As promised...

Here's a snapshot of what we've been up to the last 4-6 weeks...
*Jackson's last day of school was May 14th. He had a great year with Ms. Kim and Ms. Ali and loved all his friends at school. Because I was a room mom, I was invited to come to the class party on the last day of school. The kids had a great time being silly and I've got the pictures to prove it!

*We headed to Dallas on May 16th. What a fun trip! The kids were awesome in the car...thank goodness! We split the drive up into 2 days on the way there and 3 days on the way back. The twins had their first stay in a hotel on the way out. It wasn't the most restful night since they seemed to play "musical beds" all night. We arrived in Plano late afternoon on Saturday. Brandon and I had so much fun looking at all the buildings and pointing out what has changed since we moved, but also recognizing what has stayed the same. It was a bit bitter sweet to go back, only because we know that we would love to live there again if our immediate families were there as well. But, since we have young kids and we want them to have close relationships with grandparents, aunt, uncles and cousins we've got to stay in the SE for now! We spent Saturday through Wednesday at Uncle Woody and Aunt Gail's house. It was a lot of fun. Jackson had a great time getting to know Woody, Gail and Wil. The twins definitely ate up the attention, too. Gail was our secret weapon to get the twins to bed at night...since they were in an unfamiliar place we couldn't just lay them down and walk out of the room like we do at home. We went to Woody's new restaurant, Willy's, on Saturday night and them back with friends on Sunday night. We had so much fun catching up with old friends on Sunday night...total of 6 couples and 12 children (we had the most)! On Monday we went to the Wiggly Play Center with our friends the Polanco's. It was so much fun for the kids to run around and it even had an area for kids 18 months and younger. After that we headed to the Polanco's house so the kids could play even more. Being typical boys, Jackson and Benjamin ended up in the backyard, playing in a kiddie pool with only their shirts and underwear on.
On Wednesday we drove to Wichita Falls to visit Julie and Lane. They have a Jackson also which was a little confusing for the boys. Julie and I have always referred to them as Jackson #1 and Jackson #2 (theirs is #2 as he was born almost a year to the day after our Jackson). The boys had so much fun playing with each other and got along really well. We're going to see them at the beach in a couple weeks and the Jackson's are already talking about playing together! Julie and Lane welcomed Ava Claire in March...the twins were pretty interested in her and her bouncy chair. They pretty much made themselves comfortable and roamed all around the Odom's house. After stopping in Shreveport Thursday night we headed to Meg's new apartment in Hattiesburg, MS. She's got a great place and is settling in really well. We went to dinner Friday night, then just hung out and talked after the kids went to bed. Jackson woke up vomiting the next morning so we were a little late getting back on the road. We stopped through Auburn on Saturday to pick up George from Mom's house then got home at 9pm. We were all ready to be home, but the funniest thing was to see how excited Jackson was. He literally danced around the living room, laughing and carrying on until almost midnight. I guess he had a lot of energy stored up from being in the car for 3 days.

The trip with so much fun for us and the kids that we've decided to take a road trip every year. Next year I'd love to head towards the east coast.

*Brandon and I went to the Alicia Keys concert at the end of May with our friends, Colleen and Rob. It was a very fun date night and thanks to McKesson we had VIP passes/tickets...very nice!

*The first week of June, Jackson went to "Camp Mimi" for a week. Meg happened to be in town so she took him to Peppy and Kim's on Sunday and then to Montgomery to meet Mimi on Monday. He had so much fun!! We talked to him every day and loved hearing the joy and delight in his voice at being surrounded by family and getting everyone's undivided attention. He cried when I met them on Friday to pick him up...he wanted to go back home with Mimi!
*June 9-13 we had Vacation Bible School at church. I was one of the crafts leaders which means I have 125 kids come through my room each day in groups of 25-30. I was very apprehensive, but it turned out to be a fun week. There were 500+ kids at VBS and I know they were exposed to God/Christ in an effective way and had fun while they were at it! Jackson was in the 3 y.o. class with 4 other boys. He was so excited to go every morning and had a blast while he was there! The twins were the only babies in the crawlers room so they had a teacher, Liz, to themselves. They did great and I was very impressed with how she managed both of them...she even fed them lunch! After VBS each day we participated in Lunch Bunch...meals that were homemade and pre-packaged for volunteers and their children. We would pick up our meal each day and find a place in the sanctuary to have a picnic. For some reason this was one of Jackson's favorite parts of the day. All in all, I'm glad that I volunteered and plan to do it again next year.
*During the week of VBS, Jackson also had swim lessons in the afternoon. Miss Brittany came to our pool and taught Jackson how to blow bubbles and eventually got him to put his face in the water. He's no swimmer yet, but he is more comfortable in the water. I expect that by the time our beach trip is over, he'll be a little fish. :) Brittany is going to come back and work with him next Monday and Tuesday for a refresher course before we go out of town.
*Brandon took Jackson camping for the first time at Lake Lanier the Friday of Fathers Day weekend. They went with our friend Adam and his son Cole. Jackson had so much fun and was very good for Brandon. It looks like a Father's Day camping trip may be one of our family traditions from now on. Jackson did great sleeping in the tent...I took him to the store to get a new sleeping bag/backpack which he loves! The dads cooked breakfast the next morning then took to boys to the water to throw rocks in.

*William and Maggie turned 10 months on the 20th. I'm amazed at how fast this first year is flying by. They are crawling, cruising and getting into everything! They both babble pretty much non-stop and eat like little pigs. Their schedule is awesome! They are up between 7:45-8:15 in the morning. Take two 1.5-3 hour naps a day and are back in bed by 7:30 every night. It's great! They are very happy babies and pretty easy (knock on wood!). I'm really enjoying being home with the kids. It's been a process to get to this point, but I can finally say that I am very happy to be home and know that I am blessed to be able to do it. I know that eventually I'll go back to work, but there are no plans for that in the foreseeable future. Notice Maggie ever so gently "helping" William out of the seat :)

*I'm meeting Margaret and Tonya at a Beth Moore conference tomorrow and will stay down in Buckhead with them. I'm looking forward to the conference and to spending time with adults! It should be great. Brandon will be home with the kids until sometime Saturday afternoon and I know that it will be a change of pace for him, but he will do a great job! I'm sure he'd love your thoughts/prayers, though. :)

*Jen and I took Jackson and Morgan to Kangaroo Bob's for a Mommy/Big Kid date last weekend while the Dad's stayed with the babies. It was lots of fun and the kids wore themselves out jumping, running and climbing all around. I hope you are all well and as always will try to update the blog again soon!