Happy 8th birthday Jackson!!

 Happy 8th birthday to the one who made me a mommy for the first time! I really can't believe that my sweet boy is 8! There are so many things that I love about him, but some of them include his tender heart, fiercely competitive nature, math loving, funny, empathetic personality. He makes us so proud everyday! This year has been all about Pokémon for this one! He loves Pokémon cards and trading them with his friends, so that was his party theme.

 Here is Jackson on the jumpy at his birthday party!

 Best part of the party was definitely the laser tag. Here they are strategizing!

 Go!

I don't think some kids ever left the game truck..

 Jackson LOVES football! He really gets into the games. Some of the kids decided to break away from the party to watch the game. They were jumping up and down cheering so loud!

 Getting ready to blow out his candles!

 SO excited!

Jackson also got a new bike for his birthday!

 He looks so grown up!

Jackson's birthday at school was on their great day of giving, so I didn't get to come in, but he brought Pokeball cookies for his classmates.

 On his actual birthday, Jackson got to plan the day. First stop was to see the new star wars movie Rogue One. They loved it and he got to celebrate with his best bud and first friend, Aidan and his cousins Ben and James. They were all so cute during the movie. They were literally on the edge of their seats during some parts!

 For dinner, he chose his favorite....Aurelios! Would make my Northern family proud! I grew up on this pizza and was so excited when one came ot Marietta!

Best buds! Happy Birthday Jackson! Your future is bright, and we can't wait to see what next year brings!! We love you to pieces!

Happy 5th Birthday Beckett!

Wow! 5 years old!! I just can't believe it. It seems like yesterday that we brought your 4lb 5 ounce little self home from the hospital. We had to feed you every 2 hours through a syringe and look at you now! You are a sweet, funny, life of the party dude! You are truly one of a kind and we feel so blessed that God chose us to be your parents. We couldn't be prouder of you and love you more than words can say! Right now, Beckett is really into fishing and boats, so for his birthday party, he wanted to a boat theme. I had the boy's birthday parties together, but I am going to separate the pics so that each boy gets his own blog post. I was lucky enough to be able to brink cookies and celebrate with Beckett at school on his special day. Here is my birthday boy!!

 These are the cookies we got for his big day at school.

 All his classmates singing to him. He actually looked a little shy!

 We had an outdoor party on Sunday afternoon of his actual birthday. Here is his boat cake!

 We had an outdoor party at our house and I was so nervous about the weather! You never know here what December in Georgia will bring you. It could be 70 or 30! Luckily, it was right in the middle at 50 degrees with no rain! It was perfect! We had about 40 children, so we had a huge jumpy, laser tag, game truck, and a hot chocolate bar. The kids had a blast!

 This was Beckett's favorite part!

Parker and Beckett strategizing!

 Hands up!

 Don't shoot!

 The jumpy was also a huge hit! Beckett must have gone up and down that thing 100 times! It was a little chilly, but Beckett still decided to take off both his shoes and socks. Several times I had to chase him to put at least his socks back on!

 Singing to the birthday boy! His buddies Parker and Ryan are next to him.

 Yummy cake!

 For his birthday dinner, Beckett got to choose where we went.. He, of course, chose Panera :)

Beckett on his birthday present....a new bike! No training wheels! He loves it and is doing great! We are getting ready to celebrate our big 8 year old today!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Yikes! I have a lot to catch up on! It has been a busy month of November and now December! We had the best Thanksgiving in Kiawah, but before that, I wanted to catch up on some of the everyday stuff. Here is Beckett disguising his turkey before Thanksgiving. He chose Batman!

 Pre-K has been a little bit of a struggle for Beckett. He is having a hard time learning his letters and with symbol recognition. We have a wonderful tutor at Walker he meets with him 3 times a week and he has made so much progress! While Jackson has his hitting lesson, I try to play teacher with some resources that our learning specialist friend Brandy gave us.

 Staring contest!

 Beckett has made a lot of friends in Pre-K, so we have been hitting the birthday party circuit! Here he is at Champion Kids. He chose to be Superman today.

 Beckett played Fuse flag football and LOVED it!

 Look who started riding his bike without training wheels!

 Beckett had to make a mask for "Where the Wild Things Are." He sure is my sweet wild thing!

 We have had lots of fun with friends. Here are the boys enjoying a little ice cream treat at Mommy's old stomping grounds!

 Daddy wanted some new boots for his birthday so we headed to real cowboy boot store. The boys found some new hats....

 Davie Crocket!

 Finished up Fuse football. He loves getting his trophy at the end!

 Jackson had to make his own Macy's Day parade float for school. He is really into penguins right now so made Cheeky into a float.

 They had to make their idea out of construction paper first and then they could put their float together.

 This is what he thought Cheeky would see floating over NYC.

 Their wall of floats

Super proud!

 We had a fun visit from the McDonalds and went to the Georgia Tech football game.

 The kids had a blast but it was COLD!!!

 I think Jackson's face had frozen by now...but he refused to leave!

 We were so lucky that Anna decided to take the entire Thanksgiving break call, so that we could travel for the first time. We headed to Kiawah and had the best time! We started the day off with Turkey Trot on the beach. The weather was perfect! Jackson, Mary, and James did the entire 3 miles and Beckett and Ben did 1 mile. So fun!

 Here they all are before the start!

 Here's Jackson and Mary crossing the finish line! So proud of them!

 These two crack me up! The were really hot so they took their shirts off...

He has Yankee blood in him!

 The next day it was time to make our Christmas lists!

 No more cutting out pictures for this big boy!

Most important on this ones' list..a fishing pole.

 We then headed to the Sanctuary to decorate some sugar cookies.

 It was a huge mess but it wasn't our mess!! Best of both worlds!

 Cookies!

 Do you want some sprinkles Ben?

 Finished product!

 Finished product!

 Christmas photo time!

 We then went to Freshfields where they had all sorts of fun things for the kids. First thing was the face painting!

 Jackson chose a turtle.

 Beckett chose to be a turtle....

 Look out Rafael!

 Next it was bull riding!

 Santa was in Kiawah so we had to stop by!

 What else did I ask for?

 Thinking.......

 Family....it just doesn't get much better than this!

 We headed home early Sunday morning and headed straight to Home Depot to get our trees!

 Time to decorate!

Beckett had to put on his favorite boat!

 Putting on his first ornament.

 My handsome boy...

Putting on the star!

This really is the most wonderful time of the year! December can be so busy with Holiday parties, the boys birthdays and then Christmas. I am really trying not to get too overwhelmed and just enjoy every moment. This is what life is really all about!