Our Christmas Home

Here's the complete tour. We hope you enjoy!

Cool little tip

I have about 30 blogs that I read, and it's hard to keep up with that many. A friend recently told me about a site that will alert you to new blog posts: google reader. Try it out. I keep it open on my desktop all the time and check it when I check my email. Love it! (Right now, it's telling me that I have 69 new posts to read. I've got some catching up to do).

"All I want for Christmas"

Once again, I failed to send out Christmas cards. If I had, this would have been it! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Friendly Christmastime Competition

We had a great time this week hosting and WINNING our first ever gingerbread house decorating contest. Here's the proof:

Out of the blue, Jackson decided to name our team: "Jingle Smells". I know this sounds like it had some influence from Jon, but I was there, and I swear it was all Jackson.

Here's our competition: (they couldn't decide on a team name) John, Chase & Jack

"Ho's on the go" was a late entry from our neighbor, Tim:

Chase & Jackson eagerly awaiting the big event: (yes, they stuffed their faces full of sugar for two hours straight)

Table O' Sugar: (before)

Table O' Sugar: (after)

P.S. There were actually no winners.

P.S.S. Team Jingle Smells ROCKS!

He believes!

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to downtown Saturday night. Jackson visited with the big guy for a bit, then Santa told him, "Be sure to say your prayers, Jackson. We have a lot to be thankful for". Jackson asked him for an airplane. I thanked Santa in advance for the gift, since I'm hoping Jackson will fly us to the islands on it.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Love this little scarecrow! Wednesday was "scarecrow day" at school. The kids made their hats and helped with the costumes. Jackson loved it!

Lilly

She is old and crotchety.
She has bad, bad breath.
Her haircuts cost as much as mine.
She follows me around constantly.
I trip over her all day long.
She has bowel control issues.

She is so, so precious to me.
My first born.
My baby.

Lilly was a willing subject for an assignment for my new photography class.

Summer Highlights- Part 2

At the end of June, we traveled to Glenrose for my family's annual reunion. It was great to see everyone, and we had a blast as usual. We scouted around and found some cool places for pictures:

After the family reunion, I "retired" from 9 years of social work to become a stay-at-home mom. I know, weird timing, but it was right. The next week, we were off to a week long vacation at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio. It was absolutely amazing! We spent one day at SeaWorld (which Jackson looooved, of course), and the rest of the week relaxing and playing in the pools and lazy river. I even got the chance to enjoy a massage in the fabulous resort spa. This is when I started to really enjoy retirement:). We were blessed to have my mom, brother and some of our best (and funnest!!) friends to share the vacation with.

Soon after our return from vacation, we had to move Drew to Stillwater. Still very hard to believe that my little brother is a freshman in college. He loves OSU and is very happy, and for that I am so thankful!

At the end of August, I was honored to host a baby shower for my friend, April. It was great to have her and Matt in town for a little while! The shower was a great success, mostly thanks to my co-host, Ashley. I can't wait to meet baby Landes this month!! I couldn't resist getting a picture of April's miserably swollen feet.

I guess that brings us back to where I left off, with Kindergarten starting for Jackson. He is doing great, and is especially enjoying making new friends. I am also loving all of the extra time we have together in the afternoons. He's always so happy to see me when I pick him up from school. It makes my heart happy.

Summer highlights and photos- Part 1

I've wondered if anyone is reading this (if you are, please leave us a comment), and recently I've had a couple of people ask me when I'm going to get around to posting again. That answers my question. Here it is!

We had a super-eventful summer, so I'm going to start at the beginning- Memorial Day Weekend. That weekend my brother Drew graduated from high school, we threw him a big luau party and Jon and I celebrated our twelfth wedding anniversary.

In June, I had a couple of business meetings in Dallas and Arlington. Drew came up to stay with me and we went to a Rangers game. We got to see Sammy Sosa hit his 600th! It was so exciting and we had a blast. (these pictures were shot with my camera phone)

This one was snapped right as Sosa hit it!

We spent fourth of July watching the fireworks with Jon's family.

Much more still to come... I'll post part two later today.

The Ultimate Gift

I went to the video store a couple of nights looking for a "chick flick" to sit down with after Jackson went to bed. I stumbled upon this amazing movie. It is definately not a chick flick, just a true feel good movie with a great cast and a touching story. Everyone should see it. If you check it out, let me know what you think!

Kindergarten

Wow. It has been too long since my last post. This summer was amazing, and I promise rewind in the next couple of posts.

Jackson is a Kindergartener!! Yesterday was the day. He is such a big boy and that's hard for this mommy to accept. He woke up in a great mood, had a good breakfast and got dressed in his favorite new glow-in-the-dark dragon shirt. We made the .3 mile trek to the primary school in Dad's new truck. The three of us walked hand in hand into the madness that is the first day of school. It was much calmer than I had expected. There was one little boy in Jackson's class who had to be coaxed into the classroom, but we didn't see any tears. There was a special room for tears, but thankfully we didn't have to use it.

We had forgotten the nametag that his teacher gave us at open house, so we had to ask for another one. I know, bad first impression. Jackson went immediately to his seat and began playing with the Legos on his table.

He didn't talk to us after we got to the classroom, but he let us give him hugs and kisses. I realized later that day that he didn't even know we were there. He couldn't remember us taking him into his classroom! I'm thinking there was a little overload going on in his head.

Over the next few hours, Jon called me twice to check on me. I was fine. I did unfortunately let my mind wander a couple of times. Nonnie and I were first in the pick-up line after school. I had allowed myself to envision a very sad Jackson coming out of the school doors at pick up time. I pictured him with a pouty lip, tears and wearing different shorts than I had sent him in since I neglected to stop by the bathroom when I dropped him off. To my relief, this was what I saw:

Same shorts, no tears... YAY!! He had a great day. He loved his lunch and the playground. He told me about a book that Mrs. Stone read to the class. He made some new friends, but he hasn't learned their names. Success!

Monster trucks, movie reviews, great food and friends...

Wow! Super-packed and fun weekend here. We went swimming at our friends' new pool Friday evening and had a great time, as usual. Saturday morning, Jon and Jackson set out for an adventure to our local Dodge dealership, where they had snow cones and a ride on the Raminator!

They both had a ball, although Jack wasn't so sure to start with. After a nap, we headed to the movies. Jon and Jackson saw Ratatouille, which got MAJOR thumbs up by both guys. I was a rebel and ventured to a 'grown up' show. I had been wanting to see Knocked Up for a couple of weeks, because I love "Izzy" from Grey's Anatomy. It was AWFUL!! The first twenty minutes or so got a lot of laughs, but then it just became crude and very, very long. So disappointing!

Today, we took a much anticipated trip to Uncertain, Texas and had lunch with friends at Big Pines Lodge on Caddo Lake.

As usual, the catfish was out of this world and the surroundings were beautiful. It was great to watch Jon tell Jackson about his memories on the lake as a kid. Jackson enjoyed the scenery while the grown-ups sat on the bank and unbuttoned our pants:). He picked me this beautiful weed.

All in all, a great weekend was had by all.