Tennessee Christmas

We spent Christmas in Tennessee this year with my family. Besides the drive to and from, we had a pretty nice trip. We got to stay for a week which was great! This gave us time to visit with family and several friends, of course there is never enough time to see everyone that we'd like to visit. We left on a Friday when mike got home from work. The first few hours of the trip were rough - Jackson completely skipped his nap and cried on and off for two hours. We got stuck in traffic/ road construction 3 times. And our dinner stop seemed to take forever - gone are the days of quick stops and eating in the car. Finally, Jackson fell asleep and slept the last couple of hours.

The days leading up to Christmas were spent hanging out with family, baking cookies, and finishing last minute Christmas Day preparations. Mike and I got to meet Dan, Jenny, and Hayden for lunch and then Mike got to go hang out in Nashville with his old Belmont crew that night. Unfortunately, some sickness hit the house right before Christmas. Abbey woke up sick early Monday morning and then Mike and Corey got it on Tuesday and Gigi a few days later. Luckily the bug only lasted about 24 hours and the whole house did not catch it and everyone was feeling better by Christmas.

Kylie returned home from her dad's on Christmas Eve and boy was Jackson excited to see his Kylie! The boy could not stop hugging her. It was so sweet! We had some finger foods for dinner that night followed by our gender revealing cake pops for dessert. Christmas morning started fairly early. We thought it would be best to let the kiddos do their stockings and presents early before Jackson's nap. We then had breakfast and after Jacks laid down, the rest of us opened presents. He was most into opening his stocking and loved the toothbrush he found in it! Of course he didn't care much for sitting still and opening presents - he just kept wanting to run into the kitchen to find the cat. The boy is busy. He was most excited about putting on at shirt that Gigi gave him. He had to wear it over his pajamas. It will be fun to see him progress the next year or two though. I'm sure he will get much more excited about toys then. We had a pretty relaxed afternoon. I even took a little nap. Abbey, Galen, and Kylie left to visit his family for the evening. The rest of us enjoyed a nice dinner of prime rib, broccoli casserole, sweet potatoes, rolls and coffee ice cream cake. We followed dinner with a movie and more relaxing.

Thursday mike and I met two friends, Erin and Brett, in Nashville for lunch. Friday we got to visit Brittany and Steve's new house and she cooked brunch for us along with Kellie, Adam, and Kyle. It was cute to see the boys together again now that they are both walking. However, they kept fighting over the same basketball and whichever kid did not have the ball was in hysterics (there were like 10 other basketballs but they only wanted one). This was a bit comical. Maybe they will know how to share by the next play date! Speaking of the next play date, Brittany's little one will be able to join us then (she is due with baby in February).

We hung around the house on Saturday. We got to visit with Jeff, Denise, and the kids before packing up for he trip home. We decided to leave Saturday evening with the hopes that jacks would sleep and not cry as much. That part of the plan worked; however, before he fell asleep he vomited all over himself and the car seat. Poor guy was so upset! This was the first time he has ever thrown up. We made a pit stop and threw away the pjs he was wearing. After getting him changed and the car seat cleaned up the best we could we were back on the road. He fell asleep shortly after, and the rest of the drive went smoothly (except for the nauseating smell....). Anyway, we had a great trip and enjoyed our time celebrating the Christmas holiday with family!

Cheesin with Uncle Galen!

This was one of his presents from Grandma and Grandpa. He got it early so he could play with it. 

Giving cousin Kylie some hugs! 

Christmas tree and presents on Christmas morning! 

I know this isn't a great pic, but I was trying to get a picture of his Christmas jammies from Grandma. He wouldn't stand still though - I had a very similar pair when I was his age! I'll post a pic later...

Table on Christmas night!

Family pic - last Christmas as a family of 3!

Trying to take a pic with Gigi, but the little guy did not want to cooperate. 

Right after getting sick in the car. As soon as we got him changed, he was ready to go!

Again, sorry the pictures are not great. I will post more next month when we get our camera back. Thanks for hanging in there with me in the meantime! 

Busy Busy Boy

I've written numerous times about Jackson being active, but I feel that he just continues to get busier and busier! The kid loves to be on the move all the time - and given the chance to walk or run freely, you better believe he takes it. For example, Mike was letting him walk around a bookstore this past weekend. Jacks walked right out and kept walking through the mall. This went on for several minutes. He did even notice or care that Mike was behind him and was not phased by the huge crowd one bit! He just loves being able to go. (Now mama wasn't so amused with this because I do not want him to start hating his stroller - he's not even 18 months yet)!

