After we cleaned up from Christmas, we got ready for church and enjoyed a really nice musical service. I love Christmas time. I love the music, the messages, the spirit and the little child that lives inside all of us still. The music is definitely one of my favorite parts. I should have gotten a picture of all of us, but apparently didn't. I am terrible at this! I did get some cute pics of Andrew in his new sweater looking adorable.

Can you tell he likes to ham it up for the camera now?



After church we had my friend Catherine from work and her boyfriend John come over for dinner. Again I didn't get any pics but we had a delicious dinner. I made a Rosemary and Garlic Crusted Prime Rib, Garlic and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, Ciabatta Bread Stuffing, Homemade Crescent Rolls (my Aunt Nanette's recipe YUMMY!), Catherine brought Green Beans and Brussel Sprouts, and then to top it all off, we had Caramel Apple Pie (From the Pioneer Woman) and Chocolate Pecan Pie with Homemade Whipped Cream. I think I just gained more weight typing out our menu. But it was super yummy. And we enjoyed hanging out with Catherine and John. Thanks guys!

Christmas Morning 2011

We have decided to try and make a point to always be home at our house for Christmas. Trying to travel with gifts and have Santa follow us is just a hassle and kind of takes the fun out of the holiday. And we want to be able to build our own family traditions as Andrew gets older. This was our first year of Christmas at home. I was really excited. I couldn't wait to get the house all decorated and be able to have Andrew open all of his gifts.

On Christmas Eve some of our really good friends always have an open house with tortilla soup and tamales and caroling and fun with friends. We have always missed it because we were out of town or had family in town so this was our first year to get to attend. We had so much fun and look forward to many more years of the Jackson's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" fun. Thanks Guys!

On Christmas morning, Andrew woke up pretty early - 6:30, but I guess he could tell how excited I was or something. We had homemade cinnamon rolls - something we did many years while I was growing up -

and banannas.
Here is the tree and gifts below it, before all of the mayhem began.


We got Andrew a power wheels quad with Lightning McQueen for Christmas. I figured it would be the best of everything he loves. Cars the movie, cars in general and noisy things. How can you go wrong? You can see as soon as he finished breakfast and got down, he ran straight over to it and jumped on.
Daddy hadn't even unplugged it from charging yet, so we had to adjust pretty quickly. His patience was non-existent with his excitement.

He didn't really know what to do so we pushed the button and showed him how it worked. And he liked it briefly, until he couldn't figure out how to stop it. Then he freaked out a bit. It was really funny. He wasn't too interested in it for a while after that. But I got a couple of good pics.
After that he decided to come over to the tree and see what all the fuss was under there. He did get the hang of ripping the paper off.

Although the first gift he opened had cars in it and as soon as he saw those, he quit tearing the paper and started trying to get those out. And it was hard to get his interest back after that!
We put his car race track from Santa together and he was loving that as you can see.



He got quite the gift collection this year. He got a tractor from Aunt Kiersty, Aunt Megan and Uncle Seth,
and a "tractor" which is actually a monster truck from Mr. Jim and Tyler and mommy's office, lots of new books and some new clothes.
James got a lot of new clothes, and the Lord of the Rings movies, but these were a fun gift I found. At Hobby Lobby they started carrying a line with vintage ford stuff. This little hook has the lightning bolt gear which was on the unibody pickup that was sold to pay for my engagement ring. Pretty perfect find right?

I got the Kindle Fire that I have been wanting, and a cute little casserole dish and a cupcake holder. Now I better get cooking!
The final results of Christmas.....

First Santa Visit

We didn't make it to see Santa last year. We were trying to leave town and it just didn't happen. So Andrew got to see Santa for his first time this year and our Church Christmas party. He wasn't scared at all but kept looking around like what the heck am I doing up here? He did get a Candy Cane at the end so he was as excited as can be.




He really enjoyed the cookie walk too. Although after he won on his first try, he couldn't understand why he didn't get a cookie every time and kept trying to go take more. He was on a bit of a sugar high after this so bed time was a ton of fun!

Keeping Up - Family Loss

Sorry for all of this catch up. I have been a total slacker on the blog because it has been a crazy couple of months.

After my Uncle Robert passed away we lost quite a few other family members and rather than dwell on everything I just want to make a quick note of all that happened.

We lost my Great Uncle Leland shortly after Uncle Robert. Uncle Leland was my Grandpa Roy's brother and lived in the house behind my Grandpa Roy and Grandma Bertha and then Grandma Carlene later on. (These are my mom's parents). We spent many summer days running back and forth between the houses and making more than a few stop offs in the garden between them to pick the raspberries, that we weren't supposed to and eat them. We would spend a lot of time over there with Chris - my Uncle Leland and Aunt Marilyn's youngest daughter. We always had a good time and they didn't mind if we just let ourselves in. He had a brain tumor and luckily didn't suffer long with it.
Around Thanksgiving we lost my Great Uncle Jim (or Bud as we all called him). Uncle Bud is my Grandma Betty's (Dad's mom) youngest brother. We always had a close relationship with him because when we moved to Lubbock, his family was there. They had all moved to Lubbock many years before and most were still in that area. We spent a lot of time there and when Uncle Bud and Aunt Bette Anne would come to Lubbock we always went to see them and because of that, a lot of times saw them more than our own grandparents. He had been sick for a while and had Alzheimers so it was really a blessing for him to go and be with all of his family on the other side. But still hard to see them go from this life.
My mom's Uncle Wayne was the next to go. I didn't know Uncle Wayne that well. We didn't live near him so the only memories I have of him are when my Great Grandma Randall was alive and we would go to visit and occasionally he would be there. I don't remember many of his kids either. I think a lot of them were distant from the family and so we didn't spend much time with them. Mom had a lot more memories of him and I think used to be pretty close with some of his kids so it was hard on her. Especially after coming so close on the heels of everything else.
My second to the youngest sister Kalli and her husband Steve found out that they were expecting in early November, but right before Christmas she miscarried. While we didn't get to meet or know this little spirit, it was really hard to have the blow of yet another loss and to see them have to suffer through it. I was so excited for another niece or nephew, and I know there is a reason but it is hard to understand what that reason is. I can't imagine her loss and am so proud and amazed by her. She is very strong and she is resilient and I'll get another niece or nephew soon.

