5 Months of Jackson

Our baby is growing up way too fast -these pics are for you Steven!

ONE MONTH


TWO MONTHS


THREE MONTHS


FOUR MONTHS


FIVE MONTHS (aka today!)



PS - he is sitting up like a pro now!

He did it!

He finally did it!! Just before his 5 month birthday, Jackson decided to roll over today! He rolled from tummy to back twice this morning and looked very proud of himself. I was honestly getting a little worried since he was already sitting up pretty well but couldn't roll over yet ... but now this first time mom can rest easy!

Also, I put Jackson in little baby jeans for the first time today - he looks like such a big boy it kinda freaks me out. I didn't have him wear them for long, since we live in Florida and w/ humidity it feels like 105 all summer ... He normally just rocks the onesies and I'll add shorts if we're goin out. It's too hot for anything else!


PS Is it normal that Jackson fits in size 9-12 month clothes but can't even fit in his 3 month (or size 2) shoes yet?? The shoes he's wearing above are 3 month size and are still falling off his tiny little feet haha.

J.T.

Jackson (AKA J.T or Jacksy) is only 4 1/2 months old and is ahead of the curve in learning to ...


Sit up on his own
Stand up while holding onto the couch


Grab his activity mat toys with his toes


But he's a little behind with ...


Tummy time


Rolling over
And most recently ... Eating rice cereal
He would not even let us put it in his mouth!

But he's still the cutest little buddy!

Big News

After tempting you guys last month it's time for the reveal ... later this month we're going to be home owners!
We started looking for a house almost 2 years ago when Tyler first took the job. We were really excited back then because we knew there were lots of great deals, but we soon learned with all the foreclosures and short sales it was almost too overwhelming! Since then we have been casually looking, but we weren't wanting to rush into anything. Because we have a really cheap month to month rental contract we have been waiting for just the perfect house before we made an offer. And now, we've found that house!

I asked Tyler if he thought it was cool that I started sharing the news about the house, and he said yes - as long as I told the awesome story about how we found this house... so here goes!

Back in November, Tyler and I spent a day looking for houses when we came across a house that we really liked. The floor plan and neighborhood (and price) were perfect for what we wanted but it was a short sale and the previous owners had stripped the house of light fixtures, blinds, and had nasty stained carpet. Also, the backyard was kind of terrible. It sloped down into a nature preserve which was basically a swampy forest, hence, really bad for little kids. So we left the house telling our realtor great potential.. but not perfect.

Here's where it gets interesting ...

As we were getting into our car, a neighbor stopped us. He noticed we were looking at the house and wondered if we would be interested in looking at his house across the street. He eventually told us he had just found a great deal on a larger home, and was going to be listing his house soon.

Interestingly enough, his house was the same floor plan and on the other side of the street. They had a very clean home with amazing taste, hardwood floors, a pool, and the house backed up to a little lake so it had amazing views. It was so incredible and didn't even compare to the house across the street! Although he hadn't listed the home yet, we asked what he was planning on listing it for, when he told us we almost laughed. He was planning on listing it for twice as much as the one across the street. We then realized the place was way out of our budget and left the house bummed about it.

In the next few months, Tyler and I often thought back about that house and how amazing it was, wishing we could find something like it! It was our "dream house" and we compared everything else we saw to that house.

Here's where it gets even more interesting ...

Flash forward to April 30th - it's the last day to be eligible for the first time home buyer tax credit and we had an appointment with our realtor to go look at 10 houses. Before we left I looked online one last time at all the recent houses listed for sale ... and randomly enough - the "dream house" had just been listed that day as a "short sale" -- right in our budget! I was freaking out, I showed Tyler and we really couldn't believe it.

This is getting long, so I'll sum it up - we couldn't get in touch with their realtor so we just showed up at the house later that day. Hoping he would remember us, Tyler went to the door with our realtor as 6-week-old sleeping Jackson and I waited in the car... They were invited in, and I waited out there for about 15 minutes before finally Tyler came back outside and said, "come inside now, we're buying this house today."

AND WE DID! It took almost 3 months, but we found out on JULY 19th that the Short Sale price was approved by the bank. We now are planning on closing in a couple weeks.

Here's a pic of Ty and Jackson in the empty house ... we're so excited!

Jacksy after swimming

I posted 2 hours ago (see below) but Tyler and I couldn't resist sharing these new photos of Jackson. We just went swimming and took these pics when we got home and were getting Jackson out of his wet clothes.

I didn't realize how cute these were going to turn out, but now they are some of our favorites!

Enjoy!!*

* (especially YOU Grandma and Grandpa J, Grandma and Grandpa C, Uncle Travis & Steven, Aunt Kristi, Ashley, Paige & Jamie who I know can't get enough pics of our Jacksy-Pie!)

Trip to the Beach

This week Tyler had work down in South Florida so Jackson & I tagged along and hung out at the Marriott in Delray Beach. Delray is an hour north of Miami, a fun little beach town centered around "Atlantic Avenue" lined with fun little shops and restaurants.

It was pretty hot during the days if we weren't in the pool or the ocean. Since, Jackson is still too young to put on baby sunscreen, whenever we go outside I try to keep the time pretty short and keep him in the shade as much as possible.

In between our swimming adventures we spent lots of time in the room on our comfy bed doing photo shoots with Jackson.



Jackson is beginning to really love the pool! Two of his favorite times are when he's either in the bath or being held - so taking him in the pool pretty much means heaven for Jacksy.



We hadn't taken him down to the beach for a couple months, and this trip he was able to actually enjoy himself. He loved moving his feet around in the sand and he kept yelling at the waves when they'd come crashing in.



It was a fun trip with Jackson - and next item on the agenda --- feeding Jackson Rice Cereal...

Four Months

We can hardly believe that Jackson is 4 months old. He has changed so much, from a newborn to a playful little baby! I still just melt when he smiles at me! However, if there is any sort of camera in the area (whether it be the iPhone, Digital, or Video) Jackson will stop smiling and stare at the device. Tyler and I have to be tricky to get him to ever smile in pictures, which is so sad because he's such a smiley baby!

In this picture Jackson is looking at me and Tyler quickly snapped this while he was distracted with mommy. I'm still waiting for him to stare at a camera and smile ... that will be the day!
Here are some recent updates on our 4 month old!

*He sleeps through the night, normally he sleeps for a good 9 hours each night, sometimes 10! Now, when we hear him waking up, he is more often talkative than crying. Recently he discovered his toes and he'll usually be grabbing them when he's waking up from his sleep.

*He wears 6-12 month size clothes. I used to have a closet full of baby clothes, now he's outgrown half of them and will outgrow pretty much everything else in a few months. Time to go shopping!

*He loves to sit up like a big boy! Whether it be on mommy's lap, in a bumbo, on the couch, in the stroller, or here in the rocking chair.
*Maybe even more than sitting, he loves standing up on our laps. I'm guessing he'll stand on his own pretty early. He doesn't need much support from mommy or daddy. He loves being able to look around and see what's going on around him!

*He's not a huge fan of lying on his back and especially not his stomach, so he hasn't really rolled over yet. He's pretty dang close, but not there yet. I probably don't give him enough tummy time, I try once a day though. But he really hates it after about 3 minutes, and he always spits up afterwards, so it's kinda annoying to have to clean it up every time.

*He LOVES his daddy, he loves hanging out with him and bouncing up and down on his lap.

*He loves swimming, which is lucky since we live in Florida! Daddy takes him swimming every week and he loves moving around in the water.

*He loves flying in the air with daddy. This is a recent activity but it always gets a big smile from Jackson ... now if only we could capture it on the camera...

I love my boys!!