Anyway....I haven't given an update on Jackson in a while so just thought I'd write a quick post about what he has been up to. Like I said above, he moves all day. You'd think that after all the new toys he got for Christmas that he would like to sit and play with them. Nope. He checked out all his stuff for about a day after returning home from TN and then he was back to just walking and running through the house ALL DAY LONG. He also climbs a lot and likes to jump and bounce. I love his curiosity and how he loves figuring everything out. He started opening doors before Christmas but never really did it much. Upon returning home he decided that he was going to go in the bedrooms and bathrooms at his own will. This is a problem - he creates huge messes and mostly only wants to play with things that he should not play with. We've had to start locking the doors from the inside or propping chairs in front of doors. Our house looks crazy, but it's safe!

Jackson also loves talking - he still mostly says one or two words at a time but says words all day long. He has several new words and rotates his favorites out. He is currently obsessed with cows and loves to find his books or toys with cows on them. It seems like he has a new favorite animal each month. He also still loves the cats but has gotten really into Cooper lately. He now calls him "Coo-coo," which is very fitting. He says his name all the time - while in his highchair, when he wakes up, as soon as he gets out of the car, at Target, etc. The dog is always on his mind. 

Although active, he is still such a sweet and happy boy. He loves to give hugs and kisses to mommy and daddy. The sweetest is when its just out of the blue. He also kisses on the pets a lot. He has to be able to sneak up on the cats, but he kisses them on their backs. Too cute. 

His biggest change going on at this time is that we are working on dropping the morning nap. He did well for several days with just one and right now we are back and forth between one and two naps. It all depends on what time he wakes up and how he is feeling. I do like the new schedule because it gives more flexibility to do things during the day, I'm just ready for some consistency again! As a parent, it seems like each time you get in a routine and think you have things figured out something else changes! I've really learned to be more flexible over the past year. :)

He and I are staying busy with gymboree classes and play dates. We've also joined a work out group called Stroller Strides. The kiddos stay in the stroller during an hour long workout and we push them around for different cardio exercises and entertain them with other activities. He does really well and I enjoy it too. It has been difficult to get together with many friends this month because the little guy has been sick some. What we thought was just a cold because his only symptom was a runny nose, actually turned into being a positive flu test. He did have a flu shot which is why his symptoms were not very bad. After the runny nose and congestion finally went away, the poor guy ended up with an ear infection. He is doing a great job taking his antibiotic and hopefully this is the last sickness he has for the winter (knock on wood!). 

So Jackson went through a phase last month where he always wanted a hat on. He suddenly loved all of his hates (that he hated like the day before) and would bring one to me about 20 times a day to put on him. It was so cute though, didn't matter if he was shooting hoops or reading a book - he wanted a hat on! 

He recognizes objects as being mommy's or daddy's and brings them to us. Sometimes he likes to wear mine for a while first though. :) 

Sorry for the blurry photo, but doesn't every little kid like to bounce on their dog? Cooper is such a good boy.

Ok, so let me explain this one a bit. I often let Jackson nap in a t-shirt because he gets hot when he sleeps. This particular day I walked in to get him and found him jumping up and down with absolutely nothing on his lower half. There is the diaper on the floor. We are now back to wearing pants for nap. 

We were amazed at how quickly the little guy was eating his dinner to then look and find him hiding half of it in his bib. He is too young for that....

Reading with Uncle Drew.

This dog also loves his boy. He sits outside his door during nap. 

Getting a new style during bath time! 

Reading with daddy! This is a huge milestone for Jackson and daddy - forever he would only let mommy read books to him. He would bring them to me and I would hand them to Mike and he'd start screaming. Now, he lets daddy and others read. This is great when I've already read trucks 100 times in one day. :) 

Playing with his new farm. 

Prime viewing of the heels game from the laundry basket. 

Reading a book while wearing mommy's scarf, no big deal. 

Dental hygiene is important! This boy loves a toothbrush! 

Loving his new ball pit. :)

A little fun at the kids museum. He sat here for a minute to splash in the water and then ran around non-stop for the next hour. 

Enjoying daddy's birthday cake! 

He's trouble - learning to wheel his wagon into the kitchen, climb in, and grab items he cannot reach. Watch out!

A little play time at the mall. 

Doesn't he look so big in the recliner? We let him watch movies on the ipad on our most recent car trip, now he wants me to turn Cars on when he sees the ipad. 

Nothing sweeter....

Sorry for so many pics - this post is an update of the past couple of months so I wanted to share all the silliness! 

Jackson, we just love you so much! Yes, we are very tired by your bedtime but would not trade it for anything in the world. I'm so glad I get to spend my days with you and am grateful for the smile you put on my face each day. You truly have my heart son! 

It's a.....GIRL!!!

