Birthday Trip

I had a great birthday this year! Tyler took the day off and we went to Destin, Florida. It was a perfect day!! It started out with breakfast in bed and then a morning at the beach!

We stayed at the Embassy Suites that night and luckily they have a free hot breakfast with an omelet bar, so Tyler went downstairs and ordered me one while I was still sleeping! He also got me my favorite scone from panera bread the night before and warmed it up in the microwave :-) And yes that is a coffee table I was eating off of!


It was a beautiful day at the beach, the sand was so white and the sun was so bright! This resulted in a great day but really squinty faces in our photos unless we were wearing sunglasses!





That afternoon we went shopping at some outlet malls then went to this amazing restaurant, Marina Cafe, for dinner. It was really nice and we had a table that looked out over the water at sunset. The only problem was Jackson ... he was really tired and wasn't on his best behavior so needless to say, we didn't get any pictures.

But after dinner we went and walked around the marina with the little guy and he was much happier ... ok as evidenced by the picture below, maybe not that happy - but at least he wasn't fussy and throwing things anymore!


I couldn't get any good pictures of them, but what Tyler is pointing at is a pod of dolphins! What a birthday treat seeing wild dolphins playing in the water!


When we got back to the hotel I finished opening all my presents, Jackson loved my necklace the most ... can you tell??


Finish it off with a little ice cream and cake from the local Winn Dixie and it was a very memorable day!


The next morning we were off to Point Clear, Alabama! It was just a 2 hour drive from where we were in Florida and Jackson and I hung out at the hotel for 5 days while Tyler had a convention. Lucky for us he had frequent breaks and was able to come play with us a lot! It was such an amazing resort and here are just a bunch of pictures from our stay!











This place was really so beautiful and the pictures don't even do it justice! But now we're back home safe and sound and looking forward to Tyler's birthday and Grandma and Grandpa Jennings coming next week!

Happiness

I have so much to be grateful for right now. I had a special birthday, consisting of a day at the beach, shopping, dinner at a fancy restaurant, and watching wild dolphins play in the ocean. Now I'm currently sitting in our next hotel (The Grand Marriott in Point Clear, Alabama) and I doubt anyone who is reading this has even heard of this hotel, let alone the town of Point Clear. I will blog more about the amazing historical resort, golf course, spa, pool, landscaped grounds, and views of Mobile Bay later. But as I describe all this, you might think that the blog title is describing the emotion I feel as I experience all this fun and vacation, but its not. I want to talk about another kind of happiness...

The hotel here is very large and has a large conference center, so naturally there are several events going on. Tyler is here with a conference put on by the University of Alabama, Shell Oil has a convention this week too, there are a few family events, and today there is even a wedding on the property! Most of the guests (including Tyler) are busy running around from meeting to meeting but I've been relaxing, just enjoying wandering around the property with Jackson. We shouldn't be making much of an impact on the people here, but can I tell you how many people have noticed us? I can't walk more than 15 yards without being stopped by someone who wants to get a closer look at my little guy. They comment on his beautiful eyes, chubby cheeks, and cute smile. They ask his name, ask how old he is, ask if he's always this happy, etc. But the best part about it is, when the confrontation has ended and we walk our opposite directions, Jackson's new friend is happier than he or she was before. They are smiling, they are whispering to each other how precious he is. I love how Jackson (or I guess I could just say babies) bring such happiness to people's lives.

For example: this morning I was holding him as I was walking up the main staircase in our lobby. Right then, one of the meetings for the Shell Convention let out and all the attendees started walking down the same staircase we were walking up. These were 30-60 year old southern men ready to be on their lunch break. Now if I had been by myself, this would have been a non-event. However, since I was holding Jackson and going against the flow of dozens of people, I (aka he) was the star of the moment. People were oooing and ahhing at the smiley little guy. One guy asked to hold him and then a crowd formed, a minute later he was being passed around by the several people who wanted to hold him, some of whom "hadn't held a baby for years." I would have been more alarmed by this, but these people were so friendly and relaxed, they didn't think twice about how that might be a little strange. When I finally got a hold of him again we continued walking to our room, but don't even get me started about the ladies of a "quilting guild" who swarmed us 30 seconds later. One lady even exclaimed, "that's the baby I saw this morning!" I guess she had mentioned Jackson to her friends.

I really don't know what else to say, but I just had to share this. I've never experience anything like this before. We get attention in Orlando, but I've never seen anything like this. Maybe its just that the people of Alabama are so much more down to earth? Maybe Jackson is just at the perfect age, he's so little and smiley and happy that its hard to ignore him. He really has an amazing ability to change peoples lives and I'm happy to introduce him to the world.

