BEAR

Bear was our first baby, and still is. We never really mention her in our blog and lately we've been going through some challenging times with Bear so we thought we'd talk about what a great family member she is. She always likes to snuggle up (except she's not allowed on the new furniture now!)

She loves to play She even broke the news to Mike when I was pregnant with Jackson

She's gone on several trips with us and even went camping once (she wasn't a huge fan but did great in the tent)

And Bear was even in our Christmas cards (before kids.....poor Bear!)

But now that we do have kids she's been a great pal for them. To wrestle with

...or snuggle with

Bear and Anna are also becoming great friends. Although Bear isn't too fond of Anna grabbing her inner lip and pulling, but she handles it very calmly and lets her do it over and over again. Here they are sharing some laughs....

...and kisses!!

You gotta love Bear! She really is a great family dog!

Tis the season

We aren't as crazy as the stores in that we have Christmas decorations up yet but we do already have Halloween things up. Jackson saw the box and got excited and, let's face it...so did we! Fall is in the air! So maybe now we can drop out of the 90s and even wear our Fall clothes.

Jackson and Anna enjoying the nicer weather
Fun at the park this weekend....

Spooky............

Big Mouths

Jackson and Anna don't always look alike but they do both have a big smile
Anna (6 months)Jackson (6 months)

weekend fun

Here are some pictures over the past couple of weekends.
Anna eating...yummy! This is just too cute not to share!

You can't see Bear but she was backing away from Anna (Anna likes to pull her ears)!

Mike and Jackson having a snack (cashews) while watching the Georgia game

Anna is showing off her cute bunny slippers

And FINALLY we put Anna in tights! She looked pretty fancy going to Church

Jackson and I went on a date. We got a limeade and then went to see a 101 Dalmatian musical (Mickey came too. Mike just brought him back from his week in Orlando)

We've been having lots of fun in the playroom with all our rainy weather. Anna and Jackson have been doing a lot of jamming out to music and playing their instruments

Anna's taking after Mike with her drumming skills!

Check her out!

Dressing up

We got to go to a friends' birthday party last weekend. We rarely get the opportunity to get dressed up so it was lots of fun! Jackson helped us take a couple of pictures before we left

Here's the birthday girl's cake

And here we are. The attire was black and white but the birthday girl wore red!

And the 4 fabulous buffet lines were incredible! We certainly enjoyed the yummy food as much as the fun dancing!

YUM!

Go Dawgs

Jackson's first day of school!!

Jackson had his first ever day of school yesterday. He has been so excited about preschool. He's going 2 days a week for 3 hours. It's a great opportunity for him and fun for me and Anna to have a little one on one time as well. Here he is ready to hop in the car for SCHOOL Showing off his backpack

Jackson grabbed Anna for a quick hug

Here's a quick shot of his classroom and teacher on "meet the teacher" day

Here's a glimpse of his very cool "outside classroom" as they call it.

I didn't even cry when I dropped him off yesterday but for some reason I did cry on the way home in the car after picking him up. He just looked like such a big boy standing outside waiting for me to come through the carpool lane. It made me tear up to see him looking so big.

Party of Three

Mike and I have been wanting to escape for a night together and since I can't leave Anna yet we brought her along on our get away this weekend. Jackson was lucky to get to stay with Aunt Barb and Uncle Jack. Thanks guys!!
Here we are the 3 of us Having a drink and snack before we started shopping!

Here we are enjoying a quiet dinner (Anna was too tired to stay awake)

And back in the hotel room Anna passed right out so Mike and I could play cards and watch a movie.

We did some reading in the morning before breakfast...

and gave Anna her first taste of shoe shopping at Nordstroms. She helped me pick out a very trendy pair

Food challenge

I know you aren't suppose to compare your children however this is too funny. Here is a video of Jackson at 6 months on his FIRST real food. He loved it right away. And....here's Anna at 6 months on her 3rd WEEK of real food. Not quite the same! Anna's taking just a little longer to get the same excitement for real food. Why eat baby food when you can have milk?? That's what she says.

Jackson is 3---party and birthday shots

Jackson is 3!! It's really hard for us to believe. He's grown up so much this past year. He's become a great big brother to Anna and is even potty trained. Go Jackson!!

We've had a really fun couple of days. Here is the start of the celebrations. Jackson helped me to bake his birthday cake. Here is the cake BEFORE I really got started on the decorating.

And here is the finished version. Good news is Jackson could recognize it was Lightening McQueen from the Cars movie.

Here's Jackson ready for cake

yippee he's 3!

Party splash fun

Fun in the pool

Fun in the slip-n-slide

And of course eating cake is a huge highlight of any party

We thought this was a funny look.....

Here's a cute sot of some of his friends

Aunt Barb and Uncle Jack came over after the party for lunch.

Tickles!

More tickles!

Happy Birthday Jackson. Jackson on his new bike

Jackson and Anna yesterday morning

Lucky for Jackson meet the teacher was yesterday and so we took cupcakes for his classmates. They all sang happy birthday to him and then sat at the table to eat. Too cute! (more on the school soon)

After school we met Mike for a birthday lunch

Anna couldn't hang---all the excitement wore her out

Mike and Jackson at lunch

Here's a shot of the requested birthday dinner. Corn salad, chicken poppy seed and black olives (and grapes too but those are all gone)

We had a few leftover cupcakes from the school party for the 3 of us to enjoy last night.

Anna helped Jackson blow out the candles

Jackson had 16 friends over on Saturday for his party. They are all such nice kids and all so willing to help in blowing out the candles too. It is hard to resist! We had to do two takes on the candle blowing but it all turned out okay :)