Winter Fun!

Not too much going on around the Jackson house lately.  We've been busy but nothing blog worthy. :)  Anyhow, here are some random shots from our hanging out! 

Eliot has discovered how to stand and "help" at the island while I'm cooking.  Scott is the milkshake man in our house so Eliot was helping Daddy make milkshakes.  This has become our tradition on Sunday nights while we watch Wipeout as a family.

Another new discovery is Daddy's shoes...the kids LOVE to play in them.

I now have a picture of all the kids at this age in Scott's shoes...so sweet!

Even big girls have fun in Daddy's shoes!

Another milestone...Eliot is now eating a bowl of cereal on his own...with milk!  He thinks he's such big boy.

Eliot has also discovered the REAL screwdrivers.  Big sister's are helping, well bossing is more like it.

"Look at me!"

Eliot is so determined with the screwdriver.  He walks around the house with it turning over any and everything to work on the screws.  We had our ducts cleaned out last week and he followed the guy (Randy) around all morning with his screwdriver.  Luckily the Randy had 4 brothers growing up so he didn't mind!

It's crazy how fast kids pick up on things.  I love to just sit and watch him open things up to see if there are screws in it.  As soon as Scott starts a project he runs to get his screwdriver and pushes his way in to help.

House Updates

It's a new year and I have a few projects in mind for the house.  Nothing major, just some additions to make our home a place of calm & rest.

Back in the spring I did a mini makeover in the kids bathroom.  A little paint, new shower curtain & rugs.  I didn't pay much attention to the towel bars, just left them as they were.  It didn't take long for me to realize that towel bars were NOT working for us!  The towels were always a mess, the kids had a hard time using them and 4 towel bars did not fit in the bathroom!  Bye, bye towel bars!

So here's my solution...towel hooks.  Towel hooks are easy for the kids to use and it looks so much more organized! And 1-4 for each of my kids.

I picked these up at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 each.  Something I would like to add is their names above their numbers.  I think Chessa might help me out with that...I'll keep you updated!

Last month I added black & white photos in the laundry room.  Before the wall was blank above the sorting baskets.

I saw this idea on another blog.  I enlarged the pics to 8x10 size and then Modge Podged them onto a thin canvas.  The hangers were originally wood so I painted them black to go with the laundry room.

In the future I would love to add the saying, "In photos babies stay babies forever." above all the hangers.  Wouldn't that be cute?

Sweet baby Emery!  It seems like yesterday when she was the only baby. :)

Katelyn & Emery

Emery met Katelyn at school and this year they are in the same class.  Katelyn lives in our neighborhood and our families have become good friends.  These girls love to have fun and right now they are having a ball performing shows!

Yesterday we only had 1 hour for the girls to play before Scott & I went on a date.  Katelyn came in and they quickly transformed themselves for their performance.  The tutu's are a Christmas present from Aunt Cameron.  Elese was very sweet about letting Katelyn wear hers.

They even do their hair!

Here they are before they headed down to perform.  Yes, Elese is a part of the performance too!  This is the outfit that she chose.  Oh yeah, Eliot is a back up dancer!  I told you, he is not to be left out of anything!

It's hard to get good pictures of them because they are constantly moving.  We crank up the music (Selena Gomez or Kidz Bop CD) and get down.

This is so funny!  Eliot has been trying out a new move during our recent dance parties & it.is.too.cute!  Check out the tongue. :)  Pretty good for a 1 year old.

The thing I love about Katelyn & Emery is the innocence of just having fun together.  They love to dance, sing, laugh and just be girls.  My heart is so happy when these girls are together and just loving life.  Our family has been so blessed by our friendship with the Moore's.

Guess what just arrived?

Disney bag tags!!!!  We are officially in count down mode...less than a month to go!  Yipee!!!!

You might be asking, "Why are there only 4?"  Well, this is a special trip for the oldest 4 of the family...Scott, Karie, Emery & Eli! :)

1st Snow!

Monday was the last day off for both the kids & Scott.  We had plans for the day but suddenly everything changed when we got up that morning.  I woke up to some whispering in the hallway by Emery Grace, "Eli is SNOWED!"  I knew it would be non stop until they got out the door to experience it first hand!  They love playing in the snow and don't mind the wet, cold or the wind.

Eli & Elese were the first ones out the door.  Isn't it just beautiful?  They headed out back to check it all out.

Oh, Eliot.  We are going to have our hands full with this one!  He will NOT be left out of ANYTHING.  He fussed and fussed at the garage door until we bundled him up and let him go outside.  Thankfully we have all the 2T boy hand me downs from Eli...even the boots!

