Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down 2012 #28

Up:

• Hope everyone had a fabulous Independence Day! We headed to Columbus, Georgia to hang out with Mike's Aunt Donna, Uncle Kent, and kids Reed, Kristen, and Madison. Donna pulled out all the kids old toys and Jackson had a blast! He's been somewhat toy deprived since we didn't have much space in the van to pack toys other than some blocks. He loved this little money machine and Reed's favorite childhood toy - his rocking horse, Wonder! It was so great to see them; our visits are too few and far between and everyone changes so much. Last time we visited was before Mike and I were married. Wish I had gotten some pics with everyone in them.

My little red, white and blue angels!

I love Kennedy in this pic! Where's Kennedy?!

There she is!

Jackson riding Reed's old rocking horse, Wonder!

Kennedy was cheering him on.

YeeHaw!

• Friday after Mike got off work we headed to Pensacola, Florida for the weekend. It's been way too long since we've been back. We lived there from 2005-2008 and absolutely loved it. This was also the kids first time to go to the beach. They both really liked it. Kennedy preferred the water and Jackson like playing in the sand. We also enjoyed some good shopping and food. The weekend flew by way too quickly.

Kennedy with Daddy at the museum on base. 

Jackson loved getting to sit in all the planes!

Of course his favorite part was the indoor play place, we couldn't pull him away when it was closing time!

Building sand castles on the beach!

My camera fogged up from the humidity, but she looks so adorable!

Eating sand!

Brent and Heather came down to join us.

Brent showing Jackson how it's done!

Kennedy passed out while Mike was holding her in the water, sleepy girl!

at McGuire's Irish Pub - best food ever!

Big mistake ordering one of these; I'm a lightweight anyway when it comes to drinking, but this was super strong.

I only made it 3/4 of the way through it before I decided I wanted to be able to walk out of the restaurant on my own!

Down:

• Jackson hasn't had much exposure to thunderstorms in Idaho so he is getting a whole new education here. On Tuesday night a thunderstorm started right as we were putting him to bed. He was terrified. We kept putting him to bed and he would just scream and cry he was so scared. I tried telling him the God was having a bowling party which calmed him down for a little while, but then he said he wanted to God to go back to church! There were endless trips back and forth from our room to Jackson's and none of us really got much sleep. Hopefully there won't be many more nights like that.
• It was sort of weird having the 4th on a Wednesday. It made for an odd week. Mike was off Wed. and Thurs., but had to go back to work on Friday. I missed having a 3 day weekend especially since we went to P-Cola for the weekend.

Favorite Thing:

One of the great reasons I love my iphone is the Pandora Radio App! You have access to all sorts of awesome music for free! I'm constantly playing music around the house. It's a good break from the silence and the kids really like it too. My favorite stations right now are the Summer Oldies station and if you enter in the artist David Nevue there is wonderful piano music (thanks to Sally and Martha for getting me started with that station)! It's almost like a sound track to your life just playing in the background. Plus it's portable! They even had patriotic music for the 4th and great holiday stations around Christmas time!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #27

Up:

• We had a fairly laid back/uneventful week. The kids and I went swimming most days just to take  a break from the heat. The best part about this week is that Mike was home at a pretty decent hour most nights!
• Every year (well for the past 3) I've made a photo album for Jackson to document everything he did that year. For the last 2 photo albums I ordered them from Shutterfly because they ran a special for a free book on Father's Day. This year they only gave 50% (bummer) and they completely changed their format for creating photo books. It was not user friendly at all, so I switched to Snapfish. It was super easy and I finished his 2nd year photo book in like 2 days! He loves looking through the books we have at home and seeing pictures of him as a baby and in Mommy's belly! I think he'll really appreciate having them someday. Plus it's a great way to store photos in an organized/uncluttered way. Now I need to work on Kennedy's album. Hard to believe that in 4 short months she will be a year old!

