Jackson's Christmas Program

Jackson's school has been preparing for their Christmas programs since the beginning of November. One day, I went to pick up Jackson and his teachers asked me about him singing Frosty the Snowman. I explained how last year, Jackson's class sang Frosty and he cried the entire time on stage. His teachers told me that they tried singing the song and Jackson started crying and telling them about crying on stage last year! What a memory! So, his teachers selected Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer because of Jackson. Each day, Jackson gave me a report on practicing for the program. For a while, it seemed like Jackson had an accident every time he got on stage to practice! Finally, the big night arrived and it was time for Jackson's program. Mama J and Papa J came up just to see the program. The bets were on. . . would Jackson cry??

There's Jackson's class lined up to go on stage.

I couldn't believe that was my son up on stage! He was smiling, singing and having a blast!!

Look at how tall he is!

Towards the end of the song, they all played air guitar. Jackson really got into it!

The end!!

He had a great time on stage. We were so proud of him! After the program was over, we all headed to Braum's to get ice cream.

Catching up

My dad was the official photographer for Halloween, and I finally remembered to get the pictures from him. Better late than never!


Jackson at his school Halloween party. Mama J and Papa J went to the party to be with Jackson since neither Thomas nor I could attend the celebration.


Jackson eats his snacks.


Papa J ended up on the floor with Jackson.


Before long, Papa J was surrounded by Jackson's classmates!


They started playing blocks. All of the kids were in on the action.


Then it was time to head outside to play. Jackson insisted that Mama J and Papa J needed to go with him.

I think he is in the wrong costume for the fire truck! Jackson had planned on being a firefighter and we had a really cute costume for him. Halloween morning, he insisted on wearing his train engineer costume!

Trick or treating. This picture will always define the year with the Obama yard sign. (I think it was the only one in the neighborhood.)

There weren't many kids out trick-or-treating, so people were overly generous!

Jackson examining his loot!

Blessings

Almost a year ago, I posted that my dad was diagnosed with rectal cancer. I can now proudly say that he is a cancer survivor!! Praise God!! Dad had his last surgery the week before Thanksgiving. He is off this week traveling for work!

Thanksgiving Update

We have had a lot of excitement in the Larriviere household. I spent Monday and Tuesday working on sewing projects for my kids rooms. On Wednesday, Jackson and I woke up right after Thomas went off to work and began to get ready to leave for College Station that afternoon. I didn't feel so hot. Well, to make a long story short, I kept not feeling well. In fact, I felt pretty bad. I continued getting ready to leave and even cooked one of my dishes that I was supposed to bring to CS. I finally called Thomas to tell him about my right side hurting. I finally agreed for him to call the doctor. Before I knew it, Thomas was on his way home to take me to the hospital. After a sonogram and X-Rays, we finally found out that I had a kidney stone! My right kidney was completely blocked. Nothing was getting in! I have always heard about the pain involved in kidney stones, and the tales are true! It really, really hurts. Luckily, I was in a good place and was given some good drugs to make me feel better. Little girl kept moving the entire time and kept kicking my kidney too! Wasn't she kind? To add to the excitement, I started having contractions every 3 minutes. We finally got those stopped and the pain magically went away by the next day. I was dismissed Thanksgiving afternoon.

All of the Savell's changed their plans and headed to my house for Thanksgiving. Kaci arrived at my house to find the kitchen in turmoil, (I didn't get it cleaned up before heading to the hospital) and she cleaned it for me. My poor mom, packed up everything that she had bought for Thanksgiving and cooked it at my house on Friday.

When you think about things that you are thankful for, I am definitely thankful for my family. I am so very blessed!!

Baby Bedding

I was not able to find any bedding that I liked for baby girl. I really wanted something girly, floral, and pretty. Custom bedding is WAY over priced, so my mom and I decided to sew it ourselves. The quest was on to find material. We bought the first material (the blue floral print) months ago. After we received a final confirmation that the baby is a girl, we went from fabric store to fabric store looking for the perfect fabrics to compliment the one that I had already bought. To complicate the purchase, I have a twin bed in the baby's room, so there are two beds to think about. Mom and I finally found the perfect fabrics at a quilt shop in Carrolton. We spent hours there picking everything out and figure out how much of each fabric we needed. Then the great sewing project began! Mom worked on the baby bed skirt and the sheets. I worked on the bumper pad. The Monday before Thanksgiving, I went ahead and sent Jackson to daycare so that I could sew all day. I was so excited when I finished it and got the bed arranged!! It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it too! Now to paint the room, finish the curtains, the diaper stacker, the twin bed. . . .

Jackson was very interested in the sewing projects.


The finished product!!

Made with love. Papa J built the bed with Daddy's help. Mama J and Mommy made the bedding. I think this baby is loved. :-) I can't wait to see her in her bed.

Pumpking Carving Time

Uncle Jeffrey and Jackson started a tradition of carving a pumpkin. They have fun together!

Jackson scoops the seeds out.

Uncle Jeffrey had to help out.


Jackson told Uncle Jeffrey what shape he wanted carved and where. We do need to work on where a nose goes, though. Jackson insisted it needed to go above the eyes!

