Jackson's Birthday Party

We had Jackson's construction themed birthday party this weekend, and it was great! I did get the cake, tons of friends and family came, and I think our house has imploded from all the toys Jackson got. I decided to do cake and ice cream, chips and dip, and because it was a construction theme, I made Dirt dessert that was served in a sand pail with a shovel. I had worms coming out of the dirt. It was pretty cute, and tasted good too!

We had a blast! Jackson wanted to spend the majority of the party outside, which was pretty funny (and not about to happen), and he really had no interest in opening the presents. He was too busy playing with the trucks at Nana's house. Some of the other kids that came ended up opening some of the presents, which I thought was hilarious. As soon as he would see a new present opened he would say, "Take it out" meaning for one of us to take it out of the package. Then he would run off to the newest toy. That was pretty funny. Also, when we would tell him to say thank you to the person whose gift he had just opened, he would take the gift back to them and say, "here you go." He's so sweet!

After we ate, and the presents were opened, we headed to the back yard where the older kids, Bella Hope, Gracie, and Jackson played in the sand box. Then they decided to put their feet in the pool. Jackson ended up getting stripped down to his diaper, and the girls both sat down on the steps of the pool. Gracie finally just ended up swimming with my Dad. We had a great day, and were so happy with everything!

Enjoy the pictures (there's only about a million of them!)

The decorated table

The Birthday Cake

What construction themed party would be complete without hardhats for the kiddo's???

Jackson's hat. The sides said, "The Boss" and "Foreman"

Dirt and Worms

Jackson riding his bike before the party started.

T.R., Kasey, and little Kloe

Kellyn was my official photographer and she commandeered my camera long enough for some self photos with Dad.

I'm sure I'm gonna hear it for this one :)

Singing the Happy Birthday song to Jackson. He was a little confused by the whole thing...

Blowing out his candle!

Jackson feeding Daddy some cake

I LOVE the fact that my Grandparent's smiling faces are in the background of this picture. They were never able to meet Jackson (he was the first great grandchild on that side of the family), but I know they are still with us in spirit...

Miss Bella Hope playing around

The Wade family

Miranda and Gracie

Jackson REALLY wanted to go outside

Jackson with his new Jackhammer which he loves!

Jackson with his dump truck from Kloe

Jackson and his bubble mower

Jackson and Gracie in the pool

Jackson, Bella Hope, and Gracie

Just the three of us...

Me and Jer

KK and Jackson

Gracie and Jackson Jackson taking Daddy his shoes...in the pool!

Gracie swimming

The Moore family

The Wade family

Me and little man

Making a pouty face for no reason at all

Jackson playing "tickle tickle."

Our little monkey

Jackson wearing his Mr. Potato head glasses

Argh. I have had alot of fun with this toy...

Martha Stewart I am not...

I would like to thank the Wal-Mart employee who nearly gave me a stroke when I called to confirm what time I can pick Jackson’s birthday cake up tomorrow. I ordered the cake 3 weeks ago, and the employee told me that she had no order on file for “Wade.”

Um. WhaddyameanyouhavenocakeorderforWade???

Seriously…I have a whole birthday planned around this cake.

15 minutes and 1 phone call later the order is found. Thanks Heavens. I would have hated to go postal in the Wal-Mart bakery screaming for Jackson’s white half sheet Tonka truck cake.

But I would’ve done it…

It's About Time

On the way to work today I spotted several gas stations selling regular unleaded for $3.59 a gallon. Whoo-hoo. Now if only they could keep the prices down for the next 2 weeks so I can get down to the beach for under $80 a tank. The way my luck is some huge hurricane will blow into town and gas prices will hit $5 before we head to Gulf Shores.

Could lower gas prices have anything to do with this? I'm thinking so...I say drill away!! I won't even talk about Nancy Pelosi pulling her communist garbage and dismissing Congress to avoid a vote. Who does she think she is? I won't go there. It makes me furious!!

The way I see it, I can still enjoy the beach with a few oil rigs out there. They won't bother me at all. So all you liberal, global warming fanatic, anti-drilling "green" people out there, if you want to pay $5 a gallon, you go right ahead. As for me, I would love to see gas get back to about .80 a gallon like it was when I turned 16, and I'm only 27 and look at prices now. You can just look the other way when we drop an oil rig offshore, because the other 70% of Americans that are for drilling are a little sick of these ridiculous prices.

I just read that Alaska is paying an average of $4.64 per gallon (that is cringe worthy), and the national average is now down to $3.86 per gallon. Way down here in the south, I am loving that we are back in the $3.50's. It is so nice to only see the pump hit $75 and then cut off. It just makes my day!

It's about time.

What are the prices in your neck of the woods? Let's play a really fun and not at all depressing game and see who can post the highest gas price that they have seen in their area, along with the lowest price in your area. Leave me some love!!

Family is everything!!

