"all in a week"

James and I have been working on Jackson this week...."manners crackdown" you could say. He's good with "please" and great with "thank you" but when it comes to "yes ma'am, no ma'am", he's slacking BIG TIME! His reply is "WHAT??" or "DO WHAT??" (see earlier post) I'm hoping one day he'll just wake up and voila~ but I know it will take time...and I've got plenty of it:) Today we were at the zoo and he almost ran into some lady and I heard him say, "oh, excuse me!" It was unexpected and so innocent! I was proud of my little man:)

We signed Jackson up to play soccer this spring on a 3 year old league at the YMCA..(thanks to Nonna, that was her b-day present to Jackson!). His first game is this Saturday and I think James and I are more excited about it than he is! He has games on Saturday mornings and no practices...I"m sure it will just be a bunch of little boys running aimlessly around a soccer field, but it will be so cute! Jackson got new soccer sneakers and a soccer ball. We think he's ready! Stay tuned for pics after Saturday!

SO..we've got company in the backyard. A GIRL dog. Yes, folks, old Champers is getting lucky this week. And her name is BABY. She's a chocolate Lab and James wants to breed Champ just once before he gets snipped on Thursday. They "tried" last time that she was in heat and nothing happened...so they are trying again. It's quite a sight watching James and Champ and BABY and her owner all in the backyard tryin' to make something happen. Let's just say that included rubber gloves too....enough said. I'll keep you posted on BABY's baby status:) Jackson wanted to go in the backyard while the "nasty" was taking place....so we did. He asked what Champ was doing and I said, "he's hugging the girl dog"...then we looked for the moon, then counted stars....and tracked an airplane across the sky...anything to keep him from looking....and quickly went back inside!

***Happy Birthday to my friend RONNI :) Love you!!***

Ready to chow in his festive little bib!

IF I were Charlie I would be frightened of this giant 3 year old invading my bed! He was tickling his baby brother....the other day I heard Jackson screaming from Charlie's room...so Charlie and I went to check it out..."I tuck (stuck) mommy....help me, I tuck". Jackson had "fallen into Charlie's crib and couldn't get out. Funny, I remember Jackson escaping the confines of this very crib when he was about 15 months old...

James & Charlie jamming to itunes....i believe it was something along the lines of hank williams jr.....yeah for all the rest of us who were in the room who had to listen
We went to the lakefront to fly kites the other day...James got his stuck in this tree and it took him about 10 minutes to get it out...then shortly afterwards, it broke...my cheap $1 kite from wal-mart was the winner of the day...
bundled up at the lakefront...it was chilly that day!
posing for the camera
sweet baby Charlie...he's almost too big for this onesie and I'm sad :(

We dyed easter eggs Saturday night and Jackson had so much fun!
Daddy giving his guiding hand to the cup.....believe it or not, we had no "accidents" and I was happy about that!


Jackson putting a sticker face on one of the eggs...


Riding his four wheeler in the back yard. James brought this home a while ago. He found it on the side of the road and strapped a battery pack to the back and presto, a FREE ride!!
Our LITTLE easter bunny!!
Checking out his easter basket Sunday morning...gee, it was like, ok, look at your new toys, go eat your breakfast....go get dressed...out the door to church...unfortunately, we were late for church that morning!!
here's Jackson's final result....poor things look like the belong in the "special section" of the egg carton.....sorry. but really, they do
His favorite egg was the pink one..guess because it took the color the best. Most of them got dropped and cracked to pieces...but they are still on the counter, just hanging out...



We went to the zoo today!!! It was a beautiful day and we took full advantage of it! There were 8 kids and 6 adults that went all together. It was nuts! But lots of fun!
I know there seems to be lots of pictures of baby Charlie in this stroller...it's just that everytime we go out, he rides in the stroller. He likes his stroller, and I'm all for it. He's 2 pounds away from being over the weight limit in the front pack carrier...bummer. Look at those pretty BLUE eyes!!
Jackson and me
here's all 8 kids today. They were all really good and had a great day



I'm still waiting on birthday pictures from my friend Tony...patience please :)