Survivor Update

Sorry it's so late - but I have been very busy! OK - so this week Kelly finally went home! YEAH!!! I was very disappointed in my boy Dan this week - he apparently doesn't know how to SHARE! He was goobling down more food than the rest of his group.... not cool. I think I may be joining in on Ryan's favorite - Manny.... Strangely enough - he sounds JUST like a friend of mine's husband... Steph, when you listen to him - you would think it's Brian talking! Maybe that's why I like him! :) That Crystal (Olympic gold metal winner) is still useless and an overall crank butt and I'm sick of seeing her on there! Time to go home! Ace too - goodbye!! I also like Marcus.... and don't laugh - I love Sugar! Anyway - until the merge, there isn't a lot of drama yet, but never fear Survivor watchers - it's coming!!!

It's Halloween again...

...which can only mean one thing - pumpkin time!! Every year I have a good time carving pumpkins, and I usually make about 3 or 4 at least. I like to space them out, though, because they only last for a couple days before getting all mushy and nasty. Here is my first pumpkin of 2008:

Jackson is a giggle box!

Jackson is Dressed For Success Today!

Jackson's first air show!

Keisha, Jackson and I packed up our stuff today and headed out to the Air Force base in Jacksonville (about 15 min. from our house) to take in a free air show! The weather today was perfect for being outside, although Keisha would argue that it could have been a couple of degrees warmer. Jackson was all bundled up, though, and he didn't seem to mind the temperature one bit. There sky was very clear, too, which is perfect for watching airplanes!

I haven't been to an air show in several years, and I absolutely love them! I am really into planes, and I talked Keisha's ear off as a result. She was probably pretty bored with it, but she humored me and never let it show. =)

My dad met us out there along with Grant and Nick, and the 6 of us had a great time just hanging out. Here are some of the things we took in:

Jackson was prepared for the noise of the jets - we stuffed his little ears with cotton to help soften the blow).














Planes these days are getting freaking huge! This C-5 Galaxy is, I think, is the largest cargo plane that the U.S. currently employs. It can hold 100 VW Bugs or 6 Greyhound buses!















The Budweiser Clydesdales were there, too, but unfortunately we just missed them. We got there just in time to see them being loaded up into their trailors. It took 3 of these rigs to hold them all!















There was a Military Police dog demonstration that was amazing! These animals are so well trained - it is really impressive to watch them "do their thing."















The feature act of the day was a demonstration by the Navy Blue Angles. For those of you not familiar, they fly 6 FA-18's in formation, and some of the moves they do are stunning! It is crazy to see how close they fly to each other.... tons of practice - I promise!















Of course I have to point out that Keisha and I have the cutest baby God ever put on this earth!! He was being a perfect angel the whole day (excluding the ride home). He even took a full bottle and napped on my shoulder during the loudest part of the show!! As usual, we took about 14,622 pictures today - here are a few of my favorites:

Jackson Milestones Continued....

Well, our little one is growing "like a weed" as they say! He has been "standing" for a long time now - but now, he wants to stand all the time! Forget sitting alone - He could care less! He has no balance whatsoever and can't stand alone or anything but he really really wants to! Today, I held him by his hands and we walked all over the living room... He's fascinated with the act of moving his feet and that in turn, moves his body. I've been trying to help him with his next big milestone - sitting alone. He probably could do it but he is always trying to grab whatever is near him.... so he just falls forward. But he's still quite a bit early for sitting alone, so it's ok. We just do a lot of practice... I'm still working on the rolling from back to belly. Belly to back - he's mastered that! He ALMOST rolled back to his belly last night - he got all the way on his side and turned back... too much work I guess. I did watch him on the monitor this morning... He slept from about 745p - 545a and then, he played until about 615a. While he was playing, I was watching. He was playing with his paci. I was so impressed with his determination to grab it and figure out how to get it back in his mouth... only to grab it back out and drop it and start all over. 30 minutes!!! It was quite a show and I was a loyal fan. His new thing is that he has figured out how to SHRIEK. He will scream for no reason whatsoever... must be interesting to make that kind of noise, but it scares the daylights out of me. Sometimes he does it when he's getting mad or just for fun... but he's too young to understand that that is not acceptable, so we'll start explaining that later... For now, it's just his new thing. We tried carrots a couple weeks ago and really only tried 3x... we gave up cuz we still have time and he seemed to hate it. Well, tonight we tried plain cereal - that went over much better. Ryan fed it to him and by the end of it, he seemed to have that tongue thing a little better... We've decided we're adding this to our evening ritual. He definitely enjoys making the mess! Ryan and I are both determined to have the first word to be our names... I get a lot more practice but Ryan has the advantage that most babies can say "dada" easier... So we'll see what happens! He's just getting cuter by the minute and I know that I fall more in love with each second! There really is nothing like being a parent - No doubt about that.