Rach's Bday!

I love my beautiful wife and just wanted to comment on here and let her know how much she means to me! I love the time we have to be together and I am so lucky to have her in my life.

We are hanging out on the gulf coast for the weekend and I love being with her and Jackson!

HAPPY 25 BABE!!

6 months!

I'm not quite sure what's been keeping me so busy lately, but "update the blog" has been on my list of things to do for a week now and I'm just getting around to it!

In big people news (aka not Jackson) we've been getting to know more people out here in Florida. It was always a little crowded when we invited other couples over to the townhouse, but with the house its much easier to entertain. We've had several families over at the new house during the past couple weeks. After hanging up most of our pictures and decor, cleaning out the garage, and unpacking every box in the house (except some in Tyler's office that I try to ignore) it's starting to look almost normal! We even bought a guest bedroom set and a desk for Ty's office.

My birthday is coming up and we're going on a trip up to the panhandle of Florida and we'll be staying on the Gulf Coast. Tyler has a convention this weekend and we're making a vacation around it! Hopefully Jackson does ok in the 6 hour car trip. He's not as chill as he used to be in the car so I'm crossing my fingers.

Jackson is 6 months old and I'm wondering what happened to my baby!?? He's growing up so fast it's crazy. He's 19 lb 6 oz and just over 27 inches long. He's now in the 80-85% for both weight and height so he's pretty proportionate and isn't quite as chunky as he used to be. The doctor was very surprised by his head circumference though, since it is over 95th % ... I told him it's not too surprising since Tyler can't buy a fitted hat his size! Speaking of heads, he is sprouting a bit more dark hair so hopefully he won't be bald til he's 2 like his mom was!




He loves sitting up and playing with toys. He was a little ahead of the curve and could sit up without any problem before he turned 5 months. He loves sitting so much, in fact, that I'm pretty sure he won't learn to crawl for a while. He shows no interest in being down on the ground, he'd rather be sitting up looking around or standing propped up with something. As soon as I lay him on his tummy, he rolls right over to his back. He has really mastered this skill. So, because he's only on his tummy for an average of 4 seconds before he rolls over, I doubt he'll be scooting or crawling anytime soon.



He's teething like crazy. OK I've been saying this for weeks, but its just getting more and more intense. He drools so much some days that he has to wear a bib and even then, his outfit gets soaked. He chomps on anything and everything with such intensity that I feel he has got to be getting a tooth any day now. He's been chewing and drooling for 2 months though, but I'm really hoping the little tooth pops through soon because I think it's starting to hurt. He's been a little more fussy lately and I'm sure it's teething related.
(and he loves staring at himself in our mirrors!)

He reaches for everything! And he can almost wiggle himself out of the bumbo to grab what we wants. I can't wear jewelry anymore. I can't talk on the phone and hold him. In fact any sort of remote control, camera, phone, or iPod is not safe if within Jackson's wingspan. (and as documented below - water bottles are also a favorite of his)




Here are some photos from his 6 month photo shoot!

The Jennings Boys

A couple quick updates about my favorite people -- The Jennings Boys!

Mr. Tyler

First - This week he was helping give trainings in Alabama at their company's office ( and gets back later today luckily) so it was my first time at the new house by myself... not my favorite thing in the world. But he is doing an amazing job with work! He hasn't been with the company 2 years but he's already one of the top managers. It was a huge decision to take this job and move across the country, but luckily the job has been better than he could have expected. It's been a perfect fit for him.


Second - He has been serving with the Young Men in our ward ever since we moved here and has loved it! He's just one of the boys and has really grown close with lots of the kids out here. So he was a little shocked when he was just called to be the new Elders' Quorom President in our ward. Which means he won't be serving with the kids anymore and will be in charge of all the men, most of which are older than he. It's a big responsibility, but Tyler will be great at it.

And Mr. Jackson

First - He still has the rash. I have no idea where it came from. I took him to the doctor last week and they were stumped. At first she thought it was just a bug bite, then when I told her they come and go she realized it must be hives due to an allergic reaction. So she asked me if there is anything "new" in his external environment. So yeah, try a whole new house. She brought in another doctor for a second opinion and he thought it was allergies to something internal, so either something I ate and passed on via milk or rice cereal... I've been trying to figure it out by removing things but it comes when we're inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, in the bath, in bed, or eating rice cereal or not.

