just sat there.

Mollie had a blast. She just watched the kids run circles, literally. She loved it and talked the whole time.

Jackson doing what Jackson does best - run in circles. It was great fun.

So one down - Jackson's birthday is next. His party is coming up on September 2nd! Look forward to having fun at McDonald's!! :)

The Art of Bargaining

2010-08-10T20:28:00.001-05:00

It's funny how kids learn different things. Jackson has finally learned the art of bargaining.

In the last week I made Jackson his first eye appointment and dentist appointment. He is less than thrilled about both. When we bring it up he just jokes about and talks about how he is not going to go.

Well, tonight at dinner Brandon decided to give me a hard time about selling our tent because Jack has been talking about camping. So out of no where, Jackson says, "If you get us a tent, I'll go to the dentist!"

Great. Let the games begin.

Jackson's Quote of the Day

2010-08-07T20:41:00.002-05:00

So today while Mollie took a nap at the house, Brandon and Jackson went to the UD farm. For those that don't know, Brandon's office is in the farm house that's located on the farm. It's white.

When Jack and Brandon returned home, Jackson walked in the door to show me a paper towel. Here's the conversation:

Me: What's that?
Jack: A paper towel from daddy's work.
Me: Really?
Jackson: Yea. We had to get one because I was getting sweaty. We had to go in the white house to get it.
Me: The White House?
Jack: Yep. Daddy works in the white house. That's where his office is.

Ha! Is Brandon really the president?! Well, at least I thought it was funny :)

What Happened to Blogging?

2010-08-06T19:16:00.005-05:00

So I did it again - I waited MONTHS before I blogged. I really use to look forward to blogging, to sharing the quirky ins-and-outs of our family in cyberland. But maybe its true what they say about having more than one kid - you lose the time you have to yourself more than anything else. But Mollie is getting bigger and she's getting more on a schedule so I plan to take back some of that time and do the things I enjoy, one of them to keep up with this blog. Since I've had it since 2008 it's sort of fun looking back at memories that were created to have that digital scrapbook there to remember things. And I shouldn't stop now, I should really pick up the pace because before I know it Jack will be going to school and Mollie will be walking. Anyway....here's what's been happening....

I finished school in June and became very busy with getting my students prepared for our state fair. It was fun, and kids were successful in July. We also traveled to Florida in July to say goodbye to Mema. I am thankful that my whole family was able to make that trip and we were able to celebrate with everyone knowing she is in a better place.

And now its August. And school starts in two weeks. And I'm already burned out just thinking about it. Frustrating. So I'm going to stop here and at least say that I caught up a little bit, shared a few photos and made a bookmark in time. I will put it in my iPhone to remind me to blog. Ahhh.....technology.

Jackson feeding a giraffe a carrot at the Delaware State Fair. Yes - a giraffe. And no, this one did not win its class (just kidding people).

Brandon and Mollie waiting to see if the tractor pull was starting. She's getting so big - here she's just shy of 5 months.

And here's big boy Jackson - tractor enthusiast, giraffe whisperer, and .......
......chicken hypnotist.

This is embarassing....

2010-04-04T22:34:00.003-05:00

Wow. So I was very proud of myself not long ago about keeping up with my blogging. This past February would have been two years that I have been actively blogging about our family and what we were up to. I guess February was sort of crazy because of the amount of snow we got here and the amount of school we missed. Which, I would think would have been a great excuse for me to blog. But who knows - I think facebook has sort of ruined my whole blogging experience because I have done everything on there and nothing here. There are many things throughout the day that I think would be great blogging moments and that I should document them for my online scrapbook, but just never do. I vow to start being more vigilant about blogging and to capture some of those memorable moments that are now distant memories in my mind.....

So lots has happened since January 4th and my last entry. March 9th successfully completed my second pregnancy and the arrival of our beautiful baby girl Mollie. I was due March 14th and had a pretty good idea she was going to be arriving early by the amount of contractions and just the fact that Jackson was 4 days early so why wouldn't she be? To make a long story short, on March 9th I went and worked a full day. Felt around 90% all day, with the occasional contraction here and there, but nothing that made me stop in my tracks. I called the nurse that day because I had been having contractions, but they were not consistent and nothing I would call serious, but I wanted to make sure that I was to wait until they were 5 minutes apart for an hour. And she confirmed that. I got off the phone with her at 352pm. Still felt somewhat fine. When I went inside the house and began opening a few gifts I started to feel very strong contractions that were almost difficult to talk through. My mom and Jackson left around 4pm to go get Brandon with the anticipation that once he arrived home we would head to Dover. Well, while he was gone my contractions got worse, quick. They were around 5 minutes at 4pm and the went to about 70seconds apart by around 445pm when the ambulance came to take me to Christiana. I have never been so scared and alone in my life from the time that my mom and Jack left until they got back home with Brandon. I fully expected to have Mollie in our bedroom here at home. But thankfully the EMTs talked me through it and we barely rolled into L&D and Mollie was born at 516pm. No drugs this round. I was contemplating this from the beginning and was leaning towards no drugs. Glad the decision was made for me because I'm not sure I would have been a strong enough person if I was in the hospital going through all that pain.

Being pregnant with Mollie was a challenge. From the beginning being sick all the time until around week 18 was miserable. I never thought the nausea would end. And thankfully it did. Then the previa that thankfully went away around week 34, but just in time to find low amniotic fluid. This was lasted until week 37 where the levels finally rose enough they stopped checking me twice a week (I have the lovely u/s bills to prove that!). Then the quick delivery - that was one for the books in my opinion. It never dawned on me that something could not be right - because when she arrive and I saw her she was perfect. And yes, I did say in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that I was going to kill her before she was even born, but I take that back now. She is a great baby and I'm very glad I endured the pain to be her mom.

Here is a few pictures from her first month with us. The transition from 3 in our family to 4 has gone, I think, quite smoothly. Jackson is a great big brother and still a wonderful part of my existence. He is definitely a strong-willed boy and can be hard to tame at times, but his sense of humor and stories just make me smile. The pictures are backwards - from yesterday back to when Mollie was just two hours old being held by her brother. I am so thankful, and so blessed.

At an Easter brunch and egg hunt (April 3rd)

Our first family photo (March 13th)

Mollie getting ready to leave the hospital (March 11th)

Mollie bundled up in my lap at the hospital (March 10th)

Jackson taking in his new little sister (March 9th)

The Meal of Many Blessings

2010-01-04T14:51:00.006-05:00

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

2009-12-20T18:31:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-13T19:33:00.006-05:00

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

2009-10-18T19:34:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-10T20:24:00.005-05:00

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

2009-10-03T19:56:00.002-05:00

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

2009-09-05T20:05:00.004-05:00

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.....

Cupcakes, Playdoh, and Exhaustion

2009-08-31T19:50:00.003-05:00

Wow! Well today was a regular work day for me and Brandon, but Jackson had a great birthday! Last night we made 45 cupcakes for him so he could take some to Jackie's and also so we could have some here at the house. I took some to work, and I think we still have about, oh 20 left! But Jack had fun helping make his cupcakes. He put the paper in the cups for us and helped stir. Of course Brandon had to stay on him to make sure he wasn't sampling the batter - Jack doesn't quite understand that it is common courtesy to not 'double dip' your spoon! We had to explain that, but he just kept asking 'Why??" It was priceless.

I picked Jack up a little early from Jackie's today. We got home, picked up Brandon and headed over to have dinner with Nikki, Lili, and CJ. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. You would have never known it was August! I was chilly sitting in the backyard tonight and was shocked to hear geese honking flying over our heads. Really strange! We had pizza and the kids played. It was a great way to end Jack's 3rd birthday! Here are some pictures :)

Nikki, Lili, and CJ got Jackson some additions to his Playdoh

Jackson and Lili concentrating hard on making shapes with the PlayDoh!

Dad showing Jackson that the monkey had Playdoh hair!

After singing Happy Birthday - one of the many cupcakes made from the night before!

Happy birthday to my baby boy! Cannot believe it has been 3 years. Definitely a quick 3 years for sure. I cannot imagine life without him! Now I'm exhausted - time for an early bed time :)

Back to Reality

2009-08-30T14:15:00.002-05:00

Well, what a summer. I think total I was home in Delaware for two weeks? It was a quick, very eventful, but fun summer. We wrapped up our time before I had to go back to school and Jackson went back to Jackie's with a trip to Texas and Florida. It was a quick 12 day trip, but it was great to get down south and see family. Here are some pictures I took while we were down there. As you can tell, as Jackson gets older it seems I have started taking less and less photos. I need to be better about this!!! (Plus, I was really relying on grandparents to take pictures! I know they took plenty!)

Jackson making a silly face at Paka in Aunt Jane's garage.

This is how the Wilkinson's spend warm summer afternoons - sitting in a garage and this time watching the rain.

Jackson and Nana at Pensacola Beach getting ready to fly the Buzz Lightyear kite!

Jackson using the many sand digging toys. But heaven forbid we get near the water while at the beach!

We had a great trip, but both Jackson and I were ready to get back to Delaware to see Brandon who had been busily working in the lab while we were gone. I started back to school a few weeks ago and the kids are great this year. We're off to a great school year and hoping that it goes smoothly like last.

Weather is starting to level off and this week we are suppose to be in the mid-70s all week! I am very ready for fall and looking forward to the leaves changing and enjoying probably our last fall in Delaware. Jackson already has his Halloween costume - Buzz Lightyear pajamas that we got at Walmart. We get multiple uses out of them and they are a big hit with him. Whatever works!

Jackson's big day is tomorrow - he'll turn 3. He's very proud that he can tell you how old he will be at that he is going to have a Curious George party at Chick-fil-a. He really is getting big and starting to talk so much more! The last few weeks have been milestones for us - Jackson is now officially potty trained! That was a huge deal - we haven't had any accidents in about 5 days and things are definitely heading in the positive direction. Just not sure how we're going to stop giving him toys for pooping on the potty :) We started it and it worked, but now what???!? Oh well - it definitely has been worth it. And he has expanded his Cars matchbox cars. He has a whole little town of them now!!

I plan to update a little more frequently now that I am more on a routine. Just getting back into the swing of things has been very nice. Work is not that much fun, but at least we have a schedule! Birthday party next Saturday I will most definitely have an update on!! Look for it soon!

Busy, busy July

2009-07-27T20:18:00.003-05:00

Well, July has come and gone with a blur. It seems like it was just last weekend we went to the UD farm to watch the fireworks. And now Wednesday Jack and I head to Texas for a 10 day getaway before school starts. I feel worn out though. I am sort of glad school starts in 3 weeks because at least that way I will slow down a bit! This fall will bring lots of exciting things too - I will have my first student teacher (yea me!) and I have two students that just qualified for the National FFA Convention in October. So, it appears that things may not be slowing down. Oh well - wishful thinking I guess!

