Sunny and 65!!!

What a beautiful, sunny weekend in Atlanta! It was 65 and sunny, so we decided to take advantage of it!! Saturday we spent a wonderful day at the zoo. Jackson was so excited to see all the animals. I think his favorite was the lions. Sunday we went downtown and had brunch with Sonali and then spent the morning at Piedmont park. That is the first time we had been there since having Jackson and I had no idea that had a park for children. Jackson had so much fun running all over the park. I think he ran the equivalent of 5 miles!! It was so nice to be able to spend the days outside and makes me sad to know that the cold is going to return shortly. Hopefully we only have 1 more month until spring!! As far as firsts for Jackson, Jackson said "I love you too, mommy" for the first time! It melted my heart, and I think this was definately my favorite first. It was just so sweet it brought tears to my eyes. This first pic is Jackson with the flamingos. He liked them but they were a little stinky!!

Daddy and Jackson at the zoo!!

Family shot in front of the tiger exhibit.

Jackson on the giraffe. They sort of have the same expression on their faces.

Hugs for the lion!!

Zoo playground. Weee!!

Jackson doing what he loves best....running!!

I love to be outside!








Jackson's 2nd favorite thing...climbing! Future mountain climber?

Family shot at Piedmont park! It was so nice to take Jackson into the city.

Running down the hill!

Jackson and Sonali.

King of the hill!

Hi Mommy and Daddy!

Weeeeeee! Of course daddy had to do a little bit of work at the park, which is why he is on his cellphone :)

Pay for Snow?

Well, you wouldn't believe it from the winter we have had, but typically Atlanta does not get snow in the winter. And if it does, it is just a light dusting. Because we don't typically get snow, Stone Mountain Park has a snow park every winter. At this park, you can sled, build snowmen, have snowball fights etc. To keep the snow on the ground, they actually have a bunch of snow machines like they do on ski slopes to keep it powdery white! I was so excited to go there, so I bought us tickets. Our ticket time on the mountain began at 8 am and was for 2 hours. We got up that morning at 6:30, got some donuts and coffee, and hit the road for the 1 hour drive to Stone Mountain. We had the best time!! Jackson got to go sledding and we built a snowman. It was very cute with lots of decorations for the snowman. At one point, Jackson's snowman was wearing a very colorful clown wig! After our 2 hours in the snow, we changed our clothes and headed to the Christmas portion of the park. We went and saw the polar bear express in 4D, which Jackson loved! It was a 20 minute show and was really fun. It they were eating hot chocolate on the show, you could smell hot chocolate. If it was snowing on the show, it would snow on you. It was really a great time and we are going to make it part of our Christas tradition. Little did we know that in just a few short weeks, we would have our own dumping of 4 inches of free snow!!

Jackson building his tiny little snowman!

Tube sledding!

Get my gloves off!!

First sledding experience! I think this really warmed him up for the real thing.

Gingerbread house! Jackson wasn't sure who was going to come out after he knocked on the door, so he took off.

Ahhh the choo choo train. This was really sad. Stone mountain has a real train with a 4 mile track. Jackson was patiently waiting in line to ride the train and gleefully saying "I ride choo choo train!" Unfortunately, after about 20 minutes, we found out the train had broken. He was so sad when we had to tell him that he couldn't ride the train. We will definately be going back so he can get his train ride!!

Stone mountain had this very cute fun barn that was 3 stories of slides, things to climb, and trampolines. Jackson had so much fun and loved to ride the horse.

Getting ready to slide down the hay chute!

This last picture was us at Atlantic Station. Every night, it snows it Atlantic Station, so we took Jackson there one night thinking he wouldn't get to see any snowfall. Boy were we wrong!!

Surviving the snow!!