I think it's starting to go away a little bit, but I'm not sure if maybe its just because I'm growing more used to it? Luckily he hasn't gotten any really bad marks on his face or anything as bad as this picture for the past few days.

Second - He still attracts attention wherever we go (because of his cuteness, not the rash luckily). Yesterday I took Jackson to the park and another family there noticed Jackson's cute smile while he was on the swing. At that point they started talking to me about how cute he is and I thanked them and everything. But what was unique about this instance was when they asked me if he's been a baby model, or been on tv or magazine advertisements because he looked so familiar, like they had seen him before?! Classic. I told them no ... and they told me, "Well he should."


We think so too... but I'm a little busy trying to put together a house to look into that...

I was at Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday and could have bought dozens of things I want/need for the house. Don't worry I didn't Tyler!! But between home goods, furniture, and fixer upper projects, my "HouseStuff.doc" list is pushing 3 pages. For now we're just going a little at a time... But up at the top of my list is a queen bedroom set to fill our empty guest bedroom that will soon be visited by Grandma and Grandpa Jennings!!

new life

I just put Jackson down for the night and couldn't stop smiling as I was rocking him in my arms. He is such an amazing little boy and makes me so happy! I'm so lucky to be his mommy! He is getting to be so active! His favorite positions are sitting up or being held - he spends most of his time either in my arms, in a stroller, in his bumbo chair, or in his "exersaucer". He really doesn't like being on his tummy, back, or really on the ground much at all. He LOVES being out and about, and is really a social little guy (remind you of anyone?? ahem ahem Tyler ahem ahem)

It's slowly starting to get a little cooler here in Florida, so today we went swimming in our new little pool and went to the park and on a walk around the lake in our new neighborhood. Jackson didn't fuss the entire time we were outside. He LOVES it!


We've been so busy over the past month and I haven't really taken the time to sit back and write it all down. Since I'm better at blogging than journaling I'm going to write down some early memories here.

Thursday, August 26th was the big day, we drove to the other side of town to the title office to sign the papers and close on the house! We brought Jackson with us of course and he sat on my lap for the whole process and helped me sign my name time and time again. As we were going through all the little details, it was kinda crazy thinking about all the responsibility that comes with owning a house. But it was a little late to back out at that point and we were happy to sign all the dotted lines.

A few hours later we were in the house! I was cleaning the kitchen, Ty was putting together some of our new furniture and we had someone come to get the carpets steam cleaned. We learned right away that owning a house comes with maintenance when the carpet cleaner found mold stains hidden under a conveniently placed shoe rack in our master closet... we still need to get that replaced...

The next day we did some more last minute packing and started moving things over to the new place. Then we spent our last night in the townhouse and I got more emotional than I thought I would. But spending the last moments with Jackson in his nursery were really special. I will always remember that room, his first home ...



Saturday morning we got right into the moving business! We had 8 guys from our ward come and help us and we could NOT have done it without them. Once they all left and it was just the three of us, it felt so awesome to have all our stuff in our house!

A few hours later we picked up my mom from the airport and she really helped us get unpacked and finished bringing all the random stuff we'd left over from our old place. She helped that first week, and now for the past 10 days we've been on our own.

I know a lot of people want me to post pictures of the new place and I will .... but I really wanted everything to be put together first and I'm now realizing that might not be for a while. So hopefully pretty soon I'll get some pictures up here! But for now we're busy making this house our home...

Quick Updates in Pictures

Yes ... this is the cutest baby in the world. Jackson loves hanging out on our bed.



Jackson's new nursery -- this is the only painted room in our house, and its blue - perfect for Jackson's nursery! Here he is hanging with grandma/grammy still figuring out which name she likes ...



I zoomed my camera as much as possible and then took this pic from our back window in our house. If you look closely you can see Tyler (in a red shirt) playing tennis at the courts across the lake. He plays basically every morning, and now I can check up on him haha.



My mom and I before we went to the airport ... and proof that baby gear dominates our house. Swing, Bumbo, Bouncy Chair, Activity Mat, and you can't see the exersaucer and carseat just behind the couch...



Jackson has a rash ... I don't know what it is. He has a few bumps on his arms and legs that look like mosquito bites, but then he randomly has these splothchy things appear and disappear throughout the day. It doesn't seem to be affecting his mood or making him sick, but I might be taking him to the doctor tomorrow. Has anyone seen this type of thing before?



My guesses are an allergy to our new wool rug, allergy to rice cereal, allergy to bug bites, heat rash???