To the Market We Go

Today we went to Pepper Place Market, which is a farmer's market downtown. It's the first time I'd been this year, but Mom was staying with us and we wanted to get some fresh fruits and veggies. So after Jackson had breakfast, we loaded him up and headed downtown. If you haven't been, it's a great little place to go. They block off an area in the street and local vendors have all sorts of things for sale. There's fruits, veggies, breads, jams and jellies, honey, grits, plants, soaps, jewelry, and the list goes on. I love that everything we buy there is from local people.



This is a shot of bread from Continental Bread - yum! We got fresh whole wheat bread, a cranberry-orange scone (breakfast for us!), and some feta-olive bread (which is soon to be part of my lunch :-)).


Jackson just checked everything out.


This is when I was eating my scone - do you think Jackson wanted it too???


Jackson is such a laid back little guy. He cracks us up because when he sits in his high chair or in the stroller, he just kicks up his legs. Even one of the ladies from the Carver Farm booth commented on it - said he "didn't have a care in the world."


And here's a little sampling of all the yummy things we brought home. I can't wait to have a fried green tomato for lunch! And tonight we're skewering and grilling some zucchini and squash. Maybe I'll take some more pics and share - don't get too jealous though ;-) Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

The Garden and Baby Food

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything much about the garden, so I took some pics of it to share :-) Also, I've had a good number of people ask me or email me about making Jackson's baby food, which yes, we are still doing. So, I've got a quick and easy baby food making 101. I know some people think that it's really hard and time consuming, but I promise - it's not!!! Before we get to the nitty-gritty, here's J today - who needs toys when the boy can spend 20 minutes playing under the table? I guess he's already making a pretend "fort" outta whatever's handy :-)



He will pull up on one of the chairs, then "walk" from chair to chair.


It's much more fun to crawl under the chairs on the way outta the fort


After eating a yummy meal, Baby J sits in his high chair and plays with the toys that came with the high chair. It's an awesome high chair that he got from my Uncle Rod and Aunt Susie :-) Thanks again!!!


A new fun game it to stare out the window


Playing with a toy...I obviously interrupted chewing on the string time...

Ok, now to the food part: Here's a typical Jackson supper these days - a couple of veggies and some banana. So far he's eaten everything put in front of him, but I know one of these days that'll change.


So the first thing that I do to make his food his to cook it. For the sweet potatoes, I put them in the oven and cook them. Squash and carrots get steamed. Green beans and peas I buy frozen and cook in the pan. After whatever I have cooked is done, it goes in the blender :


So here are some peas - very easy...just add a touch of water (more if it's potatoes, none if it's squash or other watery foods), and puree.


Here's a pic of squash outta the blender and ready to eat. In another month or so Jackson will be able to eat more thing mashed instead of pureed, but we aren't there yet.


Once everything gets done in the blender, I pour it into an ice cube tray and then freeze it, making individual portions for later. Very easy and very convenient!


Once frozen, the cubes go into a freezer bag. I've read the cubes should be used within a month. I think they would last longer, but I haven't made big enough batches to know for sure. So those are the basics of baby food making. I promise it's easy and really doesn't take that much time. Last night I made several batches for Jackson, and he's set for a couple of weeks or so now. I know it's not for everyone, but if you think you may even want to try it, I really encourage you to do so:-)

Ok, so now to the garden. It has really taken off since we got everything planted. I'm impatiently waiting for my veggies to come on up for me (and for Wes and Jackson) to eat!!! Everything looks great except for some of the peppers...not sure what's wrong w/ them...


zucchini blossoms




okra - haven't done it before, so we'll see how it goes


the peppers...why do I have brown spots on them (anyone???)


one of the 3 types of tomaters I've got


my basil


My whole garden, slowly but surely growing. I'm so glad that we just went ahead and dedicated a big area to this. Like I said before - I can't wait for my veggies to get here!!!

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! I hope everyone takes a few minutes to remember what tomorrow is really about. I'd like to thank all the people who have served in the Armed Forces to defend our country, especially my parents, Wes' dad, and of course, Wes. We pray that everyone who is stationed overseas returns home safely to their families, and we pray for those who won't. Hope everyone has a great day :-) Here's a few pics of Wes when he was overseas:

100 seconds of our day

Just thought we'd share with everyone 100 short seconds out of a day of our life:-) Jackson is nonstop these days, and I have a feeling it's only going to get worse! At the same time, we love that he's so active - at least it tires him out, lol. So, here's a quick peek into life these days...gotta keep one eye on him and one eye on everything else...(btw, the pants slow him down)

Feel the wind blow

Well, it's not really the wind, but Jackson loves to feel the "wind" of the AC blowing on his face. It's too funny to watch him crawl over to the vent and let it hit him. I was scared at first that somehow his little fingers would in some crazy way get stuck or that he would fall face first on the vent, but I guess since he does it all day while I'm not here (proof from the pic), I can relax at least a little bit :D He's into everything these days and thank goodness for baby gates!

