yeee-haw...

it was rodeo day for jack today at school.  it looks like he had a great time.  i did get to be there because i was working, but luckily my sweet friend, laura (caroline's mom) took some pictures and i stole them from her.  :)

i was happy to see that jack put on his cowboy duds once he was at school.  at home he was NOT having it and insisted on TOMS not cowboy boots.  :)

caroline and jack.  sweet friends.

 here are some more highlights from a morning of rodeo fun...

the group.  lucy, caroline, micah, and jack

playin' and throwin' horseshoes

gallopin' stick horse races 

makin' texas flags 

ta-da!!  love that texas pride. 

cotton pickin' races.  fun!!

love this tradition at ccdc.  it is a special day for the three year old classes and one that is always memorable for them.  jack didn't stop talking about his special day the entire car ride home.  that is a BIG deal for him.  he is a typical boy and NEVER tells me details about his day.  ha! :)

disney on ice...

was lots of fun for jack, nana, and myself.  (no olivia this year, kindergarten sometimes gets in the way of these things.)  once again this year our "hot tots" playgroup had the opportunity to go to the show.  not only is it fun to be surrounded by your friends and their kids, but the tickets are SUPER reasonably priced so we can't pass up the chance to go.  :)  this year the theme of the show was VERY princess heavy, but that didn't stop jack from loving it.  he knows that where ever a princess is, there is a handsome brave prince (with a sword) not far behind.  :)

before the show began nana let jack choose a sword to take home as souvenir.

nana and jack

had to get one pic with my sweet boy, and of course the sword is with us too.

then it was time for the show...

rapunzel "flying" through the air using her hair.  

tiana dancing with her prince

cinderella dancing with her prince charming

mickey and minnie all dressed up for the royal show

jack LOVED the silly jazz playin' alligator

ccdc christmas...

this year jack was on stage for his school's christmas program.  it is a very simple program.  they sing a couple silly songs ("i'm a nut" and "jingle bells") and a couple christmas songs ("go tell it on the mountain"and "somebody's knocking at the door"), but absolutely love it!  there is nothing sweeter to me than 3 year old singing about the birth of our savior- jesus!!  jack did a wonderful job!  we were so proud of him for singing and doing all the motions to the songs.

singing so loud and proud!

this was the look we got once he spotted his row of family in the crowd. 

and this was the nervous look he had in between songs.

 and here are some of his biggest fans that came to support him.  he is so lucky to have each of the ladies in his life and love him so well.

rara, chrissie, nana, and b with jack-jack

jack's first day of preschool...

was great!!  sadly, i don't have many pictures to document the morning... jack is not into pictures at all right now.

 this was what he did when i asked him to pose for a picture before leaving for school. :(

 with a little bit of bribery... i got this!! :)

 then we found his hook and he proudly hung up his backpack, and decided his napmat needed to go on the ground.  

and finally it was time for him to go into his class.  he was greeted by his sweet teacher, ms. wilson and she told him to find his name and put his lunchbox in its special spot.  he gave me a quick wave good-bye and then was off to follow ms. wilson's instructions.

before i knew it the hours had passed and it was time to pick him up.  he came running to the door with a big grin on his face and couldn't wait to tell me about all the fun he had.  that made me smile!  once again, i am so thankful for loving teachers and a smooth transition to the start of another school year.  jack is going to have a wonderful year as a REAL preschooler.

jack's turn...

for the back to school activities to begin!  he has been asking everyday since o started kindergarten when he gets to start school.  i am as pleased as he is to say that TUESDAY is his first day.  i have loved spending time with him these last two weeks, but it will be good for both of us to have two days a week where we get a little time apart. :) and school is so great for him- structure, socialization, art, music, gross-motor, etc.  today we went to meet his teachers and explore his new classroom before the official first day.

it was a little strange to walk into this familiar place and only have ONE preschooler holding my hand, having only ONE classroom to visit, and ONE set of teachers to meet and greet.  each day it hits me in a different way, i have a KINDERGARTENER and a PRESCHOOLER.  i am now split between two schools- two worlds- elementary (the real world) and preschool.  :)

he has two very sweet teachers- ms. wilson and ms. taylor.  kk had these two ladies as her 3 year old preschool teachers and LOVED them.  jack thinks it is really fun that he and kk will have had the same teachers. :)  he was very shy and timid at first, hiding behind my legs and squeezing my hand.   soon enough he was feeling comfortable and started playing and looking around his new classroom!!  he only let me take one picture...