Eli's growing up on me...such a sweet, sensitive little boy.  Eli loves being outside rain, sleet, sunshine or snow!

This was the scene after all the bundling.  At this point I didn't even have my snow clothes on so I was taking shots from the garage.

Emery plopped right down to make a snow angel.

Elese quickly made one too!

I think Eliot went through about 3 pairs of gloves.  None of his are waterproof so they get wet rather quickly.  Do they even make waterproof  gloves for a 2 year old?

Snow tastes pretty yummy!

After playing around for 20 minutes or so, Sydney & Donovan came out and wanted to go sledding.  So, we all headed down the street to sled...a first as a family in the Jackson house!

We didn't want to carry the little ones down the street so we brought out the wagon and loaded them up!  Elese & Eliot were thrilled :)  Yes, Scott has his coffee!

Oh the fun we had!  The last time Scott and I went sledding was the winter after Emery was born (2004).  We are now at a point where all the kids are getting bigger and I can see so many more times of us sledding as a family.  

Eli was such a daredevil!  He didn't care how fast he was going or which direction...he LOVED sledding.

Who would think that a 2 year old would love sledding?  It didn't matter that his cheeks were bright red, his nose was running and the wind was terrible!  This boy was in his element.  On a side note, check out the 2 little mommies making sure Daddy was doing it right with Brother Bear.

Ready to go again!

Elese took a couple of turns with Casey.  She loved it too!

So I had to get in on the action.  Eliot & I grabbed this saucer sled (not a good idea) and took off!

When the sled got turned around I knew it wouldn't be good.  We quickly dumped over and down we went.  Mind you I was laughing the entire time...not realizing that Scott was capturing every moment.

Just making sure my Brother Bear was okay.

As we were walking back to the house I looked at Scott and said, "I see the light baby!  We have so many fun experiences right around the corner.  I had so much fun today and so did the kids."  Eliot cried the whole way home...he was not finished and did.not.want.to.go.inside! :)

New Year's Eve 2011

This year we had a Mexican fiesta at the Renner's house for New Year's Eve.  It was a family affair with 7 adults & 11 children (6girls & 5 boys)!  We were WAY outnumbered but we all had a blast.  It's so nice to have friends to celebrate with and the kids are a part of that too :)

My Besty Kel!  This girl is so hilarious...she dressed Landon & Lucas up for the Mexican fiesta and surprised us at the front door.  LOVE it!

Scott & Eliot got in on the Mexican theme.  I'm not sure what these Jackson boys were up to with the Coca-Cola shirts...I just noticed that they were matching.

Kelly just found out that she's allergic to most medals and can't wear all of her fun jewelry anymore.  She's so sweet that she brought it along for us to shop from.  Jillian got a few pieces too.

The girls put on 3 performances throughout the night.  This was the first one.  Jillian was the choreographer & DJ while the little ones put on the shows.

When the girls got ready for the first performance, Landon came right in with the pink Paper Jamz guitar and started rocking it out with them.  You can't see his shirt but it says, "Unleash the Beast!"  We call Elese "the beast" so we loved it.

And the grand finale!

Lucas took right to Jeremy and hung out in his arms.

Eliot loved all the freedom at the party!  He was in the basement, hanging out with the big kids!

 Jeremiah & Landon were buddies.  We found them in the basement with the drills going to town on Grandpa Renner's old desk!  Well, at least they had their safety goggles on.

Not sure what Jer & Scott were doing...must be a guy thing!  These 2 spent the day at the U of L vs. UK basketball game and had a ball.

Jillian was such a good leader.  She did all of the girls makeup and patiently curled hair and made their evening so much fun!  Check out Elese posing...

Elese had to show me her makeup and dress up. :)

No party is complete without a little car crashing fun!  Jeremiah got this figure 4 race track for Christmas.  It was really fun watching the boys giggle and laugh hysterically when the cars crashed.

Performance #2.  Each time they had new hair styles, outfits & makeup.  This was such a highlight for me when I was a little girl.  I loved to make up routines and have fun.  It made my heart smile to see the girls having so much fun.

Midnight rolled in and the party was still going strong.  Kelly & the boys had to leave around 10, Eliot went to bed at 9, Jeremiah at 11 and everyone else was.wide.awake at midnight!  Jeremy & Jeanna right before the ball dropped.

Kim & Kyle with the midnight toast ready to go!

A midnight kiss for my sweetie!

Our group of kids at midnight...Eli was struggling and even dozed off on the couch.  The girls were still raring to go!