Warning! This post contains an unusual amount of pictures and stories! What else did you expect for my little man's first Christmas?
Oh, and a little rambling might happen as well...
We got into BR Friday evening (12/12) and met Keith & Kayla at Maw & Paw's and headed to dinner at Outback. I was in a very comfy sweat suit because I had not anticipated doing this. I had to laugh at how brave I was to go out looking such a wreck since I don't live in BR anymore. I would hate to run into people I haven't seen in 9 months and leave them to wonder exactly what happened to me since I moved away. =) It was sooo good to just sit and visit with Keith and Kayla and be at HOME! Maw & Paw were so great to us, and I so miss Maw making me coffee every morning. She learned EXACTLY how I like it! =) I also love being around Maw Maw because she always teaches me something new about babies.
What would Christmas be without the Twin Living Christmas Trees at JBC? This was the first year I've actually been able to sit in the audience (since sometime back in 10th grade) to watch the Trees because I've always sung with the choir. It was fun to sit and enjoy it, but I missed singing with everyone! The production was beautiful, and Jackson was so well behaved during the whole thing! He enjoyed the characters, etc., but he mostly enjoyed watching all the lights! He got a little too excited toward the end and became very vocal, so Kyle had to bring him out. Poor little guy! We actually went to see it twice; the first time with Jackson and the second time with Keith, Kayla, and the boys.
A pic w/ Paw before leaving for the show! (I did finally get Jackson some tan socks so he wouldn't have to commit this fashion faux pas every time he wore brown shoes!)
The Barber Shop Quartet singing before the show (My dad is the handsome one on the far right in the tux!)
Jackson got a special hand shake from a few of the bears! We were sitting down low on the side balcony, so a lot of them passed right by us!
The beautiful trees (The conductor on the bottom left of the pic is my dad.)
My dad singing his part in the trio for "I Have Seen the Light" (...one of the few songs that has been in the production every year for the past 11 years.) My sister is the beautiful "angel"...lol to the left of my dad.
Jackson was too interested in Dustin's tassels (she was a dancing wooden soldier) to smile for a pic.
Yay! I got to see Les after the show!
Kyle's little cousins (Nick, Noah, and Jacob) were at MawMaw's that weekend, and we got to hang out with them a good bit. So much fun!Noah was so sweet to feed Jackson!
Jake and Jackson. Jackson is lucky to have such sweet cousins who love him so much!
*Flashback* It seems like only yesterday Jake was much smaller and Kyle was holding him at the beach (7/2006) while they napped. Everyone kept saying, "Kyle is going to be the best dad one day." ;) And now he is!
Not only does Jake babysit; he helps fix tires! Haha...Kevin's tire was flat, so Kyle whipped out his trusty Exxon Mobil Controller's safety kit...complete with the orange vest, a small orange cone, and all sorts of safety gadgets. Jake was excited to try it out.
Most of that weekend was spent at church and hanging out at MawMaw's. It was so relaxing and fun! Kyle headed back to Houston EARLY Monday morning to work Monday and half a day Tuesday. Jackson and I stayed in BR and hung out at Maw's and got to see some friends/family & have lots of lunch breaks with Aunt Kayla, whose new job is right around the corner from Maw's. Sometime during that week, Kyle and I decided to take Jackson out and finish up our Christmas shopping. Benj decided he'd like to come, so we headed out to the mall. Did you catch that? Me and THREE boys--SHOPPING. That was the FIRST and LAST time that will ever happen. =) I really enjoyed their company, but they weren't up for the challenge. Why do I always forget how much Kyle HATES to shop until we are already out? Benj was just as bad! I would have taken three Jacksons over those two!Notice their posture...we had only been there THIRTY minutes!!!
Go ahead and enlarge this picture and get a good look at how Kyle is standing...He acts like he is being put through torture!!! I know he will say that he WAS being put through torture, but I promise you that we were at the mall for maybe an HOUR total! Trust me, I couldn't take a second more than that with this grumbling group of shoppers.
