Garage Project

Everyone will be happy to know Jackson is drinking well again! Thursday he drank only from a sippy cup at home, but Friday he took the bottle again. He even did well at day care, and he's done well all weekend!

We spent the weekend redoing the siding on our garage with the help of a bunch of great friends. Thank you so much Andrew, Todd, Jeff, Eric, and Zack! Many thanks to the wives (and one fiance) who let their husbands help, kept me company, and helped watch the kiddos. It was a lot of work for two days, but the majority of the work is done.

The bottom of our garage was rotting away, so we decided to replace the siding with Hardie Plank. We originally planned on just paying someone to do it for us, but after receiving a quote for $8000, Ross decided he could take care of it.

It was a learning process for everyone invloved, but they did a great job. The first step was demolition. I think the guys had a little fun with this one. After a very short time, this is what our garage looked like.

The next step involved stapling roofing felt around the studs. This part was done very quickly.

Putting up the Hardie Plank proved to be a challenge, but one they successfully completed today. If you didn't know, you can't simply cut Hardie board with a saw, these guys had to score and break each piece. I think there are expensive tools out there to make this easier, but they didn't have one! By the end of the day Saturday, the guys had completed the Hardie Plank on one of the walls of the garage. Impressive progress for a single day! We did have one minor injury towards the end of the day, but luckily it didn't require a trip to the ER! Here are a few pictures from Saturday.

While Jackson and Quin took a nap, Bekah and I helped a little. Mostly with clean up though.

Jackson and Quin spent almost the entire day together playing, and at one point I think there were 6 little ones running around our living room. They seemed to have a blast for the most part.

Today Andrew and his son Nathan (almost 5) came back over and helped finish the job. Nathan helped me take care of Jackson. He was a great entertainer. He could really make Jackson laugh. Later in the day Rhea came over with more entertainers and more help! A family friend of theirs, Zack, helped finish off the Hardie Plank while Rhea and I took the kids to the park down the street. When we returned it was Elena's turn to make Jackson laugh. This time we managed to get a picture.

By the end of day two, this is what our garage looks like.

We have a little more work to do, but the hardest part is now done. We just need to put in a few final nails and put up the trim. Then we'll be on to the next project...our patio cover or fence!

Broken

Has it ever happened to you? When your husband goes out of town something inevitably breaks. It's certainly happened to me before. This time, however, it's our son! He's been refusing to drink since Monday morning. Since he's still drinking from a bottle, we thought something might be causing him pain while sucking. We thought he might have an ear infection, sore throat, or be in pain from teething...wrong, wrong, and wrong again. I took him to the doctor Tuesday afternoon to make sure.

That afternoon I was finally able to get him to drink a little from a sippy cup, which brought us both great relief since I was getting worried about dehydration. It also made me laugh because we've been trying to get Jackson to take an interest in the sippy cup or a regular cup for months. This morning he refused the bottle again, but very eagerly drank from the sippy cup. I thought that was good news, so I happily went to work today feeling a lot less worried about our precious baby boy.

When I picked him up this afternoon, he'd refused even the sippy cup all day. The weird thing is that he continues to eat his solids and sleep well for the most part. Of course, I tried the sippy cup again at home, and sure enough, he refused it! He would push it away and just cry. Once I was able to sneak a little into his mouth though, he was all about that sippy cup. I just don't get it! Even the doctor said she's never seen a baby do this before without any evident cause.

Needless to say, I'm ready for Ross to come home tomorrow in hopes that will fix everything. :-)

Dream Boys

It's been a great weekend. I took off of work on Friday and left Jackson at day care so I could get some work done on the house. What I thought was going to take me all weekend, I managed to almost finish on Friday! I sanded and painted our bathroom cabinets, added knobs and pulls to the drawers and doors (with Ross' help), and finished planting new flowers in the yard. I was in such a good mood by the end of the day because I felt like I'd finally made some progress. I've been wanting to paint the bathroom cabinets for a couple of years now. I don't know what took me so long! When I finally stopped for a few minutes and checked my work email, I got some great news that a coworker got certified...this was an even bigger deal than normal because there was a painful process to go along with it.

Then a toy we'd ordered for Jackson arrived, and he absolutely loves it! It's a play n' ride train. Jackson started walking (cruising really) a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to find a toy he could push around to help him out. He's got all of the levers and buttons figured out, and he has a great time pushing it around. When he sits on it, his feet don't quite reach the ground yet, so we push him. If we stop, he rocks back and forth urging us to keep going!

