jackson and daddy...

i haven't blogged since our labor day weekend and i've been wanting to. no big exciting events though. (ps i don't feel like using capitalization and or proper punctuation right now) anyways, its been a busy fun filled couple weeks with tyler in town the entire month of september. he has been busy with school on the weekends and long days of work - but at least he's been here. i've really appreciated it, and jackson has too. last week he had a regional sales meeting but luckily it was here in orlando. so we were able to hang out with his coworkers at nights. we went to Dave and Busters one night, Downtown Disney, one night, and Magic Kingdom the next. it was fun for them to all spend time with jackson.

he turns 18 months on saturday and that's kinda crazy to me. it's crazy how much he has changed since then. tonight i was looking over at jackson playing independently and wondering where my little baby went. now he is throwing and catching balls, pushing trains around saying "choo choo," and playing with his toy animals and learning what sounds they make.

he has learned a few new words - the aforementioned "choo choo" and he has added "what" in front of words when he's wondering where something is he says "where ball" "where juice" "where dad" and sticks his arms out, palms up and of course "fervors" his brow. so even though his language is not super developed yet, i can normally understand what he's trying to say. i'll ask him a question and normally he can understand and either says "yay!" or shakes his head no.

jackson is such a daddy's boy. he's been really good the past couple weeks but there have been a few incidents here and there. this morning tyler didn't have to go to work until 9 so he let me sleep while he played with jackson. after i woke up and tyler went to get ready in the bathroom jackson started crying. he totally realized that daddy was getting ready to leave and hence daddy/jackson time was over. he ran into the bathroom and wouldn't let tyler leave his side. he did not want anything to do with me and started screaming when i took him out of the room. kinda drama. but i think it made tyler a little proud that he responded so strongly to him.

here's a little video of he and tyler playing catch - their new favorite game...




i am so blessed to be the little guy's mommy and the big guy's wife :-)

Labor Day

It was a really good weekend. August was a busy month with Tyler traveling most of the weekdays and being busy with other activities on the weekends. But life finally calmed down this week. With his classes starting this Friday, it was nice to have one last chance to enjoy the end of summer together for labor day! Why can't he have every Monday off, seriously 3 day weekends are heaven! We really didn't have any elaborate plans or go anywhere overnight, but looking back ... it was great and I want to remember it!

Friday - Tyler finished work around 4 and we headed over to DownTown Disney. We got some dinner at Earl of Sandwich, took a boat ride across the lake, and walked around the shops, fountains, and everything else Disney. Jackson loves being out and about and always has such a good time exploring new places.

Then we ventured off to a high school football game! I have to admit I was a little nervous about how Jackson would do at the game. It didn't start until 7:30 and he normally goes to bed around 8:00. Also - I wasn't so sure how well he would do sitting in the bleachers and not wanting to go run off and climb up and down the stairs. But our good friends have twin boys who were the starting QB and TE in the game this week so we had to show our support for West Orange High! I figured Tyler could stay the whole game and Jackson and I would leave whenever we needed to.

I never could have guessed how well he would behave! He was enthralled as soon as we got to the field. He was mesmerized by the band, the crowd, the bright lights, but most importantly, the ball! He sat in Tyler's lap for the entire first half cheering, clapping, and laughing with the Munns Family. We ended up staying until almost 9 pm, during the third quarter, when Jackson was still being good, but just was up way past his bedtime.


Tyler stayed til the end of the game and witnessed "the best high school game he has ever seen." Twin #1 threw the ball to Twin #2 for the winning touchdown at the end of the fourth quarter. It was a huge upset and it was what this football family had been looking forward to for 16 years!


Saturday - (**I had all the remaining text typed in and supposedly saved and somehow it's all gone now. kinda mad about it. so we'll do quick recaps for the rest of the weekend for now**)

We had a birthday party in the afternoon for Jackson's friend Xander! He loved playing in the water, especially with Daddy there!



That evening I tried some new recipes as we watched the BYU football game with our friends Jon and Semra. I'll leave you with the best one - the fruit dip. Mix Nutella & Plain Greek Yogurt. That's it. It's amazing. BYU won and we had fun eating and hanging out with our friends.

Sunday - The highlight was the fact that Tyler didn't have any meetings before church! We got to go together and then had a yummy dinner that night.

Monday - We headed up to Kelly Park and went tubing in the Rock Springs. Tyler went here last summer with the youth but I hadn't gone. The place is just about 40 minutes north of us and so much fun! I was so sad when I realized I forgot my camera because this place was so pretty! I grabbed these pics of the internet so you can get an idea.
But the crystal clear water comes out of the rock caves and then starts a river with a slow current perfect for tubing! Jackson did pretty well and really enjoyed the first trip down the river but didn't love the second trip as much. He sat on my "lap" as I floated down in an inter-tube and Tyler guided us along. We went with Jon, Semra and their daughter Sahara. They had never been either and we all wondered why we hadn't been coming here all summer long!

Afterward we headed to their parents' house for a barbecue lunch before heading home to put Jackson down for a nap. Last night we ended the weekend with some more Disney. We went to Hollywood Studios and hit up some rides and the American Idol Finale Show. The highlight was when Jackson had the whole crowd cheering for him. Literally. The host spotted Tyler and Jackson dancing and clapping away before the show started and he asked the whole crowd to "give it up for Jackson" and encouraged the rest of us to have as much fun as him. I'm pretty sure he actually swayed the whole audience's vote last night because there was only one performance he really got excited about and the judges commented how the baby was loving it. That's the guy who won... he had an uptempo song, but he wasn't the best singer. He owes Jackson big time!

And please click on this photo so you can see it larger.



This is the real Jackson. It is so hard to get pictures of him looking at me and smiling at the camera because he is just so busy! But here he was running away from me because he knew he wasn't supposed to have that medicine in his hand. But he has so much fun running away from me that he somehow forgot the camera was there today!

He was such a good boy all weekend and made it a great Labor Day for Tyler and me.