15 months

Little man is 15 months old (gasp!). I know...he's growing so fast. But while he may be growing in days and months, he's still staying little in terms of his size. Here are the stats:

22 lbs 10 oz- 25 %

32" long- 75%

18.25 HC- 25%

That's a lot of cute in a little package :)

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY TO GRANDPA TODAY!

(Or "Pa" as Luke calls him)

"Will you assepp this wose?"

What is a mom to do when she wants to host a party for the season finale of the Bachelorette? Why, make her 3 1/2 year old greet guests at the door with a tray of roses like a mini Chris Harrison, of course!

I love any reason to throw a party, so I decided what better occasion than the finale of The Bachelorette. I had the guests dress up in their best Jillian costume, they were greeted by my super cute, mini Chris Harrison, and were treated to a yummy spread of Rose Ceremony Punch, Kiptyn's Key Lime Dip, Reid's Ravioli, Jilly Beans, and of course, Ed's Limp Cocktail Weenies ;)

The show didn't turn out as I had hoped, but the party sure was fun! Thanks to everyone who came...and a special thanks to my little cutie for handing out roses...what a great way to earn 5 marbles for your jar :)

At it again

I am in the kitchen doing something the other day (probably laundry...it's a pretty safe bet to go with laundry) when I hear Jackson say, quite calmly, from the den

"Mommy, Luke is on his tables."

????

"What did you say?"

"I said Luke is on his tables, and I don't think it's a very good idea."

Apparently, Lightning McQueen just needed to do a lap on the printer :)

Mischievous little boy

To say that Luke gets into things is a gross understatement. It's no wonder he's so lean, because he NEVER stops. He goes from one thing to another, like a tiny little tornado wreaking havoc on a mobile home park. All I do all day is chase him around trying to keep the wreckage somewhat to a minimum, and keep the little munchkin out of harms way. His daily favorites include: dumping the dog's water bowl, emptying the tupperware cabinet, getting all 100+ cookie cutters out of the drawer, taking all the magnets off of the frig, playing in the toilet (gross), taking various things such as the remotes, coasters, phones, shoes, magazines, etc. and hiding them in the various trash cans around the house...I could go on and on.... I'm sure Jackson went through the same stage, but somehow, I don't remember him being THIS destructive and mischievous :)

Now let me preface the following pictures with a little background info. Jackson has a marble jar that we use for rewards/consequences. He gets to put marbles in the jar as rewards for good behavior, helping Mommy, etc., and he has to take marbles out as consequences for bad behavior, not obeying, etc. There are small, medium, and big marbles that correlate with the rewards, consequences (bigger rewards/consequences=bigger marbles going in or coming out...oh, and the entire jar can be dumped if he has a giant infraction...this has happened twice). Once his marbles reach the line at the top, he gets a large reward....in this case, it is a trip to Chuck E Cheese.

So this is where I found little one the other day....getting into his brother's coveted, and much protected, marble jar. (Jackson was, thankfully, outside in the sandbox at the time)

Notice, he went for the big one :)

Happy Birthday Uncle D!

Happy Birthday, Derek! Hope it's a great one. Your little boys are sending hugs and kisses your way. Make sure to check your mailbox :) We love you!

Sweet Summer Saturday

We have not been able to spend much time together as a family this month due to Brad's schedule. I think there was a point last week where he went several days without even seeing the boys, and I only saw him for a few hours at night. So we were excited to have some much needed family time together this Saturday afternoon when he got home from work. We ordered pizza, filled up the pool, turned on the sprinklers, cranked up some music, and spent it realxing outside as our happy little family of 4 (well, 6, if you count the furry babies). Here are some pics from our fun, relaxing, much needed, lazy Saturday afternoon....these simple moments are so few and far in between at this point in our lives, that we treasure them, and are thankful when they come around :)

Birthday lake weekend

We had sooooo much fun this past weekend at the lake celebrating Brad's 30th birthday. We had some friends over on Saturday and had a great time...hanging out on the dock, throwing the football, tubing, fishing, throwing rocks in the lake (Brad's favorite), eating (my favorite)...it was great. This is a hastily put together video from the weekend....and after watching it, it kind of looks like it was Luke's celebration instead of Brad's. What can I say....he's the easiest one to get pictures of and always steals the show! (He even donned his birthday suit for the camera...something Brad wasn't so agreeable to ;))

Thanks, Chief and Kikye, for such a fun weekend!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Happy 30th Brad!

