Best Friends...

Jackson has definitely found a BFF in Heidi. She is such a sweet girl to him. I thought these pics were really cute...



My mom and dad got Jackson this cute pilot outfit last weekend. It's a little big for my little peanut right now, but it still looks cute on him. Thanks, Grandy and Popeye - we love it!

Girls' Weekend and Guys' Weekend

Well, Becky and I finally got to go see John Mayer again this weekend. We had been looking forward to this for months!! We drove five hours to the middle of California just to spend two hours with John. Our seats were SO.GREAT. We were in the tenth row....
Becky joined the fan club so we could get tickets early, and I made sure to get online to buy them the second they went on sale in April. Luckily, all of that paid off and we ended up with awesome tickets. Jennifer Aniston was not in attendance, but we did see pictures of them having dinner together the night before. And.... we got a big surprise the moment he walked onstage. This is JM two nights before our concert...
..and here he is on the night of our concert:
I don't know if you noticed, but he cut all of his hair off! B & I actually like it better in the previous picture. We both thought he looked a lot like Jim Carrey with this new short 'do. JM contorts his face when he sings, which makes him look a lot like JC when he makes contorted faces to be funny. Anyway, we felt very privileged to be among the first to see his new haircut. AND, he gave an awesome, awesome concert (as usual). He even sang many of our favorite songs (check these out on iTunes if you don't know them and have the time and/or interest), including "Wheel", which has one of my favorite lines in it that I feel is very appropriate for the military lifestyle of always having to leave your friends: "and if you never stop when you wave goodbye, you just might find if you give it time you'll wave hello again, you just might wave hello again...", and "Clarity" and "Daughters", which the drunk girl next to me was almost pole-dancing to, if you can imagine that, and "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)", and "Vultures", which he turned into a cool medley of "Burning Down the House" at the end. He also did a really cool, bluesy version of "Mercy", the song that is popular right now by Duffy. But definitely our favorite song of the evening was JM's version of "Free Falling", which we love, love, love. JM said that he is usually iffy about doing covers of songs, but that by now if we're fans of his we probably trust that he can write his own music when he wants to. It was a very fun night!

The next day, we went to Napa Valley for some wine tasting and shopping...
We had such a great weekend! Special thanks to Phil for staying home with Jackson all weekend. Love you!! He said they had fun days full of Home Depot trips and guy stuff. J-Man sure loves his Daddy...

We miss you, Grandy!

Thank you so much for coming to stay with us for so long, Mom. We really had such a wonderful time and it was SO special for me and Jackson to be able to spend this time with you. I really appreciate all of the help you gave me while you were out here and I can't wait to see you in December! We love you SO much!!



I have had quite an emotional few days with my mom leaving and Jackson weaning. Yes, he is officially weaned from breastfeeding. I had to pretty much force myself to stop at a year b/c I really loved it. It was definitely a special time for me. J is a very active baby and that was really the only time when he would be still and close and I could stare at him, hold his hand, stroke his cheek... I need to stop thinking about it or I'll start crying again. :) I just remind myself that he's growing up (sob!) and that hopefully I will have other babies. He really hasn't even missed the nursing, though. He loves his cow milk now. MOOOO! I guess it's good to let the cows do their job and let my udders have a rest. :)

More Fun with Grandparents and Gifts...

How old are you, Jackson? (This is his new thing... only he doesn't answer the question, he just holds his finger up while he eats. Phil is glad it's not his pinky finger).

Thanks for the diverse gifts, Baronis!! He loves to play with the school bus, too. Phil and I had a good laugh about the toys, but I can't really write what we laughed about b/c it would be inappropriate for the blog. :)



Having fun in the squadron bar... or Heritage Room - whatever.

J loved crawling back and forth on that pool table. When Phil gave him some of the pool balls to roll around we almost couldn't get him off of there!

We finally got him to enjoy his pool! All it took was filling it up with warm water from inside.



My mom bought J this fire truck for his birthday. He LOVES to be pushed around on it and will throw a tantrum when you stop. I'm looking forward to when he can scoot around on it himself!


Just chillin' in the backyard...

Great Lake...Crater Lake!

Here are some pictures from our visit to Crater Lake a few weekends ago. It's only about an hour or so from our house and well worth the drive! Here are Phil and Jackson getting ready to walk to the lake:

I know I posted a bunch of pictures, but oh, my gosh - it is so beautiful there! Don't we all look like we have a fake backdrop behind us? Wow - it's amazing! You can click on the pictures to see the lake bigger...

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Sorry about the first one - you'll have to cock your head. We always forget that videos don't rotate after the fact. He loves that guitar, Becky! Thank you!



Heidi, you big tub of goo...

One!

Here are lots of pictures from Jackson's first birthday. He went through about 5 different outfits that day for some reason. It's hard to believe that he's already a year old - I don't know where the time went. We had a great day that began with some inside playing...


Phil and his dad worked on our backyard fence all day. It looks great!

We bought J a little pool a few weeks ago and decided to try it out today. Here is Nana Charlene with the first attempt....


...and Dad with the second attempt....


...as you can see, the pool was not a hit. I think the water was too cold. He's used to really warm bath water! Nana saved him, though, and even got him to pose for a picture (sort of) ...

He was much happier after drying off, coming back inside, and getting to play again.


We had lots of people here for dinner: Phil's dad and stepmom, my mom, my grandparents, my Uncle Dave, and my Uncle Rick and Aunt Janine and their kids Austin, Elysia, and Sami. They seemed to like hanging out with Jackson:


The cake was almost a disaster. I made it myself and took one layer out of the pan before it was cool enough. It pretty much fell apart, but my mom was able to save it with frosting. It ended up being okay. Thanks, Mom! :)

Jackson's first cake experience was pretty anticlimactic. He really didn't eat too much. He did do one funny thing, though. After taking a lick of icing he did a little "sugar shiver", as we called it. He only took a couple of licks, but did the shiver after each one. :) Also, he thought the polka dots were solid and was trying to pick them up. It was cute!




By the end of the cake experience J was pretty tired, so it was bedtime. He had to open presents the next day.