Weekend Rewind

I'm linking up with Melissa @ Bless this Voignier Nest for Weekend Rewind.

As I mentioned on Friday, Jake, Jackson and I drove to Kansas City this past weekend for a wedding. Jake's mom, a family friend and his brothers and their wives came along as well. 

We stayed at the Kansas City Airport Marriott. This is where the whole family and wedding party stayed as well and also where the rehearsal dinner was.

The view from our hotel room.

We left home on Friday morning and got to the hotel late Friday afternoon. The rehearsal dinner started at 6, so once we freshened up, we headed down for that. It was a beautiful evening and the food was delicious. Here are a few pictures I took from that night.

This was of the cocktail hour before the dinner. The dinner was actually inside, but it was such a beautiful night that we spent a majority of the evening outside.

Grandma (Jake's Mom) holding Jackson. 

The view of the lake from the patio where the rehearsal dinner was.

Jackson having fun out in the grass.

Family picture at the rehearsal dinner.

Jackson and I.

After the rehearsal dinner was over, Jake and I took Jackson upstairs and put him to bed. Our room was right next door to his Mom's, where we all met up after dinner. We brought our monitors so we could hear if Jackson woke up. Jake's brothers and their wives met up with us in his mom's hotel room and we all hung out there for a while.

The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. After breakfast, we went and found a Wal-Mart because we needed to pick up a few things. Then we headed back to the hotel to take Jackson swimming. He enjoyed the pool very much!

After swimming, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for the wedding. The wedding/reception was held at the Weston Red Barn Farm.  It was super hot that evening, unfortunately, but the sky was clear and beautiful and the wedding was very pretty. It was a country/cowboy themed wedding. The attendants wore cowboy boots and we sat on bales of hay during the ceremony. The reception was in the barn on the farm. Here are some pictures.

The beautiful view during the ceremony.

Walking from the barn to where the ceremony took place.

The ceremony site.

They had their programs on fans and they had bottles of water for the guests because it was so hot out that day.

Pretty flowers lining the center aisle.

The view again.

Jackson during the ceremony.

The pastor, groom and groomsmen.

The bridesmaids. (Yes, she had 2 guys on her side)

The flower girl.

The brides father giving her away.

The bride and groom. 

Jackson playing with some straw during the ceremony. He was so good. ☺

The happy bride and groom. ♥

After the wedding ceremony, we walked back over to the barn for the reception. The barn was covered, but still open, so it was hot too. Thankfully there was a breeze and it was better as the sun went down. Here are some pictures from the reception.

The barn that the reception was in.

The front porch of the barn.

Around the property of the farm.

The barn all lit up inside.

Pictures of the bride and groom.

The sweets table.

Centerpieces on the tables.

The Smith Family at the reception. Down front its Amie and Larry (Jake's oldest brother and his wife), Pat and Liz (the middle brother and his wife), then Jake, Jackson and I above them and Jake's mom and Jim (a family friend) next to us.

Jake, Jackson and I outside at the reception.

"Uncle Jim" and Jackson. ☺

Jackson taking a little nap during the reception. So sweet. ♥

The Smith guys. Jake with his 2 brothers. 

The Smith girls (Me, Amie, my MIL Diane and Liz)

After the wedding, we headed back to the hotel. We put Jackson to sleep and then we all hung out in Jake's mom's room again. The next morning we all drove back to St. Louis, stopping for lunch in Richmond (the little town Jake was born in).

We had a great weekend! I hope you did as well! ☺

Our Weekend Plans

We are on our way to Kansas City this morning. We are going there for a wedding. Jake's cousin Jason is getting married and we are excited to help celebrate with him and his fiance Brittany.

The soon-to-be Bride and Groom

We will be coming back home on Sunday. It should be a fun little trip. We are taking Jackson along. This will be his first stay in a hotel and his first overnight trip. We've driven to Kansas City one other time with him, when he was a month old, but it was just for a short, day visit, with family. I'm hoping he does well. There will be plenty of family and activities to keep us busy and I'm sure he'll get lots and lots of love from everyone! This will be the first time some of Jake's family will ever meet Jackson! Thankfully he is good about letting anyone hold him. He doesn't know a stranger and I love that about him. 

So I'll be back Monday, to blog about the weekend and will probably have lots of pictures for you! I hope you all have a great weekend!

