I can help!

With Jackson crawling and pulling himself up on everything he has been very helpful around the house. If Aaron or I are focused on anything in the house, J makes sure to give his two sense on the matter. Whether it be hitting it and babbling, or actually grabbing whatever it is we are focused and trying to take matters into his own hands (literally). A while ago he "helped" Aaron put up the baby gate. I'm not sure if he helped or more delayed the entire process. All I know is he was a pretty cute doing whatever he was doing=]

 

Getting Ready To Go Fishing!!

Aaron is actually getting his promised Block Leave in a couple weeks (time off after a deployment for all of you non military people). We decided that with this being the first summer that he will be able to enjoy Tennessee we are going to go camping/fishing. Sadly, being Aaron's favorite hobby it has been seriously neglected the past couple years. I made our reservation for a floating cabin off of NickaJack Lake in Tennessee yesterday and when I told Aaron about the confirmation I could tell he "lit up" with excitement from the sound of his voice over the phone. Even though we are more tent people, we figured that with Jackson on the move my sanity would be saved having him in a dirt and stick free environment. With the news of camping and fishing in our near future Aaron decided to whip out his gear, both old and new and started organizing ALL OVER MY LIVINGROOM. I think he is beyond estatic about being able to fish and go out on the lake in the kayak. Jackson decided that it would be as good as time as ever to step in and start the father-son bonding time! I think he was super helpful...Aaron might say otherwise.

Happy Father's Day

Happy First Father's Day Aaron!!

Aaron has not been able to enjoy one of his favorite hobbies since we have lived here, so for Father's Day we decided to let him have some fun. We ventured to Nashville and purchased a roof rack for Bubbles to allow us to transport his NEWEST baby home. Yes ladies and gentlemen...Aaron is now the proud owner of a Kayak!

He loves to fish, but has always had to deal with what he could catch on the shore. Now he will be able to actually get out on the water to really use all of his fishing stuff (yeah I don't really know or care what it is)! All day he had the biggest smile on his face. Hopefully it was a very memorable first father's day for him. One thing I can promise you is that I will be taking lots of pictures of him trying to "drive...float...steer" the kayak=) Now THAT will be very memorable for me.

Bubbles looks pretty cool with her new rack and toy!

Don't Feed The Babies

We tried to warn Aaron about not feeding the babies, lets just say that he didn't take the warning seriously. The boys cornered him and were very vocal and physical with their demands!

Once they were done cleaning off Aaron's plate of refried beans they proceeded to migrate over to mine and Aunt Jess's plates. How I love these boys!

Mama I'm Not Sleeping...

I'm STUCK!!!!

Ever since Jackson has learned to crawl and stand up he has gotten himself into some interesting positions in his crib. I know he is still a little young for the strict cry-it-out method, but I still try to let him soothe himself to sleep to a point. I noticed that as he was settling down his cry changed. Not the I'm pissed off, now come pick me up cry but more the I'm hurt cry. I walked in to the room to these images. I felt so bad but couldn't help but laugh. 

 It took a couple repeat performances for me to finally go and grab my camera to "document" this, but it just had to be done. I understand that I totally get a BMA (Bad Mom Award) for this, but omg I died!! Look at that face!?!

Jackson's Gotta Girlfriend

...and her name is Kailyn

Aunt Mari or Momma always have to sit in on our playdates because they say we are too young to be unsupervised. We cry and beg them to leave us alone because we are old enough to make decisions for ourselves, but they don't believe us!!

So we make the most of our time together. Even when Aunt Mari is Right There=]

Jackson's little friend

Jackson and I volunteered to watch my friend Viviana's puppy Midnight while her and her family enjoyed a vacation in the Smokey Mountains. I was more than happy to help knowing that our biggest worry with taking a trip is, who is going to watch the boys. I was a little nervous about Harly (my ass) getting along with Midnight though. He is SO small that I was afraid that Harly would want to eat him...lol...sadly. To my surprise Harly was amazingly patient and nice to him. I think that Jackson is wearing him down *does victory dance*. We only had one real asshole moment and it involved Midnight being too hyper too early in the morning. My dogs are not morning puppies=] The best part about the week with the little one was watching him interact with Jackson. I think his favorite part was M's kennel. It made fun noises when he hit it, and loved that the door would swing open and close. It was definitely a week full of laughs!

Not as much fun as he thought it would be

Hi Momma!!

I'm FREE!!!!!

Not BFFs Until...

You Bathe Together

Pretty excited about the running water

You both have soap??

Not as much fun as we thought

 

He LOVES them...

A while ago we were at Jess' house and she told us that Kaison loved eating pickles. We decided to give it a try and it turns out that Jackson loves them too. I figured that if the boy likes them...he likes them and bought him the BIG jar!

