Stars and Stripes Forever!

We had a great Fourth of July! We love our country and had fun celebrating Independence Day!
We started out playing with some toys...


Jackson loves his Nana Charlene!

Then we went to a parade downtown and watched Daddy fly overhead to start the festivities...Jackson is terrified of the jets, though, and clung to me for dear life when they went by!


Notice the boo-boo on J's upper lip- he took a nose dive while crawling this morning and cut his lip. He was not too happy about missing his morning nap and hearing all of the loud noises coming from the parade. He was really good, though, considering the circumstances, and we all had a good time. He even fell asleep in the stroller for a bit. The weather was absolutely beautiful!

Mom and Charlene had on almost the same outfit! They looked cute!

After the parade we came home to grill out. Corn on the cob - mmmmm!

Then after J went to bed the adults enjoyed some wine around the fire pit. Charlene had her very first s'more and loved it!

What's this? Mom with two glasses of wine?? Whoa - take it easy, Mom!! :)

Time Flies...

It is so hard for me to believe that one year ago I looked like this...

....and my doggies were my only babies....

I remember how ready I was for J to come out. He was born 9 days past his due date and I was getting so impatient! We took the boat out on a windy day last summer hoping that the bumpy ride might make me go into labor, but no such luck.... hello white whale!!

Time has just flown by! Life is so different now, but in such a good way. I can't believe my baby is almost one!

Some Things We've Been Up To...

We've been building fires and roasting marshmallows with our new fire pit.

It's actually been cool enough at night to really enjoy it - it's great!

Hank is a little afraid of the fire - he spent most of his time outside hiding behind the chair like this...

The moon was so big and bright that night (hard to tell from the picture, though)...

We've been playing outside (the weather has been pretty hot lately)....




We've been wishing we could play outside...


We've been playing inside...

You can't really tell from the picture, but J was balancing on his belly on the edge of the ottoman to try to get at the toys inside. It was funny!

We've been reading....

Grandy has the magic touch...he never sits like this with me to read a book!

We've been hanging out at the park...

My mom's brother, Steve, his wife, Wendy, and their three girls (Kendra, Rachel, and Valerie) were in town this past weekend. While the men were fishing, we girls (and Jackson) went to the park for the afternoon. Then we went out for sushi:

Aren't they beautiful girls? Seeing them together really made me miss my sisters. :(

Gorilla

Okay, it takes forever for me to upload a video, but I think it's worth it! Here is Jackson doing his "gorilla crawl" on his hands and feet.



Here is proof that Heidi no longer serves as a barrier for Jackson. She is so sweet and patient with him. I was watching and anticipating her every move, though!

Random Happenings

Jackson has learned how to pull himself up to standing in his crib. Almost every time I go in to get him from a nap he's standing up with a big satisfied smile on his face. I love it!


Here's a short video from right after he woke up from his second nap today. So cute - I hope it plays!



Just playing in his room....


Guess what I had for dinner....**ding, ding,ding!!** ...first time eating pasta with tomato sauce!


Here are a couple pics from Gramps' 81st birthday (2 days late). We had Grammy, Gramps, and Dave over for dinner and chocolate cake. I made a cake using a recipe from my favorite Food Network chef- Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa). She uses really rich ingredients, so I thought it was pretty good. G & G took half of the cake home and we kept the other half. Actually, I should say I kept the other half. It was gone two days later!! I have no willpower when it comes to chocolate cake or brownies. In fact, Phil just asked me a few minutes ago, "Hey - is there any of that cake left?" I laughed and said, "What do you think???!!"