Just Go With It

I will admit that I am one that likes to have everything planned out (yes, even my clothes for the week) and if my plans don't work out well let's not even go there! Brian is always a laid back easy going guy and yesterday I was able to just go with it pretty well:)

Having a ball at the park until...
Jackson poops and we have no diapers or wipes with us, so I just go with it and let him stand up the whole way home for obvious reasons!

That afternoon I was getting ready to go to the outlets for the Gap's Buy One Get One sale and I listen to my messages and we have a babysitter for the night. I just go with it and enjoy my quick shopping trip to one store instead of many because that means it is DATE NIGHT!

On the way home from the Outlets Brian and Jackson decide they want waffles for dinner. I just go with it even if it means buying pancake mix I wouldn't normally buy because I get a night off from making dinner!

Enjoy blowing bubbles with my boy until Aunt Midge came over so...

My love and I could go see Just Go With It!

We both really enjoyed the movie and thought it was really funny! So if you are looking for a good movie to see I highly recommend this one.

New Favorite Pastime

Last Friday while I was home with Jackson I was really wishing we had some playdough. I thought he would have fun playing with it. This last weekend I picked him up a pack. Brian let him play with it one night when I was at a meeting for the first time and he LOVED it! He sat for 45 minutes that night playing with it. Daddy even made him a bowl for his berries!

Each night after dinner he wants to cut and make things with his playdough. He calls each color out and wants to empty each container.
He gets really excited when he makes something by himself. Each time we get the playdough out he is content for a very long time!

Here he is in action and we are practicing for his birthday next month!

Home Improvements by Mel

We were able to complete Jackson's room the first 2 days Mel was here. His room is not complete by anymeans! We are in the process of ordering pictures for the wall, hanging a shelf or two, and we still need to purchase a dresser that matches the bed. We did buy a black cube organizer to hold some toys and books but it is not really worthy of a picture by itself.

Just to show you what the previous owner's left us in Jackson's new room. It feels so good to have all the wallpaper gone upstairs! We painted 3 of the walls gray with an accent of Bayside blue. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

The project that took a longer time was the staircase. We were taking out the old staircase and replacing it with rod iron spindles and new posts and rails. Mel had made the posts and rails at home and brought them with him when they came down. He was able to stain them to match the book shelves he made for us last January.

A comparison between the entryway we saw when we first toured the house to now! I do believe I like what I see now A LOT better:)

It seemed to be a very tedious project. After the new staircase was complete we realized that the off-white walls leading upstairs and in the upstairs hallway looked blah.
Mel then taped off the upstairs, textured, and painted the walls Restrained Gold. It made a huge difference in the feel of the upstairs. I love how it looks when I walk out my bedroom and walk down to Jackson's. Now we just have to get some things up on the walls up there too.

After painting the upstairs and liking it so much we decided we would repaint the entryway and dining room the same color. Brian was going to do that but thanks to the artic blast of cold weather everywhere Mel had some extra time and did it for us!

Thanks for all the hard work Mel! Once again the end result is perfect and improved the look of our house a great deal!

A Very Interesting Week

-All week long the meteorologists were predicting cold temperatures and a chance of snow on Friday. While the midwest and east coast were getting dumped on with snow the temperatures were dropping here. Mel and Sharon were going to leave Tuesday morning so we went out for a last hurrah and let Jackson get his first ice cream cone after dinner. However because of the roads in Dallas and Oklahoma City they were stuck in Houston for another night!
-Tuesday Mel and Sharon packed up with hopes of leaving Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning rolled around and I got up to work out like any other normal day and half way through my workout the power went out! About 40 minutes later it came back on there was however not enough time to shower and get ready for work. So I finished my workout, freshened up, and went to school. When I arrived there we had no power or running water due to a broken water main. All day we experienced rolling black outs and stinky restrooms all day!

-Mel and Sharon made a few calls to relatives in the midwest and the Texas Department of Transportation and reluctantly decided to be safe rather than sorry. Mel made the most of another day at our house and repainted our entry and dining room the same color as our upstairs in the morning. Then Papa and Grandma picked Jackson up early from Miss Sandy's to play. That night we went out for dinner and ran a few errands. Whenever we would go from the car to the store or the store to car, Jackson would say "Brrr" and pull down his hat over his face and say "Keeping warm!" He is a hoot!

-By Thursday Mel and Sharon had enough of us and Houston and they were up and on the road by 6:30 in the morning. Thankfully we had power all morning and I was able to shower before I went to school today. Now there was a 60-80% of snow for Friday and everyone was hoping for a snow day. By 10 am school was cancelled and I couldn't have been more excited! I didn't let my students in on the news until Mrs. Thomas announced it at the end of the day and they worked hard all day. Believe it or not this week was one of the best for student behavior in my class! I am praying it continues into next week.