Daddy's Home!!

 We got the word that Aaron was coming home a couple days early and couldn't of been happier. I know in the back of all of our minds was, how is Jackson going to react. Its so hard to not have Aaron home with us everyday, even with the technology daddy wasn't home to hug or snuggle. When Jackson and I got to the airport all I was saying in my head was, "Please don't cry...please don't cry"! Luckily, Jackson was big smiles and snuggles for Daddy as soon as we saw him. He definitely knew and missed his Daddy!!

 To both my and Aaron's surprise Jackson had a little something up his sleeve...or more diaper for him. Lol, such a wonderful son right?? 

 The feeling of having my family together again, no matter how long the separation, is indescribable. Thank you Lord for bringing our soldier back home to us!

They Meet Again

I don't think I will ever get enough of Kaison and Jackson playing together. They crack me up. They were apart for almost a month and you could tell they missed each other. Kaison kept hitting Jackson and pulling his hair and Jackson had no problem showing Kaison all of his toys and then taking them back! I'm so happy to have another munchkin around the same age as Jackson. I can't wait what this next year has in store for our little men!!

Swimming at Nana's

Nana knows how much Jackson loves to swim and bought him a swimming pool. She decided that if it wasn't warm enough to go swimming outside Jackson could swim in the kitchen. Luckily we were able managed to catch a 3 hour window with 76 degree weather. In Idaho that has to be taken advantage of! 

 Jackson had a blast in the pool as always, but what held his attention more was the grass.

In Kentucky we have what's called crab grass in Idaho. Our yard is full of it with a splash of clovers and red clay in between...add some fire ants to that and you will understand why he doesn't play in it.

 We weren't outside for long, but the time we spent out there was fun!

What do you get...

When you take 1 six year old, 2 two year olds, and a 7 month old to the movies??

Pure and utter chaos!

Let's BBQ

While we were home for Christmas we weren't able to see everybody and introduce Jackson to our church family. So to celebrate our return home we decided to have a bbq. We sent the invites out and figured who ever showed...showed! It was a great time and we all had fun catching up with everyone.

A little bit of everyone before we started eating

The Shouse Family and J

Nana, Nana Sheila, and Margie

Uncle Chad

Papa and Chad

Paige with Mr J

Of course the girls all banded together

Dad, Oliver, and Ben

Me and Oliver

The Day of Day Trips

With only a week to spend in Idaho I was only going to be able to visit Pocatello instead of making a trip to Boise too. This wasn't the easiest decision to come by seeing how my inlaws and some of my closest friends are up in Boise. The biggest factor was that I didn't want to have to make the drive up there with Jackson by myself. He is a very social baby and has issues being "ignored" just driving into Clarksville or Nashville, let alone for 3 1/2 hour to Boise. Luckily everyone understood. My father inlaw immediately told me that if we weren't coming up then they were coming down. Hearing this made my entire week because I'm not sure when we will be coming back to Idaho and I would hate for them to miss out seeing Jackson in person. As the weekend got closer my friend Bre sent me a couple sms' about possibly coming down to visit us too. I was THRILLED!! I couldn't believe that my inlaws and one of my best friends was going to drive about 7 hours round trip to see me and J for about 3-4 hours. That is just craziness!! Tom and Brenda made it in town around noon and came straight to the house. We played with Jackson for a little bit before heading to my favorite restaurant in town...Mama Inez. It was a delicious meal and wonderful visit with them. After lunch we came back to the house and skyped with Aaron as a whole family, it was so nice! They ended up leaving around 330 which was just in time for nap time.

 

Around 5pm I got an sms from Bre telling me that she was almost there and that she had talked my friend Lynzie into driving down from IF. The only problem about the girls coming down to visit was that I had gotten them addicted to Mama Inez as well. So the only place they wanted to eat was Mama Inez...oh have no fears I totally sucked it up and ate it again=] It was such a wonderful day all around...I just have to say that I love my family and friends!! 

Ah...what's in a cup?!

 

No Really...What's In There?!?

Daddy...is that you?

 

I have said it before and will say it again. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY THESE DAYS! I applaud military spouses of the past before the internet. I have no idea what I would do if I didn't have the opportunity, although sometimes rare, to actually see my husband when he is overseas. It keeps Aaron an active presence in our day to day life. Its kind of funny to watch Jackson when I am going to call Aaron (or whoever) on Skype. He knows the ringing sound means somebody exciting is going to pop up on the screen. 

 

I think that being able to actually talk and interact with Jackson is comforting to Aaron too. I have heard that the fears of most military family member's biggest fears is that their children won't remember who they are when they come home. Between the skype video calls, phone calls on speaker phone, and our audio night-night books Jackson knows his Daddy's voice!