So here are some pictures from the 4th of July evening at UD. It was a great place to watch the fireworks at the farm. Very open for Jackson to run around. And he gets up close and personal with all of the tractors there as always.

Jackson trying to figure out why these tractors are not green....hmmm.....

Here's me and Jack next to the cows. This is as close as we could get because the fence was super hot!

Jackson standing next to the wheel of the big John Deere. Notice his shirt :)

Great view from where we sat in the bed of the truck of the Newark fireworks. They appeared right over the milking barns.

Thought my camera did pretty decent! I watched the Today show and they said turn it on the landscape setting - it worked!

Uncle Billy and Aunt Whitney came and visited last week and we did a variety of things and saw some sights in Delaware that we hadn't seen in awhile. It was great fun! Here are some pictures from Fenwick Island.

Jackson woke up that morning ready to head to the beach. Unfortunately, its like an hour and a half away! He was ready to hit the sand when we got there!

Brandon and Jackson played in the sand - but notice how far away they are from the water. Any closer and Jack was not having it.

At the edge of the water there were a ton of these little baby clams. If you held them, they would stick their foot out and try to start to move. Jack had fun with that :)

Here's Jackson - admiring the beach from afar!

So, great month, just crazy busy and crammed all in. I think we did enough for about 5 or 6 months of activities. Wednesday we'll head to Texas to travel to Florida! Soon I'll be stuck back in our apartment in Delaware once school starts - I shouldn't complain I guess!

How green does your garden grow?

2009-07-04T14:37:00.003-05:00

So, here is an update on Jackson's mouth. These pictures were taken on Wednesday, the day after he fell and hit his mouth in the pool. As you can see, he has no problems showing you what it looks like. Funny thing too is he will pretty much let anyone put their hands in his mouth.

Probably the worse part of this whole ordeal was how much his lip swelled. It got really big - he ate mac-n-cheese for dinner that night.

Something new we did this year was added a bird feeder to the landscape bed directly out our living room window. We can sit in the living room and enjoy the birds as they come and eat. We started with just generic, cheap birdseed from Walmart. It attracted all the birds that aren't fun to watch - like big crows. So, we got a big bag of still in the shell sunflower seeds. It is suppose to attract songbirds, and that is just what it did. The other morning as I was drinking coffee I looked outside and saw this beautiful yellow bird.

There were two of them - they are American Goldfinches. They've been back for more and its fun to watch all the different songbirds that are around now.

Back in April we started growing tomato and pepper plants on our back porch in containers. This sort of got out of hand while we were in Texas, but once we got back and Brandon really chopped them back, you can see what our crop is looking like.

There are a total of 10ish (I think?) tomato plants of 3 different varieties. We'll see how they turn out. Our biggest challenge has been black bottom rot. Its linked to a calcium deficiency. We've made some adjustments, but it was frustrating to lose the first round of tomatos to that.

Here's my green pepper plants. There are 4 of them there with tons of buds. If you look closely you can see a few small peppers that have already started to form.

Here are our 4 jalepeno pepper plants! As you can see - hopefully I'll have some tomatos to make salsa with these!

Another picture of tomatos.

Along with tomatos, green peppers, and jalepeno peppers, we also have sweet peppers, cilantro, basil, rosemary, dill, sage, and chives. Its been really fun to have a garden, but I wish they just were in something else other than pots. I know that limits their growth and probably slows it a bit, so we aren't reaching the full potential of the plants. But it will be rewarding to get some vegetables in the end! But we haven't gotten anything yet, so maybe I should just wait until I taste the results to speak!

The Trials of Being a Stay-at-Home Mom

2009-06-30T20:47:00.012-05:00

Another disclaimer - all photos are from my phone. Gotta capture every moment and my phone is always there!

So, we got back from Texas and I was really looking forward to spending the week at home with Jackson. I really was - promise. It has been fun to see him expand his vocabulary and begin to communicate with us so much easier. On Monday things went great - we spent the morning in Dover doing errands, came back and went to the pool and park and had some rest/downtime. I should have known when Monday went so well, that Tuesday certainly would not follow suit. I had made the decision on Monday night that Jack and I would head to the Alapocas State Park in Wilmington to visit a huge playground. We went early to the park, stayed about an hour, and had a great time.

The park had a whole section with these neat 'diggers'. Of course this part was a hit. I love this picture because he looks like he's concentrating so hard on moving that sand!

I had thought about blogging this experience, because a few things struck me while at the park. We arrived and there was only 1 other mom and her 'younger-than-Jackson' son playing on the playground. Jack ran around like crazy, climbing stairs and sliding, having a great time. Well, about 45 minutes into our playtime, a BUS full of daycare kids, probably 4-5 YO kids showed up. Now, I'm not sure how this works, because this is a 'fee area' at the park, but I'm pretty sure you probably have to pay to have a group use the facility as a 'field trip'. It was crazy. Probably around 40 kids with only about 5 adults.

This is where things are more a learning experience for me than Jackson. I think one of my biggest anxieties as a parent is Jackson's first feeling of unacceptance. I know that might sound like a strange thing, but today at the park I got to get a taste of it. Jackson wants nothing more to play with other kids. He looks at them, could care less their shape, size, or color and just wants to have fun. These kids at the park - they were kids. They were pushing each other, cutting in lines, not saying 'sorry' - things that just make me cringe. And Jackson has yet to understand that their behavior is unacceptable and still, just wants to play. He follows them around, runs with them when they run, and the kids just stare at him and say 'Why are you following me?'. Now I know - these 5 year old kids have no concept of manners (or should they??). But my heart breaks when Jackson just looks blankly at them like he doesn't understand what that means - his thoughts are, 'I'm not following you, I'm playing with you'. Ugh - and I'm afraid he will pick up these bad habits with ill-mannered kids. He yelled at one boy that a part of the park was 'MINE', in which I had to remind him he needed to share. At what point can you say something to a kid that's not yours, that's on a daycare field trip, and has NO adult anywhere in yelling distance??

Anyway - now you know one my big anxieties. Guess there is something you can blackmail me on. :)

We came home after the park with Jackson telling me the whole way he was ready to go to the pool. We got home and it was a different story. We played around the house, played in the living room and then played in his room with toys we haven't seen in about 6-7 months. I can tell when Jackson is getting tired/bored/punchy when he starts to throw left-hooks at me and lays on the cats. So it was time for a scenery change. After some convincing and agreeing to allow Jackson to take a couple play pots/pans with us, we were off to the pool. We played. Jack has done great with his 'swimmies'. He has some confidence and has been sticking his face under water and blowing bubbles. He got tired of the swimmies and decided to hand them over to me to put up. I got out of the pool (which was a foot deep) to put the swimmies up and hear his scream. And continued screams. I turned around and picked him up as quick as I could and saw the blood start to pool in his mouth. I wrapped him up in a towel (because the water was FREEZING and the wind was actually blowing), but he was shaking and inconsolable. I started going over his teeth through the blood to see if any were loose. Fortunately I felt nothing that moved, so was feeling a little better at that point. Not much though - his lip was starting to swell and he was really upset. We got home, called Brandon, called Dr. Mackey and came up with a plan of action. We were headed to A.I.

We got there and got through the ER fine - got to see his first dentist, but pretty much should heal on his own ok. We have to watch his top gums/teeth and make sure things don't start to look worse. He is a trooper. And did an absolutely great job at the hospital. Here are some pictures from our ordeal.

Right after it occurred. He's watching George :)

At the end of the ordeal - Watching Spongebob in the room waiting to be discharged.

Tired, worn out boy :)

Well, 3 more days of this week and then Jackson will happily go back to Jackie's next week for a few days. I'm hoping tomorrow's events will be much MUCH less eventful than today's!!

I give it up to stay-at-home mom's. I realized today that maybe I'm not 'stay-at-home' caliber because I am so use to my mind working much faster and more complex thoughts than a 2 YO. But I am having a great time and love my kiddo to death. He is a ham and loads of fun.

School's Out!

2009-06-08T20:16:00.002-05:00

Love this picture.....how true, right? Monkey business ahead - or at least that is what I will be dealing with a week from today when I will be officially out of school with no priority list to handle except whether or not to wash my clothes or Jackson's.

Last day for students was officially today. Its June 8th. I cannot believe that the kids are still in school but honestly, at the same time I cannot believe this year is over. This completes my 6th year of teaching. I think it gets easier and easier each year, but I always count down days until summer break when I get to sit back and relax. This summer however there seems to be quite the agenda.....

It all starts and ends with trips to Texas. I'm hoping somewhere in between all of this Jackson and I will spend enough time together to discuss the concept of 'potty training'. Yes - the concept. Because I truly believe he is a long ways off from understanding what it actually is. Bribery is the best policy in this I believe, or at least that is how I intend to start out (which will probably get me in trouble in the end).

It will take me a few weeks to catch up on sleep and cleaning, but I am thankful I am a teacher and that I do have this time to renergize and prepare for another fun-filled 10 months of teaching students about agriculture! And to just think....this time next summer we may be in a new place, doing new things! That is definitely a reason to get my rest now while I can! Much more to update on in the weeks to come. We will have a fun-filled summer!

Fun Minus the Patriarch

2009-05-18T13:11:00.004-05:00

A little disclaimer....photos were taken with my phone because I was pretty much otherwise occupied with Jackson :)
So, Brandon left for California last Thursday early morning. Jackson and I have been flying solo for a few days and I chronicled what we have done on my phone. For the most part, he has been great. Having a great schedule with this kid has truly helped keep him in line when one of us is not there. He knows the routine and we pretty much stick to it. On the otherhand, there were moments where he drove me batty. But that's a 2.5 year old, right? Here's what we did.....
Last Thursday we got home and watch Bolt. No nap that day, and after getting up and out the door at 645am, Jack was pretty beat. We took a brief break to water plants.....this was on the back porch so he could 'cheese' to daddy :)

On Friday we went to Bill & Nikki's to eat dinner and play. Jack helped water the garden with Lili & CJ. Here are some funny pictures of the 'firehouse line' :)

On Saturday, unfortunately I had to work. It was the Appoquinimink Education Fair. Jackson was a crazy man! We walked around everywhere and saw lots of stuff. I finally got Jackson to slow down for a bit so I could catch up with the students I had working and for my sanity. I was smart enough to bring the DVD player! Thank you Curious George!!

At the end of the Fair, Luke and Jackson were throwing ducks like crazy out of our pool. They were splashing everywhere! It was really funny.

After the monster nap when we got home, we headed to Chick-fil-a. Jackson ate NO chicken, but fries and fruit instead. He just wanted to see the cow so bad!!