-I left right after buses to go get Jackson. I was ready to spend a "Snow day" together on Friday. I was a little bummed because Brian wouldn't be coming home. He had to spend the night downtown because of the inclement weather coming in. His work put him up in a hotel right down the street. The cold weather made me want chicken chili. I had everything at home except the chili beans and you can't have chili without the chili beans. So after I picked up Jackson we headed to Kroger. I knew the stores were going to be busy but I didn't think they would be CRAZY! Thank goodness I used to be a checker at a grocery store and no one else likes to use the self check-out lanes or I may have had to leave the chili beans out of the chili.

-Jackson came down with a fever and was extra clingy. I spent the night cuddling with my boy and watching Thomas. He woke up at 4:30 and it felt like he was burning up. I went to get him tylenol and could barely scrape enough out to get him the dose he needed. I laid next to him the rest of the night and prayed his fever would go down. At 7 o'clock we got up and I looked outside for the snow, nope we got none! It was a good thing Brian stayed downtown or he wouldn't have made it to work. They closed down all the freeways due to ice.

-Jackson and I bundled up and headed to Target right at 8 o'clock to get tylenol. No one was out on the streets and the store was empty except us and the employees. Since we were out I grabbed a latte and we headed back home were we stayed all day long!

-Jackson perked up after each dose of tylenol. We spent the morning making a tent, playing in it, and reading books in his bed.

-Brian finally made it home and we made some cut-out cookies for Valentines.

-They both have my my heart!

-The shop vac is the best way to clean up!

-Frosting the day away!

-We saw the sun today and it warmed up into the 50's. We enjoyed every minute of it!

-Wow, that was a long post and a week I won't likely forget for a while! Now how about a Packer victory tomorrow?!

23 Months

Dear Jackson,

Every day you are becoming more of a little boy and less of my baby! You are looking and acting so grown up these days. You can and do say any and everything letting us know what you want and still surprising us with what you do know.

You surprised me when you asked to go poopy on the potty. You go pee on the potty all the time especially after your naps and before bed. However, some days you want nothing to do with the big potty. That's ok, you have plenty of time to master it! You still love going to the Pet Store. You laugh at the cats and try to pet them, smile at the mice, and watch the fish swim forever.

You are really getting into pretend play. It is so fun watching what you do and seeing what you pick up from what Daddy and I do! You love to know what everyone is doing and want to help. You will drop everything to come and help mommy mix up brownies or cookies! I bet your wondering what happens to all those goodies we bake:)

You are ALL boy! You love anything truck, car, train, ball, dirt, outdoor, and rough and tough play. You also love reading books, coloring, and music you can dance to.

You are a HAM! You crack your daddy and me up all the time. I love your facial expressions when you ask for something or tell me something really important and then you end by saying "ok?" You are a very polite boy- using please and thank you ALL the time!
You love your new room and bed! You are now sleeping like a champ and so are mommy and daddy:) I am so thankful for your life and love you more each day!

In one month you will be 2, I better get busy planning your Birthday celebration!

Memorizing Scripture #3

For my third verse I am going with the verse I read over and over the past couple of weeks. I thought about picking a different one because I do almost have it memorized but I want to meomorize the reference as well. Also these is the verse the Lord has led me back to over and over this week.

"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the ONE who sustains me." Psalm 54:4

I so often try to do things on my own or let the devil tell me things that aren't true so instead of both of those I am going to be proclaiming God as my source of ALL.

Sunday Funday

Sunday turned out to be a pretty nice day after some light rain in the morning. We were inside at chuch so it didn't matter too much anyways:)

Pictures before church- Papa, Jackson, and Grandma (Sneak peak of our new staircase behind them)

I think we are all looking in a different direction:)
Brian and his parents attended service while I served in Jackson's room. I gave each child a piece of paper and crayons for art time and first thing Jackson does is traces his hand. He did a pretty good job all by himself. I really do love spending that hour with him and I promise I pay attention to the other kiddos too!

After lunch Mel and Sharon headed out to pick up their new boat and Jackson napped. By the time they got back and Jackson woke up the sun was shining bright! We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening outside. Jackson loves driving Papa's boat. We have been soaking the boat bribe for all it is worth and it works wonderfully:) Papa may need to leave his boat here!

The three musketeers decided it was warm enough to go swimming so they headed up the hot tub.

Jackson thought it was a splendid idea!

He is wondering why he hasn't been able to swim in a while.

I think we may have used the boat as a bribe to get out of the pool, HA!

I need it at least 25 degrees warmer to get in the pool, boy am I looking forward to those days but not the cold days that are coming in!