Let's Catch up... October events...

Ok, so I haven't posted forever. October was an eventful and busy month, so I'll post some pictures from the main events and do a quick catch up. I finished my masters classes that I had to have for my board certification (insert sigh of relief), had a birthday...


went on a long overdue (as in we haven't been away together in 9 years since our honeymoon) two night stay at Myrtle beach. A special thank you to Kaysha and Dustin who watched our children for two and a half days so we could enjoy our weekend together. It was glorious. Runs on the beach, late night dinners and movies, trying desperately to sleep in knowing we could but our bodies not allowing us to due to the training our children have provided. It was great and we plan on doing it again much sooner.

Jackson had a class field trip to an Alpaca farm which was suprisingly fun.

And finally finshed the last of my projects for Anna's room. ( This looked much better once it was dry, but it's the only pic I have to document my projects for her room :)
A seperate post for Halloween to follow and we are done with October.

Isn't she lovely...

Moore County Fair

Kaysha and I decided to take the kids to the Moore County fair a couple of weeks ago. We really had no idea what to expect and arrived the first time at 1:00 in the afternoon on Fri only to find out it didn't start until 5. So we packed the kids back in the car went home for naps and came back that evening. Luckily Jackson was a champ about the whole thing, as I think I would have thrown quite the tantrum if I was told that I was going to the fair, gotten out, looked at all of the rides, and was then told to get back in the car to go home and take naps instead. We had a great time and Jackson was fearless, wanting to ride the ferris wheel and any ride he was tall enough to ride. Kurt had no idea what we were going to and was seriously bummed when he found out he had missed Jackson's first ferris wheel and fair ride experience. Other firsts included corn dogs which were kind of good in a disgusting way.

very blurry, but too cute to pass up.

I know that there are way to many pictures, but I am terrible at weeding them out, power on, you are half way through.

I was worried that once Jackson got up there he would be scared, but he was fearless.

I wish there was a way to get you to understand how fun it was to watch Jackson in this ride. It was kind of a rough ride that whips you around the corners really fast, and when I saw him whip around the first corner and bump his head on the back I thought he was going to be upset, but he was laughing hysterically. Every time he would whip around the corners, both times he rode it, he laughed this crazy, hysterical laughter that only happens if something is really reallygreat. Kaysha and I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. It was definately the highlight of the night, and worth the ridiculous amount of money they charge you in those places.

Last day at the pool

Here are some old pictures from our last day at the pool the Saturday before Labor Day. We discovered this great pool halfway through the summer that was a bit of a drive(20 min). Totally worth it at 2.00 for the whole day, and next to no one was ever there (except for a seniors water aerobics who I'm sure loved our company during their class).

Anna ready for the pool.

Jackson's classic look for all pictures this year.

This was basically all Anna wanted to do the entire time, stack them up while sitting on the cement next to the stairs. Stack them up...

and in and out. Honestly, I'm talking 30 min at a time.

...pants on fire

So this is a post about my sons new found love of lying. He has discovered that unless Mom and Dad see something happen they really cannot prove that it did. He has not quite mastered the full concept of lying and usually opens his lies with a line like the following recent ones, "I don't have candy in my pocket," "I didn't hit Annabelle in the head with my stick"... Keep in mind, these are conversation openers where no information was asked of him. When we then follow up with, " Jackson, do you have candy in your pocket?" he replies with, "Well, did you see me get candy?" if the answer is no he sticks to the lie until the pocket is checked, if the answer is yes he knows the jig is up and confesses. He has also discovered that this skill can be used to work his parents against each other and will often say when talking to one of us about something he wants that the other has vetoed, "Well, did you talk to Mom?" and "Did Daddy tell you I did it?".
He's lucky he's cute.

A big brother is born

Last weekend we were at the park with Kaysha and Patrick and were playing in a picnic area where two other children and their father were also sitting. The other kids were probably around 2 and 4 years old. The two year old little boy was concerned that Anna was getting to far from me and went over to her and was trying to get her to come back into the picnic area. He pushed her a little rough and then the four year old sister went over to her too and was telling her to come back in by her mom. I was just about to get up and decide if I needed to intervene, and was thinking in my head, "Hey, tell your kid to get his hands off of my daughter" when I looked over and Jackson was staring at them and slowly moving over to where they were. He walked over there quickly and without saying anything to them stared at them, quickly slid next to Anna, put his arm around her shoulder, took her hand and led her away from them. I almost cried. The look on his face when he looked at the situation and then at them was perfect "big brother", taking control of the situation. How do they learn that, I was so proud. Anna is in good hands.

(So these pics have nothing to do with the post, they are just cute brother and sister pictures)

First Love

I wanted to make sure to post about this since this is the closest thing I do to journaling right now. Last week I was having a rough afternoon and was emotional. Jackson saw me start crying and gave me a hug and asked, "There, all better now?" I said that I was and he turned away for a few seconds and looked back at me with a shy smile and said, "Mommy, I'm in love." I said, "You are? With who?" I didn't even know he knew what that meant. He paused for a minute and then smiled and said, "With you." Wow, not a bad day anymore. The next day we were doing an activity with pictures and color tiles and he said," Let's do the heart one because we are in love." How does he know what that means and how do I break it to him that I am already taken?

Is it bad that I hope he feels this way forever? Someone told me that you never get over your first love, I hope not. Sorry to his future wife, but I hope he always loves me like that and says forever to his future wife, "Yeah, it's pretty good, it's just not quite how my mom does it." Yeah, she will hate me. I'm half-way kidding, ok, maybe 25% kidding.

Our Saturdays

Our Saturdays usually consist of the same thing, playing at the park in downtown Southern Pines, followed by walking to the toy store and playing with the two huge train sets they have set up. The day ends perfectly at the ice cream shop where we get turkey dogs and fries (veggie dog and fruit for Anna) and ice cream for Jackson and I. I mean really, why mess with perfection? Here's some park pictures, I forgot to take pics the rest of the day. I'll have to take some pictures of our downtown as it looks like something right off of a classic American movie, complete with a train track and old train station right through the middle. It's the kind of area that makes you look around, take a deep breathe in and think, I love it here.

She wants to do everything he does, uh-oh, we're in trouble.

Disclaimer: Kurt said I need to put a disclaimer that Anna's hair looks weird, and that she is much cuter in real life than she is in these pictures. As for me, it was my first experiment with pigtails and I think she looks adorable.

Playing in the Rain

It has been raining here every evening, and yesterday Jackson asked if he could go outside and play in the rain in his bathing suit. I answered the usual "no" that comes out of a mom's mouth before they really consider it, and then I decided, what the heck. I told him he could go outside in his clothes and that we would all come play, he made me repeat the plans about three times to make sure he had heard correctly, and then we all went outside. As kids, in Florida, we used to play outside in the rain all of the time and I forgot how fun it is. I'm going to make an effort to do more fun spontaneous stuff like this which end up being the moments that really matter.

Fourth of July

Here are some pictures that I haven't had a chance to post from July 4th.

I think this picture looks like an ad for the fourth of july(if there was such a thing), or a postcard. The next two pictures are really bad becdause they were taken when it was getting dark from really far away with the zoom way up, I only included them because this was the day Anna started walking and these are some of her first steps, so they should be documented.

And this one is just cute, bad quality or not.

Cute cousins watching the lame parade together. See the stunned look in Patrick's eye as he tries to comprehend all of the rallies of people sporting anti-Obama signs on the day that stands for patriotism in America.