Down:

• Jackson has been a total hellion this week. That word is actually probably an understatement. In addition to waking up between 5-5:30 every morning (which he's been doing since K was born) he is deliberately doing things he knows are wrong and watching to see how we react to them. He was in the refrigerator messing with the food and Mike went in there to discipline him; meanwhile Kennedy noticed Daddy's unattended coffee on the end table and decided to dump it all over the white carpet/couch here. Thankfully she didn't burn herself. I blame Mike partially for that one not just Jackson getting into the fridge. He's also been pulling off his diapers, he peed in our bed, oh the list goes on and on. No amount of discipline seems to help. We've tried time-out, spanking, putting him to bed, taking away his blankie, everything. I hope these years pass very quickly and that Kennedy doesn't learn these same tricks. 

Kennedy loves her some goldfish. It's amazing how much she can eat with just two teeth!

I thought this was so cute. Both kids went into the bathroom to watch Daddy shave.

Jackson at the bowling alley. He preceded to run out of the bowling alley and around the building while Mike and I were bowling our turns. Thankfully one of the other guys caught him just as his kid was following JP out of the building. Uh, what are we going to do with him!

Adorable little kid bowling shoes!

Kennedy absolutely loves cuddling with Daddy!

Jackson felt left out of the pic.

Pretty girl!

Jackson playing dress up with Daddy's cover. He put it on and said I've got to go fly planes now!

Favorite Thing:

Seems like there is always a never ending pile of dishes to be washed and a large portion of them are hand wash only. To avoid getting super dry/cracked hands I use dish gloves. This is a set my Aunt Marva gave me a few years ago. They've lasted really well and also protect my hands from the hot water. Plus they make a fashion statement! They are a brand called Gloveables, but you can also buy similar products at Bed Bath & Beyond and World Market. Even Playtex has some dish gloves in cute colors available at the grocery store. They also make great gifts too. If you live in Mountain Home, they sell the Gloveables brand at the Save-on Pharmacy. When I'm finished doing dishes, I hang my gloves on an over the cabinet towel rack to dry out. 

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Independence Day!

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down 2012 #26

Up:

• Our little girl turned 8 months old on Tuesday. She is seriously the happiest little girl. Hard to believe she ever had colic looking at her now. She loves following her big brother around and wants so badly to keep up with him. Earlier this week Jackson ran in my room to tell me that Kennedy had spilled his fruit loops. I go in the kitchen and there she is with the biggest smile on her face, two fruit loops in her mouth and one in her hand! What a cutie!

I forgot the teddy bear, so no size comparison this month or next.

Rare to catch her without a smile. Beautiful!

Brother had to get involved!

Showing off her new skill - waving!

My little mess, into anything she can get her hands on!

• The Montgomery Zoo hosted a Military Appreciation Day on Thursday. All military got in for free, received a free train ride and had a free lunch catered by Dream Land Barbecue. I loaded up  the kids and met a couple of other spouses and their kids. This was Jackson's first visit to the zoo. I think he enjoyed seeing all the animals we read about. He also took his first train ride. While on the train ride we saw some monkeys climbing on a tree. Everyone kept talking about how cute these monkeys were and my son sees the well landscaped lawn and says...a golf course! Guess we aren't quite old enough to fully appreciate the zoo yet, but it still made for a fun day. Kennedy also enjoyed the fresh air!

Jackson and his new friend Alex playing on the playground at the zoo.

Kennedy loves to swing!

Checking out the giraffe!

First train ride! Anytime Jackson hears a train he says, "Choo Choo Soul with Genevive!" from the Disney Channel!

• It is so neat to listen to the way Jackson's brain processes things. He's such a smart kid and I love hearing anything he has to say. Here are some examples:
• We dropped Mike off at work this week and Jackson saw another guy in a flight suit and says, " look Mommy, there is another daddy." Then he looked around even more and saw a whole lot of guys in flight suits and said, " there are a lot of daddies here!"
• I came home from Target last night and Jackson spotted the splash bombs I bought for him to play with in the pool. He comes running up saying, "a prize, a prize. Good Job Mommy!"
• Last night when we said our nighttime prayers Mike asked Jackson to tell Jesus thank you for something. Jackson said, "Thank you Jesus for balls. I want to play ball with Jesus!"

