The best sound in the world

Last night my little sunshine laughed for the first time. He's been smiling for weeks and smiles at anyone and anything. He has sounded like he's tried to laugh before, and he does it sometimes when he's sleeping, but this was unmistakable. We were just hanging out in Jackson's room waiting for Jackson to finish brushing his teeth before bed and I was talking to Gavin and he started laughing--a few huh huh's then the backwards breathed in uuhhhhh. Adorable. He loves to carry on a conversation, too. I talk and then he babbles and it sounds like he's really trying to say something.

Yesterday my big boy got his haircut. He's been wearing it kind of long, which I love, but as the weather's getting hotter he needed to get it cut so he won't be soaked with sweat every time we hit the playground. I forgot to take pictures since I was feeding Gavin the whole time we were there, but I'll take some today. Jackson was so excited that we got to go to Sport Clips. It's his favorite place to get his hair cut.

This was something from Facebook that I did with Jackson last week. It's really cute. It's funny what our kids think of us. I'm not sure why Jackson thinks I'm such an athlete. I wish I were. I do play soccer and baseball with him--but I'm not as good as he thinks I am. :)

Jackson age 3 years 7 months

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Go to bed.

2. What makes mom happy?
When I listen.

3. What makes mom sad?
When I don't listen.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Tell a joke....and when you tickle me.

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Playing.

6. How old is your mom?
10

7. How tall is your mom?
Didn't say anything just reached his right hand up as high as he could.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Play baseball.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Run.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
For being you.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Soccer.....and air hockey.

12. What is your mom not very good at?
The egg finding game ???

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Go at the school.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Salad

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Being nice.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
The dad from Rolie Polie Olie (huh?????)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
We walk....slowly....we walk slowly (again, huh???)

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have eyes...and everybody does....Everybody has some eyes.

19. How are you and your mom different?
Our teeth.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Hugs. Everyday you give me hugs, mom.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
To your school.




Wow, it's a good thing I don't bet on this stuff. Scott wasn't even in the bottom 3. Last night it was goodbye to Alexis Grace. They said they were thinking about saving her, but in the end said that she was "good, but not good enough." Whoa, that's harsh. Next week it will be Wednesday and Thursday since Obama will be giving a speech on Tuesday.

My children will never know life without....

It's so funny how I take for granted all of our modern technology...until I hear Jackson say something like, "Mom, I recorded it, so I can watch it later." Over the last few days I've realized that my kids will never know life without our modern conveniences with these conversations:

Jackson: Mom, I want to play on the computer. Can you put it on "dot com"?
Mam-maw: Jackson, when your mom was your age they didn't even have the internet.
Me: Are you kidding, Mom? When I was in high school we didn't even have the internet.

(My dad has been in the hospital for the last few days and I had been communicating with him via my step-mom. When she went back to work on Monday, Jackson and I had this conversation over breakfast)

Me: I want to call Grandpa George, but I don't have a way to get a hold of him.
Jackson: Why? He doesn't have his phone with him?
Me: No, Grandma Cyndi is bringing it to him tonight.

Here's a conversation that we had while watching tv:
Jackson: Mom, will you rewind it?
Me: Jackson, when I was your age we couldn't rewind the tv, if we missed it we missed it, we couldn't fast forward through the commercials, and if we had to eat dinner we couldn't pause it.


I guess that's our generation's "When I was your age I used to have to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow."


American Idol Predictions....
WOW, Kris impressed last night. Loved his Garth Brooks song. He's a cutie. Matt joked, "He just needs to lose the wedding ring." Simon said last week that he shouldn't have brought up his wife so early in the competition since he's a heart throb. :) I think it's sweet, of course. I'm sorry to say that I think Scott might be going home. I know that he probably does work harder than any of the other contestants, especially with his visual impairment, but Simon was right his performances are so similar to each other. Mixed reviews at our casa for Adam Lambert. I was a little freaked out, but Matt said that he liked it. I liked his voice as usual, but the arrangement and his face in the fire behind him as he performed....huh??? Can't wait to find out tonight who's going home.By the way, Jackson doesn't really watch the show so much, but his favorites since the beginning are Kris and Allison. He may be right on for the two it comes down to. :)