We then went to Best Buy and then got ice cream at Brusters. Of course, Jackson wanted my cone and not his :)

On Sunday, we went to church and then went to a reception to say goodbye to a great friend, Kay. We went home and Jackson refused to nap, so we ended up at WalMart and Safeway. Weather was nice and COLD for May. That's why he's all bundled up. I was freezing!

So we survived I guess :) Brandon will be home late tonight and Jackson will wake up to see Daddy! I'm sure he'll be thrilled! I will be - I need a break! :)

Sad, Sick Boy

2009-05-06T20:25:00.005-05:00

So, Jackson started feeling sick around Sunday at lunch, right after we got home from church. He felt warm so we took his temp and you could tell by his attitude that he was getting a fever. We took it easy the rest of the day and decided that I would take a 1/2 on Monday and Brandon would get to work 1/2 too. Well, when I was getting ready for work on Monday morning, Jackson was starting to cough and had a fever through the night. Brandon said I should stay home to not pass on the germs at work so I called in for the day. We took him to the see the doctor on Monday morning and she said all was clear, to just ride it out. Here are some pictures taken from Monday while watching a movie marathon.

Jackson's new best friend Greta

Doesn't he look so sad!

So I stayed home on Tuesday, since this was already planned because we had tickets to see the Astros play the Nationals. Had to 'take one for the team' and miss my game :( Jack did pretty good all day, but his fever returned in the afternoon, hitting around 101.9 under his arm. This whole time he's been sick he hasn't really eaten very much. The only 'real' food he has requested is Chick-fil-a nuggets! And even then, it was only like 3. He's drank lots of juice and milk though, so that's been good so he stays hydrated.

Nights with a fever are not much fun. More not much fun for Brandon than me :) Brandon has gotten up the last two nights with crying Jackson to give him Motrin and 1 and 2am. He has had bad dreams too, crying 'No let me do it!' I'm sure to one of us because he's wanted to hold the remote or steering wheel for the Wii.

So we're on day 3 of the fever. I went back to work today and things sounded like they were improving. Brandon took Jack's temp around 6pm tonight and it was 101.9 again. Brandon gave the doctor a call again to find out when we would see some improvement in him. She was surprised, but then again not, that he still was having a fever and thinks that it is a secondary infection of some sort, possibly bronchitis. So we got antibiotic tonight, a kids Z-pac, to hopefully knock this out. The doctor said we'd probably see this fever until Friday or Saturday, and he could get worse tomorrow!!! SOOOO not fair! I'm taking another 1/2 day tomorrow in the afternoon to stay home with him so Brandon can get some work done. He goes to California next Thursday and needs to get somethings done before he leaves. What a week of unproductiveness for me at school. Ahh....but we only have 4 more to go!!! Bring on summer! Hopefully next update we will all be well!

Jackson's Lesson on Mushrooms

2009-05-01T13:39:00.004-05:00

Noni - this one's for you! If you can understand him that is....

Spring Break

2009-04-24T20:29:00.007-05:00

We had a great spring break and Easter this year. I was tired after all of our traveling and eating well during the week! Nana and Paka came to visit and we got to go to some old favorite spots and a few new ones as well. Here are some highlights from their trip.

Monday after Easter we went to Longwood. Since going last month, Jackson was very excited about going to play in the water again. He knows the routine now and was running around like crazy. Here is a picture of Jackson in the dragon fountain area where they have paintbrushes for you to paint the slate on the walls.

Tuesday it started raining and then raining some more. So we kept things simple and went to Collingswood, NJ to the Pop Shop. The Pop Shop is a small diner-style eatery that was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. The Throwdown was grilled cheese, so we tried them out. It was a great way to spend a rainy day! I have a great picture from the Pop Shop with Jackson wearing a soda jerk hat..

Wednesday it rained again so we stayed close to home. We also wanted to see if Jackson would take a better nap on Wednesday since he lacked a good one since the Friday before! Too much excitement will do that to ya!

Thursday the weather cleared and it was beautiful. We traveled to Baltimore to go to the B&O Railroad museum to see all the trains. Thought Jackson would like that. We stopped at Baltimore's Inner Harbor for lunch at Phillip's Crab House and had a crabcake sandwich first. We decided to walk around the Harbor a little bit before getting back in the car and going over to the museum.

Jackson and Nana walking along the Inner Harbor looking at the 'Pirate' ship!

Paka and Jackson enjoying the beautiful, clear weather!

Mom & Jackson standing in front of 'Big Mike'. 'Big Mike' has been the topic of many stories and dreams since visiting him last week in the railroad yard!

Paka, Nana, and Jackson sitting in front of a 'camoose'

Jackson pushing a button on a railroad simulator.

Jackson climbed up in the inside to the top of the 'camoose'

Here's Jackson driving one of the big diesels.

And of course, our favorite - the wooden trains just like they had at Milburn! He was in heaven! (And not having to fight 20 kids to sit in the conductor seat!)

On Friday we traveled down to Rehoboth Beach. It was going to be another nice day, and I hadn't realized that my parents had been down to the beach here in Delaware. Rehoboth is a great beach - there is a great boardwalk and the beach is really nice, just a little on the small side. We ate a great lunch at Jake's Seafood House, but Jackson wasn't all that interested in eating - he was still pretty tired from visiting 'Big Mike' and all his train buddies the day before. So we finished lunch and walked down to the beach. I love how Rehoboth has these benches that can either face towards the beach or the boardwalk. So you can look at the water or people watch. Well, we made it down there and Jackson was inclined to start actually eating. He ate almost a whole hamburger while taking in the sites!

So, that was our exciting break. It was a really fun time. It was sort of nice just getting away from school for a few days. On Sunday I ran my second race with Kellie, a 10K up in the Hockessin area. To me it was much tougher than the first because A) It was TWICE as long and B) Hockessin is the hilliest part of Delaware! But it was a great challenge and we accomplished another one. I took the camera but didn't take pictures because it was just me and Kellie there. We're shooting for our next race at the end of May down in Dewey Beach. It will most definitely be FLAT there! Just another event to look towards to stay on my goal.

I will update more possibly before the weekend is over. I have more pictures and things to share from this week, but the clock is telling me time to go to bed!

Easter Activities

2009-04-09T20:01:00.012-05:00

Last weekend we had a fun filled Sunday doing 'Easter' activities. It was nice to get outside in good weather. We have had a really windy April, but besides that, we've had some nice days. Here are some pictures from Milburn Orchards.

Milburn has huge, wooden transportation vehicles. Uh - we didn't get too far past those in the first hour we were there. This is Jackson playing pilot in the airplane.

Happy as can be in the airplane.

This was almost like a box truck, but in the back there was a slide! So Jackson drove it a bit and then checked out the slide too. It was pretty fast and he flew off the end several times.

This looked like the newest addition to the vehicles - a school bus. Jackson is following in the footstepts of Mom and Dad!

Here's where we hit a speed bump. This train was right by the start line for the Easter Egg Hunt. So as people were running by to get eggs, Jackson was more interested in driving the train. Oh well :)

We finally got away from the train and headed towards the petting zoo, but got sidetracked at the tractor. Fortunately, Jackson shared the tractor with a few boys that walked up without a scene!

In the petting zoo they had everything from turkey's, goats, a pot-bellied pig, a donkey, and a horse. Once you told Jackson what it was, he would talk to the animal and say 'Hi Turkey!'

I'm not sure if its a good thing or a bad one, but Jackson was not intimidated by the animals at all. He approached them like they were his own!

Once we got away from the petting zoo, we went on a 20-minute hayride. It was nice. Jackson was slowing down and he layed back and rested a bit.

When we got back, with much work, we convinced Jackson to finally do one of the egg hunts.

Here we are at the end of the hunt. Jackson was really sleepy and starting to get grumpy, but we wanted to get him to smile for the camera. It worked!

After Milburn we took a nap then went over to Bill & Nikki's for dinner. We did another egg hunt.

Jackson wanted to stop at each egg, shake it, then open it up to see what was inside. When he realized it was candy he just wanted to stop and eat it right there.

Here's Jackson after we've gone through his eggs. Tired and just wanting his CANDY!

Here's all the kids on the swing with Brandon. I'm sure everyone slept well that night!

On Saturday Nana and Paka will be flying in. Look forward to seeing them and having a fun filled week!

My Goal: Accomplished

2009-03-29T19:34:00.004-05:00

So, in September I set a goal of running a 5K from scratch. Hadn't run in pretty much ever, but wanted to do something cheap (well, free) and have some time to myself. I started off slow in the fall and eventually hurt my knee, or strained it just from the fact that I had done nearly nothing physical in years and my body just wasn't use to it. So I had to scrap my plans for running a 5K in the fall and instead did a month's worth of physical therapy to improve range of motion and flexibility.
In December I started back slowly on a treadmill, regaining stamina and adding mileage in the following weeks. In January when I felt like I was back on my feet and gaining some momentum, I picked a 5K in March to work towards. I convinced Kellie back in September to do this with me, so all I had to do was tell her time and date when we would be doing the race and she was in.
So, today was the day. In much anticipation and preparation, Kellie and I made it through the entire race without walking. I think that was the biggest accomplishment of all. We ran the 5K in 33:10, finishing 118 and 119 out of 254. Click here to get the official results.
Now we are planning the next chapter in this story - Kellie wants to do a 10K next month. We can definitely make the distance, just not running all the way! We'll see what we decide to do next!
Here are some pictures from today :)

Pre-race family shot

Pre-race me, Jackson, Luke, and Kellie.

My race number

Here we are around the 1/2 mile point. We still look happy :)

Here we are about to cross the finish line. Not so happy, but we made it!

Welcome Baby Mark!

2009-03-19T08:16:00.002-05:00

Babies are so much fun! We got to meet Mark Edward Ginder-Vogel yesterday and he was just as handsome as ever! Katie and Matt are going to be great parents and Jackson cannot wait to show Baby Mark his trains!!!
Great job Katie and Matt! Don't blink because its going to move so fast!!!

Fun Weekends

2009-03-15T19:30:00.007-05:00

The last two weekends have been a fun. Now that Jackson is getting a little older, it is easier to do things with him and not have to worry about talking a huge bag of 'stuff' with us along the way. Noni and Papa were up in Delaware last weekend and we had a great time. They came on the best weekend possible - the weather was 60-70F, unseasonably warm for March (especially since the weekend before it snowed a foot!), but it was awesome for being outdoors. Here are some pictures from Lums Pond.

Jackson and Papa walking around the Nature Center.

Jackson discovering Gum Balls.

Jackson with his stick and Gum Ball.

These docks during the warmer months have paddle boats and canoes. Noni was a little nervous about letting Jackson go since there was no safety railing!

Jackson was using his stick as his 'fishing pole' and he was 'fishing' from the docks. It was cute.

