Birthday

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes on Thursday. My life is as sweet and enjoyable as it is because of God, and the friends and family I surround myself with! I love y'all! I had an enjoyable 26th birthday, and it was so special because of the time I was able to spend with my family. God has truly blessed me with a special family that I wouldn't trade for the world! They were sweet to travel to Raleigh to enjoy dinner with us, and it was a nice time of fellowship.

Jackson knows a thing or 2 about birthdays, and while we were eating dinner last night at our favorite restaurant, which has candles on the table, Jackson said, "Birthday mommy. I blow out." He thought it was a birthday candle for him to blow out. He has sang me "Happy Birthday" more times than I can count the past few days, and I have just enjoyed hearing his sweet voice singing.

Home-made Ice Cream...YUM!

So, I've been a little slack this week in the blogging world. What a busy week as I finish up papers, finals, etc as the summer session is coming to a close. I must say it is quite a relief to be finishing up this semester, and just knowing that there are only 2 more semesters left in this journey towards my master's degree! How exciting!

On Father's Day, we decided to make home-made ice cream together. Donald had never had home-made ice cream, and I was thinking of fond memories of my father, and one thing that came to mind is the fun things we would always do as a family, and I thought of how much I loved the summer when my dad would make home-made ice cream. YUM! We decided to make strawberry ice cream. Jackson was such a great helper when it came to packing the ice and rock salt around the ice cream.

**Thanks Lacy for such a great wedding gift! We love it!

Phrase of the Day: "Not Bad"

The phrase of the day has been "not bad." Anytime you ask Jackson if he likes what he's eating today he'll say "Not bad mommy." Not sure where he picked it up but it's so cute. When he says it, you just get the feeling he's such a big boy and knows exactly what he's talking about. I love it =) He says the cutest things somedays!

Happy Father's Day tomorrow! Father's day is always such a hard day for me as I miss Papa so much! During days like this, I remind myself all day how thankful I am that I had such a good dad, and I had him for the 24 years that I did. I'm constantly reminded of what a positive influence Papa had on my life, and how many people never have that influence from their dad in their lifetime! What a privelege to have him as my dad, and to have all of the cherished memories I have of him. I love you Papa!

Sesame Street Presents: Elmo Makes Music

I thought I had already posted this post, but realized it was saved as a draft, so this is from May 31st. What a great time we had.

We had a nice weekend. Saturday night we took Jackson to Sesame Street Presents: Elmo Makes Music. It was a fun musical, perfect for the little ones. It had all of their favorite Sesame Street characters (well most of them anyways), and was upbeat andd fun. We enjoyed spending time with Van and Nicole, and Jackson definitely enjoyed his time with Sophie (he was still talking about her even today). Jackson is still talking about going to Elmo's house, so seems he really enjoyed it. Here's a few pictures from our outing.

Summer Fun!

I think everyone who knows Jackson knows how much he loves the outdoors. Now that he knows how to lock/unlock and open/close every door on the house, we have our hands full trying to keep him indoors when he's supposed to be. Not to worry...we have invested in the doorknob covers to keep him from opening the doors, which has worked so far, but he is smart so I'm sure it won't be long and he'll figure out how to get around those too. That's what happened to the cabinet locks. This weekend we let him enjoy the nice hot weather outdoors. We got his swimming pool out and let him play in it. He had a great time running in and out of the pool. Donald and I had a great time laughing at him and all his antics. Oh the joy he brings to our lives! Here's a few pictures from this weekend. I think they really capture the many excited faces of Jackson.

Cooking

Jackson loves cooking in the kitchen, so I let him help me as I was making the pimento cheese for David and Amy's bridal shower tomorrow. He was having a great time stirring, and was so good about keeping it in the bowl. He's a great helper in the kitchen (until it's time to put it away or in the oven) =)

I'll try to post again tomorrow as I have some cute pictures of Jackson playing in his swimming pool and playing in the sprinkler from this weekend. He's so entertaining! What did Donald and I ever do before we had Jackson?

WOW Music Giveaway

One of the things that I enjoy is listening to music. Jackson and I typically have 1 hour of dance time in the afternoons. This is something that I recently started, and it makes us smile as we dance around the house and relax dancing to the music. During this hour, there is no television, only music. Generally, we listen to Matthew West as Jackson LOVES the Matthew West CD. It has the right umph for his dance style.

Rocks In My Dryer is hosting a blog giveaway for the WOW CD collection. Head over to her blog to get the details on how to enter if you're interested. This would provide Jackson with a lot of new dance entertainment!