Jackson's first day of Older 2's Preschool!!

 I can't believe summer is over :(  I am excited and sad at the same time.  I will miss him SOOO much, but I know how much he loves it and I need the break just as much as he does ;)  This morning I walked in his room, he shot up from bed with a big smile and said "can I go to school?!?!".  I could only hold back the happy tears.  We get to do car line this year, which is fantastic!! No more getting out in the rain and lugging Bailey with me.  I get to drop him off under the covered part of our church and pick him up from car line too! It was bitter sweet though.  I didn't get to walk him to his class and see him settled in, but they say it's best that you drop them off the first day (and teachers know best!).  He said "good morning" to the lady who helped him out of the car and then said "buy Mama!" as I was shutting the door and walked right into the building...then the tears fell...but not from him, from me ;) 

Can you believe what a difference one year makes?!?!?! These pictures above are from last year, which was his first day ever to preschool!  Ugh...it jus all happens so fast!!

Thank you Mommy!

I just wanted to say a special THANKS to my Mom who came over yesterday and helped me with the kids.  It was one of those days :(  I have just been SOOO busy lately, its crazy.  She walked up to the doorstep and heard the screaming and thought...uhhhh no...meltdown central.  And it was, from ME, BAILEY, and JACKSON! LOL  She came right in and took over the kids for me.  I was on the phone with another real estate agent who said, "I am sorry, I can't hear you" to which I replied, "I can't hear myself!!!" She helped me feed them, clean up and take them on errands.  It was SOOO amazing to have her there and it was a blessing that she actual came yesterday.  I was doing a TON of paperwork for a real estate transaction and doing that on top of my normal everyday activities is extremely hard.  I am just half the Mom I should be during those times.

I just feel like "stay-at-home" Mom's get a bad rap.  We don't have "anything" to do all day right?!!?  WRONG!!!  We are the maid, cook (for 3 meals a day...cooking and cleaning up!), laundry do-ers, doctors, bath givers, diaper changers, poop cleaner-uppers when its spread all over the room (like it was AGAIN this morning), dog feeders, baby feeders, grocery shoppers, taxi to anywhere the kids or myself or John needs me to go, nail trimmer, book reader, potty trainers, put kids down for a nap, constant entertainer, lifeguard, snack giver, tooth brusher, hair brusher, clothes dresser, clothes organizer, clothes seller, stain remover-er, toy picker-upper, clothes packer, disciplinarians, the list is endless. On top of all that, we have other things we need to do, like brush our OWN hair, or take our OWN shower~which I usually have to take with Jackson while Bailey sleeps.  My hours of "work" are from 7:45am-8:30pm. We have NO privacy ALL day~I almost 100% of the time go to the bathroom with Bailey, Jackson, and Cooper (our dog) saying "no no Bailey, Jackson put that down, Cooper-go!". We don't get to do much AT ALL without having the kids around...need to find a certain dress for a special event...how about taking my almost 3 year old and 1 year old with you for a couple hours and see if you can find anything!!! How easily people forget that it is NOT easy to just stay at home.  I am also not saying that if you work you have it easy, I am just asking that people to realize just because I don't, doesn't mean I don't work hard. 

Can you tell I have had a LONG week already?!?!? hahahaha

What Jackson is saying these days

In the last month Jackson has changed so much with his talking and understanding of things.  It is truly amazing how fast it happens.  I know it sounds silly, but even from going from something as simple as "bath! bath!" to..."have to go take a bath with Bailey" is just sooooo nice.  To be able to really understand what he wants & have him explain and understand what I am telling him after almost 3 years is just so neat. Here are just a few of the things he has said lately...

