Evolution of the Playdate

Jackson and I had the best time hosting a playdate at our house today. It was the original crew for the first time all summer. Maybe it hadn't been that long, but it seemed like it. What is so exciting is that the babies are starting to actually play with each other. Play might be a strong word. But they are definitely interacting and interested in each other. They mostly grab each other, stare, and copy each other's noises. They had us laughing so hard. This may not sound like a big deal, but we started having our playdates when the babies were less than two months old and all they did was sleep. They have changed so much! For Jackson, no playdate is complete without a diaper explosion. Today was very complete. The way I see it, if you leave a playdate without some kind of baby bodily fluid on your person, you haven't played hard enough. Once again, in these pictures my son is undressed because he soiled his britches. (We are probably going to have a talk about modesty soon.) He was sitting on my lap when the blessed event occurred. It was truly unbelievable. It took all three of us to get me and Jackson clean. He had gone 24 hours without a b.m. and then like a flash flood it rushed forth on my new Gap leggings. At least they're black. I'd like to thank my beautiful, wonderful, brilliant sister Melissa for giving me the courage to wear leggings this season. They're the perfect thing to get me out of jeans for once. They let me be comfortable in a skirt or dress while playing on the floor with my bouncing baby boy. Did I mention that my sister is the smartest person I know? She's in her second year of her Masters program at Wheaton. And she has a GPA that puts me to shame. Jackson's Aunt Noogie is the coolest! I love you, sis!


Sunni and Ava, Me and Jackson, Janelle and Ella
Jackson is lucky to be in the company of such beautiful girls!


Putting the "play" in playdate


Jackson fell fast asleep during his dinner tonight

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

I love the concept of Ebenezer, which means "stone of help" in Hebrew. An Ebenezer is something that commemorates God's help. "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come..."(Come Thou Fount of Ev'ry Blessing). So this post is me raising my Ebenezer. Picture me with a big stone over my head if that makes you happy. Six months! We made it! And we're happy! What a marker. "Thus far the Lord has helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12). Thank you, Lord!

Jackson has been celebrating his six month mark by doing all sorts of new things. Instead of putting his whole fist in his mouth, he's finally figured out how to suck his thumb. He's added a very loud, high-pitched squeal to his vocal repertoire. Yesterday he had his first bite of veggies - green beans. And he's finally sitting up on his own. He seems very pleased with himself. Yay! This means he will promote to the "Creepers" class on Sunday. We will miss those sweet nursery workers who have so tenderly cared for him since he was only 8 weeks old. Now we're working on sleeping through the night again. Oh, let it be!

Today he had his 6 month check up and shots. For those of you who care about these things, he weighs 18 lbs, 2 oz. and is almost 27 inches long. He's in the 50-75 percentile for both. Jackson is really curious as to who reads the blog, so say hi (leave a comment) this week if you can!


Howdy, thanks, and gig 'em


Fun times at Grandma Beth's house


Lots of sugars


The mirror loves me!


Sitting pretty

Baby Bear

Last October, after we knew our baby was going to be a boy, Mom and I went to Baby Gap to buy the first clothes we would ever buy him. It was a big moment. We bought sizes that he would fit into this fall. One thing we got was a bundling outfit that was pretty much a bear costume. We thought he would be adorable in it in Jackson Hole at Thanksgiving. Since Jackson's outgrowing his 3-6 month clothes, I went into the attic to bring down a bunch of clothes in the next size up. The baby bear came down and, of course, I had to put him in it immediately. I know I'm biased - very biased - but nothing has ever melted my heart so much as the sight of him in that baby bear outfit.

Pictures from "The Land of Jackson's Fathers"

Both times we've driven to Missouri Curt has declared to our son that he's entering the Land of His Fathers. I have gently (or not) reminded Curt that he can say whatever he wants to make himself feel better, but his son is a Texan! Seriously though, I love Missouri. It's beautiful and has great people, especially Curt's family. They are incredibly thoughtful and giving. Right now Curt's parents are building their dream house on 10 acres in Fair Grove, MO. First they built a large garage to house Steve's machines and my favorite item - the racing pinto. My f-i-l drag races. How cool is that? He also has a motorcycle, a dump truck, a backhoe, a tractor, and a ride-on lawn mower. Jackson is going to LOVE visiting when he gets old enough to be fascinated with that stuff. My m-i-l is getting a horse soon, which I am very excited about. Steve built an apartment inside the garage, so that's where they're living while the house is being built. If you look carefully at the pictures you can see a the metal wall behind the high chair and other details that give it away. We like to call it the Harage.


Curt, Lindsay, Matt, Cozy, and a very mad Jackson. He was done with the fair.


Jackson having his very first bites of cereal.


Grandpa Steve


Aunt Lindsay


Curt's Grandma and Grandpa Dixon


I like to call Grandma Wanda my Double Portion.
She is very much like my Nanny who unfortunately
passed away in 1998.


Curt's Grandma Ilene

Aggie Friends

This weekend held some sweet moments with friends from Texas A&M. We had a playdate with Laura and her baby girl Amelia. Laura and I served on the discipleship team at Breakaway together. We had a lot of fun discovering that our babies have some of the same quirks. Jackson pooed his outfit and that's why he's only in his diaper.




What are YOU laughing at?

Jackson and I had brunch with Kat, Lori, and Cimbrey at Kat's super cool townhouse in Dallas. We had so much fun! Kat woke up at the crack of dawn to make us breakfast tacos and blueberry muffins. We were all in Phi Lamb together at one point. All four of these ladies are some of the neatest people I know.


Kat and Fluffy, Cimbrey, and Lori



Jackson has finally gotten the hang of eating cereal. He's opening his mouth and leaning toward the spoon to eat. I'm sure he knows his name now. He has also started getting really upset if I take a toy out of his hand.

The biggest news of the day is that we had rain in our town. Yay! It was actually cool enough to sit on the porch this evening.


This is just a great shot of my son's gorgeous eyelashes.

A New Diversion

Curt and I get rather bored at night because there's nothing good on TV and we can't really go anywhere with Jackson. Sonic is about it. (I'm realizing now how many times I've mentioned Sonic in this blog. Maybe I need to break free.) We used to go out to eat or to movies all the time. More than we should have. Needing an at-home diversion, I started a scrapbook for Jackson last night. Yes, that is a new thrill of motherhood. I used to love making collages and stuff in high school, so hopefully this will be fun. I'm going to try to make it cool and not gay. Some of the baby scrapbook stuff makes me want to gag! In my effort to make a cool-not-gay scrapbook, I got a black one with black pages. I bought a book - A Mother and Child Companion - with vintage artwork of babies and families and I'm going to use the artwork throughout. I already ripped out the seams with my new sharp-tip scrapbooking scissors so I can easily cut out the things I want. I also bought some glaze pens which don't work exactly how I wanted them to. It's a shame because they were so expensive. Apparently the scrapbook industry is a lucrative one.