Jackson's Batman Party

This is going to be picture overload, but Katie took pictures during the party and got tons of great ones!

We were so excited that bestie Olivia could come to his party! She moved a few months before and were visiting family for the holidays. See those big smiles??

Yes, I made another Super Hero cake, that must be one of my hidden talents. I LOVE having boys :)

Cool batman pinata!

Smiling Lily and Our good friends, the Stone family :)

Tyler's batface and decorated candy bag

Carter, Jackson, Isaac

Katie and Sam!!

Even "cousin" Kyler got to come!

This super hero matching game is one of Jackson's very favorite activities. He is VERY good at memory game! And can identify EVERY super hero!

Some of our awesome friends!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Blow out the candles

And feel special :) I love this picture and how happy he looks!

A surprise gift from Grandma and Grandpa Wolfe! Grandpa Tom brought it out with the bell dinging and everyone ooohed and aaawed, then asked if he wanted to ride it. Jackson said "NO" It was so funny!! Then he got brave and rode it (he later told me he was scared of the bell!) And he LOVES to ride it up and down the street and all the way to the park. He is very good at riding it, very cautious and careful and enjoys a slow stroll :)

We LOVE our Jackson and he is such a special part of our family! HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!

Arizona White Tanks Hike

Before we left our Arizona family, we decided to take some time to hike the White Tank Mountains. Jeff and I did this together when he first brought me to AZ to visit his family, and we enjoyed it so much that we wanted to make some new memories with our children!

Christmas in AZ and Jackson's B-day!

After Christmas we drove up to Peoria to visit the Clarks! Jackson is so lucky to have 2 birthday parties each year, because he gets one in Arizona and one in California! 

Grandma Judy scooping ice cream for cake and root beer floats!

We LOVE playing games together- so much fun. Kaylynn wrapped up books that her boys didn't want anymore. The little ones enjoyed opening them and trading them or keeping them. Tyler lucked out with spider, snake and dinosaur books! :)

We had a couple special announcements this year- Kendi, Shanna, and Kara are all expecting babies! It will be so wonderful to add more cousins to our family. Everyone gets along so well when we are together, it's really fun!

Kasey and Jeff with Lindsey

Happy 4th Birthday Jackson! I made this cake from a dinosaur pan that Judy had! We flipped it upside down and it worked great for Spiderman's face! Jackson is all about the Super Heroes this year. He picked strawberry cake with white frosting!

These two are literally best friends (most of the time!) I can't imagine one without the other, they enjoy doing the same things and playing together everyday. Jackson misses Tyler when he is at school and in the 50 minutes after I take Jack to preschool before Tyler's school starts, if we do something special like go to breakfast or shopping, Tyler says, "Too bad Jackson couldn't come". They really love each other!

Christmas Day

After we opened Santa gifts at our house, we headed over to Grandma Shauna and Grandpa Tom's for family presents!

Baby's First Christmas: Lindsey enjoyed "opening" presents! Her favorite thing is plastic, with her second favorite paper. So she had a blast with that! :)

 

Tommy and Melonie and the kiddos were here this year, so that was super fun.

After presents at my parents, we went to Lanie and Papa's for our nice Christmas dinner and presents there. I never seem to take pictures over there, but we always have a blast!

Christmastime is here

I've always wanted to enjoy the holidays while snuggling a newborn. This year, I got that! Not only was Lindsey fun to cuddle, but she was extra fun to dress up, too!

This was my favorite Christmas outfit she wore. I should've gotten a full body shot because her little leggings had silver sparkles and a couple tutu ruffles on top. A-dor-able!!

Jackson had a preschool program that we went to and he sang Christmas songs and Happy Birthday to Jesus!

 I tried to fit in as much Christmas fun as possible, so we even made Gingerbread houses. I feel about gingerbread houses the same way I feel about carving pumpkins... a lot of work, a lot of mess, for something that turns out really ugly unless I do it all! Well, I resisted the urge to decorate their houses and they turned out... well, ugly. But hey, I think they had fun making them and since I let them eat them after, they didn't stick around too long!

 

Another funny Christmas memory was my attempt to visit Santa at the mall. I thought I was so strategic to run over right after Tyler's last day of school and assumed that since it was a minimum day, we'd beat the crowd. Well, we beat the crowd, and we also missed Santa! We saw him jingling his bells as he took his lunch (fed his reindeer).

But I had my children dressed up in matching outfits, had my camera in tow and had an hour to kill. So, I set up my kids in a decorated corner of the mall and actually got a good photo. Jackson's face looks exactly the same in all 20 shots. Pretty :)

Tommy and Melonie got to come and visit for about a week and a half! It was absolutely wonderful to party it up with them and the cousins had an absolute blast! I had to snap a shot of the birthday twins! Tammy and Tommy :)

Here's the magic of Christmas morning! Santa laid out a beautiful blanket with our gifts and stockings, and Ringo even got a stocking full of treats and toys.

The kids are at such fun ages this year, and we enjoyed some really funny moments during the anticipation of Christmas. One day the boys were super distracted while getting ready for school so I used the famous, "Santa isn't gonna bring you any presents if you don't hurry and obey!" I overheard Tyler say to Jackson, "hurry! Let's be good. We don't want Santa to bring us COAL! It's rocks but too small to paint and they get your hands all dirty when you touch them!"

One night while I was tucking Jackson in, he asked me a series of questions:

"Mommy, is heaven way up up in the sky?"

"Yes."

"Does Santa live in the North Pole?"

"Yes." :)

"Is Santa comin' to town?"

"Why yes, honey he is."

I love 3 year olds!

Thanksgiving!

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving! Jeff had to work in the morning, so I headed over to my parents' house to hang out with the girls and let our kids play. The boys especially had fun with Samantha, and enjoyed chasing her around playing "tigers".

We enjoyed a delicious meal at Lanie and Papas with the Ingalls and Ormes, and enjoyed playing games.

It was so nice that Katie and Randy got to come, I always enjoy spending time with them!

We took some pictures with Alicia and Sarah too, but they must be on my mom's camera, so I will be searching for them :)

On one of the school days off, I bribed the boys to take some pictures! We took our Christmas card picture this day as well and all it cost me was 2 Target Icees! I'm going to have to use that bribe more often, they smiled so well!

Lindsey is 3 months old!

just for fun:

Jackson 3 months

Lindsey 3 months

So much fun...

...to dress up my little dolly!

 

 Sometimes I feel like I am dressing up my little boy in pink... and then I remember that God gave me a little girl!! Even though she looks just like Jackson, she really does act like a princess. She LOVES smiling on camera, and of course she LOVES to be held!