This morning Finn had a little play date for the first time. His friend Jake from our community group at church came over for a little while. I've been wanting to get Finn around some other kids his age more and Jake is just about a month older than Finn and doing some talking so I thought they'd be a perfect match! Now that everyone's walking I think it makes playing a bit more fun. 

Finn always loves being around other kids and is so great at initiating interaction with them. However, it was interesting to see how he did in his own home especially when I had to hold Jake for a bit as he separated from his mommy. Finn wasn't so sure about that! I had two crying babes for a while; one on each hip! 

At lunch time we decided to have a picnic on the kitchen floor since there was only one highchair available. Finn went straight for the gold and Jake was more interested in the toys. That-a boy!

It was a fun couple of hours and some good practice for this mommy. We can't wait to do it again!

lauren

P.S. Here's a sweet clip of Jake with Riley. Riley is such a patient little guy! Bless his heart!

Charming the Neighborhood.

This morning Finn & I took an early morning walk-slash-trip to our local Starbucks with our friends Anna & Lucy (Lucy is 4 months today!). Finn had a great time walking all over the coffee shop, greeting customers at the door as they came in, and well...frankly smiling & laughing while others laughed & smiled back at him!

This was such a nice way to start off our day....all before morning nap time. 

lauren

P.S....don't you just love the new little TOMS? And this t-shirt he's wearing he's been wearing since he was a newborn. We just love it. Thanks Tutu & Bopa!

A Birthday Celebration!

It was a birthday weekend at the Jackson household! The big day started out on Friday with some great activities here. The rest of the weekend was filled with friends, Brick Street Cafe Sweet Potato Cake, sun, and one year old laughs and smiles. Our good friends Eric & Becky came for a visit from Chicago to enjoy the long weekend with us. Even Lyle's childhood friend, Joe, flew in on his own plane for a night....he just wanted a piece of that yummy cake:)

Here's a little photo montage to recapture a few of the weekend's events.

Giving Mommy some bites.

The favorite toys of the weekend: Nana's punching balloon, the V-Tech vacuum, and the Fischer-Price tool bench from my sister's family. Thank you! Finn would just play on the floor in the kitchen for long periods of time while all the big kids sat at the table to enjoy their morning coffee or left over birthday cake. Miracle!

Finn fell head over heels for Uncle Eric, especially rubbing that head of his.

Sunday we went to Lake Jocassee for a picnic and some sunshine. Lyle, I mean Finn, really hammed it up.

After returning home from the lake, the big kids got cleaned up and went out for a nice evening of drinks and dinner on the town. We even got a baby-sitter! It had been so long since Lyle and I had had an evening like that. We felt like kids again!

What a fun weekend. Yesterday was spent recovering from all the excitement and reminiscing on the good times. It had been over two years since we'd had visitors other than our family in Greenville. Thank you Eric, Becky & Joe!

We'll sign off with a little cottage cheese butt. 

lauren

We are Alive!!

It's been awhile. Life has just been cruising by at jet speed these days. Did you know that Finn is 6 months old now??!! Crazy. And let me tell you he is doing everything....sitting, getting himself into sitting, CRAWLING!, pulling to stand, babbling, getting teeth (2 to be exact at the moment). The list is endless. All this just happened at once too. It was as though once he started sitting on his own he took off at full speed and wanted to catch all those milestones. This mom is busy!

Another excuse for not blogging is that my computer has been out of working order for the most part. There was absolutely no memory left on it which means I couldn't load any pictures and whatnot. Who wants to read a blog post without any pictures? Not me. 

So here's a quick photo recap of life lately.

This is Finn at about 5 months. He'd just started getting up onto his hands and knees a couple weeks prior and rocking back and forth. He loved this.

We just had Finn's 6 month check-up last week with our favorite Dr. Mannley. Boy-oh-boy is he thriving! He was a whopping 17 pounds 7.5 ounces and 27.25 inches long putting him in the 48th percentile for weight and the 76th percentile for length. Go Finn! Dr. Mannley said he was a wild one, as he tore up the paper on the exam table and would barely sit still so Dr. Mannley could get his exam done. Finn just laughed the entire time....until the shots came. Poor baby.

For Thanksgiving we headed up to Charlotte to see our friends the Bourkes. We do Turkey Day with them every year since we've been in the south. They are the ones with Baby Declan that I introduced to you here.

It was fun to have the boys together again, and now they are so much more interactive and aware of one another. We got some good shots of them and some with their other friend Dominick (about 15 months) as well.

Finn bracing onto his friends for dear life!

Love these faces....

Friends already!

It was a delicious Thanksgiving! Now on with Christmas!

lauren

A Baby Shower Weekend....

I went home to Seattle this last weekend for a couple baby showers. The first ones! It was so great to see my family & friends!  Oh how I miss them. And oh how they showered our Little. I finally got to meet Julie's new little baby, sweet baby Clara. Darling!

Here are a few pictures. I was really bad about getting photos throughout and didn't bring our nice camera with us due to my load I was already chugging around....I was silly and brought hostess gifts of Carolina Gold and Stone Ground Grits. This added an extra 10 pounds total to my bag. Ouch! The ride home will be much lighter. 

Unfortunately not everyone that attended is shown here, but you get the idea. The theme was a "Southern" shower. Julie & Breanna were pretty spot on! Thanks you two for hosting.

 

Annie, Beth & Jenni

 Janelle & Stacey

 Emi, Lindsay & Rebecca

 Opening gifts.

Brooke & Colleen

Some decorations, lovely Glassy Babys & Sweet Baby Wishes.

My old Bible Study girls minus Brooke & Paige. So much fun to see them & laugh!

Julie put this sweet little passage out.

Growing up Southern is a privilege, really. It's more than where you're born~it's an idea, a state of mind that seems imparted at birth. It's more than loving fried chicken, sweet tea, highschool football, beer, and acoustic guitars. It's being hospitable, being devoted to front porches, moon pies, sun drop, and each other.

We don't beome Southern....

.....we're born that way.

We ate delicious yummies: mac & cheese, jalepeneo corn, corn bread, salad, pulled pork, beef brisket, & ribs. Yumm! To top it off we had sweeeet tea & pie for dessert. 

Thanks Julie & Breanna for hosting. And thanks to all my lovely friends for showering this new little love of ours.

More shower photos to come.

lauren