Music too!

I need another kid! Cole gets too much blog attention - it may go to his head!

Saturday afternoon, Cole and some of his fellow piano students gave a little performance at a local assisted living home. It was such fun to watch the kids - and the grown-ups! Cole played two pieces that he's been working on diligently. Both have duet parts with his teacher, Mrs. Nailen. Keep in mind, he's only been taking lessons since January. Can you tell I'm proud of him?

And listen to the end of the clip - a sweet old lady with no concept of volume yells out, "He's about as big as a minute!" when Cole was walking back to his seat. Hilarious!!

Soccer Star

It's spring and that means soccer season for Cole. He's playing in the Briarwood Soccer Club. It's been fun running into old acquaintances. He's got some athletic skills - definitely not from my genes! Here is a breakdown of a great kick he made:







Ready . . .








aim . . .







fire!






We also tried our hand at making videos this weekend. I'm really proud of this! :-) My mom and dad gave us a kickin' video camera! Below is a montage of some of Cole's shining moments, with music, created by yours truly. I think he's going to be a defender!

Atlanta with Pop

Last Friday, Pop surprised Cole by checking him out of school at 9:45 am to take him to Atlanta for a Braves game on their opening weekend! Cole was definitely surprised and so excited! Once they got on the road, he asked Pop if I knew about the trip and if he was sure that I was ok with it. So glad he thought of that!

Unfortunately, that night's game was cancelled due to inclement weather. But no worries, Cole was just glad to be on a trip with Pop - and stay in a hotel room! They passed the time playing Cole's new favorite game, Phase 10. We are so glad he is old enough to play now! Pop only beat him by 10 points that night!

They also got to visit the Atlanta Aquarium. From what I hear, he really enjoyed it.

He loves to take pictures! Here are some of his finer photographs from this trip . . .

Baluga whales, jellyfish

and tropical fish. Nice work!

Pop assures us he will take him again to actually watch the Braves play!

Introducing Coleman Alexander Jackson!

March 26, 2008: Our Blessing Day

Today completed the long process of Brice's adoption of Cole. It was an exciting day. Cole has been talking about it for weeks. Our judge was super nice - the whole process took less than 10 minutes.




We met up with the parents for dinner and celebration.

We are truly blessed and so grateful!

Easter

Happy Easter!

What a gorgeous day Easter was! A little chilly, but beautiful! After a great church service we had lunch at the Wynfrey Hotel's Easter Brunch Buffet. Yum! Then it was time for some egg hunting.

This is how Pops gave "hints" to the hunters . . .

Which usually led to this . . .


Memom and Cole competed once, racing around the yard. Quite fun to watch.

The final competition of the day was between father and son. Lots of laughs.

It was a fun day of family and celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Spring Break '08

Spring break, baby!! This year's family trip: Huntsville, AL. We've decided that while Cole is young, we'd like to help him discover local cities in the south. We really had a good time. The first day we went to SciQuest, a hands-on science place for kids. We watched a movie in a dome and played with several experiments.

Here Cole is using the Force to keep the beach ball in the air.

Well done, my young padawan!

There was a life-size Operation game that buzzed if you touched the sides just like the game.

My potty-humor-loving boys got a kick out

of this exhibit. You could make various sounding toots by pushing different buttons. Who comes up with this???

This scene is actually projected onto a wall and interacts with our shadows. So cool! The scene would change every 5-10 mintues to other games like volleyball, pool, or air hockey.

The next day we went to The Space and Rocket Center. Everyone should go there at some point in their life. We enjoyed the IMAX movie and Cole loved all the big rockets.

This is Brice in the toilet room of the mock space station.

Here is Cole on a ride.

Brice and Cole conquered the climbing wall - I was quite impressed with both of them! I think Brice's shoes have special powers.

Here is me and Cole standing under the new exhibit - the Saturn V Rocket. The rocket behind us is a small model. The one above us is the real thing!

