52 weeks - week 4

Okay, so here are pix from week 4, which was the week of February 8th. We look terrible yet hilarious at the same time! Jerry was fixin' :) to go to work and Jackson & I were just bumming around. Of course, Amber managed to get herself into yet another picture. I had to include those 2 of Jackson because he just looked so silly. He was acting totally crazy when we were taking these. Ha! I just can't help but laugh every time I look at these!

52 weeks - Week 3

Wow, I'm really behind on this!! Sadly, week 3 produced not a single picture! We're so pathetic. It was only week 3 and we couldn't manage to take a freakin picture! Oh well.

Baby Bryce & Jackson

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our monthly dinner with our friends Matt, Deborah, and Baby Bryce. As usual, we had a great time. Jackson got some cool bath books from Bryce for his birthday. So he decided to read them to Bryce. It was really cute. Although, I don't think I've ever heard a fish make the kind of noises Jackson was making!! I think Deborah got some video of it. I'll have to get it from her because it was really funny!

Mommy's Helper

Happy Birthday, Gram!

You would have been 79 today. The reality that you're gone is absolutely devastating. I love you to pieces, Grammy and I miss you so very much. Happy Birthday!

We placed a memorial in the newspaper. You can find that here.

Goodbye Bass!

Sayonara Bass or whatever kind of fish you are. You were UGLY! Not only that, you were in wallpaper border form, which made you even uglier! I'm not sure what possessed the previous owners of our house to put you up there on the wall of their son's room. Maybe their kid liked fish or fishing or whatever but that's not our thing. I hope you enjoyed your time up there because your time is DONE! We're starting the painting process for our little girl's room and there is no place for you in there. Sorry fishies! Thanks for the memories though. We really enjoyed making jokes at your expense and showing you off to whoever came to visit. I mean, you really were a sight!

Best wishes, The C Family

Digging with Goggles

A couple of weekends ago my mom, Andrew and Pumpkin came over for a visit. We took Jackson outside to play in the backyard with his digger. He decided he wanted to wear his goggles to work. It was very cute. Unfortunately, those things are horribly made and are very difficult to see threw so he didn't wear them for long. My mom tried them out so I had to snap a picture of her. She's going to hate me for posting it on here! :)

Oops!

I just realized that I was wrong about how old Jerry was in that picture in my 10 years post down below. He was 23, not 22!

Valentine's Day Fun

For Valentine's Day we took Jackson to see Sesame Street Live with our friends Josh, Ann, & Bryce. Jackson was a little hesitant at first but he eventually warmed up and loved it! It was a really cute show. We all had a great time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Jackson & fam!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

10 Years

10 years ago today that young couple in the picture below decided to make things official by declaring Feb. 10th their day! He was 22 and she was 21. There was no real rhyme or reason as to why Feb. 10th was THE date. They had already been dating for a few months but had never really established any sort of anniversary date. So on Feb. 10th 1999, they just said "what they hey, today is the day" and the rest is history. Little did they know that 10 years down the road they would be 4 years into their marriage, living in their 2nd house, have 2 cats, a 2 year old son, and a daughter on the way! I wonder what the next 10 years has in store for them!

Pooh on the Potty ;)

How's that for a title! ;)

Anyhoo, I've been nesting big time around the house and during one of my nesting episodes I found Jackson's potty. He doesn't use it. I don't anticipate him using it anytime soon as he is in no way interested in potty training! When I found it, I brought it out and made a big deal about it. Ooh the potty, how cool! Yeah, it's so cool that Jackson decided to put his Winnie-the-Pooh on it instead of trying it out himself.

So he places Pooh on the potty and I ask him "What's Pooh doing?"
Jackson replies "Poopy". I go "Oh Pooh is going poopy on the potty?" He says "yeah" and closes in on Pooh to get a whiff! My grandpa was here and when Jackson wasn't looking, he threw a craisin in the bowl of the potty. All the while, I'm laughing hysterically. Jackson returns and moves Pooh to the side to see if he had made any progress on the poopy front. He notices the craisin and says something to the effect of "uh-oh, poopy!" So he takes the bowl out, dumps the offending 'poopy' in the potty, and flushes the toilet! He then asks me for wipes. I get the wipes for him and he proceeds to wipe Pooh's bottom. It was really the funniest and cutest thing ever!

After Pooh was done, I asked Jackson if he wanted to use the potty. He emphatically said "NO! NO, potty!" Ay, dios mio! Potty training this kid will not be easy!

Jackson & Amer Tat

Taming of the Small Toy Clutter!

A blog I read was holding a Taming Kid Clutter Linky Party. I've been waiting for this because I'm dying to get some more ideas on how to tame the insane amount of toys we have in this house. I decided to go ahead and share what I've done to contain the smaller toys in Jackson's room. We were lucky enough to have my grandpa build Jackson this awesome bookcase/storage unit. I love that Jackson will always have this piece of furniture that his great-grandpa made for him!

So I bought clear storage bins in various sizes, sorted the toys, assigned them a box, labeled them (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my label maker), and put them up on the shelves. Jackson has a stool he uses to reach whatever he wants to play with. He really likes being able to stand up on his stool and play there on that flat surface above the cabinets.

The top row holds his collection of children's paperback books. He's too rough with those so for now they're up high and we look at those together. He has access to all his board books, which are in the cabinets below.

I didn't take a picture of it but in the drawers are all of Jackson's art supplies. I love having those drawers to store all the craft/art stuff!!






In the cabinets, there are 8 bins full of goodies. The green and striped bins hold some of Jackson's board books. There's another large bin in his room that holds a bunch of books, I just didn't take a picture of it. The top shelf holds more toys - stacking cups & blocks, mega blocks, wooden alphabet blocks, and a variety of balls. I took pictures of what was inside the bins to place on the outside of the bin so Jackson could see what was inside. I've printed out the pictures, I just haven't gotten around to placing them on the bins. It's on my mile long list of things to do!



I've really loved being able to contain all the clutter in this way! Jackson's not so overwhelmed by his toys, he's learning to clean up a lot better after himself, and he's learning that everything has a place! That's what I live by...everything has a place! If everything has a place, life is so much easier!!!