i'm hoping for one with his teachers the first day of school, but not setting my expectations too high. :)

we are looking forward to a great year- jack's first year in preschool!  (it's officially called preschool now, not mothers-day-out.)  

mickey mouse birthday bash...

was this past saturday to celebrate jack's 3rd birthday with friends and family. like last year, we had our birthday bash with one of his besties, mckenzie. it was a great day at the spraypark and there where lots of friends to play and celebrate with. jack had a blast and hope everyone who was able to come had fun too!! here is the birthday party in pictures...

the birthday girl and boy!

our little family!

cupcakes! (there was other food too, but these are the most important!!)

mickey buckets for everyone to play with in the water.

the birthday boy having so much fun running through the water.

a little bit of chaos!

friends big and small!! :)

birthday wishes!

some super cute towels to dry off! thanks moonbeam for the shirts and towels. :)

party favors! (choice of: mickey beach balls, sunglasses, or bubbles)

and then it was back to b and pop's house to open gifts with just the family. my favorite wrapping job was done by olivia...

she worked so hard decorating this bag with jack doing all of his favorite things- playing sports and driving a car. so cute and thoughtful!

jack's REAL birthday day...

was so much fun!! we celebrated our big 3 year old boy with just our little family on saturday, his real birthday. jack picked the agenda, but we all had a fun day.

our birthday boy. 3 years old!

the day started at krispy kreme donuts. jack LOVES sweets, so donuts for breakfast are a favorite for him. he also loves machines, so watching the donuts being made on the krispy kreme assembly line machine makes this extra special. we had a fun morning at the donut shop.

jack with a glaze mustache and daddy being silly wearing the hat.

j and o looking cute in their hats.

while we were there we planned our next stop. since jack received a toys r us gift card from uncle mark, (thanks uncle mark!) we decided that we should stop by toys r us and pick out a new toy. after about 45 minutes of walking the aisles and pondering what to choose, jack and mark ended up with a new train set. i say jack and mark because i think mark might be just as excited about the purchase.

then it was time to head to the mall. a few weeks ago jack and i were at the mall running some errands and as a reward i let him go into the disney store for a few minutes. while we were playing in the store he discovered their "build a car" section of the store. he wanted to build one that day, but i suggested that we come back on his birthday. well he did not stop asking about building his own car, so today was the BIG day. he had lots of fun picking out which car body he wanted-- lightening mcqueen, of course.

then he chose the tires and rims and put those together.

finally it was time for the power tools. he was so excited to screw the chassis into place. (i did not even know this word until saturday. it is basically the "insides" of the car.) he got the whole thing together and was so proud until he realized that it had no power. we were trying to save a few dollars and not do the remote control version. jack was not pleased with this decision. we were suckered into changing it out for the remote control version, so we got to build the car all over again. that was fun for jack!!

then it was time to try to it out. it was fun and fast. he was a very happy boy!!

and of course we had to get at least one family picture...

while we were in the disney store jack got another surprise. our helper gave him a happy birthday button and then asked us to go into the center of the store. they put jack's name up on the screen and everyone in the store wished him a happy birthday. it was so fun!! i love that disney is all about the little details. jack was a little overwhelmed and nervous with all the attention, but i know he felt special. :)

it was lunch time after our disney store adventure so we went up to the food court and had a little lunch before heading home for a good afternoon nap.

it was a great day celebrating our jack-jack. he gets funnier everyday and always keeps us laughing. i can't believe he is 3!!! happy birthday sweet boy!! we love you! mommy, daddy, and olivia

jack-isms...

i know wrote a post similar to this about olivia when she was around 18 months old. jack is just now getting his moment (at almost 3 years old), but i guess that comes with the territory of being the second child. ha! :0) my mom mentioned the other day that i needed to blog about the funny things that jack says so that we will not forget them. let me first say that jack says something funny about every hour, so there is no way to record them all, but he has a few "phrases" that he has coined that i never want to forget...

(if you are not family, you probably don't care or think these are nearly as adorable as we do, so feel free to stop reading now.)

"i can't like it!"-- rather than saying "i don't like it." or "no thank you!" jack says "i can't like it!" he has been saying it for quite awhile now. i think gramps might like this phrase the best, he has worked it into his vocabulary, but we all think it is pretty funny.

"la-la"-- his nickname for his sister, olivia. it is so sweet to hear him say it and really he is the only one who calls her that, which i love. olivia has a ton of nicknames which i am sure will start to fade away, but i hope jack never stops calling her "la-la."