Ok, so I feel a little horrible that I was not more on top of this post. I realize that it looks bad that I gave my cat a nice, long, lots of pictures, on time post....and my poor husband gets the "Uh-oh. It's 10 pm the day AFTER Brad's 30th birthday and I still haven't mentioned it on the blog....and I just got home from my marathon tennis match, and all I want to do is take a shower and go to bed, but I'll do something real quick" post. So sorry honey. But those who know me might not be too surprised that I gave the four-legged creature in the family better recognition. Maybe Brad should start walking on all fours if he wants to get some respect around here ;)

We had a pretty low key celebration for the big 3-0. Brad did get to spend it at home, ALL DAY, with us...so I'd say that was a pretty big celebration, actually. I made him a big breakfast (his favorite meal of the day), we opened presents, ate cupcakes, and went to dinner with his parents. And probably the biggest surprise of the day was the gift from them....7 day passes to Disney for our family!!!!! We can't wait to start planning our trip! Here are a few pictures I took just to capture that the day did, in fact, occur :) We are celebrating more this weekend at the lake with some friends and I'll post those pics later. Happy Birthday, honey! We love you!

The lame-o cupcake with a tea light because I didn't have any candles

Daddy with his precious boys

Chief, Jackson, and Daddy...wearing the ties Jackson made them for Father's Day

And Happy Anniversary to my parents....38 years of marriage!

Happy Birthday Annibelle Tortoiseshell!

My sweet little Annibelle is 6 years old today. Brad and I got her right after we got married, from someone who found her abandoned on the side of the road. We joke that Annibelle's circumstances of 'being raised on the streets' have helped to shape her tough little personality (We also joke that she might be a catnip dealer). One of the fondest memories I have is Ann having her kittens, Panda, Patches, and Biscuit, in our little house in Augusta. What an awesome thing to experience and how fun those little kittens were! Annibelle is so funny....she's very protective of all of us, has beat up many a dog, is spunky, an avid huntress (understatement), and is the only one who seems to have any power over Gus. And I have to acknowledge that she must have some luck too, as many other cats have gone on before her from our family (Biscuit, Boomer, Izzy, Max). We love you Belle, and hope you're around for a long time :)

Happy Father's Day/Anniversary!

Our 6th wedding anniversary happened to fall on Father's Day this year, so Brad had a double celebration yesterday. And what better way to celebrate being a wonderful father and husband than to spend it working at the hospital :( We did have a nice mini celebration last night before bed with a few gifts made especially for daddy.

We love you so much! Thank you for being a wonderful husband for 6 years, an amazing father for 3 1/2, and my best friend for 13.

My little engineer

It is an understatement to say that Jackson loves trains and loves Thomas the Train. Here is a sweet video that barely scratches the surface of his obsession :)
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Beach pictures...FINALLY!!!!

Ok, so I FINALLY got this thing figured out. I have never spent so much time in front of a computer. Thanks so much to my brother, Nicholas, for all his help over the phone. And thanks to Rachel for helping me to finally figure out a way to share my hard work with you all :)
Soooo, I hope you enjoy. There are 3 slideshows...to watch them in order, start with the most recent post and go from there. The quality of the photos and videos isn't great once it's put in blog form, but you'll get the idea.

Such wonderful memories...I hope my brothers and sisters-in-law realize how lucky we are to have the opportunity to create them in such a special place, and with the best parents/in-laws/grandparents in the world :) (tied with Chief and Kikye, of course)

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Yes, we are back.

We are back from the beach. We have been back for almost a week now, and I know I haven't posted any pics yet. I haven't even unpacked my suitcase yet. We had such a wonderful time and I can't wait to share the pictures. But I have a problem. I have been working all week trying to get the 300+ pictures and video clips arranged into a slideshow set to music. There were many bumps along the way, and countless conversations with my brother, Nicholas, for tech support, but I finally got them done. (Yes, them...there are three) And they turned out sooooo good (at least I think so)! But now the problem is that I cannot get them to upload to the blog :(
So, in the meantime, you can at least enjoy the new beach background and the picture in the header. And if you're really itching to see the slideshows, come on over and I'll be happy to share them :)
Keep checking back...I'm determined to figure this out.

And until I do...my suitcase will be waiting :)

Beach bound!

See you when we return....

Rollerskating

Beach trip countdown

Our annual family beach trip is at the end of this month, and it's a close competition to determine who's the most excited around here. But Jackson may be the winner with his 'Beach Trip Countdown Calendar'. Each night before bed, we pick out a beach sticker to mark off that day....and then we count the # of empty squares that remain, so Jackson can say

"Only ___ more days 'til we go to Teddy's beach house!"

(Sorry, Grandpa. You don't own anything...it all belongs to Teddy)