Baby shower and Mama Monday

Today's Mama Monday is about chores around the house. Right now Jackson can't help with them (obviously) but as soon as he is, we're going to be getting him involved. Even now when we play in his room at night, I show him how we put all his toys up. Won't be much longer and he'll be doing it himself :-) As for other things around the house, we get things done pretty well I think. Laundry sometimes piles up, but we've been pretty good about keeping up with it lately. Wes does tons to help around the house, and I'm so glad that he helps with everything!!! Like everyone else, I hate to clean bathrooms, sweep, mop, etc, but it has to be done - and I just can't bring myself to pay someone else to do it. In my head I have a schedule (Monday mop, Tuesday bathrooms, and so on), but we just don't get to it every week the way I wish we could. I love that Erin says she doesn't do housework while her kiddos nap, but I find I pretty much have to with Jackson, especially now that he's so mobile and since I'm usually cleaning on week nights after I've been at work. Here's another tip - invite people over to your house because then you are forced to clean and dust and do all the things that everyone loves to do ;-) We try to do this every so often to do the big cleaning that we don't do regularly (like dust). Outside work mainly is done by Wes except for our garden. Which by the way is doing great - i just need to take some pics of it and post them. I work in it and I'm about to till up some more things and plant some flowers. Wes does all the grass cutting, weed eating, most of the weeding, and all those things. One thing that having Jackson around and moving has made us do is sweep and vacuum more regularly (like daily!). Which is good because we keep up with it. I don't have much advice for getting the kid(s) involved yet, but Erin's got some good tips and has some buddy posts if you want to check it out :-D


Jackson isn't scared of the vacuum cleaner, in fact, he likes it.




Sunday we had a friend from work's baby shower at the house (a good excuse to clean, right). Here's a few pics:

All the yummy food


The cute cake


Mama to be and J


Almost the whole gang - a group had already left by the time we took this. Wes went to the lake to fish for a while when everyone was over. Not sure why - 20 women and 6 kids who wouldn't want to be there, lol. Hope everyone has a great week!

Upstairs

Yes, that is Jackson working his way up the stairs!! I can't believe it our baby's now crawling up the steps. It's so cute to watch as he slowly (but not really cautiously) makes his way up them. Maybe I'll be able to get some video of it later this week, but for now, here he goes...


He pulls himself up with his arms




With Daddy patiently waiting behind to make sure J doesn't slip


Playing after bathtime


Getting sleepy - can't you tell ;-)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone (especially our mothers)!!!

Pulling Up

This is the scene walking into Jackson's room after his nap yesterday. He is now pulling up and standing up in his crib. We have now lowered his bed as low as it goes :-D


Busted! Note the little white are to the right of him on his crib...now see it closer


The little one has been gnawing on his bed the past couple of days and has made 4 "bite areas" around his crib!!! We're going to have to cover it with plastic if we can find some that fits his crib.


Determination - his eyes were set on a pair of my shoes across the room. He can crawl pretty quick now when there's something he wants to get.

Happy

Birthday Jackie!!! Sorry I didn't get the post up yesterday (I got caught up w/ the beach pics)! Hope you had a good one.




Happy Anniversary Mary and Chris :-)

7 months and more "firsts"

Saturday Jackson turned 7 months old! He's made so many changes in the past month. He's gone from just pushing up on his arms, to crawling and sitting up. He's also trying to pull himself up on different things, and he's sometimes successful. Now when he wakes up from a nap, he's standing up in his crib when we go in to get him. This past long weekend we've been at the beach. We had our ALANA spring meeting in Destin, FL. It was great, but I was pretty busy and didn't get to spend much time at the beach. The weather was also kinda yucky until yesterday. I'm glad it cleared up when we were done w/ all our meetings :-) Yesterday afternoon we were able to relax with Chris and Mary at the beach. Mom and Dad also came down with us - Mom went to the meetings and Dad relaxed :-) And they also kept Jackson for us at night so we could go out w/ our friends who also were at the meeting, Tammy and Jim and David. It's always great to catch up w/ them because they're in T-town and Montgomery and we don't get to see them alot. We got to eat lots of seafood - always a plus. We came back this morning and are now settling back in to the routine. Jackson is crawling into everything now and had his first boo boo to the face today...he fell over and has a small cut on the outside of his eye now :-( I know he's gonna have soo many cuts and scrapes, but I just hate to see them. I think he's also about to cut a couple more teeth - fun fun. But he had peas to night and slurped them up :-) He's doing great w/ eating real food! Now, here's a bunch of pics from the beach.



Standing up on one of his toys


Our first day at the beach, Thursday - slightly windy (can you tell?)





We got Jackson in the pool for the first time. It took about 10 minutes for him to decide he liked the water, but after those 10 min, he loved it! I think part of what took him a little while to warm up to it was the fact that there were at least 10 other people in the pool - and some of them were screaming, splashing kids. I think it was kinda scary to him. He did so good though!




Loving it now :-D


We had a "beach party" at the meeting, but unfortunately that was the day that it rained. So the party got moved inside. Jackson still wore his cute beach outfit that one of the girls from work gave him. It's authentic Hawaiian ware - too cute!


Pool time


Sunday afternoon we were able to spend some time at the beach after the meeting because we decided to stay an extra day. Lots of fun for everyone.



He wore the hat for a little while, but then kept pulling it off his head. His little swim trunks were so cute (but a little big which means they'll be perfect for our next beach trip in June).


We brought a pool but kept it dry so J could have a sandfree zone (for the most part). He could stay in it for short periods of time but he wanted to crawl out of it for the most part.


Emma's such a big girl now sitting in the chair


We weren't sure how he would react to his feet being in the sand, but he really liked it. He sat on the end of my beach chair and kept wiggling his toes in it.






Daddy time!


In the pool again


splish splash


Our sweet baby boy!!!


Emma checking it out




Tammy and Jim's daughter Madison holding Jackson. She's a strong little girl!


Family pic


Samford Nurse Anesthesia Class of 2005 members


Too cute


Loving the beach...we can't wait to take him back!!!