He did let J stop to look at the fountain. ;)
I don't really have many other pictures from that first week. We really just took it easy and had fun being at home. We went out to Grammie and Pops' house one night for a pizza dinner & hang out time, which was fun. Jackson started feeling bad on Thursday of that week. He started running a pretty high fever Thursday evening. He continued to run fever on Friday, so we took him to an after hours clinic. Of course I was scared to death that he was running a 104 degree fever, but he was OK. He ended up having an ear infection. =(This was J in the Doctor's office...I have to admit I teared up looking at him. I HATED to see him so miserable. Fortunately, we were given an antibiotic and he started feeling better almost immediately! We could have waited it out since it was in the beginning stages, but we decided with Christmas right around the corner we wanted to knock it out ASAP. Our little man just rested up for a couple of days and bounced back, thank goodness!
The weekend was fun...more shopping (can you believe I braved it with Kyle again?), a couple of Christmas parties (the youth Wacky Tacky party and our JBC Sunday School class's Christmas party, a visit with "Aunt" BB, and the chance to visit JBC and see many of our wonderful friends there...oh, and of course Las Palmas after church! All I could say the whole time we were eating lunch (referring to the salsa at Las Palmas) was, "You just can't get this in Texas!" Seriously...I need to buy it in bulk and bring it home with me...can't beat it! That and CC's coffee.***Side note***
Speaking of CC's coffee, hahahahaha I can't believe I never wrote about this in my blog. OK - this is a short story. One evening I was headed to Kyle's softball game. This is pre-Jackson, just to set the tone for the story. In other words, I was an emotionl pregnant woman far from home! I was looking for a gas station to run in and get one of those sugar free Arizona tea drinks. Anyway, I found one on 1960 and pulled up to a parking spot in the front of the little store. I looked straight into the store at the most beautiful sight I had seen this side of the Mississippi: a sign that read "We Sell COMMUNITY COFFEE." It was like seeing a beam of light...I sat in my car and cried. I have never been so happy. It was like a little piece of home right here in my new home. (I never know which to call home.)
OK, I'm done with that little rambling.
****
Back to Christmas. I'm sure I'm losing my audience with all this rambling. I wish I had taken more pictures that weekend, but I didn't. Monday started the "official" Christmas festivities. We had a family Christmas gathering every night that week! So much fun! The first was Christmas at Kyle's parents' (Grammie & Pops) house.
We had a nice Lasagna dinner & good family fun. Jackson fell asleep while we were opening presents and woke up the SECOND we all finished and it was time for him to open his gifts! It was too funny. Jackson was VERY serious about each of his gifts! He was very intrigued with the wrapping paper and ribbons, of course. We had a hard time keeping him from going under the tree before we ate dinner. I'm sure next year he'll be going for the ornaments!
Seriously working on his puzzle
Opening another present with Daddy
Sitting with Grammie
GEAUX TIGERS
Kevo has a mischievous grin!
Watching Kyle open presents is favorite hobby of mine. "Oooo, it's just what I've always wanted." (That's his phrase.)
I was soooooooo happy about my coffee grinder (and other cool coffee stuff I got.) I've already used it, Mrs. Judy! It's awesome! Kayla, do you have one? LOL!
Keith is also funny to watch open gifts! =)
Tuesday night we had Christmas with Keith and Kayla. Her sister was set to arrive in town from PA, but ended up getting in later than expected. We threw together a last minute Christmas shin-dig and headed to Jason's deli. We had a great time--as always--and I didn't get ANY pictures from that night!
***
Uncle Benj is so silly
OK...and this is how I found Jackson when I walked into our room one day...just chillin'! Haha...
***
My dad started a new Christmas tradition: making ALNP. What does ALNP stand for, you ask? Alans Late Night Pecans. He concocted his own little special recipe for yummy pecans and was caught making them on several different occasions. He was very proud of them and rightfully so because they were GOOD! I hope you will continue this every year, dad.
