Embrace the Camera

Its been a while since I embraced the camera, so I thought I would share this picture from over the weekend. My mom took it while we were at her house on Saturday. I was sitting on her couch and Jackson climbed up and sat next to me to watch t.v. ☺ He can be so sweet sometimes and I'm glad we were able to capture it. ☺

"You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow they will be a little bigger than they are today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today mama. It will be over before you know it." ~Jen Hatmaker

Linking up here: 

Easter 2013 - Part 2

I'm finishing out my Easter posts today with how we celebrated Easter Day. I'll warn you, there are a lot of pictures in this post. So many that I didn't even edit them all. 

It was such a beautiful day. I had heard that it was supposed to be nice, but I didn't really realize how nice it would be. It was in the mid 60's and sunny all day long! It doesn't get much better than that. It was perfect Egg Hunting weather and great for playing outside. 

That morning, we got up and got ready for church. As soon as we were ready, we gave Jackson his Easter Basket full of goodies. He enjoyed checking out all the stuff he got. He especially loved the Mickey Mouse Bubbles for outside. :-)

After that, we headed to church for breakfast and the morning service. After church, they had an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids out on the front lawn. Jackson had such a great time at the hunt. He did so good getting his eggs and putting them in his bag. ☺

After the Easter Egg Hunt, we attempted to take a few family photos. Jackson was not interested in stopping to smile. He wanted to continue running around outside. So these pictures were quite a challenge. I should probably share the outtakes at some point. They are quite funny.

Our little family of 3.

My parents, my sister and I with our families. ☺

After church, we headed to my Mother-In-Laws house for lunch and another Easter Egg Hunt. We had a great time with Jake's brother's and their families.

Jackson playing outside on the patio and playing with his cousin Larry. ☺

All the kids opening their Easter gifts from Grandma Diane. Jackson is the youngest of nine grand-kids on this side of the family. Its always fun when we all get together.

After a yummy lunch and presents, we went outside for an Easter Egg Hunt in the courtyard. ☺

After that, we headed to my parents house for dinner and a little family get-to-gether. I didn't take any pictures there, but we had a nice relaxing evening. My sister made lasagna and my mom made a carrot cake! My Papa Reg (My Mom's Dad) came over for dinner as well.

It was such a nice Easter. We all crashed when we got home that night. I was happy to have the day after Easter off work, so I was able to take it easy at home and get the house back in order.

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend!

Easter 2013 - Part 1

I took a ton of pictures Easter weekend, so I'm splitting my Easter posts up into 2 or 3 posts. Even with splitting them up, I have a lot of photos to share today. ☺

Saturday, Jackson and I met my sister and her boys over at my parents house to dye eggs. We had the whole afternoon planned with a scavenger hunt, an Easter color sheet, dying eggs and making bunny bait!

  

My sister found the scavenger hunt clues online. She just printed them out and hid them around the house. My sister's oldest, Landon (who is 5) was the only one that really could play along. Jackson and Mason didn't really get it, but it was a lot of fun for Landon. She had prizes hidden so that the last clue lead them to the prize that the Easter Bunny had left for them. ☺

 Here the boys are with their treat.

Then it was on to dying eggs. The little boys couldn't really do this either, so it was mostly Landon, mom  and my sister doing the dying and I gave the little boys a color sheet to color.

 I thought I'd give Jackson an egg and just see what he'd do with one. He, of course, destroyed it. LOL. I love his facial expression in the bottom right picture.

After dying eggs, we got busy making some bunny bait. I got the recipe from Darci's blog here. It is so yummy. I definitely recommend trying some. It was super easy too.

We had such a fun day!!

6 Days and Counting...

That's how long Jackson has gone without a bottle. I'm so happy we were able to get this accomplished before his 18 month check-up! At his last check-up, his Pediatrician said he needed to be weaned by 18 months. I was relieved to hear this as I thought most recommended 12 months. I thought, yay, I can put it off for 6 more months. ☺ Little did I know how attached to it he would get and that I should have probably started trying to wean him at 12 months. Oh well, live and learn right?

At 12 months he was down to 3 bottles a day. A morning bottle when he woke up, an afternoon bottle for nap time and then a night time bottle before bed. I dreaded trying to wean him from the "ba ba" because it was a comfort to him and settled him right down for naps and bed time. I wasn't sure how we were going to break him from it.

