Dec 2012 Merry Christmas!

We had an awesome Christmas.  Jackson wasn't feeling well last week and I just didn't get around to taking the kids to see Santa so Santa aka, Uncle Billy, had to come see the kids.  We had a few competitions where Jackson was the winner, Pop & Yaya came in last place for both events.  We had a small celebration for Pop's birthday at Shane's.   Jackson got a "motorcycle" for Christmas and Jensie got a little riding toy as well.  Tons of toys, games,  and legos,  a nice set of walkie talkies from Pop and Yaya.  He got a real army canteen from Uncle Billy and Sarah and some movies and toys.  Jensie got a bitty baby from Pop &  Yaya and lots of really cute clothes.  Pop gave each of them a special stocking full of jewerly for Jensie and pirate coins and other fun stuff for Jackson.  Really too much stuff to talk about, just really grateful to have the family together and everyone was happy.  December has been a fun month.  Jackson took his "special friend" out on a "special outing" for the first time.  Her name is Sarah and he took her out for ice-cream, he used his camo wallet and Pop bought him a nice leather one for the next "special outing", please don't call it a date, none of us are ready for that.  He went on a field trip to see "Annie" and had the neighbors over for a cookie decorating party.  Take a look at some photos of Christmas and December.

Christmas Parade 2012

Jackson and Pop in the Copperhill Christmas parade.  The UCBI float won 1st place for originality, of course Pop took credit for his reading abilities and how cute he looked in his nightgown and cap.  Look at photos.

November 2012

Jackson and Jensie have been doing great.  Jensie loves lip stick and art projects and her favorite books are Oh, David and Oops, which she loves best when Jackson reads them to her.  Jackson is on book number 3 in the Narnia series. They had a great Thanksgiving with all their grandparents.  Their cousins, Ella, Atticus, and Finn all came to visit and we went to Rock City.  We went and saw the play A Christmas Carol at the Tivoli and decorated the Christmas tree.  I think we had only 2 Christmas decorations broken.  Take a look at photos.

Oct 2012

October has been a fun month.  Jackson's kindergarten class has a special celebration of life ceremony for each child and we got to go share Jackson's story with his class.  We went camping for fall break in our new pop up camper.  Jensie is talking and loves to dance.  Jackson conducted his first cooking lesson with Jensie.  We've been in Blue Ridge almost every weekend.  Jackson and Jensie got to spend some time with their cousins, Ella, Atticus, Finn, Truman, Rowan, Mia, Mallory, and Grayson.  We did lots of dress up.  Jackson wanted to be an army man for Halloween.  His school is celebrating 75 years and each class was assigned a decade to represent.  His class got the 1950's and after watching the movie Grease, Jackson decided he had to be a T-Bird.  His favorite movie now is Grease.  Take a look at some photos of October.

Sept 2012

Jackson and Jensie have had a great September.  Mostly just spending time after school at the playground, riding bikes and doing a few painting projects.   Jackson is part of the Makers Club at school where they basically got to build all kind of things out of legos. Jensie has been talking a little, of course her favorite word is um NO.  We did go to a corn maze at the end of the month.  Take a look at some photos of the kids.

Aug 2012 Jackson starts OLPH Kindergarten

August has been a pretty busy month.  We had some end of the summer fun with some friends before Jackson started school.  Jackson loves school and I'm pretty sure his teachers like him.  On the second day of school his teacher said I couldn't have him back and that if her daughter was 10 years younger, we'd be discussing an arranged marriage.   Bryce came to visit and the boys made a volcano, and a big mess, which is always fun.  Jackson hatched some sea monsters, which is about the best pet for me.  They've been alive for almost 3 weeks.  Jensie is right there doing whatever Jackson is doing, or at least trying.  She did some of her first finger painting thanks to Beth.  She still loves shoes, hair bows, and now she'll carry around a purse.  She likes to color as well.  Take a look at some photos in August.

Jackson's 6th Birthday!

So Jackson spent one day with his two best friends from school, Garrett and Nolan, and they all celebrated their birthdays, since they all have July birthdays.  He had his camping birthday with his cousins and then on his real big day, we took him to Legoland in Atlanta.  He had a great birthday, week, month.  Take a look at a few pictures of Jackson celebrating his big day.

Jackson's 6th Birthday Camping Trip

Wow! what a great first camping experience for Jackson and Jensie.  First thing Yaya fell and scraped her knee and hands, Michael cut his finger putting up the brand new 8 person tent, and Jensie fell out of her chair.  You'll see my face in a picture I was taking of me and Jackson when she fell.  Pop did about all the cooking, and we sure had some good food.  We spent some time at the lake, roasted marshmallows, hiked to the waterfalls, and had the best birthday party.  We had snake venom, dirt and worms and pop made an awesome hedgehog watermelon carving.  We then had a scavenger hunt and the kids enjoyed hitting the piñata.  The kids of course had tons of fun just running around and playing.  We watched the grown men spend about 3 1/2 hours trying to get Jackson's boomerang out of a tree.  They started with trying to throw a football to get it out, but they somehow ended up getting the football stuck in the tree, so they decided to shake the tree.  Brent tries to climb the tree, I try getting on Trent's shoulders and finally they get a rope around the tree.  They spent a while with this tactic, then Brent constructs a sling shot and with that they tied a water bottle with a glow stick inside to a very long piece of rope and they took turns throwing that at the boomerang and finally they got the boomerang, but no football.  Jensie woke Jackson up one morning by pouring water on him, he was having a dream about jello and then he jumped in the jello and realized he was wet for real.  Jackson fell and pop got stung by a bee to conclude our camping trip.  Take a look at all my photos.

