Getting settled in

We're in Texas and slowly getting settled into our "little house", as Colin & I call it ;) There's still a few boxes to be unpacked and our Christmas tree still needs to be put up, so needless to say, we have big plans for the weekend! Since I'm short on time, I'll just get right to the pics...

Colin & his cousin, Cameron:

The boys have taken their first bath together - it was unplanned (which is why Jackson's sitting in his baby tub), but Colin wanted in so we let him:

My parents took a pic with all the grandkids on Thanksgiving to put on their Christmas cards. So here they all are - my parents, Cameron, Jessica, Colin & Jackson. Surprisingly this was the 2nd shot we took, and it only took about 2 minutes to get them all looking in the same direction.




Cameron & Jessica live in Wisconsin and now the boys are here in Texas, so who knows when we'll get them all together in a picture again!

My roly poly boy:

Seriously, are my kids the only ones that do this?


Jackson last night (7 months old):

Colin at 5 months old:
What is it about eating the tray? You can tell by their sizes that they get fed enough. Do I not feed them quick enough?? ;)

Here's a pic from this morning:




And tonight they were having a little too much fun watching Frosty the Snowman while laying in bed:

And last, here's a short video of Jackson. He finally figured out the jumparoo and he LOVES it!!! Oh and pardon Colin at the end, he tends to get a little jealous if I take a video that doesn't have him in it LOL

Hope you enjoyed!

Brothers

I have a ton of pics to share, but this video is by far the BEST thing ever. It just doesn't get any better than these moments:

I cannot get over how much my boys love each other. Colin is by far Jackson's favorite person right now. When I try to feed Jackson his food and Colin's in the room, forget about it. All he does is watch Colin and smile & giggle. When we're driving in the car, Jackson babbles away to Colin and Colin loves every second of it, telling me "Mommy, Jackson's talking to me!". And when I took Jackson for his 6 month pictures a couple days ago, Colin was the only person who could make him smile. I'm not really sure what's going to happen when I get pictures of them together next week because clearly Jackson is not interested in me ;)

I have a ton of pics to share, but in this post I'm only going to post ones of the boys together - the rest can wait ;) I knew they'd enjoy having each other, but I never expected them to have so much fun together already! It's so cute to watch them interact.

Colin decided he wanted to do some tummy time too, and apparently holding Jackson's hand made it more fun LOL

He was even sweet to give Jackson kisses when I didn't even ask him to!

This one might look posed, but Colin is always asking to hold Jackson - literally non-stop lately. So one morning he was holding him and they were "talking" to each other and magically I said look at Mommy and they did and they even both smiled! This is by far my absolute favorite pic right now. Thanks to Amy for fixing the red eye for me :)




Hope you enjoyed :)

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Trying sweet potatoes for the first time...

1st attempt with a sippy cup...

Colin showing off his "nice" smile (as he calls it):

Someone has learned to sit up (he also has 2 teeth as of last week, but I haven't gotten good pics of them yet)!

Halloween time - Colin, the magician, and Jackson, the bunny:

Colin doing his magic on us, saying "pocus, pocus" (he doesn't quite get that it's supposed to be "hocus, pocus" LOL)

This last pic is from the very first house we took him to. He was beyond excited that people gave him candy and other goodies, just for dressing up and saying "trick-or-treat". And he was quite the entertainment for everyone, that's for sure. He said "pocus pocus" and "trick-or-treat" at every single house, and then even remembered to say "thank you" when they gave him treats. He is such a respectful 2yr old little boy!

Hope you enjoyed!

Jumping, "punkins", and the park

This past Saturday I decided to get out the jumparoo for Jackson. Colin was never much of a fan of it when he was an infant, but Jackson's a bit spunkier than Colin ever was, so I figured he might enjoy it. I got it all cleaned up and ready to go, went upstairs to get Jackson up from his nap, and come back down to this:

Of course as soon as I got downstairs, he started yelling "stuck, Mommy, help me!!!" LOL After realizing he doesn't fit in there anymore, he decided to let Jackson give it a try:

He seems to really enjoy it, hopefully he'll figure out how to actually jump in it one of these days!

Later on Saturday I took the boys to the cider mill. Colin was in heaven - not only did he get to have cider & donuts, but they also had animals, "punkins", and tons of things for him to play on. Jackson slept in the stroller the entire time, so I didn't get any pics of him, but here's a couple pics of Colin having fun (and looking so grown up!!!):

I swear him and the pig were having a conversation - it was hilarious!

Since Jackson's eating cereal, I figured it was time to break out the highchair:

Here's a cute pic of the boys. Jackson loves watching his big brother - he's more interested in Colin than anything else. And sometimes, Colin gives Jackson some attention too ;)

Colin's had a bit of a cold the past few days, but was feeling a bit better today, so we attempted to go to the park in our neighborhood. Not only was it pretty cold out, but it had rained this morning (which I had forgotten about until we got to the park), and everything was wet. Colin was bummed he couldn't go on the slide & swings. See him showing off his "sad" face? LOL

Jackson, on the other hand, had a blast. He loves stroller rides!

A short update on the boys...

Colin can count to 20! We practice all the time, but he actually did it all on his own and I was so proud. He still has an aversion to the number 6 (and 16) for some reason, but I'm sure he'll get it eventually.

