Get it Together!

Will I ever get it together enough with these 2 babies to blog again? Ugh, it doesn't seem like it! London will be 6 weeks on Wednesday and we're facing another move in the next 3 weeks or so, so expect the blogging hiatus to continue well into the fall. Speaking of FALL, tomorrow's high here in Sacramento is triple digits. Why? Totally random and not much of an update, but I had a second so I wanted to give the blog a little attention...

Sorry!

Sorry for the lack of posts. The countdown has taken over my life. Dusty's mom has been in town for a week and has been a tremendous help in these last few days of the pregnancy. Wednesday is the day. We should be meeting our baby girl just after 9am Pacific time (that's 11am TX time!). So much to get done in the next 3 days!!! Not sure when I'll be able to get back here and post so here's something that will hopefully leave you with a smile and hold you over :0)


(in case you can't hear, there's a song playing, which is why he's busting these moves)

Eating and Drinking...

For the past several weeks, Jackson has been working on his fork, spoon and cup skills. He does really well with them all and really enjoys the experience.

F O R K

So proud of himself!


S P O O N

C U P

1st spaghetti! It was disgusting but he had fun. It was all the way around the back of his head/hair. Lesson learned: Do not give a sleepy toddler something as messy as spaghetti! He kept rubbing his eyes with spaghetti-sauced hands, hence the saucy eyebrows.

And just for laughs, he also enjoys a cool drink from the doggy water bowl. As well as getting pen caps stuck on his lip. Always interesting around here and we're getting closer and closer to adding to the adventure! Less than 4 weeks until London's birthday!

Daddy's work...

The weather is hot, I am exhausted most of the time and poor Jackson pays the price by being somewhat cooped up in this 3rd floor apartment and it gets increasingly more difficult for us to leave. He's a very independent little guy and does not always enjoy being CARRIED most places which makes navigating the 3 flights of stairs even more challenging than it already is, considering I'm also carrying his gear, my gear and another child in-utero. Being able to see my feet is a luxury that I lost several weeks ago. I completely took that for granted before when it came to using those stairs. Combine those things with the triple digit temps we've been experiencing as of late and I think I am justified in my decision to stay up here in the A/C as much as possible. I have said a number of times that I will no longer venture out alone with Jackson so when Dusty is home (remember how hot it is, and remember his job revolves around the weather, meaning he isn't home a lot these days while the sun is still up) at a decent time, I really like to take advantage of the extra hands to get Jackson out into the fresh air. One evening this past week just after Dusty got home from work, he got called and had to run back in to check on an irrigation issue. He invited Jackson and I to come along so I jumped at the chance. Jackson had such a good time the 1st time we went out there and he needed the opportunity to stretch his little legs. We spent the evening riding on carts and sitting on mowers but what he loves to do more than any of that, is pretend that he's driving either the cart or the car.

Off to check things out on the course! Exciting!

That's right folks. Jackson has enough hair at 18 months to blow in the wind!!

A few loops around the shop area with Jackson riding passenger like a big boy...

... then a mad dash to the fairway units!

You'd think he would look a little more enthused wouldn't you? He likes his daddy's boss cart much better :0)

Time to head home... Bummer.

but not before a few minutes behind the wheel of the car! I don't think it was a good idea for us to introduce him to the driver's seat of the car. Getting him into the carseat is even more of a nightmare now that he knows where he would rather be spending his car-time.

Showered for London!

London and I had a baby shower held in our honor on June 27th. It was absolutely perfect and more than I could have imagined or asked for. I am excited to share the photos! We received such lovely things. Now that it is over, it's time for me to officially get ready for London's arrival. For the past couple of afternoons while Jackson naps, I have been getting her new things organized and preparing our bedroom for an extra little person. Only 6 weeks until her SCHEDULED arrival, but of course she can decide to be here sooner! There's much to be done and luckily, I believe the nesting instinct has begun to kick in. I hope that I can keep the energy levels up for another couple of weeks to get things done. Thus far our master bathroom and portions of our closet have been the victims. Some things will have to wait until I have a non-pregnant set of arms to move furniture and make way! Of course there's Dusty for the big stuff but I would love to have my mommy here to help too! No one gets things as thoroughly cleaned and organized like my mommy! Yet another draw-back to living so far from home.