We had our life group Friday night too, which was a blast. Ross and I decided we were being called to step down from leadership for a while a couple of months ago, and a new couple that recently moved to Texas decided to step up. I think it's going to be great!

Yesterday Jackson and I spent some time hanging out in the yard with Bailey while Ross gathered supplies to put new siding on our garage and rebuild our patio cover next weekend. It was such a beautiful day, and I couldn't resist taking some pics of Jackson playing with the grass and flowers. There are several more in the album.

Yesterday evening we made our way to Kingwood to catch up with a couple of my sorority sisters, their husbands, and their kiddos. I love these girls! We only see each other once or twice a year, but they will always hold a special place in my heart! Tammy and Kammy were both ahead of me at LA Tech, but I often felt closer to them than some of my pledge sisters. Their husbands and kiddos are great too! Here's a picture of the girls and the future Kay-Dee dream boys, Bryan, Jackson, and Mason.

New Pictures

We have a few new pictures of Jackson in the album now, so take a look. Here are a couple from today!

9 Months Old!

Wow, has it really been 9 months? This month in particular has flown by. Jackson has been through a lot and changed so much this month. Aside from getting sick twice this month, he's working on his 6th tooth and crawling. All of these things have produced tears and whining.

For the most part, he's still a very happy baby. He's just ready to be mobile! He doesn't ever want to stay still, and he's already walking anywhere you'll let him go while holding on to something...usually mom or dad's fingers. He seems to enjoy falling over like a board, which is not the best way to fall, but how do you stop him from doing something that brings him so much joy? His favorite game right now is "chasing" Bailey, which involves walking towards Bailey, Bailey running to the other side of a chair or table, and JD walking around the chair to simply start the process all over again. He LOVES this game. It always gets a good laugh.

Jackson also enjoys playing the piano...banging the keys of a real piano is apparently much more fun than those on his toys.

His coordination in general has gotten much better. He's working hard on that pincer grasp. He has officially fed himself a cracker, but he doesn't do it very often. He's eating 3 meals a day and having 4 9-oz bottles a day. It's no wonder he's moving up the weight scale quickly. He has his 9 month appointment tomorrow, so we'll see just how much he's grown then!

Jackson continues to sleep really well. He's doing much better at the new day care with his naps, and he's still sleeping 12 hours every night. His evening routine now involves dinner, immediately followed by a bath, which he loves. In the tub he has fun practicing drinking from a cup and then having his little teeth brushed.

Sorry...no new pics today. It's been a busy week, so we'll try to get some posted this weekend. In the mean time we'll leave you with the 3 songs that almost unfailingly calm Jackson down or make him smile. They are 'Amazing Grace', 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game', and a Taylor original, 'The Pants Dance' to the tune of 'The Hokey Pokey'...

You put your right leg in.
You put your left leg in,
and you shake it all about.

You do the pants dance
to get your pants on,
cause that's what it's all about.

You do the paaaaannts dance.
You do the paaaaannts dance,
Cause that's what it's all about!

Dedication

This weekend Ross and I, along with our family and friends, dedicated to raise Jackson according to God's will by living our lives as an example for him and teaching him about God's word and love. This was an important event for all of us, not because we weren't dedicated to doing this before, but because it is an opportunity to come together and publicly make this commitment to God and Jackson. It's also our way of letting everyone know that we are depending on everyone that's a part of Jackson's life to also set that example. We certainly can't raise this precious boy on our own!

We had a great weekend. My cousin, Meg, flew in on Friday, and we had a fun, relaxing girls' day. Saturday we spent most of the day cooking and baking to prepare for the festivities on Sunday, and that evening we had all of our family and friends that were in from out of town over for dinner. Sunday morning everyone joined us at the church for the dedication and service. Jackson's godparents, Barbara and Heath, along with Ross' parents, my parents, and Meg joined us on stage for the dedication. Several of our close friends also came to show their support and make the commitment along side us.

Jackson was an angel this morning. While Pastor Randy was holding him and talking to everyone about what the dedication meant, Jackson laid his head on Randy's shoulder...it was definitely an "awwww" moment.

Afterward, everyone came to our house for brunch. We're hoping someone else got more pictures there because we didn't really pull out our camera until everyone was gone. We did get some fun shots with my parents and Meg though, and we are so thankful to Chris for taking the pictures during the dedication. Here are a few of the pics. The rest are in the album.