• One of the guys in Mike's class has a 17 year old daughter and we employed her to watch the kids while we went on a date yesterday. There really isn't much showing right now that we wanted to see, but we saw Rock of Ages. It was actually pretty funny despite some weird unnecessary parts. Then we hit up a few shops before heading home. I was able to get some Christmas wall flowers from Bath & Body Works for 32 cents each! What a great day!

As soon as I put Kennedy's swimsuit on, Jackson says," Oh, Kennedy, you're a princess!"

Lovin' the water!

Jackson's decided maybe he does like to swim. Our apartment has a 1ft. wading pool that's just his size!

Down:

• Somehow the kids and I picked up a nasty cough/cold. We all sound like chain smokers. Thankfully, I think we are getting better and Mike hasn't gotten it (yet)! The worst part about it was not being able to taste food for a couple of days. It just takes the joy out of eating.
• Mike's schedule hasn't exactly been what we expected. We were hoping for a lot of family time, but he has had so much homework to do that family time is just on the weekends and even that gets cut short for homework too. I know he's here to work, but a little bit of play time wouldn't hurt!

Favorite Thing:

A couple of weeks ago I broke down and bought a harness for Jackson. It is just too hard chasing after him while holding Kennedy too. He also loves to run into the street which scares me to death. It honestly was the best investment and I think I've already sold a few others on the idea as well. Totally worth any and all ridicule that you might incur. It also came with some attachment straps that we used to keep him in his seat at the pizza joint - bonus! I really like the kind we purchased, it's called a Baby Buddy.

This shows how we attached it to the chair at the pizza place.

Driving a boat at Bass Pro Shop!

He doesn't mind wearing it at all which helps!

More fun at Bass Pro Shop, definitely needed him on a tight leash in there!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #25

Up:

• I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day weekend! We certainly did! We went to Columbus, Mississippi to visit friends. Mike went to high school there and has maintained a great relationship with a family that used to live down the street from them, The Sykes. They are such great people and it was a joy to get to see them again. Hard to believe that their oldest son will graduate from high school next year! We also were able to see our good friends that were in training with Mike at Pensacola, Jenn & Adam Mattheis at their daughter Ella's 2nd bday party. It was our first time meeting Ella and she is such a cutie. Hope to see them again soon. Unfortunately there was no time to snap many photos and this is all I have.

Jackson and Pam were playing with water balloons outside while Kat was dressing Kenndy up inside!

Check out my new accessory!

• I have become addicted to the app 'Words with Friends' on my iphone! I've always had a love for Scrabble, so my Mom convinced me to download the app. I think she just wanted to enjoy beating me because she rarely did at Scrabble. Even though she pretty much beats me every game, the good news is the score is getting closer. That must mean my mind is getting sharper - right?! Anyway, it's a lot of fun to play, so feel free to hit me up for a game if you play too! Oh, I also got Mike to join too which is pretty big because he's not really into apps, technology, etc.!

Down:

• I am SOOO sleep deprived. I think I've mentioned it before, but Jackson has started waking up around 5:30ish now. Kennedy has always gotten up early for a morning bottle, but then goes back to sleep until like 8-8:30. JP used to sleep 'til like 7:30, but those days are long gone. I've always been a morning person, but to me morning is like 7, not 5:30. I guess I need to go to bed even earlier now because I'm just dragging all the time from being so tired. I also feel the need to eat lunch at 9:30 in the morning because I'm up so early so it's done something weird to my internal eating alarm clock!
• On our way to Columbus, MS (it's like a 3.5 hour drive) Jackson decided to stick his hand in his mouth. His fingers apparently went too far in and he vomited all over himself. It was the most disgusting curdled milk smell ever. Luckily we were less than a mile away from a gas station. We changed his clothes and managed to get it all cleaned off, but Mike and I couldn't get the smell off our hands. We stopped at two different gas stations to wash our hands before we ever arrived. It was so gross - sorry I had to share because it was a definite down in my week! Thankfully Pam let us use her washer and everything is back to smelling fresh as a daisy. I also think Jackson scared himself enough that he won't be doing that anymore!

