What a beautiful day!!

Yesterday was SO beautiful! The weather was perfect for playing at the playground! I had to go fax something - so I went to Bethel Heights and did it at the police station so Jackson could see my dad... after, we walked over to City Hall and played on the playground - but not before Jackson got climb all over a fire truck!!!

I can actually see Ryan in Jackson in this pic! :-)

This furry friend was not all scared of us... I got really close to him.

jackson's new "thing" is to throw things. and anytime i say "ruh-row" - he thinks it's the funniest thing ever. here is he is throwing pebbles down the slide... only funny when i say "ruh-row."

Big Cedar!

My good buddy Sarah and I spent an awesome, relaxing weekend in Big Cedar a couple weekends ago. Sarah and her husband DJ are expecting their first baby - Kiptyn Emmett - in December. We had so much fun!!

This is Sarah and I after breakfast - this was our view!! Big Cedar has the perfect location - right on the beautiful lake... awh...

Our new friend at lunch.

Relaxing in the room... It was a 2 bedroom suite - with a living/dining/full kitchen in the middle! I didn't want to leave... so peaceful there.

The evil "one laned bridge" on the way back... geez Louise!

Packing Up!

Something tells me that October may fly by as fast as September did! This weekend, Ry and I went to LR to pack up the house - We left Jackson w/ my mom so we can really focus on getting as much done as possible w/o baby under foot. We emptied the entire shed and moved to the garage and then we completely boxed up and moved the entire upstairs (3 rooms and a bathroom!). So our garage is packed full of boxes and stuff. Next weekend, we'll head back to LR to finish the downstairs. Our closing is scheduled for Oct 16th - and it's looking like everything should be fine! Thank you God!!! I'm so amazed w/ how much Ry and I got done in a day and a half! We've got this moving thing down pretty good now! We've done it enough. This is our 6th move in 7 1/2 years! I'm hoping it's our last for at least 5 more years!!

These pics were taken 1/2 way thru the day on Saturday. Now, the upstairs is completely empty - besides the shelves on the wall (which the new owners wanted), and our downstairs is way more messed up and crowded! Poor kitties....

If anyone wants to volunteer to "house" our kitties for a few weeks while we find and close on a new house, please let me know!

Our kitties are homeless as of October 16th! :-(

Long time, no post

So life just got really really busy - SOOOO thankful for that! We have an offer on our house - which we have accepted. It's kind of a shady deal, so I am praying that everything goes thru w/o a hitch. Our inspection should mid-week and then the closing is scheduled for Oct 16th. I'm PRAYING that goes thru (please join me!). I've been house shopping in NWA - and I LOVE house shopping!!! I have a mega-cool realtor who is a good friend of my aunt's - so my aunt is going house shopping w/ us tomorrow! She'll help me w/ Jackson too - who has already broken something at someone's home! He found these glass ball things that were in a basket on a coffee table and what's a boy to do w/ a ball? Throw it! So this all happened in SECONDS! Seriously, SECONDS!!!! He was playing w/ the kitty and I turned to look at the kitchen for a SECOND and then boom, I heard crash on the hard wood floor! Of course, this was our very last house to look at and we had made it the entire day w/o breaking anything of someone's... Yikes. Looking at homes w/ a 16 month old in tow who just wants to run and play isn't easy... but I'm not complaining! :-)

Pics later - I am a disaster w/ everything spread out everywhere. I don't even know where my toothbrush is half the time. :)

Ray and Katie

I took some pics of my not-such-a-baby-anymore brother, Ray and his Angelina-lookalike girlfriend (whom I LOVE) Katie yesterday... just for fun! I'm really enjoying "playing" with photography... I think when I finally do get moved back to NWA, I'll take a class at Bedford's to see if this is something I may want to pursue... on the side! I don't know anything about lighting, etc, but I do LOVE to take pics!! I think these kind of "engagement" type pics are my favorite - especially when you have pretty models like I did! :)

Kitty, Meet Kitty.

