Change of Plans

Our plans quickly changed this weekend when we got over 5.3 inches of rain on Saturday! Ross was planning to work on our patio cover, and we were all planning to go to a pool party. With our street looking like this, we decided none of that was in the cards for this weekend. After all, you can normally see the curb and sidewalks!

We spent all day Saturday trapped inside, so we decided to do something fun today. We went to the Children's Museum! Jackson had a blast. They recently opened their new toddler area, and Jackson loved it! Unlike our house where he's told "no-no" fairly often, everything here was fair game. They had everything from little doors to open and close to slides and balls and blocks and cars both little and big! There are more pics in the album, but here are few favorites from the day.

Celebrate Good Times!

We had a whirl wind of fun this weekend. We celebrated our friend Carter's 2nd b-day on Saturday, which was the main reason for a trip to Shreveport and Ruston, LA. We didn't make it through the entire party because Jackson needed a nap, but everyone was having a great time, which you can tell from the pictures in the album. Carter and his parents, Barbara and Heath, are basically family. We love every moment we get to spend with them! Here's a pic with Barbara from the party.

We also got to visit with all of our grandparents this weekend, which is a rare treat. We mostly see them around Christmas and Thanksgiving, so Easter weekend was a bonus! Ross' grandparents and Uncle Alan were enjoying some Easter festivities when we arrived. There was a woman playing the piano and leading the group in song. All of the ladies had on beautiful Easter bonnets.

We don't have any pictures from the visit with my dad's parents, but we definitely enjoyed the visit!

My mom's parents had a fish fry Saturday evening, and it was delicious!!! My cousin Stephanie and her family were also in town this weekend, so all of the boys had fun playing outside. Andrew and Jackson are about a week apart in age, so they had fun digging through a bucket of toys while Adam found Easter eggs.

There are a lot more pics in the album from this weekend, but I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.

Jackson with my parents, Nana and Pop.

Ross' Grandmother

Jackson's 2nd cousin, Andrew.

Last, but certainly not least, my grandmother and Jackson!

Oh yeah...Jackson's 10 months old now! I can't believe it!

Things That Make Me Smile

We went back to the doctor today, and Jackson is doing much better! He was still very happy while he was sick, but I did notice a pretty big change in his energy level. Today he seemed like his normal self and was ready to check out the world! He has discovered that doors swing open and closed and that lots of things make great noises when you hit them, especially a cup on the side of the bathtub.

Jackson has been having fun chasing Bailey up and down the hallway, and Bailey is starting to enjoy it too.

Most of the time Jackson would prefer to walk, but he's getting really good at the army crawl and has even started getting on his knees from time to time. He can get just about anywhere now!

Watching Ross and Jackson play together is by far my favorite thing to see these days. It almost always results in laughter. You can almost hear it in these pictures!

There's just no better way to start and end my day than to see these smiling faces!

Rational Sentiment

I've been wanting to talk more about politics, finance, and current events but I haven't really felt like this was the place to do it. This blog is intended to be the story of our lives and the couple of posts I have made related to politics have felt awkward in this context. As such, I have decided to launch a new blog called Rational Sentiment where I can freely express my opinions on the latest events while hopefully maintaining some level of rationality. I don't know if anyone will end up reading the blog, but it should be fun nonetheless. If you are interested, head on over and you can subscribe to the RSS feed, as well. I hope to post there relatively frequently and maybe spur some civilized conversation.

Pneumonia!

Jackson has it. He was sent home from daycare on Thursday with a 102 fever. Thursday night it was 103 and Friday morning, 104! Tylenol helped to get it down a bit but I went ahead and took him to the doctor. We hadn't seen any other major symptoms and the doctor wasn't sure what the cause might be but she said that at his age, they want to find the cause for such a high fever.

So, 4 hours later, Jackson and I had been to the lab for them to take blood and the hospital for chest x-rays. They took blood from his arm using a tourniquet and needle like with adults. and the x-rays required a device that held him still and his arms above his head. Clearly, these where not pleasant experiences for either of us. Anyway, the x-rays showed pneumonia so we are now administering antibiotics and dealing with difficult eating and sleeping. Please, keep Jackson in your prayers and hopefully he will be better soon.

In other news, I finished the garage construction this morning and will be moving on to the patio cover and gates soon.