seven months

On Sunday Jackson hit the seven month mark and is still as cute as can be! We've been so busy that this month just flew by and Jackson has been so great at tagging along through all of our travels and adventures.

The big change for the month was solid foods - he finally decided that he likes baby food! After hating rice cereal and refusing our initial tries of apple sauce last month, I was pretty sure I'd be nursing him until he was 2. But a few weeks ago he finally decided he would actually swallow instead of spit it out - and he loved the apple sauce! Then he tried sweet potatoes, those graduate cereal puffs, and even bananas mixed with rice cereal. It's been great to be able to feed him when we're eating dinner, and out to eat.

But other than that ... not many developmental changes with our little buddy. Still no crawling. Still no scooting. But I'm not going to lie, I'm fine with that! I'm still able to set him down on the carpet or on the middle of my bed and know that he's not going anywhere!

He still has no teeth, he still has beautiful blue eyes, he still has little wispy brown hair. He still gets called "the gerber baby" all the time, and we are loving him more and more each day!

I've been taking a picture of him every month in his crib, laying on his back to show how much he grows. This month he would not keep his legs straight!




He's been a little sick for the past couple days so I wasn't able to get many good pictures for his seven month photo shoot. So these pictures are about all I got - I'd like to call it the many faces of Jackson. Proof that he's not smiling all the time ... just most of the time :-)




(mid-cough)


(always reaching for the camera!)

But when his Daddy comes in and throws him in the air - we're guaranteed to get a smile out of the little guy!

Grandparents in Town!!

We had such a fun time with Tyler's parents here this week! They left this morning and Jackson has been looking around the house for his fun play buddies all day. While they were only here for 4 full days, we were able to fit a lot in to the schedule. The grandparents went on morning walks with Jackson, helped us decorate and put things together around the house, spent lots of time playing with Jackson, babysat him so Ty and I could go on a date, and we even visited 3 of the parks at Disney World!

We had been planning on buying a grill for the past couple weeks, but Tyler waited until his dad was in town to help him pick out the perfect one. It was great to have the "grill master" here to help us set it up, and christen it with some amazing steak and pork chops!

As you can tell, Ty was stoked to finally have a grill - and a super hardcore one at that!

**I've been told that someone doesn't approve of the above picture since he looks like a "manatee" but if it weren't for that manatee we wouldn't have wheels on our awesome grill!**

Sunday Dinner was amazing - Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and a Poppyseed Salad! And since the weather was so nice we were able to sit out at our brand new patio table set :-) Here in Florida, it's just getting cool enough to sit outside for dinner haha.


Jackson absolutely adores his grandma and grandpa! I was a little worried he might be a little shy or apprehensive, but boy was I wrong! He loved spending time on their laps, in their arms and waking them up every morning to play on their bed.



Grandma introduced Jackson to his new favorite song :-)

We even had a little belated birthday cake for Tyler - my family's classic double chocolate bunt cake!


Yesterday we spent the entire day at Disney World! We started at Animal Kingdom and loved the safari!



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Then we drove over to Epcot for the afternoon and sampled some of the foods at the annual food and wine festival. We had yummy sausage from Germany, Crepes from France, a sampler of Spain dishes, and a Danish dessert!



Jackson loved banging on these African drums!



Lastly we went over to Hollywood Studios and finished it off with our favorite ride - Toy Story Mania - and watched the American Idol Finale Show. It was a busy day but Jackson did great! He was happy basically all day and just fell asleep in his stroller for naps. What a great baby we have!

Last night Grandma and Grandpa spent their last hours with Jacksy back at our house. It was so much fun watching them fall in love with Jackson. He is such an amazingly happy baby and so much fun all the time. Just two more months until we see them again for Christmas!!


Love this video - you can see how much fun these 3 have together :-)

Ty's B-Day!

From one birthday to the next! Tyler's big day comes only 12 days after mine, so it's always a fun time in late September / early October in the Jennings household. This year it seemed even closer together with us traveling the week after my birthday. Tyler never lets me talk about what we're doing for his birthday until mine is over, so I always feel like I'm scrambling to get stuff ready at the end! We were only home 6 days before his birthday yesterday (4 of which I didn't have a car since my battery died twice) but luckily we were able to have a great day together yesterday!!

We started the morning with homemade waffles and then Tyler opened most of his presents.

Jackson gave him a basketball so he can get really good and teach him how to play in the coming years! (Even though he was a bit more interested in the card than the ball at this point...)


My cute boys with the gifts and cards. His biggest present is a set of irons (golf clubs) that has been ordered and will be arriving soon! And yes, I got him socks for his birthday. I guess that makes us an old married couple. He didn't think he needed new ones, but believe me, he did!


The main event of the day was spending the afternoon at the beach! We headed west to Tampa Bay and drove the 80 miles to Clearwater Beach. It's a little bit farther then the Atlantic Ocean side, but it's so worth it! The water is so warm and the sand is soft and white! Jackson slept the whole drive there and back and was a happy little guy playing in the sand and waves with daddy.





After coming home and cleaning up a bit, we went to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate for dinner. We were a little hesitant to take Jackson since he was so crazy at my birthday dinner, but luckily he behaved himself much better this time. Basically perfect in fact! This is now the third year in a row we've gone to Cheesecake for Ty's birthday haha. We considered other places, but it's just so hard to go wrong with that place!

Here are some pics of the two boys playing around after we finished dinner...




And then the dessert menu arrived and Tyler handed Jackson to me - this was a big decision! Tyler took about 5 minutes deciding what cheesecake to get!


He decided on one we'd never tried, pineapple upside-down cheesecake - perfect for the pineapple lover, right? And it was great! Jackson was intrigued by the candle as seen here...



It was such a fun day with Tyler and Jackson! I'm so grateful for Tyler and I feel so blessed to have him as my husband! How lucky am I!! We sat just a few booths away from where we were last year and it is crazy to see how much has changed since his last birthday. But with all the changes, I'm more in love now than ever!

I'm so happy to be raising this beautiful little boy who looks just like his daddy!

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.