My One Year Old

Jackson turns one today! We had a birthday party for him last Sunday at Grandma Bennett's home. He wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake, but he seemed to have a good time.

We have another party planned for the McKinnon side soon - once my mom is done with the flu.

This year has just flown by. 1 year ago today, I was induced after being a week overdue, and he was born after hours of labor, weighing in at 9 lbs 14 oz. Two doctors had to yank, push, pull and forcep him out of me to avoid a c-section. It worked! Hopefully all my babies will not be so HUGE.

I sure love him.

4 months old in his little jumping swing

What else have we been up to in the last little while?

I tried cutting Jasper's hair - me who has never cut anyone's hair except my sister Becky's when I was 12 or so, and it ended up in disaster. David said to just use the clippers. Well I just used the clippers, and it was quite a sight. Jasper put on a brave face and went to school anyway - oh, and did I mention it was picture day? Ha, yep. So the next day I had the great idea to cut it again. I always wondered how hard it would be to cut a mohawk. It is hard - if you want it to look good and if you are cutting Jasper's hair.

So, it looked awful, but he loved it. I ended up buzzing it all off, David buzzed it off that is. And while he was at it he decided he wanted to buzz Jackson's hair too, since he needed a trim. It is coming back now, and he's just a cutie pie. I had a post envisioned with all three (David buzzed off his hair too) of my boys and their bald heads, but it never happened because my camera isn't working and yada yada blah blah.

Jasper's football team has had enough losses that they won't be in the playoffs/finals. I'm sad for Jas, but happy because that means football will be over much sooner, and Jasper will be home much more.

David is now working 4 10 hour days, which means he gets to stay home with Jackson one day while I work. He is really enjoying it.

Jackson watching The Wizard of Oz

Football Win!

After losing the first three games of the season, Jasper's team had its first win last Saturday! Go Jasper! They played great. We have had so much fun going and watching and cheering. The games are every Saturday at 9am which is exactly when Jackson usually takes his first nap of the day. He is exhausted but has so much fun watching and clapping and saying "Hi!" to everyone.

Jasper is a lineman again this year and he is playing so well! He LOVES football, and is such a good sport - never complaining about going to practice. He loves all the new bruises he gets every week.

And yes, in the picture below he is sporting a mohawk (story to follow).

This is what Jackson looks like on the way home every week, after 1 minute in his car seat.

Long Day

Jackson and I went all over today. We went to Magna this morning to watch Jasper's football game against Cyprus. He fought hard and they lost, but it was an a good game! Then from Magna to Clinton where we met up with my mom and sisters Anne-Marie and Staci to go house hunting. Staci is looking to buy her first home. We looked at 8 houses! Then back to Clinton, back to Sandy, to the store and finally home. I think I counted at least 20 times putting Jackson in and taking him out of his car seat. He was such a good sport. And now he is making a mess in the living room. What a day. Glad to be home.

"Hi!"

"Hi!"

When Jasper got home from school today, David and I were both already home relaxing in the living room. David was laying down on the floor, and Jasper looked at him and said "David, I was thinking about your belly at school today, because we were learning about mass. Mass and volume, and space. So I was thinking about how much mass your belly would be." We of course burst started laughing out loud.

Walking etc.

Here are a couple poor quality videos from my cell phone, with sound.

On the move

Jackson is on the move! He crawls about a mile a minute and has taken his first few steps! I've unsuccessfully tried and tried to get photographic evidence of his walking attempts, but he is very stubborn and will only do it when he feels like it - which is normally when I forgot my camera.

He also says "Hi!" and loves to do it while holding a cell phone up to his face.

He loves to go through my purse and taste everything inside of it.

Although still picky and stubborn when it comes to eating, he does love spaghetti.

And then there's this guy. This is Jasper as a baby, I'm not exactly sure how old. We have this picture sitting in a frame in our front room, Jackson loves to try to eat it almost daily.

He's still just as cute.

Jasper is 10 - and he is still afraid of the dark. I really don't know how common this is. I never had my own room as a kid, I always shared with a sister so I don't know how afraid I would have been in a room by myself at his age. He always wants his light on in his room, a radio on, his door open and our door open. I'm would be fine with all of that (we need our door closed though, sorry!), except keeping the light on also keeps him awake, or he wakes up in the middle of the night and knocks on our door at 2 am. It was so much worse when he first came to live with us, but we eventually got him to stop needing a light on in his room. But last month he changed his mind and insists on a lamp again. I could deal with this fine - but soon David will finish the basement (not soon enough), and then his room is going to be down there, and I know its just going to get so much worse. I've been talking up the basement, trying to make it seem so exciting to have his room down there, but I see the dread in his eyes. He has already asked me "um, why can't Jackson just have his room down there and I can stay up there with you guys?" I just know it is going to be a rocky move for him. Have any of you gone through something similar?

