Trick or Treat!

Well, there were no tricks pulled by these 2 tonight, but I bet in a few years they will have a handful of them up their sleeves. These are quite possibly the cutest trick-or-treaters that were out in Nashville tonight. See what you think.

The cutest doughboy EVER!

We decided to trick or treat for UNICEF tonight since Abbott won't eat candy, Jack still can't have any milk products and neither me nor Kelly needed to eat all their candy.

We raised $17 dollars for UNICEF and we only went to Uncle Ryan's work (3 people donated) and 3 houses. Not bad for a short trick-or-treat. Jack just wasn't really that into it. Probably by next year, he will want the candy.

Isn't this adorable?

Abbott had a nice dinner of carrots and cereal once we got home.

Miss Janet (AKA Aunt Janet, AKA Grammie), has nice fall decorations up at her house and Jack likes to tear them apart. He brought this flower to Kelly and said, "This is for you, Aunt Kelly." Once again, with Janet and Kelly around, I have become non-existent. Not quite to the extent as when Ayitta's around, but almost. We had a fun night and we're looking forward to a fun rest of the weekend.

Boo at the Zoo

Saturday night, Jack and I went to Boo at the Zoo with our friends, John, Amy & Bailey. Jarred was fortunate enough to get a ticket to the TN vs. AL football game and missed out on the trick-or-treating. They do Boo at the Zoo 2 weekends in a row before Halloween as a fundraiser for the zoo. Jack had a fun time and said "trick or treat" and "thank you" at most booths. Some booths got the occasional, "Ka-chow!" from our little Lightning McQueen.

I think this one is pretty self explanatory.

As soon as we got there, we had Jack and Bailey sit down to get a picture together. Immediately, they looked at each other like "what is going on here?"

They're still not too sure about all this trick or treating, but they might just be the cutest cat and Lightning McQueen ever.

Ka-Chow!

Isn't this too cute?

We're going to Nashville this weekend to trick or treat with Abbott. I might take a few pictures there, too. Happy Halloween!

Athens, Acorns & Aunt Lissa

What a fun week we had in Athens! Jack did great on the trip down (13 hours) and back (14 hours) and he warmed up to everyone there in about 3.5 seconds. He quickly remembered how much fun he has when we're there and how much he likes his Aunt Lissa. The minute she got there, he was attached to her at the hip and I was non-existent. I know you all think I am exaggerating, but I'm not. When he woke up from his nap, I went in to get him and he backed away and said, "Ayitta get me". When we went to Wal-Mart, I told him he needed to hold my hand because we were in the parking lot. He said, "Jack hold Ayitta hand". This went on for the 3 days she was there. I got a little vacation on my vacation. He has since realized that I am alive, although it took coming home for that to happen. When Aunt Lissa left, Momo Jo and Wannie were the favorites. Here are a few (ok, more than a few) pictures from our trip.

Sunrise at Meredith Hill.

Jack & Ayitta. She might like him a little bit, too.

Uncle Jr brought Jack a new TVCC cap. He's my little thug.

My cousin Lynne got teacher of the year for her area. We celebrated with a cake. Jack tested the icing to make sure it was good.

Jack still likes to snuggle with Popo.

Jack: "Where Ayitta?"

Me: "Aunt Lissa had to go home."

Jack: "Nooooooooo"

Wannie bought Jack a tricycle to play with at her house. He wasn't too fond of it right off the bat, so I decided to ride it.

So did the teacher of the year! Jack eventually decided it was fun to play on.

My cousin Brad is hardly ever there when we are, so I had to document the occasion.

We went to Dallas on Monday to visit my great Aunt Treville. She is my grandmother's (mom's mom) sister and will be 96 in November. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and I am so happy when we get to go visit her. She gave Jack a little stuffed horse and he named it Dallas Horse. Appropriate, I think.

It's not a trip to Texas without seeing the cows and donkeys. Jack wanted to go see them every day but he didn't want to get much closer than this.

One thing he likes to do with Poppa is help get the mail. He is taking notes from the Voter's Guide of the US News and World report magazine as he is still undecided on who to vote for. He told me today, he'd decided on Obama.

