Snails and Puppy Dogs' Tails

Crazies

2011-01-19T17:55:00.001-05:00

Here are some random pictures of our boys.

Jackson loves to play Mario Bros on the wii and he is actually really good at it. He also loves playing with Legos. I swear he is not naked in the picture below. He spilled juice on his clothes so he took them all off except his underwear and decided he'd rather not go get new clothes on.

Drake, Drake, Drake. He is full of personality. He got his head stuck between the chair and the wall, how is still a mystery to me. He loves the new frog boots and hat dad got for him. We keep taking pacifiers away from him, but he keeps finding new ones. I swear he has a stash somewhere.

We love our little silly boys!

Snowed In For a Week - That's Georgia for ya.

2011-01-17T17:16:00.000-05:00

So all three of the people who read my blog know what happened here in Georgia last week, but I guess I am going to blog about it anyway. Last week (Sunday the 8th to be exact) we had a Georgia snow storm. I call it a "Georgia snow storm" because in about 80% of the country it would have been considered a normal snow fall. It snowed all night and on into Monday morning. We had about 8 inches of accumulation, which is unheard of here in Georgia. Usually when it snows here it melts within a day or two, but last week it stayed below freezing for most of the rest of the week. We don't have the means to deal with this kind of weather, so basically all of Metro-Atlanta just shut down for the week. There was no school, stores were closed, and the local news casters were advising us all to stay home. I took the boys out into the snow on Tuesday, but they weren't all that impressed. There was a thick layer of ice on top and their little feet sunk way down into the snow. Jackson tried to make a snow angel but the ice prevented his efforts. The snow came up to Drake's knees, so he just wanted to be held the whole time. Since Justin has been a workaholic and he wasn't available to play outside with us, so we gave up not long after we started and came back inside. It was pretty to look at, but apparently Cerseys don't like the cold.

Here you can see how the snow is glazed over with slick ice. It finally melted on Saturday.

Stair Sleeper

2011-01-07T17:04:00.001-05:00

Lately Drake has been getting out of bed at night and trying to sneak downstairs to see what we are doing. He tries not to be seen or heard, so he just sits on the stairs and spies on us. Though he tries to be covert we always know when he is there. So, the other night he tries his spy routine and we tell him to go back to bed. About an hour later we are headed up to bed and find our little guy sleeping on the landing of the stairs. Good thing he didn't roll over.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T11:40:00.000-05:00

We didn't take any pictures. So there is nothing much to put here. We played games and ate food...as usual. We took a momentary brake from the games to watch the ball drop, then went right back to playing our game. The end.

Christmas Day!

2010-12-28T11:27:00.001-05:00

We had a very nice family Christmas. We started out with a quiet morning at our house opening presents, but the day got progressively noisier.

These pictures were actually taken the night before Christmas. We forgot to take pictures at our house on Christmas morning because we were to busy taking video. Oops.

At about 10:00am we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house where we celebrated with them, Uncle James, and Noonch.

At about 2:00pm we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Cersey's house. All of Justin's sisters' families were there. It is always fun to get together with everyone and luckily Grandma and Grandpa Cersey have the perfect house for entertaining all of us. And holy crap, it started SNOWING! This is the first time in like 200 years that it has snowed in Georgia on Christmas day! There was even some light accumulation. Merry Snowy Christmas to us!

The boys loved all of their presents. Transformers, Batman, and Toy Story 3 were the themes of the year.

We had a perfect Christmas day surrounded by loving family. We are so blessed.

More Christmas Build Up

2010-12-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

I could go into detail about each of these pictures, but I don't feel like it and you probably wouldn't read it anyway, so a short explanation will have to suffice.

Jackson's pre-school Christmas party with crafts, food, and a book exchange.

Seeing Santa again after Megan and Lex's TaVaci concert. FYI, Jackson knows that Santa is just pretend, but he has promised not to give away the secret.

A small Christmas Eve Eve get together.

Let the Christmas Celebrations Begin!

2010-12-15T17:15:00.003-05:00

I have basically been forced to be more festive this year. Now that the boys are at an age of awareness they are much more excited about Christmas. Up until now they have just kind of blithely gone along with my low level of holiday celebrations, but something in Jackson has changed and now he has higher expectations. I blame it on Methodist Preschool.

I refuse to go see some mall Santa where you have to pay some ridiculously high price for a Polaroid picture. So, the Santa at the ward Christmas party was sufficient. I wasn’t surprised that Jackson had absolutely no problem jumping in a stranger’s lap (he is not the shy type), but Drake surprised me. He willingly sat in Santa’s lap too. Of course he didn’t smile or say anything, but he sat there grimacing without complaint while pictures were snapped. I think his motivation was the candy he saw the other kids get after they sat in Santa’s lap.

Last Thursday I had my Bunco group over for a festive holiday themed Bunco night. Really the only thing that made it festive was my Christmas tree being up and the holiday table clothes. It was a fun night. I still haven’t won anything, but I enjoy the game and the company enough to not care. We ended up being short one, so James filled in for us again. He is such an awesome brother!

Check out our fancy Christmas lights! We have a friend who puts up Christmas lights professionally during the holidays so we had him do our house. We bought cheap lights, but it still looks really good! I got up on the roof once while he was up there doing the lights and about peed my pants because it was too steep and too high for my comfort. It made me appreciate all his hard work about ten times more than I already did. Thanks again Ryan! (If you live in the Atlanta area and you would like holiday lights professionally put up on your house call Ryan on the Roof at 678-663-3897)

On Monday night Jackson had his preschool Christmas Pageant. He was a spider. Strange, I know, but they had so many kids in the pageant that they had to get creative and think of other creatures that may have been in the stable with the baby Jesus. There were also dogs and doves, but that isn’t quite as strange as a spider. He didn’t even have a costume like the other kids. It was kind of like they just gave up after the 50th kid. Jackson enjoyed it though and he sang all of his songs like a good little spider.

Kristina's 30 Days of 30

2010-12-03T16:07:00.003-05:00

As most of you know my recent birthday was rather significant. Turning 30 for a woman is a horrific milestone that represents our departure from youth and beauty (personal opinion). Some of us are able to embrace this rite of passage with vigor and fervor, others are left feeling despondent, old, and ugly. My husband, knowing that I was the latter type of woman, decided to do something extra special for me so that I would feel more excited about my new oldness. As you should have read in my previous post titled AAAHHHHhhhhhhh!!!, Justin threw me an awesome surprise party getaway. But to my shock and utter amazement this would not be the end of my celebrations. My birthday was on November 3rd, but Justin and my darling boys alternated giving me presents everyday during the month of November. I call it Kristina's 30 days of 30. You can try to sing this to the tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas", but I gave up on the beat and rhyming after about day 5.

On the first day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A Wii game for the family. On the second day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me Edward scissor hands the movie. On the third day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me An Amazon kindle for me to read. On the fourth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A cover for my kindle so it stays clean. On the fifth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A trivial pursuit poker game. On the sixth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me Some black eyeliner. On the seventh day of my birhtmonth my true love gave to me A full length mirror to replace the one that Drake broke. On the eighth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A couple scented candles. On the ninth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A wooden spoon and a cheese grater. On the tenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A dry erase board for organization purposes. On the eleventh day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A purple soft and cozy sweat suit. On the twelfth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A soft green throw blanket. On the thirteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A board game called imaginiff. On the fourteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me Some emery boards and a foot drill (what? I have rough feet). On the fifteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A movie called Dirty Dancing. On the sixteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A UGA hat. On the seventeenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A memory card for the new camera that my parents gave me on my birthday. On the eighteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A mini Monopoly Card game. On the nineteenth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A small space heater so I don’t get cold. On the twentieth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A purple sweatshirt jacket to go with my purple jumpsuit. On the twenty first day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me The DVD Miss Congeniality and a Netflix trial subscription which kind of renders the DVDs obsolete. On the twenty second day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A grey hoodie jacket with thumb slots in the sleeves (its the new thing, you should get one). On the twenty third day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me Some pens and a stapler for my desk. On the twenty fourth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A Kandle for my Kindle. On the twenty fifth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me Victoria’s Secret Bodywash. On the twenty sixth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me The Movie Beetlejuice. On the twenty seventh day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A long reach duster for those hard to reach places. On the twenty eighth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A Decal for my kindle so it looks pretty. On the twenty ninth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me The movie Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, which I have been itching to see for awhile. On the thirtieth day of my birthmonth my true love gave to me A BRAND NEW CAR!!!! Technically he just gave me this... but I turned it in 2 days later for this...

A 2010 Blackberry Chrysler Town & Country Touring with heated leather seats, 3 TVs and a build in DVD player, back-up camera, Remote start, Automatic doors, Stow and Go storage, mood lighting, and so many other cool things I can’t think of them right now! I went a little over budget. Yes, it is a minivan, but I will have you know that I picked it out and I am very excited about it. So, all of you anti-minivan party poopers keep your mouths shut! I’m a Mom and proud of it! See how Justin's awesome birthday plan worked? I have completely embraced my 30's and I choose the mini van all on my own.

So, though you might think that some of the gifts he gave me where a little lame you can't deny that he is the most amazing husband in the world and you all wish you had a spouse just like him. With that in mind, I'm going to need some seriously good ideas for his birthday in May.

On a sad note, my 14 year relationship with Dink, my Honda Civic, has come to an end. We had some good times but we both knew that this day would come. We had been growing apart for awhile. Happy trails Dink. (insert nostalgic memories and music here.)

Thanksgiving x 2

2010-11-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Holiday Faces...except for Drake in the picture with me.

Almost every Thanksgiving we split the day in two so that we can spend the day with both our families. We are blessed to have Justin's parents and mine so close by, but on Thanksgiving we are the ones getting stuffed, not the turkeys. This year we had a Thanksgiving lunch at the Cersey house. All of Justin's sisters and their families were there. The food was amazing, of course. I made green bean casserole, which hardly anyone ate, so I packed it up and took it to my next feast.

Justin's family has a lot of holiday traditions. One of them is to decorate the kids' Chirstmas tree on Thanksgiving day after we eat. My kids only broke one ornament this year.

Then we took some family pictures before we had to dash down the street to my parents' house for round 2.

My Aunt Shelley, Uncle Ross, Cousin Darron and his wife LuAnne were there to join us for Thanksgiving this year. This is probably the most people we have had over for Thanksgiving in 10 years or more. It was nice to have more family to contribute to the holiday spirit. We ate at 5:00, so we had a few hours to digest in between meals. As you can see, I brought the green bean casserole ;) After dinner we played the game Apples to Apples. My Aunt Shelley is notorious for winning every game she plays and she was true to form yet again. For the record, we believe that this is the reason why my dad hates games, because his sister never let him win one during his childhood. For once I had the mind to get a family picture before we all went our separate ways. I was tired and it shows, but everyone else looks good. Happy Thanksgiving!

Overloaded October's End

2010-10-31T22:40:00.000-04:00

The end of October was overloaded with great festivities! On the 26th Jonny got back from Thailand so we got together with James, Ryan (Brindi left town for a month), and the Woods since our time with the Woods was limited. Jonny brought James a crossbow from Thailand and of course the guys had to try it our immediately. They took it out back and shot some pumpkins for awhile (we named the pumpkin Brindi), but when that got old they decided to shoot each other. They started with shooting each other in the back and then decided to move on to bare skinned backs. It was stupid, but really hilarious. On the 27th we went to the Church Trunk or Treat party. It was raining out so what suppose to be an outdoor party was moved indoors. The church was packed, but it was still a good time. Jackson and Drake were both dressed up as Optimus Prime (we couldn’t find a Bumblebee costume small enough for Drake). Drake was pouting most of the time, but Jackson found a friend that was dressed as Bumblebee so he was in Transformer mode all night. The Dollars were so cute. Andy dressed up as a butterfly catcher and all his girls were butterflies. Grandma Cersey and her sister, Deejuana , joined in and dressed up as Lady Bugs. They were all so cute that they won best family costume (someone in our family has to win every year). I had a similar color motif going on so they adopted me into the bug family. Justin did not dress up, as usual. On Thursday the 28th we went to the Melting Pot with Jonny and Nicole. They said it was for my birthday, but the real reason we wanted to go was because it was going to be the last night that we would be able to spend alone with them before they moved to Thailand. The food was great and so was the company. We had fun devouring cheese, meat, and chocolate. We probably gained 5lbs each. On the 29th we had a fake birthday party/real farewell party. I had planned on throwing the Woods a farewell party and Nicole said that she wanted to throw me a birthday party even though I really had already had one. So we compromised and combined the two. We invited a bunch of friends and their kids over to my house and had fun eating and hanging out. Thanks for coming guys! On the 30th we had the annual Cersey Halloween party at Justin’s parents’ house. It was more laid back than usual because Grandma Cersey has been sick, but we all had fun anyway. We dressed up in goofy outfits and took pictures, we jumped in the bouncy thing, we played games, we decorated cookies, and of course we ate a ton of good food. Jackson had so much fun that he started to fall asleep while eating dinner. That night we went trick or treating. It wasn’t Halloween yet, but down here in the dirty south a lot of people don’t like celebrating Halloween on a Sunday, so it’s not too hard to find houses ready for trick or treaters on Saturday. The boys didn’t last very long, but they got more candy than they would be allowed to eat so it was a success. On Halloween day we stayed home and handed out candy to the few trick or treaters that came by. It was a great week!

AAAHHHHhhhhhhh!!!

2010-10-26T17:42:00.000-04:00

This is a frightening tale about a not so young girl who almost died at the hands of her husband...not really, but you can imagine.

It was a cool autumn evening and the full moon had just begun to rise. The girl was looking forward to a relaxing date with her husband to celebrate some of his recent achievements at work, or so she thought. He had planned the entire night, which should have raised the girl’s suspicions since this was a rare occurrence, but she was just happy to be getting out the house without the kids so she didn't give it much thought. They dropped the kids off and headed to the girl's favorite restaurant for dinner. She was so happy to be spending a pleasant night out with her loving husband. “How unusually considerate it is of him to surprise me and bring me to my favorite restaurant”, she thought. During dinner she congratulated him on his success at work, but he seemed momentarily confused. He quickly recovered and thanked her for the accolades.

After dinner the husband guided the girl back to the car. This was strange because traditionally they would see a movie next, and the theater was right next to the restaurant. She decided he must be taking her to the IMAX theater down the road. "What a wonderful surprise that would be" she thought, but as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon the husband calmly continued driving past the IMAX theater and further into the unknown. The girl was confused and excited. "Where could he be taking me?" she wondered eagerly, but as they continued to pass all known landmarks the girl began to worry that perhaps her husband was lost. She asked him, "Is it much further?" "You will see." He replied. The round moon was shining brightly in the darkened sky. The husband exited off of the freeway they had been traveling on for some time and began turning onto to small roads leading away from civilization and towards dark country mountains. The girl's curiosity began to ebb and concern began to set in. She was beginning to think that they were truly lost and she was not sure she knew the way back. She knew that her husband was bad with directions, but she was usually able to guide him out of these kind of situations. The husband began to act irritated and confused. "Are you sure you are not lost dear?" She asked. "I'm just looking for a dirt road." He responded tersely.

They drove further into the dark night with no destination of any kind in sight. Finally they came upon a small country store with a single gas pump in front. A lone light bulb hung from the porch of the store providing little light for the gravel parking lot. The husband parked in a dark corner of the lot and then said he was going in to ask for directions. She watched him go into the store and then decided to text some friends while she waited. She told them that she was lost in the woods with her hudband and they responded that perhaps she should be concerned, but she was already concerned and perhaps even a little frightened. “Don’t be ridiculous…”she thought, “…you’ve been married to him for seven years and he has never been anything but loving and patient.” But then she began to think of all the times that she had tried his patience and rejected his loving advances. She turned to see what her husband was doing. She was surprised to see him aimlessly browsing the aisles of the store. The clerk was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t appear to be inquiring about directions at all. He brought his phone to his ear, had a short conversation, and then headed back towards her and the car.

“Did you figure it out?” She asked. “Oh…no. That woman has no idea where we are going.” He replied nonchalantly. The girls fear was rising. The husband headed further down the road and then abruptly turned around passing the store again. He then turned left onto a small dirt road as if he had known where it was the whole time. The headlights lit the small road ahead of them and the tall threatening trees passing on either side. There was not another car insight. Suddenly, the husband pulled to the side of the road into a small clearing and parked. “Time to start walking” he said ominously. The girl was no longer worried about hiding her nervousness. “Walk? Where?” She whimpered. “Don’t worry. It’s not far now.” He replied in his deep voice with a devilish smirk.

