Let's catch up.

Well, I have let entirely too much time pass since my last post, once again (I'm so slack.) So, this post is going to be a "catch up" post of the past year, mostly in pictures. I really want to begin posting regularly again and keeping up with my blog. I have a few friends that are using their blogs as Memory Books for their children and I think that is an awesome idea! They have the blog published and turned into a book every year, or whenever they choose to. How cool is that? I have never been very good at filling out Jackson's Baby Book and, let's be honest, this is WAY cooler! :) I hope that Jackson (and any other future children that we may have) will one day enjoy reading through his Momma's old ramblings and looking at pictures from his childhood! Now to the FUN part....catching up through a year of pictures! We'll start with Jackson's 2nd birthday party! On July 2, 2011, we had a small, family birthday party at our house. It was "Thomas the Train" themed and Jackson was THRILLED! He LOVES his Thomas and his trains...he is a little obsessed! The party was great and fun was had by all!

This was the my first attempt at making cupcakes and toppers and they turned out great! I ordered the digital file off of Etsy and then print, cut, and glued them myself. It is very time consuming, but so worth it! I was very pleased with how they turned out....and suprisingly enough, they tasted great too! ;)

This was Jackson's birthday gift from Adam & I! He LOVES it and has played out it just about every day since, weather permitting. One of his favorite games to play is "Pirates" or just plain old "good guys and bad guys". He looks for "the bad guys" in his telescope and if he spots one, we have to either slide or jump down and run to hide behind a tree. Yes, I said we. He drags Mommy along with him. :) He also usually insists that he wants to be the "bad guy"...not sure how I feel about that? ;)

This is how I found Jackson the morning after his party. Playing with his new train tracks on TOP of Mommy's coffee table! This became the trend over the next several months and Adam and I decided that we'd better talk to Santa about possibly bringing a Train Table for Christmas! ;)

Later, in July (2011), we spent a week down on Amelia Island with NayNay & Grandaddy....it was FABULOUS! :)

LOVES his NayNay & Grandaddy (Adam's parents) :)

Fall Fun 2011!

Our adorable little T-Rex and sweeet Walker! :)

Jackson & Cousin Matthew getting ready to go on the trick-or-treat hayride!

This was the first year that you really "got" the whole Trick-or-Treat thing, and you had a blast! As soon as we pulled up to a house, you would climb off of the trailer and run up to the house yelling "Twick-Twreat!" We didn't make it through the entire Hayride, you were a tired little Dinosaur. But, you were a trooper and boy were you CUTE! :)

One of my dear friends, Jennifer, made you a few adorable shirts for the Fall. But, the ONLY way that I could even come close to getting a picture of you in them was to ask you to "race" down the hallway and snap pics as you barreled towards me! You are such an active, wiggly little guy...all BOY! ;)

You absolutely love bath time and have to line up all of your "bath buddies" every single night, to give each of them a turn to jump in the water. :)

With Fall comes one of our favorite pastimes...COLLEGE FOOTBALL! And in this house we yell, GO DAWGS!!!

Thanksgiving 2011~

~Christmas 2011~

Getting ready to make Christmas Cookies one night when NayNay & Grandaddy came to visit!

You and Grandaddy did a GREAT job! :)

Christmas is a BIG deal in our house and during the holiday season, our home is full of Christmas Spirit...and decor! I believe that it truly is "the most wonderful time of the year". It is by far my favorite time of the year and I hope that you grow up to love it just as much, and have fond memories full of family, friends, tradition, food, love and, most importantly, celebrating and learning of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!

Heading out to the Christmas Eve Service at our church, Savannah Christian. It was amazing!!

This is the ingredients that we used to make our Christmas Eve cookies for Santa this year. It was simple (I wasn't trying to be too ambitious and make the sugar cookies from scratch. Pillsbury worked just fine! ;)), and they turned out so cute and delicous! I think that "Rudolph" cookies will be our tradition every year for Santa. :)

You were so excited about your train table and played with it for 2 hours straight on Christmas morning! :) It is still your favorite toy.

Since you were born, we have had a Christmas morning tradition. NayNay & Grandaddy always come up and stay Christmas Eve night with us. Then, in the morning, Mimi, Papa and Uncle Zach come over for a Christmas Breakfast...in our P.J.'s! It is always the same menu and always SO YUMMY & FUN!

~New Year's 2012~ "GO DAWGS! SIC'EM...WOOF WOOF WOOF!" You know this chant by heart and were waiting for everyone to arrive for our Bowl Game Party! Unfortunately, the Dawgs didn't do much "sicking" that day, but we didn't let that stop us from having a great time! ;)

Handsome boy :)

Daddy cooking our yummy chickens on his new Christmas present!

