Jesus' Silky

This is a funny little story that I have to share with you all:

Yesterday morning when I dropped Jackson off at school his teacher pulled out their Bible story book and told me that she had to share something with me. They read a Bible story each morning out of a Children's Bible book which includes photos and she said that Jackson was always quick to point out to the whole group that "Jesus has a silky too"! HA! You see, Jackson has really taken to his "silky" as he calls his blanket and he seems to think that everyone, including Jesus has a silky. Go see for yourself though, the traditional pictures depicting Jesus do show him with some sort of a shawl or blanket or "silky" (if you will) draped across his shoulders......logically this must be Jesus' silky:)

I hope this makes you all smile as it made me! Happy Friday to everyone, TGIF.

the start of the summer nights

As I mentioned last week, summer is upon us in full swing here in Florida but it is the really NICE early summer weather, cool in the mornings and at night but warm and sunny all day long. This time of year always reminds me of early June in Ohio! Our yard is coming back to life and has started to look really good again after the coldest and worst winter ever on the books in the state of Florida (thanks to Grandpa for helping us plant the front bed in November, miraculously all of the plants made it through the winter and are now thriving again) and we also planted some impatients in pink and white in our front window boxes last week and potted a bright pink plant by the front door. The yard looks the best it has looked since November I think after the long and cold winter we had. These are tropical plants that are not used to frost and long stretches of night temps in the 30's and 40's, eek.. Where we live is actually considered the "tropical" plant zone (we are the northernmost county for this) and the winter was just ROUGH to say the least on these plants. We are fortunate that our back yard is fenced which served to protect the majority of our plants. We do have to re-sod the grass in the bank but the palms and hibiscus all made it.

We've got the lounge chairs set up alongside the pool for the summer season and as you will see from these pictures, the new ritual after dinner is to go out and sit in the chairs and enjoy a popsicle (for Jackson at least) and then to run around the yard like a mad man to get the last of the energy out before bath time!!

Happy birthday to our Gigi!

It's a great day today largely in part because it is our Gigi's birthday! Gigi, forgive us for not posting pictures of our wonderful times spent with you when we visit and are so spoiled to stay at your house, our computer is broken so words in this post will just have to make do:)

We love you and think we are the luckiest in the world to be part of a family with such a wonderful leader. We love our time spent with you and feel so blessed to be able to share our lives with you from the time we were just 16 and dating and we would visit you at your house in Siesta Key Florida, to the present times now that we are married and parents! We are so thankful for your guidance and insight, we love you and we cannot wait to see you this coming June! xoxox love Jon, Jenny and Jackson

outside time

Jackson's favorite place to play is outside which he will safe OVER AND OVER AND OVER again "outside, outside, outside" until one of us goes out there with him. These shots were taken after we were in teh pool for no less than an hour and a half!! He would not let me take his swimmy off of him and then finally I got it off and he was just down to the swim diaper!! While he was playing with the contents of our beach toy bag on the porch, I gave him a little test on his colors using the beach toys! I think he scored 100%, check it out for youself:) Also, we made Mimi's strawberry pie for dessert tonight, the perfect way to start off the summer season!

Saturday= happy day

Oh happy day, it is SATURDAY, the best day of the week by far! We have had several very busy weeks with a few quiet weekends in between and we're finally to another quiet weekend, phew.

I love Saturday mornings when we have nowhere to rush off to...like today! Jackson was of course up with the chickens at 7 and we were all snuggled into our room watching Tigger and Pooh before the sun was all the way up, but that is ok. Now he and Jon are "riding" the bike in circles around the house as he tries to master the skill of pedaling his trike and I am enjoying blogging and coffee and the morning Today show contemplating what we are going to do today.

We have a few errands to run but I got home from work a few hours early yesterday as a conference I was at got out early so I cleaned the house from top to bottom before Jon and Jackson got home so that is done which means we can play today! Besides coffee and blogging and watching the Today show on a Saturday morning, there is nothing better than a CLEAN house. We have a cleaning lady that comes bi-weekly because frankly, we get so little time off as a family that it is worth it for me to spend the money to have someone come so I do not drive myself nuts spending one of two days off cleaning the house. This was her off week though and the house needed some help and I actually found the cleaning to be a bit therapeutic. I cannot tell you the last time I have been HOME ALONE and had peace and quiet, even if I was cleaning, I enjoyed the time to just think and work on ONE single task at hand (I am the queen of multi-tasking in my day to day life so this was nice.) I even worked up a sweat, so much that I grabbed a bathing suit and jumped into the pool after cleaning for a quick swimm and cool off before Jon and Jackson got home. Then we decided that since the house was so clean...why mess it up cooking so we did a quick change and headed out to Captain Hiram's, the famous Sand bar and restaurant. We got a table right outside along the Marina and Jackson enjoyed watching the pelican's in the water and the boats coming in and out. We were also right next to the spot where live music was set up and I wish I had a video camera with me, Jackson totally has Jon's fun personality and love for music! He stood up in the booth and would dance, smile, and he would clap at the end with his hands over his head! The guy singing even called Jackson out and told the whole restaurant that "his biggest fan was directly to his left" and then he gave Jackson a thumbs up and Jack did it right back!! If anyone knows of some places with live music when we are in Ohio this summer, you too can witness Jackson's dancing moves!

