Blake Comes Home!

These two pictures were taken last Friday when Blake, Courtney & Brent got home from the hospital. Jackson got to meet Blake for the first time. He checked him out at first and then was back to playing with the toys. He wasn't really all that impressed either way!


He did give him a couple kisses, but did NOT want to hold him. We tried to get him to after Claire did for a while and he didn't want any part of it. Of course, it may be a different story when the baby comes home to his house and STAYS! HA! : )

Blake Elijah Warner

Blake Elijah Warner arrived at 12:11 pm on June 5th. He was 7 lbs., 10 ounces and 20 inches long. We got to meet him this afternoon . . . pretty cute!! Here is a picture with his peepers open and one of Claire giving him a "Big Sister" kiss! Courtney, Brent and Blake will be discharged from the hospital in the morning and hopefully home by lunch time. Courtney said her recovery this time around is 100 times better, so that is GREAT news for her! And Blake is doing a great job nursing, again more good news : ) A VERY different experience for them vs. Claire's arrival. We are here overnight and then we'll be back on the 20th. So it will be fun to see how he has changed in just 2 weeks! Jackson wasn't able to go up to the hospital room : ( Hospital policy!! So he will get to meet Blake tomorrow after they get home. . . . I am interested to see what he thinks about just a little baby.

Catching you up . . .

So the past few weeks have been pretty crazy!! On Memorial Day weekend, we where down in TH for my cousin Jill's wedding at Oak Terrace. Which, despite the threat of rain, was set outside overlooking the lake. The peaceful boat ride to and from the ceremony was WONDERFUL!

Here is my niece Claire at the reception getting in a little "Big Sister" practice holding cousin Lincoln. My sister is scheduled for a c-section tomorrow morning (June 5th). Blake Elijah should "technically" arrive shortly after 11 am. I will be sure to have pictures and stats as soon as I get them. We are heading down there to meet him on Thursday!!

We got bad news about our littlest nephew Cian (David’s brother Brian’s little boy) who is almost 9 months old. He had an accident on Memorial Day. His sister Ciara (7) was carrying Cian and tripped. He fell from her arms and hit his head on the concrete driveway. They took him to the hospital by ambulance and did a CAT scan to check for the extent of the injuries. Fortunately, the results of the CAT scan showed no bleeding. The doctors gave Brian and Jenny a list of things to watch for over the next month to be sure he is ok.

And to top off Memorial weekend, David caught Jackson keeping Claire company while she was going potty!! He pulled up the little step stool so he could sit next to her. He said they were just smiling and jabbering to each other.

This past week, my mom and dad took Jackson for a few days. And David and I were able to get away to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary!!! Jackson and I also went to Lincoln on Saturday to celebrate Bob & Patsy Wilson's 50th wedding anniversary! 6 years doesn't seem quite as long when you stack it up to 50!!!

Oh and I finally got my ultrasound scheduled at the hospital for Monday, June 18th!! I can hardly wait until then to find out!!!!

I think that is the last 2 weeks in a nutshell . . . .

Cousin Claire Comes to Visit

My sister had a bridal shower in Bloomington on Friday so she dropped Claire off at our house for the evening and she stayed over night. Claire and Jackson both LOVE to be outside. So we played in our backyard all evening and even took a wagon ride around our neighborhood. Here are the two of them in our double swing . . . it is rare for them both to be smiling at the same time!
We also gave them both popsicles. It was Jackson’s first one . . . and he didn’t have any trouble eating it ALL! This last picture is one we took over the weekend. . . David was encouraging bad table manners : ) But it was pretty cute!

My 2nd Mother’s Day!

This Mother’s Day was SO relaxing! I got Jackson up and ready to go. It was a beautiful day so we walked to church. David made us a wonderful lunch on the grill and then after Jackson was down for a nap, he cleaned the house and did the dishes!!! While I took a little nap : ) In addition to the special treatment, my gift was that Dave made an appointment with a photographer from our church to meet us at Washington Park this Wednesday afternoon to take some family pictures. My parent’s came up for dinner at Mariah’s (which was very yummy) and hung out in our backyard enjoying the WONDERFUL night!

Jen's Shower

Jen and Joel were here from FL this past weekend for her sister's college graduation. So her family had a baby shower open house for her on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was GREAT to see her and her little belly, as well as Joel, and other good friends! And there were plenty of little ones for Jackson to run around and play with!

Fun at the Park

We went to the park here in Rochester this evening. Here are a few shots of Jackson enjoying swinging, sliding and generally climbing everywhere!!!! Just a quick plug, but we have a WONDERFUL play area for kids at our park if you are ever in the area : )

Go Cardinals!

A BIG thanks again this year to my brother-in-law Brent for getting FREE tickets to the Cardinals game! We went to see the Cardinals beat the Rockies last night in St. Louis. We had great seats. . . . 14 rows behind the Cardinal's dugout!!! AND the best part, they won 4-1 . . . WOO-HOO! We weren't sure how Jackson would do at the game this year since he is always ready to explore. But he did pretty well! He loved looking around and dancing to all the music. By the end he was even giving everyone around us high-5's! However, he did not enjoy meeting FredBird! He looked at him in complete fear, clinging on to me and then started crying! OH WELL : )

A Summer-like Day!