Chilling with Uncle Zach. :)

Well, I am calling it a night! Jackson & Adam have long been in bed and I am about to follow suit. As I type, they are having a "boys only" slumber party. Ever since Jackson got his big boy bed (which I will post about later), he loves for his Daddy to sleep on the trundle below. As I was tucking him in and saying his prayers earlier, this is how it all ended "....Amen. Amen. Mama, I said Amen. That all I want to pray. Now go away. Daddy's laying with me. Go to you's bed, Mama. Don't be sad. Don't cry. I see you in the morning." He was obviously annoyed by my presence at his boy sleepover with Daddy...whatever. ;) Anywho, Adam usually gives into this one night out of the the weekend, and tonight is that night. Not that I mind, at all. It just means that I get to lounge in bed and catch up on the Kardashians or Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo without hearing any complaing! ;) I will work on catching up with the last half of our year as the week goes on and HOPEFULLY post it by next weekend. :) As for now, good night and sweet dreams....or happy reality t.v. watching!

I give up...

Seriously, as I have said many times before...I am the worst blogger EVER! I'm pretty sure that no one even follows this blog anymore, I think I've even lost the family fan-base. Now, that's just SAD! ;) But, I wanted to tell (those of you who may accidentally stumble across this post) that I AM working on updating our blog! I may have to update the past 6 months in mostly pictures (because at this point, typing it all would just be way too time consuming and daunting), but I AM going to update! So, continue to check back. We've had some pretty fun times in the past 7 months or so, and hopefully I can share them with you. :) Happy Monday!

Sweet Summertime!

We're still here....barely, but we're here! I have been very LAZY about blogging lately and to tell you the truth up until today, I had no motivation to! But, then I dear friend of mine reminded me that I am on summer break, so I have no excuses...update my darn blog! (Thanks Anna!) ;)

Yes, I am on SUMMER BREAK! Let me scream HIP-HIP HOORAY from the roof tops, please! :) I absolutely LOVE my job and this is most definitely one it's biggest perks! I get to take it easy and be a stay-at-home-mom/wife for 9 FABULOUS WEEKS! Oh, how I love it so! Summertime is so very special to me. Especially now that I am a Mommy. I mean, I loved Summer before, but now I absolutely LOOOVE the Summer! I get to spend my days with my little guy, just being silly, playing until we drop, lying around being lazy and soaking up the sunshine. Seeing Summertime through his eyes, takes me back to childhood and makes my heart smile. It truly is "Sweet Summertime".

We have had a very FUN and BUSY summer, thus far! But, there is a downside to our Summer. Our daddy (Adam) has been missing for much of it. As most of you know, the world (at least the southeastern part of the U.S.) seems to be on fire right now. And since my amazing husband is a Heavy Equipment Operator for the Fire division of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, he is a busy man to say the least! He is currently on a 2 week rotation fighting the GIGANTIC wildfire that is burning in the Okefenokee Swamp This means that he spends 2 weeks down in Folkston, fighting the fire, and 2 weeks here at home. The ONE good thing about the location of this fire is that it is in his hometown (so he gets to stay at his parents house, much better than his usual living arrangements while on a fire) and Jackson and I can go visit him whenever we want! Now that I am on Summer Break, we can load up the car to head to NayNay & Grandaddy's and get to see Daddy all at the same time! But, it has been quite a bummer to our Summer. Adam has already missed our first Summer vacation (which we've had planned for a YEAR) to Panama City Beach to visit some of our dearest, BEST friends Danny, Paige and Fletcher Morris Poor Danny was none too happy about that one. He was stuck at the beach with 3 women and 2 toddlers (my sister, Leah, took Adam's place and was a fabulous "fill-in" ;)) And, he will also be missing Jackson's upcoming 2nd birthday (July 4th) and our SECOND summer beach vacation! But, we are still forging on! Packing up and heading to the beach for a week with NayNay! We're hoping that Adam & Grandaddy (who is also fighting the fire, by the way) can make it for at least the last few days! Fingers crossed! If you have been following my previous posts, you know that Adam has been away A LOT this fire season! And, as always....he is DEARLY, DEARLY, to the depths of my soul, MISSED! Our little family and household is just not complete without him. We really do make a great team and when he is missing, as cliche as it sounds, it truly is like I am missing my "other half". So, I ask for you all to please lift up all of the Firefighters and their families in your prayers. It is not an easy task for any involved. These fires have been burning for so long and these brave men and women are exhausted! The loss of 2 Florida Division of Forestry Firefighters this past Monday, has shaken the Wildland Firefighter Community to the core. And, serves as a tragic reminder of the very REAL danger that these men and women are in. After this being Adam's career for several years, I have somewhat gotten use to it and sometimes forget just how dangerous it really is. When I heard of these men, performing Adam's exact job on a fire, being overrun by the flames....it hit me HARD. I immediately went to my knees and began to pray for their families and all of our men and women out there fighting these outrageous fires. Let's pray that the Lord blesses this region with an abundance of rain, but until then, please keep our firefighters in your prayers.