He held her hand as they walk along the same road that they had been driving on moments before leaving the car far behind. The cold air gave her an excuse for her shivering. The Hunter’s Moon was shining above the trees in its full brilliance. They walked for several minutes until they came to an even smaller dirt road that branched off to the right and down a steep hill. “Now it’s time to close your eyes darling.” The husband demanded. She protested, “but I can’t walk down this gravel hill with my eyes closed! I will fall.” “Then I will carry you, but you must promise to keep your eyes closed!” he said. She climbed onto his back and reluctantly buried her eyes into his shoulder blades. She knew that she could open her eyes at any time and he would not know, but she was too afraid to peek at what lay ahead. She didn’t want to know. Though she wasn’t sure if she trusted her husband at this moment she was willing to submit to him because she loved him regardless of the consequences. She would die in his arms if that was his wish.

After what seemed like forever he put her down and asked her to continue walking with her eyes closed. She could feel that the road was no longer headed in a downward slope and that there was grass under her feet. He held her hand and guided her up a small staircase. She heard the creek of a door opening. A rush of putrid air hit her nose! The smell was overwhelming like rotting flesh and excrement. She opened her eyes to find herself in a dark and unfamiliar small cabin. Suddenly she heard shrieking coming from the doorway behind her! She turned to find…all of her friends including the ones that she had texted earlier. “Surprise! Happy Birthday!” The girl was so surprised and relieved. “What?! My birthday isn’t for another two weeks! Where are we?” She exclaimed. “We are in a cabin on a lake in North Georgia! Your husband arranged everything. We will be staying here all weekend!” That was when she knew that there had been no reason to worry. All is right in the world. Her husband loves her and so do her friends.

They never did discover the source of the foul smell.

Pumpkins

2010-10-20T10:06:00.002-04:00

About once every 5 years we decide to actually take part in traditional holiday activities and this year happened to be one of those rare years. So, last weekend we had fun with pumpkins. On Friday night we had friends over and we let our kids paint their little pumpkins. Some enjoyed it more than others. You can tell by Maggie's face in the picture below that she didn't quite get the point. Aiden was like a crazed artist who couldn't stand to have anyone disrupt his concentration on his masterpiece. Ours boys had a grand old time since Mom was actually letting them play with something messy.

On Sunday I invited my parents and James over for dinner and then tricked them into bringing the dinner too. Don't feel bad for them. They understand. After dinner we carved our larger pumpkins. I started out carving a dragon and then tricked my mom into finishing it. Justin carved a pumpkin with a devilish grin, and James carved the weepy moaning pumpkin. They all turned out really well I think. My dad watched Baby Einstein with the boys, which he said really creeped him out.

If you are wondering why I have pictures in this post when I said in my last post that I lost my camera, then first let me thank you for actually reading my blog. Justin found our really old digital camera that I have been using for the past few weeks. It is a piece of junk, but it takes pictures so it will have to do...until my birthday when I get a new camera (hint, hint).

Lost Camera

2010-10-12T14:24:00.007-04:00

So folks, I lost my camera. This means no more posts with pictures until someone finds my camera or buys me a new one (hint, hint). Justin would say that I don't deserve a new camera because I will just lose it too. He's probably right, but how sad will it be if our kids never get their picture taken again? Think about that Justin!

I don't know what is wrong with me. I have some sort of mental retardation when it comes to keeping track of my valuables. I've been better with my keys lately thanks to the sweet key chain strap that Natalie Putman gave me. I guess I have a history of being especially bad with cameras. Once while Justin and I were dating we went to Zions National Park and took a ton of awesome pictures, but then I lost the camera. We spent hours looking for it and then finally found it...in the freezer. Like I said, mental retardation. Also, recently Ann Murphy (a woman at my church) found the same camera that is now lost laying around at the stake center. It could be anywhere now! So, if you happen upon a small silver camera with pictures of my kids on it then please return it to me so that I can make my posts colorful again.

In other news Jackson's T-ball season ended last night. His team won at least one game, maybe two, but in T-ball its not about who wins and who loses. It's about who actually tries to play the game as opposed to those who sit in the field and play with grass and dirt.

Jackson did a good job for being one of the youngest on the team. He hit the ball off of a pitch once and he got hit by the pitch 4 times this season. He stood in ready position most of the time, though that didn't necessarily mean he was actually ready. He did get to play one inning at SS which he actually did really well at. He got the ball and took it to second base twice that inning. We are very proud of our little man. He did a great job and he had fun playing even though he doesn't quite know the rules yet. He is looking forward to playing again in the Spring.

Justin is enjoying his new job, Drake is still a momma's boy, and I am still mostly just a lazy sack of potatoes, but all in all we are doing great!

FuN aT tHe fAiR

2010-09-28T17:09:00.004-04:00

We used to go to the fair every year (which really means we went like 2 consecutive years), but we haven't been in awhile (which means we missed last year). So, we (I) decided to reinstate this old family tradition and go to the fair again this year. After all, its always fun to spend obscene amounts of money on rides that may or may not deliver you back to the ground safely, and eat food that you won't be able to forget because you will see it everyday afterwords deposited on your new larger butt. Well worth it. We all know that the real reason to go to the fair is to people watch. For example, Nicole got her seat next to Jonny stolen by a one legged old woman wearing short shorts. Here are some pics of the boys enjoying the few rides that we were able to afford.

Here is Drake looking longingly at the merry-go-round that we did not have enough tickets for him to ride.

Here are the dad's looking thrilled to have their hard-earned money wasted on filthy frivolities (note that Jonny was not in this picture because he was wasting his money riding the filthy and frivolous merry-go-round).

Here are the boys in the 4H barn petting small dirty animals. See the animal in the bottom right corner? Bunny? No, guess again. If you guessed baby jackass then you would be correct and a smart creature of the same name.

Good times.

Firsts

2010-09-06T10:57:00.008-04:00

We've had a whole lot of firsts this last week, so now it's time to document. Last Monday Jackson started his first day of preschool at Grayson UMC. We had been telling him about the upcoming day for months and he seemed genuinely excited. The morning of his first day rolls around and this is how Jackson looks...

He started complaining about a stomachache at breakfast and then said he just needed to lie down for awhile. He even began to dry heave a bit. I was worried that he might actually be sick and was seriously considering keeping him home, but Justin was certain that Jackson was just nervous, so we took him to school anyway. This is how he looked after he got to his class...

I have never seen Jackson get so nervous before. Though the stomachache was gone as soon as he entered his classroom, it came back like clockwork the next two mornings before school. And on the third night he pooped and the stomachaches were gone forever. Here are some shots of him in his new weekday habitat...

This is what Drake and I did while Jackson was at his first day of school. Finally Drake gets some one-on-one time with Mommy!

Check out how huge this backpack is one Jackson...

Last Tuesday Jackson got his first real injury at school. We were told that he wasn't watching where he was going and at the last second he turned and his head met a pole rather abruptly. In this picture you can see the welt that was beginning to form on his forehead...

Below is a collage of the injury's progression. None of these pictures really do the injury much justice, but as you can see the bruise got darker, his nose began to swell, and the inside corner of both eyes started turning black and blue.

The crazy thing is he has never complained about it hurting him. He seems completely oblivious that he has a second head growing on his forehead that makes him resemble a creature from a science fiction movie.

Jackson had his first T-Ball game last Tuesday as well. He is one of the youngest players on the team and he had just hit his head rather hard at school, but he managed to do a great job regardless of the cards stacked against him. He hit off the Tee and made it to first. He also managed to get a run. In one of the pictures below you can see him running to second base. There is also a picture of him in the outfield facing the wrong direction, but I'm sure he had his reasons.

Jackson and his friend Jones had quite the crowd come out to support them. Together they brought 20 people to the stands. Their fans made up 90% of the onlookers and consisted of family and friends. The boys might not have noticed how many people were there to love and support them, but I sure did! Thanks everyone!

On Wednesday Justin had his first day at his new job at Spectrum Health Policy Research (SHPR). It is a small company that is located nearby and Justin is their new head of IT. We are very excited about this new job because it makes his commute much shorter and the prospects of growing with a small company are very appealing. Plus the owner of the company is LDS, which makes the transition even smoother because his goals and priorities are similar to ours. I haven't taken any pictures of his new workplace yet, but they might be forthcoming.

Also on Wednesday, my brother James had his first 27th birthday! We had a small party for him on Friday night. Nicole provided this awesome cake (I added the clown head and candles).

Happy birthday little brother!

On Saturday we watched the first BYU game of the season with Jessica and Andy. James showed up at half time with wings. It was a close game, but BYU pulled off the win against Washington. We love BYU football!

On Sunday Jackson gave his first talk in Primary. He did a great job! He repeated everything I said very clearly. His talk was on "Obeying the Lord because I Love Him". What is interesting to me is that he was nervous about starting school but standing up in front of a room full of people and speaking is a piece of cake for him. Go figure.

So that was our week of family firsts! Stay tuned because there will be many firsts yet to come!

The News in Sports

2010-08-12T10:18:00.004-04:00

August has been an active month so far for us Cerseys. On the 2nd it was "Mormon Night with the Braves". Strange, I know. I bet Turner Field sold less alcohol that night than any other night in the season. Anyway, it turned out that Nicole's parents bought tickets that they didn't end up needing. So, since it was on a Monday which is traditionally Girls' Night Nicole took as girls to the game! The seats were awesome. We were 14 rows behind home plate on the third base line. We were playing the Mets, who are a big rival of ours. Chipper hit a home run and I got a picture of him swinging for the hit and crossing home plate. Nicole kept disappearing. She brought baby Avery with her and Avery wasn't a fan of the noise. So, Nicole made a few trips to the box that her parent's were hanging out in. You know, the boxes with free food and comfy seats? Yeah, no wonder she kept abandoning us. Long story short, we won! Best Braves game ever! Thanks Nicole and Mom and Pops Christensen!

On the 4th the boys went to their first Primary activity. They played kickball, Bingo, duck-duck goose, and then threw water balloons at Bro. Troxell. Jackson had fun running around with Jones, but Drake wasn't all that enthused about the activity. It turned out that he got a fever later that day, so he wasn't feeling so hot. The sunglasses seemed to help a little though.

Back on the 1st daddy signed Jackson up for T-ball!

Jackson had "tryouts" on the 7th, which actually is just how they pick which team they are going to put you on. They don't actually turn anyone away. We showed up right on time and there was a line that was already forever long. Jones showed up too, so Jackson wasn't as bored with waiting as he would have otherwise been. When it was finally his turn they had him hit a ball off the Tee (he managed this), then attempt to hit a pitch (not so much). They had him run to first where they threw him some balls to catch (again, not so much). Then they rolled him some grounders and asked him to throw them back to home (he is 4 remember). He tried his hardest and I think he had fun, which is what matters, right?

The next day we got a call from his new coach. Jackson was drafted to the Ga Tech team. Yes, he was so impressive that he is going straight to college ball. Yeah, actually the T-ball team name is just Ga Tech. Odd much? I've decided that when I become a T-ball coach I am going to name my team Brigham Young University. I think that will go over well here in the deep south. Anyway, the best part about Jackson's new team is that his good friend Jones ended up on the same team! What are the odds? Maybe they are high, I don't really know, but we are all excited about it. GO GA TECH! (Why does that feel so wrong?) Drake really loves sports too and I think he might be feeling a little left out. He likes to wear/carry sporting equipment around the house.

On the afternoon of the 7th we went to Maggie's 2nd birthday party. It was at the Wood's neighborhood pool (this sticks with the sports theme because there was swimming involved). As you can see the cupcakes were quite enjoyable.

Where is Jackson in all these pictures, you might ask? Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later with all these activities going on. Jackson fell while running laps around the pool (highly inadvisable) and scratched his ankle. By the looks of his face you would think he was dying.

Poor Jackson. It looks quite sad, but at the time it was kind of humorous. I must be a terrible mom, but it really wasn't all that bad of a scratch, not even picture worthy. He hobbled around for a few days before he was willing to admit that it was getting better. Oh the joys of being 4!

The End of July

2010-08-02T10:42:00.001-04:00

Justin had this last week off of work because he is about to lose his vacation days if he doesn't use them. We decided to just chill this week and do a whole lot of nothing. We have been trying to take advantage of our pool this Summer since we have to pay so much to keep it open. On Friday we had some friends and family join us there for some fun in the sun. Here are the baby swimmers.

Notice Ryan's white swim shorts. Its okay to laugh a little.

We also spent some time this last week over at Justin's parents' house because his mom and Andy both just had knee surgery and are there recovering together. We hope they get better soon! They have been sitting in this chair for over a week now. Justin tried to entertain everyone with his crocheting skills, but it turns out that watching someone crochet is really boring.

At church yesterday I was released as 2nd Counselor in the YW presidency because my mom (the YW Pres.) was released and her counselors are released by default. I was kind of upset because I hadn't been in that calling for very long (since last November) and I was just starting to feel like I understood my job. They called a new YW President, and lo and behold I was called back as the 2nd counselor. I am very excited that I don't have to leave the young women just yet. Jess is still the 1st counselor too, so there is fun still to come! My mom was released because my dad just got called to be the Branch President of a Spanish Branch in our stake and she has to join him there. Its pretty crazy, but I know they will do a great job.

White Water 2010 - The Tradition Lives On!

2010-07-28T18:01:00.002-04:00

On Monday we went to White Water with my brother and the Woods. This is the second year that we have gone with the Woods (see this post for last year's White Water experience) . Both this year and last year we went on a week day thinking that it wouldn't be as crowded. Wrong! It was crowded last year and it was crowded on Monday. Nevertheless, we had fun playing in the sweat, urine and who knows what other bodily fluids that no doubt infest those overcrowded waters. We realized that we were the only adults there without kids, so we pretty much acted like we were 15 years younger than we are. We would create log jams in the slides and in the lazy river, snatch the lifeguards flotation devices, and come up with strange competitions. We had a blast and hopefully we can keep this tradition going for years to come. This means that the Woods will have to visit every summer, because the are moving to Thailand next month. That won't be a problem, will it guys?

4th in Florida

2010-07-06T22:28:00.000-04:00

Over the 4th of July we went to Seagrove Florida. It is on the gulf and we were lucky enough not to see any tar balls on the beach, but the water was a lot more murky than usual. We went with my parents and my brother. My parents rented a 2 bedroom condo that was pretty much on the beach. Drake didn't really like the sand at first, but he warmed up to it. The water, however, was not an option. He ate a lot of cherries that day. Somehow he always ends up with red stuff around his mouth. I promise he doesn't bite. Jackson spent some time trying to build a sandcastle, but gave up rather easily.

We spent some time at the pool as well. Drake really likes goggles. Justin needed some time in the sun. He's a little pastey.

Jackson loves to make new friends. He has no qualms with walking right up to strangers and introducing himself. He walked right up to these older boys who had been sitting in the hot tub for awhile. He quickly engaged them in a conversation about Transformers. I often worry that people make fun of my little man who is so eager to befriend everyone he meets, but so far he has been well received by all. This is not a trait that he got from me or his father, but I suppose we should learn from him.

One evening we went into Destin to see a movie while my parents watched the boys. Then they met us at the mall where the boys rode a little train. Drake refused to sit down during the ride. It is a miracle that he didn't dive out one of the windows. Then we went to Burger King for dinner.

On the night of the 4th we went down to the beach to see the fireworks. Drake was beside himself with fear. He clung to me so tightly that I didn't even need to hold him. You can see how tightly he is closing his eyes while my mom was holding him. Drake and Jackson didn't last long, but at least we saw a few fireworks.

Here is James in his bed. Poor James had to deal with the screaming boys waking him up every morning.

Fun 4th. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Skydiving

2010-07-01T22:44:00.000-04:00

While I was driving across country with James, Justin was jumping out of an airplane. Skydiving is something that he has always wanted to do and I told him he should go as a late birthday present to himself. He was a little disgruntled that he had to do it with a strange man strapped to his back. You can see in the pic below that Justin got the crazy shirtless guy as his tandem buddy. Next time he definitely wants to go solo. Here are some pics of Justin and the people he went with.

Some of our close friends bailed on him last minute (Ryan), but it didn't matter because either way he was going to be jumping out the plane with a stranger on his back anyway. I think Justin enjoyed it, though its always hard to tell how he really feels about things. I guess we'll know he liked it if he decides to go again.

