Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to this Blog, of course!  Surely you didn't think I was sending wishes to myself or Zach, even though since the last post we've both turned a year older!  Anyway, I started the blog 4 years ago today, and this picture was one of three in that post.  This was Jackson at 6 months!

  

We've been fairly busy since last week, which makes the thoughts in this post a little scattered.  Bear with me and I'll try to link it all together!

Last weekend we headed north to take a closer look at our new cabin! 

Zach is so excited about it and acts like a kid in a candy shop!

 He's most excited about the loft where Jackson and Katherine will get to sleep . . . although we're not sure yet when Katherine will go to the cabin for an overnight visit!

 Back on the homefront, Katherine has found a new favorite place to play. 

 Jackson and Katherine have been spoiled a lot lately by all the grandparents, and we made a couple of batches of cake pops after Grandma brought us a cake pop machine!

 This is the 2nd batch after I started to figure out what I needed to do to get them in a more round shape and iced where they looked fairly pretty!

 After filling up on cake pops, Jackson and Katherine also got to celebrate Mardi Gras at school with a parade!  Don't worry about Jackson's lack of beads . . . as long as he had that one blue necklace, he was perfectly content.

 His sister on the other hand was a bit more stingy with the beads.  Her teachers even commented to that effect.  But, at least she thanks Jackson for sharing.

 The weather warmed up this week, so we headed outside where Jackson wanted to start a fire.  His first attempt was unsuccessful.

 Katherine, on the other hand, likes to go through her drawers and pull out her bloomers.  She's very stylish and into layering.

 And then she likes to start accessorizing.

I realize it's an abrupt end, but there you have it, the conclusion to our randomness from a busy week.

S.W.A.K.

Like Brother, Like Sister

Starting the morning off as usual!

Being in our bed is normal, but actually sharing a pillow is a little out of the ordinary!  It seems most mornings that if Jackson is awake first, once Katherine is up, he is asking us to put her back to sleep.

But, today was a day where Jackson and Katherine got along pretty well and seemed to enjoy each other!  Except for that incident where Jackson started taking a toy away from Katherine and once she had enough, she jumped off of the couch and started tearing up his train tracks.  Our little girl can take care of herself!

When it was time for Katherine's nap, Jackson even said he wanted to stay in her room with her!  Before she went to 'sleep' (her real nap today was a 10 minute nap in the car on the way home from an outing and she never really went to sleep in her crib . . . why 10 minutes in the car can so easily replace hours in the crib is beyond me), Jackson wanted to hop in her crib with her.  Here, they're pretending to sleep!

 Katherine decided tonight she didn't want to take her clothes off for her bath!  {Jackson did the same thing at her age, click here.}  She was so happy with herself!

 Until she quickly decided she really didn't care for wet clothes!

 And then, they ended their day sloshing water all over the bathroom

and making a huge mess!

It's sweet when they can enjoy each other.

The Car Wash

Yesterday was a pretty warm day so we found ourselves outside washing our embarrassingly filthy vehicles!  You can imagine what a warm day and water can mean for a little boy!

 

 The more water that got on his clothes, the quicker they came off!

Katherine just watched the craziness from a distance and later

decided a nap might be more fun.

We drew the line at him running around the front yard in his birthday suit, so he agreed to put on his swimsuit!

 He's gotten so big.

Zach and I comment almost daily how he's such a little boy now.

{Yes, he has had a haircut since the previous post.)

On to the 2nd wash of the day and he's in his 3rd set of clothing.  Once we got this one washed, the one in the orange shirt thought it would be a great idea to get mud and start throwing it on the car.  About 2 hours later he did come to me and in a sweet little voice said, "Mama, I'm sorry I threw mud on your car."

 He did require a change of clothing after playing in the mud, so for the record, he went through 4 sets of clothing while washing 2 vehicles. 

And finally, the picture above, reminds me of this picture from October 2008.

Told you he's gotten big.

A Hair Affair

In mid 2009, I did this post post on Jackson's hair, and here we are again in 2012 doing another post on his hair.  Who knew a little boy's hair could be so exciting?!

Here he is at his 1st birthday party (July 2008) with very little hair--

Several months later, he had the sweetest curls (March 2009)-- 

By that July, it was sticking straight up--

It slowly calmed down, and by early 2010, it was straight. 

By this picture in September 2010, it was still straight and slowly getting thicker.

By December 2011, it had pretty much stayed the same, just getting thicker and maybe a slight wave is appearing--

And yesterday--

apparently we're back to curls.

Not That Warm

I'm backtracking here and I really hate doing that.  Remember in early December when Jackson wanted his and Katherine's swimsuits on so they could play in the water?  I talked him out of it that freezing day, but a few weeks later we had fairly warm weather and he started asking again to play in the water.  After begging all day, we finally said he could but told him he was going to be cold once he got wet.  Of course, that doesn't matter to a 4 year old.  So, here he is, the week before Christmas, playing in the sprinkler.

After a few passes through the water, he decided it was pretty chilly.

Time Out

What a pitiful little face!

Poor little Katherine has finally reached the age where she has been put in time out a few times.  For several months, she's been hitting or trying to pinch when she gets mad and we finally decided to try putting her in time out.  Being in the corner the first time really got her attention!  Following her first visit, if she started misbehaving I would tell her if she didn't stop, etc., she was going to be in time out.  After hearing that, she would stop what she was doing, look at me, run to me, hug my legs and start kissing my legs trying to make up for whatever it was she was doing!  Today was only her 3rd time for time out . . . we're not too strict with it yet.  She usually only stays in the corner for about 20 seconds before we give in to that little face, but that small amount of time really calms her down!
{I had planned to add a couple of videos to this post so it wouldn't be just a picture and a long story, but I've been trying to upload videos for a couple of days and am having trouble.  Maybe I'll have better luck in the next few days.}