Online Birthday Exchange

As some of you may know, I have made some WONDERFUL friends online with a pregnancy/motherhood message board that I am part of. A lot of these girls know more about me than my friends or family in real life. I love them all dearly even though I have never met them face to face. Although, I will be getting the opportunity to meet some of them in June when we get together for a meet & greet. I am so excited! Anyways, we planned an online birthday party for all of our babies and we exchanged wishlists and were assigned a name of a person to buy for.

The girl who bought for me is from NM and she only has two sons, so I am sure she had a great time buying for Becca. She did a great job, too! She bought her some really cute onesies and Christmas socks from Old Navy! They are perfect! We really needed warm clothes for Becca and these are nice because they can be put on easily with a pair of jeans or just worn alone around the house! Thank you so much Rebecca and Ethan, we LOVED the gift!

Christmas Recap

Well, since it has been such a long time since I blogged, I thought I would go clear back to Christmas and catch everyone up! Christmas morning was so much fun this year! The girls had an absolute blast putting out cookies for Santa and getting up to find the thank you letter he had written to them. They also really loved everything that they had gotten! I was so excited to see their faces every time they opened up a gift. Of course, mommy and daddy only got them a fraction of what they received this year!

Gramma and Grampa, Aunts, Uncles, and extended family all made sure that they made out like bandits! We have drawers full of clothes for them for all seasons! I won't have to go clothes shopping for a year! Yippee!!!

Welcome Home, Jeff!!!

My cousin Jeff flew in from Iraq Sunday night and it was such an honor to be there when we got off of that plane! There was such a swell of joy in my heart and a sense of relief that he was home and safe. He was originally supposed to get into Ohio at 4:oopm and then his plane got delayed in Germany, so he then wasn't supposed to come in until 11:00pm. Because of inclement weather, he was delayed a third time and his plane didn't arrive until 12:30am. It was a long drive and a long wait at the air force base, but seeing his boys faces light up when they found out he was coming home was priceless and totally worth the sleep deprivation.

He has three boys and his oldest son was so happy that he was coming home that he cried and cried. To see a 14 year old boy cry for his dad is something that just tugs at your heartstrings. It brought tears to my eyes that night and I still tear up just thinking about it!

Now he has two weeks off from the Air Force Reserves and he can get some rest and relaxation before he is back to work for the Highway Patrol. Hopefully he adjusts to civilian life well and doesn't have any problem getting back to "normal". We prayed for his safe return and we are so excited to see that it was in God's plan to bring him back to us. This was his third tour in Iraq and his most dangerous so far! We are so proud of him and the other men and women who serve our country!

God Bless America!

Coming home from Iraq!

My cousin Jeff is finally coming home from Iraq! He arrives late Sunday afternoon at the Air Force Base and we are all going to welcome him home! His three boys still don't know that he is coming home, so it will be such a great surprise for them! I can't wait to see their faces when he finally gets off of that plane from his third tour over there. This one was his most dangerous yet and I am sure that God was protecting him over there while he was defending our freedom! I thank God everyday for men and women like him who care enough to risk their lives for us!

We can't wait to see you, Jeff!

What a holiday season!

I cannot believe that it is actually over! Where did the time go?! It seems like we were still shopping for gifts just yesterday and now we are done with Christmas AND New Year's! The kids had a great Christmas and got a TON of stuff from family and friends. We are so thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful people! I think that my family bought out the entire children's clothing department in Sears this year! We have tons of new outfits for winter and summer. I won't have to buy them clothes for a long time!

Marvin was really excited to get his sawzall and it was worth it when I saw how happy he was to open it up and tinker with it. He immediately charged the battery and got it ready for use even though it is too cold outside to use it anyhow. Men....

I got a lot of nice things for Christmas as well. I got a Broom Vac, jammies, Third Day CD, board games, electric knife(for my Dad to cut the Thanksgiving turkey), a moppine(a Rachael Ray item), smelly stuff, and 500 thread count sheets that are like heaven! My gramma also got me two precious moments for my collection! Yahoo!!

New Years was also a lot of fun! We hung out with my cousin and his wife. We went out for a nice dinner without the kids and then we went back to the house, put the kids in bed and played games for the rest of the evening. We probably would have stayed longer, but Marvin had to work this morning, so we left aroung 2am.

Now it is back to the daily grind and a sense of normalcy. We have to take the decorations down and get ready for the next holiday. Valentine's Day! I always love that holiday because we go away for a weekend and just enjoy each other. We don't get to do that very often.

Well, I think that is about it in the Jackson household! Have a great New Year everyone!

Thanksgiving Surprise!

We are so excited to announce that Michaela has lost her first tooth! On Thanksgiving! She has been struggling with this tooth for over a month now and we were getting frustrated at the lack of progress! We tried to get her to wiggle it regularly, but that was like wrestling a polar bear.....pointless! So, we were wiggling it for her Thanksgiving night after all of the guests had gonce home and when Dad got ahold of it, he just put his fingernail behind it and....Voila! She didn't even cry! What a trooper! She was so excited to put it in her toothfairy pillow and she went to sleep faster than she ever has before in hopes that she would arrive and leave her a treat.

The next morning she woke up and came down to our room early in the morning with the surprise from the Tooth Fairy. It was $3 and a letter thanking her for her first tooth! She was so excited! She proceeded to tell me that she didn't see the Tooth Fairy come into her room because she had wings that you couldn't hear flapping and she was invisible like a ghost! LOL!!! It is amazing how kids rationalize things!

Needless to say, I have her first tooth in a safe location and ready to be put in her scrapbook!

Puttin up the Tree

Watching the girls put the Christmas tree up this year was so much fun! They loved looking back at all of the ornaments and remembering them from last year. We had to talk about whose ornaments were whose and what the signified. Their happy little faces dancing to the Christmas music in the background is something that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life. I just love the holidays and everything that comes along with it!