"Shake Your Booty"

Most of you have probably seen this on Facebook, but just in case and for my records....Here is Andrew learning to say "Shake Your Booty" and I am partial but think he is stinking adorable!

Finger Painting

Andrew was not feeling well one weekend so we couldn't go do much. I decided to let him try being artsy. I figured he paints with his ketchup and food all of the time so we would try finger painting. He doesn't quite understand it but you can see he made quite the mess!

He helped paint the bricks

And then himself.


This required an immediate bath. He had a good time though and you can't go wrong there right?

A Tribute

I know that my sisters have already written about all of this on their blogs and I have posted on Facebook, but this is mostly for my recording purposes because I want to remember and I am really behind on my blogging so I am trying to catch up now.

While James and I were in Amarillo at Matt Hill's wedding I got a call from my Dad that our Uncle Robert had passed away unexpectedly. It was a pretty tough blow because it always seemed like he was invincible.

Growing up we always lived close to my mom's cousins in Mesa. The Brinton's were always the closest. Aunt Ann and Uncle Randy and Aunt Nanette and Uncle Robert in particular (not really aunt and uncle but have never been anything but). We spent many nights sleeping over, swim parties, dinners, family home evenings (this is something that we do where we spend one night - usually Monday - a week together as a family, playing games, eating food etc. We spent many a Monday night with the entire Brinton clan), Brinton Halloween Carnivals at my great Uncle Dil's house and so many more memories from living in Mesa with them.
Then we moved to Texas when I was 9 and every summer, and most Thanksgivings we came back to Mesa to visit family and stayed with them. They even came to visit us right after we moved to Texas and stayed with us. They have 7 children, 5 of which are fairly close in age to all of my sisters and I. We would roll out blankets all over their living room floor and have a giant party. I don't think we slept much but the great part is neither did mom or Aunt Nanette or Uncle Robert or Dad. They would sit up in the other room talking just as late as us so we didn't get in trouble. :-) And then the next morning Uncle Robert would make us waffles and home squeezed orange juice. I spent one summer learing how to swing dance with Matt and his friends, and did many makeovers, barbie doll playing, boy drooling with Staci.
I also got addicted to playing Mario Kart on their super nintendo and spent many nights sitting in Robert and Nanette's backyard smelling the orange blossoms from their citrus trees and the grove over their fence.
I can't remember a trip to Mesa where they weren't involved somehow. Many times we were there and they weren't and we were told you WILL stay at our house, you WILL enjoy it, there is food there and we won't take no for an answer. I even remember spending 2 and a half weeks there after our car broke down and they just kept Kiersty and I there and never complained, or made us feel like we were putting them out. We got to go to the movies and play miniature golf and just in general have a blast. We were part of the family.
Their house was always fun, loud, and happy. Kiersty had her wedding reception there - Mom and Dad were living in Idaho and I was in Texas, but she and Seth wanted to get married in Mesa because there were a lot of memories there and family and Robert and Nanette opened their house to all of us. They booted kids out of rooms, again made us all beds throughout the house. Drove us to and from the wedding, helped decorate and adjusted everything inside when rain made the outdoor reception not feasible. This was the first time James met them and they took him right in. It was like he had always been part of the family too. They cooked all of the food along with my Aunt Belinda and Uncle Kay and Uncle Robert was right there in the middle of all of it with his apron on. I can't remember a time I didn't see him doing service for someone and he always had the biggest smile on his face. He was the first to start a joke and just have a good time. He was also quick to tell us all how special we were and how much he loved us and our visits and our time with them and how we better hurry up and come back to visit. And every time we have gone back to Mesa since then we have always been able to go visit them. We were even supposed to have a big birthday party for Andrew for his first birthday when we were all there for Christmas until we all caught the "plague" and didn't want to go get anyone else sick and missed it.

I was able to fly back to Mesa with Andrew for the funeral. (Here is Andrew at the Dallas airport on the way)
It was wonderful to see how much of an impact Uncle Robert made on his whole community and the people around him. The amount of tributes that came out about things that he had done and the amount of people who came to show their respect for this man should amaze me, but it doesn't because I knew what a great man he was. It was awesome to hear and see the tributes though. He has a great legacy and has left behind an awesome family to carry it on for him. And it was wonderful to see so much of my family. I hate that it seems like these are the only times we get together anymore but I loved to be able to spend time with those of us that made it. My cousin Jen was kind enough to open her home for all of us to get together in that night after the funeral.




Andrew slept through this whole fun get together. The 2 hour time difference was rough on the little man as you can see by this pic.

It was so fun to be able to meet all of my cousins children and introduce Andrew to all of them and my aunts and uncles that haven't met him yet. I'm really grateful we got to go.

Uncle Robert will be sorely missed in our family because he has had such a great impact on our lives. I am so grateful to have known him and to call him Uncle.