Jackson Feeling Better!

Baby J is feeling much better!! Yesterday, we went to have lunch with Daddy and Jackson decided to rock the mohawk again....


We decided to make Jackson an honest boy... Thanks for the cute shirt Uncle Mike! :)



He was in a much better mood last night.... He slept all night long!!! I feel so great today and I know Jackson does too!

Poor Baby J...

My little angel is having quite a time the last few days... I've decided it's still the teething.... and the fact that he hasn't gone you-know-what in about 3 days.... I've taken quite a stand today. I'm going to give him some teething tablets throughout the day, instead of just nighttime and I've finally given him some baby ibuprofen (w/ the "ok" from my sister-in-law and my doctor friend).... I'm going to put some Karo Syrup in his 1100am bottle in hopes that that will help the other problem. Poor baby - I've been watching him on the monitor since 900am and he wants to sleep so badly, but his little hand keeps pulling out the paci and I think that's helping him w/ his teething for some reason.... So he gets so mad when that paci is out of his mouth.... I wish I could just attach it sometimes. :) I'll try to update later.... This is J this morning.

Bummer Game...

Well, I was so excited about watching my first NY Giants game and turns out to be their only loss of the season so far... Bummer. I've decided it was all my fault - I put Jackson in the wrong jersey (onesie) - It was an "away" game which called for the white jersey and I put him in the "home" jersey... Sorry Giants. I'll do better next time.

Baby J's 3 1/2 mo photos

We didn't get too many cuz they weren't that great.... I take so many pictures of Jackson on a daily basis that we decided to save our money and just get these.... So I'm going to do a collage framing of the hand, feet and body shot of Baby J... But I LOVE the football one! :)

Survivor Update

Well, I'm devastated. It was a GREAT Survivor episode today but I feel so sad that my girl was booted off. She was, by far, the best girl on the show and now she's gone.... Poor Jacque... But, that's the game... it's all about strategy and numbers....She had the strategy but not the numbers... I absolutely love this game! Now, I have to root on Dan all the way.... Ryan has finally chosen his favorite - he's rooting on the personal trainer Manny. I also like Manny and Marcus and Bob - but come on - it's time to get rid of Kelly and/or Crystal.... How does a GOLD METAL OLYMPIC ATHLETE constantly do terrible in the physical settings!? She was last to run up the hill on the first episode, did ok on the immunity challenge last week, but today- again, a terrible TERRIBLE performance!! Come on!! You won a gold metal!!! I expect you to DOMINATE!!! But - I am also not too happy w/ Ace anymore... He's just a weirdo - and he seems to have some serious social issues... I don't expect him to last long either. I do like Sugar, but you have to wonder when she likes Ace so much... maybe she isn't the brightest - even though she did find the Idol! :) I just LOVE this show!!

Lots of Catching Up!

OK... so lots has happened since I had a real post last... I'll try to do some catch up here....

