Touch-a-truck show!

Yesterday was beautiful, so we decided to spend some family time outside at one of our suburb's Touch-a-truck show! The town provided all types of trucks for little kiddos to come and touch, explore and climb inside. It was perfect for all of the moms and dads with their cameras out! There was a firetruck, a police car, a dump truck, an old army jeep, an excavator (oooh, I'm learning my trucks thanks to Luke), a backhoe, a roller and more! We thought since Luke LOVES trucks he'd have a blast. He definitely enjoyed the adventure, but we're thinking next year will be perfect. Luke was a little nervous about going up to the trucks and right now prefers just calling out to them as we drive through town!

Luke trying to drive the backhoe!

Luke in front of the roller. He didn't mind walking up to this one!

Mommy and Luke pose on the firetruck!

we have a new little nephew!

Although we don't yet know his name, our little nephew was born this morning! It sounds like Kristen and the baby went through quite an ordeal. She was induced yesterday morning, but had the baby right after midnight this morning. He is in the NICU and will be for several more days due to a bacterial infection, so we would appreciate your prayers for our little nephew and for Kristen as she recovers from a C-section.

It's been a random week this week. Chad was out of town for a couple of days and I had laryngitis. Poor little Luke would bring me books and turn and look at me like, "Mommy, what's wrong with you? Just talk to me already!" Sweet Aunt Mary cooked us a delicious (future chef in the making) meal one night and gave Luke some voice time. It was sweet. She also taught him the Spanish word for head. So now if you ask him "Where's your head?" in Spanish, he knows! Chad has been speaking to him in Spanish for a while now and he also knows how to find his nose, eyes and ears in Spanish too!

I'lll leave you with some miscellaneous pictures from our random week! Luke's ultimate favorite thing to do these days is go outside. He puts up the biggest fight when he has to come inside!

Rain, rain go away! Little Lukey wants to play!! He's just standing at our front door (the moment after he finishes breakfast) and begging to go outside! But, alas, it's raining.

Finally the rain stopped! I can mow the grass!

It was pretty cold and super windy yesterday. Luke chased this leaf around our entire little cove! He finally caught it!

Venturing out. . .

Venturing out isn't exactly what I mean, but you know how sometimes you tend to take the same streets to get somewhere, go to the same restaurants, etc? Well, after feeling tired, but refreshed from our morning on Nathan St. (see post below), we decided we should "spice" things up around here and instead of doing some of the same things we would do on any other weekend, we ventured out!
We made a family trip to the zoo (okay, so we have done that before) at the end of the day! We ran into our friends, the Butlers, and walked around with them some. The animals were really active and we enjoyed seeing so many animals out and about. We decided they were hungry and it was almost feeding time! Once we finished our trip, we too decided it was feeding time. Chad, Luke and I headed over to a yummy Mexican restaurant in the Midtown area! It was a beautiful day so we sat outside on the patio. It was a really fun and festive atmosphere!

"Wow! Look at those trees!"

Today after church, we grabbed some lunch, introduced Luke to a frisbee (he enjoyed watching Mommy and Daddy throw it back and forth) and then decided to have a family car wash! This was the first time my Pathfinder had been handwashed!! This was also the first time Luke had been a part of a car wash. It wasn't as easy as we expected and we got sunburned quickly-BUT, we had fun!

"Mommy, put the camera down and come help us!"

Luke wants his dumptruck to be washed too!

Luke enjoys his first popsicle!

Nathan St. clean-up

Saturday morning Chad, my sister and I headed down to Nathan St. with others from our church for a clean-up project. We spent the morning scraping a house and then repainting it. Others did yardwork, cleaned up trash, constructed a building, etc. The idea was to spend time with the families, help them clean up the street and ultimately show God's love to them. These are the same kids Chad and I work with on Tuesday nights. I also saw some of my middle school girls that I worked with the past two years. They were down as part of the church youth playing games with the little kids on Nathan St, but they also helped us scrape!

Mary and some of the youth--busy scraping a house!

A partial view of the activity on Nathan St.

More scrapers--this project took a while!

It was wonderful to see some of my former students serving God!

The future meeting place for indoor Nathan St. fellowship!

busy week!

