Easter 2012

We had such a wonderful Easter this year. Jackson looked so cute in his little outfit. :-)

We started the day with giving Jackson his basket at home. Its kind of hard to put an Easter basket together without candy, but I got him some little Gerber Puffs and some yummy flavors of baby food. I also got him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse C.D. for us to listen to in the car. :-)

Then we went to church for breakfast and a beautiful morning service outside. After the morning service we had our regular Sunday service, followed by an Easter Egg Hunt outside. It was a beautiful day. The weather was PERFECT!!

The kids singing down front during our regular Sunday service.

Jackson outside for the Easter Egg Hunt. He loved playing with the eggs.

Daddy helping Jackson with his bag of eggs. He loved his bag of eggs and wouldn't let go of it. Ha.

After church we took some family pictures. This is a tradition that we do every year.

Our little family of 3! ♥

My parents with their grandchildren. ☺

My Uncle Mark and Aunt Karla with their 2 boys Tyler and Travis and Travis' girlfriend, Nadine.

My Mom with her Dad and brother.

The boys... Mason, Landon and Jackson.

During our little photo shoot, we had to take a short break for a bottle. ☺

Jackson is getting better and better at holding his own bottle.

After church we went to the graveyard to visit Grammy. It was the Thursday before Easter, last year, that she passed away. My Papa Reg had bought a pretty hummingbird to put on the tombstone next to her name. :-) I miss her so much, especially during the holidays. I wish so much that she was here to see Jackson. I just know she would have loved him so much and he would have loved her too. 

After visiting Grammy, we went to my Great Uncle Don and Great Aunt Judy's house for lunch. We had a great time visiting with family. ☺

My aunt Lisa made these lamb cakes covered in marshmallows. They were really cute. Landon enjoying a lamb.

My sister had this cute bunny hat that Landon wore for his first Easter. We took some pictures of Mason and Jackson in the hat and their cute little Easter outfits.

I just love Mason's smile! So cute.

My 2 boys relaxing after lunch. ♥

My sweet boy on his first Easter.

Jackson and I. He was not thrilled with taking pictures at this point.

Daddy getting Jackson to laugh. I just adore that smile!

Jackson eying a few glasses of soda on the table. He looks so big in this picture. ☺

We had a great Easter. I hope you all did as well!

Jackson is 24 Weeks Old!

Jackson turned 24 weeks old this past Thursday. 

He is getting so big and is such a happy baby! I just hate leaving him in the mornings because he's always so happy and fun. 

He's started rolling his hands like we do in Patty Cake. He'll "roll it up" with his hands. Its way cute!!

He had a great first Easter. He looked so cute in his little outfit and hat. A post on that is following shortly. :-)

We started him on Enfamil AR to try and see if that would help with the spit up. I had heard that this formula really worked for spitting up, but that it could be constipating for some babies, so I was hesitant to try it and just bought it this week as a last resort. I'm pleased to say that no other formula or even the Zantac has helped as much as the Enfamil AR has so far. I'm loving it!! I'm also pleased to say that there have not been any constipation issues! Yay! We just started it last Friday, so we're still in trial mode, but so far its working great. He still spits up on occasion but its only about 3 or 4 times a day as opposed to so many times I would lose count. Its also almost always shortly after a bottle. Before he would spit up from the time he took a bottle to 3 and 4 hours later. I almost hate to get my hopes up, but so far this new formula is working like a charm. :-)

I was off work yesterday, so I decided to take him into work to show him off to my co-workers. He hadn't been in to see them since he was around 6 weeks old. He was such a little charmer. He smiled for all of them and was so happy while we were there. I dressed him in his little "tie" onesie so he'd be dressed for the office. :-) My co-workers got a kick out of it.

Good Friday

I took the above picture while we were on our honeymoon in Maui. I saw this while we were in Hana. It always makes me think of the day Jesus was crucified because the sky is so dark and cloudy. 

My aunt posted this poem on Facebook this morning. It makes you stop and think about what Jesus did for us on that dreadful day. So I thought I'd share it here on my blog. 

 

On that wretched day the soldiers mocked him,

Raucous laughter in a barracks room,

"Hail the king!" they sneered, while spitting on him,

Brutal beatings on this day of gloom.

Though his crown was thorn, he was born a king—

Holy brilliance bathed in bleeding loss—

All the soldiers blind to this stunning theme:

Jesus reigning from a cursed cross.

Awful weakness mars the battered God-man,

Far too broken now to hoist the beam.

Soldiers strip him bare and pound the nails in,

Watch him hanging on the cruel tree.

