Catholic School's Week

Last evening was the kick-off celebration for Catholic School's Week. Some people ask why we send Jackson to a Catholic school and other than saying, "well, that's where we went, so that's where we're sending him," there are a lot of reason that we chose Saint Michael School. This year has proven to be the best (and most challenging at times) school year for Jackson yet and we think it's because:

1. Jackson gets to commute with me in the mornings.

2. He gets the opportunity to see his Mom, Dad, Aunt, Ga-Ga, and Pop volunteering in his school weekly.

3. He has a classroom full of wonderful friends  - imagine of the 23 students, 14 are boys and they are all good friends and are really good kids (so are the girls:).

4. He gets to learn about religion in the classroom and gets to say 'Thank you', through prayer, for the many blessings he has, many times throughout the day.

Hermit crabs in Jackson's classroom (George and Polamalu and one other one that gets named tomorrow)

 Jackson's desk

 Jackson with his teacher. She has been a wonderful leader and role model for Jackson this year. She obviously loves her job and takes such special care of each student.

 Jackson's class rules (I think we could all be reminded to follow these - imagine if we did, life might just be a little more simple).

 Morning routine (I like #2- keep those kids sanitary!)

 Jackson's essay for Catholic School's Week!

 Jackson with one of his best buddies, Evan. I like this photo b/c they didn't know I was taking it and they're all 'in action'.



We are very happy with Jackson's education and it is really a good thing to have this week to focus on why we chose this school for Jack.

Speaking of school..........Jude got to visit preschool this past week. He's all signed up to start 4 y/o preschool this fall @ Little Saints Preschool (where Jackson went). He's pretty excited. We're a little in denial that he turns 4 this summer and is ready to start school :(

Dreaming.......

of days gone by.........

Playing in the lake @ Deep Creek

 Ocean City, MD

 Crazy times @ Hooper's in OCM

Slip slidin' away @ Grammy Linda's

Climbing around @ Patton Park

It's kinda like my good friend, Amy said, you can only post so many pictures of cookie baking, fort building, and coloring. Cabin fever has set in so I do the only thing I know how to do: reminisce about summer and vacations!



Catching Up

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Lately I've been devoting all of my blogging energy to my 'other' blog, which I'll be posting on in a few minutes (so head over there after you stop here).

So, with winter setting in and the cold weather and snowy conditions keeping us in the house a lot, we haven't been out to do too much.

We've watched the men's Red Flash basketball game on TV (in full gear).

Including Red Flash tattoos!

Jude has been into quite a lot lately. His specialty is pulling things out - all kinds of things, mostly toys, but you just never know what he's going to be up to. Jeremy took this picture of him after asking him to get dressed. Jude was quite proud of laying his jeans, tee shirt and shoes out on the floor and adding a knight's armor and fire fighter's hat to it!

While taking down the Christmas decorations, Jude decided to use the stockings for, well, stockings!

He totally cracks us up all the time. Here he is holding the Austin Powers movie (yes, that's on VHS) in one hand and a BIG muffin in the other (just cute and funny).

And finally, Jackson started basketball 2 weeks ago. There are 9 boys from his class on the team. He is really enjoying it and since I used to play (we're talking a looonnnggg time ago), it's bringing back all the good memories I had. I really like basketball and hope he does too. He's mainly been playing forward b/c he's one of the tallest kids on the team. He practices twice a week  - I'm glad he's getting some exercise.

He's really starting to pick up the dribbling skill.

He shoots (and doesn't score, but it was a nice attempt!)

Bringing the ball down court.

So that's all for now.

Welcome Winter

I realize in about a month or so I will be regretting these words,

 but the snow was so pretty today:

Welcome Aidan

On Monday, December 20, 2010, my nephew, Aidan was born. My sister, Dana and her husband, Nate did an awesome job on this little guy! He's perfect.

We all visited my parents today and we got to see the little man.

He mostly slept, but somehow he seems to be perfect even at that. Can't wait till hold him a little more....

From the hospital on his birthday:

The boys were pretty proud of him :)

Jude wanted to 'pet' him

I think this is so cute. I couldn't get a good picture of his face b/c he kept covering it up.

In Case You're Wondering.......

...........what Jackson might be up to during his Christmas vacation, check it out:

Santa brought the Lego Harry Potter Hogwart's Castle to Ga-Ga and Pop's house. Many hours (honestly, about 6-7 hours) and lots of strained neck and back muscles later, we (I say 'we', but Jackson did this solo) had this:

If you could've seen the concentration he had, you'd be amazed.

There were so many little details.

This is the dining hall (I'm sure it has a specific name, but I'm not sure what that might be!)

And an view from above of the dining hall

Albus Dumbledore (and all his wizardness)

 The sorting hat (one of my favorite parts of the movie is when the students find out, from this sorting hat,  which house they'll live in).

HP!

1290 pieces

6-7 hours of work

1 happy boy

Merry Christmas!

It's only 9:10am on Christmas morning and we're exhausted!

According to Jackson, this has been a '2-thumbs-up' kinda day!

Up @ 6:30am, all presents opened by 6:50, now just 'getting to know everything.'

This is our tree with all the presents under it, once Santa already stopped @ our house.

Jude opening the ABC photo album/scrapbook I made for him! I made one for Jackson when he was 3 and Jude just loves looking through it, so I got the idea this year to make him his own book. He loves to look @ scrapbooks, so he was pretty excited to get this (and I was pretty excited to make it)!

Jackson opening his Vectron - it's a little dome-shaped toy that floats in the air and when it comes down, you put your hand under it and it goes back up. Forgot to get the batteries (oooops). At least he'll have something else to play with when his other toys wear out their excitement.

Jude drinking his juice out of our Christmas Vacation moose mug!

You guessed it - Jackson vegging in our bed with his new Nintendo DS (and Super Mario Brothers game). See ya sometime next year Jack........

All is said and done, not looking too bad for the hurricane that whipped through this morning.



So here's what the kiddos got from Santa:

Jackson: Nintendo DSi, 2 DS games, Vectron, 2 Lego sets, a warm-up outfit, Diary of A Whimpy Kid card game, Hot Wheels card game, Perfection, Guess Who Mix-n-Mash.

Jude: Scrapbook, Jackson's Nintendo DS (Jackson gave it to him), Caillou DVD, I Spy DVD, Wonder Pets DS game, a tanker fire truck (that Jeremy built), new dancing shorts, unders, a DS carrying case, fireman toy, Richard Scary's Busytown game.

Jeremy and I always exchange our gifts on Christmas Eve as we're getting the kids' gifts ready. We like Christmas morning to be all about Jackson and Jude.

Jeremy got me subscriptions to Women's Running and Runner's World Magazines (total score), socks (needed desperately), and eco-toothbrush (been wanting one for a long time), PJs and a workout top (again, needed and wanted), a marathon and 1/2 marathon training guide book (watch out), and a gift certificate to get a Road ID band for running (should've gotten one of these a long time ago), and a new navy blue pea coat (he gave it to me yesterday to wear to church). It's amazing how perfect his gifts are to me every year! I'm already using the socks.

I got Jeremy: slippers, 2 sweaters, a sweatshirt and fleece pants, 2 tee shirts, a fleece, 2 magazines, and the John Stewart book Earth.

What a morning! We're getting ready to head next door to Jeremy's parents in an hour. There'll be a ton more mayhem and madness and we're totally looking forward to it! Then it'll be onto my parents house to cap off the craziness!

MERRY CHRISTMAS