It's been a busy week! First, let me give you an update on Luke's eyes. We had his eye check-up on Tuesday and the opthamologist thinks his eyes are doing better. She said we don't need to come back for another 3 months! Thank goodness and what an answer to prayer! Chad and I think his eyes are better too, however, they still cross (or at least one of them turns in) when Luke is tired. He's been tired much of this week, so we've seen more of the eye crossing lately, but still feel that overall it's getting better!

Tuesday night Chad and I had our bi-weekly Bible Study with a group of kids in an under-privileged neighborhood in town. Luke loves to go to Nathan St. to play with the big kids and these kids LOVE to have Luke around. Some of the kids are barely bigger than he is and immediately come running when they see him and pick him up. When Luke and I started joining Chad every other Tuesday night, Luke was a little shy and scared at all the attention from the bigger kids (5-17 years old), but he's getting used to them now and even lets them feed him! Anyway, Chad did the lesson for the kids this week and did a wonderful job. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to hear all of it, as little Luke likes to be independent and walk around or fusses if he can't walk around (ahhh the joys of toddlerhood)! Once we left Nathan St. we headed to Chad's basketball game and Luke got to stay up late to watch his Daddy play! Luke kept wanting to run onto the court to get the basketball and play with Daddy. Wish I had pictures of that.

Last night Mimi, Grandpa and Aunt Mary came over for pizza (my favorite) and to hang out--since they'd been out of town for a bit. Luke was thrilled to see them and had fun playing before he had to go to bed. After he went to bed we watched American Idol where FINALLY Sanjaya was voted off!! I haven't made any AI comments on my blog yet, but Jordan and Blake are my favorites and we were all ready for Sanjaya to go home!

Mimi, I like this book! Thanks for reading it!

Awww, Aunt Mary gets a hug!

Grandpa and Luke play with a train!

Gotta have my music

Music is the way I get energized and relaxed. I'm one of those people who remembers every event in my life with a song surrounding it. So many memories have certain songs that go along with them! Basically, if I have my music, then I'm good to go. Lately though, I've been listening to a lot of Veggie Tales (it's Luke's favorite) and this last week made me realize I need a break!

Soooo, I've been introducing Luke to some other kinds of music! :) We listen to the radio or CD's I've made in the car and we listen to my iPod at home. He actually started dancing to some songs on my iPod the other day. It was hilarious! He'd wave his arms in the air and bounce up and down--he may have been copying me as we had a full-blown dance-around-the-house session the other day! It was raining--what can I say??

Anyway, if you have an iPod or have been to iTunes on your computer, you know that celebrities have created their special playlists for people to enjoy. I decided to create my current playlist. These are songs that inspire, energize, relax and make me just sing out loud!

1. Come Away With Me--Norah Jones (Jazz) As soon as I hear this song, everything just melts away. When I used to come home from work after a bad day, Chad would put on Norah for me and pour me a little glass of wine--how nice!!
2. Anyway--Martina McBride (country) One of her latest songs that inspires me. Look up the lyrics if you get a chance.
3. Before He Cheats--Carrie Underwood (country) This song has so much feeling and energy--makes me feel feisty! Plus, she's a super singer!
4. Don't Stop Believin'--Journey (Rock) I went to this concert with my sister and some friends this past fall. It was so much fun! I just love this song. It makes me sing out loud!
5. I Want to Know You--Sonicflood (Christian) This group has done an upbeat version of this "YoungLife, youth group" song and I love it. We have a Christian station in town 94.9 and it's wonderful!
6. He Will Carry Me--Mark Schultz (Christian) This song is an amazing encouragement during tougher times. It reminds me that God will always be there to carry us when we are too weak.
7. Somewhere Over the Rainbow--Israel Kamakawiw (World) You have all heard this version on commercials, but it's beautiful and relaxing.
8. Free Fallin'--Tom Petty (Rock) Just a perfect sing-along and roll down your windows song. Makes me think of Tom Cruise beating on the steering wheel in Jerry Maguire.
9. One--U2 (Rock) My all-time favorite band, so how do I choose a song from them? It's tough, but this song has so much emotion and it's a good one to sing out loud to.
10. Pour Some Sugar on Me--Def Leppard (Rock) They came to concert with Journey and it's been my theme song since 7th grade. Forget the words even--it's just the music that makes me energized--I love running to it. I just had to include it on this list!