It was bound to happen. We have so many outside cats in our neighborhood, that I knew eventually our 2 indoor kitties would spot one.... Well this gorgeous cat lives next door to us - and I'm pretty sure is actually the same breed as Calvin and Hobbes - Maine Coons. So I've really been practicing lately w/ trying to take some "artistic" pictures... so I used this opportunity. I think they turned out pretty good! How can anyone not love this precious creatures!? I just could never understand that.

Visit to the land we've always called HOME....

I just took my grandma back to NWA this weekend.... Got to visit w/ my bro and Katie yesterday and Sunday, we got to see Dave and Carla... Carla made us this AMAZING meal!! (Thanks Carla!!). On Saturday night, my mom, dad, Aunt Janet and Roy joined Ryan and I on a fierce, bitter battle of Phase 10 to which my dad took the crown, again. :( Overall, we had such a great visit and I'm very thankful to my parents for allowing Ryan to stay there during the week and for us to all crash on a bunch of weekends coming up... Hopefully not for long.. hopefully, this house will sell soon! God knows our hearts and that we don't want to be apart.
He will provide for us, I know that. :)

Jackson w/ Uncle Dave and Aunt Carla


Jackson w/ Uncle Ray


Into a little mischief!

Hollie, this pic is for you. :) I would normally never post a pic of Jackson w/ this "mad" face... but ya know... since you may need pics! haha! :) I'm so excited!!!

All teeth!

Rummy

Last week, my grandma and I spent most of Jackson's nap times playing an old school card game called RUMMY! Well, as anyone who knows me at all knows, I wouldn't be talking about this if I hadn't DOMINATED her! haha! We played 6 games to which she only beat me once.... however, she did destroy Ryan and I on the last game.... guess we know who got the last laugh after all. haha!

I miss her tons. Wish she was back already.

Hanging out with Grandma Betty

My grandma is here staying with me this week.... Jackson and I are LOVING having her here!!!

Spaghetti

I started taking video because Jackson was being such a good boy and eating his spaghetti on his own with his fork!!! I was so proud of him... But - as you can see from the video, as soon as he saw my video camera come out, he decided to do everything BUT eat the food with his fork!

Little Rock Zoo!

Yesterday, my good friend Amanda and her son Noah asked us to go to the zoo w/ them! Noah is about 3 mos older than Jackson and they have become buddies! We had fun at the zoo - and Jackson actually LOOKED at the animals this time (unlike in Milwaukee where he just wanted to run everywhere!)

This pic is RIGHT before Jackson threw the paci in his hand into the dirty water where the monkeys were playing and there were big giant fish swimming around. Needless to say, I did not scoop out the paci.


LOOK - elephants!


Jackson's new thing is the climb everywhere - especially when he sees stairs. He's gotten so good w/ stairs that I took off the gate at the bottom of our stairs... I hope that doesn't bite me.

Playing on the playground area!



Please try to ignore my loud "good boy" yells! I get excited when it comes to my baby!

Playing on the slide at Gymboree

Update

Well, I've been asked several times about an update....

The House: The house has been on the market now since the end of July.... We've had 3 showings and 2 open houses. Everyone seems to really love the house... My realtor (who is amazing, btw) says it shows really well. So - on the last open house - on Sunday - we had about 6 couples and 4 good possibilites. 2 of the couples have houses on the market now and the 2 other couples I'm extremely excited about cuz they are first time home buyers! So they need to hustle to take advantage of the big tax credit! So!!! My realtor (did I mention how awesome she is? Brenda Rhoads - if you're looking for a LR realtor!) keeps me so informed and is a great salesperson - so she really sold it to each person who came by!

Showing Tomorrow: We got a call about a showing tomorrow!! So my fingers are crossed that it's someone who has already looked - maybe even one of the couples from the open house!!

Alarm: We got an alarm installed yesterday, so I feel better. :)

Lastly - Ryan starts his new job Sept 8th! He's pretty excited about it and we're going to have to just live apart for awhile. :( My grandma is going to come stay w/ me quite a bit so that's nice. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time w/ her. I may not let her leave!!

Here's some recent pics of mister man! He throws quite the temper tantrums lately and I'm really hoping that will end soon. Teething, maybe. He had his 15 mo appt today - and he's 25 pounds, 10 oz... big boy!! We're opting to take the big controversial MMR for later on - maybe at 24 mos... But later, for sure.