My CoChief

Sorry for the delay.. who knew homeownership involved so much work :) Now that the holidays are over we are attempting to finish unpacking, finish painting, organizing, etc, etc. Throw in the stomach bug and a few other things and we have been BUSY! We are currently painting closets, finishing the upstairs doors, redoing the pantry, and eventually the last room that needs painted- Jackson's room. Among about a million other projects I have in my head once we win the lottery. OK so back to cooking…..

My new year's resolution was to have Jackson do some more cooking and it has been so easy! I let him help with anything he's not allergic to or if it's on the stove duh. We started with pancakes.

The key is you have to give them their own bowl and several spoons or meltdowns happen. Also your house will be covered with dough just let it go. I do my cleaning on Sundays so we usually cook Saturdays. I encourage him to help with everything! Pouring, stirring, anything!

This day I was making something he couldn't help with so I just gave him empty containers, bowls, spoons and he loved it. I couldn't get him to quit cooking. And yes I let him stand on the chair, how else is he suppose to get up there like mommy?! He's really good about staying still and waiting to be let down. 

Checking out his recipe. 

I have goals to share the recipes we have been making…one day. This by far has been the easiest resolution! 

New Year New Resolutions

I actually followed through with my resolutions last year so I need to make some new ones! This will make me accountable for them... at least I hope.

My goals specifically for Jackson:
1. Once a month cook or bake something with him. This was so much fun over Christmas and he LOVED it so I would like to keep it going.
2. Once a month or every other month do something crafty- even if it's just coloring, side walk chalk, or play dough. I feel like we do it now but not enough.
3. More swim lessons

House:
1. Finish unpacking. With the holidays it has been really hard to finish unpacking.
2. Finish painting
3. Get organized!
4. Sometime this year either redo a bathroom or the fireplace.

Me:
1. Keep the house cleaner... I HATE a dirty/messy house but ever since we moved.. ok since we have had Jackson it seems impossible. That means more motivation when I get home from work BLAH
2. More reading. I've been reading a lot lately and I want to keep it up!
3. More fitness....even if it's just walking/running but doing more. I get too caught up in running errands and put fitness last. Maybe get off the couple of holiday pounds :)
4. Worry less. I'm a worrier. I just am and I'm going to try to worry less.

Family:
1. Make it to church more this year. We are trying. Jackson is just a terror. BUT hopefully I will get the balls to leave him in the nursery and pray no one gives him a snack. Nope already talked myself out of that one. Worry less. Worry less...
2. More date nights! I would say we did better with this but there is always room for improvement.

2013 Year Review

What another fantastic year! It's so much fun to look back at all the fun we had.

January was my birthday but it was also Jackson's first time his feet touched the sand!

February: Dr. Love 

We also ran the Donna Half

Jackson had his baptism

March: Easter bunny

Jackson's first flight and trip to Indiana

April: Jamie's surprise 30th! And Vegas trip

 May: We took our first family vacation to Long Boat Key

 Took a trip to the Zoo

 We spent a lot of time at the park

Playing in the baby pool

Mother's Day

June: We took a trip to Atlanta and went to the aquarium

July: we were water bugs

 August was Jackson's first haircut

We also went to the hands on museum 

September: Jackson's first birthday! And our anniversary and we traveled to two weddings!

October: Halloween of course!

November: Thanksgiving

December: Christmas!

Christmas 2013

Ok so last year I didn't quite get a Christmas post in but this was close.

This year was the best!! Jackson is at such a fun age! Although our house is still in boxes..a mess... I did manage to put up decorations and ignore the million and one boxes in our garage. OK so our outdoor lights did not get hung.... but anyways

We had a lot of fun decorating cookies! Jackson was so funny taking all of the icing off and eating it, licking the bowl, and pouring sprinkles directly in his mouth. Needless to say the house was a mess, he ate two cookies, and took a very short nap..but it was all in good fun! Totally worth it.

 We went to see the Zoo lights which is he loved! He had no interest in the animals but only the lights. He loved hanging out with another little boy we went with..who he was constantly trying to imitate.

And then we saw Santa..