The snow has finally melted in Atlanta! After our 4 inches of snow, the city was pretty much shut down for a week. I guess the 10 snowplows we have weren't enough :) We spent a lot of time sledding and playing in the snow, which was so much fun! Jackson loved to go sledding. The only problem was he wouldn't keep his gloves on. He would be so cold when we were done that his lips would be blue, and we would put him in the bathtub to warm him up. Jackson had his 2 year visit today and got two thumbs up. He continues to be tall and skinny. He is in the 75 percentile in height, and we have moved up in the weight department to the 20th! Yay!! I think he probably would have been even higher in the weight category if he hadn't been vomiting and not eating for the last week. He is really talking a lot. His vocabularly continues to amaze me. Things I would never believe he would know, he does. He got some animal flashcards for his birthday and loves going through them. It is so funny to hear him say octopus and yak! The other day we walked outside and he heard the choo choo and he said "I hear a choo choo train!" I couldn't believe that my 2 year old said a complete sentence! Jackson has also really started to use his imagination. He is currently obsessed with his gymbo clown so we have to brush gymbo's teeth, change gymbo's diaper, give gymbo bites of food etc. He is still very indepedant and wants to do everything by himself. He has learned what it means to take turns and is starting to understand what it means to share. The other day we were at Champion Kids and Jackson was going down the slide into the foam pit. Once he was done, he sat on my lap and said "it's her turn" to a little girl. It was too cute!

Jackson pulling the sled!

Mommy and Jackson going down the hill!

The crew before we left for the big hill around the corner. It was so fast that we quickly realized it was for adults only!!

Woops! Jackson did a lot of this with the ice.

Weeeeee!

First solo ride! I couldn't believe how much he loved sledding!

Do we have a bigger hill? This is getting boring.

Jackson and daddy going down the big hill by our house. Hold on!! Notice daddy had to put his feet on the ground to keep them from going way too fast.

My sweet little boy.

Jackson giving Mickey a ride in the baby bjorn. We kept Mickey in this for quite a while!

Welcome 2011!!

We had an amazing 2010 and look forward to many more blessings this year. 2011 has already been quite busy with birthday parties with friends and believe it or not, another snow day! Last night we got about 4 inches of snow!! It was so much fun! We had a neighbordhood snow day with snowball fights, building a snowman, and of course, sledding. We attempted the cookie sheet pan again this year, but lucky for us, one of our neighbors had a real sled. We had the best time. Here is our snowman right before Sam ate the carrot nose! Unfortunately, we have not started the new year on the healthiest terms. Poor Jackson got a terrible stomach virus and has been throwing up for several days. The first night was every 30 minutes from 9pm to 5am. It was awful. He just kept saying "All Done!". My poor baby! Then, he gave it to daddy. We actually went into the city for dinner with friends and had to leave because poor Greg became ill. Luckily everyone seems to be feeling better and we were able to enjoy all the snow!

Tasting the snow. Watch out for any yellow snow!!

Here comes Sam up the snow hill!

Here comes Maggie.

Careful Bella! It is slippery!!

Part of the neighborhood crew. We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood filled with kids and good friends!

Natalie and Jackon. Two Snow bunnies!

Happy Birthday Nathaniel! We love you so much and we are so happy that we were able to help you celebrate your special day!

Sam and Jackson being silly.






Pin the nose on Elmo! Jackson and Nathaniel didn't quite get it but had fun trying.

Jackson and sweet Lilly at Gymboree celebrating Adrienne and Paxton's birthday!

I love parties! Where is the cake? The cake is definately Jackson favorite part of a birthday party!!

And to all a Goodnight! Part 2

Merry Christmas Part 2! Believe it or not, we had a white Christmas in Atlanta. It was so much fun and reminded me of Christmas back home. We only got about 1/2 inch, but it was enough to make everything look beautiful!

Granddaddy getting caught eating a snowball cookie. Not before dinner Granddaddy!!

Checking out the snow.

Thank you Rachel and Nelson for making my 2nd Christmas extra special!

So happy I was able to celebrate the season with my sister! Sarah, you were missed!!

SNOW!!!!

Snow bunny in the bushes.

Trying to not to slip.

This stuff is great!

So much fun!!

Thanks GiGi for coming to visit! Jackson misses his GiGi already and so does your pal Emma.
Well, that is it for the Christmas photos. We had a wonderful holiday and can't wait to do it all again next year! We hope everyone had a safe and wonderful new year and wish many blessings to all for 2011!