Jackson is cutting 2 teeth on the bottom. He hasn't been too irritable about it, other than a rough night or 2 last week. I can see them under the gums and feel them with my fingers, so pretty soon - no more gummy smiles. And he's so close to sitting up! He can sit on his own for 10-15sec at a time and then he gets all excited and throws himself either backwards or to the side, but we're working on it.

This next week is going to be busy. Scott flies in from Texas on Monday, the movers come and pack us up on Thursday, and we're off to Texas on Friday. It's getting close! I keep talking about it to Colin, but I'm not sure he fully understands. Hopefully it'll be a smooth transition for all of us.

Halloween is getting closer.... Grandma & Grandpa Page have no idea what these kiddos are going to be since I changed my mind last week.... it should be cute though!!!! Colin *loves* his costume and wants to wear it all the time, so that's a good sign :)

So much has happened!

So much has happened since I last posted. We started Jackson on cereal, we FINALLY sold our house, our move is officially booked, and we spent time with a US Am.bassador!

I had been dreading starting Jackson on cereal, mostly on laziness on my part. I just haven't felt like dealing with feeding him, and since the Ped said to wait until 6 months, there really was no rush. But the poor guy was getting hungrier and hungrier, and formula just wasn't cutting it anymore, so I got the cereal out a couple nights ago. He's not very into it at all, but I just let him keep practicing. Colin is not a fan of Jackson learning to eat - Colin gags everytime he watches Jackson spit some of the cereal out. I've tried to have him leave the room to avoid the mess of both Jackson and Colin, but Colin is very intrigued and likes to be in the room. And it's not really fair of me to make him leave. So cereal is mostly a "work in progress" for awhile ;) Here's pics of his first bites:

Our house finally sold!!! The couple buying it are a newly pregnant couple and seem very, very excited to live here. That made me so happy - I really wanted to sell the house to a nice family. We had gotten an offer from another couple a few hours before theirs and it was a horrible one - an absolute joke. So we were beyond thrilled to be able to reject that offer to take the better one. Our move is set for Nov. 2nd, so it's time to get prepared for that. Hopefully the move doesn't confuse the kids too much and that it all goes smoothly.

This past week, my Uncle Mike came for a visit. He was recently appointed to be the US Am.bassador to Vietnam, which is absolutely amazing. He treated me and some of my family to a really nice steakhouse dinner on Thursday - I'm not even going to say what the bill was, but it was worth every penny! YUM! My aunt babysat the boys (the first time anyone babysat other than the usual 3 people - my Mom, Scott's Mom, or Aunt Jo), so I was nervous. I tried to put Jackson down to sleep before I left, but he was crying. Finally after 45min of trying to get to sleep, I left him with my aunt and left for dinner since everyone was waiting (usually he's super easy for me to put to bed, but I was in a hurry and I think he sensed my anxiety). We got home a couple hours later (9:30pm) - and both boys were still awake!!! I got Jackson right to sleep, but Colin stayed awake until 11:30pm. I guess there were too many people over and he didn't want to miss out on the excitement. He was up at 6am the next day too. He took a REALLY good nap the next day because of it.

Sorry for the few of us in robes - it was about 10:30pm at this point (the clock in the background is broke) and we were tired! LOL

Just pics

I don't have much to say right now, but here's some recent pics of the boys...

In honor of Grandparent's Day

I figured I'd post some pics of the boys for the Grandparents to enjoy :) Oh and there are more videos for your viewing pleasure - I'm addicted to taking random vidoes of the kids, in case you haven't noticed (the link is on the right side titled "Kerry's videos". Enjoy!!!

Yesterday I took the boys to the park in our neighborhood. Aside from loving the huge field to run around crazy in, Colin loved the slide and went down it a million times:

And then took a reflective moment in the gazebo:

While Jackson happily layed in the stroller sucking his fingers:

Jackson has become a fan of his tummy. As soon as we lay him on his back, he rolls right over. Makes it easy to have him do tummy time, but the playmat we have for him is going to waste because he won't stay on his back long enough to play with the animals dangling from it LOL Oh and yes, he's now sleeping on his tummy too, which makes his Mommy incredibly nervous and extremely paranoid!!! As you can see, he's very happy on his tummy:

And today, Jackson got a new seat - a bumbo seat. It allows him to sit up, even though he's not strong enough to do it on his own yet. It was a huge hit with Jackson.... and Colin!

And I have to post this pic of Jackson - look at these cheeks!!!!! He giggles every time I try to "eat" them ;)




At one point this afternoon, Jackson was getting a little tired and started fussing. Colin was right there to try to cheer him up, he even offered Jackson his blankie! Anyone who knows how much Colin treasures his blankie will understand that this is a huge deal. Anyways, here's a pic of the "moment" between the boys. *sigh* I just love them so much!!!!



And last, I have to send a HUGE congratulations to Amy on the birth of her son, Sean. He was born yesterday and after everything she has endured on the road to getting pregnant, and how the pregnancy ended, I cannot imagine anyone who deserves to be a Mother more than her. I was able to meet Sean today, and he is just about as beautiful as they can come. I just know he's going to make her so happy in so many ways. Congratulations sweetie (and Happy Birthday to you today), and welcome to the world, Sean!!!!!