After the walk we went to the playground at the park. As you can see here, a long day the day before with no nap was catching up. The playground just couldn't even muster the energy.

Noni getting a photo-op of Jackson coming down the slide.

Not sure I understood this pose - but he held it long enough to get a picture!

Jackson finally starting to waken up with Papa giving him a push on the swing.

This was Monday morning before they headed to the airport. When Brandon and I picked up Jackson that afternoon from daycare Jackson wanted to know if we were going back to the airprot to get Papa - he was saving him his seat in the back with him.

This weekend we sort of took it easy. We've all be dealing with the wonderful allergy season kick-off of runny noses, coughing, itchy eyes, and sore throats. Friday nigh was a long night with Jackson - not wanting to go to bed to wetting the bed at 4am and having to go through a whole strip-down change of everything. So Saturday we just made it to Wal-Mart then back home. Today it was obvious Jackson had cabin fever and it was time to go somewhere. We are still hesitant about going back to church with him just yet - probably in the next few weeks before Nana and Paka get here. (Those that don't know - he had a meltdown one Sunday in the daycare center. So bad so that they had to push him in the hallway in a stoller to calm him down. We're afraid he's going to have a relapse if we try to go back).

Anyway - we decided to head to Longwood Gardens. We haven't been in awhile so we thought it would be fun for Jackson to play in the water. Here are some pictures from today:

Jackson's first encounter with water he can play in - when we first entered the conservatory he wanted to go at a big reflecting pool that was NOT in the Children's Garden. It was pretty funny.

Next to the water fountain in the middle they have paint brushes that you dip in water and can paint the walls.

Playing with the water coming out of the frogs mouth.

See the shooting water behind us? I picked Jackson up so he could get a closer look - and he loved it.

Jackson checking out the flowers.

Jackson sitting next to the Beefsteak Plant.

Here was two interesting observations about today - 1) Jackson will say 'cheese' but will not look at the camera right now. Getting a picture with him looking the correct way is rare. And 2) Jackson was not all that thrilled about getting wet at the gardens! I had to convince him that is was ok, to keep playing, and that we had a spare set of clothes for him to wear. It was really funny!

The ever changing life of Jackson.....still at its best.

Snow Angel Pictures

2009-03-03T20:56:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures from this evening when we went out. It was a short amount of time, but fun and here are some funny pictures from today - we ventured out and learned about the 'Snow Angel'.

Here is Jackson's 1st snow angel.

This is Jackson standing back and looking at my snow angel.

I was trying to help Jackson in making his snow angel. In the process some snow got down his sleeve and I had to try and get it out.

CHEESE!

Ralphie's little brother again - just couldn't quite get up from all the clothes.

The snow was really fluffy still - really hadn't started to turn to ice yet because it didn't even get near 30 today. Brandon thought it would be funny while I was on the ground and kick the fluffy snow all over me - and it did get all over me!

Snow Day

2009-03-03T14:16:00.006-05:00

It was quite a surprised to be told on Saturday morning by my friend Kellie that we were to get 6 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday. I thought she was crazy. And then we started watching and listening to weather reports and found that the system that was heading our way was doing quite a bit of damage on states in the south. And then the number of inches began to increase and we went to bed Sunday night expecting to see anywhere from 6-14 inches of snow by the time we woke up Monday morning.

Since moving to Delaware in 2004 we have only really experienced one other snow storm that basically slowed life down to a stop and that was in the winter of 2005. We had enough snow to have 2 days off of school and a late in on the 3rd day. It was a mess, and lots of fun. When Jack was around 6 months old we had a really bad ice storm that kept us out of school for 2 days because traveling was so bad. And then we had a late winter blast on Sunday, the first day of March, that was not quite as bad as 2005, but ended up being just as fun.

I was really excited that this was going to be Jackson's first chance at getting into some good snow. And the snow that feel did not disappointed. It was light, fluffy snow - not wet at all - perfect to play in. The only problem in the whole ordeal was that in the last two days the highest the temperature has gotten is 25! And you have to count in the 15-20 MPH wind gusts that bring the wind chill down into the teens and single digits. So we got outside long enough to snap a few pictures, clean off the cars, and play. Hopefully we'll get outside today too and enjoy it before the 40s and 50s return this weekend!

Suited up and ready to go.

Brandon and Jackson attempting to build a snowman. This is as far as it got because it was so cold!

Jackson feel down several times because he had so many layers of clothes on to stay warm. I would have to help him get up everything time - Ralphie's little brother (again!)

This pictures does not do the snow justice - the wind was sending the snow every which way, creating drifts of snow that were over a foot deep.

Here's Jackson with his shovel. I think he was zoning out at this point because the cold was getting to him :)

The Explorer is the middle car - honestly, not too bad! It wasn't too difficult to get the cars unburied from this storm!

Jackson the helper - he wanted to help clear off the cars like Daddy.

Jackson attempting to do something with the Explorer. Only he knows....

Posing with the brush.

Here is the end of the day picture. All smiles, but terribly tired (we all were!).

Massive Update

2009-02-15T21:09:00.011-05:00

Wow - so in a short amount of time a lot has happened. Sorry for the massively long update, but I know everyone will appreciate the pictures!

The last week of January we had Uncle Ralph over for dinner. Jackson is sort of going through this 'man' phase and loves getting the attention of males around us. He really was not shy at all and had Ralph join right in playing with his toys. Ralph also brought Jackson's Christmas present from Aunt Carol. Here is the present-opening process.

During Christmas, Jackson became a pro at opening gifts. He got into this one no problem!

Here he is prying it open - again no problem.

Here is Jackson and Uncle Ralph playing with his tractor that he got from Aunt Whitney and Uncle Billy for Christmas. The blanket Jackson is sitting on is the Christmas present from Aunt Carol - he love it! Thank you!!

Jackson was seriously glued to Ralph while he was here! He wanted to show him all his toys and how they worked.

Ok, so in the last few weeks Jackson has begun to get interested in the potty. Not overally interested, but we've pooped and peed on the potty a few times. I said has 'begun' to be interested. So today he told me he needed to poop and when I told him let's go to the potty, he said, no mom - go in my diaper. Oh well. It was fun the few times it happened! Here is a great shot that I tried to keep PG :)

Me coaching Jack on the potty. Guess it was not successful.

The other thing that has been popular in the last few weeks is cooking. Not sure why, but he has been raiding my cabinets for my pots and pans and wants to cook all the time. So last Saturday Jackson and I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. LOVE the apron from Noni and Papa from Christmas. It fits him great and he felt like such a little chef with it on!

There we are hamming it up - so glad Brandon took this picture right after we got out of bed!

I'm coaching Jackson :)

Putting on the finishing touches. Jackson tried to eat a spoon full of the dry baking mix. His response - It's good mom. HA!

That night we went over to Kellie and Rick's just sort of spur of the moment. It was great fun. Kellie cooked an awesome meal and the boys got to play. They were really pretty funny. These pictures are of them in the full Nerf attack gear. Jackson and Luke ran around with the little guns shooting each other.

Jack fully outfitted.

The two boys- see how long this game lasted? Jackson has a boat in his hand I think??

The next day we went to Lum's Pond State Park near our house to get outside. The temperature was 70 degrees!! For February that just doesn't happen all that much so we took advantage of it. These are silly....

Jackson was SO tired from the night before he was a bit delirious.

Good smiles..

Still smiles climbing through the playground.

Looks pretty vacant, but there were quite a few people there. Way less than Glasgow Park though!

Jailbird.

Liked the landscape in this photo - the water behind Jackson was still half frozen.

Deep in thought....

Still thinking, which stick should I grab next???

Bill and Nikki met us out at the park with the kids. Loved this picture of these two.

Having a blast.

The other night it finally had started to be more like winter again so hot chocolate sounded good to Brandon. Well, you're not getting something like that past Jackson. These pictures are pretty funny.

Jackson and Brandon blowing on the hot chocolate to cool it down.

Jackson really didn't believe Brandon when he told him it was hot. So Jack would go in for a sip and pull back really quick because it really was that hot!

And that brings us to today. Very exciting and monumental moment - the day Jackson moved into a big bed. When we were at Luke's house he had a stock car bed that Jackson just loved. I'm not sure how much he really loved it and how much he was just exhausted from playing. Well, we looked at the beds and decided that we'd try to find one that was used. Brandon found one on Ebay and bid $50 on it and won. He went and picked it up in Philly today and got it all set up. We'll see tomorrow how the first night was, but here are the pictures of Jackson getting ready for tonight!

Here is the Valentine Lili made for Jackson - he loved it!

One-eyed Jack.

All smiles right now!

So as of now Jackson is about out in his bed. He played until almost 930pm with the night light on and Brandon finally went in and told him he was going to turn it off. No arguing from Jackson - he said he was tired and ready to go to sleep!

Again, sorry for the massive update. Lots has happened and at least we have taken pictures along the way! Thanks for getting through the whole thing if you made it here!! :)

Snow Day

2009-01-29T20:26:00.004-05:00

We've been waiting and finally Mother Nature came through on Tuesday. Not too much, but just enough for Jackson to have his first real taste of playing in snow. He loved it. Brandon packed his 'snow clothes' for Jackie's and he got to play outside with Logan. He loved it. On Tuesday night it snowed pretty good and we got 2-3 inches. I had a snow day on Wednesday and it rained so now its all yucky, no fun ice. So I'm glad we got some time outside when we did and got these pictures!! Weather is calling for more next week!

Brandon throwing a snowball at Jackson.

Brandon trying to get the snow out of Jackson's shirt - it fell down there from the snowball :)

Jackson discovering there was snow on the trees!

At about this point, Jack's hands were getting cold. The gloves he had on weren't doing a good job. (LOOK! Ralphie's other little brother Jackson!!)

Jackson really wanted Grizzly and Greta to come outside. So we let them out....and Jackson just wanted to follow her around :)

Look! New gloves!!! (Yea - those are for 6 month olds!)

Ok - so shameful for me to post this, but those are our Halloween pumpkins and our Christmas tree WITH lights still on it. As you can tell, totally rotten pumpkins. They went out the trash shortly after these pictures were taken. Tree? It is still on the back porch. We missed the window of opportunity for the recycle locations and now have to figure out what to do with it!

Jackson was pulling the chair out to get comfy :)

Jackson and Brandon cleaning off the porch. Well, trying to at least.

I got Jackson to smile by telling him to look at Daddy's silly hat. And then he started to laugh :)

Train Ride

2009-01-24T20:57:00.004-05:00

On a cold winter's day there's not a whole lot of things to keep a 2 year old entertained with on the weekends. Since Christmas, and Noni and Papa chasing the trains in Cameron, Jackson has really become focused on trains and everything to do with trains. I looked up the Wilmington Railroad and they don't have any runs until later on this spring when it gets warmer. So, we'll have to save that for April or May. But Jack has still be requesting to ride on a 'Choo-Choo Train'.