• "I pray for Jackson, Bailey, the fan, the angels, Toopa's (Cooper our dog), dog (his stuffed animal),the light, the window, Nana, Opa, Un-tle Stee-ben, Asya, Mimi-Diddy, Daddy, Mama, and Jackson."  Noticed he prayed for himself twice :)  He would have gone on and on for 30 min. if I let him!
• J: "where's Toopa's Mama?"  Me: "He is on vacation at Mimi & Diddy's house". Long Pause.....J: "I miss Toopa's Mama" in a sad voice ;(
• "Bailey's tryin to walk Mama...look!"  And sure enough, she was pushing the walker that Amy and Dan gave him as a baby..so cute of him to tell me!
• "Have to wait our turn, have to stop!" while we were at a red light ;)
• "Can I have milk please Mama?"  "Can I have a snack Mama?"
• "Where's Nana's Daddy Mama?"  He asked me that while we were in the car on the way home from Memphis b/c Maureen has her father's watch in the center hall and it beeps on the hour.  It is a really neat way to remind all of us that he is looking down on us.  Well, Jackson had asked about it and Nana told him it was her Daddy's watch and he then said "where's Nana's Daddy?" and she had to tell him that he was in heaven.  A few days later in the car is when he asked about him again.  It was so sweet.
• "Have to go on a walk in the neighborhood"
• "Who's that Mama??" As he points to random people right in front of them!! LOLOL  I always reply "I don't know buddy" and the other person usually laughs!
• "Oh, Bailey Boo Boo is makin a mess!" and he is usually right ;)
• "Come on Bailey Boo Boo...follow me...this way Bailey!" he is ALWAYS trying to get her to follow him!! LOL

MIA ;)

 I have been MIA from the blog b/c I took the kids to Memphis and we just got back today :)  Just one of the luxuries of being a stay-at-home Mama :)  Sadly, John had to work and so he missed out on the fun.  We really missed him too!

 Opa reading to Jackson :)

 I brought our bike trailer and we went on a bunch of great bike rides!  Memphis is really flat, so it's a nice ride!

 Bailey took her 1st steps at the pool while we were there!! 

 We took him to the Memphis Children's Museum and he absolutely LOVED it...and so did we!!! 

 Trying to be like his Great Uncle David!!

 Bailey and Opa dancin' in the disco room!!

 Jackson and Nana dancin' too!! We did lots of dancing while we were in Memphis :)

 I can't get enough of watching them play together...it's just so darn cute!!

 This picture looks worse than it really is ;)  That airplane is actually flying in front of her...not right at her head ;)  But, they had these stations where you could make a paper airplane and then shoot it with the thing my Dad is standing behind...it was soooo fun once we got the hang of it!

 This was one of my favorite things!!! You could get up on a stage and watch yourself on a big screen like you were in a music video!  We were dancing to Justin Bieber's "Baby, baby, baby..ooohhh" (which I had stuck in my head the rest of the trip!!". They also had Beyonce's "single ladies", Michael Jackson....

 All of us...we look like the Partridge Family! LOL

 This is us dancing/singing to Beach Boys.  Jackson was SO SERIOUS, like he is with many things.  He never strayed from character and never put that microphone down! hahahaha

 Here he is in the grocery store shopping and then checking himself out!

 We got in this plane and Jackson said, "like Daddy's plane!".

 Nana has A LOT of angels around her house and Jackson was fascinated by them and literally talked about them NON-STOP the ENTIRE time! hahahaha  over, and over, and over...."where's the angels Mama?"

 Opa had a great idea to go to a go-cart place near their house and it was a blast!  Look how serious he is!  He LOVED every min. of it, but you would never know by the look on his face ;)  He asked & got to ride them 3 times :)

 Playing games with Opa at the arcade

 He loved getting tickets and picked out a couple of cute prizes (thanks to Nana playing her favorite ski-ball!) Of course the next morning he requested to see every prize he won :)

Mrs. Hill even got to come over and visit with us too!  We had so much fun!  It really was like being on vacation.  I never did a single bit of laundry, we watched Poirot (yes, I am a nerd..it is one of my FAVORITE detective shows!!!) every single night, I never cooked, we went to the pool almost everyday, we went to soooo many fun places, and I just got to relax.  If your wondering how the 6 hour drive went with 2 kids under 2 by myself....well...it was GREAT!  We stopped 2 times on the way there and only 1 time on the way home (both ways I let them play at a fast food playground for 1 hr).  I was very prepared with tons of treats for Jackson and a basket of toys & bottles to pass back to Bailey as she got fussy! :)  We will miss them so much!!