Now back to toay......it is supposed to be 85 today so I'm thinking we'll head to the beach at some point. Off for a quick stroller ride with Jackson now and a walk for the dogs before the heat sets in. Happy Saturday everyone, I love this time of year!

"bike"

This past weekend we broke down and got Jackson his first tricycle, or as he says "bike". He has been obsessed with the bikes for the past few months whenever we go to a place like walmart or target where there is a large number of bikes in a small space. He always goes for the ones that are WAY to big for him but we convinced him that this tricycle was "just right" for his size (he wanted to ride on a bike that looked like it was for a 4 year old, complete with training wheels (and his dad wanted to get him this bike too)!! I convinced them both that he had to at least wait until his third birthday for a real bike...the second birthday is what hte tricycyle is all about. So, his birthday is more than a month away...yes we realize that.......but he always gets SO MUCH stuff all at once, and he really does not know the difference so he got his big birthday present just a bit early! He is already learning to pedal fairly well and each morning when he sees the bike on the porch, that is ALL he wants to do. I finally had to hide it because it was causing me major anxiety each morning when I was trying to get us out the door and ALL HE WANTED TO DO WAS RIDE THE BIKE. Here is a video and some shots of the bike riding that has gone on at our house this past week. He pedals outside all around the pool deck and loves it.

inaugural swim of the year!

We officially opened the pool for the summer season today after work! In Florida people don't "close" the pool the way they do up north, but we do not swim in the winter months unless we spend a few days heating the pool and lots of money to get it warm and keep it there. So for us opening the pool means the first official swim!

The weather has reached into the 80's consistently now for the past week or two and we're set to be mid-high 80's here on out going forward so the pool was finally warm enough for swimming. I can already tell that we will have Jackson swimming well by the end of the summer. He is an absolute fish. He jumps off the side of the pool into the water and does not care a bit if he has water on his face, in his eyes, in his mouth, he loves it all and yells "agin" "agin" "agin" after Jon tosses him into the air, or whatever he may be doing as it pertains to the pool. He was in the pool tonight for over an hour when he got home and had a screaming kicking fit when it was time to get out. It's going to be a water logged summer around here I think!!!

Having fun in the hot tub with daddy!

Here are some pictures from last weekend when Jon put extra bubbles into the hot tub and he and Jackson went for a swim! I have video too and I will try to upload that.

Jackson in his new Cleveland Indians Jersey

Papa recently sent Jackson his very own personalized Indians Jersey, just in time for the spring baseball season! This was the smallest size they had so as you can see, he is going to get a few seasons wear out of this!! THANK YOU PAPA:)

p.s. don't mind the scrape around his eye, a few nights ago after work he was running around the back yard and despite the sheer size of the sheer size of the child safety fence around the pool, he ran right into it (it is smooth screen) and somehow cut his face. There are poles every few feet to hold the fence into the ground around the pool and they have the tiniest little nobs on them, he must have found one of those with his cheek. Anyways, if anyone will find a way to hurt themself on a seemingly safe apparatus, it is JACKSON. We've been putting neosporine on it though so it should be "all gone" as Jackson says in just a few more days.

thankful....

Today we are thankful that our sister/sister in law/aunt/Godmother and our new little niece Anneliese Helen arrived safely (despite the fact that she arrived swiftly) and we cannot wait to see pictures and talk to Julia and Craig. We're letting them rest now, but we are so happy to hear that mom and baby are resting well in the hospital:):):)

I am going to post some pictures of Jackson in his Indians Jersey from Papa later on!!!

Tigger

It is the middle of the week, thank GOODNESS!!! Jackson (a/k/a "Tigger" as his teacher Miss Anna has nick named him thanks to his ever abounding energy level and good natured attitude) is bouncing back from his sickness. One poor little girl in his class has pneumonia, so there are definitely some bugs going around but I think we've just about kicked it without a trip to the doctor or the ER for a chest x-ray this time, phew.

