And A Happy New Year!

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

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

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!

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

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?

 

Good Night, and Good Luck

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!

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.