Jackson is 34 Weeks Old!

Jackson has another tooth coming through this week! Its his other bottom middle tooth. He hasn't seemed irritable or acted like its bothered him at all really. I wouldn't have even noticed it, but I just check periodically to see if he's getting anymore teeth. I first noticed it Tuesday, June 19th.

We also started trying to get him to fall asleep on his own this week. So far he is doing really well. Last night we put him in his crib after his night time routine and kisses and he only complained for a short while and then fell asleep. He didn't even really cry. He woke up a total of 3 times last night. The first time he woke up, I gave him a smaller bottle (4 ounces) and then layed him in his crib, awake, but tired and he went right to sleep on his own with no fussing at all. The second time he woke up I was able to just rock him back to sleep with no bottle. Then at around 5:40 a.m. he woke up again and I fed him a full 6 oz. bottle and layed him back in his crib awake, and he fell right back to sleep. I ended up having to wake him up a little after 7 to take him to my Mom's for the day, otherwise he probably would have slept later. Yesterday he didn't wake up for the day until around 9!! Sleeping on his belly seems to be his sleeping position of choice. Its really cute. As soon as I lay him in his crib, he rolls right over to his belly and usually sticks hit butt up in the air. ☺ I really need to get a picture of this.

He LOVES to eat!! If we are eating something, he comes right over to us and begs for what we're eating. Its really cute! Its almost impossible to say no!

He turned 8 months old yesterday! I can't believe he's already 8 months old! Time sure is flying by. He attended his first wedding last weekend and will attend another one this weekend. I hope he's as good at this one coming up as he was at last weekends. 

He went back to the Dr. on Monday for a re-check for his ears. They both had cleared up, thank goodness!!

Jackson is such a sweet boy. I can't kiss him and love on him enough!!

Our Weekend in Pictures

I finally got around to editing my photos today from our weekend. As I said on Friday, it was a busy one. 

Friday night we went to the Cardinals vs. Royals game at Busch Stadium. I ended up just taking my little point and shoot camera, however, I hadn't used it in a while and didn't realize that the battery was almost dead. :-( So I only got about 3 pictures with it. Thank goodness for phones with cameras!

Inside Busch Stadium.

My sweet boy at his first baseball game. He was not a fan of the loud clapping and cheering.

The Cardinals Dug-Out.

Having a cold one at the game. ☺

Busch Stadium with the Arch in the background.

Jackson at the game.

My little family of 3 at the game!

Then Saturday, we worked out in the yard and then Jackson and I went with my parents, my sister and her boys, to our cousin's wedding.

The Bride and Groom.

This is a picture of all of our cousins on my Dad's side of the family.
My cousin Brandi, my cousin Chelsey, my sister Ashlee holding her son Mason, myself and Jackson, my cousin Wesley (the groom), my cousin Brice holding his new baby Dallas, my sister's son Landon, Wesley's son Brayden and then Brandi's daughter Kinley.

Jackson sitting on his Great-Grandpa's lap. (My Dad's Dad)

Then Sunday was Father's Day! We went to church that morning where Jake won the prize for being the youngest dad! After church we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for appetizers. For some odd reason, we didn't get a lot of pictures that day, unfortunately. I didn't even really get a picture of Jake and Jackson together. :-( But these are some of the pictures I did take that day.

Mason and Jackson playing by the front door.

Jackson ♥

Jackson loves my Dad's giant cup.

The only picture I got of Jake and Jackson that day. 

Mason standing at the table with no hands!

The babies had a wrestling match, LOL. Jackson did not like being pinned down. Ha.

Where's Mason??

There he is!!

 My aunt Karla swinging Jackson. He loved it.

After hanging out at my Aunt and Uncles house, we all went to dinner and then Jake and I headed home for the evening. 

We had a great weekend! Looking forward to another great weekend coming up. We are heading to Kansas City on Friday morning to attend Jake's cousin's wedding. It must be wedding season!!

Trying Out Crying it Out

Have any of you mom's used this method or had trouble getting your babies to sleep at night? Jackson used to sleep great and fall asleep easy, but after his ear infection in late March, he started to get a lot harder to put to sleep. He is also still waking up 2 to 3 times a night to eat!!

