Happy Second Birthday Jackson!

I am a bit behind with pictures, but Jackson turned two on August 12th! We ended up having a birthday week, celebrating with my family on Wednesday and then heading to Fort Worth to celebrate with Brandon's family over the weekend. On Wednesday we woke up and went to breakfast at The Pancake Haus (amazing pancakes in SA), and then drove to my mom's place in Driftwood for the afternoon. We did some swimming, grilling, and lots of playing up there, and Jackson enjoyed his cake and presents. It even rained a little bit in the afternoon which cooled things off a bit and made for a beautiful sunset. By the time we got home, we were all worn out. It was a good day for our big 2 year old!

Waking up to "Happy Birthday" and a muffin with a #2 candle!

A little out of it still, but he ate the muffin in no time.

Pancake Haus!

No need for a fork

Chillin' on Nini's porch swing

helping clean the pool

showing Charlotte the ropes

Charlotte kept busy in the walker

Yummy!

Breakfast burger a la Brandon

Me and the kiddos

Race Car Carrot Cake

Happy Birthday to Jackson

Much better with the candle this year

All he wanted was the cars of course

About to put his face in the icing

Talk about thrown into a picture

opening his camo presents

a new puppy book

Lovin' his new camo hoodie for the winter (if it gets cold that is)

Hanging with uncle Tim

Keeping an eye on the chickens

My big 2 year old!

On Friday, we drove to Keller, and visited with Brent, Emily, Brittany, Bubba, Camryn, and Grandmommie! It was a full house and tons of fun to have all the kids together. We went to Emily's aunt and uncle's lake house all day on Saturday which was a blast and then celebrated Jackson's birthday (round 2) that evening. It was so much fun!

Aunt Brittany with Charlotte

Laughing at eachother

B with the little ladies

Uncle Brent and Camryn

The girls got a big kick out of eachother

Cheese!

Kisses for Camryn

It was a crazy with all three of them

Brent and Emily with C and C

Elmo birthday boy

Grandmommie and Jackson

The fam...gotta love post-lake parties!

Little Sis celebrating too!

Presents!

Peach Pie for dessert

Brent and Charlotte on Sunday morning

Family Swim

Charlotte wouldn't take her eyes off the pool.

One of Jackson's birthday presents. He is going to get a lot of use out of this chair, especially watching Brandon grill!

Charlotte is 4 1/2 months!

Post-swim

Chillin' in the shade

We had Charlotte's four month check up on Monday even though she is closer to 4 1/2 months old now. She is 75 percentile for everything, weighing in at 14 lbs. 9 1/2 oz. and 24 3/4 inches long. I cannot believe how fast she is growing. Jackson is promoting her getting on the move as fast as possible, so he can have a full blown playmate. I on the other hand and pretty happy with her chillin' for now. I think I can only handle one child exploring the house at the moment!

Charlotte is laughing, smiling, rolling over, trying to sit up, and thorougly enjoying Jackson. He is basically the equivalent of a puppy to her. She follows him all over the room and chuckles at him constantly. He of course soakes the attention up and will dance for her or show her his toys and books. Yesterday, I walked in and he was "reading" her his book with animals, telling her what each one was and what noise they make. This stage is crazy with two little ones so close together, but it is also wonderful to have my kiddos love eachother so much already. Now we are just counting down the days until fall, so we can be outside more without the threat of heat-exhaustion! But we have some birthdays coming up first...Jackson, Brandon, Grandmother, me...it will be a busy few months filled with lots of cake! :)

Indiana Wedding

Matt and Rita are married! We headed to Indiana last Thursday with my mom for their wedding and had quite the weekend. Jackson and Charlotte did great on the trip up, and we stopped at my aunt and uncle's house in Indianapolis for dinner which helped divide up the trip. My aunt works at an organic dairy and my uncle is an executive chef, so basically we had an amazing dinner and the best sweet cream icecream I have ever tasted! We headed down to Bloomington in the evening and elected to skip going out with everyone and sleep instead.

Friday was filled with a bridal shower, errands, and the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. My mom did a fabulous job with the kiddos, especially hauling our 30 pound little boy all over the place! Charlotte did great and spent most of the evening being passed around between Matt's Nanna and aunts. The wedding was at a local inn that was built around 1903 and was absolutely beautiful. They had a courtyard where the ceremony and reception was held and then a beautiful front porch and balcony where we took most of the pictures. Of course as with most weddings, there were some kinks along the way, but it was all worth it to see their faces when the pastor pronounced them man and wife. They were so happy and Matt was beaming from ear to ear. Jackson ended up walking down the aisle holding my hand rather than with the flower girls, but I half expected that to happen. Justin and Tricia were at the wedding, so we were able to hang out with them Saturday evening which is always a blast. I hope we live closer to them someday.

Matt and Rita headed to Chicago for a couple nights on Sunday and then they are off to Paris and Greece. Should be a great trip. Rita texted me on Sunday night and said "Marriage Rocks," which made me smile.

Now, the trip home was not so smooth. Jackson had had enough of being quiet and a "good little boy," and we had not one, but two explosive diapers which are very interesting to deal with on planes! By the time we got home, he was only wearing a diaper and t-shirt and the rest of us weren't smelling very good. :) Oh well, it was worth it! I took a few pictures, but I will post more when our friends forward them our way. Amazing how dealing with two kiddos makes it much harder to carry a camera.

The night before we left, we went for a long walk.

Jackson loves sharing his jogging stroller with Charlotte.

Her first ride in the jogging stroller. She fell asleep immediately.

Charlotte saying "what is up"

Jackson was going after the carrot cake with two forks!

He kept chanting "my seat" if anyone tried to have him sit in their lap.

Laity Lodgers at the rehearsal dinner

Beautiful dress that Rita's mom made for her.

Precious Charlotte enjoying the reception

Brandon and the Duntons

3/4 of our family