As our little Tigger is approaching his 23rd month, his vocabulary is exploading every single day and he now knows most of his colors and can count to ten and if you draw a bunch of shapes on the driveway and ask him to find a square, circle, triangle, etc. he can do it without hesitation!!! The color recognition is the biggest thing though and it is just exploading. He will just start firing off the colors of anything in site these days, without us even asking him. 9 out of 10 times he is right. We are surprised by this because we have not put effort into teaching colors but apparently the time and money spent in the school is paying off! He can also just about say every single family member's name when we say them to him and ask him to repeat them back...G's are hard though so "Grace" and "Grandma" and "Grandpa" still come out kind of funny and he does not quite get "Frances" out very well, of all the cousins he can say "Lucy" the best!!

In other changes, he is staying up about an hour later (to our dismay) as it is hard to get him up in the mornings now. I think it is due to the season change though and it staying light out longer, more so than him getting older. We are going to buy a black out curtain this weekend as he needs his sleep! We're gearing up for a big second birthday bash with his little friend Lola whose birthday is just one week before his! I am friends with Lola's mom, Melissa, so we're pooling our resources (we have many friends in common so most of the people we would have invited to separate parties will be the same) so we're doing a Princess and Pirates theme 2nd birthday party at a local place with a big gymnastics room. I took Jackson to a valentine's party at this place a few months ago and he LOVED it. Who would not love a soft padded room to run around in with ball pits, swings, push toys, a parachute, bubbles and kid music!!?? After the gymnastics fun, the place has a little party room and all we have to do is say what colors we want, they supply the party decorations, balloons, matching plates, cups, silverware and we can order food or bring in whatever we want. Should be fun..........I can barely believe Jackson is almost two but we are really loving this phase with him.

sick little man

Unfortunately, we are NOT having a great weekend. Fortunately, Jackson came down with this sickness on a weekend so we don't have to miss work and can be home with him and keep him quiet and allow him to rest and get better.

He had a bit of a stuffy nose all week but that is really quite normal since he is in daycare. Friday a cough appeared and by Saturday morning he was really not well with wheezing and coughing and a constantly running nose. YUCK!! We got the nebulizer out and have had it going full blast with treatments three times a day to cut down on his chest congestion and wheezing. Don't let the pictures fool you though, he looks pretty calm, docile and well, pathetic...but when he was not forced ot receive his treatments, he was roaming the backyard playing quietly with his trucks and cars. We have been keeping him hom eand hydrating him but he still just wants to play which is a good sign!! He slept soundly through the night last night despite the coughing so we're hoping that he turns the corner today. The congestion is still bad due to his asthma, but the nose does not seem as bad. NOW LETS HOPE WE DO NOT GET THIS, I have two very busy weeks ahead and we just cannot afford to be sick.

TGIF

Thank goodness it is FRIDAY. Even though its been a 4 day week for us, we went into it tired from such a fun holiday weekend! we are SO thankful it is Friday and we can look forward to some down time ahead. Tomorrow morning we have plans to hit up the local oceanside farmer's market briefly and then we have to be over at one of the parks to help out my firm and another company that we partnered with at our booth for the Relay for Life. Jackson and I will do a few laps, me walking, him in the jogging stroller, or maybe walking here and there, but mostly we're just going to help out with selling biscotti (and maybe eating some along the way) to raise funds to support cancer research!! Other than that, NO plans other than church on Sunday!!

grass photos and update!

Here are the long over-due Easter Egg grass photos and update! The grass finally germinated, but seriously, I planted about two weeks prior to Easter, I should have planted 3 weeks prior...plan accordingly if you do this little project next year:)

Happy Thursday everyone, we are making it through the week, its been busy since we were off a bit last week and the beginning of this week and we are all a bit tired but thankful it is THURSDAY:)

Good Friday easter egg hunt, Easter weekend at the beach, and Lion Country Safari!!

Hello! We've been away for a few days so I have lots to catch up on with the blog! I never even posted pictures that go with my previous post of our Easter decorations at our house and our grass growing in the eggs...look for that soon, but the grass did FINALLY grow although next year I will be sure to plant it one week earlier than I did so I have long grass by Easter!! The project does work (even in the plastic eggs vs. real egg shells) just plan accordingly time-wise!!

