More Birthday Fun!

We celebrated our nephew Luke's 1st birthday at the Children's Museum in Decatur. There was something for all of the kids to do and they all had a lot of fun exploring and pretending. The bigger boys LOVED climbing all the way to the 2nd story, it was enclosed in nets. Jackson said his favorite was the car garage upstairs where he and Daddy could pretend to change the tires on the car.
We also were thankful to be able to stay in TH until tonight, so could spend time with Papa on his birthday!

Go Illini

My dad got us all some GREAT tickets to the Illini game on Thursday night. We had a lot of fun and the kids were great! We had never sat in the A section before, so that was pretty awesome and it was a very exciting game!

Knock, Knock, Who's There?

Kinsey was so cute after lunch playing "peek-a-boo" in her house. She would pop her head out with a HUGE smile and try to say "Hello!"
See for yourself in the video below.

Birthday Fun!

We spent the day yesterday in Waterloo celebrating my niece Claire's 4th birthday. Jackson was VERY excited to see and play with Claire. I made the mistake of telling him it was coming up a few weeks before hand. He, of course, asked me almost every morning if that day we were going to Claire's for her birthday. She had a Minnie Mouse party and everyone got Minnie or Mickey ears and tattoos.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Here are a few pictures of the kids from today. Kinsey LOVES to give kisses right now . . . it is so cute to watch her pucker up and come running after you! Jackson helped make some more heart cookies this morning and had to wear his "rock out star" glasses.

It was almost 70 today . . .

So what did we do, you might ask? Well, we played OUTSIDE all morning and even had a picnic lunch, of course! What else might you expect!

Kinsey Grace in Motion

I have been posting several things about Jackson lately and haven't posted about Kinsey in a while. So here are a couple videos of her from last Sunday. Hard to believe she was 15 months on Friday!!

Valentine's Party at Preschool

Jackson with his best buddy, Nathan, after their Valentine's Day Party at Preschool.

He says these are his "rock out star" glasses and insisted on wearing them when we went for a walk this afternoon. He is so funny!

1st Day of Preschool

Jackson went to his first day of Wee-Wildcat Preschool last week. It is just one morning a week for 2 hours, but he was really excited to go. And the great part is that he already knew almost half the kids from MOPS and church. Though I must admit I was kind of emotional the night before getting everything laid out and ready for the next morning, I can't believe that he is already old enough to go to "school". Partly, it was that I would be leaving him there for 2 hours and not staying in the building. But he was GREAT! I had to go over to where he was playing to say bye! The only thing that would have made it better for him is if the school bus had actually picked him up (which they don't do for preschool), but he was asking about it on the way!

Sledding at the Park

We got several more inches of snow over night last night!!! In fact, Dave got stuck in the drive way this morning. But we braved the weather to go to El Rancherito (just opened today) for lunch and to the park to go sledding with friends. Jackson went down several times, but was more interested in just tromping around in the snow. Kinsey, on the other hand, loved going down the hill. She was all smiles at the bottom!

Snow Day

FINALLY!!! After all winter of VERY cold temperatures, it was finally worth it this morning . . . we got some snow! I took the kids out to play in it . . . well, very briefly and then while Kinsey was napping this morning, we went out to play some more. Jackson liked taking a ride on his sled, digging in the snow, making a snow angel, and EATING the snow!! I quickly gave him a lesson on what snow would be ok to eat and what snow he should avoid!! He thought that was all pretty funny and continued eating the snow . . . it was clean, don't worry! I even put some untouched snow in cups to make "snow cones" after lunch. He thought that was very exciting!! We climbed up in his fort and went down the slide.

Unfortunately the snow was too powdery to pack for a snow man, but maybe when we get more sleet and snow it will be easier. Jackson said that his favorite part was throwing snow balls at me!

Can I take a picture?

Jackson came to me yesterday morning after Sesame Street was over and said, "Can I use the camera to take a picture of you and Kinsey?" Not something he has ever asked to do . . . . so I asked why and wondered what he was up to. I asked if they talked about that on Sesame Street and he said yes, still unclear on all of that since I was doing laundry during part of it.
So I decided, that could be fun and told him he could with supervision. He took pictures of EVERYTHING!!! He kept saying, "Say Cheese!" and would tell us where to stand and what to do. He got rather bossy by the end : ) But there were a few that were actually pretty good . . . here are 2 of my favorites. So maybe we have a future photographer on our hands??? Or just a picture-holic like mom and dad!!

Heart Cookies

On Saturday, Jackson helped me make heart cookies for Valentine's Day. He helped make the dough and was in charge of the sprinkles!

Gingerbread House

Jackson wanted to do a gingerbread house around Christmas, but we didn't get it done. But we found this kit at Walmart on clearance, and decided to go ahead even though Christmas is over.
Jackson loved decorating the house, I mean eating the candy! And Kinsey loved taste testing the icing : )

Welcome Caedmon Ryan Jarrett!

We were so excited to hear that nephew #7 arrived late last night!!

Caedmon Ryan Jarrett
8 lbs., 2 oz and 19 inches long

January 26, 2009
11:07 PM

Ready for Spring!

We are SO ready for spring to be here : ) And the warmer temperatures today were a good reminder. So we enjoyed the opportunity to get outside . . . we took a walk around the neighborhood and played in the backyard. It was wonderful!!!! And now we can't hardly wait to be able to go outside to play everyday!! Please come soon SPRING!!!

Moments with Kinsey

Here are a couple of cute videos I took of Kinsey on Sunday evening.

Jackson's Birthday Party

Some pictures from Jackson's Illini Basketball birthday party today. He had some friends and family celebrate with him. It was a busy day, but a lot of fun . . . enjoy!