Just to give you an idea of how obsessed he is, on our ride home from Jackie's he often 'shushish' me and says 'You hear it? You hear the Choo-Choo Train?' You hear it?!' Or the other day he wanted to so badly to go home, get a wrench, and go fix the train. What train? I have no idea - but he was SO persistent when we got home, that he wanted to put his jacket back on and go fix the train. Still - no clue what train he was talking about.

So I thought I would check into the SEPTA that has a regional rail line from Wilmington into Philly and what the schedule was like on the weekends. I found out it was about an hour ride from Wilmington into the Philly Market Street Station, a fairly large station right next to the Philadelphia Convention Center. It also is right next to the Reading Terminal Market, a really neat indoor farmer's market. We had 2 hours once we got off the train before the next train would be heading back to Wilmington (basically, the train we were on would run the route again and we'd catch it on its next run). So we road the train and Jack LOVED it. He was so excited and really was great on both legs (a little antsy on the ride back, but that's because he was goofy tired). We ate lunch at Maggiano's and walked around the market. We got 2 really good cookies from The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company and Jackson carried the bag until we got on the train so he could eat a piece of cookie.

Overall, fun trip. Definitely a do-again and couldn't beat the price - $9/round trip tickets for me and Brandon and Jackson was free! Enjoy the pictures :)

Getting ready for the train to leave.

Looking at the Delaware Bay on the train ride into Philly.

At the Market Street Station looking over the tracks.

No matter how many trains went by, Jackson was excited at everyone of them.

Out of excitement, Jackson bumped his chin on that railing and busted his lip! Didn't stop him though and attention went right back to the trains!

Luke's Birthday Party

2009-01-11T20:39:00.003-05:00

Today was Luke's 3rd birthday party. First off - Luke's 3???!?! Holy Cow! I cannot believe he is already 3! Wow.
Anyway - we went down to this cute, local place in Camden that had a huge indoor maze/slide/ball pit place, games, and an indoor train. Jackson woke up this morning sort of off and not feeling well. I really think its because of the second half of the flu shot he got on Friday. But we packed up and headed down because he was all excited about seeing Luke for his party. Jack was really attached to me or Brandon the whole time we were there, but still had a good time while he was. Here are some fun pictures of the stuff we did.

Brandon helping Jackson play skee-ball.

Jackson just sat in this helicopter. It didn't work, but pretending was good enough.

We tried to get Jackson to play the car driving games, but he wasn't really interested after you put the token in! He just liked pretending.

Coming out of the maze - and yes, that's me behind him. My knees were killing me!

There's me and Jackson at the top of the maze. We had a fun time crawling all over the place!

There we are cheesing for the camera!

This was the indoor train. It took a while for Jack to warm up to it, but he rode it several times before it was all done. And yes - that's Lili he's sharing the conductor seat with and CJ hanging on in the back!

Merry Texas Christmas, Y'all

2009-01-01T16:29:00.012-05:00

Well, it was a quick but fun week. We arrived to Texas on Christmas day after a long morning of traveling. Me-Ma and Aunt Jane were in Houston, so we stuck around there for a few days to see them. Jack was quite the helper with opening presents - he wanted to open everyone's, not just his. It was fun though. He was just so tired from the morning that I don't think he really appreciated even his gifts - he was just in tear apart mode!

The group family photo became a game to Jack - he thought is was funny that Paka was running back and forth to the camera!

Jackson helping Me-Ma open a gift.

Me-Ma showing Jackson how to open up his tractor 'basket'.

We traveled to Cameron on Saturday and waited until Sunday to open gifts after Jackson had a good nights rest. He got some really fun stuff - new books, tractors, and a cool wiggle racer. I spared everyone pictures of Brandon suited up on the racer. Someday I have a blackmail picture I can use!

Noni showing Jackson some of his neat, new interactive books.

Watching our 'subject' open all his gifts.

Sunday for lunch we went and had the Lafferty Christmas over at Cindy and Dale's. It was really fun for Jackson to play with all his cousins, all which are 5 and under. It is neat to see how the Lafferty Christmas has changed in the last 5 years - from all grown ups to now 6 great-grand kids.

Jackson playing with one of the MANY toys that were around the house.

Jackson found Halyee's pink glasses - Now why does he not want to wear glasses that we buy him and he throws a fit when we take these off?

Here's the family pose - Jackson was a little upset about losing the pink glasses, but I thought better be upset than have those forever in our pictures!

Jack, Brayden, and Jordan playing outside. Burning off whatever steam they actually had left - all three of those boys were tired!!

Brayden pushing Jackson around the yard on Haylee's pink bike!

Jackson's favorite - a wagon. The pumpkin was no where to be found after this event. Cindy will have a great pumpkin vine next fall!

On Monday we traveled to Round Rock to meet up with Kristy, Woody, and Michael as they drove through back to St. Louis. We stopped and ate at the new Salt Lick BBQ right next to the Dell Diamond. Since we were eating at 3pm, Jackson really wasn't interested in food so we had to find a source of entertainment to keep him occupied while everyone else dined. He thought it was hilarious when you turned the camera right around at his face and the flash went off. He had to have taken 75 pictures that day and I deleted the majority of them, but here a few good ones.

And today is our last full day in Houston before we load up and head back to the COLD Mid-Atlantic. We had to go visit Pete this morning. Jackson was super excited when we got there, then pretty much not interested at all to ride him when it was his turn. But we were entertained while he ran all over the place with his hat on, looking like he was ready to go!

Jackson feeding Pete a carrot.

Paka putting Jack's hat on, getting ready to ride.

Pouting because we really didn't want to ride - but the stairs were pretty cool!

Well, hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a great start to 2009! We'll keep updating the blog and letting everyone know how things are going. Next month I'll have been doing this for a year! Hard to believe, but a neat way to see how Jackson has grown!

Santa, Cookies, and Cold Weather

2008-12-22T21:02:00.002-05:00

Well, Santa made a visit to Jackson in Delaware on Saturday. He knew Jackson wasn't going to be at his house for Christmas day, but wanted to give him some toys for being a good boy this year so he was so gracious to stop by early. He got a Geotrax setup with a remote control fire truck and a big boulder mountain with a digger, a push mower, a power drill, and a cool floor puzzle. He played and played on Saturday. The fire truck was a way hit because the remote is pretty easy for him to understand so he has had a lot of fun with it so far. We may have to pack it and take it to Texas so he can show everyone down there :)
So that was Saturday. On Sunday we had some ice outside (the cars were completely covered in the morning), so we were slow moving to get started. We headed to Dover to the Target, just to get out for a minute. It was Brandon and I's anniversary so we celebrated with a Sonic lunch! It was so romantic - that's about all the time you can afford with a 2 year old! The whole ride down Jackson kept wanting to go to the store to see Santa and then it was go to the store to see Paka. He kept thinking that when we got there he would see one of the two - how the mind of a 2 year old must work is unbelievable! On Sunday night I wanted to let Jackson make sugar cookies with us. Thought it would be fun and he is always curious about what we're cookin. I have not laughed that hard and that much in a long time. I videoed the whole thing and will have to go back and watch it sometime in the near future. I took only two pictures and then started videoing and helping out. The two pictures are pretty good though - Jackson didn't quite understand the concept that when you handed him a measured out cup that he just had to dump it in the bowl. He would dump the whole cup of sugar or flour just right on the counter, missing the huge bowl completely. Pretty funny.
It has been incredibly cold here yesterday and today. Today the high was only 25 and when I left for work this morning our weather gauge couldn't even register the temperature because it was so cold, but the radio said it was around 15. We are really looking forward to heading to Texas on Thursday so we can thaw out for a bit. I have one more day of school tomorrow and then Wednesday I will begin packing and cleaning up the house. Really am glad we're leaving Christmas day so I don't feel completely rushed to get ready to go and fly out on Wednesday. It will stink to be traveling Christmas day, but that's just how it will be. Enjoy the pictures from 'Christmas' morning and cooking!

Ho, Ho, Ho....Here Comes Santa!

2008-12-15T21:31:00.005-05:00

Well the last week has been eventful. In a monsoon on Thursday evening we got our Christmas tree. Jackson has been seeing them everywhere and gets so excited when he sees them. So we got our tree and started decorating on Friday. Jackson did not want to do anything but decorate the tree - he didn't eat dinner until 630pm that night because he was so focused on decorating the tree. We got 48 shatterproof ornaments (and amazingly enough, Jackson has already destroyed a few). Just a few other random ornaments on there this year, but just want to keep it pretty plain and 2-year old proof. So that was fun.

Then on Saturday we went to the mall just to see Santa. Jackson loves him too for some strange reason. I'm not sure I quite understand why he really gets into the 'holiday' spirit, but with Halloween and Thanksgiving he was pumpkin crazy and now its Santa, Snowmen, and Christmas trees. Who knows. We got to the 'North Pole' and there was no line! On a Saturday afternoon? Well, at our mall they have a wait list with call-buzzers that let you know when its your turn so you don't have to physically wait in line! It was great! We only waited about 20 minutes and then walked right up to Santa. I wasn't sure what Jack would do, but he let go of my hand and just took off towards Santa, talking to him about his new ornament we had just bought him in the mall. No issues at all - I picked him up and put him right in Santa's lap. He got his picture taken and everything. No screaming, no nothing. TOTALLY amazed me!

So, enjoy the pictures! We look forward to having many more in the next week when we head to Texas!

Christmas: Part 1

2008-12-08T20:31:00.003-05:00

Due to the fact that we will be in Texas for Christmas, I had already decided that we would give Jack his presents early so that he could play with them here before we travel. Plus the fact that he will get plenty when we are down at the grandparents'. Well, I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but tonight after I brought him home and he ate (which he ate really well), he was in a really good mood so I thought now was as good as any. One thing at a time, so we gave him the first gift, a tool set.
We thought of this gift after Jack has wanted to help Brandon 'work' several times. He likes Brandon's real tools and has fun helping him. There was this set from Target that was really cute. It looked just like something Brandon would have, very realistic. He is getting really a sharp memory these days and knew right away that the thing I was bringing out in a bag was a 'present' for Jackson. He busted right into the bag and got the toys out, knowing right away again that they were tools. He played and played for about an hour with the set. He learned saw, wrench, and pliers. Very impressed :) Here are some fun pictures from tonight. Took video too that will be fun to watch later. Enjoy!

My Childhood Dreams Come True.....