I'll start with Good Friday: My office was closed so Jackson and I enjoyed a morning off together to sleep in a bit and just relax before getting the last of our things packed up for our Easter weekend trip to the beach down south to meet the Sherman Family. Nick Sherman and Jon have been friends since 5th grade and his family has always been very friendly with us over the years inviting us to join them for 4th of July festivities, etc. whenever we are in Ohio and now that we have Jackson they are always wanting ot see him too!! Before we could hit the road though, we had a very important egg hunt play date with friends at a local park. Jackson loved the egg hunt and filled his basket with colored chalk shaped like eggs, cute spring time themed board books, plastic fun bugs, and traditional plastic Easter eggs filled with all sorts of healthy treats including gold fish and cheerios! After the egg hunt we had a picnic style lunch with friends and he was lucky enough to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich shaped like a bunny (my friend who planned this is a pre-school teacher so super creative) and also some other sweet treats like all natural apple juice, grapes and cheese sticks and of course an Easter cookie for the road!! When we were finished with the egg hunt we headed right over to Jon's work to pick him up and then we hit the road for the drive south to Hollywood, Florida to meet up with Jon's friend Nick and his family who have a condo down there just steps from the sand!!

Easter weekend:

We arrived and met up with the Sherman family around 2:30 Friday afternoon and immediately dropped our bags and gear in the hotel room they had so graciously reserved for us just a few places down from theirs and I am not joking, we could see the water from our front door, and that far south it is a light turquoise blue, not the deep blue we get just a few hours north, it almost looked like the Bahamas and this is also a very busy beach so very different than where we live. There is even a boardwalk along the beach and shops, restaurants, etc. so Jackson really enjoyed the people watching. We spent the remainder of the day at the beach and then relaxed for a bit in the room before meeting up with everyone to head out to dinner. We enjoyed oysters on the half shell and mahi mahi for dinner along the boardwalk. We got to meet a lot of Nick's extended family who was also down for the week since they have a place in the same buiding as Nick's family. We had a great time with his parents, sister, aunt, uncle and his cousins and Jackson just ate up all of the attention being the only little one. Nick's aunt has many many grand children so had all kinds of kid gear in her place and Nick's mom and sister had gone shopping before we arrived and I think they gave Jackson a new surprise toy every single time they saw us! Within less than an hour of being there, Jackson acted like he had known them all his whole life and he really took to Nick's sister Tori. He would go off with her to do fun activities and she was great to help out and play with him so Jon and I could relax a bit too!!

Saturday morning brought more perfect weather, sun, a light breeze and cloudless blue skies. We pretty much hit the beach all day and then enjoyed dinner out again that night at a great italian place right along the inter-coastal waterway. Jackson loved it as there were lots of boats going by, perfect restaurant selection for a todller (Nick's mom is a teacher so she did such a great job planning for places that would be kid friendly)!

Easter Sunday once again brought amazing weather that we woke up to! We enjoyed breakfast out along the boardwalk as a family and had a long walk that morning. We all hit the beach again and then met as a group for Easter brunch around 1:00. As I said previously, the Shermans extended family were all down too and also have places in their same complex so it was a real lively bunch. We ate outside in their courtyard due to the nice weather and enjoyed surf and turf and home made cake that was a Paula Dean recipe, yummy!! Jackson enjoyed an egg hunt prior to lunch and then conked out in his jogging stroller for a long snooze. Jon and I took turns eating and walking him up and down the boardwalk so he could get in a good nap (hard to do when you are traveling and off schedule for a little guy) but he managed to do just fine!

We had so much fun and the accomodations were so nice that we decided to take off work on Monday and stay over Sunday night as well. Sunday afternoon we hit the beach again and then hit up some junk beach shops (a must do on my list for any beach vacation) and we also rented a fun boardwalk bike, you'll see a picture of this!! Monday morning when we woke up we got all of our things packed up and started out north but along the way, there is this place call Lion Country Safari, sort of like a drive through zoo...I've heard about this place for a long time but Jackson was always too small but this time we thought heck, we're driving right past where it is, why not check it out for a bit on the way home to break up the drive, so to Lion Country Safari we went!!

It was REALLY NEAT and the animals got REALLY close as you will see! Jon even fed a girafe a cracker, we have it on video and I will try to post that at some point! Once we did the car tour part (it was cool as they gave us a cd as a guide to listen to along the way) there was a water park area and a zoo area to walk around. It was really really nice, kind of like a hidden gem near the West Palm Beach area!! check it out online: www.lioncountrysafari.com


So, that's our weekend in a nutshell, now back to reality tomorrow, but at least it is now a 4 day week and all three of us have a nice start to our summer tans:)