Beach Fun On A Cold Rainy Day

Last weekend we celebrated Jackson's 1st birthday with some of our friends. The day was cold, dreary, and wet but inside we were enjoying thoughts of the beach. We decided since we are moving back to CA and the beach scene we would give Jackson a little taste of the life to come. I did my best to decorate the kitchen in a warm beach scene.

We cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats on the grill and enjoyed other food typical to a beach picnic. I did my best to make a surf board cake. It was my first time making the butter cream icing and it didn't stiffen up very well, but Jack didn't care.

Speaking of cake...Jack LOVED it! He wasn't too sure how he felt about us all singing happy birthday to him, but once the candle was blown out and the cake put in front of him he was a happy camper. At first he just picked at it. Just when we thought we would be there ALL DAY watching him pick at his cake he picked the whole piece up and began shoving it in his mouth. Here are just a few of the million pictures we took to capture his enjoyment.

He enjoyed all of his new presents too. He got the Little People Zoo, A musical phone, drums, a hammer that lights up and makes noise, a ride on Tonka truck, and crayons. What a day of fun!

Even after all of those toys he still thinks pulling all the diapers out is a blast. Some things just never get old.

Take Your Wildest Guess

As many of you moms out there know, when you are pregnant everyone has an opinion about whether you are having a boy or a girl. So, I thought it might be fun to get every one's opinion on the matter. I have added a poll to the right side of the blog just under our family picture. Just click on boy or girl and we will share the results after our ultrasound on Jan 16th. Happy Voting!

Guess Who Turned One???

It is hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with Jackson and anxiously awaiting his arrival...being pregnant now may have something to do with it feeling like I was pregnant just yesterday :) As the weekend began, I began looking at the clock and remembering what we were doing the year previous. I looked at the clock at 10:00am on Sunday (12/9) which is 8:00am in CO and thought, a year ago today my water just broke. Another time I looked at the clock around 11:00am on Monday (12/10), again 9:00am Colorado time, and though about this time a year ago Jackson and I were taking our first ambulance ride. As I sit here today on Thursday (12/13) I think to myself, a year ago today I would have gotten to hold my baby boy for the very first time. Who would have known that a little life that started out so rough would become the happy healthy little one year old I hold today. Jackson is truly a blessing in our life.

Ok so let me clear away the tears from my eyes and tell you about our little guy's special day. When Dan got home from work that evening there were two boxes waiting for Jackson, one from Grammy (Diann, Dan's Mom) and one from Grandpa and Nana Jernigan (Jeff and Nancy, Dan's Dad and his wife)! YIPPY Jack's first birthday presents!

Grammy sent Jackson an AWESOME bath toy! It is a row boat with a little dude inside with crazy hair and board shorts. Funny...he looks a lot like Jackson. Along with the little rower was a great book about animals and how they camouflage and a cute outfit. Jack had so much fun with the wrapping paper and later in the bath with his new boat buddy.

Nana and Grandpa Jernigan sent Jackson a Lightening McQueen ride on car. For those of you who don't know, Lightening McQueen is the main character in the kids movie Cars. It is a must see. The present came wrapped from Target in a GIANT red bag that stood about as tall as Jackson. He was fascinated with all of the lights and sounds of the car. In fact it was difficult to get him to look up to take a picture of him.

We got him several gifts, but decided to give him just one of them and save the rest for his birthday party this Sunday. We wanted to get him a car he could zoom around. So what we found is a car with a little twist. The car is actually a bathtub on wheels with a pig inside. When you shake the car the pig starts snorting and then music plays and the car takes off on it's own. Jackson was no so sure about the car suddenly shooting across the room, but we sure enjoyed watching his chase it.

He is such a big boy now and we are so blessed by his fun, happy personality.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!