Thanksgiving...Talbert-style!

We headed down to Brunswick to spend the holiday weekend with Ben's parents & brother. Oma & Opa are serial movers, and had relocated since our visit last November.  Albeit, they just moved across the neighborhood...but still, we had not yet been down to visit since they have been in their new house.

We arrived around 1:30am on Thursday morning (after a 5-hour drive with no stops!) and managed to smoothly unpack & put the kids down by 2 am.  Thursday was full of food, football & family.  It was so much fun to see the boys interacting with their grandparents who they don't see nearly often enough.  We were lucky enough to overlap a day with Ben's half-brother William & his family.  Jackson loves his cousin Cora & had so much fun playing with her. 

We spent Friday afternoon on St. Simons and finished off the day with a low country boil  with Lill's entire family.  Saturday, the boys we spent most of the day on the couch watching several awesome football games.  Epic win for NC State!  Jackson & Uncle Jon were buddies all weekend; its amazing how Jon can be "mean" to Jackson & call him a baby enough for him to willingly give up his paci.  (Whereas, I couldn't bribe him out of it.)

Oma & Opa's new house is right on the water & has the most gorgeous view out back.  It was like a painting!  We took lots of pictures & actually managed to get a semi-decent one for our Christmas card.  No worries, I'm not going to reveal it on here =)

And true to form, we only got 1 (yes, ONE) picture of Oma.  Unbelievable.  But its hard to be in the pictures when you are in the kitchen cooking up yummy food all weekend.

Thanks Ben!

This little surprise made this rainy day a little brighter!

The price of contentment

Baby Joey stuffed animal that comfortably fits in your shirt: $.25
Chameleon snap bracelet that was a party favor: free
Like-new Go Fish game from a yardsale: $3
An hour and a half of entertainment for a two-year-old: PRICELESS

Paci, Paci everywhere!

I am breeding a second paci-loving child.  Something about popping a stopper in a screaming mouth is so alluring.  I have purposely diverted Weston away from Jackson's beloved Nuk to avoid confusion.  However, the Soothies that Weston is hooked are a pain.  Being round, they roll at least 5 feet away if they are dropped -- which is all the time.  Meaning that we have lost upwards of 8 pacis in the past 3 months.  So, I took matters into my own hands & whipped up some paci clips. 

Cute, yes.  Funtional, yes.  Does baby use the ribbon to accidentally pull the paci out of his own mouth? Yes.  Did Mommy get up 8 times last night to reinsert the paci? YES!  I can so clearly see how I am yet again becoming a slave to that dang paci!

The weaning process is beginning for Jackson & his pappy.  I am planning a "Bye-Bye Pappy" party...but am kinda dragging my feet about actually committing to it.  We limit the paci to bed & carseat but he's nearly 2 1/2 so the time is coming to drop it completely.  We've been collecting coins for the Rice Bowl charity which fund orphanages in Africa so we've had lots of conversations & looked at lots of You Tube videos about the "poor children".  I plan to piggy-back on this & tie each of Jackson's 14+ pacis to helium balloons and send them away to the poor children who need pacis.  However, I know that once we take the leap, there's no going back.  I can't keep a spare in my purse "just in case".  I have to commit 100%.  But with the upcoming holiday travel, its seems so daunting to intentionally give up our mute button. 

I guess the paci is as much for me as it is for him.  I'm giving him a crutch & I know it.  I just need to do it.  Suggestions or advice?

(On a side note, look how Jackson is sweetly holding Weston's hand in the top picture.  He loves to reach over & hold Baby Boy's hand in the car.  I can't stand how sweet he is to his little brother.)

Add it to my list

Ben started with O'neal on Monday and we are both happy to get back into our routines.  It was nice having Daddy around for a month, but it certainly threw us off.  I feel like I've gotten more done in the past 2 days than I did in the 5 weeks he was home! 

And a new addition to my "chore" list is.......ironing!  Lucky me, huh?  At Milliken, Ben wore a low maintenance ensemble of Carhartts & polos every day.  Now, he has to wear slacks, button-ups & sport coats.  I love it when he's dressed up so I'll happily trade in sweaty work pants for freshly pressed clothing.  Even if it means that I'm the one who gets to iron it all.  (However, I'm not one to pass up a good special at the dry cleaners...come on Master's Mark, help me out here!)

Good luck charm

Jackson MUST be NC State's good luck charm. I mean, the Pack couldn't put points on the board last weekend, but thanks to the presence of their little fan Jackson Talbert, we were able to pull off a shut-out against our rival Carolina. Dad & Linda were traveling the first of November so they gave Ben 2 of their tickets to the game for his birthday & gave Mike & Jenn the other 2.

We started off the day tailgating with a box of Bojangles.  We made a lap around the stadium parking to see some friends and saw my college roomie Britney & her family.  After diaper changes, nursing & re-upping the diaper bag supplies, we made it in the game midway through the 1st quarter.