Road Trip & St. Louis

2010-06-30T21:22:00.001-04:00

This post is going to be proof of how terrible I am at remembering to take pictures. Though I did have enough pictures to make 4 collages, very few of these pictures are really worth looking at. Anyway, on June 23rd I flew out to Utah to help my little brother pack up his crap and move him across country back to Hotlanta. My parents rented a large penske truck which provided more than enough room for James' belongings so he put his dysfunctional motorcycle back their too, which was kind of a pain in the butt. This is what most of the trip looked like...

The first night we stopped just outside of Denver. The second night we made it to St. Louis where a good friend of mine, Ben, put us up for a couple of nights. I finally got to meet his very nice wife Megan. On Saturday they showed us all over St. Louis. We went to the Arch...

Some terrible pictures also taken at the Arch...

I wish I had taken more pictures. It wasn't until after we left town that I realized that Megan only made it into one of my pictures and even in that one you can barely see her. Sorry Megan. Next time, you and me, photo shoot. We went to a cool restaurant for a late lunch after the Arch (can't remember the name, but it was cool). That night we went to an art deco bowling alley where we met up with some of Ben and Megan's friends. I love bowling. Then we went to a cool little outdoor bar where I sipped on some nasty diet pepsi (Coke is it!) Then we headed over to a waffle house type joint where we had a super late dinner/early breakfast. Thanks Hegviks for the whirlwind tour of St. Louis!

James and I made it home before my boys went to bed on Sunday night. I was so happy to see them, but they were more interested in seeing their Uncle James. We are so glad to have him back home! Love you little Bro!

Goggles

2010-06-19T20:26:00.001-04:00

Drake's 2nd Birthday!

2010-06-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

Drake's birthday had a round theme with bubbles, balloons, and balls. He loves to play with balls. We had the party in Grandma Cersey's awesome backyard. The kids loved the bubbles and balls. Sadly, the balloons kept popping on the sharp blades of grass. Here are all the little friends that came to the party...

After playing for awhile Drake opened his presents. He got some cool Toy Story stuff, sporty toys, and a Cozy Coupe! I always wanted a cozy coupe as a kid, but never got one, so I requested it so that I could live vicariously through my kids.

In hindsight the red frosting probably wasn't the best idea, but the picture below in the middle is the best picture of Drake ever. It is so fitting. This is the little Dracula we know and love.

Justin's Birthday!

2010-06-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, I am a terrible wife. I only took one picture on Justin's birthday. I'm just not good at remembering to take pictures! Anyway, for Justin's 32nd birthday I had a day full of surprises planned. His birthday fell on Memorial day which caused a few hitches as far as guest attendance was concerned, but all in all I think the day turned out to be nearly perfect. Justin didn't know about anything we were doing until we got to where we were going (at least I don't think he did). I hired a sitter to watch the boys for the day. Then around 9:15am Nicole and her brother Luke showed up at our house and we all piled into the car and headed to...Six Flags! This picture was taken in the parking lot of Six Flags.

There were two worries, one that it would be crowded and two that it would rain because both were predicted to be likely. However, it must have been that the rest of the would-be six flags guests had the same worries and stayed home because we pretty much walked onto every ride. The overcast morning made the heat more bearable, and it never did rain! Perfect! Then, at about 3:00pm we left the park and headed back towards our side of town. I had brought Justin and myself a change of clothes which we put on in a QT bathroom. Then we headed to...the movies where we saw Iron Man 2. Luke left us, but Jonny joined us. The movie was pretty good, for a sequel. After the movie we went across the street to...LongHorn's Steakhouse where we met up with Justin's entire family and my parents. Jess had gone and picked up our boys and brought them to dinner too. Thanks to Jess we had a room to ourselves, which was great because our kids were going nuts. Dinner was okay. Justin's food was overcooked, but he ended up getting a new plate so it worked out. I had the scallops, not my new favorite. Justin opened his gifts to find a lot of things on his wish list, which was perfect because people usually ignore his wish list requests because they can be kind of strange. Thanks to everyone who helped make the surprises work! When we left the restaurant it started pouring down rain, but it was too late to spoil our day. I had fun. I hope Justin did too. It is always a little difficult to tell what Justin is thinking and feeling, but he says he was surprised and that he liked his birthday, so I'll just have to take his word for it. Thanks to everyone who helped make the surprises work!

Jakson's 4th Birthday!

2010-05-29T23:00:00.001-04:00

For Jackson's 4th birthday we put up Grandma Cersey's huge water slide in our back yard. The kids loved it!

Jackson has some really great family and friends. Lots of people came to his party. Both sets of Grandparents were there. His aunts Jess, Jana, and Jenn as well as uncles Andy, Ta, and Albert all came with their kids (Megan, Alexis, Anthony, Ethan, Ellie, and Emily). Nicole, Jonny, Maggie, and Avery. Ryan, Brindi, and Aiden. Natalie, Dean, and Kenzie Putnam. Blossom, Arianna, and Aaron Weems. Carey, Chris, and Boston Fox. Even some of the neighbor kids we don't know showed up for a little while.

He got some great presents. He is way into Transformers this year, so he got several Transformer toys, as well as some other cool stuff. Thanks everyone for all the fun toys!

Somehow I missed taking pictures of the cake. I think it was because I was holding it. Oh well. Jackson had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. Good times.

More in May

2010-05-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

Jackson helping daddy with the car...

Drake so happy to be holding new baby Avery Wood...

Drake had an audition for a commercial with me. He did terribly. He was very uncooperative. At least he looked cute beforehand.

These pictures speak for themselves...

Fun in the sun with a new water toy...

Justin and I went on the ward temple trip to the Columbia S.C. temple.

I cut Jackson's hair. It was suppose to do either a faux hawk or just lay flat, but it kind of looked like a floppy mess. Jackson hates having his hair styled and he really hates people complimenting him on his hair, so we ended up buzzing it a few weeks later so he would stop crying about it.

GA Aquarium

2010-05-21T23:00:00.002-04:00

Our friend Becky Facer volunteers at the Georgia Aquarium and every Friday night during the summer she can get 4 guests in for free. We took her up on this offer and the boys had a blast!

Jonny's Birthday Party Sans Jonny

2010-05-10T09:57:00.001-04:00

My friend Nicole was planning on throwing her Husband, Jonny, a big Manly Mustache Bash for his 33rd birthday, but it didn't quite work out as planned. Nicole went into labor the morning of the day that the party was suppose to take place. Since all the preparations had already been made and now we had two birthdays to celebrate, I decided to throw the party at our house. Here are the mustaches...

Here are all the kids. Yes there is a picture of Aiden stuck under the futon. It is a common occurrence.

Draw the stache on Jonny got a little out of control...

We all had fun, though we missed Jonny and Nicole.

Here is the beautiful reason they couldn't make it to their own party. Avery Jane Wood, welcome to the world!

1st Father - Son Camp Out

2010-05-03T15:40:00.000-04:00

Justin and Jackson went on their first father-son camp out recently. I wasn't there so I can't give a full report, but from what I have heard Jackson had a great time. He rode around on J.P. Alvarez's four-wheeler, he roasted hot dogs and one marshmallow. Jackson played with his good friends J.P. Alvarez and Jones Shumway. Justin didn't want to set up a tent, so they slept on a mattress in the back of grandpa's car. Neither of them got very much sleep. In the morning Justin had breakfast (Jackson wouldn't eat), and then got ready to head home. Before leaving, however, Jackson got a hold of a salamander, which he enjoyed torturing. Typical boy behavior. Here are the few pictures Justin took. As you can see, he managed to avoid getting a picture of father and son on their first father-son camp out. Oh well.

Rockin' Bath Hair!

2010-04-12T14:38:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when Daddy bathes the boys.

Nicole's Party!

2010-04-10T14:47:00.001-04:00

On April 6th, one of my besties, Nicole turned 30! Even though we took her to Florida a few weeks before to celebrate, she still needed an official birthday party, so I threw her one! It was nothing big, just a few friends and a cook out (thanks Horsleys for bringing the grill).

We ate good food, played some games, and sang happy birthday for the 3rd time. This is the last time I am going to say it this year, Happy Birthday Nicole!

Easter, Part 2

2010-04-05T14:05:00.003-04:00

On Easter Sunday we had small baskets at our house and then we had breakfast and watched conference with my parents. Then we found and feasted on our second Easter baskets at my parents' house. Then we headed over to Justin's parents' house for more festivities. We ate lunch and then the kids dyed eggs.

Next we had some yummy cupcakes.

Then it was time for the annual Cersey egg hunt. I think we had over 300 eggs to find! Some of them had cash inside!

By the time the hunt was over Drake was so hopped up on sugar that he started flying!

Then he crashed and had a sugar hangover...

It was everything that a great Easter should be - General Conference, Family, food, and fun. We are so blessed.

Uncle James was even in town. The boys were so happy to see him. It was sad to say goodbye.

Easter, Part 1

2010-04-05T13:50:00.000-04:00

Every year we get invited to several Easter egg hunts, and every year we try to make it to at least two, which is what we did this year. On the Saturday before Easter we went to the Baugh's annual Easter egg hunt extravaganza. There were lots of kids there and lots of eggs to find. Here is Jackson scouring the yard for eggs.

Drake, on the other hand, was content to find just a few eggs and then eat the goodies inside.

Here are some of the friends we saw at the hunt that morning. The boys' cousins, Meg and Lex where there. We saw Aaron and Arianna Weems. Brindi, Ryan, and Aiden Horsley were there. And then of course our friend the nasty slug showed up. There was also a literal slug on one of the eggs we found.

Nicole's Surprise!

2010-03-30T22:02:00.001-04:00

One of my best friends, Nicole, is turning 30, so her husband decided to surprise her with a girls' trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We had been planning this trip for months while telling poor Nicole that we couldn't afford to go on any birthday trips with her (not an entire lie). She was upset enough about turning 30, but the fact that no one wanted to do anything to celebrate this momentous day was really starting to get to her. Coincidentally, on the same day we were planning to reveal our surprise Nicole had a breakdown and got super upset with her husband. Luckily, he took it like a man and did not spoil the surprise. Thursday night at about 11:00pm me, Rachel, Brindi, and special guest Tasha (Nicole's best friend from New York who flew in just for the occasion) put on our swimsuits and went to Nicole's door. Tasha hid out of sight so there would be an extra surprise. We knocked and when Nicole opened the door we asked if she was ready to go? She was really confused and thought that we wanted to use her hot tub since we were all in our swimsuits, but then her friend Tasha stepped into view and the impact of our visit hit home.

We told her to pack her bag because we were leaving for the airport at 4:30am. She was genuinely surprised, and we were all so happy that we had kept our secret so well. After very few hours of sleep we headed to the airport. We got to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale at about 10:00am. Luckily, they let us have an early check-in. Pier 66 is a really nice Hyatt hotel on the water in Ft. Lauderdale. Jonny got us 2 connecting junior suites! He is the man!

We decided to go down to the lobby to get some breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We sat down, took one look at the outrageous prices on the menu, got up and walked out. We opted for the cheaper gas station breakfast across the street.

The weather was a little overcast, so we decided to go back to the room and take a nap. When we woke up we took the shuttle to the beach and walked the strip looking at souvenir shops. Then we ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. Afterwords, we went back to the room and got ready for a night on the town.

That night we went to a movie at a theater in what we thought was a cute little quiet area of town called Las Olas. We saw a 10:15 of "Bounty Hunter". It was a terrible movie that dragged on way too long. When we got out of the movie the cute little quiet street that we had come down a few hours before was crowded with cops, drunks, and strippers. It turns out we were in the night club portion of town and they just hadn't been open yet when we went in to our movie. We quickly hailed a cab and made our escape, but not before catching a pole dance through the open door of one of the clubs. That girl had the tightest butt we had ever seen! The next morning we went straight to the beach. We had breakfast outside at a cafe across the street from the beach. Then we laid on the beach for a few hours. It was very relaxing.

That night we went to a hibachi restaurant in a safer part of Las Olas. We ordered sushi and hibachi. Brindi and Nicole tried their hands at tossing eggs. After dinner they brought Nicole her birthday treat and we sang to her.

We went back to the hotel and had fun hanging out and chatting before bed. The next morning it was overcast again so we decided to walk around town. We crossed the large draw bridge that was in front of our hotel. We ate at Einstein Bros. and got mani/pedis.

Then we went back to the hotel, sat in the hot tub and lounged by the pool. Then it was time to leave our hotel. On our way out of town we stopped and ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory where we sang to Nicole yet again. Then we headed back to the airport to catch our flight home.

It was a short trip, but we had a blast celebrating with our dear friend Nicole. She is awesome, and she deserved this girls' trip. Happy Birthday Nicole! Love you!

ThunderCats 2010!

2010-03-30T21:04:00.000-04:00

Justin and I are playing co-ed softball again this year. I won't say too much about it here because I have an entire blog dedicated to ThunderCat updates. You can see how the team is doing this season here. Come out and support us on Thursday nights at Bethesda park!

Crafty

2010-03-23T22:48:00.001-04:00

I decided to try and do something crafty with the boys, so I got out the few supplies I had and we attempted to paint paper Easter eggs. The eggs ended up looking terrible, not because the boys did a bad job painting, but because mom did a bad job designing their overall structure. I know you are thinking, "how can you screw up paper Easter eggs?" Well, you get me to make them, that is how. It was a very bad combination of staples cut up manila folders, and tissue paper. I told you I had limited supplies, right?! The boys still had fun, but I threw away the Easter eggs because I was so embarrassed by my efforts, hence no pictures of the finished product, but there are these cute pictures of the boys who got just as much paint on themselves as they did on their paper.

Our Friend, Ryan, is 30!

2010-03-21T21:01:00.000-04:00

Our friend Ryan just had his 30th birthday party. There was good food and good company, but we decided to add a little more interest to the night. We started out with a friendly game of spoons which quickly escalated to a rowdy free for all brawl. We placed the spoons on the other side of the room so whenever someone got 4 of a kind we would all jump up and dash across the room with no regard for those around us. I accidentally clocked Billy in the nose, Ryan bled on the carpet, Rachel almost broke her face on a table. Oh, good times! Here are some fun pics from our revised game of spoons.

We love our friends and all the fun that we have with them! Happy birthday Ryan!

March Randomness

2010-03-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

Here are the few random pics I took in the beginning of March. I know, you are probably wondering who is that blue-eyed babe in these pictures? Well, that is Drake's girlfriend Maggie. I know he is a little young to be getting serious, but we just love her so much that we've already accepted her into the family. Yes folks, you may be looking at the future Maggie Wood Cersey.

New Beginnings

2010-02-16T11:08:00.001-05:00

So, back in November I was called to be the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency in our ward. My mom is the president, my sister-in-law, Jessica is 1st counselor, and Nicole is the secretary. As if that is not cool enough, as advisers we have Rachel, Betsy Baugh, and Laura Kaiser! We are all really excited about our new callings. So, in an effort to start off with a bang, we decided to go above and beyond for our New Beginnings Program (I give full credit to Jess, by the way). We did an NBA (New Beginnings Association)themed program where the girls where the players, and the leaders were the cheerleaders. The girls made their own jerseys and the leaders had on matching shirts that Rachel painted for us. We drafted the new beehives and we retired the jerseys of the girls that completed their personal progress. It was a fun night. We set a high bar for ourselves with this activity. I don't know how we can continue to live up to it.

Real Snow

2010-02-13T20:13:00.002-05:00

We actually got some real snow! We get one good snow every year (see my March 2nd post from last year). Since this is a rare occasion people here in Georgia go crazy when it snows like this. Everyone is outside building snowmen, throwing snowballs, and sledding. I don't care much for these festivities. In my opinion the best thing about it snowing like this is that everything closes down and people don't have to go to work or school, but the boys think its great fun. Justin and Jackson hurried outside to play the morning after our big snow.

Drake looked longingly out the window, wishing he could join the fun.

I indulged him and took him outside too. He was overjoyed!

Then he fell face first in the deep snow and his fun was over.

We went back inside and Drake was content to watch the fun from the window until Dad and Jackson started throwing snowballs at his window.

Drake was sad all over again. Rough day for the Drakester. By the way, this is the perfect picture to show off Drake's crazy sharp Dracula teeth. The one's on top are even more pointy! We named this boy right! Drake is a derivative of Dracula and/or dragon.

Here is one of his top fangs. Creepy cool, huh?

Here are the guys standing/ squatting proudly next to their snowman. The snowman sat on our back patio for almost an entire week before he melted.

Quick shout out, Happy Snowy Birthday Car!

