Happy Birthday Alex :)

Even though we already celebrated Alex's birthday earlier in the month, we sitll had to do something for him on his actual birthday. Charlotte and I went to his work to take him to lunch however one of his managers pulled the "I'm more powerful than you" card and said he couldn't go. Sad sad day :( We were even waiting outside for him. Oh well.

So instead we came home and we baked him a cake!

 We made a two layer red velvet cake with homemade baker's icing (Grandma's recipe)

 Charlotte was pretty proud of you. You should how I had to orchestrate life to get this picture of her with the cake on the counter top.

 While we waited for Alex to get home, we played with the tree... lots of animal print going on here.

 She started saying the word "light" this night but hasn't said it much since then.

 "Uh oh. It fell."

 "Mom, Tree is pretty cool. I love the lights."

 Daddy's home!!! (She gets sooooo excited when he comes through the door at night... on the nights she actually stays up past 7:45.)

 Alex and his 14.5 pound tiger and his 17 pound child... nice, happy partial family pic. No children or animals were hurt in this photo.

 Sure, give her cake before bedtime. It'll work wonders.

Happy Birthday Alexander Keith Jackson. You make our life complete.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

Oh how I love Christmas time!!! I love the trees, the lights, buying presents for other people, the sea of red before me in every single store I go to (LOTS of people wear red when they Christmas shop), the cookies, the parties, the plaid, the lawn decor, etc... You get the picture. You know, growing up, Dad always bundled up on a Saturday morning and when outside and hung the lights around the house. You'd hear the creepy noises of him being on the roof, usually a curse word or two, and by lunch time the lights were up. It was like magic.

Now, we are older and have to actually do the work ourselves :) Alex works every Saturday...no matter what... and he works the last Sunday of every month. Well, since it gets dark around noon these days, we only had a few minutes to decorate when he got home from working at 5 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Even though we only had a few minutes, the house still looks nice :) (It looks better than our neighbors :)  )

 It always takes the longest to get the lights untangled...

 Our crazy kid was in amazement of how the lights worked. She LOVED them!

 All... most... done...

 The porch. Notice the wardrobe. Yeah, it was 75 that day. Charlotte looks a little WT. Don't judge. We have changed a few things up since this pic. There is now greenery and red beads around the columns, there are lots around the rocking chair, and the red bow has died. Apparently the area bt the glass door and the real door is like 200 degrees. Well, the bow melted. I took it back to Kmart. They were SHOCKED I tell you.

 From the street... for a 15 minute work job, no too shabby.

 Well, after the tree had been in our dining room (there is not enough room in our living room) for 5 days, we decided to finally decorate it.

 "For me?"

 "You want me to put this where?"

 Baby's First Christmas... her ornament from Papa Jack and Granny J

 A picture with mommy!!! We are a on a roll with these!!!

 Helping daddy hang his Marine Corps ornament... Sgt Jackson

 So I should have known that Pujols would get traded... or choose to play somewhere else. Charlotte helped me hang my FAVORITE ornament. Well, as we were hanging it, it fell and his foot fell off. I should have seen it as a sign. I should've known he'd no longer be a Cardinal. Stupid Pujols.

 And Tree is decorated! Don't be jealous of the zebra curtains.

"J" is for Jackson. I know, so clever.

It's Christmas time y'all!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

So we had our first Thanksgiving as a family of three! Alex was so excited to have his parents, siblings, and grandmother come to our house for Thanksgiving Day. I will be very honest. I was a bit nervous to have all of them here for a huge meal with a lot of emphasis. I mean, no one wants to go to a place and eat a crappy Thanksgiving dinner with a dry turkey, lumpy potatoes, and weirdo foods that they aren't used to.

I am not much of a casserole person. My family didn't ever do casseroles growing up and neither did my grandmothers. It took me awhile to get used to casseroles when I moved to SC bc everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, can be made into a casserole. I like casseroles now, I just don't make them. SO, I didn't make casseroles. I stuck to the basics: turkey breast (in crockpot), ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, sweet taters, stuffing, cranberry jelly like stuff from a can, rolls, some random appetizers, etc.  For dessert I made my Grandma's homemade apple pie.  Now that you have what the menu was (and I know you didn't ask) I will show you some of the pictures!

 My beautiful baby wore the most awesome outfit in the entire world. My bff's mom, "Nana" Gwen made it for Charlotte.

 How sweet does she look????

 Shockingly enough, Charlotte loved all of the attention.

 Here was our set up. Don't mind the undecorated Christmas tree in the windows.

 The kid's table... Adam, Austin, Alex, Charlotte and I sat here.

 The grown up's table. Mimi, Ronnie, Laurie, and Amelia sat here.

 My fabulous steal-of-a-deal flowers from Bi-Lo

 Getting ready to eat. He loves her :)

 Austin got a bit out of hand. We had to remind him that it was noon and to take it easy...

 Our spiral ham... from Costco... we just had to warm it up. It was fabulous.

 Part of our spread.

 Aunt Amelia and the smallest turkey in the room.

 We walked away from the day with only one battlewound. The scores goes as follows:

Potatoes -1, Alex- 0

 She was SO ready to eat her Thanksgiving meal. We forgot to get pictures of her actually eating it.

 Charlotte was so excited to see Berkley in the backyard hanging out.

 Daddy-Daughter photo

 Even though my chubby cheeks take up the whole picture, I still love that we actually remembered to take a picture together.

 Charlotte got her first Christmas present on Thanksgiving. Papa Jack and Granny J knew there wouldn't be enough room in our mom bus on Christmas to bring this home with us.

 Learning how to unwrap the present.

 "Daddy, you are so funny putting all of the paper on me!"

 "Whoa! Is this really mine?? Are the kids in the box too??"

 BOOTY SHORTS! Nana Gwen hand stitched those from scratch. AWESOME!

 Helping put the shool bus together.

 Grandparents are fabulous.

 Check out her left arm. How cute!

 She almost looks like she's going to poop in this picture.

I love that they both have the same expression!

It was a successful Thanksgiving Day. Even though I lost a bit of sleep and some of the skin from my finger tips, it was worth it all. The food was pretty good (if I do say so myself). I don't want to cook that much every month, but every once in awhile it could be fun! We were so happy to have everyone together and at our house. Charlotte loved all of the attention. I hope everyone left full. I know it wasn't the same as all of their other Thanksgivings but we gave it a shot!

To cap off the day, we talked on Skype to Gigi and Papa in Illinois and we talked to everyone at Grandma Weber's house...twice! We met new baby Kyla via Skype and we were able to show everyone how Charlotte goes down the slide on her new school bus toy.

I always realize during the holidays how much I love my family and how much I miss my Illinois family. It's so hard to always have to be away from them for every major holiday. But we make due! We continue to countdown the days until we see each other again. It's the only way to do it.

The Jackson are so very thankful for each other and all that we have. We are thankful for fabulous family and friends. We are thankful for a roof over our heads, food on our table, and a church that we love. We are thankful for a healthy baby girl that is thriving. We are thankful for all that God has given us. We are so very blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving my dear friends :)