new toys

We had a great Christmas. Jackson got some fun new toys, including a cute elmo tree ornament.

I've been wanting a pastry blender for awhile now, I just never bought one myself. And I finally got one! I was so excited to use it, I made some pineapple muffins yesterday. These are one of my favorite muffins, I love the crushed pineapple and topping.

finger painting

Ornaments

Putting up ornaments a couple days ago.

Nativity

Got this great deal for a dollar at Goodwill.

6 3/4 inches of snow!

We got a bunch of snow last night! I measured it in the backyard and it was 6 3/4 inches.

I put some sticker decals up in Jackson's room. Thanks Amy for getting us these!They are so fun and Jackson loves them!

Christmas Tree Hunt

It's already been a couple days since we did this, but here are the pictures. We have our tree up and mostly decorated now too. Jackson thought it was neat we were bringing the big tree in our house.

Click on the year to see the previous year's hunt: 2009 & 2008.

Here's Wyatt and Jackson waiting to start looking for trees.

I brought an old sled with us this year. I had to try it out first...

Jackson loved sledding!

peek

Santa

We went and visited Santa the other day. Jackson has now seen him twice and knows he give candy canes. He still didn't want to sit on his lap, but he wanted the candy cane.

Whenever we see anything that looks like Santa, he says "Panta" and "nini" for candy. He also has started saying "ho ho ho". Jackson also likes the Christmas lights and Christmas trees.

helping

We got more snow this morning and Jackson helped me shovel.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We did some Thanksgiving crafts earlier this week.

Thankful

I'm so thankful for so much in my life. Here are a few things I'm thankful for,

my husband,

our son,

all of our family,

and our friends.

I'm also really thankful to have a warm home during a cold, already snowing, winter.

yogurt

Jackson was a little messy eating his yogurt the other day.

snow

We woke up with some snow on the ground today. I bundled Jackson all up and we went outside.

cookies

The other night we made cookies. Jackson can say cookie, but he still signs it at the same time too. He signs it over his mouth, like in this picture.

He loves to watch me mix stuff in the kitchen and now he's starting to want to help more and more. I gave him a bowl and put some water and flour in it. Then added cinnamon and vanilla also as I added them to the cookies. He did a good job of mixing, except he wanted to add his mix to my mix.

old videos

Here are two videos from September that I am just now getting to.

We found a slug and Jackson wouldn't touch it. He would get close to touching it, but then start giggling and say no. It was cute.

blueberries

step stool

He now moves his step stool all over the house to reach things.

more of the new bath toy

Jackson is really into pouring things back and forth, so he loves this toy. The brand of the toy is Yookidoo, here is a link to it at amazon.

new bath toy

It's been a long couple weeks. I'm hoping this week we will be getting back to a regular routine.

Jeff's funeral was beautiful. So many family and friends came together for it, it was amazing. The support we have received and Dan & Jeff's parents have received is soo overwhelming to me, it's more support than I could have ever imagined. It puts tears in my eyes just thinking about it.

Jackson did great through all of this too. He has been more needy/clingy than normal, but it's understandable since I left him with family and a close friend a few times, which is way more than usual.

I got him a new bath toy the other day when my Mom was in town and we went shopping.

Jackson likes it a lot. I have a couple other cute pictures that I'll try to add later.

We'll miss you

easy decorations

I cut eight of these from black cardstock today and taped them on the window. I traced them from a bat I found online somewhere, had to make it a little bigger. Then at night, with the inside lights on, you'll see a bat sillhouette. Right now these are our only Halloween decorations, besides some pumpkins inside. I still want to tie some corn stalks (that we grew in the backyard) to the front post and that will be it for the decorations. Good enough for me.

Get well soon...

It's hard to believe that Jeff was just over here helping us paint our house 12 days ago and now he's in the hospital in critical condition.

I feel like we are in a movie and I want to fast forward, but can't.

...I really hope this part of the movie has a happy ending.

Jeff, my husband's brother, somehow got a brain infection, which has caused swelling and seizure complications. He also has pneumonia and is not breathing well. The doctors are concerned and we are also very concerned for him.

...Jeff, I just wish you'd get well soon.

still more from the pumpkin patch

Being shy.

A pumpkin he could carry.

High fives.

drawing

The other day Jackson and I went and visited Dan at the fire station. Jackson got to do some drawing on the white board.

more from the pumpkin patch

Look at this picture, last year of Wyatt giving Jackson a hug too.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we did our annual pumpkin patch trip. Lots of fun again. Here is last year's picture.

I took a bunch of pictures, so I'll add more later once I go through them all.

background

Got an idea from Jen Thompson to make spots for things on your computer background. Here is my attempt.

I like it. It organizes the folders just enough, so they aren't all in one line along the edge. Then I'll just change the center picture whenever I feel like it.