5 minutes a day

Yesterday at church our pastor led us in a commitment to read our Bible at least 5 minutes per day...for the rest of our lives. He gave a great analogy for life applications of the Bible. He said that when we fill up our gas tanks we don't map out how we are going to use every gallon that week, but we know that our gas will get us to where we need to go. Just like when we read our Bible everyday, we are fueling ourselves to be prepared in any situation. I wanted to document our commitment so that I can hold myself accountable. Matt got a head start on me. He's been reading The Power of Positive Thinking, which encourages reading the Bible daily, so he's read the book of Matthew in the last couple of weeks. Today he purchased a study Bible, so we'll be able to read it and go over it together daily.

Ro Ro left to go back to New Orleans this morning. I am so glad that we got to spend time with her. I always look forward to seeing her. She is always so positive and is such an inspiration. She will be 78 in July and she is so active with a very sharp mind. I hope that I can be as fabulous as her at that age. Okay, I wish I could be as fabulous as her right now. :)

Family Fun

My super-duper fabulous Aunt Rose, aka Ro Ro, arrived on Friday from New Orleans for a fun 10 day visit. Last night my mom, Ro Ro, Jackson, Gavin, and I went to Austin to see Brooke and Evan and Ronnie. We ate yummy chicken salad, fruit salad, and some broccoli, sesame seed, bacon salad (don't know the name, but it was good). The ladies had lots of fun playing Apples to Apples, a game that Brooke won as a gag gift at Christmas that turned out to be lots of fun. There was lots of fun and laughter and we didn't leave to come home until after 11pm!!! I had already called Matt about 7 pm and told him not to watch American Idol without me and asked if he would mind watching with me in the morning since I knew he would be fast asleep by the time we got home. We got up and watched it this morning at 6 am before he went to work. I was right about Jorge, but Matt's girl Jasmine was a goner too. Apparently Anoop's sunny personality helped him sail through to the next round. They announced the new rules about being able to make 1 "save" but I guess neither one of them were worth saving. Can't wait til next Tuesday. :)

My picks for American Idol

As I said before, I just started watching American Idol last season and now I am hooked. Matt and I watch it every week and make our predictions on who is going to be sent home. I decided to lock in my vote here so that I can see in 11 weeks if I was right or if I was way off. As of right now, the first week, I predict that it's going to come down to Danny and Adam. I am going to say that the two going home tomorrow are Anoop and Jorge. I thought that Anoop sounded so karaoke. And trust me I have heard some karaoke. Allison kind of disappointed this week. She was good, but I have heard "Alone" the song she sang a couple of weeks ago in the semi-finals 25 times, because we recorded it and Jackson thinks she rocks, and that performance never gets old. Her interviewing skills lack big time, but she can sing. We both really love Lil Rounds, too. Matt really likes Jasmine and I really like Megan.

Sorry guys....










Today Jackson, Gavin, and I went to the zoo with friends. The kids had lots of fun. Jackson was so excited to be around his friends that he doesn't get to see as much as he used to and I loved being able to hang out with adults. We have lots of fun together.

Love is in the air....

We have been blessed with some great weather days lately. Last week it was 90 degrees and hard to believe it was February!! I love it when it's in the 70s and 80s. It's perfect for going to the zoo. Since we bought our zoo membership we have been going once a week. This last Tuesday there was something going on because all of the animals were being sooooo lovey-dovey. It was so cute. I love seeing the animals often and seeing that they all have such different personalities. My favorite to watch are the monkeys. They are so funny. Jackson says his favorite is, "All of them." :)


For clarification that joey is trying to crawl into it's mom's pouch. I think that it was a little too big, but it was really trying. :)

Gavin at the zoo.