"mr. the king"-- the veteran race car from the movie CARS. jack is slightly obsessed with the movie and all things related to CARS. he never leaves home with out a car, preferably lighten mcqueen in hand and knows almost every word of the movie by heart. i thought that all of the characters in the movie referred to this character as "mr. the king" but apparently not! to everyone else, he is "the king" to jack, our little family, and mater (the funny tow truck in the movie) he is mr. the king.

walking backward-- this goes with the obsession of CARS. this is not something that jack says, but rather some he does. he walks backward, like mater (funny tow truck) and quotes a line from the movie, "Ain't no need to watch where I'm goin'; just need to know where I've been."

"clause it!" or "closet!" -- this is used instead of the word "pause" when he is watching a show that he would like for me to pause while he runs to the other room for a moment or comes to the breakfast table in the morning.

"do you LOVE _____?"-- this is a phrase i hear at least 10 times a day. when ever i am doing something jack walks into the room and asks, "do you love making the bed mommy?" "do you love holding me?" "do you love driving your car?" "do you love cooking dinner for us?" i don't have any idea where he got this, i am sure i say it and don't realize it, but i know i don't say it that often and not for doing chores!! it is sweet that he is always concerned about how i am feeling about things. :)

"squareheads"-- probably the newest jack-ism, discovered just days ago while he was having a snack at nana's house. she was giving him quaker oatmeal square cereal. after finishing his portion he looked at nana and said, "nana, can i please have some more of those squareheads?" now he refers to all square shaped cereal as "squareheads."

i know there are more, but those are the ones that i have thought of for the moment. as i write this i am so thankful for the joy, energy, sense of humor, and the happiness that jack brings to our family. thank you god for allowing us the gift of having him in our lives and to watch him grow.

in and out again!

poor little jack had to have surgery again!! in october 2009 jack had ear tubes put in and his adenoids taken out. that was a successful surgery, but since then the tubes in his ears fell out the fluid in his ears has returned. :( his ent has been monitoring the situation for a while and feels that it would be best for jack to have a second set of tubes put in his ears. this will allow him to get off of the medication he takes on a daily basis as well as allow him to hear more clearly (the fluid was minimally affecting his hearing). during our last visit to the ent, right before scheduling the surgery, she mentioned that she thought his adenoids had enlarged again as well. so those have to come out too! that all happened about a week ago, and today was the day for surgery.

we woke jack up early this morning, put him in some cute jammies and headed for the surgery center. he had no clue what was about to happen and was loving the waiting room filled with toys, places to climb, and movies to watch.

soon we were called back to see the doctor and meet with the anaesthesiologist. after a brief meeting with each, answering the same series of questions about 5 different times, they brought jack in the "silly juice." within minutes he was "drunk" and very relaxed. hilarious!! :)

dr. coffey, his ent came in and carried him back to the operating room. about 30 minutes later she came back and told us everything went perfect and that jack did a great job. relief! a few minutes later we were able to go recovery to see him and hold him. relief again!

jack did so great coming out of the anesthetic this time, so it was not long before they were pulling out the iv and we were loading up to come home. nana was waiting for us (she took olivia to school for us). jack was happy to see her and i was happy she was willing to stay for the day and help me catch up on laundry and organize a few things around the house.

we are thankful that jack did so well in surgery and hopeful that this will make him stay healthy for a long time! we go back soon for a follow up visit and expect a good report!!

once again, we were in and out of the surgery center in a few hours AND and jack has new tubes IN and the adenoids are OUT!!

the big boy bed...

is a HUGE hit with jack!!
thanks to my mom and some planning we were able to transition the long-time nursery (been the same room since o was born) into a big boy room in just two days!! with my mom all things are possible- at least that is how i feel with projects around my house. we painted, assembled furniture, moved out all the baby stuff, moved in all the big boy toys, and rearranged things. and here is how it turned out...

obviously the window treatments are missing, but other than that it is complete.

one of the most special pieces in his room- his shelf that uncle christman built for him for his first birthday. new paint on the shelves to match the the new color on the walls and some extra room on the shelves for the christmas toys that are just coming all too soon. :)

jack helped too! i wanted him to help with an art project to decorate his walls. he loved painting, but i didn't love the way it turned out so we didn't end up using the canvases. :( he did great, my idea didn't work out the way i envisioned.

well, now's the hard part... will he sleep tight and stay in the bed? we shall see!!
good news!! he is doing great and loves going to bed every night. he even does a great job staying in bed at nap time!! yay jack!!