On Christmas Eve, we spent the day at my parents' getting ready for our annual Christmas Eve party which usually consists of our family & Jason & Skylar & whoever happens to drop by the house. This year, we did something a little different. Instead of heavy hourderves & gumbo, we did a full meal. The menu was:
Pork Tenderloin
Homemade Maccoroni (Made by me!)
Spinach salad with driend cranberries, pecans & feta cheese w/ a yummy vinagerette dressing
Fruit Salad
Rolls
Black Bean Salsa w/ chips & yummy crackers
My mom saw the black bean salsa served in martini glasses in Southern Living. We didn't have martinis after, I promise.
Kyle is so spoiled...this fruit salad used to have pecans in it, but my mom has deleted them from the recipe because Kyle doesn't like them! Although she won't admit it, my mom is partial to the boys in our family. Now that I have a son, I guess I understand because you have to work a little harder to keep them around. Girls always need their mamma, so who cares if I'd rather the fruit salad have the pecans in it; she knows I'm still going to call her everyday. Love you, Mom. And I love your fruit salad!
About to head to the Christmas Eve Service...It was too HOT to dress Jackson in his Christmas clothes, so we went for comfort. It was GROSSLY humid! (We did tuck his shirt in.)
The candlelight service at JBC was great as always! I love the warmth in the room during the Christmas Eve service. I love listening to the Christmas story and hearing all the special music. Jackson was great during the service, and he even went down front (with Kyle) during the children's part of the service for the very first time. I passed him back to mom so she could hold him. He was very interested in the bag he got.
After the service, we headed back to mom's to eat and hang out. I TRIED SO HARD to convince everyone that it was a good idea to do all the present opening on Christmas Eve so that we could just relax Christmas morning before leaving town, but no one would buy in to my idea. There for a minute, I thought they were going to go for it! We had fun sitting around and talking, and I just HAD to have Kyle open his present from me because I couldn't wait any longer. Lester works at Game Stop, so he helped me get Kyle the ONLY Mario Kart (for the Wii) that was in the region that close to Christmas. I was soooo excited! Kyle was, too, and we have been playing it a lot! I am TERRIBLE at it, but it's fun.
I'm not sure what these crazy kids were up to...I think they were talking about me.
A pic with Jase and Skylar before they left! Skylar really entertained Jackson while they were here. If only she lived in Houston to babysit! (Jackson is doing his "crazy smile" in this pic...more on that later.)
Snuggling with Uncle Mitch--worn out!
We stayed up pretty late talking on Christmas Eve and slept in til about 8 on Christmas morning. Christmas morning was so much fun for me to see everyone opening their gifts and Jackson playing with his. Of course, he loved the ribbons and paper again and was totally and completely entertained by them. It was fun to play Santa Claus for the first time! We decided that we would set the presents out for him (instead of wrapping them or whatever.) I set them out before I went to bed Christmas Eve and said to my mom, "I bet this is the last time this is this easy to play Santa!" In future years he'll be trying to sneak to find the presents, etc. =) Then it gets FUN!
Jackson was actually last to open his gifts because he was so intrigued with everyone else! I just put little rubber blocks in this stocking (which I got on SALE at Pottery Barn for FOUR DOLLARS and monogrammed for SIX DOLLARS and shipped for FREE 5 days before Christmas!!!--sorry, I'm just a little proud of that), as well as a few teething rings. My mom had actually already let him play with the blocks, but I just stuck them back in the stocking...haha. Hey, at least we didn't do what Kyle wanted to do. He said [sometime back in November], "Lindsay, I have a genious idea. Jackson has NO idea what we're giving him this year. We can just wrap up a few of the toys that he already HAS!" LOL...Kyle and his ideas. We did decide that we want to always keep things simple. I really like how some people do 3 presents because that's how many Baby Jesus got. I think it keeps things in perspective! We did start a couple of new traditions...buying him a nice ornament every year to give to him one day when he has his own Christmas tree, buying a Christmas book (or two...ooops! This years were board books--Christmas in the Manger & Snowmen at Night.) I am also SO excited to start the Elf on a Shelf tradition next year! Megan drew Jackson's name for Christmas this year, so they got the Elf on a Shelf for him. I had never heard of it, but now I am soooo excited for next Christmas!!!