Jackson loves to play in our backyard! And fortunately the weather Monday was perfect : ) He always picks up sticks and carries them around the yard.
Now all I need to do is to teach him how to pull weeds. . . . which I HATE to do : ) HA!


Isn’t he cute : )

Jacci’s Big Day!

We were happy to celebrate Josh and Jacci’s big day! Here they are during the ceremony . . . doesn’t she look beautiful! Jackson had some icing and I didn’t realize there was blue icing on the cake. So he ended up looking a bit like a Smurf : ) He didn’t really like me holding him down to clean him up. It was great catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a LONG time! And they had Pizza Man cater the reception. . . which was a very YUMMY idea!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Ishmael!

What?! I'm going to be a BIG BROTHER?

WOO-HOO, I’m going to be a big brother in November!!!

We are very excited to share that we are expecting our second child sometime the middle of November. So I am about 9 weeks right now. Feeling a little queasy, but not TOO bad! Just wanted to share our exciting news : )

Easter

As you can see Jackson enjoyed his first Easter egg and basket hunt! He had a little trouble with his footing on Grandma and Grandpa’s slanted yard.
But he managed to “find” all his eggs and basket. Here he is enjoying his first peep : )

We had to get a little family shot! And all the cousins were wearing light blue shirts and navy pants. So we couldn’t pass up a few shots of them together! And a “silly” one too . . . . . Josiah can ALWAYS get Jackson to laugh!




Here is Jackson having fun in his NEW car. He started saying “beep, beep” while riding around in it : ) I think he really likes it and we had a little trouble getting him to get out!
Grammy and Papa put up two little tikes swings for the kids to swing at their house! Claire and Jackson both had their shades on and were swinging on Monday!

Look at those crazy boys . . . .

This past Monday night Nathanael and Josiah came over to play while their parents did some shopping in town. Fortunately, it was nice outside and they just played and played and played! We finally took them inside when it started getting dark : ) And Jackson and Nathanael got much needed baths . . . . especially since Nathanael had gotten in the sand box and had it caked in his hair!!! HE, HE! They are all so sweet playing together!
Jackson loves to swing!!! He will run out to the swing set and stand under the swing and sign please until you put him in! It is SO cute : ) He also tries to walk up the slide, but hasn't quite figured out how to get up more than about a quarter of the way! Which I am OK with at this point : )

Hope you have a GREAT Easter!

Jackson is Famous!

Grandma Pam (David's mom) called last week to let us know that the layouts she submitted of Jackson's first Cardinal's game would appear in the Close to My Heart Summer catalog! Karen was at our house last night and brought a copy for me!!! And lo and behold there he is along with a few of all of us. So come the end of April when the catalog is generally available, you'll have to check out page 20 (Route 66 Level 1) and see our famous little boy : ) SO FUN!!!

The Next Tiger Woods?

Busy Playing . . .

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted! We have been busy playing : ) David’s parents were in town from CO, so we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum (see photo with Lincoln Family) and spent time with family. Here is Ron holding Karen’s youngest Nathanael and Jackson (they are only 5 months apart). We have also been enjoying the WARM weather and extra hours of daylight! Here is Jackson sporting his new shades. He always smiles when I pull them out to put on him! Jackson LOVES to play outside. In fact, the other day he was standing at the front door, looking outside and crying! So we take LOTS of wagon rides and just explore the new scenery. He prefers to stay on the sidewalk than to walk in the grass, so the other day he headed off down the sidewalk. I (of course) followed him and he actually walked all the way around the block!! He did stop briefly to pick up sticks and watch “dogs” (every animal with fur is a dog). We are looking forward to Easter. My grandparents always have an Easter egg/basket hunt for the kids and he’ll actually be old enough to participate this year! And if my grandma gets her way, he’ll have his first Peep!

Claire Turns 2!

We spent this past weekend at Waterloo at my sister's house. Our niece Claire turned 2 and we had to be there for the BIG party : ) While we were down there my mom wanted us to take some pictures of the kids in their Illini outfits. This turned out to be quite an ordeal . . . we would get one in place and the other would run away or dive off of the couch! We did get a few good ones, but not many of them actually smiling at the same time. This ended up being a pretty cute one . . . we finally put on a video and they were in a trance!

Next American Idol?

What do you think?

Say "Cheese"!

Nothing really new going on. . . just took this picture after church on Sunday and wanted to post it! He can be quite the cheeseball sometimes : ) Watching him play and "talk" to himself always makes us smile! We have some video of him this same afternoon turning on his "fridge dj" and dancing & spinning in circles. He got dizzy and feel over : )

Snow Daze!

SNOW EVERYWHERE! We got a foot of snow dumped on us on Monday and Tuesday. So pretty much everything was shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here is our house after David shoveled our drive Wednesday morning. And a few pictures of Jackson and him playing in the snow : )

13 Months on Valentine's Day!

Jackson has just now discovered how to climb aboard his fire truck and slowly motor around the house : ) It is SO funny watching him try to figure out exactly how to lift his leg and get on!! He now has 7 teeth and is working on more . . . .

His Illini jersey here is a Valentine's present from my parents! Pretty cute : )

I Love Music : )

Jackson just discovered that he is tall enough to reach up and play our piano. So you will now hear him tickling the ivory throughout the day : ) And he also loves to pluck the strings on all of daddy's guitars. I am a little behind on updating pictures, so here are a few . . . more to come!