I'm sure most people know by now, but we are having a BABY GIRLl! Mike and I are beyond ecstatic to get to experience having one of each. And of course I can't wait to dress her in little girly clothes with adorable headbands and bows! :) We found out the gender right before Christmas that way we could go ahead and share the news with our families. Baby girl did not cooperate on our first attempt, so after 45 minutes of looking we returned for a second scan. We could tell right away on the second attempt. We had some cake pops made for a reveal for my family. Everyone was sick that day so we waited until Christmas Eve to announce. Sweet Kylie polled the family to see what their guesses were - more people were leaning toward girl and they found out as soon as they bit into their cake pops! It was a fun moment. We then announced it to the Modlins on Christmas day. Again, we just feel so blessed with baby #2 on the way and cannot wait to meet this little one. Here is a picture of the cake pops - all other pictures are on the camera in TN....more later.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

I absolutely love this time of year! The decorations, the music, the cheerfulness! We love visiting with family and celebrating the reason for the season most of all. I can't wait until Jackson is a little older so we can share with him the Christmas story. For now, we just let him enjoy the lights, tree, and ornaments. He did get a picture taken with Santa and he loves chewing on the nativity figures (so we moved it to the mantle). We've been busy traveling, making some Christmas crafts, and making treats for parties. We leave Friday for TN for a week and will be spending Christmas with the Sunday side of the family this year. Below are a few pictures of our Christmas festivities so far. We will have another update or two after our trip.

To kick off the holiday, I was invited to a cookie exchange at my friend Tracy's house. It was a fun party - she had it set up as a tea for the guests. We had finger sandwiches, fruit, scones, tea, and exchanged our cookies. We also had an apron exchange and a friendly competition to judge the most creative/best cookie packages. I went home with several delicious cookies and an adorable apron! Above are apricot and fig jam cookies. I packaged them in zip lock bags and used a free printable I found online to staple over the top.

It's been a couple months since I got crafty, so as we started to set up a few of our Christmas decorations I decided to revamp one of my previous craft projects. These Christmas tree cones were all glittery before like the red one in the center. They make a big mess every year and I was over the shine. I wrapped them with burlap ribbon and decorated them with additional ribbon and buttons. I still plan to redo the red one in the center but left it for this year. 

I also made a new card display out of burlap ribbon, decorative ribbon, and mini clothes pins. I was really happy with how this turned out. It was even cuter when full of cards - sorry I don't have a picture of that. I also hung additional cards on the photo frame display I made for Jackson's birthday. Basically it is a frame with strands of ribbon hanging across it. I then used mini clothes pins again to hang the cards from the ribbons (check out his bday post for pics). 

My next project served as gifts for the Kiser family (Mike's mom's side) Christmas. I made peppermint brownies in a jar and printed out this adorable labels and decorated with some ribbon. You can find the recipe and printables from here.

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures from Christmas with the Modlin's on my cell phone. We may have more pictures on our camera, but I cannot upload those at this time (read below). Here are two pictures of Jackson opening a very soft, fuzzy blanket from his great aunt and uncle, Becky and Brad. He just loved it - you can tell by how fuzzy the pictures are. He kept rubbing it against his face and shrieking! It was too cute. 

While we were in Chapel Hill celebrating Christmas with the Modlins, they offered to watch Jackson and let us use their basketball tickets for the UNC/KY game. This was a huge win for the heels and Mike and I had a lot of fun attending. 

And before heading west for Christmas, I took Jackson to have his picture taken with Santa. He did a great job! I really expected crying and him trying to climb off Santa's lap. We did not get a smile - just the deer in the head lights look, but at least he wasn't scared! It will be interested to see how he does next year...

Okay, and now a little disclaimer about this post - I actually wrote it before we ever even left for TN and was just too lazy to upload pics at the time. I thought I would blog while were were gone and didn't. Things have been pretty hectic around here since we got back. We immediately had company, then a little sickness hit our house, more company, a surprise birthday party, and now I'm playing catch up as we get ready to travel for the weekend. PLUS, I am still experiencing some pregnancy sickness and am tired ALL of the time. I do what I need to to ensure that Jackson is happy and taken care of, and then all extras (like this blog) get put on the back burner. I am going to do my best to catch up in the next week and hope to do a better job keeping up with it. No promises though because we have a busy couple of months coming up. :)

And I apologize in advance because we left our nice camera in TN, so any photos from the holidays will not be posted for at least another month.

Posts to look forward to:

Christmas in TN

Gender Reveal

Mike's Surprise 30th

Jackson Update

Pregnancy Update

Trip to Arlington

I will get to these all slowly, but surely. Love to all!