Lagoon, Summer '09

Lagoon! We all went to Lagoon a couple of weeks ago, minus David. He stayed home to work on the basement and Jasper, Jackson and I were joined by his friend, and also my mom, Staci and Anne-Marie, Staci's boyfriend and his two girls.

Jackson was such a good boy, and had fun people watching in the stroller and throwing things for us to go fetch. He also enjoyed the Merry-Go-Round, Ferris Wheel and the train. The train was a bit disturbing for me, because it rides past the Lagoon "zoo" and it is just so sad and pathetic. Of all the zoos in the world, the Lagoon zoo would probably be my last choice if I were an animal.

Jasper and his friend had so much fun on all the rides and they both surprised me when they rode the Colossus twice! Since Jasper is pretty chicken I was floored, but super proud of him.

We were all exhausted and ready to leave when we left for home at 11pm. We wished David could have come but it always makes me happy when he works on the basement, so it was okay with me.

YEAH LAGOON!

So different!

I was looking through the pictures I have stored on my computer, and I came across this! Wow, Jackson sure looks different. Ha ha (click to enlarge)!

Eating

We had Jackson's 9 month check up and he weighs 18.8 lbs and is 29 inches. He also has an ear infection, poor guy. I didn't even know - he hasn't been acting fussy or pulling on his ears or anything. So we are fixing the ear infection. Oh and he has a black eye! Poor little guy. He was couch surfing and then grabbed onto a small table, pulling it down on top of him. It hit his cheek - and he is fine, but it sure left him with a shiner!

He is a skinny baby! The doctor said not to worry, but I am worried. He used to be a good eater, but he has grown tired of baby food and will now rarely eat it - except for sweet potatoes every now and then. So we just give him little bites of what we are eating, and little fruits and vegetables. But for the most part he is just not interested. I know I just need to keep at it and not give up (of course), but does anyone have tips out there for foods that he might like or what they have done with their children? He still drinks his milk fine, and loves apple juice, but he ate a few grapes yesterday and some cheerios - but that is all he would even consider. The baby food did end up all over his body and hair though, so that's a relief.

Farts

WARNING: THIS ENTIRE POST IS ABOUT FARTS

I can't believe I'm going here, but I'm gonna.

I grew up in a family with 4 sisters, a mom and a dad. None of us were big on farting. I never in my life heard my mom fart (er. . . or her term "windy") or my sister Heather. Some of us farted for comedic effect (Hi Becky!) , and I guess there was that time one of us became the president of the Fart Club when she was 7 (Hi Anne-Marie!). But for the most part, we girls were non-farters. I thought my dad was a big time professional farter, but now that I've experienced living with David, Jackson and Jasper - I realize he was amateur at best.

I've been trying to get David to stop farting since we got married - and I have had ZERO success. He has no intention of stopping and Jasper is also a big time farter. I've been pleading and scolding, begging and reprimanding - and for NOTHING! They won't stop! Jackson can't help himself, but I know that he will most likely follow in his father's footsteps and continuously say "sorry, I can't help it!" or "it doesn't even stink, deal with it chumps."

The sad part - I feel myself caving. I think I have lost this battle and I might as well just accept my fate. When I was pregnant I even joined them, especially during the end - but I could honestly say "I can't help it!"

Last night when we were reading scriptures as a family, we were reading about Ammon in the Book of Mormon, and how he chopped of all the arms of the Lamanites. As Jasper was reading he farted twice, both times he claimed his inability to "help it." And then we all started to laugh. Laughing about it is much more enjoyable than arguing about it I realized.

Tell me, do you come from a FF (farting family) or a NFF (non-farting family) and how do you cope with the stinkiness?

Visit from the Coles

My sister Becky and her family came to town for a visit all the way from Seattle. We had so much fun!

We did so many things, including: swimming, shopping, riding the train, going to the Treehouse museum in Ogden, eating pizza, hide and go seek, and so much more.

Here Lindsay and Jackson are at the treehouse museum. I highly recommend anyone with children to visit this place. It is an educational hands on museum where kids can play with the exhibits - and its wheelchair accessible. Jackson age 9 months and Jasper age 10 both had a lot of fun.

McDonalds!

Frontrunner!

and baseball.

We miss you guys, please come back soon!

Football season again!

Jasper started football practice a couple of weeks ago, I can't believe how fast the summer flew by. Last week we all decided to go and watch him practice from the sidelines.

Jasper is playing lineman again and is doing great.

They really work hard at practices - I wonder why they voluntarily put themselves through this!

Meanwhile, we had fun on the grass watching and cheering. Go Bennett!