Drake's New Do

2010-01-31T19:43:00.000-05:00

So, I cut Drake's hair again and it was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved. As soon as I put the clippers on his head he would start screaming and throw his hands on his head to try and hit the sharp blade away from his hair. It was an excellent way to lose a finger or two. Luckily I withstood the temptation of chopping off the screaming baby's fingers. Jackson took all of these pictures. He has such a knack for capturing the moment.

In the end the cut didn't turn out that great, but at least he was happy to escape the clippers with all of his fingers. I think I'll just grow his hair out for awhile.

First Snow

2010-01-08T15:05:00.001-05:00

We had our first snow of the year, but it was weak sauce, not that I'd expect much more in Georgia. Jackson was so excited. He ran outside and immediately tried to make a snow angel. As you can see it didn't work out so well. Then he tried to make snow balls and got a handful of pine straw mixed with a little snow. Needless to say, our fun in the snow was short lived.

Justin has been doing pull-ups a lot lately and the boys wanted to give it a try. They couldn't do any pull-ups, but I am still impressed that my little 18 month old boy can hang on the bar like this.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T14:00:00.000-05:00

On New Year's Eve we partied with friends at the Shumway's new house. The boys stayed up until midnight with us. We played games and ate good food until the New Year got close, then we all gathered by the TV to usher in 2010. Then, somehow we ended up watching some guy jump his motorcycle across a river or something instead of watching the peach drop. It was all rather anti-climatic, but at least we were with friends and having a good time.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas '09

2009-12-27T13:36:00.000-05:00

We decorated our tree a few weeks before Christmas...

On Christmas Eve we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house where we ate a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. Grandpa left for a few minutes and then reappeared at the front door with a Santa hat on, a lantern, and a sack with a few presents. I think this was my mom's idea, and though Justin and I thought it was unusual, the boys liked it. The boys each opened a present that night, and then we headed home to get "snug in our beds".

The next morning the boys woke up to find their stockings filled and presents under the tree. Jackson got trains and a Buzz LightYear action figure. Drake got puzzles and other toys, but he was just interested in the snacks he got in his stocking.

After our small at-home Christmas we went back over to Grandma and Grandpa Pearson's house. We ate breakfast, tortured the cat by making her wear a Mrs. Claus hat, and then we opened more stockings and presents. The boys were so excited to have so many fun new toys.

We celebrated Christmas twice with Justin's side of the family. We went over a few days before Christmas to celebrate before Justin's sister Jennifer and her family went out of town for the holidays. Then we went over again on Christmas afternoon. Below is a picture of the boys with all of their cousins in front of Grandma Cersey's kids' Christmas tree (she has at least 3 trees up every year). Jackson doesn't look so happy, but Drake is compensating by being overly enthusiastic.

Grandma Cersey gave Drake his favorite thing, a ball. Jackson got lots of toy cars and some transformers.

How blessed we are to have so much family nearby to celebrate the holidays with. I am so glad that my boys are growing up surrounded by such love. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Playin' at the Park

2009-12-22T14:51:00.000-05:00

A few days before Christmas my cousin Eric cut my hair at his salon (it was just a trim and I forgot to take pictures). Anyway, after the cut the boys and I went across the street to a little park. The boys loved running around the fountain. Thanks for the cut Eric!

Jackson's Haircut

2009-12-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

So, I really wanted to grow Jackson's hair out, but I never comb it and so many people kept asking me why I let my kid wear a mop on his head, so I decided to cut it. Here are the before and after pics.

Disney Days 6 & 7

2009-12-02T14:07:00.000-05:00

Epcot, Day 6

On our 6th day at Disney we went to Epcot, one of my favorite parks. I love visiting the different cultural displays. We got there in the morning and hit up a few rides. We rode "Soarin'" first. It was a really fun hang gliding ride. Then some of us rode the race track ride, but it broke down before Justin and I got the chance. We also looked at some of the future and safety displays. Jackson enjoyed learning how to prepare for thunderstorms, but he was afraid to go through the fire safety course. I guess he thought there might be a real fire. Then we got this cute picture of the kids with grandma and grandpa.

We left for lunch and then came back to the park later that afternoon. Justin and I finally got to ride the race track ride. Then we split up and looked at the different cultural displays. Unfortunately this was the coldest night in the history of Orlando (might be a slight exaggeration). We were so cold that we rode the indoor Mexican ride 3 times in a row to get out of the cold. The boys were able to find a train table at the park in the England exhibit (Thomas and friends are apparently British). For days I had been telling Justin that I really wanted to eat at one of the foreign restaurants in the park. They were all very expensive, but we finally settled on a small Japanese cafe. It wasn't that great, but I was pleased to have come to a compromise with Justin.

We ended up leaving before the big fireworks display because our kids were dead tired and we were all freezing (as you can see in the first picture, taken when we were leaving). The rest of the family said it was amazing. Oh well, next time.

Animal Kingdom, Day 7

On our last day at Disney we went back to the Animal Kingdom. We rode Everest. It was really fun. Then we went to look at some animals. Jackson liked looking at the animals, but Drake passed out. We got really close to some tigers. They were only a few feet away from us separated by a window. After a few hours of exploring we headed to down town Disney where we checked out the cool Lego displays. The dragon behind Jackson in the picture below is made out of Legos.

Drake fell asleep again.

We had a great time at Disney World. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cersey for the amazing Christmas present. We will never forget our fun week at Disney. Love you!

Disney Days 4 & 5, and Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T16:53:00.006-05:00

Day 4

On Wednesday we had a lot of this...

But late in the day we decided to venture out anyway. Justin and I took Jackson back to the Magic Kingdom while Drake stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa. It was really wet and cold but we made the best of our evening at Disney. First we rode Thunder Mountain. The roller coaster looks like a train, so Jackson was excited to ride. He is just the right height to ride and he loved it. Check out his expression in the top right pic below. That's not fear, that is pure joy. Then we headed over to the carousel where Jackson picked his favorite horse. We took a spin on the flying Dumbo ride and then our last ride was It's a Small World, which was one of Jackson's favorites.

To get back to the car we had to take the monorail. Usually it was cram packed with a ton of people, but this time we got lucky and we were the only ones in our train car. We took advantage of our solitude and went a little crazy. You can't see it in this picture, but Justin's feet are suspended in mid air. This was my favorite ride of the day.

Day 5, Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we went to the Animal Kingdom. A great park to visit on the day that we carnivorously feast on animal flesh! We rode on a safari ride where we saw a ton of cool animals. Check out how close we got to these guys. One of the pics below is actually just the boys playing the drums, but that was fun too. Justin and I rode Everest, which is a new ride since we last went to Disney (Jackson is not tall enough for this one). It was pretty sweet. The shot on the left was taken from the top of the ride. We also saw the Lion King show (don't have pics of that), which was kind of fun. We got 3rd row seats in the warthog section (pretty sure that was a good thing). We also saw the Bug Life show, which scared the boys to tears because it is 3D and they weren't comfortable with bugs flying at their faces. Justin and I rode the Dinosaur ride which almost scared me to tears. What? It was a little terrifying!

Just to make sure the boys had enough fun before we left for the day, we let them play in Dinoland. They were suppose to be digging up dinosaur bones, but Jackson decided to bury Drake instead. We also saw some fish. That's the best explanation I've got for the pic on the top left. We left Animal Kingdom early (3pm) to get home and get ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great traditional dinner with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes, corn, some tasty jello casserole thing, pie, and probably other stuff I can't remember. After dinner the kids sang a song that Grandpa wrote about Thanksgiving that was really cute. Grandpa is very creative and he writes a song every year. Here is a pic of all the grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa.

Disney Days 2 & 3!

2009-11-25T13:06:00.009-05:00

On our second day here in Florida (Sunday) we took it easy and hung out with family, but on Monday we headed back to Disney for a day at Hollywood Studios.

Disney Day 2

The adults enjoyed a ride on the Rockin' Roller coaster first. It is one of the best rides in all of Disney World.
Then we headed to the Tower of Terror. Jackson met the height requirement so Justin decided to make him try it. Justin warned Jackson that it might be a little scary which was a big mistake because he was terrified through the entire line. I tried to convince Justin to let Jackson skip the ride, but he was determined to make his son a man. Justin told Jackson to scream at any ghosts he saw on the ride and that would scare them away. We all loaded onto the elevator ride. Jackson sat between Justin and me. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. It was dead quite in our packed elevator and 4 Ghosts materialized before us. Jackson opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he could for at least 30 seconds and then the ghosts disappeared and the doors closed. Daddy's advice paid off and Jackson made it through the rest of the ride without another peep. Jackson was not interested in riding again.

I took the boys to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This was one of their favorite places. They rode down slides, played in a giant web, and crawled through little caves. Drake was so cute that one foreign couple asked if they could take a picture with him. Weird?

We got Jackson some Mickey Mouse ears which he has worn almost nonstop since. We went to the Playhouse Disney show, and rode on the new Toy Story ride, which we all loved. Jackson got to meet 2 of his favorite characters, June and Quincy from the little Einsteins show.

We stayed at Hollywood Studios all day. When it got dark the "Streets of America" lit up with over 5 million Christmas lights. It was amazing. Every few minutes they played a Christmas song and the lights would flash on and off with the rhythm of the music. Really cool.

Disney Day 3

On day 3 we went back to the Magic Kingdom. We took the kids over to Toon Town where Jackson rode and airplane roller coaster twice. Then we rode the train that goes around the park twice for Jackson's sake. We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a little much for the boys. We saw a parade and then headed back home for lunch.

After lunch we rested for a couple hours and then went back to the Magic Kingdom for the night time parade of lights and fireworks. We maneuvered around thousands of people and found a great spot from which to watch the show. We still had some time to kill so some of the adults ran over with our fast passes and rode Space Mountain. The boys really liked the parade, but the fireworks were a little too nerve racking for them at 10:00pm after a long day. After the show we rode one more kids' ride while we were waiting for the crowds to dissipate.

Drake was so exhausted.

1st Day at Disney!

2009-11-22T11:31:00.003-05:00

For those of you who didn't know, we are in Orlando with Justin's family. We got here on Friday night, had a rough night of little sleep with the boys, and then got up early yesterday morning for our first day at Disney World. We started at the Magic Kingdom. The boys had a great time riding the rides and seeing the shows. Later in the afternoon I took Drake to a little play area called Pooh's Corner and he was so tired that all he wanted to do was sit in a little chair in Pooh's tree house. He sat there for 10 minutes and then we put him in his stroller and he took a nap. Though Jackson was dead tired, he stayed up all day and had a blast exploring the Magic Kingdom with his cousins.

Today we are taking a break, but we will be back at it tomorrow when we will hit up Hollywood Studios! We are so grateful to Justin's parents for putting this trip together and to the Browns who are letting us stay in their vacation house. You guys rock!

Saturday Night Fever!

2009-11-16T12:34:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday night Justin and I went to a disco party to celebrate Andy and Esther's birthdays. It was at Mike Baughs' warehouse. Jess did a great job with the decorations! No admittance was allowed unless you were dressed to impress. So, of course I went all out. Most people wore wigs, but I was sporting an all natural fro. Justin was stylin' with his friendly mutton chops. If there had been a competition for best hair, we totally would have won.

There were about 30 people there and everyone was disco ready. Here are pics of all the ladies and all the fellas.

Several people sat on the side lines, but the rest of us weren't afraid to get our groove on. Ryan did some handstand splits during the YMCA and ended up with a nice tear in the crotch of his pants. He didn't let that stop him though. I don't think Blossom sat down once the entire night. That girl knows how to get funky! Rachel and Jess were rockin' out in there hot go-go boots. Nicole and Jonny made it to the dance floor a few time, when the music tickled their fancy. Chris and Justin remained passive observers most of the night, freezing their aces off while the rest of us worked up a sweat.

Happy belated birthday to Esther! Happy birthday today to Andy! Thanks to the Baughs for providing the location. Thanks to Jess for pulling it all together. Thanks to Justin for helping me create my fro. And thanks to Grandma Cersey for watching the boys while we partied. We had a blast!

?

2009-11-16T11:57:00.002-05:00

I left Justin home with the boys the other night and this is what happened while I was gone. Normal?

Personally, I think my boys look better without any facial alterations.

Girls' Night

2009-11-12T12:29:00.004-05:00

Once a week Nicole invites a few of her friends over for a girls' night. Most of the time we just watch TV or play games, but sometimes we get a little crazy (see bottom left picture).

Its nice to have a night to ourselves where we can have mature social interactions. Thanks for hosting us every week Nicole! Today, Drake decided that he was big enough to sit at the table like everyone else. He perched himself in this chair and refused to get down. Jackson and Drake enjoyed their PB&J's like big boys this afternoon.

Partay!

2009-11-08T10:51:00.003-05:00

So, people like to make fun of me because I like to celebrate my birth-week instead of just my birth-day, but the joke is on them because they indulge me on this. On Tuesday we went to Macaroni Grill, on Wednesday we had a girls' night (we do this almost every week so it wasn't explicitly for my b-week), and then on Friday night we had a partay! On Wed. Nicole taught us a card game called Nerts, which I suck at. Not only is it one more game that Nicole kicks my trash at, but now I have a new rival in Jessica, my sis-in-law, who also kicked my trash. We stayed at Nicole's until 4:00am. Not the smartest thing.
On Friday we had the partay at our house. Ryan and Brindi brought over their huge honkin grill of awesomeness and the guys cooked meat on it. Sweet. Justin made me a cake (admire its beauty below). I wafted the candles out with a notebook so as not to spit on my cake (a pet peeve of Justin's). I'm not great with pictures so, there isn't any real evidence that people actually came to my partay except for Brindi in the corner of one pic below. People that showed (just take my word for it): Jessica, Nicole, Brindi, Ryan, Thayne, Rachel, Nicole, my Dad, Darron, LuAnne, Chris, and Carey. We played games and then around midnight we busted out the old home videos. Chris, Carey, Justin, and I stayed up until 4:00 watching that crap. Good times.

So this post is not entirely selfish here are some recent pictures of the boys. They seem to have switched attitudes. Jackson can't stop scowling and Drake is generally content to do his own thing. Look at the little guy loading a water bottle full of Crayons. He only ate one that I know of. It appears that Jackson is learning too many bad habits from his mom.

My Last Year in My 20's

2009-11-04T19:54:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I decided I wanted to go to the Macaroni Grill for dinner, but I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to pay for my dinner and I didn't want to pay for it either. So, I called and asked the manager if he would give the birthday girl a free entree if she brought in more than 10 people. To my surprise they agreed. I also had a coupon for a free appetizer. All in all it was a sweet deal for me, but the waiter refused to give me birthday cake and sing to me and I swear they put a laxative in my food. Oh well. I guess even the birthday girl can't have everything. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with me! Everyone made it in the picture below except for poor Boston who is behind my mom.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T11:26:00.010-05:00

We had a lot of fun things going on this October. First we went to Grandma Cersey's annual Halloween party. Grandma goes all out to throw the best party imaginable. There was a haunted house, pumpkin decorating, spooky gingerbread house decorating, face painting, a huge inflatable bouncing house, a doughnut eating contest, limbo, costumes and photo shoots, tasty lunch and dinner, and lots of Halloween treats. Did I forget anything? We had a blast, as usual. Thanks Grandma! Below are some pictures of the haunted house. Justin was hiding in the bathtub that was made to look like a coffin. I should have won the "eat a doughnut off a string without using your hands" contest. Justin must have cheated because I was beating him the whole time. On the Thursday before Halloween we went to Randy's Pumpkin Patch, another annual tradition. Brindi and Aiden joined us there and we took a lot of pictures.

Jackson and Drake liked roaming around and looking at all the pumpkins and decorations. Jackson and Aiden went into the bunny petting zoo, where they tortured the small creatures with there loving tight squeezes.

On Friday we went to our church's Trunk-or-Treat activity. Justin, Drake, and I were the Rubbles (Barney, Bamm-Bamm, and Betty) and the Woods were the Flintstones (Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles). Jackson was a Ninja, but he was running around with Grandma and his friends the whole time, and I am sad to say we never got a picture of him. Grandma Cersey was Cruella DeVille and Megan and Alexis were 2 of her dalmatian puppies. They won best costume for obvious reasons.

On Hallween day we ventured out to our local Publix. Why? Because they have Halloween activities for the kids of course. Jackson fell asleep on the way. He was a dinosaur this time. We met Carey, Boston, Nicole, Jonny, Maggie, Jess, Andy, Megan, and Lex there. The grocery store is a happening place on Halloween. The kids decorated cookies and pumpkins, and played bean bag and ring toss games.

