IJ and the new baby

My really good friend, Jannae, had her second baby this last Saturday. He is darling and I am extremely happy for their little family. Yesterday, our boys got to meet this precious baby. All of the boys got to hold him and they "oh-ed and ah-ed" over him. IJ was, of course, really taken with him. He kept asking if he could hold the baby again and sat right by whoever was holding him. After Jannae left, IJ came up to me and whispered, "It would be really neat to have a baby brother, Mom." I had to then tell him (which I know he already knew) that we were not having any more and he would just have to enjoy Jannae's baby. He got really teary eyed at this, but recovered quickly.

I am amazed at how sensitive and caring IJ is. My sister's daughter, May was so taken with him at Christmas and Jannae's older boy, Tyler, loves him. He is very aware of little kids and their needs and will go out of his way to play with them and include them. What a great Dad he will be someday!

I am always in awe at how precious and unique our boys are. We are truly blessed to have each of them in our lives.

When It Rains, It Pours!

- A few days before Christmas, we had to buy a new battery for the Durango. (-$75)

- Since getting rid of our landline, our security system isn't hooked up, so we had to get an upgraded system. (-$210)

- On Friday, our heating element went out in our dryer. (-$75)

- On Friday, we also received a letter from our insurance company, stating that they were not going to pay any of AJ's ER visit in Nov., due to us not reaching our deductible! (-$800)

UGH!!!!

Christmas

We have had the greatest Christmas break! AJ has had a ton of time off and we have enjoyed having him home. We spent Christmas Eve out at my parents house and had so much fun Christmas morning. The "Brother" stockings were a hit! The boys loved watching their brother open them. I think the boys really enjoyed everything they got. To quote BJ, "Mom, I got everything I wanted this year!" That is music to my ears! We have reallllly enjoyed having Lucy, Derrick and May here. The boys love playing with every single one of them! May is so darling, she has the cutest personality! She LOVES IJ. She will seek him out, follow him around, sit on his lap and always wants to be with him. It is soo cute.

My sister Erin and her family are coming Thursday night to spend New Years Eve weekend with us and we are all looking forward to that!

Our Family T-Shirt - 2009

Jackson Family T-Shirt - Dec 2009 from Aaron Jackson on Vimeo.

New Traditions

We have started a few new traditions this year, here at our house and are really excited about them.

The first one came about when I was sitting at my sister Erin's house, chatting with her and my other sister, Lucy. We were taking about our favorite things about Christmas and Erin mentioned that one year, her in-laws stuffed each other stockings. I thought it was a great idea and thought the boys would love to do it and that it would bring the "giving" element into our holidays. So, during FHE before Thanksgiving we had the boys exchange names and start "stocking" lists. The boys were excited and had tons of ideas. I was excited because it was one less stress on me and their stocking won't just be the same for each boy. This last Tuesday we headed over to Target to do their stocking shopping. AJ took 2 boys and I took the other 2. They all had soo much fun and bought such fun stuff! On the way home they were all excited to give their stockings to each other! It also helped AJ and I to get more into the Christmas spirit. Each stocking is soo unique and it is going to be so much fun for them to watch their brother open them!

Our second tradition is built on an old one. We like to get the boys new PJ's for Christmas Eve. This year we decided to make our own T-Shirts. As we were discussing this in FHE, AJ came up with a GREAT idea to make our own Family Crest! We all helped with the basic design, giving ideas and our opinions, and then AJ, the master that he is with computers, polished it up! We are really excited about them and the Crest turned out soo cool! The 3 words we chose for our Crest were: Brotherhood (for obvious reasons!), adventure, and unity. We picked a Falcon as our animal, AJ would love to learn to fly and a Falcon ties into the adventureness. AJ also included a star in it to represent me! :) We are going to just use iron-ons for right now, but we hope to get them silk screened eventually. I will post picture as soon as a have them!

I am so excited for Christmas this year. I have enjoyed shopping for the boys, they are each soo different and wanted such different things. I have almost all the wrapping done, I am just waiting for a few final things to come through UPS. (I ended up having to get about half of our gifts online and I loved it! Most sites were offering free shipping and were guaranteeing delivery by Christmas!) We are also excited for LJ's birthday 2 days before Christmas.

AJ and I got for our gift (with the help of Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's Christmas money) the new "Flip" video camera. We opened it and charged it last night, knowing we would want it for Christmas morning. (We will probably wrap it and open it, again, Christmas Eve!) We are really going to enjoy having it and it is so small that I know we will use it all of the time! So expect to see more video from us.