Another thing Jack likes to do with Poppa and Popo is pick acorns off the ground. This trip you could almost catch them as they fell of the trees. Jack likes to put them in his pocket. After gathering a few, he came running in the house and told me he had some "a-cwins".

I always look forward to our trips to Athens and am so sad when I can't make the trip (which isn't very often!) This trip, Wannie bought me a sewing machine and I made an apron (with a lot of help). I plan to figure out the ins and outs and start making all kinds of crafty things. :)

Here's Jack with Wannie & Poppa. He wanted them to come home with us. So did I. So did Popo & Momo Jo. Hey, why didn't they come back with us??

On Tuesday afternoon we went up to the Athens square and took some pictures. They had beautiful pumpkin displays set up on each corner so we tried to get a few pictures around those. Jack got a new jacket and wanted to wear it, despite it being in the high 70s. He was sweating by the time we got back in the car.

Here's one of many pictures I got of Jack with the pumpkins. You can't tell, but he's wearing his boots and looks like a true Texan.

Here you can see his boots better. He loves his boots, mostly because Ayitta gave them to him and they have John Deere on them.

Here's my dad, Wannie & Poppa standing on one of the square's corner's. Poppa said that when the soldiers got back from WWI, they planted pecan trees on the square for everyone who served from Henderson county. This corner has the tree that was planted for my great-grandfather (Popo), Poppa's dad. We weren't sure if this is his actual tree or if it's somewhere else on this corner.

Finally got a decent picture of me & Jack sitting on the steps of the courthouse. He still really didn't acknowledge me at this point, so this was a struggle.

One of our favorite things to do as kids was to go over thunder bridge. Over the years, thunder bridge has been repaired and patched and I think even blocked off but it is still a very cool bridge. As you can guess, the boards make a thunder sound as you go over it. Now, it is one of Jack's favorites, too. When we'd get in the car he would say, "Jack want go unner tundor bwidge" and then he's ask Popo to roll the windows down. (Funny, I just typed winders instead of windows).

Here's the beautiful sunset I captured Tuesday night before we headed inside. I take a picture like this every time I'm there and they're still beautiful!

A couple more funny stories:

Aunt Lissa brought and bought Jack a few presents while she was here and one of them was a John Deere tin bank. When she gave it to him, she cleaned out her purse and wallet of her loose change to show him what to do with it. Soon, Popo, Wannie, Mommy and even Uncle Jr. were cleaning out the wallets and pockets for loose change. At one point, he took Wannie's wallet out of her purse and brought it to her and said, "Jack need more monies, Wannie." With no change left in her wallet, she handed out the dollars.

A few days after collecting money in the tin can, Poppa got out his automatic coin sorter for Jack to play with. Now THIS was a cool toy and Jack's eyes lit up. I told him he better give Poppa a big squeeze and I think he may have given the biggest squeeze EVER and even gave him a kiss. Poppa just laughed and said, "Well, I guess I can find another one of those." Jack's played with it every day since.

All in all, I think Jack collected about $30 in change and $20 in bills. I think he should carry the John Deere bank with him on all trips! :)

We had such a great time and we are looking forward to the next trip.

Locks of Love

Last February (2007) I decided to try to grow my hair out and get it cut for Locks of Love . It was very hard to do because I do not love my hair long and I don't like to spend a lot of time to fix it up. I was finally able to cut it and sent it off on Thursday, which would have been my grandmother Moma Rada's 93rd birthday. Here's before...

And here's after. This cut is more "me" and it is super easy to fix. I am really glad it's all gone and I hope some child will be able to use it. :)

Pat Jack Back

Since Jack's moved to his big boy bed, he asks me to pat his back. Sometimes I pat it until he falls asleep and sometimes I'll do it for a few minutes and then let him go to sleep on his own. Either way, he's still doing great in his bed. Last night was a little rough, though, he woke up at about midnight and as soon as I walked in, he was half asleep and said, "pat Jack back". I was in his room for about 30 min. At 4:00 this morning he was crying so I went in and pat his back some more and finally had to pretend to be asleep in his room before he fell back asleep. All this waking up had him still asleep when it was time to get ready for school so I went into his room and found him like this. He didn't even wake up until I snapped the picture. Unfortunately, he's had a stuffy nose today which is not good for our trip to Athens on Thursday. Hopefully it will go away soon.