I wasn't going to dress up on Halloween, but after Justin told me that I always look unhappy and angry, I decided to be happy and optimistic for Halloween. I wore a pink shirt and pearls because thats what happy people wear. I accidently broke character a few times, and when I acted the part I over did it a little and it got annoying, but it was a nice little exercise. After Publix, we went to Grandma Pearson's house and had dinner. Then we suited up again and headed out to do some good old fashioned trick-or-treating. Grandpa Pearson went out with us while Grandma stayed home to pass out candy. Jackson decided to be a Ninja again, and Drake changed into a dragon, a fitting costume I think. The dragon costume was a little small, but Drake didn't seem to mind. Drake tried to walk into a few houses at first, but he caught on fast with his big brother showing him the ropes. While we were out we bumped into Grandma and Grandpa Cersey as well as the Dollars and the Baughs, so we tagged along with them for awhile. It was a rainy cold night, so we didn't last too long, but it was fun while it lasted.

We had a great October and we hope you did too!

Earning His Keep and Bones

2009-09-30T13:58:00.005-04:00

A few months ago Jackson got a modeling job. It was funny because we never intended to get him into modeling. I mentioned to my agent one day that I had 2 sons and she told me to send her pictures of the boys just in case any jobs came up for mothers and children. So I did, and within an hour my agent had called me back to tell me that Jackson had gotten a job! The client didn't even want me, they only wanted Jackson! The job was for a company that manufactures shirts and then sells them to retailers, so you won't be seeing him in any ads, but he worked for about an hour and got paid $440! His check came in the mail yesterday.

Now we are considering getting Jackson into more modeling/acting stuff. Luckily his mom has some connections. We are going to try and save his money for him, but unfortunately, we are struggling financially like everyone else (hence the ads on the right side of the page, go ahead and click on them, you know you want to Ryan). So we might have to borrow Jackson's money so that we can buy groceries. It's not too terrible to take your 3 year old's money, is it? I mean, he's gotta earn his keep, right?

Last week we noticed a dog on our back porch sadly staring at us through the window. Though I don't really like dogs, this one looked terribly skinny and scared, so I did what anyone with a heart would do, and I fed it. Of course the dog keeps coming back and I continue to feed him or her. He (or she) looks like an Italian greyhound, so someone probably paid good money for him. He is wearing a collar with no tag on it, so he must just be lost. He won't let us get close to him and he runs really fast, so we can't catch him. I think he has been abused, because he is terrified of people. My plan is to try and warm him up to us and then take him to the vet. We named him (or her) Bones.

Its kind of nice having a dog that requires so little attention. If only having a pet were always this easy.

The Boys

2009-09-21T18:42:00.007-04:00

I was looking through my recent posts and much to my dismay, there is not much mention of our boys. So here is a post just for them.

You may have seen on the news that Georgia has been one of the primary targets for wet weather this past week or two. Well, luckily we have not washed away yet, but Jackson has been disappointed he hasn't been able to go outside and play much recently. So this evening we threw caution to the wind and let him go out in the rain and thunder (there was only a slight chance of electrocution by lightening). He thought it was great...for a few minutes. He jumped in puddles on the street and then ran around to the back of the house where he proceeded to jump in the pool of water that was our muddy backyard. Mud splashed allover his legs and that was when he called it quits. You can see the look of disgust on his face in the two pictures on the right. Jackson hates being dirty, most likely because his mom openly expresses how much she hates it when he gets dirty. I guess I've got to work on that, otherwise I might rob him of his boyhood.

Drake took his first few steps yesterday. Justin was getting tired of having a baby who was behind in reaching his developmental milestones, so he worked with Drake for about an hour last night. In the end Drake could take about six unsteady steps to the couch. Drake still prefers crawling today, and when we tried making him walk again it was as if last night's lesson never took place. He is still about at a six step maximum and he tries to sit down every few seconds. Hopefully he will have it down by Halloween so that he can go trick-or-treating.

As they get older we are definitely starting to see personality differences between our two boys. Drake loves to play with bats and balls and Jackson likes to play with rockets and trains. Drake screams when he doesn't get his way and Jackson asks nicely for things (when Jackson was too young to speak he would use sign language, something Drake refuses to pick up). Drake is a momma's boy and Jackson loves talking to everyone (he doesn't quite grasp the "don't talk to strangers" concept). The boys do have a few things in common though. They both like to wrestle their Dad, they love each other, and...

...at the end of a long day the both sleep like rocks, thank the heavens above. We love our crazy boys even despite the fact that their mom is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

White Water, Camping, Modeling

2009-08-24T11:04:00.003-04:00

Back on August 7th we dropped our kids off with some sitters and Justin and I went to White Water with some friends. It was the last Friday before school started so it was rather crowded, but we had a good time chatting while waiting in the excruciatingly long lines. Justin and I hadn't been there in at least 10 years and I remember it being a lot bigger and less gross. Either time has taken its toll on White Water, or my eyes are no longer fogged with childish whimsy. Perhaps both are true. Anyway, we went with Nicole and Jonny Wood, Nicole's sister Anna, and Rachel Shumway. The day went by quickly and so did the lining in my swimsuit bottom (for some reason I always burn holes in the butts of my swimsuits when I ride water slides). Anyway, we had a good time.

On August 14th we took Jackson camping with some friends (we left Drake with Grandma Cersey). We went with Brindi Ryan and Aiden, Nicole Jonny and Maggie, and Rachel Thayne and Jones. Now, I am not a big fan of camping. I don't really see the appeal of it, but Justin insists that I need to get used to this kind of thing since we have two boys. So, we packed up an entire SUV worth of camping gear for one night in the woods. We went to some property that Ryan's dad owns on Strom Thurmond lake. We got there around 7:30pm and it got dark faster than Justin and I could get all of our stuff set up. We cooked hot dogs over a camp fire and roasted marshmallows. After we put the kids to bed the adults played some high stakes poker (the winner got dinner at Chick-fil-a) until 3:00am in the community tent. I wasn't able to sleep at all, but the boys slept like rocks as usual. In the morning Justin and some of the others jumped off a dock into the lake a few times. I don't have pictures of that, but Brindi does. If you want you can check them out here.

I started modeling again a couple of months ago to make some extra money. So far I haven't made any money, but I have some cool new pictures. These first shots were taken by Tim Wedig and his wife, Andrea Laxton.

These next shots were taken by Rick Newby. I did 3 different looks with him and we even got the boys in some of the shots!

The D.R. Baby!!!

2009-07-30T18:13:00.008-04:00

The Views

The Food

Some pretty, some not so pretty.

The Pools

The Beach

The Eating

The Dancing

The Horseback Riding

The Speedboat Driving

More Horseback Riding

More Eating

More Fun and Relaxation

We had a great time in the D.R. with Nicole and Jonny. We were sad when it ended, but we have high hopes for many more trips with good friends in the future.

Utah Trip July 8th -14th

2009-07-15T14:26:00.000-04:00

We went out to Utah for my Great Grandmother's 100th birthday. We had a great time doing all kinds of things. The first night we were there we stayed with Uncle James in his bachelor pad. The boys love their cool Uncle James. He even let them play on his drum set! Thanks James for putting us up for a night!

Part of the time we stayed in Park City at the Westgate Resort at the Canyons. We met up with my good friend Sherri and her son, Daniel and her husband, Sam at the Alpine slide. Jackson and I rode down together. It took us a half an hour to get to the top on a ski lift and about 2 minutes to slide down. It was worth doing once. Jackson also liked riding the "buckets"/gondolas at our resort. We rode them in circles a couple of times for his enjoyment.

The boys met their Great Great Grandma Wilson who is now 100 years old and still going strong. I hope I got her longevity genes!

We hung out with my brother James and my good friend Liz, we went swimming, we went to BYU, we threw rocks in a river, we went to Squaw Peak (during the day with the boys, don't jump to conclusions). Nothing but good wholesome fun.

We went to temple square...

The guys went rock climbing. Jackson was all ready to go climbing too, but he had a little accident with Grandma Pearson and they both fell down and hurt themselves, so Jackson wasn't in the mood for climbing anymore. Justin traditionally lead climbed two different routes which he had never done before, but he did great and made it to the top of both of his climbs without any mishaps. After the boys came back down Jackson decided he was ready to climb a little, so Justin took him over to the rocks and helped him do a little climbing.

Here are some pictures that display the different personalities of our boys while traveling. As you can see Drake is a little demon and Jackson is an angel.

The boys barely slept the whole trip which means Justin and I barely slept the whole trip either. We had a good time though. Thanks to the Hursts for letting us stay with them the last 2 nights of our trip and thanks to our friends and family who took out the time to entertain us. We love you and hope to see you again soon!

Drake's 1st Birthday and Drake's 1st Haircut!

2009-06-19T23:00:00.003-04:00

Drake turned 1 on June 18th! We had a party for him on Friday, June 19th at Bay Creek Park. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate our little man's first year of life. Aunt Jessica, Uncle Andy, Megan, Alexis, Aunt Jana, Anthony, Grandma, and Grandpa Cersey were all there. Nicole and Maggie, Brindi, Ryan, and Aiden, Rachel, Thayne, Jones, and Lacey, Danielle, Andy, Brooklyn, and London, Carey, Chris, and Boston were all there too. We are so blessed to have so many close friends and family members nearby!

Justin had just finished his P90X, so to show off he and Thayne had a pull-up contest on the playground. Thayne did 18 pull ups and Justin did 17 and 3/4. Practically a tie, but Justin says he was able to do 19 the next day so overall he wins right? I did 1 whole pull-up and Nicole did 2, so she won as usual.

Grandma Cersey made this awesome cake. It was 3 tiers of sports balls. Drake loves balls. We think he is going to be quite the little athlete. The baseball on top was Drake's own little cake, which he made a mess of. He was hesitant at first but he got the hang of it eventually. We had to hose him down afterwords.

Thanks to those who helped out and who came to Drake's party. Thanks also for the gifts. He loves them all!

Drake had his first haircut on June 23. I cut it myself and it was no easy task. He crawled all over the tub while I chased him with the clippers. It sounds like the plot of a horror movie but it turned out well in the end. Jackson took all of these perfect pictures while I cut Drake's hair. What talented boys I have!

Justin Turns 31 - Hilton Head - Braves Game

2009-06-15T17:45:00.005-04:00

Justin turned 31 on May 31st. The night before his birthday we went to dinner with some friends at a restaurant that we like called Urban Flats. Brindi and Ryan came with baby Aiden and Nicole came with baby Maggie. Drake and I were there too, but we did not make it in the picture.

On Justin's birthday his Mom and sister, Jessica, made an amazing dinner for him. We had ziti, stuffed shells, rolls (my contribution, no one trusts me to actually cook anything of substance), salad, and corn on the cob. After dinner 31 candles were lit on Justin's brownie cake. Because Justin hates it when people blow at their candles and inevitably spit all over the cake, he used his arm to quickly waft out the candles. Typical Justin. He got a pair of white shorts from my parents (for the family photo that would be taken a few days later in Hilton Head in which we were to wear all white) and the rest of his gifts were cash, cash, and cash. He got exactly what he wanted. He used his money to buy himself a new computer.

Drake really likes corn on the cob.

On June 2nd my brother James came into town. We always love to see Uncle James. The weekend he was here we took a short trip to Hilton Head. My dad has a weekend dental retreat once a year that is fun for the whole family and this year it was in Hilton Head. No seriously, it is really fun. They give away a ton of cool prizes. This year James won a digital camera, my dad won an overnight stay at a hotel in Atlanta, and Jackson won a water gun. We spent all day Saturday at the beach. Drake didn't like the cold water much, but he loved eating the sand. Jackson wasn't thrilled about the ocean water either but he enjoyed being there with Uncle James, Dad, and Grandpa.

Saturday night we danced (actually just Jackson and Grandma danced), and ate, and hung out with the crazy drunk dentists. We all had a good time.

Here are some of the many faces of Drakes while in Hilton Head. I think he might be a little on the special side, if you know what I mean. But he is cute nevertheless.

On Monday, June 8th we went to a Braves game with a ton of friends and family. Tickets were only $1 so I bought 30 and we used them all. My cousins Erik, Brent, and Dave were their family and friends. Justin's sister, Jessica, was there with her family and her husband's sister, brother, and his wife came along. My parents and brother were there. Nicole and Maggie came and so did Chris, Carey, Boston and a couple of their friends. It was fun having such a big crowd. The Braves played the Pirates and the game ended up going into overtime. We left during the 13th inning, but we listened to the game in the car on the way home and the Braves ended up winning 7-6 in the 16th inning. Thanks Chris and Carey for telling us about the $1 tickets!

Jackson is 3!!!

2009-05-27T16:59:00.002-04:00

Jackson turns 3 today! We can hardly believe it! We had a party for him on Monday at Grandma Cersey's house. We had planned to have his party at the park, but the weather looked ominous so we changed the location last minute and of course the rain ended up holding off, but we had fun indoors anyway. We played games, broke open a pull-string Pinata, opened presents, and ate cake. I baked the cake and then decorated it with the help of Grandma Cersey. I think it turned out rather well if I do say so myself.

I had no idea what kind of activities to plan for a 3 year old's birthday party, but luckily Pretty LuLu knew how to entertain the kids. She played duck-duck-goose, Jackson Says, and an usual version of musical chairs that involved pillows and no losers. Justin and Grandma Cersey quickly came up with a "pin the nose on Thomas the train" game which was fun for the kids too.

Today we had a birthday playgroup at Chick-fil-a. Jessica, Megan and Lex came as well as Rachel, Jones and Lacey Shumway, Nicole and Maggie, Grandma Pearson, and Blossom and Arianna Weems. I am terrible at taking pictures, but here are a few shots from today.

Confessions of a Bad Mom

2009-05-18T17:58:00.004-04:00

Carey, this post's for you!

I am ready to admit that I am a terrible mom. My children have been deprived of my attention because I have been totally consumed with softball, planning summer vacations, and text messaging. Jackson is addicted to T.V. because mommy is too busy to play with him, and though Drake's first birthday is coming up he is nowhere near ready to walk because he sits in his highchair and eats all day. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't be sharing this with the world. I mean I haven't even updated my blog in over a month and my last 2 posts were about softball! My poor babies deserve better. So, I have created a new blog that is just for softball so that this blog can get back to being about my family. You can get updates on the ThunderCats here.

Drake is crawling now and getting into everything. He has also learned some sign language. He can say "more", "all finished", and he is starting to learn "milk" and "sleepy". He can pull to a standing position, but as I mentioned before he is nowhere near close to walking. He falls frequently and has the bumps and bruises to prove it.

Jackson will be turning 3 next week. He is still in diapers which is another testament to my poor mothering. I just have trouble mustering up the patience and commitment to get this kid potty trained. I know, I know I am a sad case, but just you wait and see how bad it sucks when its time to potty train your kid!

Shoot! Justin just got home and I've got to go do stuff before he starts complaining.

Still Hot and Still Losers

2009-04-17T12:01:00.002-04:00

Well, last night was a sad night for the ThunderCats. We played the Switchbacks and as I mentioned before, they are a pretty good team. Their pitcher is a giant that looks like he carries baseballs around in his cheeks. Bottom line is we lost 2-17. Yes, we lost by 15 points. The game was called halfway through because of some mercy rule. We knew that there was no chance for us, but we were upset that they wouldn't even let us continue playing. After all, we all paid to play. So instead of winning, our new goal is to simply keep the score close enough so that we can actually finish out our hour of playtime. That might be difficult for us next week because we are playing the Misfits and they have the reputation of being the best team in the league. Our game next week is at 9:30pm. Come out and support us so that we know we are still loved even though we lose. We will try to put on a good show that hopefully will last a whole hour.

The Hot Losers

2009-04-14T12:48:00.002-04:00

On Thursday the 9th Team ThunderCats played our first game. We played against a team called Oyster Barn, and if your immediate thoughts run to gelatinous slugs that have little to no skills at all let alone softball skills then you would be accurately picturing this team. So imagine our surprise when we lost to them 4-7. We were all very nervous, so our skills were slightly impaired, but that really is a lame excuse for losing to this team. Balls were dropped, missed, and fumbled. Throws were wild, inaccurate, and short. Our batting was pitiful to say the least. However, in the last inning we started to get better. The score had been 1-7 until our last time up to bat. Still, we weren't good enough. Well, at least this week we will be rightfully slaughtered. We are playing the Switchbacks and they actually do have some serious skills. Come out to witness our demise for yourself Thursday at 7:30 at Bethesda Park, field #10. At least we look good, right?

Easter Fun

2009-04-14T11:39:00.005-04:00

Justin, the kids, and I actually took part in a fair share of Easter activities this year. Usually Justin and I are a little bit scrooge-ish, but this year we actually got into the spirit a little. We dyed Easter eggs with Jackson. We actually kind of enjoyed it.