God's own temple's down! He has been destroyed!

Death's remains are laid in rock and sod.

But the temple rises in God's wise ploy:

Our great temple is the Son of God.

"Here's the One who says he cares for others,

One who says he came to save the lost.

How can we believe that he saves others

When he can't get off that bloody cross?

Let him save himself! Let him come down now!"—

Savage jeering at the King's disgrace.

But by hanging there is precisely how

Christ saves others as the King of grace.

Draped in darkness, utterly rejected,

Crying, "Why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus bears God's wrath alone, dejected—

Weeps the bitt'rest tears instead of me.

All the mockers cry, "He has lost his trust!

He's defeated by hypocrisy!"

But with faith's resolve, Jesus knows he must

Do God's will and swallow death for me.

Embrace the Camera

I ran across this link up from one of the blogs I follow and decided to give it a whirl. The idea behind "embrace the camera" is to get in your pictures with your family for a change. As moms, we tend to always be the picture taker, but are rarely in the pictures ourselves. I love this idea and actually took a few pictures of Jackson and I just the other day. I'm not looking very cute so I didn't ever post them, but decided to go ahead since someday they will be fun to look back on for both Jackson and I. (I did all my photo editing with Pic Monkey... I love this picture editing website.)

What I'm Loving Wednesday

♥ I'm loving that Jackson is feeling much better and taking all his bottles and binkie again! I'd been so worried about him and I am so relieved that he's feeling better.

♥ I'm loving that my cousin Brice and his girlfriend Christina welcomed their little baby boy into the world this morning. My cousin is a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan and so they named their baby Dallas. They live about an hour and a half away so I won't get to meet Dallas for a couple weeks, but here's a picture that they posted on Facebook today. I can't wait to hold him.

♥ I'm loving that its Cardinals opening day today and that means we're having a food day at work!! Lots and lots of yummy food.

 ♥ I'm loving that Easter is Sunday and I get to spend the day with my family!! 

♥ I'm loving that Jake and I might go see a movie this Saturday. Its been since Valentines Day weekend that we've gone to see a movie. We're thinking we'll probably go see 21 Jump Street. The previews look pretty funny and it has Channing Tatum in it... need I say more?

♥ And as always I'm loving my super fabulous family.

Jackson is 23 Weeks Old!

I'm very late posting this, but Jackson turned 23 weeks old last Thursday.

This past week we tried many new foods because he wouldn't take his bottle due to an ear infection. We tried oatmeal, peaches, pears, applesauce, and green beans. It took him a little while to come around to the fruits, but he did end up liking them. He's still not too sure about the green beans yet.

He's rolling all around now and is really pushing off on his feet to try and crawl. He was pulling on his play-mat and moved forward just a couple inches so he's definitely close to army crawling.

His core is getting really strong and he's sitting supported very well. If he had better balance he would be sitting unsupported very well. He just can't seem to stay upright, but definitely has the strength to do it.

He's wanting to roll over no matter where he is now. In his swing, bouncy seat, bed, everywhere! So we have to strap him in now if he's in some kind of seat. :-)

He laughs at everything. He thinks Daddy is especially funny, but he will laugh at almost anyone or anything. He has such a cute laugh, very contagious. I love it!

He is really starting to notice the dogs and cat. He really likes it when the cat jumps up by him and meows. He will talk back to the cat. Its super cute. He also likes when Max comes over and gives him kisses. :-)

At the Dr. the other day he weighed 18 pounds 4 ounces!! He's a big boy for only 5 months old. :-) I love his chubby cheeks and the rolls in his legs. So cute!

A visit with the Easter Bunny!

First off, let me start by saying that Jackson is doing so much better, thank goodness! I was so worried over the weekend and its a huge relief to know he's feeling better. He's taken several bottles in the last day and a half so I think things are getting back to normal. I was starting to worry that was never going to happen.

We took Jackson to visit the Easter Bunny yesterday evening. We got there right as they were closing. Who knew the bunny left before the mall closed. :-( But I begged and thought I might have to shed a tear, but they were nice and stayed open just for us. :-)

Jackson LOVED the Easter bunny. I was so happy. I thought he might be scared but he definitely was not. He went right to him and just smiled and laughed the whole time he sat on his lap. She got lots of great pictures of him smiling. :-)

After he was done taking pictures, I turned him around so he could see the bunny and he smiled and reached out for the bunny's paws and wouldn't let go. It was SO cute!!

Here's the picture we chose. Its funny because he looks like he has red hair in this picture. In some lights his hair does have a strawberry blonde tint to it. :-)

Happy Easter!!