My cute little girl...

She just looked so cute on the way to school that I had to snap a picture. She is growing so fast!

Day to day...

Here are the kids playing. J actually enjoys legos though once it is built he is done with it. I wish he would just build random stuff, but he prefers to follow the directions.

Paige is my toy girl. She loves magnatiles. She plays with these things pretty much every day.

Losing teeth...

Jackson has lost both bottom teeth. Here he is with the first!

Celebrating J's big day...

Since we were gone of Jackson's birthday, Douglas and I took the kids to Chuckie Cheese's and McDonalds for an ice cream cone. The highlight of the night was the gift...a Nintendo DS. A friend's husband found one on Craigslist for $50 so I scooped it up! Jackson was thrilled beyond thrilled. I don't think he looked up during the whole flight. He was busy beating Mario. Happy Birthday Jackson!!

Jackson turns 6!

The last post got a little overrun with pics so here are pics from the actual day J turned 6!

Santa Clara Trip

We got to spend Jackson's winter break in Santa Clara. It was so nice to go home. It still feels like home. It felt so right driving around to all my old places. Spending time with Grandma was so nice and normal. It felt like I had never left. And my dear friends, oh how I have missed them. I wonder when a new place begins to feel like your place? My Santa Clara friends are some of the closest I have ever had. I guess that happens when you spend such life changing times with people. We had a great time while we were there...minus the fact that I was sick as a dog pretty much the entire time. I coughed enough for the whole town of Santa Clara. Bummer. Life goes on though. Jackson also celebrated his 6th birthday with an evening at (lame) Pirate Island pizza. He was pleased as punch to have all his friends around and was totally spoiled. Buddy and Sally were so nice to drive out with the kids and visit while we were there. It was so fun to see them. Drew came down too. The guys had hoped to bike, but it rained and their plans were squashed. We decided to go bowling instead. I thought it would be fun to bowl with my children...not so much. Jackson is such a bug when something is hard for him. And, the kids just wanted to play the dumn video games. Thank heavens for good company. I wish we lived down the street from family. Wouldn't that be delightful? The kids begged to have me take their picture with this lizard thing at the airport. I told them we could do it on the way home and they didn't forget. the kids loved spending time with their grams! Paige playing Barbies with her cousin Ava. The pirate ship pinata...we went back and forth about what to do for J's big day. We weren't sure whether Pirate Island was still open. We went to the Jen's to hit it open. It was quite a hit. Did I mention if snowed while we were there...we can't get away from the stuff... Grams paid the kids $.10 for each pine cone they picked up. The kids has money signs in their eyes. The snow didn't stop them from their hard work. This was right before Jackson quit for the 28th time because he hates bowling so much.

a few random pictures...

Really, not much to say about these. I love Jackson's art and phoenetic spelling of words. Today I was looking over his school work and he spelled "drill" "jrill". I laughed out loud when I saw that. Of course it sounds like "jrill" to Jackson. Have I mentioned that he has barely any signs of his cute little lisp. It is almost gone. I didn't even notice it going away. Makes me a little sad. Also, he is getting three of his 6 year molars. Nothing big, just my little boy growing up. and Douglas...he's taken ladies, sorry.

Toledo Zoo

So, one cold, rainy Saturday morning Douglas and I were trying to think of something fun to do. I suggested the Zoo in jest and he said sure, so we packed up some lunches, rain gear and off we went. It is about a 45 minute drive and by the time we got there, the rain was really coming down. Douglas and I laughed and laughed. Who decides to go to the zoo on a rainy day anyway?? Well, we had a fun time in the end. They have a few indoor exhibits and I think there were only three other people at the zoo besides for us. I guess that is how memories are created, right??