On Saturday, the 4th we went to the Waisath's for the year's first Easter egg hunt. Jackson actually found eggs on his own this year. Drake was content with one. While at the Waisath's Jackson and Justin participated in an egg toss, and an egg cracking contest, and we had an awesome lunch. Then we rushed home for conference. Thanks Liz and Boyd for a great morning!

On Easter morning we gave the boys their Easter baskets. Jackson lined up all of his basket's contents in a straight line as he got them out. Like father, like son. However, Jackson then proceeded to throw Easter grass all over Drake. This is where his behavior began to mirror me more. Then we got the boys ready for church in their cute little Easter outfits.

After church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Cersey's house for dinner and more Easter festivities. All of the cousins, Aunts, and Uncles were there. Grandma Cersey's sisters were in town and Grandma and Grandpa Pearson also showed up as well. It was a full house. We ate, dyed Easter eggs, and had another Easter egg hunt. Grandma and Grandpa Pearson fell asleep amongst all of the hubbub.

Rained Out!

2009-04-02T14:25:00.002-04:00

Well friends, the ThunderCats' first game has been canceled due to the never-ending rain. I know that all of you were anxiously awaiting this day so that you could come out to support us, but you will just have to hold out until next week. Sorry to ruin your evening, but don't you worry. You will get to see the fury of the ThunderCats in action soon.

What's Shakin'?

2009-03-26T10:32:00.008-04:00

So much has happened these last few weeks! Where to begin? Well, Drake started crawling on March 11. I have a video of it, but it is too big to put on the blog, so unless Justin wants to work on that you won't be seeing it. For Drake's sake, I am really glad that he is mobile. He is much happier now that he can get around by himself, but for my sake it sucks! You would think that our house would already be baby proofed since we have the 2 year old, but that would be a false assumption. As a matter of fact, I think it is worse because we have the 2 year old because he leaves little toys and things lying around that are the perfect size for choking babies. And of course Drake is only interested in the things that he shouldn't be playing with like Justin's weights.

Speaking of weights, Justin and I started a work out program called P90X. Maybe you have heard of it. It is a crazy, intense, 90 day program that takes at least one hour a day, 6 days a week. We took "before" pictures, but I will only post them at the end of the program if the "after" pictures are super hot because of our drastic improvements. If I post them now we run the risk of embarrassing ourselves for no reason at all.

And, as if the P90X workout wasn't enough, Justin and I also joined a co-ed softball team. I know you are thinking, "Wow! You guys are so awesome! How can I be more like you?". Well, the answer is you can't so don't even try. No, actually I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of us drop dead from sheer exhaustion in the next few weeks. Anyway, our teammates are Nicole Wood (the team manager), Chris Fox (the team coach), Carey Fox, Brindi and Ryan Horsley, Jana and Ta Thanasack, Jesse Kipper, and his brother Douglas Kipper, and Rachel Keanum. Our first game is at 9:30pm on Thursday, April 2nd at Bethesda Park on field #10 for those of you who want to come and see us work our magic (magic = lose horribly). Go ThunderCats!

Let's see, what else has happened? Oh, Drake's 9 month stats. Drake is now nine months old and he had his check-up last week. At his appointment he was 30 inches long (92%), 21 lbs. 3.3 oz. (60%), and his head was 18.2 inches (75%). I don't really know what to make of those percentile rankings. When Jackson was 9 months old he was 29.9 inches long (88%), 21 lbs. 8 oz. (59%), and his head was 18.1 inches (64%). Their measurements seem awfully similar, but some of their rankings vary rather significantly, don't you think? Whatever, I am probably just an idiot.

Finally, my mom (Grandma Pearson) had surgery this week but she is recovering very quickly. The boys and I have been over there helping her out the past few days. She should be back to her normal self sometime next week.

What the Snow?!

2009-03-02T10:29:00.004-05:00

So, we were having pleasant weather last week. Temperatures in upper 50's even in the high 60's on Thursday. Then, out of nowhere (nowhere technically being the northwest) we get a snow storm yesterday. It was almost comparable to a mild Utah snow storm, almost. The snow started coming down at noon and didn't stop until around 7:00 last night. We only had sacrament yesterday because of the weather. Yes, Georgians are pansies when it comes to snow, but in our defense we aren't prepared to clear the roads in this type of situation. So, here are some pictures that were taken not too long after the downpour started yesterday.

After Church we went over to Grandpa and Grandma Cersey's house where Jackson played in the snow on the back porch. Later in the evening Grandma pulled him around in a sled. Jackson loves the snow.

We didn't have any snow clothes for Drake, but we let him touch some snow and watch Jackson play in it. Drake got so excited that he threw-up.

Today the sun is out and the snow is melting, but I got this picture of the house before it is all gone. It is suppose to be back into the upper 60's and even the 70's by Friday. Kind of crazy huh? We enjoyed our day in the snow, but we are ready for things to get back to normal.

The Circus and Crazy Weather

2009-02-25T14:24:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday (Feb. 21) we took the kids to the Circus downtown at Philips Arena. We took Marta again since it was such a hit the week before. Jackson was entertained for all of about 10 minutes and then he started saying "It's time to go home." Drake sat with his Grandma Cersey and from what I hear he had a great time.

We were joined by Jessica, Andy, Megan and Alexis, Jana, Ta, and Anthony, Grandma Cersey, Brindi, Ryan, and Aiden, Thayne, Jones, and Lacey, Danielle, Andy, Brooklyn, and London.

The clown parts were pretty boring, and the animals were kind of a bust since the dogs failed to catch a lot of their frisbees, the tigers looked depressed and failed to do as they were instructed, and the elephants pooed all over themselves. But there were a few entertaining parts like the 7 motorcycles speeding around in the same cage. A few of the little guys slept through most of the show, but I think for the most part we all had a good time.

A week ago Jackson, Drake and I were reading on the couch when Grandma Cersey called to tell us a big storm was on its way and that we should turn on the news. When I turned on the TV it was evident that we were about to get hammered not only by thunder, lightning, and hail, but possibly by a tornado. There were Tornado warnings for our area all over the news and the radar indicated that the eye of one of the storms was headed right for us. Now, we get these kind of storms here in Georgia several times a year and normally I just go about my business and ignore the storm outside, but this time I'll admit I was a little nervous. Justin hadn't gotten home from work yet. He was on his way home, which was worrisome, but he was actually driving behind the storm so he was fine. So, I prepared for the onslaught by running upstairs and getting the mattress off of Jackson's bed. I set up camp for the boys in a little niche in the center of our house on the main floor with the mattress propped up to shield us from any potential flying debris (we would have been in the downstairs bathtub but on the news they said to avoid the west side of your house since that was the direction the tornadoes were likely to come from). The hail started to beat down on our house and it was so loud that I could have sworn that all of our windows were braking. The thunder, lighting, and hail crashed down on us for a good 10 minutes or so. Jackson was upset, but we said a prayer and that calmed him down. It turned out that there were no tornadoes in our immediate area (there were tornadoes in other counties that did a lot of damage) and the hail only broke some of our outdoor lights, which is surprising considering the size of the ice (Justin is holding a few pieces of it in the picture below).
The next day my mother asked Jackson about the storm and he told her about the loud banging and said that he had been scared. She responded by saying "but you were OK because your mommy was there to protect you" and he said, "No Grandma we said a prayer and Jesus protected me." Is that not the sweetest thing ever? I wouldn't be surprised if the faith of my baby boy saved the whole city from death and destruction.

Valentine's Day On the Town!

2009-02-20T10:38:00.007-05:00

On Valentine's day last Saturday we decided to hit the town. I had promised Jackson that he was going to get to ride a train that day thinking that we would go to Stone Mountain to do this, but it turned out that the train at Stone Mountain was closed. So, we had to think fast. We decided to ride Marta instead, Atlanta's own beloved transit system. I think that Jackson considered it an acceptable substitute, after all taking Marta isn't just a train ride, it is also a one of a kind experience. My parents and my cousin, Darron and his Wife, LuAnne joined us on our excursion.

When we got downtown we were all hungry so we went into the CNN center for lunch. As soon as we entered we were crowded amongst thousands of prepubescent, scantily clad, make-up doused cheerleaders. Apparently there was some national cheer leading competition going on at the nearby Georgia Dome. The men were quite content in this new setting, but I was appalled by it for several reasons. First, it saddened me to see so many young girls trying to mature so quickly beyond their young years. Second, I was distraught by the fact that some of these girls considered themselves fit enough to wear such skimpy uniforms as they scarfed down buckets of fries, inhaled grease soaked pizza, and gulped down gallon sized cups of Coke (not diet). And third, I was mad because I didn't make the cheerleading squad in middle school and my residual shame comes hurtling out in the form of anger and disgust whenever I come in contact with young peppy cheerleaders. You stole my dream! But I digress. Since the females of our group were the ones carrying the cameras we conveniently forgot to get pictures of this distressing scene.
After lunch we walked in the bitter cold through Centennial Olympic Park to the World of Coca Cola. We had a good time there even though it was a little crowded (some of the cheerleaders followed us there). The boys enjoyed riding in their stroller through the exhibits (side note about the stroller: This ugly piece of hud was generously given to us by Carey Fox. Carey I really do appreciate you giving this to us even though it is the funkiest looking stroller I have ever seen. It has come in handy on many occasions. Honestly, thank you!) We got our picture taken with the Coca-Cola polar bear and tasted a lot of Coke's soda flavors from around the world. Drake fell asleep, and Jackson spilled coke all over himself and Drake. What could be better?!

The adults had fun too. I ended up staying close to my favorite soda dispenser, Tab. My dad even bought me a hat so that I could emblazon my drink preference. LuAnne bought a hat too. We almost lost Darron once. He said that he was going to the bathroom, but we all know that he was trying to find a secret place to "wheeze the juice". We were all happy to see him again when some coke employees managed to find him and escort him back to the tourist area of the museum.

After leaving the World of Coca-Cola we made our way back through the park. Some of us, namely LuAnne and myself, were a little inebriated after drinking all of that coke and we began to act a little crazy as you can see in the pictures below. I was jumping off everything I could and LuAnne was fascinated with walking in slow motion. Eventually our sugar high wore off and we joined the rest of the family back in reality. We all had a really fun time. I would not have preferred to spend my Valentine's day any other way.

Love you all!

Potty Party!

2009-02-03T15:53:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday evening we had a Potty Party for Jackson. Now, you may be saying to yourself "what is a Potty Party?". Well, that is a very good question. It is a question that we did not have a good answer for on Saturday and I can probably only feebly answer today, but I will give it a shot.

Years ago in anticipation of the potty training days Justin bought a book called "Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day". We all know how anal Justin is (pun intended) so it didn't seem unusual to me that he wanted to get a head start on learning the ins and outs (pun intended) of potty training. Well, as it turns out, neither of us ended up reading the book, but I skimmed through it once and thought that I got the gist of it. What I learned from my skimming was that we needed to have a Potty Party. Never mind the details of what a Potty Party consists of, I thought we could just wing it. We set the day for Saturday and invited the Grandparents. Saturday rolled around and we opened the book just to see what preparations we needed to make. Well, it turns out there is a lot more to it than can take place in one day, so I created my own version of the Potty party, which in the end has actually turned out to be quite successful.

I decorated the kitchen and the bathroom. We sort of had a Spiderman theme. When the grandparents arrived we opened gifts. Grandma Cersey brought a gift and then I had a special gift prepared. In our gift to Jackson was what I like to call the Potty Puppy (picture below), some big boy underwear, a calendar, and some stickers. After opening presents he decorated what we call the Potty Box (pictures also below). Then we had cookie cake. After eating I told Jackson that his Potty Puppy needed to go potty so we went to the decorated bathroom, which he was excited about. We set the Potty Puppy on the potty and waited, but the puppy wasn't able to go because he didn't know how, so we asked Jackson to show the puppy how to use the potty. To our amazement Jackson actually did poop on the potty! Then of course he expected the puppy to know how to do it, so we placed the puppy back on the potty and I sneakily dropped some Raisinets in the toilet. He totally bought it. He may never look at Raisinets the same way again, but I think it is worth it. Anyway, then we placed a sticker on his potty calendar to display his success, and he got to pick a treat out of the potty box. We have larger and more fun toys in the bottom of the box for poopoo treats (trains, whistles, bouncy balls, candy, etc.) and smaller treats in the top portion of the box for peepee treats (candy and stickers).

So far the whole con is still working. Jackson asks to go to the potty all the time and we always take the Potty Puppy (the puppy doesn't have to go potty unless Jackson needs some coercing), and he always gets rewarded afterward. Of course, he has still peed in his diaper quite a bit, but he has placed all his #2s in the toilet since Saturday. I am so surprised and happy that this has worked. I guess I should keep my fingers crossed so that it continues working.

Obviously, Jackson doesn't know the correct way to wear his big boy underwear yet, but we'll get there. Drake on the other hand is sadly too young to potty train. You can see the result of his most recent bowel movement below. At least his shirt was appropriate for the occasion.

Sick

2009-01-17T20:29:00.002-05:00

So, I spoke too soon yesterday when I said I was the only one who hasn't been sick. I am now sick like everyone else. No one gets excluded in this family.

The Many Faces of Drake

2009-01-16T10:09:00.003-05:00

Our baby boy is growing up so fast. Drake has so many expressions sometimes he looks like an entirely different baby. Luckily, most of his expressions are happy ones. He loves to eat, only last night when the first two pictures in the collage were taken he was not very happy because he is teething, so he didn't enjoy his dinner like he usually does. He also loves attention. If someone's eyes are not on him then he will shout or cry until he has your undivided attention.

It is obvious that he is ready to get up and move around with his brother, but much to his frustration his legs just aren't on the same time table as his mind. His legs are constantly moving, but not in a way that helps him crawl or walk. As the matter of fact, the only thing he has mastered is fervently kicking whomever is closest to him.

He is sleeping through the night most of the time now, which is so freakin' awesome!

Jackson, Drake, Justin, and pretty much everyone in our extended family have been passing a cold/flu-like illness around. I have been fortunate enough to avoid this family plague, but everyone else has been knocked on their butts by it. Other than that, we are all doing well. Oh, but if anyone knows of a well paying .net computer programming job let us know. Justin still has his job for now, but, like most businesses, things are not looking all that good at his company these days.

And A Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T12:53:00.004-05:00

We spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Grandma and Grandpa Cersey's house. We played a lot of Wii Playground and ate a lot of food. I am sure I gained a couple of pounds in the past month. Anyway, it has been fun spending the holidays with family.

Jackson had a fever on Sunday, and on Tuesday he broke out in little red spots all over his body. The picture of him below was taken today, and the spots have faded somewhat but you can still see them a little bit on his cheek. I called his pediatrician and the nurse said that it sounded like he has Roseola which is a highly contagious virus that affects children between the ages of 3 months and 3 years. It is not a serious illness and Jackson's didn't seem bothered by it much until yesterday (New Year's Day). Yesterday he was like the living dead. He laid around all day and threw up 4 times. He couldn't seem to keep anything in his stomach. He slept more than I've seen him sleep since he was a baby. It was so sad to see him so sick, but he seems to be doing much better today. He is coughing quite a bit now, but he hasn't thrown up yet and he is playing with toys and speaking coherently again, so I think he's on the mend. We hope your New Year holiday was better than Jackson's.

Happy New Year everyone!

A Very Cersey Christmas

2008-12-31T12:24:00.004-05:00

Before I summarize our Christmas festivities let me just say that I am terrible at remembering to take pictures, so there aren't many good shots of us here. Please don't deem us as boring and not festive based on these pictures. Consider us boring and not festive because I admit it is the truth. Shortly after Thanksgiving (no, I didn't take any Thanksgiving pictures. I'm terrible.) we started getting our Christmas decorations out which really is just our fake pre-lit tree and its ornaments. I don't get into holiday decorating much. Anyway, we had a good time as a family decorating the tree and listening to holiday music.

On December 13th we went to our nieces' Christmas performance and afterwords Santa showed up. Jackson was in such a hurry to see him that he beat us to his lap and we weren't able to get a picture of it, but Justin, Drake, and I all got shots with Santa.

On Christmas Eve we went to Justin's sister, Jennifer's house in the afternoon to spend time with his whole family, and then to my parents' house for dinner. My mom made meatloaf for Christmas Eve dinner. She tried to make it look festive, but in my opinion it just ended up looking... well you can see for yourself.

