Our First 2011 Playdate!

On Thursday, we asked Jackson's friends to come over for a playdate! Jackson was so looking forward to it...
He would call out who would be there:
"mommy, ben here?"
"yep."
"and cole!!!?"
"yep."
"mommy, holiday here too!?"
"yep."
"And eden?"
"yep!"
"and EMILY!!!?"
"yes jackson, emily (ben's mommy) will be here too..."

SCORE for Jackson! He was stoked! We stayed upstairs in the playroom - which was perfect to me since I knew with 5 toddlers running around, it would be interesting!

Ben started a fun game of running and tackling Haley.



Haley is a good sport!

Then, they all wanted in on it!

Holiday and Eden sporting their new aprons! Thanks to my good friend Sarah at Make It Initial!

Yikes! The Thomas tent that Aunt Carla and Uncle Dave got Jackson actually survived these kids! It became such a "hit" that I finally had to put it away for our own sanity (and safety!)

Holiday and her sweet beautiful big sister Haley.

Ethan slept most of the time, but when he woke up, he wanted to play on his exersaucer so he could still see all the kids running around playing around him.

Our playdates are really just as much for us mom's as it is for the kids!

Holiday built quite a tower!!! Ben was kind enough to let her finish building it before he proudly knocked it to the ground. :)

Sweet Eden. :) Our tiniest member.

Our two girls. One very girly (Eden) and one who can take on any boy AND be cute doing it (Holiday).

Jackson and Ben. :)

LOVE THEM! It's funny how Holiday can encourage Jackson to actually take a picture properly.

The RARE photo of the gang, minus Cole! They came a little late and I didn't remember to grab pictures!!!

Em put my sweet baby boy to sleep... Wonder if it has something to do w/ the fact that she just found out she will soon be putting HER 2nd baby boy to sleep in those arms soon!? :) Congrats Em!

Christmas w/ Stearle's!

Christmas came several times this year... which we LOVE. Ryan's mom flew in on Thursday from Milwaukee and his brother Dave and his wife Carla drove in from Minneapolis on Thursday! It was a fun weekend! We did "our" Christmas on Friday and Jackson kept telling me Santa was coming again... funny!

We always open stockings first... they are the most fun! We all draw names and you collect a ridiculous amount of fun, goofy, sometimes useful stocking stuffers. It's really really fun!

This is what Jackson does now when I ask him to look at mommy for a picture... This is him saying "cheese" and looking away. As usual!

Again, but this time w/ his candy necklace... a first for Jackson.

Dave's stocking had some unusual hats.... #1 -

#2 -

#3 -

#4 - (w/ Carla)

Jackson joined in the fun....

And even Ma had some fun stuff!

Carla opening some stocking stuff....

Jackson got some really great presents! This is really the first year he's getting INTO the opening of the presents... He really enjoyed that part this year.

WHOA!!!

More presents!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

He immediately asked Daddy to get everything going!

Ethan enjoys watching Jackson - so much!

"YAY Daddy, it's SUPER fast!"

Ryan's new "toy" which Jackson has named "Harold" (from Harold the helicopter, off Thomas and Friends, of course!)

Wants to be just like daddy....

We were so sad when everyone left, but needless to say, we're still enjoying all of our toys!!! What a GREAT Christmas w/ GREAT family!!!!

Cereal, anyone?

So I decided since Ethan isn't taking a bottle too well, maybe he'd like to try to take his cereal from a spoon - and at least then, he'd still be getting some nutrition. I even mixed the cereal w/ a tad bit of juice to add flavor to it but he was NOT feeling it. Of course, his first time to eat w/ a spoon, he did the whole tongue thrusting thing pushing out the food... but then I got about 6 spoons down and was about to call it a success - and then he puked it all up. Oh well - we'll try again in a month or so. :)

Grandma and her grandboys!

Our boys had so much fun w/ their grandma over New Years Weekend! They are just instantly comfortable and happy around her! It's like she's here all the time! We wish she was! :) Love ya Ma!!!

2011 New Years Resolutions

My new years resolutions this year are very specific.  I decided that when you make goals too broad, it's too hard to make them happen.  So mine are very very specific this year.

1. Lose at least 25 pounds and preferrably, 30 by the end of the year.
2.  Have ALL credit cards paid, in full.
3. Spend at least 3 full hours every single day, dedicated to Jackson 100%.  Could be 1 hour here and there - but focused solely on him - with no TV or baby interruptions. (I would say more hours but Ethan only sleeps about 4 hours during the day total - so I'll take what I can get!)
4. Run at least one half marathon in 2011.

And lastly - this one is fun! 
5. Make at least one blog entry every day of the year.  This is a journal of our lives!  So I have to remember that I'm making memories forever when I update my blog.  All my blog entries will soon be published in a book - as soon as I get around to making it! :)

Side note:  So I asked Ryan what his new years resolutions were so I could blog them... His response was "I'd like to go the gym more regularly.... oh, and to smooch you more."  I'll take both of those!  :)

Jackson's New Art Easel!

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning was so fun - our first Christmas as a family of FOUR! In addition, this was the first Christmas where we have talked to Jackson about Santa, so we knew Christmas was going to be really fun! Jackson woke up and immediately wanted to color w/ his new Thomas giant coloring book....After breakfast, we opened Santa presents and had so much fun, just the 4 of us! :)

Ryan is pretty excited about his new Nook Color.

Jackson got some awesome additions for his train track but he didn't want to wait to put them on his table upstairs, so he built a track in the living room.

He got a new Thomas - Easter Thomas from Nana and Papa.

Ethan was cool to chill w/ his new monkey from Lisa and Richie.

Santa was also kind enough to bring "Annie and Clarabel" - which are the two passenger trains that follow Thomas. He had been making up random trains and calling them Annie and Clarabel. Gotta love a child's imagination!

My sweet sweet boy.

So happy!

Ethan was happy too! He was loving all the attention!

It's important to get a close up!

After we opened presents, Jackson took a short nap and then we went to my parents' house for Christmas dinner. Ethan got loads of "mimi time."

Kisses for Mimi.

My brother and Ty were still sassing.

My sweet little baby love.

Jackson actually started not feeling well and we ended up having to leave early. His fever - as you can see in his cheeks in this pic - got up to 102 while we were there. Poor guy. He had too much excitement for the day on top of recovering from the flu/bronchitis.

Before we left, Ethan had to try on his new hat from Mimi.