It's the simple things...

We did a little bit of everything & not much of anything during our 3-day Memorial weekend this past week. The weather was spotty so outside activities were limited.  We did, however, indulge in a few of the simplest, most under-rated things. 

On Friday, J & I slept in, did a few chores, then spent the afternoon playing in his kiddie pool on the deck. Or should I say attempting to play in the kiddie pool, seeing as it had about 2 dozen itsy-bitsy holes in the bottom. During naptime, I filled it up & left it unattended for an hour or so while I got Jackson up & dressed. Apparently, one of the dogs Maddie hopped in the pool to cool off, forgetting that her less-than-pedicured toesies could potentially damage the flimsy, inflatable rubber baby pool.  Jackson, however, seemed perfectly content to play in the remaining 2 inches of water.

The culprit trying to look innocent...

Saturday morning started off with a trip to Target, where Jackson practically insisted on riding in the basket of the shopping cart, standing up no less.  No worries -- the cart was deep enough where he could not realistically fall or jump out.  Jackson inched up in the front of the cart as far as he could, arms out-stretched, attempting to touch anything within reach, baby mullet blowing in the breeze as we zipped down the aisles -- it was very "Titanic-esque".  (Note the gross drool-soaked shirt...poor baby is teething!)

After church on Sunday, we let Jackson run rampant in his diaper (his clothing of choice) while we starting weeding out closets/drawers/etc for our upcoming yardsale this weekend.  About 2 weeks ago, we converted a huge box into a tunnel which J LOVES to crawl through, roll balls through, push his car through, etc.  Talk about cheap entertainment...boxes are SOO under-rated. 

Which reminds me of last summer... I tried to GIVE a huge appliance box to the 2 boys next door & they turned it down.  They said they didn't know what to do with it.  How do you not know what to do with a huge, empty box?!? What can't you do with a huge, empty box?? What is wrong with these kids?!?  Where is their imagination?!?  At least crawl in the thing & roll around and beat each other up.  I mean, Really!

  

Then we moved on to the drawers, which he found equally as exciting...

We finished off the day with a trip downtown for Shakespeare in the Park, the outdoor summer theatre series.  Jackson was much more interested in macking drooling on pretty little Ella then he was in the drama unfolding onstage...can you blame him?

Afterwards, Jackson enjoyed the scenic view overlooking the Reedy River Falls and then got to pose on a miniature park bench that he spotted at Spill the Beans.

  

 We capped off our weekend with a wet, stormy Memorial Day.  Daddy built Jackson his first fort, which he was relatively uninterested in.  Ben, however, had a blast playing with Legos underneath =)  Jackson was more excited about pulling down the blankets then he was crawling underneath them. 

We had a wonderfully laid-back, relaxing holiday weekend.  These days, those are hard to come by!

Yardsales & Bachelorettes

This past weekend, I hit the road & headed up to Raleigh for my future sis-in-law's bachelorette party. This was my first overnight away from Jackson and I missed him dearly. However, Ben assured me that he and Jackson would "bach it up" (bach as in bachelor pad) while I was away. Since my weekends away are few & far between, this also doubled as one of the semi-annual girl's weekends I have with my BFFs from high school, Sally & Charlotte.

We played it safe on Friday night, meeting Mike & Jenn for sushi then just catching up over a few drinks. After all, Sally (the fellow Mommy) and I had big yard-sale plans on Saturday morning. Everyone knows the early bird gets the worm and 6am comes pretty darn early!

I had done a bit of planning and knew our route, which was limited only to neighborhoods who's homes were at least $400K. (Thank you Wake County Real Property Search) After some minor re-routing due to unforeseen roadwork, we had a successful morning, yielding 2 convertible carseats, a color flatbed scanner in the box ($5), tons of children's books, a bubble machine, Legos, Finding Nemo, several toys & quite a bit of other treasures. We celebrated our successful bargaining by laying out by the pool for a few hours prior to heading back to Mikey's condo to get ready for our Jenn's shower & bacheloretty party.

We headed over to Jenn's for dinner, lingerie shower & a little pre-gaming prior to hitting up the bars. Jenn has a great group of girlfriends and it was great meeting everyone. Sally, Char & I were practically chaperones, considering most of them were in their early to mid-twenties & the three of us are on the brink of 30. However, these old gals did not let our age hinder our ability to represent. Despite being up since 6:30am, we were the last of our group to leave the bar (which was incidentally around 2:30am). And best yet, we all felt relatively decent on Sunday morning! Considering this was my first time out & about since I first got pregnant with J, that is quite impressive.

