Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!

My Nephew Cooper was cast as an elf and a reindeer in Casa Manana's production of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Way to go Cooper! We were so excited to get to go watch him and see the great show. I was a little nervous as to how Jackson would do at a live show. He noticed each time Cooper was on stage. He loved the show and cried when it was over. Jackson is usually pretty shy since he is not very verbal yet. However after the show, he wanted to go around and meet the other actors and get their autographs. I was so proud of how brave and outgoing he was!

In front of Casa's tree

Meeting the Actors

Getting Cooper's Autograph ( After Cooper signed his program he smiled and rubbed the signature because it was so special to him)

Jackson and Aunt Gigi

PaPa Reindeer

December Fun ... At the Zoo!

Each year my Dad buys us all tickets to the zoo. My sister had not used her tickets and knew that we hadn't either so she asked us to go with them. Although it is December, the weather was perfect. We were completely comfortable and sometimes a little warm in short sleeves!

Jackson and my niece had so much fun together. The animals were all out enjoying the weather too!

Congratulations Matt!

Three years ago Matt decided to go back to school to get his Masters in Information Systems. That was right before we found out that I was pregnant. He has persevered through so many obstacles while maintaining a great GPA. I know he wanted to quit several times but he kept going. I am so proud of him and excited for him to get to relax and not have to study any more!

HO HO HO!

Jackson has been so much fun this Christmas. We were so surprised when we spotted the first Santa decoration for the year and he said "oh, oh, oh!" He knew exactly who Santa was! One of our neighbors had a cute inflatable Santa that popped up and down. We have had to stop to see Santa every time we drive by their house.

I was nervous about how Jackson would do when it actually came time to see Santa. I couldn't have been more surprised. He was so excited he was shaking. He walked right in and walked up to Santa. He told him that he wanted a "Tah" (Thomas) and a ""Pih Peh" (Pillow Pet) We loved his picture!

Jackson loves Thomas the Train. We took him last spring to Grapevine to spend the The Day Out with Thomas. He was just learning about Thomas and had a blast, so we decided to take him to Rusk to see Thomas again. We decided to keep it a secret just in case something came up and we couldn't go. I couldn't bear disappointing him. He had no idea what was about to happen. As we were on our way to the train depot he spotted that special color of blue through the trees. "Taa!" he shouted. He was so excited! We barely got to the train on time. Within minutes the train departed. We sat for a moment catching our breath. We practically ran from the parking lot to make it in time. Jackson pointed out all of the Thomas decor and named all of the engines he saw decorating our train car. Matt and I looked up and were surprised at the emotion we felt. We sat teary eyed enjoying watching Jackson being so incredibly happy.

The whole day was filled with fun. There was a train tent, a bubble station, live music, bounce houses, and of course a gift shop! Jackson was so brave and had his picture made with Sir Topham Hatt. Jackson had a passport that got stamped at each station. When he filled in all of his boxes he took it to the gift shop to collect his prize.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a wonderful fall day and we filled it with many special memories!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. Jackson was really into all of the decorations. Each night leading up to Halloween we would have to drive slowly down the streets in our neighborhood to see the inflatable cats and other decorations.

He dressed up as Thomas the Train (could there be any other choice?). Thanks to Mrs. Glynda he had a great Thomas treat bucket to collect all of his Halloween goodies. We practiced saying trick or treat and we're so proud when he was able to say "teh-tee"!We stopped at a friends house to trick or treat and then went over to my sister Amy's house to have pizza with my family. Then we went trick or treating together down the streets. We also went to a local church for trunk or treating. Jackson thought it was so neat that he could stick out his bucket and people would drop in candy! He got so much candy!



We finished out the night by going by to see Aunt GiGi and Cooper. We had a really special night!

Thursday School Party

Jackson had a "Fall Tea Party" at Thursday school. The kids dressed in costumes, played pin the nose on the pumpkin and pumpkin bowling. It was a great party, but Jackson was more than ready for a nap when it was over.

Happy Birthday Kynlee!

Three years ago we met one of the sweetest families while at Cook Children's Hospital. In the midst of such a hard time we bonded with this family and still treasure them as our friends. Their sweet little girl Kynlee turned three this year and we were so excited to celebrate with them. She had a precious "Sweet Shop" party. Jackson loved all of the yummy sweet treats! He was so excited to try the big lollipop and chocolate covered marshmallow pops.

A Day at the Museum

I decided Jackson and I would get out and do something a little different. It was a beautiful fall day. I looked around on the internet and found a planetarium show at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. I loved the planetarium when I was younger. I thought this show would be a great introduction. It was called One World, One Sky Big Bird's Adventure. Jackson loved the show!

After the show we decided to check out the Children's Museum. Jackson loved the shopping center. He filled his kid sized basket with all of the bread, meat, veggies and fruit he could. He also loved the build your own train track area. Jackson loves trains and made himself at home with all of the tracks and trains. There was also a water exploration area outside. One of his favorite things at the museum was the giant dinosaur outside. He had so much fun digging for dinosaur bones. We had a lot of fun and made some great memories.

Jackson's Birthday Party

This year we celebrated Jackson's birthday at Aunt Gigi and Uncle Guy's house. They have such a nice big backyard. It was the perfect place and really appreciated them letting us have the party there. We decided to have his party that evening because it had been pretty hot. I'm glad we did because the weather turned out extra muggy and hot that day!

We didn't let the hot weather spoil our fun! We had a great party. We had our family and a few friends join us to celebrate. I good friend of ours loaned us their bounce house. The kids bounced and bounced! They also had fun riding the train.

We are so thankful to everyone for making Jackson's third birthday an extra special day. I couldn't have done it without all of the help from everyone. It turned out just as I had hoped and we made great memories!