On another note, most of you know Jack had a milk allergy when he was about 5 months old and he was on a soy formula. When we switched him to milk, he drank soy milk. Here lately, with different foods, his chin has broken out with red, puffy patches so we're taking him to an allergist. I'm not sure what they'll do yet, but I'm guessing the best way to figure out what's wrong is to do the allergy test. The appointment is not until after we get back from Athens, but I'm asking y'all to keep him in your prayers that he doesn't have a major food allergy. I don't really think it is, but I don't want to take any chances either, since I know food allergies can be bad.

We are really looking forward to our trip to Texas. Every night as I'm patting his back, Jack says he's going to see Wannie, Poppa, Donkeys and Cows. He's excited. I hope he does well in the car. It will be the first long drive since our trip to the beach in June. It was 8 hours, this one is 5 hours longer. I'll try to post pictures while we're gone, but I might just make the most of my time there and wait til we get home. Have a good week!

It's Official...

Jack's a Texan. I mean I guess he's not a native Texan, but he's got all Texas blood so technically he is still a Texan and tonight he made it official. At dinner he said, "Jack want go play with choo choo train, come on y'all". Now... we have not been trying to get him to say it, it's just one of those things that comes naturally to a Texas boy!

So, how did it go?

GREAT! Jack's first night in his bed was a success! He slept all night and when he woke up he didn't even get out of bed. When I went in there, he was sitting in his bed and said, "Want to get down." I am sure not all nights will be this easy, but I will be happy if they are!

Big Night for Jack

We finally got Jack a big boy bed. YIKES! He was very excited about it, jumped on it, climbed in and out of it, pretended to sleep in it... but how did he do at bedtime? So far, so good. He was a little uneasy as we started to leave the room and he wanted daddy to stay with him. Jarred stayed in there with him for a few mintues and patted his back and then came out and we haven't heard from him yet. He slept all over the place in his baby bed, so I'm hoping he doesn't fall out. I may sneak in later and put a few pillows beside the bed. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Say a little prayer that it goes smoothly. Here's a few pics of Jack's new room.

Jack's new bed with his tractor blanket made by Wannie and his pillow case made by Mama (AKA Dixie). His name is in John Deere material, what else?

His new room arrangement.

Of course he had to wear his tractor jammies from Aunt Lissa to bed!

He's not too sure about this. Notice the tractor blanket in under him. He didn't want to cover up with it, he wanted to sleep ON it.

Pretending to be asleep for me. If I'm brave I might try to capture a picture of him before I go to bed when he's really asleep. Maybe.

One More

This was supposed to make it int he last post but it got deleted. I thought it was a cute picture of Jack, Lauren and their dads. And of course, the girl posing at the stairs.

Fun at the Ballpark

Jarred plays softball with a group of guys from work and a few times Jack and I have gone to watch. Mostly we play on the playground, but we do stick around long enough to watch daddy hit the ball. We went Tuesday night and were happy to see one of our friends. We've only met twice but this little girl, Lauren, will be 2 this month so they had a fun time together.

Jack ate supper on the way to the game. Seems to be enjoying it pretty good.

Here's Jarred at bat. I won't tell you how good his team is, you'd be jealous.

Chick and Lightning McQueen also enjoyed the game. Chick is Lauren's and Lightning McQueen is Jack's. Jack wanted to play with Chick so Lauren was nice enough to let him and Jack let her play with McQueen. It was sad though, when Lauren wanted to play with chick. Jack was not happy. Fortunately, she did not care which car she played with and shared nicely.

Checking out all the cars.

Taking a break.

Jack & Lauren sharing a snack... Lauren's snack. She is very good at sharing! Jack needs to learn a few things from her.