2008-11-28T21:34:00.006-05:00

What can I say? After 30 years, I got to attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (the 82nd Annual). Something I truly didn't think I would get the chance to do in my lifetime. It was a really neat experience. There was something like 3.5 million people there! We stayed right in Times Square and were able to walk out our hotel and watch the parade go by. Really fun. Jackson had a good time too. Weather was cooperative, cold but sunny. Balloons were really neat and big. We went to 79th Street the night before and saw them blowing up the balloons. Still really cannot believe we were there! Here are some pictures from the past few days......

Hat & Gloves

2008-11-15T22:53:00.003-05:00

Thought this was funny....Jack has always had an aversion to hats. Never likes to wear them seriously (sometimes he wears his cowboy hat for fun, but that's it). Well, in less than 2 weeks we are going to NYC to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (YEA!!) and if its cold, which it very well could be, then he will need something on his head and hands to stay warm while we're outside for a few hours watching the balloons go by. I found this hat/glove set at Wal-Mart for like $6. I didn't want to really spend anymore because he can't stand the hats, so I thought it was a wasted purchase, but did it anyway so we had it. Well, he wants to wear it around the house and puts the gloves on and everything. Strange yes - but then he was saying he was ready to go outside, so maybe there's hope? When I post pictures from our trip, you'll be able to see if it worked or not....in the mean time, here are some pictures of the 'practice' run!

Pumpkin Carving

2008-11-01T21:40:00.006-05:00

Well, we decided to forgo trick or treating this year for a few reasons - A) Because it gets pretty chilly once the sun goes down, B) The sun sets at like 615pm which would mean we have to walk around in the dark, and C) Jackson has had enough candy until the next Halloween! So, after weighing all our options, we met at the farmhouse and carved pumpkins with the UD group. We met at 5pm which gave us just enough time to get things done before the sun started going down. I realize its a little late to get the pumpkins carved, but better late than never :) Brandon bought the pumpkins yesterday before we met so they were there waiting for us when we arrived. Brandon got Jackson a little pumpkin just his size for him to carry around. And that he did. Brandon carved the first pumpkin and Jackson really got into it - watching Brandon and then wanting to use the 'shovel' so he could clean out the inside. When Brandon's pumpkin was finished, Jackson wanted his pumpkin to have a face too. So I carved Jackson's pumpkin. I have to admit - I love this time of year, but this has to be my most dreaded holiday tradition. I just don't like gutting them and then I am just not artistic enough to do any type of decent looking face. But I did - Jackson watched for awhile, but got distracted by all the other festivities. Here are some pictures - we brought the pumpkins home and put lights in them and watched them on the back porch. Jackson went and sat several times today to stare at him pumpkin.....

Jackson checking out Dad's pumpkin.

Jackson carrying around his pumpkin.

Wait a minute - what happened?

Let's see - is there anything still in there?

Look how happy he looks!

Jackson running over to hear the train. The farmhouse is probably about 100 yards from the Amtrak train tracks.

Jackson giving critiques as Mom carves his pumpkin.

The pumpkin line-up. Jackson is making sure nothing is happening to his.

And the chase is on.....the candy was finally kicking in and Jackson was running off with his pumpkin!

Halloween Candy Craziness

2008-10-26T19:11:00.004-05:00

Today was the City of Newark's Halloween Parade in downtown Newark. I had thought it might be more fun for Jackson to experience Halloween today because Friday is Halloween and it gets dark at like 630pm here so not nearly as fun as it could be. Anyway - we got there and watched the parade that probably lasted a good 45 minutes. There were bands, scout troops, antique cars, and of course, politicians all in the parade and Jackson actually sat and watched it all. I was surprised, but it was also overwhelming to him the amount of people and activities going on there. He stayed close to me and Brandon. We went with our friends Katie and Matt to, which was fun spending time with them!
So, we watched the parade and Jackson collected candy as people were walking through. And for some reason, I so smartly started to give him pieces here and there. Bad move. He had a box of JujyFruits, a 1/2 a Kit Kat, a piece of a Tootise Roll, and a Dum Dum (his first sucker!). We cut him off and once the parade was over we walked around to the businesses to collecte yet more candy in his pumpkin. It was cute - there were lots of kids all dressed up so it was fun pointing out other costumes to Jack. LOTS of kids dressed up as Phillies baseball players - wonder why! We hit a few store fronts, collected candy then made the walk back to Matt and Katie's house.
I don't know if that was the right amount of time for the sugar to sink in or what, but he just started going CRAZY once we got back. Matt and Katie's new dog, AJ, was just as hyper and the two of them were bouncing all over the place. Jackson was talking so fast and all over the place it was hard to even understand what was going on! We got back to the house, he ate a big dinner, and then bath and bed. What a crazy day, but lots of fun! Enjoy the pictures!

Jackson on Dad's shoulders as the parade was beginning.

Jackson sticking close to Dad as the parade goes by.

Jack and Dad cheesing for the camera!

Jackson getting some candy for his pumpkin.

Jackson and Mom watching the parade - check out his first sucker!

Mom and Jackson walking Main Street to go trick-or-treating.

The Chemistry of Cousins

2008-10-18T19:47:00.003-05:00

On Thursday we were so excited that Tamara, Sam, and the kids got to come visit. Sam's family is from Scranton so it was a few hours drive to get down and see us and we were so excited they did. Jack and Caden had met before, but it's been almost a year - and how things change in a year! I always worry about Jackson's ability to share, understanding that its ok to let other kids come and play with his things. And I've seen him be overbearing, trying to establish his dominance, especially around his own stuff. But when Caden came over it was almost like Jack understood - like he felt that bond that Caden was family. It was really fun watching them play together. They communicated like a 2 and 1 1/2 year would with each other - broken up sentences, laughing, saying 'mine'.....and it was really great. It makes me miss home and Jack's ability to see his cousins more frequently! It seems like there are plenty that are around his age - I think all the 'Noni's' should retire and have a family daycare for the kids! Couldn't think of better people to take care of them and better playmates for them to grow up around!!

Period of Reflection, Accomplishment

2008-10-09T20:15:00.003-05:00

So, tomorrow the boys have been gone a week. A WEEK! I can't hardly believe that its been a week because I have been absolutely swamped with work and chores. The sad thing is that Brandon and Jack will probably get back and not even realize that things are different. I have to say though, I redid my the extra bathroom which was in major need of it. I also put away all my spring/summer clothes and hauled my fall stuff out of the garage. The garage that's down the street. Luckily, last Sunday was a very nice day to do that :) I decorated the house for fall, which I don't think has been done since Jack was born. It just felt like I did something. But it also made me realize how empty this place feels without Brandon and Jackson. And how much it makes me realize the importance of slowing down and living life with my boys. Every night this week I have come home, ate dinner alone, and immediately pulled out school work to grade and input into my online gradebook. I just don't understand why I had all this work this week? I mean on a normal basis I'm good - I come home, help Brandon, cook dinner, etc....but this week it seems I had so much more work to do than normal? Not sure exactly what took place and what I missed, but it made me realize that I do enjoy those pain-staking nights of playing on the living room floor with Jackson's million little tractors. And giving Jackson a bath, getting his stuff ready for the next day - not as bad as I once thought (even though next week ask me again and I'll take this all back!). As we enter this 'thankful' time of year, I think I had an early Thanksgiving this year - I realized that taking a step back and taking in the surroundings, even though overwhelming at times, can be the most joyful moments of our lives.

My Boys are Gone :(

2008-10-03T16:15:00.002-05:00

Well, it's back to the days of being lonely! I hope my boys are having a good time in Houston and Cameron. I'm jealous that I'm not down there, but at the same time I would have missed so much school it would have been pretty stressful. I hope they have a great time! I'll miss them dearly!!

Back to Our Main Subject....

2008-09-27T22:38:00.008-05:00

So, I won't discuss sports anymore on here since this was supposed to be the blog focused on our family (well - let's be honest. It's really just pictures of Jackson). And I thought these pictures were pretty funny that we took yesterday while he soaked his leg in the sink. You ask, why is he sitting on the kitchen counter, in just a diaper, soaking his foot in the sink? Well, somewhere along the way he got a spider bite right above his ankle. On Thursday night I sort of noticed it right before bedtime, so we soaked it well and Brandon really picked at it. He went to the doctor on Friday morning and found that we were on the downside and that he was fine. He'll tell you thought that it 'hurts' and that its a 'bug bite'. Brandon decided to strip him down to just a diaper before letting him up there. Just doesn't really work when he scooted his bum-bum right into the sink full of water. Oh well. It really was quite hilarious. He's really funny - starting to really put words together now! These pictures are sure to make you laugh!

CHEESE! (This picture will definitely come back to haunt him in the future!)

Time to Root for Another Team :(

2008-09-27T11:57:00.003-05:00

Well, for all of you that really care, the Astros just didn't quite make the cut this year. Injuries, player trades, and a hurricane made for an overall frustrating season. It will be sad to see Brad Ausmus go - I have to admit many times I have called him 'Double-Play Ausmus', but he's been a great catcher and a solid part of the Astros line-up. Cheers to you, 'Double-Play Ausmus'. It's been a fun ride.
So, now on to the NLDS with the Cubs. Brandon predicts they'll lose in the first round to the Dodgers. We'll see. They are having injury issues right now as well. We'll see how things turn out. I have a feeling that 100-year dry spell might just be up.....it will make for one exciting October.

Ok....So I'm not the only one

2008-09-22T13:59:00.002-05:00

So, I miss a lot of the banter that goes on in the Chronicle. It was good to see this FRONTPAGE on Yahoo today - I'm glad to see Berkman and Brocail calling Bud out. If it was NY or the BoSox then yea, I'm almost 99.9% sure too it would have been at the end of the season....but we'll never know, will we??
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/The-Astros-are-not-letting-go-of-this-beef-with-?urn=mlb,109538

The Frustrations of a Long Season

2008-09-21T21:21:00.002-05:00

So, I've pretty much kept this blog centered around family and what we've been doing in N. Delaware. I just can't hold it in any longer....I am a deeply frustrated Astros fan who just doesn't get how season after season they continue to be in the same place with weeks left to go. Most of you know that read this that I truly love the Astros. All time, most favorite thing to do on a weeknight or during a Sunday afternoon is to watch the Astros on my beloved Directv MLB-pack (thank you Brandon!). Maybe that's it - maybe I'm missing what is really going on with these guys because I'm so far away, but I see a few issues with the team that I just don't understand, and honestly maybe I never really will.
1) Why, WHY does it take forever for our team to finally get in sync with one another?? I mean it's like the first 30-something games we are sucking wind, having cold bats, and REALLY lousy pitching. Isn't that what spring training and preseason is for - get that out of your systems in APRIL PEOPLE!
2) Why do we hold on to people that play inconsistent ball and continue to get on the DL? I'm not going to name names, but a few pitchers I find could do better elsewhere - case in point BRAD LIDGE.
3) Why do I feel like I'm the only one feeling this pain? Astros fans are either die hard, or just there to jump on the bandwagon. They deserve better than this. I'm not saying we'll be like the Cubbie's fans one day, but at least give me a glimmer of hope....
With only 6 games to go in the season before postseason play starts I find it very disappointing to be finishing just shy of the playoffs again. I know we want to point fingers and say BUD KILLED US, but we have look back to May and June and wonder -what could have been different than to help the issue now? I hate to say it, but another year lost - guess I'll have to change my views for the man in the house who loves the Chi Cubs. At least they are on a winning streak FOR NOW. Until Spring 09 in Kissimmiee......