My mom and Aunt Janet drove down last weekend on Friday - which was wonderful because Ryan and I got so much accomplished and it was AWESOME to visit with them - and very good for Baby J! :) I dressed Jackson accordingly in his "Grandma 4 Ever" outfit... my mom almost WON'T take pictures (please encourage her if you see her) but here's a good one w/ my Aunt Janet...

Jackson's new thing is to NOT look at me when I have the camera in my hands. He HATES the camera now... Probably due to the hundreds of pictures that I've taken (almost 2000) since he's been born! I can't help it!! :)

Of course, they came bearing gifts... So this is Jackson's new toy! I had to use our wedding album under him cuz he's not quite tall enough for it yet, but he REALLY loves it! I love it cuz I can check my email occasionally now! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

While they were here, we immediately started painting. I know most of you know - but the people who lived in this house before us, liked to have EVERY Single Room to be a different color! So - the main rooms (living room, stairway and upstairs hallway) were all this hideous grey/blue color... So we started there... Ryan got a little silly - maybe cuz it was so late! We started just the living room at 1000pm and was in bed by 100am - not bad!

The next morning - Ryan and I relaxed for a little while and then headed to my friend Brandy's wedding. It was BEAUTIFUL! She had it in Conway and it turned out to be sunny and gorgeous and her dress was probably the prettiest wedding dress I've ever seen ... she's tall so she really wore it well! I'm so happy for her! Ryan and I did the video for her wedding and we're goign to make her a cool (hopefully) DVD of the occasion... This is Brandy and her brother Dustin - (who gets married in Nov!).

J - having fun in his red outfit... sporting gifts from our friend RosaLea - thanks Rose!! :)

So we got the downstairs bathroom, living room and hallway upstairs done before they left and we were in the mood to do our bedroom - so we did.... J was patient and chilled on the bed for awhile while we started taping. I think he was a bit bored!

For a fun side dish - I decided to make stuffed mushrooms! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not known for cooking - so this was a big step for me! Ryan was nervous but he said they were good.... Not terrible, that's for sure! I liked them!

After dinner, J was ready for a bath...

Lastly, Ryan's cubs didn't do too well in the playoffs. I will ignore all of Jerry's smack talk (some of which - we agree to be accurate)... ignoring because we all love Jerry (even though his lovely cardinals didn't even get in the playoffs at all) - but I think it's time to let the season go... So now, I'm on to bigger and better things (MY TEAM): The Giants!! So go NEW YORK!!! They are 4-0 but I haven't gotten to watch a single game cuz they haven't been on TV here! So - I'm super glad I'll see them on Monday night play! So, let's say goodbye to the Cubs for now and HELLO Giants!! :) We love you Jerry... even though.... :) Please beware: Ryan and Jackson are still recovering... so let's be nice.

New Blog Template

Ok - I'm experimenting w/ this new template... for some reason, it's not showing the posts at all - only on the archives... I'm working on fixing it...

Update: Forget it! I can't get it to work and I think Blogger just created some new "tool" and that may be why it was messing up on me... I will try again another day.

Jackson Rolled Over!!

It's official! My baby is growing up WAY too fast! I thought I heard him talking to himself this morning around 215am and I looked on the monitor only to see my angels' eyes!!! I thought - hmm... I'm sure Ryan put him on his belly last night... and sure enough, he had flipped over! Then, Ryan put him back on his belly and he went back to sleep... Then, at 500am - he was fussing a little and Ryan watched him flip again!!! He has done it 3 more times since!! He must be loving his new trick! I, however, don't. He doesn't like to sleep on his back - so that creates a problem AND it just means he is growing up!! MAKE IT STOP! I'm not ready yet!!! :) Can't he just be my little tiny baby forever!?

Lunch with Daddy!

Ryan and I try to do lunch together at least once a week... It's fun for Jackson and I to get to see him during the day... These pictures are at the River Market during our lunch date yesterday. Notice Jackson was still supporting those Cubs - drool and all!