Best Buds

I snapped this picture yesterday afternoon with my cell phone. It was after church in our church dining hall, and we were trying to figure out where we were going to go eat for lunch. Jackson and my nephew Mason (who are only 12 days apart) were standing at the door, looking outside. :-) It was so cute!

I'm linking up here:

and here:

Show & Tell: Baby Talk

I'm linking up with Becky today from: From Mrs. to Mama for Show and Tell Monday. This weeks topic is Baby Talk.

1. Tell us your favorite baby names? Aside from your own babies, if you have some :)

My favorite girl name is Lily. If I had my way and we ever had a little girl, her name would be Lily Rose. One of my great-grandma's names was Lillian and another was Rose, so thats where I came up with the name Lily Rose. Of course, Jake doesn't like this name so we agreed if we ever did have a girl we would name her Lyla. We're not sure on a middle name yet but it will probably be Rose. Doesn't Lyla sound an awful lot like Lily?? Jake thinks Lily is an old ladies name, LOL. What does he know! I also like the names Hailee, Rylee, Savannah, Hadlee and Harper and honestly so many more. I feel like girl names are a lot easier to pick out than boy names.

As far as boy names go, I love the name Jackson, obviously. Jake and I had that name picked out for a boy for a long time before we ever got pregnant. And I also love the name Thomas (which is Jackson's middle name and was my great-grandpa's name). I love these names so much that I've even thought about if we had another boy naming him Thomas Jackson, joking of course but I really do love these 2 names.  I also really like the name Klay (which is my Papa's middle name) and I like the name Max. 

 2. Show me your "dream" nursery {can be your baby's nursery or one that you love}

 3. How many children would you like to have? How far apart?

We plan on having 2 children. I would love to have a boy and a girl about 3 years apart. I would love for Jackson to be potty trained before having a second child. I just feel like that would make things a little easier. :-)

4. Tell us what you think the importance of parenting is?

I'm so new to parenting that I'm not even sure how to answer this question. There are so many important things that go into being a parent and I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong way to parenting. I mean every child is different so what works for one child may not work for another. I guess the most important thing would be to love them and be their biggest fan. Let them know that you support them and will be there for them.

5. Show us your favorite newborn photo {can be your children or random}

One of Jackson's newborn photos.

 6.  Tell us some things you promise to never do as a parent {and if you are a parent, did you stick to it}

 
I said I would never let my baby "cry it out" and have actually taken my pediatrician's advice and let Jackson cry it out during the night. He was waking up multiple times a night to eat and at his age, the Dr. said he should be sleeping 8 hours without a bottle. So I set a limit of only 15 minutes and he's never went past that. It only took about 3 nights of him crying for 10 or 15 minutes and now he's only waking up once a night for a bottle, usually around the 8 hour mark. 

P.S. Don't forget to link up with Holly and I tomorrow for our "A Day in the Life" link up! 

<a href="http://luvinmylabs.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z468/suit1/linkupbutton.jpg" alt="linkup" width="295" height="295" /></a> <br />

Jackson's 45 Week Pictures!

Jackson actually turned 45 weeks old last Thursday, I'm a little late getting this post out. :-(

He was not very cooperative when it came time to take his picture this week. So I only got this one picture. LOL.

Jackson is doing great. He still has 7 teeth. Still eating 6 ounce bottles, baby food and some table food. He had some noodles out of my chicken noodle soup last night. :-) He's clapping his hands and saying yay when he claps. If we clap and say yay Jackson, he will clap too. :-) He also waves bye bye now. :-) 

He's had a real runny nose this week and a little bit of a cough. He doesn't seem like he's not feeling well, so I wonder if maybe he might be getting ready to cut another tooth. :-(

As I say every week lately, he's running around like crazy and getting into everything he can. He's constantly on the go, but we're having so much fun with him. He's so sweet. When we're lucky he will give us hugs and lay his head on our shoulder and say awww! Its so sweet. He will give kisses too when he's in the mood. We have to get them while we can cause they're few and far between. 

We love you Jackson!!

New Blog Design

So, I've been wanting to change my blog design up for a while now and finally got around to it. I LOVE the way it turned out. I'm really loving chevron these days and I just loved this colorful pattern!

What do you guys think?

Embrace the Camera

Before I get to Embrace the Camera today, I wanted to tell you more about our blog link up next Tuesday. 