Birthday Fun

2008-09-20T20:33:00.008-05:00

Wow! What a day! Today was Lili's 3rd birthday party and it was quite the extravaganza. The main attraction was the castle moon bounce - Jackson was not quite sure how that was going to go, but he loved it in the end. Very scared, shy of what it was going to be like. He really held on to me like he wasn't sure what was going to happen, but was bouncing around like crazy before too long!
It was great seeing Carol and Ralph there too. Aunt Carol got Jackson a too cute outfit for his birthday - looks like he will be a part of Ka-chow's pit crew this fall!!! It will be perfect for those fall days that are approaching ever so quickly!
Well, enjoy the pictures - I'm pretty tired so I'm gonna head to bed shortly! Oh- and disclaimer about the pics - they are backwards from which they occurred! SO the first picture is actually the last!

Jackson having a good time in the bounce.
Jackson worn out after bouncing!
Jackson and Aunt Carol playing with bubbles!

Aunt Carol chasing Jackson in the moon bounce.

Jackson taking a breather!

Up close and personal from the inside!

Jackson still trying to gain his balance - watch out Kellie!

Picture Update

2008-09-10T20:47:00.009-05:00

I don't have time to catch everyone up to what's going on, but thought I'd share some pictures of Jackson and his new tractor!

Jackson's Big Day

2008-08-31T20:50:00.003-05:00

What a day! Jackson turned 2 today - it's hard to believe that he has reached this milestone (I know - there are so many yet to come!). We had a fun-filled packed day. We started off this morning heading to Home Depot and Lowe's, having a chance to get on every type of lawnmower/tractor he could possibly get his hands on. I think he's about at the point now though that sitting on them isn't quite as satisfying as it use to be. He jumped from one tractor to another really before he had a chance to even sit down!
Let's see.....then we ate lunch and headed home for a nice 2 hours+ nap which was much needed! Then we had to get the birthday cake in sometime, so Jackson had a chance to blow-out the candles and we let him dig into some cake. And he literally wore it. But, it was his day so it was ok! We then headed to the UD farm to have dinner with Brandon's group. We grilled out and Jack had a chance to see the farm equipment up-close. He got to see the combine, blue and green tractors, and lots of additions. It was lots of fun, but we got home and he crashed. Cannot believe he's 2! Enjoy the pics!

It's been awhile.....

2008-08-29T21:12:00.005-05:00

So, I got a little busy in the last month! After fair, Jackson and I left and traveled to Texas. What a whirlwind that was! We had to arrive in Houston late because of the hurricane in early August, and then we traveled straight to Pensacola to see Mema and Aunt Jane. We had a great time! Jackson had his first trip to the beach, which was pretty interesting but fun. We then traveled back to Texas, where we spent a day in Houston then went to Cameron to see Noni and Papa. Jackson went with Papa and got to whoa-whoa the firetrucks. It was a huge hit. When then traveled back to Houston and flew back to Delaware. Crazy 10 days! Notw I'm back to school :( Teaching middle school this year and finding a definite challenge. Ok.....here are some pics from the trip! Enjoy!

Delaware State Fair

2008-07-24T19:18:00.005-05:00

Well, there's no 'Big Tex', but the Delaware State Fair is quite the experience. Always in mid to late July, the fair is a fun, 10 day experience that includes loads of things to do.
Ok, so that's what they want you to think - but to Jackson, it was ALL about the tractors! It had to have been almost a 100 degrees this past Sunday, but Jackson had to have at least sat on 20 to 30 tractors that day, all of which were in the sun. He had a great time 'tractor whoa-whoaing' and didn't even noticed that he was wearing a hat!
Luckily, I have figured out that Lowe's also has riding lawnmowers INDOORS, so we did that this past Monday instead :) MUCH better being inside while Jack gets his fill of getting to 'drive' :)
It was great to see Pa-Pa and Noni this weekend :) Jackson still calls the occasional 'Pa-Pa' looking to see if anyone will come running. We're getting him back into shape, well, sort of. But that's ok - its great for me to see him starting to get attached to someone other than us and Jackie. I think at least he is really starting to know that Papa and Noni are important to him too just as much as Mom and Dad. Now, if we could only get him to say Noni.....
So, this weekend wraps up the grand 'ol fair. This will also be my last official fair on duty. WOOHOO. Next year I'll get to go for pleasure :) How nice will that be? Hopefully THAT will be the last!

It's a Miracle!

2008-07-12T20:45:00.004-05:00

I honestly cannot believe that Jackson finally had a blast in the pool at Bill and Nikki's today! He was in the pool with no help from Brandon besides some floaties (obviously Brandon was right there by him just in case!). I'm sure next time it will be completely opposite of this experience, but it seemed like he had a blast.

We had a cookout to send Carol back home. It was fun having her here and I really wish she was still here so she could take Jackson and hang out with him (well - honestly, she'd be a GREAT babysitter!!). Here are some more pictures of Jackson in the pool! We had a great time with Carol and look forward to seeing her soon!!!!

Pictures.....

2008-07-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share a few pictures from the last few days. Jackson at the pool on Thursday and then eating breakfast with me yesterday morning. I made blueberry banana muffins and Jackson loved them. He ate the whole thing! Hope everyone is doing well. I will be at a conference all next week - have a great week!

Texas Trip

2008-07-02T20:36:00.002-05:00

So, we had a great time while we were down in Texas. It was quick, but filled with lots of fun. Jackson seemed to really enjoy himself. He did great with sleeping and eating and adjusted very quickly which was great and less stressful for everyone else. We went and saw Wall-E on Saturday, which was Jackson's first movie. He had a good time, but fell asleep about an hour into it! Oh well - he at least didn't force us to leave! We took plenty of time in the pool and relaxing because we rarely get that here. We got back on Monday and we're all back to the grind! Here is a great video of Jackson in the pool with my mom. He gets excited because my dad, or who he likes to call 'Paka' comes back outside from the garage. Hope you enjoy!

THOMAS!

2008-06-22T19:12:00.006-05:00

So, today we went and rode with Thomas the Train. Those of you with little kids might have heard of this guy before. Well, we decided to go with Kellie, Rick, and Luke and check it out. Luke is a HUGE fan of Thomas and it was a really exciting day for him. Jackson is just getting the concept that it was a 'choo-choo' that he was on. He was beat by the end of the ride! If it would have been 'Ka-chow' I think he would have been doing flips. But overall this was a great day and it was fun to do something a little different. Jackson is really soaking things in right now and activities like these are really neat to do just to see his face and the thought processes I'm sure that are going through his head! Enjoy the pictures!

Brandon and Jackson taking a look at Thomas.

Brandon and Jackson on the train.

A picture of all 3 of us when we were done. Can you tell Jackson is tired?

Bye Jules!

2008-06-18T21:02:00.005-05:00

So, I can't believe she got out of Delaware before us, but I am completely jealous! She is a great friend and we'll really miss her. The last couple of years we haven't gotten to see her as much as we have liked, but at least she came over a few times and babysat Jack! I hope to continue to see her on visits and to stay in contact! Hope you had a safe trip back to VA!!! We'll miss you!

Here are some pictures of Jules and Jack the other night after we had dinner.....

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-14T13:06:00.012-05:00

I thought I would post a few pictures of some great dads! I hope everyone has a great Father's Day and gets some rest and relaxation!

Happy Memorial Day!

2008-05-26T18:56:00.009-05:00

Jackson and I had a whirlwind of a day! We started off down in Smyrna at Kellie's and played with Luke and the ducks. It was an awesome day outside today. Finally starting to feel like summer. Here are some pics from our trip down south. We stayed until a little after lunch then headed back north for our nap.

Here's Jackson checking out the ducks cage. I hope we can live somewhere someday that he can have some pet ducks because he has really enjoyed them!

Here's Luke, Jackson, and Kellie. Kellie was getting the water ready for the ducks to go swimming.

Here's Luke catching one of the ducks! I think this one was named Max (the other one was Ruby for all you Max and Ruby fans :) !)

Jackson was checking out how Kellie and Luke fed the ducks! Those poor ducks didn't know what they had coming when they went to their house for the weekend!

After we were at Kellie and Luke's, Jackson took a long nap at home. Brandon got home from work and then we went to Bill and Nikki's for dinner. Jack hadn't seen Lili in a while so they had a good time playing in the backyard as normal.

Here's Jackson and Lili climbing up the side of the swing set.

And here's Jackson trying out watermelon! He wouldn't eat a piece of watermelon, but he was all about taking the whole piece of rind and chewing on the green part! I guess it's all trial and error at this phase! (He ended up only eating a hot dog for dinner!)

Hope everyone had a great day!

A Busy Week

2008-05-22T06:57:00.016-05:00

We had quite a busy week. This past weekend I had to work on Saturday for the Appoquinimink Education Fair to promote our Land Use Forum for the last time. I cannot believe we are wrapping it up! At the same time, I'm glad to be moving on. We had a great turn out and gave out some awesome prizes. Check our our website and see what kids in the MOT area did and taught me about Land Use!

On Sunday we ventured down to DC. It was forcasted to be a miserable day and I was sort of dreading going down there for that reason, but we got to see Charis and Sam! I don't think I had seen Charis since Teah's wedding in May 2003, which would mean that was the first time I got to meet Sam! Brandon and I were pretty busy chasing Jackson around (we went to the Air and Space Museum - he LOVED the planes!) so we didn't get to take quite as many pictures as we would have liked. Check out Sam and Charis's blog for pictures - they got to snap a few!

I've had some new classmates in my room for the past few weeks and they are noisy and smelly (see picture below)! This Friday thankfully they are leaving - I'm ready to try and get the smell out of here before school gets out! Other than that, we have less than 2 weeks left. Last night was our FFA Banquet and I found out I will be staying here at the middle school next year to teach agriscience. Will be a complete and total change, but I'm honestly hoping it will be for the better. I've been tired and wanting to spend more time with Jack and I'm hoping that the less demanding schedule of a middle school will allow me to do that. I'll keep everyone posted there!

Well, that leads me to today.....I'm leaving school at 11am to play hooky and go see the new Indiana Jones movie! I've heard mixed reviews, but I honestly don't care. I'm going to the movies! Didn't honestly know when the next time that would be :) Hope everyone is doing well!