So here are some pictures from the shower. You can click each picture individually and it should open up a larger version so that you can see things more clearly if need-be.

A R R I V A L

I was blindfolded, which ended up being funny because when I took off the blindfold, I was greeted by the guests standing in front of me taking pictures of my reaction to my guests standing in front of me. But everything was a nice surprise. Beautifully decorated with lots of yummy food!

F O O D


Look at this beautiful salad with pineapple top garnishing. I thought it was super fun!

Dessert table. Check out that huge diaper cake! I just do not want to disassemble that thing! For now, it's decorating our dining room table here at the apartment. The little green cake to the left was my personal cake. They spoiled the heck out of me! And the cupcakes were for everyone else.

Yes, they teased the pregnant lady with booze at her own baby shower. Rude. :0)


G A M E S


Here I am winning the clothes pin game. Had to see how many clothes pins I could remove from the hanger with one hand while holding all of the ones I already removed in the same hand. I tied Crystal with 16 clothes pins and won the tie-breaker using the opposite hand with 12 clothes pins. Fun! And a little painful. Notice my other hand in the air helping out with a grabbing/pinching motion. Ha!

We had to guess which baby picture belonged to which shower guest. I got 7 correct out of 11.

Kris measuring me in toilet paper to see who guessed the correct amount of squares it would take to go around London and I. We measured 11 squares.


G I F T S


Another diaper cake made by Lindy. Very cute, and again, currently decorating our apartment.

Clothes used to decorate the bathroom



F R I E N D S

Cece and I posing with her humongous diaper cake she made. Cece and I grew up together in Bay City and she lives here in California about 45 minutes from us in Sacramento with her husband and 3 little boys. We haven't been taking advantage of that enough but it was great to have her at the shower and I just adore that diaper cake. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to disassemble it...

Here I am with Stella, Cece's mom, who just happened to be visiting from Bay City. I also have another friend, Ashley, who flew in from Texas for the weekend. There were almost as many Texans at the shower as there were Californians!

Kate on the left and Kris on the right were the hostesses of the shin-dig. Seriously, they did an amazing job. This shower was the best baby shower I've ever been to! It was extremely sweet of them to go to the trouble of doing this for a 2nd time mommy but I appreciate it more than words can express. Since I lived in North Carolina while pregnant with Jackson, I didn't get to attend the shower that was held for me in Texas, so this was essentially my 1st baby shower. I couldn't have been more pleased with it and I will cherish the memories forever.


The group of us!

I know I've said it hundreds of times before, but thank you ladies for welcoming me (and Jackson) so warmly into your group of mommies and babies. I can't tell you enough how much it has helped me adjust to California and has made California feel like a home to us. I am one extremely lucky gal. With family so far away, having you all to call on and count on is just invaluable. And trust me, in the next several months, I will be taking full advantage of you all!

XOXOXOXO!

Happy Father's Day!

To Daddy and Grandpa. I love you!

~Jackson

Texas!

Sorry about the blogging delay! The Stricklands have spent the past few weeks preparing for, traveling to and from Texas and then recovering. It was my 10 year high school reunion, which was a good time but we had the most fun letting Jackson get good and dirty and be a country kid for a couple of days at Granny and Grandpa's. Lots of playing in the hose/swimming, riding 4wheelers and gettin' dirty! It was a short and exhausting trip but very enjoyable! Here are the pictures. Jackson headed right for any source of water once he was outside so he inevitably ended up in his diaper. We think he had a great time!





Here is a family photo from before the reunion. We haven't taken a family photo in a very long time! I am about 31 weeks pregnant already!