Catching Up...

Since we last posted Jackson has gotten to play at a carnival and be a lion in a circus at his school, as well as starting swimming lessons, Audrey has started trying to sit up and roll from her back to her stomach (ok...this has only happened once so far), and Ross and I have been busy working in the yard.

The carnival was lots of fun. They had a little ferris wheel, a carousel, and a train. Jackson wasn't so sure about the ferris wheel, but he loved riding the horses and train along with eating snow cones! Here are a few pics, but there are lots more of the fun in the album

The next week Jackson's school put on a circus for all of the parents. It was a blast! Each class was a different animal or act. They had everything from strong men and clowns to tigers and trainers to lions. Jackson was one of the lions. His teachers made felt tails and ribbon manes and painted their faces. They were adorable. I didn't get any good pictures at the circus itself, but here is picture of Jackson at home after the show, and there are more in the album.

Last week Jackson started swimming lessons at a local indoor pool. The first day was awful. Jackson was in the terrible two's mode. He wanted to do everything by himself and didn't want Mommy to hold him. Since he didn't have floaties, that wasn't exactly an option, so we struggled our way through the first lesson. Day two was a dramatic change. I think he was less tired and better prepared for what to expect because he laughed and smiled through the whole lesson. He kicked and jumped and dove and rode his bike (treading water) and did big arms upon request. His favorite parts have been doing the hokey pokey and getting his towel at the end. Somehow we were unknowingly smart in letting Jackson pick out a towel when we were in Florida. This has become HIS towel. It has prevented many meltdowns when transitioning from a water activity to something else. The lessons are four days a week for two weeks, and we're now into week two. He's doing great! Now if we only could finish this yard work so we have some free time on the weekends to take him to the pool again!

So what yard work are we doing? We are pulling out almost all of the existing plants, expanding flower beds, and planting new plants including a tree! These are some before pictures.

All but 4 plants and the existing trees were removed. Maas nursery planted a Summer Maple tree for us and delivered 7 yards of dirt last Friday, which we then moved one wagonful at a time into the yard...that's a lot of shoveling, trips, and spreading of dirt. These are some "in work" pictures. We've actually started putting some flowers in the beds, but I don't have any pictures of them yet. It looks really good though!

Audrey is growing and changing fast. She is now on formula and doing great. She's almost 15 pounds and was at the 66th percentile at her 4 month appointment. She can almost sit on her own. Every day she seems to get stronger and be able to do more. She's a very observant baby. If there's something going on around her, she's likely to watch and study it. She seems to have really good hand-eye coordination. We put together her jumperoo this weekend, and to my amazement, she's already figured out each of the toys on it! This has also shown us what the future holds with Jackson and Audrey "sharing" toys...something for us to work on. Jackson is still adorably sweet with her. Even when getting upset about the toys on the jumperoo, he's usually just wanting to show her how to play with it.

We've had a busy but productive couple of weeks. We hope to finish the yard soon and get Jackson's swing set put together so we can all start having some fun back there!