It's a BOY!!!

I know I promised these pictures last night, but it just didn't happen - sorry! We went out to eat to celebrate our news and by the time we got home and Jackson bathed, and down, well, y'all know how that goes. It was too late for me to get this done because I was tired and ready to go to bed too! But, for those who don't know yet - we're having a baby BOY!!! Jackson is going to have a brother :) Everything looked great with the baby and he's measuring right on schedule at 18 1/2 weeks. Here's a few pictures from the ultrasound. I know it's hard to see and the quality once they got scanned and cropped but it's what we got so far :)

Here's his face and his arm up by it



Here's his foot...

And his leg - which was kicking the black spot next to it - which is my bladder and was very funny to Wes, but not so much to me.

And his little face - now I can't wait to see his 4D pics, but that won't be for about 10 more weeks.

And here's the money shot - his goods are hanging down right under the word BOY. Again, sorry it's kinda hard to see, but it's there!!!

We are so excited to be having a boy and can't wait for him to be here and meet his big brother Jackson :)

The Past Week in Review

We've had a really busy past week. Last week we took Jackson to the doctor for his 12 month checkup. He is doing great! He's ahead of schedule for both motor and verbal. He now weighs 19 pounds and 6 ounces, which is in the 10th percentile (so he's skinny) and he's 30 1/2 inches tall, which is about 65th percentile (so he's a little tall). He's stayed on the same growth curve that he's been on, so we aren't worried about his weight...and if you've ever seen how much the child runs around, you know why he's like that ;) He also had to get 4 shots, and we hated it for him, but he only cried for about 15 seconds. We will take him back in another 3 months.

The rest of the week flew by for me because I was on call Wednesday, then spent Thursday getting ready for our ALANA Fall Meeting. It started with a dinner Thursday night for the new students, the full days for me Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. I was exhausted when it was over, but it was a good meeting.

Wes and Jackson spent some quality time together and some time outside when it wasn't too cold.


Today Jackson got a Halloween card from Uncle Noel and Aunt Joey. He liked feeling the felt on the outside of it...and really enjoyed playing with the envelope that it came in, lol.




Looking up at the camera


Wes and Jackson Saturday night before we went out to eat.




We've had to pull out the winter clothes! And it's gone from fall to winter in about 2 weeks here in Alabama - it's supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow morning!!!




Stopping for a brief moment to smile :)

Playing at the Park

This afternoon was so nice outside, so we decided to take Jackson to the park to play. Once we get him out of the car, it takes several minutes for him to make his way to the park area because he has to stop and pick up a rock. All the toys in the world could be out there and he would still play with the rocks first.




Walking on the trail


His favorite thing to do is go down the slide! He will go down it over and over. Sometimes he tries to climb back up it once he reaches the bottom. There are two slides at this park, so we go back and forth between the two.


He's still not sure what to think of the tires, and there's usually nasty leaves and stuff inside, so we don't let him play with them too much.


This is one of my favorite pictures because it shows what Jackson does best - run around! Half the time when we call him he comes running to us, and the other half he does this - runs the other way :)


On the see-saw


And after all the fun, what better way to wind down than to swing with Daddy!


It's so nice to have a park in our neighborhood to take Jackson to and we try to do it a couple of times a week. He's so much fun to watch when he's running around playing!!!

Another First

We are so glad that the weather has been so beautiful lately. We've taken Jackson outside for a little bit every day. Yesterday we let him run around for about 20 minutes or so. He loves the outdoors and having more room to roam :) And he's definitely all boy - he doesn't care if he gets dirty or falls or anything like that.


Here was a shot of him last night...note the hair...I know some of you think we should've had it cut ages ago, but I was not getting it cut until he was at least one. I wanted to keep my baby just that - a baby...because I knew once we got his hair cut he would only look even more like a big boy. Well, today was the day we took the plunge and Jackson had his first haircut!



He did pretty good. He stood or sat in my lap. You can see by the shape of his mouth I bribed him with food ;) He kept turning his head to see what the hair dresser was doing, and she kept laughing at him. But there were no temper tantrums or crying spells, so I thought it was great.


Bye bye baby curls :(


And here's Jackson now - a big boy!!!

Heart Beat

Today we went and heard the baby's heartbeat! It was great to hear it even though it took a while to find it and we only got to hear it for a minute. Everything's great and we do the ultrasound next visit :) Sorry no pictures lately, but things have been crazy around here.

We will be off to Auburn for the weekend to see how the Tiger's play with an interim OC calling the plays...should be interesting to say the least. War Eagle!!!

Break N Bread

Here's one more picture from Jackson's first birthday - the hat stayed on for all of 5 seconds. If you can tell, Wes is holding his hands down for this picture, lol.

We spent this afternoon downtown in Pepper Place at Break 'N Bread, which had a group of local restaurants offering tastings of their food. This is a Birmingham Originals fundraiser held every year. The plan was for us to go to early church, let Jackson play in the nursery, come home for his nap, then head downtown. Well, all went as planned except for the nap part. Jackson just rolled around and played in his crib for almost 1 1/2 hours, but he was happy, so we left him up there. Then we got him up and headed downtown. Jackson did really well for not having his nap, and the food was great! Each restaurant had a tent set up with plates of their yummy food at the front . Some of our favorites were: Bright Star's seafood gumbo, Cafe Iz's brisket and polenta (which Jackson loved the polenta, who knew?), and Hot and Hot's shrimp and grits. We let Jackson roam around in the street where it was not that crowded and he had a lot of fun. They also had cooking demos, bands, and belly dancers (one of which should NOT have been out there). Here Jackson was dancing in the street :)



We can't wait to go back next year! The only disappointing thing for me was all the wines and beers that were there to taste that I couldn't have! Oh well, there's always next year, right...

Happy Birthday, Jackson!!!

Today is Jackson's birthday! It's so hard to believe that a year ago today Jackson made his entrance into this world :) It has flown by and he's growing way to fast, especially over the last month - he's just shot up! If you haven't seen him in a while, you won't believe it when you do. He's running everywhere and eating just about everything we put in front on him. I've gotten much more relaxed about what I will let him try in the last month, and if we are eating it and he wants to try it, it's almost always his.

Since we did a big birthday party for Jackson a couple of weeks ago, we just hung out at home tonight with the little man. Grandma and Granddad came over to celebrate as well. He had a package in the mail from Uncle Noel and Aunt Joey, so he had a present to open, too. Here is Jackson hanging with his daddy.




This is the little cake for Jackson today - War Eagle!


His first pinch...


Which led to many more handfuls...


Seeing how big of a piece he can get in his mouth ;)


with Grandma and Granddad



Happy Birthday, Jackson!!! We love you!!!