the boy turned 1 -- Happy Birthday Buddy

I think I have been putting off posting Jackson's birthday because that is admitting my baby is growing up. :( Jackson turned 1 year old on June 14, 2009. He is my sunshine. He really is the most happy baby I've ever seen. He always puts a smile on my face and everyone around him. Sam always is asking me if our girls were this happy -- I tell him that they were happy -- but not THIS happy. He loves to wave at people and loves to give high 5's. He loves to bite :) and loves to give open mouth tongue kisses. He is crawling (finally) and is pulling himself up to stand. He loves his mama and I adore him. There seems to be a whole new bond I have with my boy - not that I love him more -- but there just seems to be some sort of different connection that I have with him. It is very cool. So Happy Birthday to my little buddy.......
my fist attempt at a "boy" cake.... notice the dismembered body parts and blood :)
jackson was a little concerned with the singing of "happy birthday"

strawberry pickin.....

taste testing a few.......just to make sure they were good..... ;)

cute summer hair cuts.....

Addie has been begging me to cut her hair.  She wanted it cut like mama's -- so tonight I gave it a whirl.  Came out pretty cute for me not having a clue of what I'm doing :)

And of course -- Gwenny needed her's cut" just like Addie's" -- so we did our best :)
they are VERY excited about this :)

Fishing Derby

Out at my parents house on the lake -- they had a Fishing Derby.  It was for kids - they had a bunch of booths with activities for the kids to do, then we could get in line (a very long line) to do some fishing.  They stocked the lake with 2,000 fish for the kids.  So everyone was sure to catch something.  Each kid could catch 2 each. Both the girls caught 2 and Addie even caught a tagged fish which was a prize fish. Very exciting. It was a very fun morning. Maci was in line ahead of us with Keith and Alicia and so the girls got to see her catch it and then get it "cleaned".  After that Addie didn't want to fish anymore.  She didn't want to have her fishes head cut off.  So we told her when they cleaned hers - we'd leave the head on -- and they did. So we got some free fish and entertainment.  AND we even cooked them up and ate them. (well me and the girls each had a "thank you bite" -- thank you for dying for us and giving us free entertainment. :)  )

the girls entering the mouth of one big fish..............

Addie catching her 1st fish............
Addie's 2nd fish --- the prize fish!!!.............. (before Gwen even caught her first)
got a little bloody...............
i love this picture of Gwen..... she is SOO excited.............
slippery little thing -- but Gwen has no fear - she just goes for it........
Gwenny with her catch..........
see what I mean about no fear...... 

Addie's Kinder Celebration

Last night was Addie's Kinder Celebration.  That is what they did at her school instead of a graduation.  They sang a bunch of songs for the parents and it was very cute.  As you can tell from the pictures below Addie was VERY excited about it.  First grade, here we come.......

excited girl........................

Addie and her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mattoon......
Addie and Mommy (Addie acting very silly :) )............
the proud family................
family support  -- we all love our Addie...................... 

what we did on memorial day.......

Instead of going on a fun vacation for Memorial Day weekend, Sam decided he had some studying to do.  Lucky for me, when Sam has to study -- he usually does anything but.  So our front area ( I can't call it a yard) FINALLY got done.  About a year ago Sam dug up about a million brick things out of our back yard.  I don't know why they were back there -- but there was a ton of them.  So we decided it would be a GREAT idea to save them and use them for the front.  When we moved in the lady had a bunch of flowers and rose bushes out there--- but it didn't look that great.  So then we decided to pull everything out and put a tree in the center with all of our free bricks from the back.  Sounds easy enough.  Well the bricks have been sitting in a pile next to my front door ever since.  We have dug up the flowers and weeds, lots of weeds and got it all cleared out about 3 times.  But it never got done.  I even asked for it to be done for my birthday back in Dec.  Still not done.  Finally a few days before Memorial weekend I got fed up and dug it up again and just started throwing bricks out.  It didn't look great -- but it looked better then the weeds.  Well THAT was finally the thing that got Sam to jump in and get this project done. It turned out to be a much bigger job than we had expected. The stupid bricks were so jacked up -- none of the edges were straight.  So Sam had to chisel the sides straight and I would lay out the sand and place the bricks.  It took ALLLLLLLLL day. But we worked together as a team and it was kinda fun.  And we are very pleased with our work.  A nice clean look with little maintenance. It may not look like much to you........... but it looks wonderful to me. :)

wish i had a "before" picture.... but just imagine the area full of weeds

wanted to include a picture of the backyard.... can you imagine all those bricks randomly around there?? Our back yard looks way better than it did before too. It's small but it's more than we have ever had before and we are grateful :).............