We're Back!

Jackson likes to play piano with Pawpaw. He seems to really like pianos and Pawpaw's keyboard, so maybe we've got a budding little musician.

Time to get back in the swing of things. We had a great Thanksgiving holiday in Missouri. Jackson went back up to the radio station to see Pawpaw on the air doing his show, so I had to get a picture, of course. We put our tree up today. I am not going to decorate it until next weekend probably, but we had to figure out where to put it, which took some doing. This family room is so hard, since it's on a diagonal, to situate things. Once I decorate the tree, I'll post a picture. We brought the red ottoman down from upstairs and moved the brown one up into the play room. It's a lot more Christmas-y with the red one down here. Not much else going on here right now. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

I sent this link to several people, but if you haven't seen us as elves yet, you should click on this link. It's quite entertaining! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9602600646

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wasn't too crazy about the new lens we bought until I took it outdoors and used it. Jackson and I went to a park today, and I really like some of the pictures I was able to get with it. These were just a sampling of the over 100 pictures I took! I'll do a Kodak Gallery and put them all on there. I'm getting behind on putting pictures on the gallery.

We had a horrible scare tonight with Jackson, and I don't want to write much about it, but since this is kind of an online journal of sorts, I thought I'd mention it. We were out eating tonight and Jackson got choked to the point of being unable to get air. Needless to say, it scared me to death. I have never felt that helpless, really. Tom and Mary Lynn were there too and they were both very frightened. Tom was able to help him dislodge the chip that he was choking on. I will be hugging him even tighter than normal tonight, that's for sure.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Safe travels for those traveling!

I'm thankful for my family and friends -- and my new lens!

Jackson Is A Big Boy!

Well, it's beginning to happen, Jackson is becoming a little boy and no longer a baby! As some of you know, he had begun sleeping with me and Tom and this has been going on for a couple of months. I have been wanting to break him of this because it means I have to go to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 so that he can get to sleep. And I have been so busy here lately with work and I need to stay up later to be able to get it all done.

Anyway, I guess it was Wednesday night that I first tried to get him to sleep in his crib again. I told him it was time to go to bed, and he headed for my room. I said, no, you're a big boy, you don't need to sleep with Mommy anymore, you can sleep in your own bed. So he reluctantly shuffled his feet down the hall, whimpering most of the way. We got to his room and he froze in his doorway. I kind of gave him a push on into the room. Then we read two books, and I said, time for bed. I put him in his crib (without rocking him, mind you) and he started screaming. He was standing up, reaching out to me screaming. I stood there with my arms crossed trying to get him to calm down by just telling him that Mommy had work to do and that he needed to sleep in his own bed. Finally, I told him to lay down on his pillow, and he threw himself down onto is bed, still crying. I patted his back for a little while and then left the room. Within about ten minutes, it was quiet. I was stunned.

The next night was a little better, and now he's going down like a champ. I still rock him some at naptime and I will rock him at night some if he needs to unwind a little more. But my goal was never to break him of rocking, it was to break him of sleeping in our bed. And that goal has been realized, it appears. Last night after I put him down, I was thinking, why aren't you still crying for me? I wanted to run in there and rescue him. I really am happy, but I'm sad too. I see him growing up more every day, and I'd like it to just STOP for a little while. Boo hoo.

Okay. Enough of that. Here is the cute little Christmas sweater I got for him. I really hope it fits!

Daddy and Jackson look through the little flyers that come in the paper for all the toys on sale. Jackson's eyes are wild with each turn of the page. It's funny. Usually he says, oh my, on every page.

Daddy: What about this? Do you like this?

Jackson: I don't know, let me get a better look at it.

Jackson: Oh my, I DO like that!

I went to yet another Christmas bazaar type thing on Saturday, which got me even MORE in the Christimas spirit. Well, I haven't really bought any presents yet, except Jackson's, so I guess I'm not so much in the spirit of giving yet, just the spirit of the holiday season. Anyway, I ran across this layout I did of Jackson's second visit to Santa Claus (last year) and I thought I'd share it. Wasn't he so cute? That was a really good Santa, by the way. He was at the Bass Pro Shop here at Opry Mills. We will probably go there again. But if the Easter Bunny this year was any indication of how he'll act, we might not be getting a very good Santa picture. He was really scared of the Easter Bunny.

I made this as a Christmas ornament for Tom last year. I guess I'll have to come up with another one this year. I would like to make one every year. Maybe I'll do a smaller version of our Christmas card. That would be one way to remember what we sent every year. Hmmm, that's a good idea. This picture is probably my absolutely favorite ever of the two of them. Jackson looked at Tom like he was just seeing him for the first time. So sweet.

Until next time...

My son is hilarious!

The other day Jackson and I had lunch with Mary Lynn and he started acting so silly. We were laughing so hard at him, which made him act even sillier. I thought I'd capture a smidge on video to show you, but it doesn't even do it justice. I took this video this morning of him. What he does is he puts his fists in front of him and closes his eyes and does like a shiver of some type. It's a face that I make with him at breakfast sometimes, but the shaking fists are an added touch. Here goes:

Until next time...

Another New Haircut!

Daddy took Jackson to get a haircut this past Saturday, and it is a buzzzzz cut. I think it's cute short like this, but it definitely makes him look like a big boy, doesn't it?

Jackson was acting so silly, so I had to snap a pic!

It seems like every year at this time I get so behind on everything that I need to do. I've been pretty busy with work here lately, which is good because I can use some extra Christmas money. I went to the Christmas Village on Saturday that's at the flea market here in town, and it was really great. I was born to have a booth somewhere like that or at a flea market. I am such a carny. Now I just have to come up with that one thing that everyone will buy. Any suggestions?

Mom came into town last weekend, I guess, and we had a good visit. Jackson was happy to see her, I know. She bought a new car, a Honda Accord, because she feels it will be more reliable on the interstate, since she burns it up coming over here to see Jackson! It's really nice, and a really nice color too. Here's a picture of it:

Tom worked on landscaping the whole weekend that Mom was here. He built up a rock wall similar to the one we had at the old house. I think it turned out nice. He also put gutter guards on all of our gutters, which we really need with all of these old trees around here. We bought a couple of things to put in the landscape, but we have several more things to find. We probably are running out of time to plant stuff this year. Anyway, here's a partial picture of the rock wall:

Mary Jo and John came to visit last Tuesday and Wednesday because MJ had a tax seminar downtown. Let me tell you, she and Jackson played like wild Indians! He loved it. He gets so wound up when he plays hard like that. It was funny. We really enjoyed their visit, and oh, yeah, today is Grandma Hart's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA HART!

Hope it was a good one!