Kyle & his new LSU golf Nike polo from mom...love it! It was about time for a new one. She gave him one Christmas '05, so he needed another one in the mix!
Listening to Christmas in the Manger read by Aunt LB. Sometimes he will actually sit still and listen to someone read a book. This time he DID!
What would a Christmas post be without mention of my stocking?!?! My mom does the BEST stockings...seriously. I always look forward to my stockings. So funny...My mom and I were at Target sometime before Christmas, and I kept pointing out little things that I thought were such cute stocking stuffers. My mom said she had to laugh on the inside because she had already gotten them. =) I love my mom. We share the same love and appreciation for all things Target.
Kyle with his stocking
After we opened gifts on Christmas morning, we started packing up the car AKA playing Tetris. How do people with more than one kid go anywhere? I have a 4Runner with PLENTY of room AND a cargo carrier!!! I guess we need some lessons in packing lighter! It took us a couple hours to get all packed up, but then we headed over to Aunt Rhonda's for Christmas Day Lunch! We brought Mitch and Benj along with us because they rode with us up to Granny & Pappy's in North LA. It was a YUMMY lunch and more fun hang out time.
~Off to Henry's Hill~
My grandparents' house is called Henry's Hill because my great grandfather's name was Henry, and my grandparents live on the land (hill) where my Granny grew up, which belonged to Henry Shaffer, her father. It's out in the country NE of Shreverport, and it's the most relaxing place in the world. You don't have to do anything. You don't even have to answer your phone because it won't RING! Haha...there's not very good cell phone reception unless you're sitting out on the front porch. The greatest excuse to unwind and just enjoy family time! And that's what we did! When we got there, everyone (my aunt and uncle and their girls and their boyfriends--actually, Em's is a fiancee cuz she's GETTING MARRIED this fall!--Gran & Pap, and our friend Kara Kelly who grew up in church with Mom and Aunt Jan) was waiting on us to do dinner. It was a yummy roast, rice & gravy, and all sorts of other good stuff. I beat Mitchell to finding the sausage balls. Once he found them, it was sort of a battle, but there were a good 10 minutes there where I waas the only one who knew there were sausage balls in the house! I didn't get any pictures from us opening presents and hanging out. =( It was such a short amount of time that they were all there, so there just wasn't time to stop and take a picture! We did get one group shot which I will post when I get it from Granny.
The Carpenters and Kara left that night, and the rest of us just hung out, watched movies, and talked. We took a family field trip to Shreveport to look for Gran and Pap a new TV. We had the privilege of taking Gran and Pap to Chick-Fil-A for the first time! I could not believe they had never been there! Granny doesn't do fast food (because the workers don't wear gloves, etc.), but we assured her that Chick-Fil-A was different. She was impressed! We were sad to note that the Cathy family that owns CFA spells their last name different than Gran and Pap's, which is spelled with an -ey. Shoot! We thought we would get a piece of that CFA dough one day! ;)
Let's see...also while at Gran & Pap's, LB and I made the usual trip to the outlet mall and to Fred's, which was FUN! We ended up leaving early because a terrible looking storm came up, and we got scared. I'm HORRIBLE with bad weather. I hate it. I know my mom is laughing right now if she's reading this because any time there was a dark cloud in the sky in BR, I'd call to ask her if there was a tornado warning. I'm DEATHLY afraid of bad weather, especially tornadoes. Anyway, we headed home and hung out there and played with Jackson.
Jackson had SUCH a good time playing with Kitty. He was scared of her at first, and she was scared of him, too! They warmed up to each other eventually, and Jackson got BRAVE. He would chase her around the house and swat at her (to pet her.) She would RUN from him! Haha. Of course he was interested in her toys (beads, etc.), so I tried to keep him from playing with them so she wouldn't get defensive. They had so much fun!
Bad little Kitty in the Christmas Tree! She would get up in there and shake the tree and make ornaments fall off!