Favorite Thing:

For the past few months I have been ordering greeting cards from  cardstore.com. It is a fabulous website with a large variety of cards that you can personalize and even add pictures. The best part is the price. The cards generally run around $2.99 (which is equal to or cheaper than the cards in the store) and they are mailed direct to you free of charge or to the recipient if you want to pay for the stamp. They can address the envelope too. Once you join they start sending you special offers too for free or discounted cards. I can't take full credit for this one; we started receiving cards from my sister-in-law, Laura, from this site, so I had to check it out! I don't have any pics of the cards I've made, but wanted to share with you the pics I used in my father-in-law's Father's Day card...

Here is Mike with his Dad when he was little. Look at his cute curls!

Jackson with Mike now. Wish JP would have cooperated to get a closer picture.

Ok, so I didn't use this one, but had to throw it up there too. This is a pic of me mowing with my Dad when I was little!

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 2012 #23/24

So I realize that I am behind on my blog, but I promise I have a good excuse! A piece of my computer charger stayed in the plug at my parents house and I didn't get it back in the mail until Friday. Yes, I suppose I could have written a post from my iphone, but that would have taken way too long and ruined my eyesight even more!

Up:

• We made it to Montgomery, Alabama! After 42 hours worth of driving we are here and the kids did so wonderful! I couldn't ask for better travelers! We are settled into our furnished apartment that we'll be staying in the next two months and it is working out so well. Honestly the apartment is nicer than our house and a much better layout to have with kids. Kennedy might not agree though as her bedroom is the Master closet, but it's still pretty spacious! We also have a playground, tennis court, walking trails, awesome pool with kid's wading pool, lake with ducks to feed and a car care center!
• We had such a great time in The Woodlands with Mike's parents and sister's family. It was a short day and a half crammed full of fun and we'll definitely spend some more time with them on our way back home in August. It's so neat to see the cousins play together and Christmas is going to be a blast this year when all the cousins will be together (that will be 7 cousins all under the age of 5)!

Hanging out at the splash pad on a hot summer day. Jackson wants nothing to do with the water!

• Kennedy just started crawling a few days before we started our journey and just like her brother, she is now pulling up on everything and scaling along things too. She may be a '10 month walker' like Jackson was, who knows?!

This pic is slightly blurry, but you can definitely tell that our big girl pulled up on her own!

So happy to be out of the car and playing with her toys!

• My Jackson boy is so precious! He says some of the sweetest things and just makes your heart melt. Here is his rendition of You Are My Sunshine:

Down:

• I really wish I could have just packed up our kitchen and taken it with us. There are so many items I wish I had with us for some of our summer favorites: blender, ice cream maker, slow cooker (yes, I realize that's more of a winter item, but you can make pulled pork etc. too), spices, muffin tins, etc. I don't really want to go out and buy stuff we already have at home, but I might have to just so we don't miss out. Either that or just cram it into the few remaining hot days we have in Idaho once we return home!
• Can't complain too much because I've wanted to be in warmer country for a long time now, but man you do forget how that humidity feels! Next must have purchase is going to be a windshield cover for the van - leather seats and shorts do not mix!

Favorite Thing:

Leap Frog products! If you have a toddler, these products are well worth the investment! My Aunt Georgann gave Jackson this Good Night Scout book for Christmas and we've literally used it every night since then. Jackson can just turn the page and it reads aloud to him and it also plays lullaby music. We bought him the Hide and Seek at the Farm book for the road trip. We also have the fridge farm and alphabet which have been a big hit with both kids and every kid that comes over too! The DVDs have been the biggest hit. We have Numberland, Letter Factory, and Phonics Farm. They teach kids about the letters, sounds and numbers. Jackson's favorite is Numberland and he goes around singing the songs all the time. The best part is that I know he's learning from them. For example, you can point to a letter and he can tell you what it is and the sound it makes. Not many two year olds can do that. I know that 'the experts' say TV is bad for children, but I disagree and think these were great purchases! There are a lot of other Leap Frog products that I want to try, but I think we'll wait for Christmas to invest in them.