Let me start by saying, the cry it out method was not ever something I was a fan of. I always felt like it was mean and I just couldn't stand the thought of letting Jackson cry. Its just natural to want to comfort your crying baby. But after standing up for an hour, holding and bouncing your 21 pound baby to try and get them to go to sleep, you become a little desperate.

We had been in the habit of giving him a bottle to soothe him to sleep, and though this works for him, it isn't helpful when its not really time for a bottle at bed time. I also don't want him to rely on a bottle to be able to fall asleep. We've waited to put him to bed later at night, thinking he would sleep better and longer, but for some reason this was doing the opposite and was just making him crabby in the evenings.

We made up our minds that we would not let him cry for any longer than 10 or 15 minutes. My heart just couldn't take much longer than that. Little did I know that when your baby is crying, even 5 minutes feels like an eternity. But we managed to give it the full amount of time, and surprisingly, that was all it took. We've tried this the last 2 nights and both nights he only cried/complained for around 10 or 15 minutes.  Thank Goodness! We also tried putting him to sleep earlier at night, which I read can help them sleep better and longer, and it really has.

The first night, Sunday night, I gave him a bottle a little before 8 o'clock, which is normally when he starts getting tired. It was actually time for a bottle and I expected him to go right to sleep, but he didn't. So I rocked him for a while and then stood up with him and bounced him for a while, none of which worked. He was just fighting it! So we decided it was a good night to try seeing how he would do if we just layed him in his crib, sang him a song and then stepped out of the room. 

He complained for about 10 minutes or so, crying only a little, and then we heard him talking to himself. He talked for close to 20 minutes. It was so sweet to hear him jabbering. Then we just heard silence.

I couldn't believe how well he did. He still woke up a couple of times that night, but I was able to get him back to sleep once without the bottle.  He then slept til 8 the next morning, which is pretty late for him as he normally is awake by 6 or 7!!

Then last night we tried again. He started getting tired at around 8:15, so I gave him a bath and let him play in there for a little while. After his bath I put his jammies on him and then layed him in his crib. I sang to him and rubbed his back and he layed there and acted like he might fall asleep real easy. I kissed him and then stepped out of the room. I didn't hear anything from him for close to 15 minutes or so, so I thought for sure he was asleep. Then he started crying. :-(  I don't know if he just woke up, or he never actually went to sleep in the first place. He cried for around 10 or 15 minutes again and then finally went to sleep.

He slept well, only waking up twice, and one of those times I was able to just hold him and comfort him back to sleep really easy. He was still asleep when I left for work this morning, which is rare these days.

So, this method seems to be working well for us so far. Even though its super hard for me, I know it will get easier and will be better for all of us in the long run. I also know their sleep patterns can change in an instant, but I'm hoping this continues to go well and we can eventually get him sleeping all night without waking up for a bottle and without any crying.

The Upcoming Weekend

This weekend, like most others, is jam packed.

Tonight we are taking Jackson to his first Baseball game. Its a Cardinals/Royals game at Busch Stadium. Jake is originally from Kansas City, so even though he moved here when he was like 3, he is still a tried and true Kansas City sports team fan. He's way more into Chiefs football than he is into Royals baseball, but when asked his favorite baseball team, its always the Royals. One of Jake's brothers and his family (who are actually Cardinals fans) and his mom are going with us. Jake's mom ordered Jackson a little Royals outfit and I am having him wear a Cardinals baseball cap. So he will be rooting for both teams until he can actually decide for himself. Ha! I will have pictures for you guys next week.

GO CARDINALS!!

Tomorrow, Jake and I plan to work out in the yard in the morning and then we are going to my cousin's wedding that evening.

Then Sunday is Jake's first Father's Day! We are going to church in the morning and then to my Aunt and Uncle's house that afternoon to celebrate Father's Day with all the men in my family. I believe we'll be swimming and going out for Chinese! Yum!

My 3 favorite Men!

Then Monday, I'm off work. So I plan to have my niece come over and play with Jackson, while I clean our house and steam clean the carpets. With Jackson crawling around now, I really need to get the carpets cleaned. 

So those are our plans for a jam packed weekend. Do any of you have a jam packed weekend planned or are you going to be spending your days off relaxing like I should be doing? Either way, I hope its great!  

Happy Friday!