Ready for Fall, Y'all!

Those that know me know that I don't love the fall season for many reasons - it means the days are getting shorter (read: dark on the drive to AND from work), we have many months of gloomy and cold days ahead of us to look forward to, and bundling up, to name a few. 

 

But there are a few things I do look forward to in the fall - changing leaves, bringing out my boots and scarves, my birthday (the big 3-0 this year, eek!), hot baths, and the approaching holidays which means tons of fun family and friend-filled activities.

 

To help me get in the fall spirit this year, I decided to tackle a home-made wreath for our front door.  While I love the idea of a fun craft project, I don't normally take them on as I don't typically have the patience or the skills to produce a decent final product.  And in the old days at our condo, we didn't have much space to store supplies or for me to spread out to complete a project. 

 

I was inspired by the wreath on this blog recently and decided I had to try it out myself.  The end result?  Not too shabby for a wanna-be crafter, I suppose.

 

Our front porch is officially ready for fall!



 

 

 

 





Quack!

My parents came over for a bit yesterday, and after a yummy breakfast, we headed over to feed the ducks in Klahanie.  Jackson had a blast (and so did we!) and was very brave, even feeding a few ducks right out of his hand. 

Here he and the ducks are in action.

And after a nice, long nap on a Sunday afternoon, there's no better way to wake up than sipping on some milk, watching football with Dada.

New & Improved!

My good friend Natalie recently very kindly offered to help me update our blog template and I'm pleased to introduce you to the new design!  She's so crafty - she created this whole template all on her own and I just LOVE it!  It's so nice to see some pictures of our family at the top and not see anymore of that green border.

So, thank you so much for giving our blog a fresh, new and improved look and feel - you're the best!! 

PS - On a completely unrelated note, I forgot to add something funny to my This and That post from the other day.  We were recently at the Sammamish Cafe for breakfast (highly recommended, by the way!) and we'd just paid our bill and the waitress was walking away.  Jackson chose that exact moment to reach out and grab her butt cheek.  And he didn't just brush her bootie with his hand, he literally squeezed it.  Luckily she thought it was funny, but oh boy, I guess this kid is starting young!

This and That

Thought it was probably time for a little update on what's happening in Jackson's world, as the kid changes daily.

He's picking up more and more words.  "Mama" and "Dada" are frequently in the mix to get our attention or to ask about us when one of us leaves the room.  Other fun new words are Ernie (who he sleeps with), Elmo (on his diaper), booah (book), ayeday (airplane), 'uh' (up), off, boo (to scare you when peering around a door/corner), thank you (his version of this, when prompted), still says 'eeese' (please, also when prompted).

The wave that accompanies 'hi' and 'bye' looks like a parade wave, which I love!  He still LOVES to read and LOVES to help around the house - watering the flowers, getting the mail, taking the garbage out, and throwing things away are still faves.

He's becoming less shy, and loves to say 'hi' and 'buhbye' to the neighbors when we see them, and in fact, just last week, ran across the cul-de-sac to our neighbor, Jeff, for a hug and to be picked up.

Four molars have broken through the skin and he's constantly chewing on anything he can and drooling everywhere, so I think more are on their way.

One of his favorite past times are bubble ("buhble") baths and it was the highlight of his weekend to get to buy Elmo themed bubbles for the bath this past weekend, after his other bottle ran out. 

He loves playing soccer with his big green ball outside, and has even gotten pretty good at catching the ball.  He also still loves getting in and out of his Little Tykes car, and loves watching the sprinklers outside when they go off.  We saw, followed and talked to a frog out in the yard for a good 15 minutes a few weeks back - he was fascinated, and it was adorable.

And thankfully he still loves giving big hugs and kisses (he usually turns his cheek towards you vs. giving the kisses these days).

I love this cute kid more every single day!

Mmm Mmm Good

Jackson loves carbs.  Carbs and fruit.  So we're always trying to come up with ways to get him to eat more veggies - fruit + veggie pouches, homemade zucchini bread, and his latest favorite is corn on the cobb.  We initally started just cutting some off the cobb and giving it to him in a bowl with a spoon.  But tonight, we decided to up the fun factor, and gave him the whole cobb.

Such fun!

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Happy birthday (yesterday) to the love of my life - the best hubby, BFF, and "dada" to Jackson (and Roxy) I could ever ask for. 

We had a great fun-filled and food-filled weekend celebrating Corey, from a birthday dinner at Canlis with the Reeders, to brunch at Sammamish Cafe, and a yummy home-cooked dinner at Joan's.  Mixed in were trips to the park, multiple runs and coffee trips, and an eventful pit stop at the hair salon for Jackson to get a trim (which he screamed for 99% of). 

Wishing you another fun, fabulous and eventful year ahead, hubby!  Love you!