As I mentioned yesterday, Holly and I are going to be doing a blog link up next Tuesday! We are really excited about it and I hope you will all participate! The topic is "A Day in the Life". We thought it would be fun to get to know each other a little better by posting about what each of us do in a typical week day. You can post pictures of your day to day activities to give us more of a visual look into your daily routine. It should be a really fun link up. I definitely encourage you to join in the fun and get to know some new blog friends! :-) If your unsure how a link-up works, my friend Holly has posted a tutorial on her blog today, so be sure and check that out.

Here is the button for our link up. We would love for you to add this to your post and encourage others to join in the fun.

<a href="http://luvinmylabs.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z468/suit1/linkupbutton.jpg" alt="linkup" width="295" height="295" /></a> <br />

So now onto Embrace the Camera. :-)

  
Embrace the Camera is where you'll take a picture of YOU with your kids, spouse, friends, etc. The point of embrace the camera is to get in front of the camera and to document a bit of yourself.

I set up my camera last night and took several pictures of Jackson and I. I love these pictures I have with him and I hope he'll love them too someday. :-)

I'm also linking up here:

and here:

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

♥ Today I'm loving that I finally bought a new ESV Bible! I ordered it on Amazon and am awaiting its arrival. I have an NIV version, however our church now reads out of the ESV version and I had really needed to buy a new bible to make it easier to follow along. I love the color. :-)

♥ I'm loving that I created what I think is going to be Jackson's 1st birthday party invitation. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. :-) What do you guys think?

♥ I'm loving that Holly and I have decided to host another blog link-up. We thought it would be fun to get to know all of our blog friends a little better by doing a "day in the life" post, documenting our average week day. I'm so excited. :-) Be sure to come back next Tuesday and link up with us. Her husband is going to make us a fun button for the link up so you will be able to add that to your post. Speaking of her husband, he just re-did her blog and it looks great. You should check it out. He's offering his services if any of you are interested in a new blog design.

♥ I'm loving that Fall is just around the corner. Though, I'm sad to see Summer coming to an end, I do enjoy Fall and am excited to take Jackson apple picking and to the pumpkin farm and to enjoy spending time with family.

♥ I'm loving that my sweet Libby girl is feeling better now that shes on medication. I took her to the vet a couple weeks ago because she had been limping on her back leg. Come to find out, she has arthritis at only 7 years old. The Dr. put her on Rimadyl and its made a huge difference.

Libby at the Vet a couple weeks ago.

♥ I'm loving this video of Jackson. I know I posted it yesterday, but its just so stinkin cute!!!

♥ I'm loving this new toothpaste. I haven't noticed that its made my teeth whiter, but it leaves them feeling so nice and clean.

♥ And as always, I'm loving my wonderful family. ☺

Our Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was very layed back this year. We didn't do a whole lot, which is kinda nice sometimes.

Friday evening we just hung out at home. The remains of Hurricane Isaac came through St. Louis over the weekend, (which is weird to say that we had a hurricane in St. Louis) so the whole weekend was pretty soggy. Jake fixed dinner and we just relaxed at home. 

Saturday was much of the same. We just spent the day at home, doing some cleaning and snuggling with my sweet little boy. :-) I even got to take about a 2 1/2 hour nap! Yay. Jackson started getting sleepy at around 11 that morning, so we both cuddled up in bed and took a long nap. It was the perfect day for it since it was so rainy. 

Jackson and I hanging out at home Saturday.

Sunday we went to church and then after church we had food and fellowship in the church dining hall, which is always fun. :-) Later that evening we went to my MIL's house for dinner and to get caught back up on So You Think You Can Dance. :-)

Then yesterday Jake golfed with my Dad, so my mom and I went and did some shopping!! I needed to get started on buying some things for Jackson's 1st birthday party! I was able to get all the scrapbook paper I'll need to make his banners and decorations. I also got a couple tablecloths for the kids table and some little mickey mouse clubhouse cups for the kids. I also found the red and black tissue paper I'll need to make some pom poms for over the cake table, but I was unable to find some yellow tissue paper. I wouldn't think that would be a hard color to find, but I looked at 2 different stores and neither one had it. I'll have to keep looking. :-) I also got some tulle to tie his banner together and for anything else I might need it for. So I feel pretty good about getting a head start on some things for his party. :-)

Then yesterday evening we just hung out at home. While watching an episode of Backyardigans with Jackson, he started cracking up laughing at one of the characters on the show. It was so cute that I rewound it and videoed him so you all could see how cute it was. I must have rewound it about 5 or 6 times, just because it was so cute! He would laugh so hard he would fall down on the floor. I've never seen him laugh at something on t.v. before. It was adorable.

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! Now it's back to work. :-(