Christmas Eve we attempted Mass. He self destructed in five minutes and spent thirty minutes outside being a holy terror. I took this time to point out to God that this is what he gave me hints the reason we avoid going to church. But we did recover after leaving and the rest of the evening was great!

Opening gifts from the Gill's

The elves were hard at work until 11pm building toys, drinking white Russians and watching Elf. This is a great tradition we started.

Jackson got up around 6:30 and found this:

He went straight for his lawn mower and car and was zooming around the house in no time. Then we ate breakfast: Snowman pancakes (vegan) and Cinnamon rolls for the adults

Testing out his new table

And climbing all over his Pottery Barn chair

We opened the rest of our gifts and had Christmas lunch with my parents. And instead of dessert we had a hot chocolate bar that was amazing!! Homemade hot chocolate is the best! We spent the rest of the day playing with toys, watching Christmas movies, and eating. It was pretty awesome.

Now for unpacking the million and one boxes out in the garage, hanging pictures, painting, etc. I think I can I think I can

11-15 month schedule

I was just thinking how awesome the one nap is when I realized I never wrote an updated schedule post. Really for myself to remember for the future!

Somewhere around 11ish months Jackson started refusing the two naps.. much to my dismay...BUT after a transition period (that I can't even remember now) we LOVE the one nap. He usually sleeps between 2-3ish hours. So here we go:

5-6:30 Wake up time... it's getting better.  Then he eats

9:30/10 Snack

12:00 Lunch

12:30/1 Nap

3:30 Snack

6:00 Dinner, Bath

7:00 Bedtime

Look how easy a toddler schedule is!! In between times are obviously play times. It's amazing what can get accomplished in a 2-3 hours period. It's also much easier to plan and do things. Love love love!

Sorry for the Thanksgiving picture.. I need to take some new ones.

15 months

This picture sums up Jackson: Happy, wild (see the mark on his eye), hilarious, spunk!

Dear Wild Thing Jackson,

You are one wild thing!! I swear you never walk anywhere, it's always a run. You even run in place, we call it "fast feet." You are obsessed with throwing, rolling, kicking balls. At least an hour a day you spend throwing them in new ways and watching them.. and how dare we try to move them! You do get extremely frustrated when they get stuck under stuff... You also do the most adorable thing ever: you pretend sleep on the changing table in a little baby ball with your bum up in the air..naked/clothed it doesn't matter. I rub your back and you just smile. It's so cute! You love playing in our new back yard with the motorcycle and soccer ball. You scream every time we take you back inside.You also really love running in the teepee for us to chase you. These past three months you have been a MAMA's boy 100%, now you love your daddy but mama is your go to. It's been changing back and forth so I'm sure next month it will be daddy's turn.

The sleep has dramatically improved! You don't cry at all to sleep. You just go in there and sleep!!!!! For naps and night time. You do however still wake up between 5-6 am. You sleep 11 hours at night and 2-3 hour naps. Heaven!!

You can now say: mama, nana (dada), all done, ball, um (up), out, "h" for help, uh oh, get done, bye bye, shoes, bell button (belly button), all the animals sounds, vroom, roar, beep.. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Sign: more, all done, help
Wave: hi and bye
Gesture for everything!

You are the funniest little ham ever! I have never laughed so much in my life. You still throw pretty big tantrums and can be difficult but you usually turn it around with big hugs, kisses, and making us laugh. We would never describe you as easy but it sure keeps us on our toes :)

Jackson we have never loved someone as much as we love you! We can't wait to see what the next three months bring!
Love, Mama, Nana (Dada)

A tad early..but who am I kidding?! If this doesn't get done now we will be a 16 months.

Thanksgiving 2013

We have so many things to be thankful for family, health, love, lots of laughter, and of course our new house! This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. We started the day bailing on our race (it was 32 degrees outside) only to run a relay later that morning. We watched the Macy's Day parade while we got ready for our guests to arrive. After lots of prep in the kitchen and awesome fried turkey made by Jamie himself, we ate! Yummy food! After lunch/dinner we had our annual basketball game of "horse" which I myself won!! This is a least two years in a row... A game of beer pong later and lots of football we had to put all the babes to sleep. The next morning we had our first annual christmas movie in christmas "Js" as we call them.


Unfortunately, I missed last year's post but here are a few pics:

2012

2013

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!