Jackson turns 4!

Jackson celebrated his 4th birthday on April 3rd! Mike had to work on Jackson's actual birthday so we celebrated the night before.  Jackson is still in love with all things Cars, but over the last year has really gotten into Toy Story as well.  Most of the gifts he got are Toy Story and Cars!
On Jackson's actual birthday he took cupcakes to school and celebrated with his classmates. After school we  played outside and then our neighbors, Casey and her son Danny, went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. Of course the one day we choose to go there for dinner they have half the restaurant roped off with black table cloths and the play place is closed. Jackson and Danny had fun playing at home after dinner though.
Jackson had a great birthday and I love watching him grow a little more everyday! Thanks everyone who helped make his day special!

Opening gifts over FaceTime...the next best thing!

Singing to the birthday boy!

Trying on his new Buzz costume while Kennedy wears the old one. 

Second Half of March

Thumbs Up:

• Jackson's school had a pajama day and pancake lunch on St. Patrick's Day. He's still talking about how cool it was to wear his pjs to school!
• FROZEN came out on DVD and thanks to Pinkie and Pa we are now proud owners. The kids have watched it as much as possible since it came out! 
• Kennedy is officially registered for 'school' twice a week starting in the fall. I took the paperwork into the church where the school is located and didn't think I was going to get Kennedy out. She was so excited to look at everything and wanted to stay and play. I think she's going to love it!
• Jackson and Mike enjoyed two weekends in a row of golf outings while Kennedy and I went on mother/daughter shopping dates. I think we all had a great time. 
• With Mike super busy with his instructor upgrade and now masters classes, the kids and I have tried to stay out of his hair. I took them to the circus on Wednesday. They had a great time and Jackson was even brave enough to ride the elephant and pony. Kennedy was not as adventurous, but still had fun watching it all.
• I've been wrapping presents this afternoon for Jackson's birthday next week. Can't believe my little guy is turning 4! It really does go by so fast. 

Thumbs Down:

• While it's definitely a good thing that Kennedy is very independent, recently it's been getting out of hand. She literally goes behind me and will turn off the light I just turned on so that she can do it herself. We've been working on potty training (sometimes) and she won't let me put her on the potty or undress her. If you pick her up and put her in bed, she will immediately get down and put herself in bed. It's downright exhausting. We're both learning to compromise a little so that I don't get frustrated, but she can still show her independent side. 
• Both kids have been very resistant to nap time recently. Kennedy would nap much better if I could put her down earlier, but we don't pick up Jackson from school until 1pm, so they usually don't go down until at least 1:30.  Jackson is hit or miss on nap time. Some days he naps for 2 hours and others he doesn't nap at all. At least he has learned the art of playing quietly in his room while Kennedy finishes her nap. The past couple of days I've had to sit on the stairs to keep an eye out and make sure that they stay in their rooms and at least try to take a nap.

Daddy dressed Jackson for church and when he came downstairs we discovered we were twins!

Sibling Love!

Jackson wanted to take our picture too, he's been into photography recently!

Sporting green for my body pump class on St. Pat's!

Jackson's rendition of Sully from Monster's University.

K had to show off her coloring too!

Kennedy has figured out how to hitch a ride with Jackson!

Shopping day!

Kennedy faired pretty well after our shopping!

Then I treated her to her first pedicure! Jackson was my fabulous photographer.

She didn't want to take a bath or put on socks and shoes because she thought the paint would go away.

There's the great photographer!

and dancer...

Circus!

Not a great picture, but this crazy girl was attached to the string by her hair - ouch!

The $8 elephant ride that lasted 1 minute!

Pony ride!

Favorite Things:
Living Room - Home of Mike's prize possession, his fabulous 70" TV.  I love our fireplace even though we haven't hooked up the gas yet!

Beginning of March

Thumbs Up:

• I haven't posted in a while because we've been busy enjoying the fabulous weather! After lots of snow, ice, and rain, we've finally got sunshine and we're soaking up every minute of it! I'm even typing this outside from the screened in porch while the kids are napping! BEAUTIFUL day!
• With warmer temps we're getting pretty excited about our upcoming garden! Mike's gotten a little too excited and has already transplanted everything. Not quite sure we're over the freezes yet, but we can always buy some sheets to cover everything. Kennedy decided to pull up the labels out of the garden bed though, so guess we'll have to wait and see what everything is after it fruits!
• Met our soon to be new neighbors yesterday. They have a little 5 year old boy that already gets along great with Jackson. I see many play dates in our future! This whole neighborhood is filling up really fast and most of them have young kids like us! The best part is that there are only a few houses left to be finished before the construction is completed! I'm ready to be finished with all the noise, noise, noise!
• I absolutely love being Catholic and the way we celebrate Lent. This year I've decided to give up gaming on my iPad which consumes any free time I have usually! In place of that time I'm spending a little more time in prayer with God and it's been great. Mike gave up drinking and dipping which is huge and a lot of my prayer is focused on that and that he sticks with it! 

Thumbs Down:

• Mike is starting back his Master's classes on the 24th and it is just kind of looming over our heads. He has to take 2 classes this semester, 3 the next and 1 in the last semester to finish before Major boards at the end of the year. It has to be done, but between finishing up the i-course and these classes we won't be seeing much of Mike for a while. 
• Time change - enough said!

Pics from the last couple of weeks:

We live 'door to gate' 7 minutes from Cliffs of the Neuse State Park and decided to walk the trails last weekend. Jackson kept asking where we were going, he didn't quite get the concept of just walking!

Jackson's big cheese!

And now he's pouting!

Kennedy just liked to leisurely walk and lag behind the rest of us!

I bought K a new pair of TOMS from Zulily the other day. They're too big, but they'll be so cute when they do fit!

Check out these huge blackberries! Jackson ate all of these (not at once)!

Favorite Things:

Kitchen - seriously my favorite room in the house. I love how open it is in the down stairs and that I can look out windows or watch TV in the living room or see the kids in the backyard while I'm cooking. There is a ton of storage space and plenty of countertop space!

This is my favorite little nook in the kitchen. Mike bought me the Kitchen Aid Mixer for  Christmas and my Mom gave me  (after much begging) this very special cookbook that used to be my Grandmother's.

Double Oven that we negotiated in before we bought the house!