Family trip to Nashville

During spring break we took a trip to Nashville (our soon to be new home town) to find Brent an apartment and get somethings in order to move. It was a nice break from trying to get a million things done around the house. Before going to Nashville we stopped to see Pop who is doing better. He is still not 100% yet. Between Muscle Shoals and Nashville Jack got sick and it was terrible. I just knew this trip was going to be bad...but it turned out to be great. First of all there was no high chair in the hotel room for Jackson so he got to eat his breakfast in the big chair and loved it.

Later our friend Holli Blass came by to visit. She lives an hour outside of Nashville and I have been friends with her for several years. It will be nice to have a friend in the area. She told us all the good places we had to go. Then we went to Super Target to get new bathing suits. The hotel had an indoor pool and we just had to go swimming. Of course the bathing suit I found for under $40 was very unflattering. However, it was just fun to swim with Jackson. Brent and I have been married for over 6 years and we dated for 4 years before that. So I guess you could say we have been together for over 10 years. In that 10 year time frame it is very rare for Brent to get in a public pool. He has never been to the pool at the local rec center, when we go to the beach he never really gets in the pool, he has just told me he does not like public pools.

However, he got in the pool with Jackson....he said he would do anything for his son. After swimming Brent found Jack playing in his car seat in the room.

After we found an apartment we went to the outlet mall and did some walking around. Jackson is really walking now so we let him walk. He did a little window shopping also. He was very good on this shopping trip.

Later we stopped at Books-A-Million to play. He found some toys he liked and I found these fun hats to put on him (the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts).

The next day we ate at Toot's which is a place our friend Holli told us about. Jack looked at the menu but there was nothing on it for him to eat.

We got him a float and went back to the pool for a little swimming again. This time there were towels folded up like elephants by the pool. Once again Jack had a great time.

The next day we ate at Cheddar's and Jack just had to sit by Dad in the booth. After I put on Jack's PJ's he wanted to play in the dresser drawers and had a great time.

 

 Then it was time to go home. On the trip up I finished his Easter "Chocolate Bunny" hat. It is a little to hot for a hat but it was so cute I had to make it. I made it a "Chocolate Bunny" so it would be more manly.

Happy 1st Birthday Jackson!!

It is hard to believe Jackson is 1 year old. It seems like he just came home from the hospital yesterday. Brent and I still say we are not use to him yet. It was a very eventful and fun day. We started the day with a couple of photos of father and son and Jackson getting ready for the party.

 Then we had to get ready for the party. I made rainbow cupcakes with green icing (I used 2 bottle of green food coloring for all the food), thin mint cookie balls (kind of like oreo balls), mint oreo's on a stick covered in chocolate (and I stuck them in lucky charms cereal), I bought some clover cookies and ice cream to go with all of it. We also had green ice cubes for our drinks. It was a day of sweets for my sweet boy.

We opened presents first because I knew after the cake he would be covered in green (and yes I made the hat). His best buddy Gehrig helped him open the presents and later is girlfriend from daycare Ana helped. He got lots of new PJ's, a new bathing suit, some really cute outfits, a couple of balls to play with, lots of good books to read, and some other fun toys.





Then it was time to dig into the cupcakes (Libby helped blow the candle out). Jack started a little slow but once he got started he enjoyed it. It looked like everyone else did as well.



After we ate the kids went outside to play with the new balls. This was really Jackson first time to play in the grass. Of course he tried to eat leaves and acorns. Thank goodness Libby and Ana were there to keep him from eating them.

 Then we took one last family photo in front of our house. The "For Sale" sign will be going up soon.

Then Jack looked out the window to make sure everyone was gone and headed to the bedroom for a long nap. He was really tired after a long day of fun.

Everything is slowly getting back to normal

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for our family...my Dad has been in ICU and was not doing so well. Time kind of stopped while I sat with him in the hospital. He is doing much better now. He is not 100% yet but he is getting there. I just want to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers. If I have not returned your call I am sorry it has just been really crazy. It is hard to remember to call everyone and give them the updates. I also want to say a big THANK YOU to Brent for being such a great husband and to Kay (my mother-in-law) for being so helpful with Jack.

I say everything is getting back to normal however...Brent and I are getting ready to move. Our house is so messy and a construction zone also. Brent is trying to tile the bathroom and I am trying to sort things into piles. We have already taken 2 truck loads to my Dad's house to store and I have a big yard sale pile. Brent will be moving soon and then Jackson and I will follow. It is a new adventure for our family. We have never lived outside of Alabama. I was planning on Jacks being Big AL for Halloween I hope people know who he is and don't think he is just some elephant.

 

Here is a little preview of what my next post will be about......