First of all, lets just say that the State fans seated around us were the most hospitable, tolerant, helpful folks I've ever met at a football game.  Everyone was so helpful picking up dropped pacis, sippies, etc and gave us the sympathetic "we remember those days" when one of the kids piped up.  No one minded that 2 adults & 2 kids were packing into 2 small bleacher seats and more than one family said how awesome it was that we ventured out with two kiddos. 

Jackson LOVED everything about the game.  The canon blasts when we scored, the band at halftime, clapping along to the fight song, eating roasted peanuts &popcorn, watching the crowd erupt when we intercepted the ball, the wolf howling, everything.  He was awesome and made it through three & a half quarters.  Weston was a trooper, too, and slept in my arms for 75% of the game.  We left mid-way through the 4th quarter to nurse my starving, skinny baby who couldn't dare make it more than 3 hours between feedings.  It was awesome to take the boys to the game, especially since it was one of our few wins this season!

We pretty much took over Mike & Jenn's condo for the weekend.  Their place is perfectly spacious for newlyweds & a dog, but add a family of 4 & its cozy for sure.  Jackson got to camp out on a blanket pallet in their room which he was thrilled about.  He thought it was the coolest thing.  Jenn was an awesome hostess and made yummy homemade meals so we didn't have to dine out.  I'm pretty sure they don't want to have any kids for a while after having our chaos for a weekend =)

And we had an epic drive home...we made it from Raleigh to Greenville WITHOUT stopping.  That's right, no crying babies, no potty breaks for me, just a drive-thru at Smithfields for some bbq lunch.  Weston slept for the entire 5 hours.  Jackson napped for the first half then happily played in his carseat the rest of the ride.  We could not believe it.  It was the perfect way to cap off the awesome weekend!

(But I totally paid for it today with a baby who was up from 1:30am until sunrise...)

Great Wolf Lodge

To celebrate Ben's new job, we went to Great Wolf Lodge last Thursday night on the way to Raleigh.  We wanted to do something fun as a family but didn't really have the time to take a beach trip before he started.  So Great Wolf it was.  Weston was a piece of work on the drive there & required a few pit-stops; we were tempted to go against the posted sign and leave him here:

The resort itself is really cool and very geared towards children.  The waterpark was a hit with Jackson and thankfully Mom & Bruce met us there on Thursday afternoon to watch Weston so I could play too.  Jackson loved the wave pool, water fort & water slides.  He wasn't tall enough to go on many of the slides but there were a few he could do.  I personally thought the water was a bit cold, or at least the air was.  PopPaw played with Jackson for a little bit so Ben & I could do the big slides.  They were awesome but we both were sore later that night...yeah, that's right, sore from waterslides.  30s are old!

Every evening, they do a show where the animated trees & animals in the lobby come alive.  We got there first & Jackson was enthralled by it all and sat attentively on the front row, taking it all in. 

Following the show was story time, where the Violet the Wolf (think Minnie Mouse, but a wolf) came out and read a story & taught the kids to howl.  He loved the group interaction but wasn't so keen on hugging Violet.

The excitement paid off because he slept until 9:45 the next morning.  He only woke up because he heard me checking on him.  He enjoyed a powdered donut in bed (hey, its vacation!) and then ate his fair share of bacon & pancakes at the breakfast buffet.

We hit up the arcade & let Jackson & Ben race motorcycles, drive jeeps and win prizes before packing up to head to Raleigh.

We had a great time & will definitely go back once Jackson's a little taller!

"Bad Boy, Mommy"

Jackson has been talking more & more over the past few weeks and some of the things that come out of that little mouth are hysterical.

Last night, I was reminding Ben to call Wells Fargo to dispute a charge on our checkcard.  Being the 12th time I've asked him to call and the fact that when I called & dialed through 27 automated prompts only to find out that only the primary account holder can dispute charges, I may have come across a bit nagging. Tired of hearing my reminders, Ben grabbed the statement hastily and said, "Fine, I'll go call right now." 

As Ben walked out of the room, Jackson looked at me and scolded, "Bad Boy, Mommy."  Trying not to laugh aka encourage him to reprimand me, I told him that Mommy was a girl, not a boy.  Wow...somebody is starting to pick up on emotions!

Cutest Cowbot EVER

So Halloween was super sweet this year. It's simply a gift to see holidays through the eyes of a child. This was the first year that Jackson really "got" the concept of trick-or-treating, costumes & ringing doorbells and it was the cutest thing to watch him & his little pals Cooper & Nolan yell "tick or teet" throughout the neighborhood. Jackson was a little cowboy and losts his cap gun between houses 1 & 2. Ben dressed up as a big cowboy and was disappointed that I had not gotten hima cap gun of his own. Weston was a scary skeleton and snoozed in the stroller the whole time, thankfully! And I was just a mommy, snapping tons of pics and watching my boys have a ball.