Christmas 2011

Cutie cousins Colby and Marinn getting their dance on!

This pregnant lady might still have some moves! PS I am pregnant! I am not sure if I mentioned that yet here! Baby Boy Jackson( names anyone?) will be joining our family in March!

Playing with an old school train from gg jackson...notice Rapunzel and her lion hair has join the group!

The finished Gingerbread house.

Everybody ready to try their tortilla snowflake!

Seeing the lights at temple square...it was so so cold and not a snowflake to be found!

Brady decorating his snowflake tortilla with lots of cinnamon sugar.

New Years Eve Rock concert!

Getting some cousin video game time in!

Daddy and kids getting in on the decorating of the gingerbread house...aka eat A LOT of candy!

Some Christmas Eve excitement!


Christmas Eve close up!


Minnie opening a baby doll car seat with her first cabbage patch doll( and yes it smells like powder!)



Santa scored Brady a much asked for Sonic stuffed animal (or two)

Making Sugar Cookies for the Neighbors...it was a good idea in theory...

Christmas Dinner awaited us after church!

As you can probably tell...these pictures are hopelessly out of order(kind of like my house right now). Thanks to an extra long school break we were able to get plenty of celebration time in with both family...AND have a quiet Christmas morning with just our little family. From pre- christmas temple square to new years eve sleepover, we have had a blast and stayed up late, played games, ate more than we should and overall had our best Christmas yet. I have some priceless videos that I have been trying to put up but to no avail...I guess you'll just have to take my word for it! It was an all around beautiful time of year and we have truly been blessed.

Thankful

So grateful for these wonderful people in my life. It's been 15 years since I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. It was so perfect(even with sickness!blah!) and laid back and comfortable. Thank you Mom and Dad for traveling, helping me with transitioning 2 bedrooms, spending quality time with the kids and just hanging out and making the start of this holiday season so special. We all miss you already!

Halloween 2011

I am majorly frustrated right now!!! I have about 50 photos that I have spent time that I don't have edited and now these are the only photos that I can pull up! Arggg! Stay tuned for more updates!

Disneyland 2011

True to Jackson form we decided to take a last minute trip... to Disney...and it was magical. About the only thing that I didn't love was the beating my feet took--and still, it was worth it!
I think half of Utah must of been there because every where we went we heard "Go Cougars!". It was so so nice to just spend time together as a family(it had been WAY to long). And of course we made some incredible memories along the way. I know that this is picture overload but it was hard to edit down!

Disney in the Fall--the best!

Excited kiddos waiting for the gates to open!

Finally--Brady and Marinn get the sleepover they have been asking for! And it was nice to have them in their own room!

Dad prepping the kids with the adventures ahead.

The Little Mermaid...one of our favorites!

Brady in the Zephyr...the kids loved this one...Dad not so much!


Brady, Jesse and Marinn...Marinn didn't know what to think at first...thank goodness she warmed up to other characters!

Enjoying King Tritan's Carousel!

Check out our 3d shades!

Minnie in all her Halloween glory!

Getting some Pluto love.

Look at Brady's concentration trying to get Zurg!

Brady testing out doors in Fantasyland

Getting some Daddy snuggles in line.

Classic. Notice who isn't in the picture...yep we learned that certain rides were no bueno for Kim!

My two favorite guys taking in "It's a small world"

Brady taking a breather at Goofy's playhouse.

Meeting the Mouse himself was a highlight!

Brady and I getting ready to take off in Dumbo!

Look at the smile on this girl's face! I was praying that we would actually meet her as it was the only thing Marinn talked about seeing! She was so excited and Tink did not disappoint!

While the boys were off doing the big rides Marinn and I had some good luck in meeting princesses! The following quotes are things she actually said,

"You're on my underwear!"

" Jasmine, no show your bee-boo" Luckily neither one of them knew she was talking about not showing your belly button! Dad really liked that comment!

"You're on my TB(t.v.) right now!"

"You're very bootiful!"

Cute Kiddos!

Strolling back to the car even the fireworks couldn't wake them! I think this pretty much sums up how we all felt" happily exhausted". Mom and Dad are struggling to recover still!

Kindergarten Kid!

There was 2 major emotions flowing this morning: excitement and sadness. I'll let you guess who had which one! Now that it has been over a week, I can write(with some control)about how the day went. Brady was mister cool and I was a hot mess. The whole time waiting for the teacher to come get his class he kept asking me why I was crying and reassuring ME! My goodness just starting the letting go process is painful. They really do only stay little for such a short time! They conclusion is that Brady loves school and looks forward to going every morning! And I have started the "preschool" process with Marinn and it's also been fun getting some alone time with her! We are just now getting settled into a routine and it has been a positive all the way around for our little family!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

One of the HUGE gifts of going home is that Marinn got potty trained!! It was kind of slow starting but once she got it...she took off! Seriously a gift compared to training Brady! We still have occasional accidents but there is definitely no going back now! I must admit seeing her little bum in underpants makes me a little bit sad...but not to to sad! Hooray for Marinn!