Too Much Fun in Blue Ridge over the 4th with the Callihan Clan

What a time we had with the Callihan cousins in Blue Ridge.  We went floating down the Toccoa, went to see Brave at the Drive In, went swimming at the Copper Basin swimming pool, watched fireworks in Copperhill, went on a jeep ride with Pop and played in the creek.  Jackson also rode a horse with Luke and shot fireworks with Luke and Bryson in the field.  He went on a treasure hunt with Pop after finding an old map in Pop's army bag. They spent half a day breaking away to find some old coins and jewelry.  We had a very busy time, then we went to visit Aunt Lucy in Atlanta and Jackson was having fun with his older cousins Callihan and Roxie and he walked backwards in the pool and we ended up at the emergency room till midnight and Jackson got 6 stitches.  We went back to Blue Ridge the next day and Jensie called 911 and the cops show up at Yaya's house to check on us. I was so embarrassed.  We spent  a few more days there and got to have a play date with our sweet friend Nola.  After spending 10 days there we finally made it to down town to do a little shopping and get some cup cakes.  I was really ready to get home and just watch movies for a week.  Oh, Jensie's big news is that she started walking as soon as we got to Blue Ridge.  Take a look at all the photos of all our adventures.

Jensie's Pretty In Pink Party

We had so much fun dressing up in pink for Jensie's first birthday party.  We had cotton candy martinis, pink lemonade cupcakes, and lots of other treats.  She wasn't too sure about the whole cake eating experience.  She took a while and just picked at it mostly.  Take a look at the photos.

Happy 1st Birthday Jensie

Jensie has had a wonderful day and is looking forward to spending the weekend with her family.  Jackson has been pretty excited too about Jensie's day.  He has been helping me get ready for her party, helping Jensie open some gifts, and sang happy birthday to Jensie first thing this morning.  Take a look at some photos of Jensie.

Hilton Head Beach

So Jackson spent a week with his Amma, Lolo, and Meemo.  Sadly, I don't have any pics to share of his awesome time down there.  He had lots of stories for me.  He had a couple of sleepovers with his cousins, Valor, Atlas and Merit.  He had so much fun and can't wait to go back.  I took Yaya, Sarah, and Jensie down to get Jackson and we headed for the beach.  We had so much fun.  Jensie loved the beach and the pool.  She would lay down and just roll around in the sand.  Olivia, Meemo, Atlas, and Merit came to the beach one day and we all helped to turn Meemo into a gorgeous mermaid.  Jackson also got to spend the night at Uncle Billy's, which is always exciting for him. Take a look at the beach photos.

May 2012

Jackson is out of school for the summer. They had a luncheon celebration and he got the Classroom Best Friend Award. This month we went to Blue Ridge to celebrate Aunt Lillie's 80th birthday party.  As usual, Jackson and the cousins found something to get into, he had to change clothes before we left the party.  He also went to Kingston, Grayson, and Bryce's birthday parties.  He is ready to hang out and have fun this summer.  Jensie is doing great, just along for the ride.  Take a look at the photos of May.

Texas & OLPH Grandparents Day

We took a trip out to Texas for Jonathan & Tara's wedding in Austin and decided to go down to San Antonio for a few days too.  Jackson had a blast with Valor, Atlas, Merit and Doc.  He really enjoyed getting to spend some time with his Aunt Edith and Uncle Robert and Aunt Nicole and Uncle Bernie.  Uncle Bernie was in charge of Jackson at the pool while we were shopping.  Jackson will tell you that Uncle Robert gives the best hugs where he picks you up over his head.  He had a good time at the Alamo and the river walk.  I've had enough mexican to last me a while.  Yaya and Pop came down for Grandparents' Day at OLPH.  Jackson was very proud to have them there.  Take a look at the photos.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter with Uncle Billy, Sarah, Pop and Yaya. Sarah made the coolest peep cake and Pop made the sweetest little peep deviled eggs. Jensie's favorite thing to do right now is throw the ball and she just got her lower 2 teeth in. At her last check up, she weighed almost 20 lbs. Jackson has been on spring break and cousin Kensley came down to spend the night one night, we went to the zoo, meet our friends at the museum and played downtown, and went to cousin Callie's birthday party at lake Winnie. Boy, that was a fun day for me. Jackson was tall enough to ride all the rides, the pirate ship and the cannon ball were not his favorite, mine either. Take a look at the photos of March and some of April.

Yaya's Birthday and typical weekend in Blue Ridge with Mud and Jeep Rides

What a fun weekend in Blue Ridge. Jackson and Pop went worm hunting, then Jackson, Kingston and Grayson made some mud stew, then Pop took Jackson for a Jeep ride down the trail behind their house. Oh, just when I think Pop has gotten old he goes and does something a teenager might do. We celebrated Yaya's birthday, even though she had a bad tooth ache. Pop bought Jensie the funniest little zebra print romper in downtown Copperhill. It was too cute dressing her up with matching leg warmers and hair bow. Jensie is clapping, waving bye and throwing the ball, and getting to wear so many of her little dresses with the hot weather. Take a look at some photos of March.

Chatti Gras and Tornados

Yaya and Pop watched Jackson and Jensie while we went to Chatti Gras, a Mardi Gras version school fundraiser. It was so much fun that we get to do for the next 18 years. Jackson camped out in the basement with Yaya most of the weekend. He spent one weekend up at their house going fishing with Pop and searching for Bigfoot. Jensie is clapping, waving, and climbing stairs. The biggest news for her is that she is sleeping pretty much all night. I'm very happy about this. The weather has been so nice and we've spent some time downtown. Ok, so we had a tornado come through one day. No damage in our neighborhood, but some homes were damaged less than 2 miles away. Take a look at some photos of Jackson and Jensie.