A Night Out....

On Thursday, several of us gathered (without kids!) at one of my favorite restaurants (Ruth's Chris) to surprise my neighbor and friend - Jim Burrow - for his birthday.  We had such a fun time!!!

Fall School Pictures!

Smoochy Monster

Ethan has learned to smooch.  Problem is - he only wants to smooch his brother.  A LOT.  Sweet Jackson just goes along with it but Ethan is precious how he "insists" by smacking his little lips together and leaning on toward Jackson.  Seriously, my heart swells up so big that I'm worried it's going to burst.  

Doesn't get much cuter than this.

Rock Collection

I was doing laundry the other day and found some interesting things in the bottom of the washer.  Reached down to investigate and found my washer lined with rocks.  Hmmm.... Went over to my little stinker and asked him to empty his pockets, only to find he apparently has been making a habit of collecting rocks in his pockets - without emptying them or even letting me know! Guess I'll be checking his pockets now before throwing his pants in the washer.

My Jackson.

 

This boy... oh my.  He is just too cool for words.  He really does light up my world.  

Jackson Andrew, I hope you know how much I adore you...your sweet cackley laugh and gorgeous smile, those enormous brown eyes, your big hugs and precious kisses... how you greet any person you see and love everyone, your big heart and eagerness to please.... how you give your baby brother kisses even when you don't think anyone is watching. You just don't have any idea how happy you make your daddy and I.  You are seriously such a cool kid.  I love you!

cuties.

Ethan and Calliope from this morning.  1 week apart and way too cute.

Spanish Chalking

Daniela and Jackson decided to play outside the other day - and I wondered how she was going to incorporate Spanish with my child running around crazy in the front yard.... but then I saw them outside playing with chalk... I thought this was pretty creative.  He's really picking up on Spanish now... He knows his numbers 1-12.  He knows his nose, mouth, eyes.  He knows blue, green, and red.  And Daniela says that he will often answer her Spanish question with the correct  answer in English - so he's understanding very well too!  I wish we could expose him daily to Spanish since he's at that prime age to learn quickly... I think we're going to start watching his favorite movies in Spanish and listen to some more Spanish music... so far, he's pretty willing to learn, so I'm thankful for that!  One thing he won't do - Thomas cannot be called "Tomas" - that was a big no-no.  He quickly corrected Daniela that he can no longer refer to Thomas as Tomas.  There are just some things he won't budge on.  :)

Goofball.

Daddy's Other Boy

As much as I've fought it - and that's probably an understatement - Ethan is a total Daddy's Boy.  So once again, I wonder what could I have done to get these two boys to want me like they want him.... but at the end of the day, I'm thankful they love their daddy so much.  I sure do too.  :)

Cooler Weather....

Well folks, I think our leisurely warm nights walking the neighborhood and watching the gorgeous sunsets may be coming to a close for the year.... soon to return in the spring.  I love living in Arkansas!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear....

Some nights I go to bed still rehearsing the words from that book. Ethan was a little late to the "mommy reads to baby" game... I was much too focused on getting him to eat and not puke it all up that I blinked my eyes and he was a year old!  I wish I would've started reading to him earlier, but we're certainly making up for it now!  We have all 5 of Eric Carle's "Brown Bear" series books and although, very very beat up and used now, Ethan wants me to read them to him over and over and over... about 20-30 times a day.  He recognized the animals and will point them to when I ask him (ie: Where is the fox, where is the blue heron?).... Fortunately, Ethan is slowly venturing away - every so slightly - from the Brown Bear series and letting me read him other books... but he is definitely a fan of those books - and animals in general.  Every morning, we drive by cows and he points and tries to say COW - he's a big animal lover now.  All of a sudden, he is showing a lot of interest in the cats and he actually "semi" watched "Baby Noah" from Baby Einsteins....  (He  could care less about any TV - which I'm happy for!).

He loves when anyone will read these books to him - and Jackson, feeling very "big brother" and all - will gladly take charge and read to his "baby brother" anytime... And sometimes Ethan actually will patiently wait and listen and let him read to him.  It warms my heart, a lot.

Goodbye old friend...

Saturday was a bittersweet day for me. As most of you know, I have been the proud owner of a 1994 Chevrolet Camaro since October 1995 - 16 long, blissful years!! My Camaro and I have been through a lot together, but my last couple of jobs have come with company cars so I haven't had to rely on it as my sole means of transportation for awhile.