Last weekend we enjoyed a visit from Janice, or as she's known by the grandchildren "Jancie". She brought Jackson a fun giant activity pad and was so patient to help him through mazes and all kinds of activities. We were able to catch up and have a fun visit.


Yesterday Jackson, Gavin, and I joined our friends Thelma, Natalia, and Gabriela at a new place called "Mini Town". It's so cute. It has a mini HEB, a mini IBC, mini dance club, mini movie theater, a mini house, and a mini school, plus a playground and bouncy castle in the back. We were there for almost 3 hours. The best part is we were the only ones there. Well, good for us, bad for their business. But it was the Friday afternoon before Spring Break and they just opened recently. Jackson's favorite thing was the Video Arcade. They had 6 video games--like Ms. Pacman, a western shootout game, a racing game--the kind with the steering wheel and pedals (his favorite) and a few others All of these games of course required a quarter or 2 quarters to play. Jackson didn't know that. He played all of the games and thought he was really playing. He would stay in the arcade forever and I would go in and check on him and he was so serious about playing. He said, "Mom, watch this...I'm gonna be the winner." I asked, "Oh...which car are you?" He said, "The red one......no...I'm all of them." It was so funny to watch him think he was really playing. I know that the day will come when he'll realize that it requires money, but for now I'll keep my quarters.

Gavin at Mini Town.

Enjoying Life

It's been so long since I've sat down at the computer to blog about what's been going on. I've been enjoying life way too much to slow down and write about it.

Jackson has really enjoyed going to preschool and is attending 2 days a week 9am-12pm. His teacher is so nice and he's learning so much. I am so impressed with his ability to adapt to new situations and his outgoing personality is probably coming about because of all of these new interactions that he's had. He's also having a great time going to storytime. He loves the crafts at the end. He especially likes to cut and glue. He doesn't always like to follow the directions, he prefers to get the scissors and glue and make his own project. The first couple of weeks I let him, because it was something new, but now we are working on completing our crafts. Jackson has also started gymnastics and loves it. He has so much fun on the "monkey bar" and doing "donkey kicks". We also purchased a Zoo membership and have been able to go to the zoo a couple of times in the last few weeks.




Gavin is growing so fast. I can't believe he's already 2 months!! Time sure does fly with the second one. Tonight we got out his new Bumbo chair and he was sitting in it. He looks like such a big boy. :) Yesterday we went for his 2 month visit and everything was great. He is now on the chart--5% for weight and almost on the chart for height. He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long. I said, "Yay, now he's a newborn." :)

I am truly loving being home with both of my guys and especially being able to enjoy all of the growth and development I have already seen in Gavin. It's so amazing. It's such a different approach the second time around. I am so much more laid back now compared to when Jackson was a baby. Of course it could be that I just don't have time to worry over every little thing like I did when Jackson was a baby. Gavin is such an angel. He truly is such an easy going laid back little guy. Jackson is so good with him and he always says, "I love you, Gavin" and hugs and kisses him. And he'll say, "You're so cute, Gavin. You're so tiny. I love you, baby brother." I hope that they can always be like this. I can dream can't I? I know that there will be bumps in the road, but I think that there is a foundation of love and I think that they'll be close. I love their personalities together so far and can't wait to see what the future brings.



On February 6th my sister, Brooke celebrated a milestone by stepping into a new decade. She turned 30 or as her cake said Dirrrty 30--throwback to Xtina. She had lots of fun with friends and family and I'm glad that we were able to celebrate with her in Austin. Happy Birthday, Brookie!!! Love you!!!



I promise to get better about blogging. I hate having to sit down and spill 1 month of happenings, so I'm going to really try and update more frequently. Here are some random pictures from the last month. Check out how big my Gavin is getting!!!











By the way...loving American Idol this season. That 16 year old Allison is unbelievable. I love all the top 6 so far and can't wait to see the next 6 to make up the top 12. I'm willing to bet that Allison, Adam, and Danny go very far in the competition. I never even watched the show until last year and now I'm hooked. Matt and I record it and watch it after we put the kids to bed.