Baby Steps

In the previous post I mentioned Jackson has started the walking process. We couldn't be more terrified thrilled at this recent milestone! He started taking steps around his 11 month birthday (one and then falling) and has progressed since.

Today I finally got it on film as he inched his way to our open refrigerator....

He seems to stand up and walk over to the refrigerator every time I have the door open for more than a second.

Incidentally when I was putting groceries away the other day I left it open for a few minutes and turned around to this:

Busted. Looks like in addition to the casualties of walking, we are also going to have to talk about the casualties of drinking and walking. Never a dull moment...

Sand, Snow and Santa

Friends and family, we have returned! We had the most epic Christmas break our little family could have ever asked for and I'll give you/show you the rundown of what went down...

We went to Turks and Caicos sans our sweet little cub to enjoy some time to ourselves before Christmas. It was in a word, perfect. Exactly what we needed and helped us completely relax after an extremely active last quarter of 2011.

After one day there we missed our boy like crazy! Thank you, thank you, thank you mom and dad for watching Jackson while we were away and for putting up with my 25 phone calls a day, my control-freak nature and my extreme OCD.

Seriously, the fact that my parents still love me is a true testament to their loyalty. Love you mami y papi :)

From warm sunny weather and sand beneath our toes we returned to my parents' house to this...

Cold weather, wind and snowwwwwww. El Paso had a white Christmas y'all! Even the dogs didn't want to go outside and instead chose to huddle together for some extra warmth...

The snow however did NOT deter Mr. Jackson. He was THRILLED to pieces at the white stuff and especially enjoyed eating it...

We celebrated Christmas eve around a warm fire and had our annual family cocktail party--decked out in matching red sweaters to make my mom happy because she likes us all to 'match' during Christmas. I know what you're thinking...this is a GREAT tradition right?! Well, I'll let you be the judge of that....

Let's just say I'm glad cocktails are involved in the red-sweater extravaganza that goes down every Christmas eve.

Anyways, Jackson didn't last too long as he was over served on milk. He went straight to bed and told us he couldn't WAIT to see what Santa brought him!

Christmas morning he was up bright and early and ready to see all of his neat presents.

While he thoroughly enjoyed playing with his gifts for 12.6 seconds he decided that the present he loves most of all is his 'lechita' (milk).

Can you find the baby in the wrapping paper?!

After an eventful morning, Gordo sat us all down and told us this was the most amazing Christmas he has ever been a part of and can't wait to do it again next year.

He then stood up, took a few steps!!! (More on this later!!!), yawned, and bid us adieu as he climbed up the stairs to take his morning nap.

We had an AMAZING Christmas with our little cub and we hope y'all had a loving and blessed one as well!

11 Months!!!

Just Because...

We’re getting ready to head out tomorrow for our fantastic Christmas adventure. I wanted to post these pics of the cub looking oh-so-cute to remind myself of how perfect he CAN be.

I think they'll help when he decides to throw a fit around hour 4, 5, 6 and/or 7 of the trip....

Jackson meets Leighton...FINALLY!!!!

As you recall we celebrated baby Leighton's birthday back in May when she was born. She is that chick from Dubai and the daughter of our dear friends, Jon and Hillary.

We have been patiently waiting the Cumberworth's arrival since the day they left for Dubai, (which was back in February) so to say we are excited they are finally here is a severe understatement.

We have already spent a lot of time with them and they have been gracious enough to let me stalk them on various outings. Jackson has met Leighton via Skye but never in real life so he was excited to see what all this hype was about.

Here is Leighton telling Jackson all about her world travels and what its like living in Dubai. She also told him how she came over on a BIG plane and flew 17 hours (and only slept 4 hours) to get to Austin with only her mom in tow, (yea Hillary is kind of our hero right now).

They went to lunch together and Jackson was in thug mode and that kind of upset Ms. L...

...but she got over it quickly and decided to lend him her excersaucer which he almost destroyed...
All in all the visits have been fabulous and we are sooooo happy they are finally here. It's going to be a GREAT Christmas holiday because of their presence and I'll keep y'all posted with the cub's & Leighton's adventures.

Jackson meets Santa!

We took Jackson to meet Santa so that he could tell him what he wanted for Christmas. We waited in line for an hour in freezing weather, we talked to his elf for 10 minutes about the photo package and I listened intently to Santa's EXACT instructions. 13 seconds later this is what we ended up with:

This is what Jack and I expected would happen. At first I was pretty disappointed in the results and lack of customer service. Now, however I've decided that this picture makes me all kinds of happy. So...

Photo package "special": $30

Photo CD: "$25

Look on Jackson's face when he met Mr. Claus: PRICELESSSSSSSS

Oh, and the cub was all smiles as soon as I picked him back up. He told Jack and I he wants a bike from the fat man in the red suit.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time