Uncle Jeffrey and Jackson pose with their creation.

Baking Time

Jackson LOVES cooking!! He pretends to cook, he helps in the kitchen, and even loves to watch Food Network with us! Here are some pictures of Jackson and Mama J making cookies.


Silly boy!


Jackson scooping sugar into measuring cups.


Jackson helps put the beater on the Kitchen Aid.

More Aggie Football

I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging! Life has been busy!!
Here are some pictures from the end of October. Uncle Jonathan and Papa J took Jackson to one of the Aggie games. Brave, brave, brave. . . !!


Uncle Jonathan and Jackson


Jackson was excited to eat a "snowball"!

Huge Milestone

On my birthday, October 11th, Jackson had a HUGE milestone. . . he gave up his Nuk (or pacifier). We have held on to it for a long time because he has always tried to put his fingers in his mouth to suck. Ask any teacher and they will tell you horror stories of 10 year olds, 11 year olds, 12 year olds, etc. sucking their thumbs in class. I have told numerous 5th graders to get their thumbs out of their mouths during class, so I did not want Jackson to be a thumb sucker. Well, the time had come, and it was time for Jackson to loose the Nuk. Thomas and I debated for a long time on how we were going to do this. We had heard about all of the tricks and decided we didn't want to trick him. So, Friday, I picked Jackson up from school and told him that we were going to Build-a-Bear (he had been wanting to go to Build-a-Bear for several months) and explained that he was going to put his Nuk in the bear. Jackson cried and cried. My heart broke. Thomas and I took him to look at everything and talk about what was going to happen on Saturday. Jackson looked at all of the animals and picked out an elephant (yes, an elephant). We went home and continued talking about what was going to happen the next day. Saturday morning, we got up and headed to the mall for the big event.

We let Jackson have his Nuk in the car on the way to the mall.

Jackson still wanted the elephant. We tried and tried to talk him into a bear, but he was adamant that he wanted the elephant.

We walked over to get the elephant stuffed and to put the Nuk inside. I was going to have Jackson put the Nuk in his mouth one last time, but he just threw it in the elephant!! We were shocked. Just like that, the Nuk was gone!!

Jackson held up his stuffed elephant with his Nuk tucked safely inside.

He went straight over and started "washing" the elephant.

Then to pick out the clothes. . . Jackson chose a Rangers outfit. I got him dressed and teased Thomas that he was going to have to learn how to dress dolls and stuffed animals for his daughter one day.

Jackson hugs his elephant.

Now for naming the elephant. Jackson decided to name the elephant, "Nuk Nuk". We thought that was a perfect name!

Jackson wanted to carry Nuk Nuk in the box. The box was almost as big as he was!!

Nuk-less update: Everything went pretty well without the Nuk. He never asked for it because he knew were it went. We did notice that it took Jackson A LOT longer to fall asleep without his Nuk for a couple of weeks (he tends to talk a lot in his bed now that his mouth is not being used for other purposes :-) ). Nuk Nuk has his hot and cold moments. Some days, Nuk Nuk is not touched. Other days, we have to take Nuk Nuk with us where we go. The funny thing is that at night, we have to take Nuk Nuk's hat, shoes and socks off. If we leave the house, Jackson is insistent that we put Nuk Nuk's hat, shoes and socks back on!!

Aggie Football Games

Jackson is one lucky little 2 year old! He has gotten to go see the Aggies play (or lose) football several times this fall. We ended up with an extra ticket a couple of times, so Jackson got to go. In fact, he became demanding that he should go! Here are some more pictures of Jackson going to the games.

Whoop!


Gig 'em Aggies!

Building Towers

Jackson enjoys building towers out of blocks. Here is a picture of him with his tower that he built (with just a little of his Daddy's help).

Plano Balloon Festival

I realized that I never posted about the Plano Balloon Festival! How did I miss it? For the past four years, I have wanted to go to the Plano Balloon Festival. Something has always been scheduled the same weekend. This year, we had Aggie Football. That didn't stop us though. We drove back earlier than usual on Sunday so that we could be back in time for the last take-off for the weekend. We really enjoyed ourselves! Because balloon launches had taken place five times already, and we were there for the last time, there weren't as many balloons taking off. Many balloonist had chosen not to fly and/or to go home. It was still really need to see balloon after balloon take off though.

Before the launch, we roamed around the festival. They had activities for children. Jackson enjoyed the craft activities.

Jackson shows off his necklace that he made.

He played football and actually threw the ball into the hole twice!

We ended up with a spot right up front. Because it was our first time to the festival, we had no clue what was going on. Next year, we will bring lawn chairs!

The first balloon started going up.

The first balloon takes off!

Jackson and Thomas watch the balloons fill up. Jackson was engrossed with the balloons. I never got the "perfect shot" because he was so interested in the balloons.

Jackson points to the balloons.

There were two unique shaped balloons. One was a rain forest tree, the other was a dragon.

Look there!

One balloon started taking off and went RIGHT over us! It was so cool!

A couple of the balloons just filled up with air and never took off. The dragon balloon seemed to be one of those balloons. Everyone started to leave when suddenly, here comes the dragon balloon over our head!

What a fun event! I can't wait to go next year!