For many reasons, none of which Keisha agreed with by the way, I finally made the decision to sell the car. I always assumed that I would keep the car forever and one day restore it, or maybe even give it to Jackson. I eventually came to the realization that after all I put that car through it would never be safe enough to give to my son, and if I had enough money to completely restore it I would probably just go buy myself a Corvette instead!!

Keisha's brother, Ray - who is an expert when it comes to detailing cars - cleaned up the Camaro for me last week, and I took some pics and posted it to Craig's List on Saturday morning. Believe it or not, I got a call in under 10 minutes from a guy at a used car lot!!! Turns out he was looking to keep this car for himself and turn it into a race car with a HUGE engine, new paint, and all sorts of other cool toys - all the things that I hoped to do someday!! The difference here is that he was actually a mechanic for Chevrolet for years and actually had all the tools and know-how to do all these cool things. He and I agreed on a price (that was over DOUBLE what I honestly expected to sell it for), and I signed over the title to him about 30 minutes after putting the pics up online.

To my surprise, I am actually fine with the fact that the car is gone. I know it's just a car, but it has A LOT of sentimental value to me - I've poured tons of my blood, sweat, tears, and money into that thing, and I've owned it for half of my life!! I'm happy that it went to someone who is going to give it the new life that it deserves.

Goodbye old friend - you'll be missed.

Ankle Ring

 Ethan found himself a bit stuck - a self inflicted ankle bracelet of sorts.... And couldn't really figure out to get it off, so he ignored it.  Couldn't help but notice how silly he looked.

goodbye soccer, for now....

Jackson had his last soccer game last Sunday.  He has enjoyed summer soccer and fall soccer this year.  He is definitely getting better!  He really really loves practice and "deals" with the actual game part.  He's not very aggressive at getting (or keeping) the ball - but he loves when it's one-on-one. He's great at kicking the ball down-field. He gets to run around and burn off some energy - so I have supported it!  On this last day of soccer, he was the only one on his team to show up, so he got a lot of individual coaching from Coach Fulton. We are taking a break from winter soccer though - and probably join back up in the spring (if he wants to).

Red Dog!

9 1/2 years ago - when Ryan and I got married we started "Red Dog" to collect coin - with the idea that in 10 years, we'd have enough money to fly to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary.  So we decided to find out what was in the big dog... We had counted it a few times before along the way... back in 2003, again in 2005, 2007 and in 2010.  Then on Thursday, I took it all in and we had $615 in there!  Not enough for both of us to fly to Hawaii - but hey - it all adds up!  :)

Brother Buddies.

Still nice weather for now! Ethan could LIVE outside and be perfectly happy!

Halloween, 2011

This Halloween, Ryan and I both hit the streets with our kiddos!  Ryan didn't get to go last year since Ethan was so tiny - he stayed in with him... so this year, he wanted in on the action.  We put Ethan in the wagon so we could manage his "wheels" a little!  Jackson met up with his buddies and off we went!  Our neighborhood is so great because the kids are mostly all Jackson's age and younger, so we trick-or-treated til the sun went down and then off to bed we went!  It was as much fun as a 3 year old and a 1 year old could possible stand!  Great times!

Jackson's First Camping Experience!

Last weekend, Ryan took Jackson to meet up with our friends Jeremy and Crystal - and their precious little girl (and Jackson's future bride) at Lake Fort Smith for a little camping!  Ethan and I opted to stay the night at home on Friday night and join them on Saturday morning.  Ryan - a true faithful Coleman employee - had all the camping gear a person could ever need - including a little heater in the tent - since it was 33 degrees that night! Jackson had an absolute BLAST!  He was most excited about getting to sleep next to Daddy for the night and wake up and get to play with Anna.  Doesn't get much better than that for a 3 year old.  When Ethan and I got there, around 930am - it was time for a turtle exhibit that they were having at the visitor center.  I was all about a warm building.  :) This campground was really nice - much nicer than the camping I've been used to in the past - but definitely not a place for a 1 year old.  There were big drop offs where they had paved certain areas - so we would have to block it as much as possible (cooler wall pic!) - but still - Ethan wanted to run toward the drop offs!  So we ended up holding him for most of the time... After visiting the turtles and the snake, we hung out with the kids and had lunch and then we headed for the playground to let Anna and J have one last little bit of fun to get all that energy out before we had to head home.  Jackson is STILL talking about how much fun he had!