On Christmas morning we opened presents at our house. Justin and I don't spend too much on gifts because the kids are still too young to know the difference and we know that both sets of Grandparents will spoil them rotten anyway.

Then we went to my parents' house. We ate a nice breakfast, opened stockings, and then presents. Jackson got a V-Motion, clothes, and more train stuff. Drake got clothes and some fun baby toys. Noonch the cat got a Mrs. Claus hat.

Later we headed down the street to Grandma and Grandpa Cersey's house. All of Justin's sisters and their families were there. Jackson loved playing with his cousins just as much as he loved opening more presents. Both boys got more clothes and toys. Jackson got his favorite movie, Polar Express and a basketball hoop. Justin and I both got new cell phones (our numbers are the same), and I got an awesome feather comforter which is my new favorite thing!

We had a great Christmas. We hope you did too!

Update on the Boys

2008-11-26T11:58:00.003-05:00

I never posted Drake's 4 month stats, so I'll go ahead and do it a month late. He was 27 1/4 inches long (97%), 16 lbs 12 oz. (79%), and his head was 17 inches around (68%). He is following in the footsteps of his older brother who had almost exactly the same measurements at 4 months old.

The boys are both doing great. Drake cut his first tooth a couple of days ago. Jackson's new favorite phrase is "I can't" which, after each utterance, I quickly instruct him to never say again. Drake is once again waking up multiple times each night, but we still hope to break the habit soon.

In the picture below Drake had spit-up and then immediately plunged face first into it.

In this picture of Jackson you can see the friendly reminder that we need to place on Jackson's back so that Dad isn't tempted.

My Birthday Party!

2008-11-10T14:51:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday night I had an awesome birthday party. The party was at my in-law's house. They have the perfect basement for parties (thanks Mom and Dad for letting us take over your house for the night). Carey Fox made a suspicious looking, yet very tasty cake (thanks Car). Of course we had Chick-fil-a nuggets (thanks for bringing those Mom) and some other great snacks. We played my favorite games, Rock Band and Trivial Pursuit. Jill Frailey livened up the night with her amazing vocals. Ryan Horsley and I took the mic a couple of times as well. No one was all that excited about playing Trivial Pursuit except Justin and me, but they all stayed and played anyway. I think it turned out being one of those rare times when everyone is stuck playing a game that they hate, but surprisingly they end having a lot of fun anyway. All in all, there was great company and a lot of laughter. I couldn't have wished for a better party. Thanks Justin and Jess for helping to put the party together, and thank you to everyone that came. I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Family Pictures

2008-11-08T10:20:00.002-05:00

On Monday, my birthday, we had Justin's sister, Jennifer, take some family pictures for us. The boys were being a little uncooperative, but we got a few good shots. Then on Tuesday, just to cover our bases we had my mom and Justin's other sister, Jessica, take a few more pictures. They all did a great job, don't you think?

Rebuttal

2008-11-06T13:05:00.011-05:00

This is Justin's response to a comment left by Fishhead on our last post.

Let's just go through this one point at a time. But, before we start, know that some of my responses will be built on the premise that FishHead is still a good little member of the church. Although we have allowed some crafty judges to hoodwink the American people into thinking that our great constitution provides for the "separation of church and state", or the freedom FROM religion (as some would hope), I still believe that the laws of this land have their origin in morality and must continue to be molded by a proper understanding of truth and morality or this country will cease to be great and good. As members of the church, it is our responsibility to fight for morality.

Okay, that being said, let's move on to the general issue of freedom. In order to respond to your comments about specific freedoms, I think it is important to clarify a few things. First of all, this is not a "free" country, at least not by your definition of having the "ability to do whatever we want to." By definition, government infringes on our "freedom" to act. Therefore, the debate isn't really about who is going to protect our freedoms, but rather which freedoms we want protected. Second of all, I feel compelled to correct a logical fallacy that unfortunately seems to have fooled much of our country and which also seems to be the basis of some of your points. The fallacy comes from not understanding that many freedoms are mutually exclusive. Freedom is not the "right" of liberal individuals to have their way at the expense of conservatives. Often, to enact laws that provide a perceived freedom to a small group that complains loudly is to simultaneously rip a precious freedom from the hands of the silent majority. This is wrong and should not happen. People are too easily rallied by cries of "freedom", thinking that freedom is always good because it is what makes this country great. What they fail to realize is that they are not fighting for freedom but rather an exchange of freedoms.

I think I'm finally ready to address your points.

The Patriot Act
"He would be much more likely to repeal the Patriot Act than McCain, wouldn't he?" I believe this to be a true statement; however I do not believe the Patriot Act to be an unwarranted infringement upon my freedoms. If you read the constitution, you will find that one of the main responsibilities of the federal government is to "provide for the common defense" of its citizens. In order for the government to perform that duty, the citizens sacrifice certain freedoms or liberties. Much in the same way that we accept speed limits in order to have safe roads, the Patriot Act is something that we need to accept. My freedom from wiretapping isn't one of the freedoms that I am worried about preserving. Besides, unless you are involved in something sinister that I don't know about, I am pretty confident that Uncle Sam has better things to do than listen to you and your wife's phone conversations about what's for dinner. And yes, I understand that there is more to the Patriot Act than that.

The Draft
"He would be much less likely to have a military draft, wouldn't he?" Perhaps, but for me, a more important question is what kind of draft would Obama have if one became necessary. On multiple occasions, Obama has expressed that he supports requiring women to register with the Selective Service in the same way that young men are required to register when they turn 18. He also has said that he thinks women should be allowed to fight in combat. In talking about this issue, he cleverly sites freedom and equal rights for women as the underlying issue. I see it differently. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that we believed in the sanctity of women, that they are special. Why would we want to require them to register to be eligible for a draft and expose them to the brutalities of war? It is bad enough that the potential exists for our sons to be drafted. I don’t have any daughters yet, but I can tell you that I would much rather send my sons to war than any daughter that I may one day have. Protecting my unborn daughter(s) from ever being required to go to war is a freedom for which I believe it is worth fighting.

Gay Marriage and Abortion
"He would be much more likely to allow gay marriage and free choice regarding abortion, wouldn't he?" Can’t argue with you there. I’m sure he would and will if he gets the chance. After all, it was Obama who gave a shout out to homosexuals in his acceptance speech and, when speaking of his daughters, has been heard to say, “…if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.” I could go an all day about these two issues, but that isn’t really the point. We are talking about freedom here and these are two “freedoms” that fly in the face of the freedoms of so many other people. In short, legitimizing gay marriage would destroy my freedom to raise my children in this country without having them bombarded with the idea that homosexuality is perfectly acceptable. I think that if gay marriage is legalized, over time you will see a dramatic shift in the popular media of this country (and the schools for that matter) that will subconsciously, if not consciously, convince children that homosexuality is merely a matter of choice (or worse, a matter of birth) and not a matter of morality. The older I get, the more I recognize the effects of all the TV I watched as a kid. My subconscious is filled with ideas that I do not believe. From time-to-time they pop up and I am surprised by how my thoughts contradict my deeply held beliefs. As an adult, I have watched again some of the shows of my childhood and recognized how certain thoughts found their way into my subconscious. I don’t want this happening with my kids and homosexuality. As for abortion, I’m always surprised that this is even an issue. We have laws in this country that make it illegal to kill humans unless it is in the preservation of your own or another’s life. Why should abortion be any different? I’m not saying I advocate abortion in that situation, but I can accept choice in that situation. Again, which freedom do we want protected, life or choice? For me, life is the obvious choice.

Less Freedom
"How is Obama's presidency going to result in less freedom?" I think I have already answered this. It’s not really a matter of less freedom as much as which freedoms will be sacrificed. There are others of our current freedoms that are now in jeopardy under an Obama presidency, but I am getting tired of writing, Obama has already won the election and I haven’t even addressed your concerns on poverty. We’ll have to save that list for 2012.

Poverty
“How is better welfare and healthcare discouraging hard work?” Interesting question. My answer is they don’t. The current system may be a different story though. I think the key word here is “better.” I agree that poverty is a difficult issue. However, I believe that, with the exception of mental or physical disability; everyone in this country has the opportunity and ability to provide an acceptable life for themselves and their family. That is not to say that there are not millions of people that have made choices that got themselves into situations that they do not know how to overcome. Some of these choices are more condemnable than others, but they are choices all the same. My point is that I don’t have the magic solution to poverty, but I think the solution(s) have to be aimed and helping people make choices that will prevent poverty instead of focusing on throwing more and more money at the consequences of choices that have already been made. The solution has always been to take money from those who have it and give it to those who don’t, yet the problem still persists. Higher taxes and redistribution of wealth has never fixed this problem and it never will.

By the way, you shouldn’t be so cynical. Your cynicism is more a statement about you than the American people. Yes, people are always going to be more interested in their own welfare than that of others, but I think the American people are very giving. People constantly give money and time to causes they believe in. Millions of dollars are given every year by the American people to fight poverty and it is given willingly without the force of the government or the waste of bureaucracy. The thing is, this money goes to fight real poverty in other countries instead of the pansified version of poverty we have in America.

The Fair Tax
Not that you asked, but if you want a better system of providing tax money to fund government programs, the Fair Tax is the answer. Read the book. Don’t believe the rhetoric.

Kristina's sorry excuse for a proposal for the poverty crisis
First of all, I agree that the welfare, medicare, and medicaid systems need to be reformed. Here are some simple and unrefined, yet potentially plausible solutions for healthcare, unemployment, and the needs of single parents.
I am inclined to agree with Mitt Romney's idea to do away with corporate funded health insurance so that insurance companies are forced to cater to the needs of individuals instead of to big businesses. This would create more market competition hence more competitive prices. It would also force insurance agents to be nicer to their policy holders, oh happy day! Anyway, the government should help fund policies for those who cannot afford adequate healthcare. Employers should still be encouraged to contribute funds towards their employees’ healthcare.

I think that those who are unemployed and need a temporary income should be helped by a reformed welfare program that includes required attendance of motivational and skills training courses. Single parents who cannot afford childcare should be given vouchers to help them pay for it. I am not going to go into any further detail because this post is already longer than anyone will want to read anyway. This is supposed to be a friendly family blog. Perhaps Justin and I should start a new blog for our many political opinions, or perhaps we should just shut up all together since the election is over.

Good Night, and Good Luck

2008-11-04T23:53:00.005-05:00

So, tonight I am overwhelmed with disappointment. The dumb masses of our country have spoken and the entire country will pay a steep price for their ignorance. It is unfortunate that some people voted just to make history and neglected to acknowledge the issues that are the real reasons to vote. It is unfortunate that this election has brought more attention to the differences between races than it has done to eradicate them. It is unfortunate that this country is now on a road toward less freedom, the discouragement of hard work, and immorality. I do not dislike Obama as a person, but I strongly dislike the future that he has proposed for our country. I can only hope and pray that my children will be strong enough to combat the added trials that will inevitably confront them as a result of this election. God bless America, we need it now more than ever.

It has started already. I just heard gunshots outside my house. Ok, maybe they were fireworks...maybe.

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-01T20:18:00.001-04:00

Last night we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Grandma Pearson, Jess, Andy, Megan, and Lex came to trick-or-treat with us. Drake had a nice nap while the other kids collected their candy, but their was one neighbor who insisted on giving Drake his own goody bag. Jackson lasted about 30 minutes and then we went home to pass out candy. We had a good time even though a lot of our neighbors weren't home. And yes, I did let Jackson eat some candy.

At about 2:00am Halloween morning I was awakened by Jackson coughing and then vomiting all over himself and his bed. Justin and I worked together to get Jackson and his bed all cleaned up and then put him back to bed. Just as he was beginning to fall back to sleep he threw up again, so we had to repeat the process all over again. And then again, after everything was all cleaned up and he was on the verge of sleep he threw up one more time. Luckily there wasn't much left in his stomach, so it didn't take as long to clean him up the third time. We all finally got back to sleep at 4:00am. He is better now, but we won't soon forget our poor baby's puke filled night.

Trunk or Treat

2008-10-30T13:41:00.003-04:00

We had our annual Trunk or Treat last night at Church. Jackson was a gorilla, Drake was a dragon, I was Sarah Palin, and Justin was a hard working husband who took all of the pictures. Jackson was kind of a grouch last night so we didn't get too many good pictures of him. The reason Jackson was a grouch was twofold, he was tired and we wouldn't let him eat his candy. He was not allowed to eat any candy last night because he didn't eat his dinner and because mommy told him if he didn't take a nap yesterday (which he didn't hence the tiredness) he couldn't eat any candy that night. I am evil I know, but once you make a threat you have to stick with it or else you end up with a manipulative brat like I was/am. I won a prize for my awesome costume and so did Jessica and Andy (they were vampires). Towards the end of the evening we got a little crazy and started adding things to the kids' costumes. Jackson became a Republican gorilla and Drake, well... just check out the bottom right of the collage.

Cersey Halloween Party

2008-10-30T12:21:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, October 25th Grandma Cersey threw the most awesome Halloween party ever! We all had a blast and here are some pictures to prove it. Grandma and Grandpa rented a big inflatable jumper and put it in their backyard. It resembled a large dog. At first Jackson had a great time jumping with his cousins, but after a few hours all of sudden he was terrified of the jumper exclaiming "the doggy is going to eat me!" We don't know if one of the other kids put this idea in his head or if he came up with it himself out of the blue. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted.

Grandma Cersey made some awesome festive food. Not only do you never go hungry at her house, but you eat in style as well.

Grandma also made an awesome haunted house for the kids. It had eyeballs and brains to feel and candy bowl that put up a fight. Jackson was begging to go inside until he got his turn to go in and then he was begging to get out. He was most afraid of the candy bowl. Drake didn't know what to make of the whole thing. He started crying after the candy bowl tried to grab him too.

We painted pumpkins and decorated haunted gingerbread houses. I was on my own with the gingerbread house because Justin was watching the BYU game and Jackson was getting tired, but I had a good time.

Out of nowhere Jessica and I decided we wanted to get our limbo on and before we knew it the whole family got involved. We turned on some 80's tunes (fitting for Halloween I think because the 80's rendered some of the scariest music of all time) and limboed until we couldn't limbo anymore. As you can see I was really excited about it.

We had a doughnut on a string eating contest. We were not suppose to use our hands, but as you can see Jackson doesn't play by the rules.

We are a fun and crazy family. We had a great time and we hope that this becomes an annual tradition. Thanks Grandma Cersey!

To see more pictures of this event check out the Dollar's blog.

Our October, So Far

2008-10-24T16:22:00.011-04:00

Ok, I get it people. You would rather I stick to family matters instead of ranting about politics. Fine, but before I get back to the mundane let me just point you in the direction of another political article that is worth reading. It can be found here and I highly recommend reading it if you have a minute.

Alright, so a few weeks ago the boys and I went up to north Georgia with most of the Cersey side of the family. We had a great time hiking up to Anna Ruby Falls and when we got back down Grandpa bought us all popsicles which is why my tounge is blue in the picture below. We also walked around Helen for awhile, which is a cute German tourist town. To see more pictures you can visit my sister-in-law's blog. She took more pictures than I did.

Last week we went to Randy's Pumpkin Patch which had become somewhat of a yearly tradition for us thanks to Jessica and Andy (sis-in-law and her husband). We have gone almost every year since we have been married. There are a ton of pumpkins of course and a bunny petting zoo, which Jackson loves. I have put together this little slide show with pictures from our evening there. Be sure to watch to the end so you can see some of Jackson's hot dance moves.

Last Saturday we went over to Brindi and Ryan's house to carve pumpkins and eat dinner. We took the boys, but they were not interested in the festivities. Jackson watched Polar Express (his favorite movie) and Drake slept. You can see in the pictures below all of the awesome pumpkins that were carved. See if you can identify what Justin carved into our pumpkin. Some might consider it to be a little erotic, but knowing Justin I would say that it is actually quite mild.

All in all we have had a good October so far. Autumn is my favorite season. The wretched Georgia heat is behind you, and the holidays are just around the corner. Below is another slide show of our little family. Enjoy!

Here is a video of Jackson singing some songs a few weeks ago. Sorry it is so blurry.

A Plea

2008-10-06T11:21:00.010-04:00

WARNING! Strong political views ahead!

For those of you who are undecided, and to those that are easily persuaded by reason I would like to make a plea. Please do not vote for Barack Obama on November 4th. To those of you who really love and know me, this alone will be enough to sway you, but to those of you who are stubborn and need to be coerced with logic and entreaties to the heart please continue to read.