A picture of Jackson on his first Metro ride in DC. We caught the train at the farthest Park & Ride so he could have that experience. He really didn't know what to make of it! It took him a while, but he figured out what it was and had a blast!

Jackson and Brandon and the Air and Space Museum in DC!

This was after our day running around the mall. It was probably 3pm, not overally late for Jackson's nap, but he was exhausted! He was falling asleep to the movement of the train!

A break from the rainy weather....

2008-05-15T10:37:00.005-05:00

The past few weeks have been horrible weather wise. We have had such constantly and steady amounts of rain that the ground is constantly wet. Jack has been restricted to indoors for quiet a few nights and finally on Tuesday, with nothing else to do, we went for a walk and braved the wet ground. Jack is doing so much better at holding hands while we're outside too. I don't have pictures, but last night Brandon and Jackson were moving rocks from one spot outside to another to make a little dry creek bed to spot erosion right off our back porch. Jack was hilarious - he kept saying 'rock' and would carry them over to the spot, drop them, then stomp on them to push them in place. If you asked him what he was doing, he'd say 'work'. He's getting so big!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T19:28:00.006-05:00

Well, an uneventful weekend. I'm counting down the time left in school. Cannot WAIT until it is over! We have basically 4 more weeks :) :) It's a busy 4 weeks though, so I'll be VERY happy when we get there! Here are some pictures from today! Hope everyone is doing well!

A Night with the Blue Rocks

2008-04-25T21:35:00.004-05:00

So, tonight we went to the Wilmington Blue Rocks game, a 1-A farm team of the KC Royals. Really - who watches the Royals? Anyway (that's not the point here....) we went to the game tonight because it was 'Educator Appreciation Night' so Cheryl suggested a few weeks ago that we all go. So we did. (We missed you Sarah!!!) It was really fun to let the kids hang out together, but right when the game was starting (705pm) is about the time Jackson is winding down for the night. I got a good head to the chin at one point and I'm still hurting from that :) Needless to say, the first hour was a shuffle between me and Brandon and walking around to keep Jackson happy. He settled down and realized he wasn't going to get to run around, and enjoyed himself. Here are some great pictures from tonight - the ones of Jackson and McKenna crack me up! McKenna just wanted to keep giving everyone hugs! And Luke made some new friends with the girls in the row behind us. He snatched their sign and hung out with them for awhile.

Good time and going to games like these are really fun - cheap tickets and that baseball atmosphere. Especially fun on a cool, but warm enough night in April! Hope we get to do it again!

McKenna trying to hug Jack and then Jack pushing her away :)

Here's Luke's new friends!

Jackson hanging out with Cheryl

Fun Outside

2008-04-25T09:16:00.007-05:00

So Jackson is a little obsessed with being outside right now. I mean OBSESSED! He understands outside and getting his shoes on before we go. When it was a little cooler, he even knew to get his jacket. Now, the minute he's down from dinner its a bee-line to the back door to head outside. Last night we took the chalk out and let him drawn on the porch. Brandon drew him some shapes and was teaching him the difference. He learned triangle last night - I'll have to check him on it today! Hope everyone is doing well! Enjoy the pictures.....

Longwood Again.....

2008-04-19T18:33:00.007-05:00

So, the warmest day of the year - like at least 80 degrees this afternoon. So, we went to Longwood with Nikki, Lili, CJ, Kellie, and Luke. What a day! It was super crowded, but overall I think the kids had a good time. Probably one of the most beautiful times of year to go to the gardens. The tulips are always magnificent!

I always feel like maybe this is what Sweden would look like!

Well, we of course went to the Children's garden again - got some great pictures and a video of Lili and Jackson playing in the water together! It was a great time! Enjoy!

The Next Tiger???

2008-04-19T18:15:00.003-05:00

I wanted to publish this on Thursday when I took it, but of course I was having Blogger issues....

Anyways....we went outside with the golf clubs and this is what we got! I'm thinking Jackson might be the next Tiger!!! See for yourself!

My husband, the Godfather :)

2008-04-11T19:39:00.005-05:00

Last weekend was busy, and this week wasn't much better! Brandon became the Godfather to CJ, our friends Bill and Nikki's little boy. It was a fun day. Jack did fairly well - I just had to take him out of the church because he wanted to hear himself echo in the sanctuary. A busy day.

(left) Here Nikki's friend Gina and Brandon are getting CJ dressed for the event.
(below) Brandon holding CJ after the christening. It was the only picture I could get because Jackson was running around like crazy! (Thankfully he had Carol and Ralph to chase after him!)
It was great seeing everyone - enjoying friends that we hadn't seen in awhile and meeting new families and having great conversation. It seems that an opportunity like that comes around very rarely these days and it was much needed.
A busy week, but we finally managed to get Jackson outside to play on Thursday because it had warmed up enough. Just a taste of I'm sure of what is to come. Gonna get some rest this weekend for another full week next week. There are only 30-something days left until summer!!! YEA!!!

Back from Vacation

2008-03-29T19:23:00.008-05:00

Well, we made it back in one piece :) Had a great time and ate way too much of course. It was a cruise ship so COME ON! I have a lot of work to do to try and lose the 5 pounds (at least!) I gained this past week. Completely worth it though - the food was amazing, along with the people on the ship, in Cozumel and in Belize. Brandon and I had a great time and it was nice to get away and enjoy not having the daily routine of Jackson! (This picture is at port in Cozumel - I was trying to leave room for Brandon so we could splice two pictures together :)! )
My mom and dad survived, doing a wonderful job with him and I think he enjoyed it just as much as they did. I am so thankful that he is an easy going kid and adjusts well to different situations fairly quickly. I'm also very thankful to my parents who were flexible enough with their lives to come and spend the week with him. These pictures are from some of the activities Jack got to do while we were gone! Next week will be fun - we are going to go through vegetable boot-camp with Jackson because he refuses to eat any! The doctor said he could miss a meal, so I guess he better get to liking peas!!

Warm, Spring Weekend

2008-03-19T19:44:00.005-05:00

Well, we were pretty active this past weekend. Got down to the park after a morning of swimming to run around and play. Can't wait until it warms up a little more and we'll be outside I'm afraid all the time!

Brandon and I leave Friday for a cruise. My mom and dad are coming up to stay with Jack. I wish them the best of luck! They really will need it!!!

I'm counting down the days until summer. There's about 10 weeks left of school. This year really has flown by. I will soon be packing my boxes to head back to MHS next year - and honestly can't wait to do it. Ok, off to pack, clean, and whatever else needs to get done around this house before company comes and we leave!!!

A Tribute to 'CBS Sunday Morning'

2008-03-10T15:11:00.004-05:00

Ok - this is just too funny not to show everyone. Make sure your sound is turned up so you can hear the background. This was in November, but I stumbled on it yesterday while I was converting these video files. Let me know what you think - it's definitely worth watching for the laugh!

Best Friends

2008-03-09T11:54:00.003-05:00

This cracked me up yesterday morning before we went to swim class. Jackson LOVES the cats right now. He tackles them and gives them hugs and kisses. Greta was a sport and sat in his lap long enough for us to get a picture. It was really funny - you can tell by the expression on his face that this completely made his day. You wouldn't be able to tell that he had a melt down 20 minutes later!

Video of Jackson

2008-03-08T21:51:00.003-05:00

So thought this would be kinda entertaining, plus I wanted to see if it would work. This video was from last week when we were messing around the house at night. After dinner we usually close up the TV cabinet and just run around and play. Just a piece of what goes on at night at our house!

Swim Lessons

2008-03-01T12:58:00.004-05:00

Well, another big weekend. Saturday was Jack's first swim class. It was like 40 degrees outside, nice and warm in the indoor complex, but freezing water. He was not excited about being there. Took him about 20 minutes and he started to have a little fun. We're doing it for 6 weeks weeks, every Saturday for a 1/2 hour. Thinking we'll get there a little earlier next time so he can adjust to the water! He was shaking the whole time and by the end of the class his lips were blue. Poor guy - if he'd only learn that if he'd just move around a bit it would get better!

Jackson's really picking up on words now too. Seems his vocabulary is expanding everyday. I videoed him the other night and if I can figure out how to get a video on here I'll post it. It was great. We were going through all the words he knows and he was just repeating them back. He's like a sponge right now, literally. I'm dreading the moment when he starts repeating everything right back to us. I know that day is coming though.

So another week. Pretty busy as usual. Students have state testing here Wednesday and Thursday and then four days next week. We're getting close to spring break - only 3 weeks until Brandon and I are heading out on a cruise! I'm really excited - just need to start counting down the days! Hope everyone starts of their week well!

Snow Day (Well, sort of)

2008-02-25T16:14:00.006-05:00

So, we had Friday off of school for a snow day. It was a nice break - Jackson and I went to Dover to the mall and then came back and crashed here the rest of the afternoon. This weekend was pretty dull as well. We hung around the house most of Saturday and Sunday with the exception of getting outside to one of the playgrounds at our complex yesterday. It was really cold though - Jack had on like 3 layers!

Here's Jackson and I at the playground.

Jackson discovering 'the world' :)

Jackson enjoying the slides - he never gets enough of those!

Hope everyones week is off to a good start! I'm counting down the time until spring break!!!!

Presidents' Day

2008-02-20T20:18:00.002-05:00

Well, it was nice having Monday off. We started off the day at 70 degrees....I took Jack to the new 300 acre outdoor park down the street from us so he could get a chance to run around outside a bit before it cooled off again. And boy did it - at around 5pm that afternoon it was 33 degrees! Since we've moved here it hasn't ever really changed in temperature that much and honestly, I don't think I could ever get use to that. Today it snowed - not too much, but enough to be a pain at 6am when I'm leaving tomorrow morning.

Anyways....Jack loved the park on Monday. Really nice place with 4 different types of playgrounds for the kids depending on their age. He got stuck on this one this that had a steering wheel. He's obessed with cars, so I'm honestly not surprised!

Enjoy the picture....I'm off to get ready for school tomorrow. The cycle just continues :)

Fun in the water....

2008-02-16T22:11:00.006-05:00

What can I say, other that how fun is it to be a mom!? Sometimes I forget because of how crazy things get and how tired I tend to be every night after school, but wow - my kid is full of surprises everyday.
These two pictures were taken this past week at different occasions - Jack is just now starting to appreciate things without ripping them apart. He loves to sit in his rocking chair where I use to rock him to sleep and read his books after dinner. I hope this trend continues!
We also went to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, to the indoor Children's garden. Jack had a blast as he always does when we're there! We had the spare set of clothes and stripped him down after he was done playing so he could be warm in the 30 degree weather outside!
Hope everyone is doing well!