 My mom had pretty well stopped giving him the afternoon bottles recently, as he had been falling asleep on his own on his Mickey Mouse couch in the living room. Hey, whatever works right? (That's actually where he is right now... asleep on his Mickey couch in the living room.) So we really just had the morning and nighttime bottles to worry about.

I started last Saturday morning by giving him a cup of milk in place of the bottle. I even warmed the milk up for him just as I did in his bottles, however, this was not received well at first and we even caved a few of times and gave him a bottle. Especially at night time. He would shake his head no at the cup and say "ba ba". It pretty much broke my heart. 

By Monday, we had pretty well broke him from the morning bottle. He was still asking for it, but had come around to the idea of a sippy cup of milk instead. (Thank goodness) 

Monday night I ended up giving him a bottle, but planned to put him in his crib right afterwards instead of rocking him to sleep like I normally did. My logic was, if I can get him to fall asleep on his own in his crib, maybe he won't rely on the bottle so much to help him fall asleep. So I gave him his bottle while sitting in the rocking chair in his room, just like we did every night, but afterwards I put him in his crib and turned on a night light we have that rotates pictures on the celieng. (Its built in to his noise machine.) He enjoyed looking at the pictures and actually didn't cry at all as I snuck out of the room. I thought it was probably just a coincidence and it could never be that easy. I couldn't believe he fell asleep that night on his own with NO crying!!

So Tuesday night, I did the same thing. He did cry that night when I left the room, but by the time I had walked into the kitchen he had already stopped crying. So all in all, he cried for less than a minute! I could handle that. ☺

Wed. night we were at my MIL's house and he fell asleep on the way home, so that was an easy night without a bottle. So that was day 1 with no bottle. Thursday night we were at my parents' house and he fell asleep on the way home from there, so that was day 2 without a bottle. Friday night we played outside and went to the mall, figuring he'd wear down and fall asleep on the way home that night, but no such luck. So when we got home I made him a cup of milk and we watched an episode of Mickey Mouse clubhouse. After he drank his milk and watched his show, I took him in his room to rock him to sleep, but he just wouldn't be still, so I put him in his crib, gave him a kiss and told him I loved him and walked out of the room. He stopped crying as soon as I closed the door. ☺ So this was day 3 with no bottle and we haven't looked back since.

He's been doing so good and is now completely satisfied with a sippy cup instead of the bottle. He's going to bed fine in his crib at night, (praying that continues) and hasn't even asked for a "ba ba" the last couple of days. I packed up all the bottles today so that he doesn't see one and decide he wants one again, ha. ☺ I am so proud of Jackson and so happy I don't have to wash bottles anymore! ☺ 

Just one more step in the direction of toddler-hood. I can't believe how big he's getting. He's definitely not a little baby anymore. :-(

A picture I took of Jackson yesterday, on Easter, in our church lobby. He was so handsome in his new Easter Outfit. ☺ (I'll post all about our Easter weekend, throughout this week.)

He is Risen!

Free Printable found here!



We have a full day today. We are going to church this morning, then to my Mother in Law's house for Easter Lunch, and after that we'll be heading to my parents' house for an Easter Dinner. I'm so thankful to be spending this beautiful day with my wonderful friends and family.

I'll be posting all about our Easter Celebrations this upcoming week!

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter.

Good Friday

Thanking God today (and everyday) for the sacrifice He made for me.

Printable found here.

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Oh the Wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful cross, bids me come and die and find that I may truly live;
Oh the wonderful cross, oh the wonderful cross, all who gather here by grace draw near and bless Your name.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!

Jackson's Easter Basket Goodies

I'm linking up with two of my favorite bloggers, Darci @ The Good Life, for her Easter Basket Blog Hop...

and Sarah at Our Journey for her Easter Basket Showcase.

Last year, I didn't really get to do much for Jackson's Easter Basket because he was only around 6 months old. This year was a lot more fun. ☺

I knew I wanted to get him a Baby's first Bible or some kind of book about Jesus or Prayers. I was excited to find this little book, "Prayers for Boys" at Walmart for only $4.99.  He really likes to be read to, so I'm thinking this will be a great book to add to our nightly routine. 

I also got him some Toy Story (they didn't have Mickey Mouse) Bubble Bath, Gummy Bunny Lifesavers, Yellow Bunny Peeps, Reese's Pieces, Mickey Mouse bubbles for outside and then I filled the little eggs with Star-burst Jelly Beans (my favorite Easter candy). 

I can't wait to give him his Easter Basket on Sunday. ☺