The gift shop was filled with happy moments, one of which was Cole and I finding our names on mugs! (see Disney post from Christmas)

Another fun activity was Funntasia - the local miniature golf course. This was actually Cole's favorite part of the trip, go figure! We did have a blast. Here he is after his 3rd hole-in-one.

The other great part of our trip was hanging out with the Philley's. My life-long friend Penny lives in Huntsville with her dear husband and sweet little boy, Sam. They were kind enough to let us stay with them for the weekend. Sam took a liking to Cole and followed him everywhere - even into Brice's lap.

That Saturday morning, all 6 of us headed up the mountain for an Easter egg hunt and parade at Burritt on the Mountain. The "hunt" was more of a pick-up, but the eggs had candy in them which made it worthwhile. The parade consisted of a man dressed up like a rabbit leading two ponies and a goat. We got a good laugh. Brice actually ended up in one of the groups shots that made the Huntsville newspaper!

We didn't think to bring Easter baskets but thanks to my green husband, I had several grocery bags in my trunk.

It was a nice spring break. Maybe this summer we'll do Mobile . . .

March 17, 2008

Yes, March 17th is St. Patrick's Day. But it's also our anniversary. Brice and I have been married a whole year now. We can no longer be called "newlyweds." What a year it has been! Our love for each other has grown as we've learned more about the other and how they tick. I've been blessed with an amazing man, a devoted husband, and incredible father!

We celebrated by having dinner at McCormick & Schmick's. We ate at McCormick & Kuleto's in San Francisco last year. Sidenote - that one restaurant was named differently because the architect, Kuleto, wanted his name included as advertisement so he did the work for free!


After dinner we headed off to the hotel where we stayed last year before leaving for California. There we finally unwrapped the year-old cake. Still pretty, eh? Our fondant monogram was still beautifully in place, until removing the plastic wrap encasing the cake! Hats off to the women who packed it up last year - it tasted wonderful!

One of God's extra blessings came in the form of a $100 discount off of the room because of Brice's occupation and the date we selected just "happened" to be one of the eligible dates! (smile)

The picture below sums up the goodies of the evening: a cake picnic, wine from our honeymoon, snacks, gifts - the only thing missing is the Phase 10 cards!

It was nice to get away and just be together! Happy anniversary, baby!

Scavenger Hunt in the Park

Flipping through the paper the other day, I spotted a full-page spread of up-close detailed pictures of various objects. The article explained that the paper's annual scavenger hunt was being held in a park just a few miles from our house. There were 25 pictures of items located in the park. Find each one, list where it is, and send it in to the paper for a chance at one of 20 prizes. So last Saturday we set out to explore the gardens!


What fun we all had! Cole was so into it! He did a great job too!

Finally, we found the last item on the backside of a bridge. You can't see it, but there is a splattering of red paint on one of the support bars. (yes, some were that difficult!)

It was such fun to see several other people walking around with their newspapers. What a great idea to get people outdoors and acquainted with various parks. This will be a new tradition for the Jackson family!

My husband, my hero

Being sick has a couple of advantages - you have a perfect excuse to do nothing and your husband gets to serve you any way he can. Well, at least my husband has been. What an amazing man I married! He comes with a bonus too - a sweet mother who loves to extend a gesture of love whenever possible. She brought over a complete dinner last night plus some chicken salad just because I wanted some!

So today for lunch, Brice prepared a gorgeous plate of food including chicken salad (with grapes he cut and added), crackers, green salad with pita wedges, and strawberries with Cool Whip. It would earn a blue ribbon at O'Carr's!

We've watched the last 10 episodes of 24 over the past three days. And now my son has caught the flu as well. Guess I need to find another series.

Thanks, Honey, for all you do!!!

Free Ice Cream

It's PJ Weekend at Bruster's. That means you can wear your pajamas to Bruster's and get a free scoop of ice cream! Now, yesterday I tested positive for the flu, but is that enough to keep me away from free ice cream? NO! So here we all are getting our free scoops in our sleepwear.

B - I went with the Spongebob pants to add some variety and color. I hope this still counts as meeting your challenge. :-)