We went down to visit my grandmother this weekend. She is in a nursing home, and I haven't seen her in awhile. So, Jackson, Nana, KK, and I went down to visit and had a blast. My Aunt Nett (Annette) picked her up and took her back to her house and we had a wonderful visit with Nanny, Aunt Nett, Uncle Mike, my cousin Cherie, and her sweet kids Faith and Gage. We had a blast! Aunt Nett has a really nice motorcycle and she took me and Mom for a ride, and Jackson even got to go for a ride in the backyard. He loved it! It was so nice seeing everyone, and the boys had such a good time playing with each other.

Jackson and Nanny

Faith, Jackson, and Gage

Jackson and Gage riding their horsies

Aunt Nett and Jackson

Gage and Jackson hugging (Aren't they cute!)

Jackson running down the driveway from Gage. He almost ate asphalt doing this.

The 2nd cousins

Aunt Nett and Mom about to go for a ride

Sweet Sisters!

Jackson with the helmet on.

Nana and Jackson on the motorcycle

Solo ride

Aunt Nett and Jackson riding

Mom about to go ride. She was so funny that I just had to post this. Love you Mom!

Jackson going for a ride in the backyard with Aunt Nett.

Another sighting

I spotted Santa on the way to work again. He was rockin a vanity tag that read, "Ho Ho."

I was tempted to follow him to see where he works. I didn't because it would have highly disappointed me had I pulled up to a Hardee's, post office, or heaven forbid, Toys R Us.

Toot Toot!!

Jackson and I had to go to Walgreen’s last night to get some itch cream and oatmeal bath for him. They were packed, and as we were standing in line to pay we had about 4 people in front of us, and about 10 people behind us. I had to stand in line holding Jackson because he wanted to run off and out the automatic doors. So there I was balancing a toddler, my purse, and 2 odd shaped boxes in my arms when my precious little boy decided that it was the perfect time to poot. Loudly. And laugh hysterically about it. I tried to laugh it off to myself and somewhat ignore it.

Jackson had other plans.

He decides once again to poot, this time even louder than the first time. And this time the smell was awful, and I knew that everyone had heard it. Jackson picked that exact time to yell out to everyone within earshot, “Mommy pooted!”

Um. No. But thanks for sharing kiddo…

Can you see me dancing?

I just paid $3.65 a gallon to fill up my car. Whoo-hooo!

Back to Doh'Farley's

After our last disastrous trip to Doh'Farley's, and following most of the advice we received, I ended up contacting doh'farleys.com and complaining about the service. Within a week, we had received a $10 gift certificate to the restaurant. We decided to use it last night. This is the true adventure in parenting that occurred as a result.

We got there about 6:00 and immediately got seated. Our waitress, Kimberly, told us that their appetizers were 1/2 price, so we decided to order an appetizer that is basically homemade potato chips with spicy buffalo sauce and blue cheese crumbles, only we got them to put cheese sauce and bacon bits on it instead. I'm not so much a fan of buffalo sauce. I rather enjoy tasting my food. So Jeremy asked for a small side of buffalo sauce.

Let me preface the rest of this story with this: Jackson LOVES salsa. He literally licks it off the chips whenever we go to Mexican restaurants.

Jackson was enjoying his chips and bread, and before we could stop him, he literally dunked his bread into the buffalo sauce and stuck the whole piece in his mouth. Disaster. Oh the wails. The tears. The gnashing of teeth (mine not Jackson's). Poor Jackson could not get that spicy buffalo sauce taste out of his mouth. He was literally wailing!

Oh, you gotta love the stares of fellow customers.

It really amazes me how you cannot convince a toddler that when you eat something hot or spicy, taking a sip of water will help. Oh no. You cannot reason with a toddler, especially one in a crisis situation. Jeremy was about to die, because he was the one sitting right beside Jackson, and therefore, he was more responsible for the situation than I was :)

Finally, we got Jackson calmed down and distracted, finished our meal and were waiting on the ticket when a really nice old man came over to our table. He looked at Jackson and then said, "Is he okay now? We heard him crying from wayyyy back there. He wasn't happy."

Ya think? Thanks for noticing. Have a nice day.

True Redneck Tank Top!

I got this in my email this morning, and apparently this picture was taken in front of the Gardendale, Alabama, Walmart.

Look at it closely. Ya'll, that is a pair of Hanes underwear. Now I ask you, who looks at a pair of men's briefs and a pair of scissors and decides that this is the look they are going for? I won't even go into the fact that she basically has her head in the crotch of a pair of men's underwear. My friends, there is no accounting for good taste!

A Boy and his Mountain

OMG. I just visited Rocks in my Dryer, and she has the most amazing post up about her son Adam. He went to summer camp last year and had a really tough time with a bully. As someone who has personally experienced the pain of bullying, I could definitely relate to what a tough time Adam was having. The blog is about how they handled it. You have to go read it. It is great, and her husband's reaction to the bully is priceless. It is definitely worth dropping in and reading. I loved it!