Handsome boy smiling with Pap
Jackson's Trick--The Crazy Smile
Well, as I write this post Jackson officially no longer does this trick. =( It lasted about 2 weeks, and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I'm soooo sad that I didn't get it on video, but I do have LOTS of pictures of him making this face. I know I'll never forget it. My camera flashes a red light (to prevent red eye) before the flash comes on. You can hold it down and flash the red light without taking a picture, so I do that A LOT to catch Jackson in JUST the right moment before snapping the pic. A trick I discovered when he was just beginning to smile in an effort to capture that precious little smile. WELL, I take SO MANY pictures of Jackson that he has learned what that red light means. Sometime around Christmas Eve he started this...when the red light came on, He flashed this CRAZY grin and started giggling. He would do it OVER and OVER. SO FUNNY. My mom said, "Oh Lindsay that is SO SAD you have RUINED him! He knows exactly what to do!" Haha. Anyway, he was a little ham over Christmas. Maybe he'll pull this trick back out one day. I sure hope so because it really had us laughing. Here are a few of the pics of Jackson doing various versions of the "CRAZY SMILE." I love this kid.
Well, that's the end of this Christmas Post. I thought I would never finish! It was such a great time. I couldn't even mention every single great time we had while we were there, but these were the family highlights. Thank you to Maw Maw & Paw Paw, Grammie & Pops, KK & Poppy, Granny & Pappy, and all our brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and FRIENDS for making this such a fun Christmas! Can't wait for Christmas 2009!
Love y'all!
Kyle, Lindz, & Jackson
Keith is also funny to watch open gifts! =)
Tuesday night we had Christmas with Keith and Kayla. Her sister was set to arrive in town from PA, but ended up getting in later than expected. We threw together a last minute Christmas shin-dig and headed to Jason's deli. We had a great time--as always--and I didn't get ANY pictures from that night!***
Christmas Baby
These are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas time that don't really go with a specific event. It was so fun for Jackson to be this age at Christmas. He was so curious about EVERYTHING, and I think it's so precious that he started crawling at Christmas. He must love Christmas as much as I do. ;)
These are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas time that don't really go with a specific event. It was so fun for Jackson to be this age at Christmas. He was so curious about EVERYTHING, and I think it's so precious that he started crawling at Christmas. He must love Christmas as much as I do. ;)
Uncle Benj is so silly
OK...and this is how I found Jackson when I walked into our room one day...just chillin'! Haha...
***My dad started a new Christmas tradition: making ALNP. What does ALNP stand for, you ask? Alans Late Night Pecans. He concocted his own little special recipe for yummy pecans and was caught making them on several different occasions. He was very proud of them and rightfully so because they were GOOD! I hope you will continue this every year, dad.
On Christmas Eve, we spent the day at my parents' getting ready for our annual Christmas Eve party which usually consists of our family & Jason & Skylar & whoever happens to drop by the house. This year, we did something a little different. Instead of heavy hourderves & gumbo, we did a full meal. The menu was:Pork Tenderloin
Homemade Maccoroni (Made by me!)
Spinach salad with driend cranberries, pecans & feta cheese w/ a yummy vinagerette dressing
Fruit Salad
Rolls
Black Bean Salsa w/ chips & yummy crackers
Kyle is so spoiled...this fruit salad used to have pecans in it, but my mom has deleted them from the recipe because Kyle doesn't like them! Although she won't admit it, my mom is partial to the boys in our family. Now that I have a son, I guess I understand because you have to work a little harder to keep them around. Girls always need their mamma, so who cares if I'd rather the fruit salad have the pecans in it; she knows I'm still going to call her everyday. Love you, Mom. And I love your fruit salad!
About to head to the Christmas Eve Service...It was too HOT to dress Jackson in his Christmas clothes, so we went for comfort. It was GROSSLY humid! (We did tuck his shirt in.)
The candlelight service at JBC was great as always! I love the warmth in the room during the Christmas Eve service. I love listening to the Christmas story and hearing all the special music. Jackson was great during the service, and he even went down front (with Kyle) during the children's part of the service for the very first time. I passed him back to mom so she could hold him. He was very interested in the bag he got.