First off let me just say that I am not really a John McCain fan either, but I believe that he is better than the alternative. Therefore, I will not be tooting any horns for McCain in this plea, only presenting what I believe to be good enough reason to keep Obama out of office. Let’s start with the rational side of my argument by hitting several of the big topics.

Taxes
We all know that Obama, like most democratic nominees of the past, would raise taxes if put in office. While this may not currently concern some of you because of his promise to only raise the taxes of those making $250,000 or more a year, you are not seeing the big picture. Are you aware that many of the people that make $250,000 and more a year are small business owners? Did you know that small business owners employ 50.6 percent of the country’s private sector workforce? What do you think will happen if taxes are raised for the owners of those small businesses? You got it, they will fire employees. What will that do to the unemployment rate? Up is goes. This is just a short simple explanation, but I think it is reason enough to not support a candidate who wants to raise taxes. Personally, I think that the current tax system sucks hard and we should implement the Fair Tax.

Socialized Medicine
So the argument here is that everyone should be entitled to proper medical treatment which is all fine and good, but again the big picture is being missed. What if anyone could go to the doctor anytime they want without any financial obligations because the government foots the bill? Sounds great doesn’t it? It sure does… if you don’t consider the actual implications of this type of system. The idea is that everyone will get equal treatment, right? Well, if any and everyone can go to the doctor whenever they have even an inkling that they are the slightest bit ill you can bet your sweet bippy that they will be heading out the door to receive their free treatment for an illness that they would otherwise easily get over on their own. What do you think this will do to the number of patients any given doctor sees in a day? It will invariably increase. What do you think this increase in patients will do to the quality of care? It will go down.

Now let’s talk about the doctors. Do you think that the government will provide fair compensation for their work? Most likely the government will say “you will take what you get and you will like it!” What do you think this will do to the number of doctors in the U.S?

All you have to do to see why this is a bad idea is look at the other countries who currently have systems like this. People who need life saving surgeries end up on waiting lists that extend beyond their estimated time of survival. I know that it only seems fair that all of us should receive equal medical treatment, but I firmly believe that Barack Obama’s system will only make things worse for everyone. I know welfare isn’t perfect, but there are ways to get medical treatment.

Immorality and the Future
Let’s think about what high school was like for us 10 years ago. How many openly homosexual people did you know? How many girls did you know that had had an abortion? Probably not very many, if any. How likely do you think it would be that your children would go to school with kids that are experimenting openly with their sexuality and/or having abortions if both abortion and homosexual marriage are legalized in our country? Think about how socially acceptable homosexuality has become and then consider how much more acceptable it would be if their marriages were legalized (of course there are states in which this argument is now a moot point). We are all born with the light of Christ. We all know the difference between right and wrong. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not is our own business, but we do not need to vote to legalize immoral practices for those who have chosen poorly. Of course those of you who do not share my religious views might feel differently about this, but that is just proof that society has gotten to you. Even though I do not agree with the practice of homosexuality, I do not think that homosexual couples should be prohibited from things such as seeing each other in the hospital, but homosexual marriage is simply going against the natural order of things. I believe that everyone is entitled to use their free agency as they see fit, but I do not think that the law should make it easier for people to make immoral decisions. I do not want my children to grow up in a society that teaches them that premarital sex with either gender is perfectly acceptable, and that any fetuses that may result from that sex can be terminated without any remorse or consequence.

The War
I not only want to live in a safe country, but a safe world. Why should we abandon a war that was waged with the objective of making the world a safer place? What experience does Obama have that will help us win the War? Who cares how it began, the only option now is to end it successfully and Obama cannot do that for us.

Conspiracy Theories (slightly irrational argument ahead)
Listen, I agree that Obama is a likeable guy, but his name is BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA! People! His name just screams “I am a terrorist”! Why the crap would we vote someone into office who shares the name of one of our countries worst enemies, Sadam Hussein, and is only one letter away from sharing a name with one of the world’s most feared terrorists, Osama Bin Laden? Not to mention his known association with terrorist advocate William Ayers. Just say “No to B.O.” people!

Listen, with the exception of maybe my last section you have to admit that I have some good points. The bottom line is that the Church teaches us to be self-reliant and to be responsible for ourselves and for our families. Liberals are in favor of taking responsibility and self reliance away from the U.S. people and putting total control in the hands of the government. Obama is the most liberal senator in the senate. Some might say that makes him an extremist. I think we should keep extremists out of the White House, don't you? Please don’t take our freedoms away by putting Obama in office.

I realize that my arguments are not very detailed or thorough but I’d rather not write a book, so this will have to do. Besides, if this didn’t convince you, then you are too far gone to be helped. If I succeeded in persuading you not to vote for Obama please feel free to leave a comment. If I have failed to help you see the light, or if you thought my argument was so bad that you have definitively decided to vote for Obama then please do not leave a comment, just go and jump off a bridge. Just kidding, I still love you, but it may be in your best interest to lie to me about your vote. Please check out my anti-Obama buttons and bumper stickers. If Justin will help me, there will be a clever new shirt available soon. Thanks for reading my rant.

Weak Neck and Nursey

2008-09-25T16:15:00.013-04:00

Drake is growing so quickly! I think he is a little behind on his physical abilities development though. We had some friends over last weekend and Nicole brought her 7 week old baby, Maggie. Maggie was able to lift her head while lying on her stomach. So, I put 3 month old Drake on his stomach and he remained face down on the floor screaming and kicking until I picked him back up before he suffocated. So we have not met the "can lift head 45 degrees when laying on stomach" milestone yet, but this is surely my fault since I rarely put him on his stomach. But, in my defense, would you want to put a baby face down on the floor if he screamed bloody murder every time you did it? We have figured out the hard way that the Zantac is really helping him. We have forgotten to give him his medicine a few times and the days after we have forgotten to give it to him could definitely rank on the worst day of our lives list. This picture of me and the boys was taken at the end of one of those terrible days after we forgot to give Drake his medicine. I had not showered or changed out of my pajamas all day because I was trying to console the Dragon.

Here is Drake with his Dad chilling out on the couch after a long day.

I never did post anything about Drake's nursery. Below are some pictures of Drake's room. This was also Jackson's room when he was a baby, but I think it is more fitting for Drake because he is Asian. No, but actually I have gotten teased a lot because I wanted a black and red oriental themed nursery for my babies, but it was really a practical choice because all of the furniture is reusable for a more "grown-up" themed bedroom. Anyway, there are quite a few dragons featured in the room so it is more fitting for Drake (name derived from Draco meaning dragon).

New Pictures

2008-09-14T20:23:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures that were taken this week. Our boys are pretty cute, don't you think?

Bigger and Happier

2008-09-06T13:41:00.007-04:00

Drake is getting bigger and happier. We took him in for his 2 month appointment on Aug. 22 and he weighed 13 lbs. 6.8 oz (78%), and was 24 inches long (77%). He is a little bit bigger than Jackson was at his 2 month appointment. The doctor made some recommendations on how to help relieve Drake's fussiness. One was for me to stop eating dairy for a week which I did and it seemed to relieve some of his gas, so I guess I'll continue to limit my dairy. She also recommended trying him on Zantac because he seems to have a reflux problem. He has been on Zantac for 5 days now and the past couple of days he seems to have been much happier. He is smiling a lot more. He still cries when he wants attention and when he wants to be held, which is often, but at least the majority of the pain seems to have gone away. Justin and I have been branching out and spending time with new friends. We have spent a lot of time with Ryan and Brindi Horsley the past few weeks. Above are some pictures from the Braves game we went to last week. We also got some new games for the Wii, so we have been having Wii parties lately too. It has been really nice to have some adult interactions. Thanks Brindi and Ryan for saving us from insanity, and thanks Grandma and Grandpa Cersey for watching the boys and letting us use your house for our Wii parties!

The Last 3 Weeks

2008-08-21T16:44:00.003-04:00

So it has been a while since I last posted. In that time some of the things we have done were went to Six Flags, blessed Drake, and went to Chuckie Cheese's. Jackson loved Six Flags because there was an area called Thomas Land. Jackson rode the Thomas train but was actually kind of bored with it because it went in 2 small circles very slowly, but he loved the Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster roller coaster. He is probably one of the few 2 year olds that is tall enough to ride that ride. Drake and mom didn't have quite as much fun as everyone else (we went with Justin's family). Someone please remind me not to go to any theme parks next time my new baby is only a few weeks old and it is 100 degrees outside.

Here is Jackson on Thomas the Train

We blessed Drake on Sunday, August 3rd. Justin gave him a great blessing and little Drake was surprisingly calm through it. Below is a picture of Drake with all of the guys in the blessing circle. From left to right: Max Bowens (2nd counselor in the Bishopric), Grandpa Pearson, Darron (my cousin), Justin holding Drake, Grandpa Cersey,Uncle Albert, and Uncle Andy. Last Saturday we took the boys to Chuckie Cheese's. It was really crowded but Jackson had a good time. Coincidentally, we saw Jackson and Drake's cousin Ellie there. She was there for a birthday party but was nice enough to take Jackson by the hand and play some games with him. Here is a picture of Jackson riding a Barney ride. Drake is growing every day. He is still sleeping quite a bit but his wakeful hours are definitely lengthening and most of that time he spends crying. I wish that I could say that he is a happy baby, but unfortunately it just isn't the case. He seems to be uncomfortable most of the time and we still haven't quite figured out the cause of his pain although most of the time we think it is probably gas. Those rare moments that we catch him smiling are precious. We love our new little boy, but we will be lucky if we are able to keep our hair until the end of his infancy. Here are some pictures of the little Dragon.

Boys' Stats

2008-07-28T12:35:00.005-04:00

Jackson had his two year old check-up back in the beginning of June and I forgot to post his latest stats. He weighed in at 29lbs, 3.4 oz (63%) and he was 37.4 inches tall (97%). So, his growth hasn't slowed down much despite his obstinate eating habits. Jackson is talking like crazy. We can understand what he is saying about 90% of the time, and his sentences are remarkably well formed. I am never sure if my believing he is really smart is because I am a bias mother, or if he is actually learning faster than other kids his age. Regardless, we are very proud of him. Drake had his 1 month check-up last week. He is perfectly healthy and right on track with his growth. He weighed 10 lbs, 13 oz (69%) and was 22 inches long (59%). He eats constantly, the complete opposite of Jackson, so I won't be surprised if his weight sky rockets by his next appointment. He still isn't letting mom get much sleep at night, but hopefully that will change soon. He has a swing that he seems to like most of the time, but sometimes only the arms of mom or dad will sooth him (like right now).

Pictures for Grandma

2008-07-21T19:16:00.003-04:00

Grandma Cersey is out of town and would like to see new pictures of baby Drake, so here they are. He looks like his Dad in pretty much every picture we take. He has his one month check-up tomorrow so we will see if he is going to be big like his brother. Speaking of Jackson, he is such a good boy. He loves his new little brother and has been so patient with mom. He calls Drake "Double D". Anyway, here are some pictures that were taken in the past 2 days.

Look at my cute boys both smiling with their eyes closed.

Drake already has a great left hook.

Our sleepy little man taking a nap after an evening by the pool.

1 Month Old

2008-07-17T17:50:00.008-04:00

We are starting to adjust to life with our new little guy here. Drake is gaining weight rapidly. Justin weighed him several days ago and he is already over 10 lbs. He had gained 3 lbs in less than a month! That is a lot, isn't it? He is still waking up every 3 hours or so to eat which is still tough on us at night, but I suppose I am sort of getting used to it. Justin could sleep through an earthquake, so it doesn't bother him too much.

Drake likes to be held often which is starting to bother Jackson. For the first time Jackson is asking to be held. Luckily Jackson loves his new baby brother. He asks to hold him everyday and likes to try to give Drake his toys.

Jackson and I get a little stir crazy when we have stayed in the house all day. We have been trying to get out out of the house at least every other day which is only possible because Grandma Pearson is kind enough to come pick us up and help negotiate the 2 kids. I don't know how I would leave the house without her, but I should probably try to figure that out.

Here are some new pictures of our boys. Drake looks like his Dad in this picture

4th of July

2008-07-07T17:50:00.005-04:00

On the 4th of July we did several fun things together as a family. Jackson actually sat through his first entire movie at a movie theater. We saw "Horton Hears a Who". Then we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Cersey's house for dinner and games. Then we all drove down to the Big Lots parking lot to watch the Lawrenceville City fireworks display. Now, I know what you are thinking, "the Big Lots parking lot? That sounds pretty country bumpkin." I thought the same thing myself when my sister-in-law told me that this was the plan for the evening, but to my surprise not only was the Big Lots parking lot full of people, but so was every other parking lot within a 3 mile radius of the city courthouse where the fireworks were being shot off. So, apparently we are not the only country bumpkins in town. We had a great view of the 15 minute firework show. Here are some pictures of our evening.

Aunt Jess and Jackson playing with fire!

Jackson, Grandma, and Anthony watching the fireworks.

Drake sleeping through it all.

Drake

2008-06-27T22:34:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pictures of our new little guy. He sleeps 20 hours a day and the other 4 hours he eats, poops, and vomits. We are pretty much adjusted to our new schedule which includes feedings every 3 hours and diaper changes about every 2 hours. Jackson has been spending a lot of time at Grandma Cersey's house this week so that Mom and Dad can get some rest during the day to make up for the sleep lost at night. I don't know what I am going to do when Justin goes back to work next Wednesday. Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Here is our little guy doing what he does best, sleeping.

Here he is in a rare moment with his eyes open.

This is Drake's "Blue Steel" expression.

Introducing...

2008-06-25T11:05:00.000-04:00

I know that it has been almost a week since my last post and some of you are a little anxious to know what we named our little guy and if we made it home from the hospital. Sorry for the delay, but there is just so much to do when you have a new baby in the house. Well, we tried to get out of the hospital on Thursday, but there were too many hang ups so we didn't leave until Friday afternoon. And now what you really want to know... we named him Drake Davin Cersey. This name had been at the top of both mine and Justin's lists, and pretty much the only name our lists had in common, so we went with it. Jackson is really good with Drake. He likes to hold him and give him kisses, but he is a little impatient and ornery with mom and dad because he is not the center of attention anymore. He has been getting a lot of attention from his Grandmas and cousins though. It is so great having family so close by. Well, doody calls. More pics and info to come.

He Has Arrived!!!

2008-06-19T13:34:00.000-04:00

I went in to the hospital at 8:30 am yesterday morning and they started me on Pitocin at 9:00 am. My contractions gradually got stronger over the next several hours and at about noon I opted for the Epidural. It turned out that my doctor was unexpectedly detained in a surgery all day, so we didn't even see him until 5:15 in the afternoon which is when he broke my water. After that things began to move really quickly, but I had to wait for my doctor again while he did a Cesarean on another patient. My doctor came back in around 7:20 and after only 8 rounds of pushing our little man arrived at 7:41 pm. He is 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 19.5 inches long. No, we have not chosen a name yet, but we will before we leave the hospital. Next post will have more pictures and a name to go with the face.

Here I am happy to be rid of the pain after my epidural.

Here is Justin with our new baby who is swollen from all the squeezing and pushing.

Mommy and baby.

Here is the little guy after his first bath looking a little more relaxed.

A Shower and Callaway

2008-06-12T19:13:00.000-04:00

I wasn't expecting a baby shower for this baby because I honestly didn't need one. I already have everything that I need because I had a boy almost this exact same time two years ago. But my VT and friend, Betsy Baugh insisted on doing something, so I gave in and allowed the simplest of showers. I only wanted a few people there and we went to a really casual restaurant. I also requested no gifts, but if someone was determined to bring one the only thing I wanted was Pampers diapers and/or wipes. As you can see some people didn't follow my instructions, but I am very grateful that I have close friends and family that insist on doing nice things for me and my family. Thanks everyone for the perfect small shower. Last weekend we went down to Callaway Gardens just south of Atlanta for my Dad's annual Hinman Dental retreat. It was nice to get away for a couple of days with the family. Besides us and my parents, James and Darron joined us as well. The main reason we love to go to this event each year is the awesome Bingo game that is played the first night. They give away some sweet prizes. I risked going into labor 3 hours away from my doctor to play this game. It just so happened that I won a $100 gift card to the Buckhead Life Restaurants, a box of Lindt chocolates, and a bottle of wine which I declined. Jackson won a remote control helicopter too. A woman at our table won a Wii, which Justin was upset about because he was the one to pass her the winning card originally. It was a good time and well worth the risk.

Jackson and Justin at the Butterfly Center at Callaway.

One of the many beautiful butterflies we saw.

Jackson dancing the night away at Saturday night's Hinman barbecue.