Jenn, our bachelorette

Me, Sally & Char


Who knew my soon to be sis-in-law was such a dancing diva?

First Mother's Day

I realize I am a bit overdue, but I am practically obligated to do a belated Mother's Day post since this was my first Mother's Day as a Mommy. Ben started off the holiday weekend by taking Friday off work and taking me shopping. The shopping adventure was extremely out of character for Ben, as he a) hates the mall, b) hates spending money on non-necessities & c) would prefer to spend his day off doing anything but shopping. However, it was his idea & he willing cruised the mall for over an hour, offering suggestions as to things he thought I'd like & then surprising me with new perfume a my Mother's Day gift. No better gift than quality time & smell goods.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed up to Dad & Linda's mountain house for the night. Linda watched Jackson while Ben & I strolled around Blowing Rock all afternoon. We had delish steaks for dinner & a finance lesson from Dad on the in & outs of the recent stock market hoopla, followed by an extremely sleepless night with a out-of-sorts baby that cried off & on for 12 hours straight. Sunday, we headed down the mountain to Conover to spend the Mother's Day afternoon with Mom & Bruce. Jackson loved riding in their golf cart & had a blast showing Bebe all of the things she needed to babyproof :) Best of all, I got to spend time with MY mom, who I love dearly & cherish more and more the older I get, especially after becoming a mom myself!!

Fascinated by Poppy's make-shift top

Nanny & Poppy

Mother's Day with Bebe & Poppaw

Self-Appointed Social Chair

Due to no contest, I have appointed myself as social chair of our neighborhood. We've lived in our neighborhood for over 3 years & every spring, we talk about how we need to have a neighborhood block party. Our neighborhood is full of young families & its a shame that we don't really know each other.

So finally, I declared myself social chair & decided to get the ball rolling. With the help of Kim & Andrea, we organized the 1st Annual Hammett Grove Cul-de-Sac Party. I whipped up some fliers & turned our afternoon stroll into a mail route. At Andrea's suggestion, I resurrected my cheerleader "spirit sign" making skills & made reminder posters for the entrance to our subdivision. My dorkiness came out full-force, as I had big plans for a name tag station as well as a sign-in sheet as a way to acquire a master email list =)

Despite impending scattered showers, we had a great turnout of about 40 adults & several dozen children. Each family brought a dish to share & everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (and I had no complaints about the name tags)! The rain held off until 9pm, just as we were cleaning up. Due to popular demand, the 1st Annual Part II shin-dig is being planned for the end of the summer.

Ben & Brian with their little boys (for the record, Ben's drinking O'douls). Jackson is leading the baby boom in Hammett Grove, followed by Kate (Dec), Cooper (March), Brynli (April), Nolan (due in May) & Campbell (due in June).

Good turn out!

Krystal, John & Ben. Baby Campbell is due in June!

Jackson's manning the beer cooler.

Staci, Jayci & Baby Brynli (currently the newest baby in the 'hood)

10 Months Old

10 Months have come & gone. Now I know why they say "don't blink!"

Our little man is crawling, pulling up & creeping all over the place...keeping Ben & I very very busy. He's been sampling lots of tasty food off our our plates & waves bye-bye, claps, points, drinks from his sippy & is starting to imitate everything that we do. He has also develop a bit of clinginess so he has a meltdown (and I mean MELTDOWN) when I drop him off at church nursery.

Needless to say, it was challenge to get him to stay still for his 10-month pictures. It took bribing with my cell phone to keep him still & even that didn't work very well.

He's a happy camper if he's playing with my phone...

But...INSTANT meltdown when I take it away! So pitiful.

Sharing his wagon with sweet Ethan.

Bartending at the neighborhood block party. Doesn't he look like such a big boy in this picture?

Comparing his Elmo to TV Elmo

Sweet little buddies riding on their Daddy's shoulders

He loves playing with the horsey PopPaw made him for Christmas. He tends to favor horses in books, toys, etc. Equestrian in the making?

Sweet little boys

Jackson & his BFF Ethan -- Couldn't you just eat them up?

Easter

This year, Easter represented not only the celebration of our risen King and Jackson's first Easter basket, but was extra special because Ben & I got baptized! God is so gracious & has done so many things in our lives. Over the past year or so, we've experienced amazing life change and both felt like we were being called to get baptized. Ben was baptized by Kirk, our small group leader & then Ben baptized me. It was an emotional, amazing day that we will remember forever. 38 people got baptized at Grace over Easter weekend. Mom & Bruce came to celebrate with us, as did Michael.

Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend.