It's been a great year...

2009 has been so good to our family! Here's our year in review...

January

2009 started with a bang! I was newly pregnant and just beginning to show, and our sweet nephew, Blaine, was born on the 19th. My mom (grammy), also celebrated her 60th birthday!

Excuse the hair. We had just gotten a little snow and I had been outside with my 'boggin on my head :)




February

on February 2nd we found our son was indeed a "he." It was such a great experience to see our little guy on that ultrasound machine.
My belly was continuing to grow...






March

This month Jackson's kicks were becoming a little more noticable. We also got to see him again on the ultrasounds machine. This time he weighed almost 1 lb!




April

Jackson's had offically become a soccer player. My bladder...oh my bladder. I had determined at this point that if he wasn't using it as a punching bag, Jackson was using my bladder as his very own pillow. The 23rd is also Al's mom (grandma)'s birthday! Did I mention my belly is really growing now?



May

We had 2 wonderful baby showers in May. One given by Donetta, and the other by Shawn and family. Everyone was so generous, and we are so blessed to have such supportive and helpful friends and family. We love you all! Happy Birthday Uncle Jason!




June

Ahhh June! The month of birthdays and celebrations. My birthday was on the 4th, our 3rd wedding anniversary was on the 10th, and Uncle Nathan's birthday was the 16th. Al also celebrated his big 3-0 on the 17th, followed by his dad (grandpa)'s birthday on the 24th. We also had our 3rd baby shower, given by my sister-in-law (Auntie Leila), cousins(Christy, Sabrina & Leeann) and Aunt Donna. Whew, thankfully Jackson waited until July!




July

The most unforgetable, truly breathtaking month of the year! On Tuesday, July 14th, at 5:27pm, our son, Jackson Lee Anderson was born. Weighing 8 lbs 10.8oz, and 19 inches long, this little miracle changed our lives forever. Mommy and Daddy love you!

Happy Birthday Aunt Shawn! It's a good month!

This picture was taken right before we left for the hospital




August

August 27th was my dad (granddaddy)'s birthday. Jackson is growing before our eyes. He's learning more and more about the world around him every day.




September

September was the beginning of Pirate football. Jackson loved to dress up in his Pirate gear on game day! Jackson also began sleeping through the night in September, which meant mommy and daddy got some rest too!
Happy Birthday Auntie Leila!



October

Jackson dressed up as a monkey on his first Halloween. We also went to Briley's Farm and visited their pumpkin patch with Aunt Shawn, Uncle Jason, and Blaine. We plan to make this an annual tradition, and hopefully be able to track how the boys are growing! I was also able to catch on of his first intentional rolls on video.





November

Jackson got his first taste of cereal this month! He didn't care much for it. He prefers his veggies (sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots). Greenbeans are next. Happy Thanksgiving!



December
This Decemeber is a month to remember. Jackson's first Christmas was so much fun. This month he also got his first tooth, began rolling from side to side more, and now he's sitting on his own. It's amazing how much he has changed and how quickly he's growing.





http://blessings-anderson.blogspot.com/2009/12/oh-christmas-time.html

I can only pray that God will continue to bless our family in 2010, as much as He did in 2009!

Oh Christmas Time...

What a blessing it was enjoying Jackson's first Christmas! Our celebrating began on the 23rd. Every year we go to Al's Aunt Deb's house to visit with friends and family. The party usually doesn't get started until about 7pm, but with Jackson needing to be in bed between 7:30 and 8, we had to go a little early so we could be back to Greenville in time for bed. Luckily, we still got to see a lot of people before we left.

Jackson got another visit with Santa


Blaine LOVED playing with this Santa. There was a button that made the Santa sing and dance!


We spent Christmas Eve with Al's family. We had a great time, as usual. The boys did so well and had so much fun. Jackson was in awe of everything going on around him and Blaine was in.to.everything. It was hilarious! There was a huge pile of paper and Blaine kept playing in it. I think he liked that more than some of his gifts!



Jackson got lots of cool stuff. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson got both Jackson and Blaine their new Britax convertible car seats! Jackson LOVES his. He likes his infant seat, but he just loves this new one. I think he likes that it sits much taller and he can see everything that's going on. He's become quite the nosey little fellow. He also go a really cool walker toy with an activity center on the front. He already loves playing with it. Aunt Shawn, Uncle Jason and Blaine also got Jackson a really fun LeapFrog activity table, a book and some fun blocks that his can pull around in a wooden cart. He's going to have so much fun with his new toys!








Growing up, mom and dad always allowed Nathan and I to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was usually a present that we already knew about, but we still got excited to open it up! We are going to do this same with Jackson, and this year his first gift was his 'My First Christmas' pajamas. He got his bath, we put on his new pjs and cuddled up and read him "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (thanks Aunt Shawn!), and off to bed he went.

Christmas morning was so exciting! Jackson was grinning from ear to ear and so overwhelmed with all that was going on.








We spent Christmas Day with my family. After we finished opening and playing with Jackson's toys from 'Santa,' we headed to Smithfield. There we exchanged gifts with Grammy, Granddaddy, Uncle Nathan and Auntie Leila! Grammy and Granddaddy got Jackson so much fun stuff. He got a Radio Flyer wagon, lots of clothes, toys, blocks and sunglasses, just to name a few. Uncle Nathan and Auntie Leila got him some drums, a fun punching toy and a Polo shirt (which is very fitting, if you know my brother)!

That afternoon we went to Jackson's Great Granddaddy's house to have lunch and visit with all of our extended family. We played a little dirty santa among the adults and watched as all the kids opened all their gifts. It was a full house with 7 kids (age 5 months - 8 years) and about 14 adults! It was such a great day spending time with family.

Here is a picture of Jackson with all of his Christmas goodies!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Here are the pictures from Jackson and Blaine's visit with Santa!





Aunt Shawn with Jackson



It looks like he is screaming at Santa, but really...he's yawning :)






Blaine with Santa! He loved him!





Santa had his hands full!





This last one is hilarious. Jackson looks terrified as he grabs Santa's beard, and Blaine...well he just loves his fingers :)

I can't wait

Only 5 days till Christmas! Where has this year gone? Al and I were just talking today about how it seems like just yesterday that I was still pregnant with Jackson. We would sit and talk about how differnt Christmas would be this year, and how much fun we would have with a 5 1/2 month old. Christmas seemed like it was so far away then. So how is it that Christmas will be here in 5 days?!?!?

I can't until Christmas morning! I can't wait to see the look on Jackson's face when he gets to play with his new toys! I can't wait to start and build new traditions with our son. I can't wait to experience this Christmas with the most amazing husband and son anyone could ask for! I can't wait to teach Jackson about the real meaning behind Christmas! I am so blesses and I can't wait!

Tonight we took Jackson over to Cindy and Gregs (my brother-in-law Jason's parents)'s house to meet Santa tonight. I didn't know what to expect, but Jackson did great. He took right to Santa and even tried to eat his beard :) We got some great pictures of Jackson and Blaine with Santa. I will post some pictures of that soon! I just need to get them on my computer. Thank you Shawn and Jason for inviting us to come along.

Jackson is trying so hard to sit up on his own now, and he's getting there. He's actaully able to sit, unassisted, for a few minutes at the time. He gets so excited when he does this. See for yourself.


Oh and Jackson loves his sweet taters!

I'll leave you with a quick videos of my giggle box! Ignore me in the background. Mommys do silly things to get thier kids to laugh :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I can not begin to describe how excited I am for Christmas this year! Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, but this year is just special. It's Jackson's first Christmas! I know he is not going to have any clue what's going on, and he will probably like the paper better than any of his new toys at first, but that doesn't take any of the excitment out of it! He's at the stage where he is understanding things around him and he is reaching for toys to play with, so I know he will enjoy it all! Now if his granddaddy and great granddaddy would just get to building that toy chest, we'll have somewhere to put all this stuff :)

We got our tree put up right after Thanksgiving and Jackson loves the lights, especially when the tree is lit at night! I actaully have to unplug the tree when I am giving him his last bottle before bed because he will break his neck trying to look around the recliner to see the tree.




I got all of Jackson's Christmas outfits out of the back of his closet last night to wash them. All 6 of them! Did I mention, I love Christmas? He has been stayed pretty true to size when it come to his clothes. All of his Christmas outfits are size 3-6 or 6 months, which is perfect. All, but one. Perhaps my favorite one! It was size 3 months, and the tag said it would fit up to 12.5 lbs. HA! Jackson passed that long ago, weighing almost 17lbs now! Well I decided to try it anyway, and it FITS! My little man is a little elf today :)

I will have to get some better pictures of the outfit itself, but here are a few taken at daycare this morning. The shirt is candycane stripped and say's 'Santa's Favorite.' The pants are green with little santa heads on the feet, and it came with a santa bib to match!



He was trying so hard to sit up this morning!


This face just CRACKS.ME.UP. I guess he got his love for making funny faces from uncle Nathan.


Did I mention, I'm excited about Christmas? HA! Jackson is growing so fast, as is our nephew Blaine. It's going to be so much fun watching them both enjoy thier firt Christmas together! Jackson isn't mobile yet so he will probably just sit and stare in awe of everything around him. Blaine on the other hand...will be running full speed ahead! What a great time of year...

OOOOHHHH! I can't forget about a congrats to the Pirates! This past Saturday ECU hosted, for the first time ever, the Conference Championship game. We beat a nationally ranked team to become the first C-USA team to win the championship 2 years in a row. What a great day to be a Pirate in Dowdy-Ficklin!