Happy Birthday NANA!

Yesterday was mom's birthday and since the boys didn't get to see her we decided to make a video! IT WAS really good...until Jackson deleted it from the camera...that's what I get for letting him play with it. So, we had to make another one and the boys were not cooperating...they were being boys! Happy Birthday Nana, hope you had fun in Branson!

Tomorrow is TODAY!

You know how you always say that you'll start your diet tomorrow? Well, tomorrow is here! Friday I finally signed up for a program at our local hospitals' gym, the Washington Regional Center for Exercise. The program is an 8 week program that meets every Monday night for 1.5 hrs. Every week we focus on something different, even how to shop at the grocery store. There are 2 trainers consisting of an exercise specialist and a nutritionist. There are only 6 people in the group so it should be very hands on with lots of personal attention. I will try to post my progress on a weekly basis. I don't have a schedule of what days I'll be going to they gym yet but I hope to go at least 4 days a week. I'm really excited to get this started but hate that Chad will be dealing with all 3 boys at a soccer game every Monday night....just another thing that makes him an awesome husband! Speaking of the hubs, he just took on a new responsibility of coaching Jackson's T-Ball team! We have our first practice this week but J won't be there...he and G are going to stay with Gigi and Papa for a few days while Gigi's on Spring Break.

Not much happened this weekend...it rained pretty much all day on Saturday so I wasn't able to take the kids outside...we ended up going to the mall Sat night to let them play at the indoor play center. It was a mad house. Unfortunately we didn't let them stay long, the crowd at the mall was not one we wanted to be around for very long, let's just say that it looked as if a gun fight might soon break out. I snapped a few pics before we high-tailed it out of there...

Weekend Update

We have been very busy the past few days! Friday was Jackson's birthday so we started off the weekend with some over night guests, Nana & Gigi. We went to Fun City on Friday and let the boys play to their hearts content! They had a blast playing all of the games and running thru the tunnels. The cookie cake wasn't bad either! This was Harrison's first time here so he just rode the little kid rides.

Saturday morning started off with Jackson's 2nd season of soccer. Daddy wasn't feeling well so Nana and I were the lone cheerleaders but we handled it just fine. Jackson stayed up to late on Friday night so was not in the mood to play soccer at all. And then it happened, Jackson took a shot to the chest so hard that I think we all felt it! He was down for a quarter but rallied and played again in the last quarter. The Crew played a great game with a lot of help from their 2 newest members!

The point of contact with the ball

Jackson and Seth

Saturday afternoon I took Gray to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party. I almost didn't take him because he fell asleep and really needed the nap after the long night that he had but in the end I knew how badly I would pay if he woke up and realized he had missed the party...I'm glad we went, he had fun playing with his friends(esp. eating the cake with blue icing...we were seeing the return from that investment for 2 days!!). While we were enjoying that Gigi took Jackson shopping for a few new spring things so after that we met up at the park for the boys to play for awhile. Gigi decided to take the boys down to Alma for Saturday night to spend the night with Mom Freda, the boys had a great time getting to eat at "Crackerbox", aka Crackerbarrel and staying up late watching tv.

On Sunday we loaded Harrison up and went to claim our oldest 2 kiddos. Papa surprised the boys by showing up at Moms and this is what I found upon our arrival:

Papa had recently had a cold so Jackson had been really worried about him and asking about him daily...it was so cute. Before lunch Jackson and I walked across the street and he gathered some flowers for Mom Freda, he wanted to make a few more trips to get some for myself and Gigi but I convinced him that it was the thought that meant the most and that we really didn't need to pick all the flowers!

All 3 boys have had haircuts this week, Harrison and Gray on Monday night while Jackson played in another soccer game and Jackson tonight. H got most of his "baby" hair cut off and loooks like a little boy now. Jackson got to choose his hairstyle and well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Harrison's hair was still wet from his bath

I think that about says it all, good night!

So Rachel over at graspingforobjectivity is starting a new meme. She chooses a picture and you have to come up with a catchy caption for it...it's called Conquer the Caption. Rachel is the author of the hilarious "mom jeans" article found here. This is a picture of her daughter Ali, in her johnny jumper, she sure looks like she's getting a workout to me! My caption would be "left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, right foo...wait a sec...where was I??? Now I have to start all over!!! Here is my picture waiting for a caption...this is Harrison on his first Halloween!

Time Flies!

Five years ago today Chad and I drove into Russellville excited about the 2 baby showers we would have on Saturday. We couldn't wait to see good friends and then make the trip back to Fayetteville to go thru all of our new things for our baby boy due on April 7th. We didn't know that God had other plans for us that weekend. After a fun night of playing Domino's and eating Taco Villa (YUM!) with my family we made our way back over the Gigi and Papa's house to rest up for our big day on Saturday. Just a few hours later I was awoken to a strange sensation and jumped out of bed as fast as I could....was that my water that just broke? No way...I wasn't due for another 5 weeks! I went to the restroom and by the volume of what was coming out of me I knew...I yelled at Chad and woke him up....he was out of it because we had only been asleep a little over an hour...he said "Are you sure you didn't just pee?" Uhm, no. When you're 9 months pregnant you go to the bathroom all the time and this was definitely not the same! After waking up Gigi and Papa and calling mom at her house I was upset....we hadn't prepared for this...we were registered at the hospital in Fayetteville, not in Russellville, this is not how it was suppose to happen! I wanted to jump in the car and drive home but nobody but me thought that was a very good idea...looking back on it now we did have plenty of time :). To the hospital we went arriving about 1am. Moms, sisters, everyone was there. After my initial check we could see it was going to be awhile so home went the sisters to get more sleep. After we got nice and cozy in our room Chad went down the hall to check on our good friend Josh who had just had his baby girl 2 days earlier and was still in the hospital. It was going to be a long night. It really wasn't though...I was not progressing so we slept most of the night...me in the bed and Chad in the comfy chair...haha, we all know how nice the pull out bed/chairs are! We started Saturday March 6 off with visitors...making lots of phone calls because we were suppose to be the guests of honor at 2 baby showers that day...oops, we weren't going to make it. Gigi went to one of the showers because it was a joint shower with friends of ours, after the shower she brought all of our things to the hospital to us and we had our own shower right there opening gifts! My contractions were not strong and I was still not progressing much so the dr started me on my pitocin...21 hours later and much abuse to my family later Jackson Mayer Bartlett was born at 10:31pm weighing 5lb 5oz...he was little so they cut the cord and got him to the nursery to make sure he was breathing okay...I was so exhausted that I passed out right there in my bed. Chad woke me up sometime later to come and meet my new baby boy...he was so tiny, so cute...no oxygen needed, just the tiniest IV in his little arm. I can remember how scared I was to hold him with the IV coming out of his arm, I was scared I might pull it out, but that didn't stop me from wanting to hold on to him for dear life! We really weren't prepared at all..we didn't even have our carseat with us! We had to call our good friends from Fayetteville to go buy our carseat for us and drive it down to us..they didn't mind though, they were one of the first to see Jackson! Our families were great and ran out to get preemie clothes for our tiny little guyWe had lots of visitors and after 2 days in the hospital we were free to go home. I can't believe my baby is 5 yrs old today! Looking back you never realize how fast it goes, although everyone warns you. No matter how big he gets or how many little brothers he has, Jackson will always be my "baby"! Happy Birthday Big Guy!