The Week of Parties!!

We had quite the party week! It all started with my dear friend Sonali's wedding. She had a traditional Indian wedding, which meant the festivities began on Thursday and didn't end until Saturday at Midnight! She made such a beautiful bride and we had a great time at all of her events. We also had sweet Mary and James' pirate and princess birthday party! Jackson was so excited to dress up as a pirate. He kept saying "Arrgh Matey" and "Ahoy!". We then ended the weekend with our gender cake party. This was a compromise between Greg and I because I didn't want to know the sex of the this baby, and Greg really did. So, we went to the ultrasound and the ultrasound tech wrote down on a piece of paper whether it was a boy or girl. Jackson and I left, and she told Greg. Surprisingly, Greg kept a pretty good poker face and never spilled the beans! I then took the paper to Publix, and they made a cake that was iced inside pink for a girl and blue for a boy. We had all of her friends over for the cutting. Each person wore pink or blue depending on what they thought it was. I really was so much fun and Jackson loved playing with all of his friends!

My sweet pirate!

3 pirate boys playing in the pink princess tent!

Pirates munching on their lunch before the parade to the pool!

The cutest pirate with the prettiest princess. Happy Birthday sweet Mary!! I also must say Happy Birthday to pirate James!!







And now for the gender cake party! The theme was "Blue or Pink what do you think?"

Team Blue







And more of team blue...

Team pink. Much smaller than team blue...hmmmmm. I have to give a shout out to dear Joe, who wore pink for the first time. Thanks for trying Joe!









Anxiously awaiting the cut!








It's BLUE!

We are so excited to have a little brother for Jackson! We know they are going to be the best of friends. Thank you to all of our friends and family for helping us celebrate such a special moment. To the ones out of town who couldn't make it, you were missed!! Also a very big THANK YOU to Gloria and Madeline for helping plan such a spectacular party. I would have never pulled it off with you! Love you much!

Trip to Kiawah!

We just got back from a wonderful mini-vacation with Noni and Granddaddy in Kiawah. Jackson had such an amazing time! He absolutely loves to swim in both the ocean and the pool. His fearlessness never ceases to amaze me. From riding his bike all the way to the beach to boogy boarding waves, he is definately all boy!

Here Jackson is with his new lifejacket. He is ready to hit the waves! We did have one problem with the ocean....Jackson likes to dive into the water and swim and didn't realize the salt water would burn his eyes. We quickly remedied that problem by getting Jackson his first pair of goggles. Mommy's pair were green tye died and quickly did not meet the approval of daddy, so the next day, Daddy bought him some blue competition goggles. He loved wearing them!

I just can't get enough of this face!!

Jackson and Granddaddy building a sandcastle. Granddaddy makes the best sandcastles!

Ahhh....Jackson just loves his Noni so much! One night, we decided to pick up some pizza and eat it at the beach. There was a wonderful cooling ocean breeze and so much fun!

Tickles from Noni!








Family shot.

After dinner, we decided to stroll along the beach. We got some really great pics this night!







My little dare devil....always climbing!

Nightime beach shot.






Jackson found the moon!

Another family shot!

Running from the waves.

Always jumping!

Silly Noni and Jackson. I jsut love this shot of them!

Jackson loves looking at the moon, so we had to get a shot with it.

This is our caravan to the beach. Daddy loads everything up and mommy and Jackson follow closely behind!

We made it!

Getting ready to catch a wave!

Hold on tight!

Yaaay! By the end, Jackson was really good at it and would ride all the way into the shore. It was quite impressive to watch if I do say so myself :)

Believe it or not, Grandaddy even got in on the action!

Showing Greg how to get it done!

And of course, no trip to the beach would be complete without a visit with Gigi!

Thanks again Noni and Granddaddy for a wonderful trip! We can't wait until our next visit!

Fun in the Sun!

We had quite a busy and exciting week this past week! After a long summer suffered by multiple mosquito bites, we decided to invest in a mosquito free backyard system. We had it installed this week, and after 1 day, the mosquitos are gone! I can't believe it!! It's basically like an irrigation system and 3 times a day, it emits chrysanthamum which is a natural insecticide. It is absolutely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone that has a mosquito problem!! We also finally decided to join the Marietta Country Club since Jackson is such a huge fan of swimming. He absolutely loves it and daddy has enjoyed the golf and tennis. Finally, we had a wonderful visit from Ben, Sherry, Noah and Jude. They were on their way to family camp and stopped by to stay with us a night. Jackson had so much fun playing with Noah and Jude and was very sad to see them go. It is so funny to see 3 boys playing together. They would be outside running up and down the hill over and over again. They would come in with bright red faces and sweaty little bodies. Jackson really did have the best time. As far as Jackson world, Jackson is really starting to use his imagination and is really embracing being a big brother. Jackson currently has 2 obsessions.....his baby and backpacks. Jackson loves to take his baby, which is either Daddy's old childhood bear or the penguin. We feed the baby, change the baby, wrap the baby in a blanket to go to sleep, and buckle the baby in the car when we go places. Also, everywhere we go, Jackson has to take a "backpack". A "backpack" in Jackson's world is anything he can put things in ranging from an old diaper box to his Elmo trick or treat bag. He is also talking more than ever and a lot of times mommy and daddy can't get a conversation in with eachother without Jackson interrupting and yelling "Listen to me!" Jackson also has a favorite song these days. Kick Drums by Avett Brothers. Daddy has this CD in his car and everytime we drive daddy's car, he wants to listen to it over and over again. It is so funny! He even knows the words and you can listen to him singing it! This first picture is of Jackson and his penguin who had to join us for breakfast.

Jackson found my garlic press and thought it looked like the clippers daddy uses to cut his hair, so he decided daddy needed a haircut!

Marietta County Club! My fearless son saw the diving board and jumped off of it with ease!! They even have a higher board that Jackson jumped off without hesitation.

Swimming back to the ladder.

So proud!

One of our dear friends, Kristin, gave Jackson a book about being a big brother. He loves reading it and has really picked up on the roles of a big brother. Since reading that book, he now has a baby tha he feeds breakfast.





Even able to do a little multitasking. Apparently, Noni called while he was feeding his baby so he was talking with her.

After feeding the baby, it was time to change the baby's diaper. Jackson did all of this without any prompting from me. It was very sweet.








Visit with Jude and Noah. The boys loved playing outside and were cooling off with a delicious popsicle.

Noah and Jude really loved Emma, so we had to get a picture of all of them together.








Sweet Jude.







Noah and his pal.

Jackson showing off his moves.







My little angel!






Since Jackson loves his backpacks so much, we decided to get him one. He loves it and we take it everywhere! He is so excited to pack his stuff in it for our trip to the beach this week!

Jackson is getting me ready for two babies! We have to buckle his baby in wherever we go!