Friday, March 28, 2008

Look what I can do...

My baby Jackson turns 2 years old tomorrow!!!

Today I made his birthday cake... all from scratch... I was quite impressed with myself.

For those of you that didn't know (which I'm not sure how you wouldn't know Jackson LOVES cars. My sister-in-law, Brittany sent the cutest recipe for a race track cake, and I did it! And, to top it off, its cute! Yay for me!!!


Are you impressed, or what?!
For those of you still waiting, the coconut cake recipe is coming... I've made it twice in the last two weeks, but haven't taken a picture of it. I simply can'y give you the recipe until I can show you how pretty it also is! :)

Bring it on!!!

I have recently been informed by my multitudes of readers that my blog was not open to receive comments from anonymous readers...

Wish granted... please all readers out there, comment to hearts content... I can take it!!!

He's Ready for his Close-up!

My friend Jennie is a really good photographer, and recently she offered to take pictures of Jackson, both for me and for her to add subjects to her portfolio. This week we went to the Arboretum, and she took some beautiful pictures of Jackson. He was so uncooperative, but you would never know with the sweet images she captured.





Jennie's really great, and if anyone is interested, visit her photography blog:

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Here comes Peter Cottontail!!!

The day before Easter, we ahd a picnic and Easter Egg hunt at church. We had our picnic with our good friends Jennie and Kevin and their kids, Isaac and Maylee, and then had our Easter Egg hunt. Jennie took some great pictures of the kids, and they had a wonderful time!

Jackson was pretty good at this hunting thing... he would find the egg, shake it, open it and take out the candy, and then put the egg back down... He's no dummy!


Here are the kids going through their treasures. Maylee thought the eggs were yummy!
Jackson showed off his belly all day... I wish I had the kind of stomach I could walk around and show off all day!
We had a fun Easter and hope all of our family and friends also had a great time...
If you're wondering, because I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath, Jackson did look precious on Easter, but, I'm so smart that I left my camera in New Jersey and didn't have it Easter weekend. I do have it now (thank you Papa and Tamma) and will dress him back him back so you all can see. He loves being in his pretty clothes... he walks around kind of prancing kind of petting his pretty outfit. Very cute!!!

Our Fun Trip...

A few weeks ago, I was feeling sorry for myself, you know, the "I'm overworked and under appreciated" and decided I needed a vacation. I called my Aunt Kelly in New Jersey and talked her into letting Jackson and me come for a visit.

We had a wonderful time!!!


We left on St. Patrick's Day... of course I had to dress Jackson for the festivities! :)
Jackson is sitting on the arm of the airplane seat looking out the window at all the "cars!!!"
One of the things we did was go to a Children's Museum in Philadelphia called, "Please Touch". It was great... everything was intercative, and Jackson and Ava had a blast!

Jackson must have gone down this slide 25 times. He would dissapear from me and I would find him here.

Jackson LOVED the "transportation" area of the museum... this is him after driving a city bus

Jackson's birthday is March 29th, and my Grandma's (Tamma) birthday is March 11th so we had a little birthday party for the two of them while we were up there visiting... It was really fun even though Jackson REFUSED to wear his birthday hat!

Blowing out the birthday candles... make a wish... I'm sure Jackson wished for cars

Jackson discovered his inner Grandpa Johnson (my dad) as he didn't want birthday cake... only icing !!! And lots of it.
This was the side of the cake Jackson ate ALL the icing off of.
YUM!!!
Apparently it was even yummier off of Ava's fingers!

We had a great trip. Jackson walks around the house asking for everyone...

Papa, Nanna (Tamma), Ka-ey (Kelly) Day-da (Ava). He loves all of you and can't wait to see you again. I was talking to Kelly today and she said that whenever Ava sees an airplane she points to it and says that Jackson is on it going home to see his daddy. They certainly miss each other!



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I'm It...

Wendi gave me homework on her blog, so here goes...

*Ten Years Ago*

I was a Junior in High School

I was working at Regal Cinemas (my favorite job)

I was driving a brown '91 Honda Civic

Amy was my best friend (still is)

It cost me less than $10 to fill up my car with gas

*5 things on my "to-do" list today*

Clean out and organize my closet

Stop being such a slacker blogger, and do a couple posts

do some laundry

unload and load the dishwasher

take a nap

*Things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire*

pay off my house and those of my loved ones

Buy two BRAND NEW cars

Buy my dream house and make sure that it is updated with all those wonderful things I dream about

And like Wendi, pay LOTS of tithing and give to charity

*Three bad habits*

Picking at my fingernails... it drove my mom crazy for years, and now drives Cameron crazy

not picking up the kitchen after I cook

letting my clothes pile up on my bedroom floor, once again, it drove my mom crazy for years, and now drives Cameron crazy

*Places I have lived*

in order...

