For my Cousins

This post is for all of my Russell cousins out there. As usual we had our Russell family Christmas Eve Party this year. In the middle of our annual White Elephant gift exchange game my cousin Tess showed up. Well it turns out that Tess is sporting an interesting new do (a combination mohawk and mullet)...and lets just say that Grandma was not a fan. Here are some pictures of her reaction: The best part of the story involves Grandma's recent memory struggles. While it is really sad that she is having such a hard time with her short-term memory, in this case it was pretty funny. See, Grandma forgot about Tess' hair every 5 minutes or so and we got to relive her reaction to Tess' hair-do over and over again. "Who is that??? That's Tess??? What happened to her hair???" Over and over again! Dont you wish you all could have been there? Maybe this will serve as an incentive for all of you to come next year...its always a good time!

Thanksgiving in Texas

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to San Antonio to visit Gus' sister and her family. Gus' parents came with us and we had a great time. Jackson did great on the plane and loved looking out the window .

We visited the Alamo (Gus is in the green shirt).

The Riverwalk Gus' sister practically lives across the street from Sea World. While we enjoyed Shamu's show, Jackson took a little snooze.Feeding the dolphins.

My Quilt

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I had joined a quilting club. We are learning a lot of quilting basics and it has been really fun so far. I am discovering that I may not be maticulous enough for really complicated quilts, but I have really enjoyed doing our first quilt which is pretty basic. Here are the fabrics I picked out for my first quilt:And here is my first block. Like I said, it is pretty basic, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

One Year Later!

Last Sunday, my little Jack turned one. Its hard to believe that he is already one, but at the same time I cant remember life without him. We had a fun family party at our house to celebrate his special day. The happy birthday boy in his birthday hat.The cousins checking out the presents
Happy Birthday Jackson!!! We love you!

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty eventful Halloween this year. Well not really, but we definetly did more this year than we ever have before.

First, lastweek end we went to the "Boonanza" at my mom's pool:They had this cute little train ride there for the kids. Unfortunetly Gus' legs were too long and he couldn't fit...so I got to ride with Jackson.

Titan the priate, Rusty the fireman, Brody the Jazz player, and Jackson the lion with grandma and Batman!

Then on Thursday we went to our ward's Truck or Treat.Here is Jackson the lion with his best friend Liam the dragon.

Then of course on Friday we went Trick or Treating:

I was so proud of Jackson, he was such a trooper in his costume...that was until Halloween night. I really wanted to get some cute pictures of him in our front yard playing in the leaves, but unfortunetly he had clearly had enough:
All in all it was a great holiday. I cant wait until next year when Jackson will actually know whats going on.

Great Grandpa

Jackson's only living Great Grandpa (Gus' Grandpa on his mom's side) is in town from California.

Pumpkin Patch and Aunt Dana

This past week my sister Dana came to visit. Its always great to see her and we always have fun when she is here. Unfortunetly Jackson is going through a painfully shy stage, so he took awhile to warm up to him. While she was here we went to a pumkin patch with her, my mom, and Devon and her family.

Domestic Engineer

So I have offically been a stay-at-home mom (I prefer domestic engineer) for two whole weeks . Before quitting I had all these grand ideas that once I was home full time my home would constantly be spotless, I would serve a gourmet dinner everynight, Jackson would soon be reading novels and speaking several languages...you get the picture. Unfortunetly none of that has happened. Regardless, its been great to be able to spend more time with my little boy. I did join I quilting club, I figured quilting is about as domestic as you can get.

My Next Career: Comedian

Jackson makes me feel like I am the funniest person around. It doesnt usually take much to get a laugh out of him, especially when he is tired. Here are some videos we took of him proving my comedic genius.


Too cute!

Nerd!

Jackson loves to grab at Gus' glasses. So the other night we decided to let him wear them. Doesn't he look like such a cute nerd?

My New Adventure

Exciting news....as of September 26th, I will offically be a full-time stay-at-home-mom. I cant wait. I am going to miss all my friends at work, and I may actually eventually miss work itself, but I cant wait to be with my little boy full time. Here are some recent pictures of my little buddy.

1st Haircut!

Today Jackson had his first haircut! I just couldn't handle seeing hair hang over his ears for one more day. We just went to the Great Clips up the road, and the lady who cut his hair was super nice and did a really good job. Jackson did great too, he didn't cry and only fussed a little. He looks so much older now!
Before, looking pretty shaggy:



After, looking so handsome:

On the Move!

The past couple of weeks a lot has changed. The biggest change is that Jackson is on the move. For the whole month of June and half of July he was so close to crawling it seemed that he was constantly on the verge of crawling and that he was going to start crawling any second. Then all of a sudden in the middle of July...it happened. Now he is everywhere and into everything. Its so exciting to see him progress and grow, but it certainly has changed our lives!
Another big milestone Jack recently hit was his first tooth! You can kind of see it in this picture (its on the bottom on the left).
The one next to it is getting really close to cutting through also. Why cant they come at the same time? It sure would be nice if you didnt have to go through the sleepless nights twice and you could get two over with at the same time.

FYI

My sister Devon has started a blog...but hasn't really announced it, so I have decided to do it for her. Here is her blog address: http://nateanddevon.blogspot.com/

Gus and Gus junior

Gus pointed out that my father day's post did not include any pictures of he and Jack...so here are some recent pictures of my two boys.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jack. I think it captures his personality perfectly.