Laura Beth and Lester
Only in Louisiana...watching a possum run up under the house to see if Bandit would catch it...lol...
Pop-E!
I'm not sure what these crazy kids were up to...I think they were talking about me.
A pic with Jase and Skylar before they left! Skylar really entertained Jackson while they were here. If only she lived in Houston to babysit! (Jackson is doing his "crazy smile" in this pic...more on that later.)
Snuggling with Uncle Mitch--worn out!
We stayed up pretty late talking on Christmas Eve and slept in til about 8 on Christmas morning. Christmas morning was so much fun for me to see everyone opening their gifts and Jackson playing with his. Of course, he loved the ribbons and paper again and was totally and completely entertained by them. It was fun to play Santa Claus for the first time! We decided that we would set the presents out for him (instead of wrapping them or whatever.) I set them out before I went to bed Christmas Eve and said to my mom, "I bet this is the last time this is this easy to play Santa!" In future years he'll be trying to sneak to find the presents, etc. =) Then it gets FUN!
Jackson was actually last to open his gifts because he was so intrigued with everyone else! I just put little rubber blocks in this stocking (which I got on SALE at Pottery Barn for FOUR DOLLARS and monogrammed for SIX DOLLARS and shipped for FREE 5 days before Christmas!!!--sorry, I'm just a little proud of that), as well as a few teething rings. My mom had actually already let him play with the blocks, but I just stuck them back in the stocking...haha. Hey, at least we didn't do what Kyle wanted to do. He said [sometime back in November], "Lindsay, I have a genious idea. Jackson has NO idea what we're giving him this year. We can just wrap up a few of the toys that he already HAS!" LOL...Kyle and his ideas. We did decide that we want to always keep things simple. I really like how some people do 3 presents because that's how many Baby Jesus got. I think it keeps things in perspective! We did start a couple of new traditions...buying him a nice ornament every year to give to him one day when he has his own Christmas tree, buying a Christmas book (or two...ooops! This years were board books--Christmas in the Manger & Snowmen at Night.) I am also SO excited to start the Elf on a Shelf tradition next year! Megan drew Jackson's name for Christmas this year, so they got the Elf on a Shelf for him. I had never heard of it, but now I am soooo excited for next Christmas!!!
Kyle & his new LSU golf Nike polo from mom...love it! It was about time for a new one. She gave him one Christmas '05, so he needed another one in the mix!
Listening to Christmas in the Manger read by Aunt LB. Sometimes he will actually sit still and listen to someone read a book. This time he DID!
What would a Christmas post be without mention of my stocking?!?! My mom does the BEST stockings...seriously. I always look forward to my stockings. So funny...My mom and I were at Target sometime before Christmas, and I kept pointing out little things that I thought were such cute stocking stuffers. My mom said she had to laugh on the inside because she had already gotten them. =) I love my mom. We share the same love and appreciation for all things Target.
Kyle with his stocking
After we opened gifts on Christmas morning, we started packing up the car AKA playing Tetris. How do people with more than one kid go anywhere? I have a 4Runner with PLENTY of room AND a cargo carrier!!! I guess we need some lessons in packing lighter! It took us a couple hours to get all packed up, but then we headed over to Aunt Rhonda's for Christmas Day Lunch! We brought Mitch and Benj along with us because they rode with us up to Granny & Pappy's in North LA. It was a YUMMY lunch and more fun hang out time.~Off to Henry's Hill~
My grandparents' house is called Henry's Hill because my great grandfather's name was Henry, and my grandparents live on the land (hill) where my Granny grew up, which belonged to Henry Shaffer, her father. It's out in the country NE of Shreverport, and it's the most relaxing place in the world. You don't have to do anything. You don't even have to answer your phone because it won't RING! Haha...there's not very good cell phone reception unless you're sitting out on the front porch. The greatest excuse to unwind and just enjoy family time! And that's what we did! When we got there, everyone (my aunt and uncle and their girls and their boyfriends--actually, Em's is a fiancee cuz she's GETTING MARRIED this fall!--Gran & Pap, and our friend Kara Kelly who grew up in church with Mom and Aunt Jan) was waiting on us to do dinner. It was a yummy roast, rice & gravy, and all sorts of other good stuff. I beat Mitchell to finding the sausage balls. Once he found them, it was sort of a battle, but there were a good 10 minutes there where I waas the only one who knew there were sausage balls in the house! I didn't get any pictures from us opening presents and hanging out. =( It was such a short amount of time that they were all there, so there just wasn't time to stop and take a picture! We did get one group shot which I will post when I get it from Granny.