Greensboro, NC
Provo, UT
Sanford, NC
Greensboro, NC
Provo, UT
Greensoro, NC
Jamestown, NC
High Point, NC

*Jobs I have had*

movie theater, you name it, I did it
Sales associate at several places at the mall
Retail store manager
mortgage loan processor
Mommy... the best one so far

*Things most people don't know about me*

I LOVE to bake... not cook, bake
I LOVE reality TV
I LOVE TV shows that only teenagers should watch

*I'm obsessed with*

Carolina Basketball
Big Brother
my Jackson

*When I was young I wanted to be...*

a mom

American Idol

I have always been a fan of American Idol... I have always watched it faithfully. Yet this year, for some reason, I have just not had much interest in watching it. I really just had no desire to watch. People who know me know that in the past I have been a huge American Idol follower.

That being said, let me rewind to last Thursday night. I was on the phone with my dad. If you don't know him, he is the biggest music buff you have ever met. He knows everything about every song ever written, every song writer to ever write a song, etc. We were filling each other in about our happenings over the last week or so since the last time we talked...

He says, very nonchalantly, "so, Ive been watching American Idol, and blah, blah, blah" Wait just a second... did I just hear that correctly... MY dad had been watching American Idol. The rest of his sentence just kind of trailed off as I tried to compose enough to be able to respond to his comment. It actually felt pretty good that I got to say, "Dad, I'm not even watching American Idol", and hear him get over the shock that he was watching it and I wasn't.

I told him that I would start watching it once he told me how much he really liked a couple of the performers. So last night, I did it, I watched American Idol. And, as in the past I did enjoy myself. My favorite were David (even though the song was terrible, he's REALLY good) and Carly, who I loved as soon as she started just talking. I knew she was going to be cool. I called my dad this afternoon and asked, "so did you watch American Idol last night?" He said "yes" and I continued to ask him throughout the conversation just so I could keep hearing him say "yes, I watched American Idol." I think its just great and I can't get over it. All the grief I got for years about watching it, how everything about it was what my dad hated about the music business.

Music, sweet music! :)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Say Cheese!

Just a few pictures to hold everyone over...

playing in the garage at Nanay's house
At the park with buddies Isaac and Arthur

Jackson loves the slide... he kept going so fast that I couldn't get his face


Dinner time!

I know this isn't the most attractive picture... Jackson ate a blue sucker and ran around all night showing us his blue tongue... he was very proud of himself!

From the mouths of babes...

I had a really wonderful experience today in Primary, and I wanted to share it with you...

My friend, Jennie is the primary chorister and the kids are learing a new song that isn't in the Children's songbook. For the last several years, there has been a new song put out for the yearly Primary program that is not in the songbook. Today, Jennie gave the kids the assignment to listen very closely to the words while they sang, and when they were done, she had them write down how the song made them feel. They sang so beautifully and so reverently, and the the feelings they had about the song were so touching... we felt such a sweet spirit from those kids today. The only downside was after listening to all of this, and sitting in the back of the room crying like a baby, I had to get up and give Sharing time.

"If the Savior Stood Beside Me" by Sally DeFord

If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously?
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

I f the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more reverently?
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

He is always near me though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves dearly, I am in His watchful care.
So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.

I hope that the Savior would be proud of the things I do and say if He were standing near me and watching over me. What a beautiful song, and how precious from the mouths of the sweet children of our Heavenly Father.

The Tempest is Raging

I was getting ready for church this morning, looking in the mirror, at the new pimples on my face, once again discouraged that an unfortunate symptom of this pregnancy is that my face looks like that a 14 girl. When I was complaining of that to my mom yesterday she just reminded of the wonderful hormones that are raging through my body.

So this morning, a wonderful little song popped into my head...

Let me preface the lyrics to the song with a quick story of how they came about... when I was 13 or 14, we spent a week during summer in Maine with my mom's family in a cabin on a lake. Some of my favorite memories are of my sjummers in Maine. Needless to say, it was a very hormonal summer for me and my cousin, who is several months younger than me. One day, as we were driving somewhere, my mom, my aunt Kimmy, cousin Shannon and me came up with a wonderfully clever little song...

( to the tune of "Master the Tempest is Raging")

Mother the hormones are raging
Emotions are rising high
My face is o'er shadowed with acne
And I've got great big, fat thighs

This morning was just one of those mornings... so the next time you are having one of those days, just sing that song to yourself, and hopefully it will bring a smile to your face, just like it did mine!

Smiles all around!!!

Being a Carolina fan just keeps getting better and better!!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Victory is sweet!

Danny Green is my new hero!

And Ty Lawson... with 55 seconds left... are you kidding me?!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Not Original...

I will do some more posting this weekend, but for now I wanted to post some quotes that I read on other blogs... these two quotes I really like. I can't take credit for finding the quotes, but I guess I can take credit for reading the blogs that they were on.

This one is from a close friend of my cousin Shannon, Jen. I haven't seen her in a long time, but I love to read her blog... I aspire for my blog to be as entertaining as hers!...

"God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation." Thomas S. Monson

The next is from my friend Amy's blog...

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. Spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.Say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.Say "I love you" to your loved ones and mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there. Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.~~ Remember ~~Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." Gearge Carlin.

I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did...

More soon...