Today is a good day

Today has been a great day. My house is clean, the sun has been shining in through the windows, Jackson has been an angel all day, and I have a time to blog while Jackson is sleeping. 

The past several weeks have been crazy busy as far as work goes that I feel like I haven't had a spare second. Plus, I have been super exhausted with this pregnancy lately, so anytime Jackson is sleeping, I have have either been working or sleeping myself. I've actually gotten Jackson onto a terrible schedule of staying up late and sleeping in, so that I can sleep in myself. Oh well, it works for now and Brett loves it since it means he gets to spend more time with Jackson at night.

I have about 4 weeks left in this pregnancy. I can't wait to meet the little baby who has been kicking me nonstop for the past several months. I love his little baby kicks, but I can't wait to see his face. I'm really curious to see how Jackson will adjust to having a little brother. He loves babies, but I'm getting nervous that he won't like all the attention that this baby is going to get from us.

I'm trying to really enjoy these last few weeks with Jackson before his world is rocked. I have been trying to get out with him as much as possible, since we'll likely be staying in for a while after the baby comes.

Jackson is growing up so fast. He talks a ton and is very social. He cracks me up in public when he yells, "hi," to people who are several feet away. On one hand, I love to see him talking so much and learning so many new things. On the other hand, I still want him to be my little baby. 

27 Weeks

I've never done belly pictures before. I think others' belly pictures are adorable. I just feel silly taking and posting pictures of me by myself, but here goes. 

Here's our little guy already flexing his muscles for us.  

I love him . I love feeling and seeing him move all around. I can't wait to meet him. The anticipation is killing me. I see little babies at church every week and can't wait for mine to arrive.

Little guy doesn't have a name yet. Brett and I never agree on boys names, but hopefully we will by the time he comes!

Timeout

I'm anxiously awaiting a package from Amazon today. And it's not even for me. It's for this little cutie:

Who knew I would get so excited about getting some new puzzles?!? I think it's because I know how excited Jackson is going to be about them. It will be a nice little change. Maybe we won't do the same five puzzles 100+ times per day from now on. :)

By the way, Jackson puts himself in timeout these days. It's hilarious. He knows when he's done something that warrants a timeout and he'll head over to the timeout spot saying, "wall." Ha ha. This kid cracks me up.

Jaime and the Birdie Sling

My best friend from college was in town for work this week. It was so fun to see her! It had been WAY too long (almost 2 years) since we'd seen each other. We were pretty much inseparable during college. She's so much fun and the best friend anybody could ask for. I just wish we lived closer now.

While she was here she got to meet Jackson for the first time and we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning chatting just like old times.

All we got was this crumby cell phone picture, but it's better than nothing I guess.

On a different note, I followed my first real pattern (Amy Butler's Birdie Sling) a few weeks ago to make this beauty:

I LOVE it. I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for how well it turned out. I even have big plans to make more and possibly turn one into a diaper bag.

19 Months + The Great Wolf Lodge

My little man is 19 months old today. I wish I had stats, but I forgot to write them down from his 18 month appointment. I think he's about 25 lbs, but that's all I've got for now. :)

I also wish I had better pictures of him, but most of the time I can't get him to look at a camera for the life of me. We'll be working on that.

He is still as cute as ever. He is so sweet and fun to have around. We just love him to pieces!

He is saying a ton, from booos (shoes) to way (throw away). He's got quite the vocabulary. Unfortunately, I think Brett and I are the only ones who can understand most of his words.

I taught him to say, "bro bro" for his little brother on the way and he'll kiss my stomach to give the baby a kiss. It's very sweet. I can't wait for them to meet.

He NEVER likes to be alone. We spend most of our days playing in his room together. If I get up to leave, I can be sure to have a little shadow behind me within a matter of seconds. He'll follow me, grab my clothes, and make sure that I come back to his room to play. I absolutely adore spending time with him, but I'd gladly take pointers on how to teach a kid to play on his own occasionally.

He emphatically nods his head "yes" or "no" when you ask him a question. I love that he can communicate so well and he looks so cute doing it.

He's a puzzle-aholic. He can literally spend hours doing puzzles. Easy ones, of course. 

He loves music. Brett and I sing to him every night and he can't get enough. He's gotten pretty good at doing the motions to lots of songs too, like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Popcorn Popping." Randomly, his favorite song right now is "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. Brett started singing it to him one day and he's been hooked ever since.

He's the pickiest eater in the world. He won't even try most foods. I'll gladly take pointers on how to get him to eat too.

We went to The Great Wolf Lodge last weekend with Brett's family for a company shareholder's meeting. It was a lot of fun. 

Jackson was hesitant at first, but he definitely warmed up. He ended up loving the kiddie slides and being in the water. I'm already planning a trip back there when I'm not pregnant so I can do the fun rides. 

Snow Week

Despite being stuck in the house for the past week, we enjoyed our Washington snow week. I've never seen snow like this here before. I think we got around a foot of snow, which is huge for us.

Since Brett has a pretty long commute to work and the road conditions were so bad, he worked from home for a couple of days. I LOVED having him home. We actually ate dinner together as a family at a normal time three days in a row. This is also huge for us.

Jackson loved the snow! He can't say the letter "s" yet, so snow sounded a lot like "noooooo." He kept asking for it. We had to improvise on snow attire, but we made it out to play in the snow every day and he loved it. He would laugh so hard every time we threw a snowball. 

We had fun, but I am so ready for the roads to clear up so I can get out of the house! Thank goodness for the rain today!

Merry (late) Christmas

Our Christmas was fabulous. I know I'm a little late posting about Christmas, but it's better late than never. One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog more. It's a good way for me to journal without feeling like I'm journaling. :)

Before Christmas, I got into the Christmas spirit by making stockings for Brett and me, and making lots of Christmas throw pillow covers. I made more than what is pictured below, but never got around to taking photos of them. Maybe next year?

We spent Christmas eve at my sister-in-law's house with her family, Brett's parents, and Brett's aunt. We ate and read Luke 2 while acting out the Nativity.

 Jackson giving his cousin a kiss.

 Our little family and my pregnant belly.

 Nephews as shepherds.

On Christmas morning we went to Church first thing. It was a wonderful way to start the day we celebrate the birth of Christ. When we got home, we had Jackson "run" down the stairs to see what Santa brought him. He didn't really get what was going on and stopped halfway down the stairs to just stare at us. We actually had to coax him down the stairs. I'm guessing that won't happen again next year.

He got lots of fun presents, but his favorite thing by far was the candy in his stocking. This kid is in love with sweets. He'd eat them all day if I let him.

 Christmas was so much more fun this year with Jackson. I can't wait till next year when he gets even more excited. Some of his favorite presents were: a car track, his own recliner chair, a pop-up tent, and a cash register (from Aunt Bridget and family). I also got some really fun presents.

That evening we hosted Brett's family for Christmas dinner. I planned ahead and made everything the day before so I didn't actually have to do much cooking on Christmas. We also saw a puppet show put on by Brett's parents and some of the grandkids. It was fun to be surrounded by family on such a special day.

I hope you also had a merry Christmas!