Introducing Anna

Well now that Anna is almost 3 weeks old we figured it was time to finally put some pictures up on our blog! Here we are the morning she was born (the BEFORE pictures)! Getting ready....

Ta Da!! Anna is here at 1:29pm Feb. 19th

Jackson is certainly the proud Big Brother

Anna

After 4 days we were home!

First bath---not happy!

Jackson LOVES holding Anna and giving her "kisses and hugs"

He even tries to give her "Mama milk"

Our first attempt at a family picture

This one is better except for the crazy shadows

There's nothing like sleeping on Daddy

Last moments

Less than 24 hours and we should be meeting the 4th member of our family! We are all very excited and I'm getting really nervous. Jackson's been telling everyone today that "I go see baby at hospital with Aunt Bab". "After baby comes out of my tummy I be big brother" (his tummy, my tummy---whatever!) We've had a nice week together. Jackson was really quite at my LAST doctor's appointment--only due to the fact he was into Cars.
And here he is with his very first ice cream cone! What an event :) He's shared one with me before but this was HIS according to Jackson.

We had a great picnic lunch at the park one day (cold but fun)

And lots of fun on the playground

Yesterday I gave him lots of piggyback rides at the park (got some funny looks) and boy was I out of breath! WHEW :)

Today we made cupcakes to celebrate the baby's birthday

YUMMY!!!!

I'm kind of sad knowing that it won't be just the two (and three) of us anymore but really excited to meet "Baby 2" as Jackson has been calling him/her all these months.

Baby kisses

Jackson has always been so loving towards our baby. He likes to feed the baby, bring the baby toys, sing songs and read books to the baby. FINALLY we got a little of his affection on video. We know he'll be such a great big brother! He keeps saying "see you soon baby!!"

All Day Jackson Day

Get ready for an onslaught of Jackson pictures! Since Baby Manes' arrival is fast approaching we are trying to do lots of fun things with Jackson since we won't be a threesome much longer. Saturday we took Jackson out for a day of fun. We started out with a special coffee cake breakfast (I say special because we never do pastry items) then headed down to the Dallas World Aquarium Couldn't resist including this shot-----YIKES!

Jackson hasn't been here since he was 4 months old and he loved every minute (we went through twice)

For lunch we headed to the Dream Cafe for an organically delicious lunch

Because we are enjoying watching movies now with Jackson we HAD to make our own popcorn bowls

Mike was very serious about the family bowl

Here's our finished products!

Jackson thought it was pretty cool to make his own popcorn bowl but the rocks in the parking lot were pretty cool too (this was at least a 25 min. stop)

Then we headed home for a bike ride around the pond, lots of rock throwing in the water and touching of bugs (ugh)

After hitting a favorite pizza joint for dinner we watched a movie (well 45 min. of one anyways) to finish off the night---with popcorn of course! And yes I do realize what a chocking hazard popcorn is so this event is done with much supervision and we don't eat popcorn every time for this reason!

We were all really tired from our big day so Jackson and I ended the night cuddling up on our Big Daddy Shaggy Bag (if you don't have one we highly recommend you look into it)

Happy Times

Here are some pictures taken over the last week. Jackson's trying out his Valentine shirt (Ladies Man---in case you can't read his shirt!) And bike riding is a new favorite activity in this great 60-70 degree weather we've had all week

We got lucky that Dow and Mimi stopped by for a weekend visit last weekend on their way home from seeing my brother, Tim, in San Francisco

Jackson loves to take walks by our pond

It was a nice morning with Mimi and Dow but really windy

This was taken last weekend---here we are at 37 weeks (and yes, my stomach sticks STRAIGHT OUT and yes it IS slightly uncomfortable!!) We think the baby is doing the downward dog and practicing some kind of yoga move in there

We finally got some family shots too

Jackson will actually smile for the camera again so this is fun for us

And finally the bike riding in action. The older neighbor boys taught Jackson how to ride up the neighbor's driveway (it has a bit of a hill on it unlike ours that is flat) and then FLY down! Usually Jackson yells at me to "get out of the way mommy!" We had to start wearing the helmet for this one! You'll have to excuse the crazy wind in the background. We're lucky we didn't blow away yesterday!

Tough Week

Mike and I both had an extremely hard week last week. We realize it's been awhile since we posted anything and we hate that we have to post something so sad. Mike lost his Grandfather last Sunday, January 25, to a long battle with Alzheimer. Mike treasures his memories of him as he thought so highly of him. We are so glad we got to see him over Thanksgiving. Mike was able to go to the funeral last week which was hard but a nice chance to say good-bye and visit with family. Pops, as Jackson was calling him, will be greatly missed.Here's a shot taken 3 Thanksgivings ago when Jackson was just 2.5 months old.

And here are Pops and GG at our wedding with Barb. He was such a smiley, giggley guy

And on another sad note I lost my dear friend, Christina on Tuesday, January 27. She has been a strong fighter against brain tumors for the past 10 years and finally lost her battle. I wasn't able to go to the funeral this weekend but am so thankful that 3 weeks ago I was able to go see her (with two other friends) in Ohio to say good-bye. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I miss her so much already. I don't think College would have been the same without her, nor would the past 10 years. Here we are at my wedding (Christina is 4th in line)

And here we are celebrating another friends wedding, Christina's roommate throughout college and another of my dear friends--Devra. Christina is on the left

And this picture makes me smile because Christina was always the life of the party. She always cracked us up. Melissa, Christina, and myself were all in the same sorority and just about inseparable at events. Here we are at an infamous AOPirate event (Melissa's in the middle and Christina's on the right). Love you Stina!