That's all for now. . . I have 8, 284 favorite songs, so I'll spare you from that list! :)

"Mama!"

I'm officially called "Mama" now!!!!! YIPPEEEE! I couldn't be happier! I have been wanting to hear that word for SO long now. Yes, Luke said it the other day, but not actually to me. Yesterday though, Luke called ME Mama!! I have a witness too. Our friends Amanda and Julia came over so Luke and Julia could play and Amanda and I could have regular adult interaction--what a concept!! :)

Anyway, Amanda heard it several times and the rest of the night and this morning Luke has been calling me Mama. I have that goose-bump feeling like I get when I hear the choir sing the Hallelujah chorus, and when I wake up on Christmas morning, and when I heard the words "I now present Mr. and Mrs. Chad Jackson", and I could add a few more to the list, but you get the point! It is AWESOME to hear that word!!

"Shhh Luke! You can't tell anyone!"

Luke and Julia playing with tractors and trains!

"Thanks Luke. This train is yummy!"

18 months old!

It is so hard to believe that little Luke (I wonder how long he is going to referred to as little) is now 18 months old! That's a year and a half for those of you who don't talk in "months" yet. :)

We had his dr. check up today and here are the stats. . .
Weight--25 lbs. and 3oz.
Height--32 and 1/2 inches

That means he's back up to 50-75% in weight, which is good since the last time we were in there he had lost weight due to reflux!

Luke can say around 15 words (Dada, ball, truck, block, socks, cheese, keys, up, uh-oh, egg, walk, book, bubble, apple) and maybe one or two other words I'm not thinking of right now. I still CANNOT wait for Luke to say Mama--actually he has said it a couple of times now, but not to me. I have heard over and over "Be patient, he'll say it", but a mom lives to hear that sweet word!! So, you can be sure that once he's calling me "Mama" it will be posted all over this blog! :)

I hear the little one calling now. . .

Happy Easter!

Christ the Lord has risen today! Still cold this morning, we bundled up and headed to church. It was a beautiful service! I love seeing families celebrating that Jesus lives!

After church we headed over to my family's house where we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon. Lunch was delicious---ham, corn and green bean casserole, squash casserole, salad, olives and popovers--yummy!! We watched some of the Masters tournament (golf, for some of you who don't follow sports). After naptime, Luke, who loves balls, also enjoyed watching the golf balls roll across the screen. And then, we had another Easter egg hunt! What more could a 1 and a half year old want??

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!

Family pic!

Happy Easter!

Luke and Grandpa discussing the eggs!

Brrrrr cold Easter egg hunt!!

I know many of you reading this have had cold weather too, but considering not 2 weeks ago we were in the 80's in Memphis, this weekend felt really cold being in the 30's and 40's!

Saturday we went to Luke's first Easter egg hunt! The hunt was held at our church and was broken down by ages so the big kids wouldn't trample the little ones while hunting for eggs. It was also a first for Chad and me as parents. We showed up at the church without an Easter basket! How silly! Fortunately, Luke didn't notice at all and we used his diaper bag for a basket instead. Luke had a blast looking for and finding eggs. In fact, Luke looked for eggs the rest of Saturday afternoon in our house! I'd tell him to close his eyes while I hid the eggs and he'd put his hands on his eyes for 2 seconds and then follow right after me (not giving me time to really hide any eggs)! It was cute!

Daddy gets Luke started!

Dropping the eggs into the "Easter basket"

cousins

My cousins (from my dad's side of the family) came into town on Sunday for a quick visit. We get to see them about once a year, but since they live in KY--not terribly far away--we think it should be more often! Ben and Luke actually share the same birthday and are 12 years apart. How fun! Janie and Ben are so incredibly smart and talented. It's fun to see them each year and how much they have grown up!

Janie was excited about getting in my parents pool, so we all went out to the backyard. Our little Luke walked straight to the pool and would have walked right into the deep end if we hadn't grabbed him! He has no fear and a HUGE desire to get into the pool. This summer should be fun when we actually have swim trunks and a "pool" diaper for him.

Janie and Luke (Luke can almost say Janie!)

Ben and Luke are exactly 12 years apart!