Now, to the FUN stuff! I am going to leave you with our "Sweet Summertime" in pictures! Stay tuned...we have lots of fun stuff coming up in the upcoming weeks, including a beach vacation and Mr. Jackson's 2nd BIRTHDAY! I can't believe that our baby boy is going to be TWO! HAPPY SUMMER FRIENDS!

Rainy Day Fun & Sunday Funday!

Well, it has been yet another crazy week! Daddy got called away again (this time to South Carolina.) So, Jackson and I packed up and headed to Mimi and Papa's. We had lots of fun at Mimi and Papa's, as always! But, when Friday evening rolled around we sure were happy for our Daddy to be home! Life is SO much better when Daddy is around! Not sure if I tell him that enough, but it's so TRUE. Maybe I should just tell him to read the blog? ;)

Anyhow, when we are living out of bags for a week, I seem to get behind on my blogging. So, I'll have to play a little catch up.

The week of March 28-April 1, I was on Spring Break. Now, I know that I have said that I love working in the school system, but it is times like this that I REALLY love it! :) It is hands down the best job in the world and definitely the best job for a working Mom. I look forward to every little break that we have to spend with my little guy and just soak up the day. I get to pretend for a while that I'm a SAHM. And, I must say, I think it's something that I could get use to. ;) But, if you must be a working Mom, there is no better choice than teaching! Just my personal opinion. :)

So, back to Spring Break. I had big plans for our Spring Break. Plans that included super fun stuff like: beach days, pool days, lots of outside time, walks around the island, golf cart rides and the list goes on. Well, then the Lord looked down on me and said "your plans are not my plans" and it began to RAIN. And I mean RAIN. It rained, and it rained, and it rained. For 5 days straight. That's right, it rained for my entire Spring Break. So, all of my fun outdoor, plans with my little guy turned into fun, indoor plans with my little guy (which called for a little more creative thinking.) Most of our days were spent building massively, high block towers, coloring pictures, reading books, riding our firetruck around the house, playing on the front porch, watching Thomas and playing with trains. After being cooped up for a couple of days I decided to get creative. I built Jackson a "Fort" and he LOVED it! He didn't want to come out of his "Fort"....he even wanted to nap in it. :) Now, this Fort wasn't the type that I made as a kid with the blankets draped over the couches (I knew that he would never let that stay up!) This "Fort" was really just Jackson's play tent that he got for Christmas. I got it out of his closet and set it up in the living room, put a blanket and a lizard lamp/nightlight in there and turned off all of the lights. You would've thought that I'd taken the child to Disney World to meet Walt Disney himself! He shrilled with excitement and quickly started dragging his favorite toys and books into his new "Fort". He has played in the Fort every day since (yes, this means that the Fort is STILL up in my living room. Oh, the things we do for our kids.) :)

Waiting patiently (which doesn't always happen around here) for Mommy to put up my "Fort"!

Trying his hardest to convince me that nap time should be in the Fort...good try buddy. Don't think for one second that it worked, but he sure was CUTE trying! :)

Once again we met our dear friends, Jennifer & Matthew, at our favorite "Rainbow Play" for a little rainy day fun. Followed by lunch at the always yummy, "Plums". The boys were glad to be out of the house and we were just glad for a little Mommy time! :)

We also celebrated my sweet Grandaddy Abbott's birthday...so blessed to still have this man and ALL of my grandparents in my life!

And, now we come to today. Today was a perfect Sunday. We started out with a great service at church, came home for lunch, put J down for a nap, the Hubs and I rented a movie and we ended the day with playtime outside, a golf cart ride around the island and tacos! Here are a few pictures of Jackson in his precious little church outfit. I have to take pictures to document and savor these precious outfits, because you can only dress a little boy in a John-John for so long. Once they pass a certain age, it just becomes plain WRONG. Fortunately, we're not to that age yet. At least I don't think so. :)

And, before you see these next two pictures, I have to tell you what I witnessed today. Jackson was running around playing in the living room. He made his way into his "Fort" and then started calling for "Da-Da". Which turned into "DAAAAAD!" When Adam showed up, Jackson patted the blanket in the tent and said "Mere." Adam, being the sweet daddy that he is, proceeded to get in the tent. Then, Jackson lays on his belly, pats his (own) back, and says "back" and Adam promptly begins to rub his back. I mean, REALLY??! I have to work MUCH harder than that to get Daddy to rub MY back! Can we say SPOILED ROTTEN?! ;) Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that. But, I did get a picture of the boys all laying in the tent later that day...precious. :)

Before I call it a night, I am asking that you keep my sweet baby in your prayers. He had an allergic reaction to what we believe was an ant bite this weekend. (This is the 2nd time this has happened) Complete with hives all over his body and swelling at the site of the bite. It happened Saturday around noon and when I put him to bed last night, his little foot & ankle were still swollen to about double their normal size. By this morning, it was much better. But, you can still see the hives and the foot & ankle are still slightly swollen. His doctor wants me to bring him in for examination and possible testing. I pray that all goes well and we find some answers.

Hope everyone has a great week! This Momma is hittin' the sack!