The Carpenters and Kara left that night, and the rest of us just hung out, watched movies, and talked. We took a family field trip to Shreveport to look for Gran and Pap a new TV. We had the privilege of taking Gran and Pap to Chick-Fil-A for the first time! I could not believe they had never been there! Granny doesn't do fast food (because the workers don't wear gloves, etc.), but we assured her that Chick-Fil-A was different. She was impressed! We were sad to note that the Cathy family that owns CFA spells their last name different than Gran and Pap's, which is spelled with an -ey. Shoot! We thought we would get a piece of that CFA dough one day! ;)
Let's see...also while at Gran & Pap's, LB and I made the usual trip to the outlet mall and to Fred's, which was FUN! We ended up leaving early because a terrible looking storm came up, and we got scared. I'm HORRIBLE with bad weather. I hate it. I know my mom is laughing right now if she's reading this because any time there was a dark cloud in the sky in BR, I'd call to ask her if there was a tornado warning. I'm DEATHLY afraid of bad weather, especially tornadoes. Anyway, we headed home and hung out there and played with Jackson.
Jackson had SUCH a good time playing with Kitty. He was scared of her at first, and she was scared of him, too! They warmed up to each other eventually, and Jackson got BRAVE. He would chase her around the house and swat at her (to pet her.) She would RUN from him! Haha. Of course he was interested in her toys (beads, etc.), so I tried to keep him from playing with them so she wouldn't get defensive. They had so much fun!
Bad little Kitty in the Christmas Tree! She would get up in there and shake the tree and make ornaments fall off!
Handsome boy smiling with Pap
Jackson's Trick--The Crazy SmileWell, as I write this post Jackson officially no longer does this trick. =( It lasted about 2 weeks, and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I'm soooo sad that I didn't get it on video, but I do have LOTS of pictures of him making this face. I know I'll never forget it. My camera flashes a red light (to prevent red eye) before the flash comes on. You can hold it down and flash the red light without taking a picture, so I do that A LOT to catch Jackson in JUST the right moment before snapping the pic. A trick I discovered when he was just beginning to smile in an effort to capture that precious little smile. WELL, I take SO MANY pictures of Jackson that he has learned what that red light means. Sometime around Christmas Eve he started this...when the red light came on, He flashed this CRAZY grin and started giggling. He would do it OVER and OVER. SO FUNNY. My mom said, "Oh Lindsay that is SO SAD you have RUINED him! He knows exactly what to do!" Haha. Anyway, he was a little ham over Christmas. Maybe he'll pull this trick back out one day. I sure hope so because it really had us laughing. Here are a few of the pics of Jackson doing various versions of the "CRAZY SMILE." I love this kid.
Well, that's the end of this Christmas Post. I thought I would never finish! It was such a great time. I couldn't even mention every single great time we had while we were there, but these were the family highlights. Thank you to Maw Maw & Paw Paw, Grammie & Pops, KK & Poppy, Granny & Pappy, and all our brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and FRIENDS for making this such a fun Christmas! Can't wait for Christmas 2009!Love y'all!
Kyle, Lindz, & Jackson
2 comments:
Okay...the pics of his crazy smile CRACKED me up!! That boy is hilarious!
Glad to see you guys get toothpaste in your stocking too! :)
Also love the picture of J holding the kitty!!!
Post a Comment