Happy Holidays to everyone! Enjoy your families and loved ones.

Ketch-up

I have not posted for a while, so here is a "ketchup". We had a great Thanksgiving. We spend the first 3 days in Rigby, with my sister and her family. It was fun, relaxing, and chaotic! When the kids all get together it is like we are running a ZOO! I really enjoyed getting to spend so much one-on-one time with Erin.

We headed to Rexburg next, to spend Thanksgiving with AJ's family. We had fun, and we did a little of everything! We shopped (for our Christmas from them), bowled (which I do believe I won, at least out of my family!), played a ton of games (I got a fun game for my Birthday called Small World), visited (I love catching up with everyone), and ATE!!!! For those of you that didn't hear, AJ sliced open his finger, on my Birthday, opening his remote control car, he got from his parents. After much debating, he and I went to the ER, where he received 5 stitches!This is a picture of him, playing with his remote control car, right after returning from the ER! He is soo cute in this picture!

And this is his finger 3 days after getting them.

All of the boys, (all 7 of them) loved playing in the hot tub. It was a "must" everyday. They especially loved it when Gramma played with them! This is IJ and SJ with AJ's Mom.
Since being home, we have put up our Christmas decorations. Here IJ's is pretending to be the tree! :)

We are looking forward to Christmas with my parents, here in Star. Lucy, Derrick and Baby May with be coming too! Erin and her family will be coming for New Year's Eve! I love the holiday's and we love getting to spend time with our families.

Thanks-Giving

We are leaving for Eastern Idaho tomorrow. AJ and the boys have the week off, so we are headed to Rigby, to see my sister and her family for a few days and then off to Rexburg, to spend Thanksgiving with AJ's family. We love spending the holidays with family.

There are soo many things in my life that I am thankful for. I have an AMAZING husband, that supports me and loves me for who I am. Our boys are so great! I love each of their individual personalities, they are truly wonderful children. I am thankful for our small, sweet home. We are lucky to have a job that keeps that sweet home ours. We are so grateful for the boys school, this has been such a wonderful blessing to our family. We love having my parents live close. It is great to see the boys have a close relationship with them. We have amazing, supportive families. We are so lucky to have good relationships with all of them. The Church is a big blessing. It is such a help in raising a family. Soo many blessings in our lives, what a great time of the year.

Great Weekend

I had a wonderful, few days at my sisters. Mom, Dad, Lucy and I went over because she was going to be in her ward's production of "The 10 Virgins" and I wanted to see her in it. The performance was one of the best ones I have seen! It was soo amazing and really made you think about your life. We all cried! I was soo proud of her.

It was different to be over there without my boys. I was able to pay more attention to Erin's kids, and I really enjoyed that. They are such fun kids! :)

We stayed up WAY to late each night talking and I didn't regret it! I love spending time with my family.

AJ worked from home on Thursday and Friday to be here for the boys. He is an amazing and wonderful husband. Thanks, honey!

Our Halloween

We had a great Halloween. We carved pumpkins on Thursday night. The boys each carved their own, even LJ, he only needed a little help from AJ.
AJ, BJ and SJ went on a scout camp-out the night before Halloween and really had fun. This was SJ's official first scout camp-out. Halloween day was busy and fun. After the boys got back from the camp-out, we celebrated SJ's birthday. Of course, he requested a donut cake again. :) (What a fun tradition!)
We then got ready for our Ward Trunk or Treat, we took our Zuppa Tuscana soup. Yummy! We had fun passing out candy and hanging out. We decided to have an easy year for costumes and the boys (minus BJ, he claimed he was too old this year!) went as Jedi's again. The boys and AJ went around the neighborhood after we got home. We got a ton of candy that AJ and I wish would just disappear! :)

Pumpkin Patch

The boys have had 2 weeks off for Fall Break. We have enjoyed the time. Last week was our last soccer week and we are glad to be done. :)
Today, the boys and I went to the Pumpkin Patch! We had so much fun! The boys loved getting to pick out their pumpkins. I think SJ went to the other end of the patch, just to find his "perfect" pumpkin. His ended up being the biggest one, at an amazing 25 lbs! We now know why it is cheaper to "pick-your-own", lugging back all of the pumpkins was a CHORE! The boys also enjoyed getting to see the farm animals that were there and figuring out the hay-bail maze. This will be an October tradition from now on, and next year we are going to have AJ go with us. (We need more muscles!)