Another one about Lou...

Kind of fun survey about my husband.

What is your husband’s name? Lou

How long did you date? We got married exactly 2 years from our first date.

How old is he? 39

Who eats sweets? We both do, but will not be eating them anymore after the 1st. Right honey?...

Who said I love you first? I think I did, but I'm not 100% sure.

Who is taller? Lou is taller

Who can sing better? My husband's a singer...I think we all know he sings better than me.

Who is smarter? He is definitely smarter...at most things.

Who does the laundry? We both do the laundry.

Who pays the bills? I do.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

Who mows the lawn? Lou does, but we just decided to get a gardner...we are too busy.

Who cooks dinner? I usually do, but tonight Lou is cooking for me.

Who drives? He does.

Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I don't know on this one...we really don't disagree that much.

Who kissed who first? Cute story...Lou kissed me first.

Who asked who out first? I am pretty sure he did the actual asking, but I remember when we he was asking me out for the weekend and it was Wednesday (yes I remember it was Wednesday), I was like...Well, what are you doing tonight? I don't want to wait until the weekend. He didn't either so we went out on Thursday.

Who wears the pants? He wears shorts (even when it's cold outside).

Love you honey. xoxoxoxox

Lou's Birthday - Dec. 13th

Sometime in the midst of all the craziness (from Thanksgiving to now), Lou had a birthday. We always try to make birthday's special in our family and Lou's day was no different. We got up early and gave him our presents...Jackson and I can hardly wait to do the presents. We ate a good breakfast. Lou and Jackson went and signed up for T-Ball, and then we went to the movies....We saw Bolt. After the movies we came home and rested for the afternoon, and that evening we had a few people over for a little celebration. My mom, Brittany (my sister), Bobby (my brother), and Lou's mom, Bev, all came over. I got Lou his favorite, German Chocolate cake from Charlotte's and we also had some cupcakes. It was a really nice evening. I just love you honey. A few things about Lou....

1. He is an awesome husband and father.
2. He is very determined.
3. He is a hard worker.
4. He has a HUGE heart...He'll do anything for anybody.
5. He worked very hard for his master's degree and got his first REAL teaching job this year.
6. He did a triathlon last spring with two other teachers and they got second place.
7. He sings in a band, and is very good.
8. He has ridden his bicycle 3,104 miles this year. There are still 3 days left in the year...I know he'll do more.
9. He is a great cook....Ooh I just love his mexican food.
10. He has a sweet and special relationship with Jackson.

I love you Lou!!!

Disneyland Trip - Nov. 2008

This year we were so lucky to get to visit Disneyland. We had talked about going for a while, but never had the time or money to go down. Since Lou and Jackson both had a whole week off at Thanksgiving, we decided to take a few days and finally get down to Disneyland. We had reservations at The Disneyland Hotel and we just loved every minute of our little vacation.

This giant Mickey Mouse was right out in front of the hotel.

On Main Street...waiting to get some autographs...

We got Pluto's autograph...He signs his autographs on his nose. We thought that was so funny.
We got Goofy's autograph...We had to chase him down to get his. We got the Mad Hatter & Alice's autograph too...And we weren't about to leave without Mickey's autograph...We did some fun stuff while we were at Disneyland....Lou and jackson had a shootout...We played on Tom Sawyer island....Got our driver's license so that we could drive Autopia...Jackson drove me around on that ride. We were giggling the whole way...He's quite the driver. At the Lego Store in Downtown Disney...This store was on our way to our hotel. One of the coolest things we saw while we were at Disneyland was the Holiday fireworks display. At the end of the show it snows on Main Street. It was spectacular! We loved that!We had such a great time and decided that we definitely need to go back more often. It was neat to see the park all decorated for Christmas. It was just beautiful. We were sad to leave after our three day visit, but we also wanted to get home in time for Thanksgiving with our family. Here is Jackson about 5 minutes after we got into the car to go home....

A Little Christmas Spirit.

This is fun! Thanks Heather

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper! The bags are not as fun to open.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial...We like to put our tree up right after Thanksgiving (actually that night) so the artificial tree doesn't dry out, and they are less messy...No pine needles everywhere.
3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving night...or the following night.
4. When do you take the tree down? March...Just kidding. Before New Years. Usually a day or two after Christmas.
5. Do you like eggnog? No...But my husband and my sister do.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably Teddy Ruxpin
8. Easiest person to buy for? Jackson.
9. Do You have a nativity scene? No.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mailed.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't remember getting any really bad gifits.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I like a real old one...Holiday Inn. and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey...So Funny and good.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually not until like the 20th of December, but this year we did Black Friday...and actually got a lot done.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes...I like what Heather said...One man's junk is another man's treasure.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's good cooking...Candied yams (oh yum!), and my husband's stuffing.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course...we like the white lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? White Christmas.
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? Stay home...most of our family is in town.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes...We actually named them all last night looking at Christmas lights. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We don't have a tree top this year...But we like the star on top.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning for most of them, but Lou and I exchange ours on Christmas Eve before bed and before all the craziness.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds Everywhere...And nobody is nice.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red.
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? Turkey, Ham, mashed potatoes...Yeah we have it all.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A new cell phone, some fuzzy slippers, a new purse, someone to wash my dogs, Tori Spelling's book, a few extra days off work...Nothing too fancy.

Ok... I want to read yours... I don't do the tag thing. Let me know in a comment if you do one and I'll go to your blog and read yours.

UPDATE - Coming Soon

I have been totally unmotivated lately. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I feel so uninterested in blogging. I have so much to blog about, but just really no motivation to upload pictures and put them on here. I will start updating soon...Hopefully by this weekend. Here are some blogs to look for:

Disneyland Vacation
Lou's Birthday
Baby Sophie's Visit
Jackson's Christmas Program

I'll be back....Really I will. Hope all are well.

Homemade Power Ranger

I walked by Jackson's room this morning...I was getting ready and he was already ready for school. He was watching Power Rangers... And had these on....

Kinda looks like a Power Ranger...right? He told me to take a picture and "put it on the log." Oh yeah and..."write some stuff about it."

So here is Jackson with his goggles on looking cute as ever...and playing Power Rangers.

Little Miss Jill

Tonight's reading homework was a cute liitle book called, "Little Miss Jill." It made us miss our Little Miss Jill. We decided to take a picture of the book and post it with a picture of Jill...So she would know that we are thinking of her. Here is Jackson getting ready to read it. He is reading so well now. He needs a little encouragement to get going, but once he starts he does excellent.

And here is a piture of our very own Jill....We miss you Jill. Can't wait to see you, Kevin & Baby Sophie next month. We love you.

Cyclo-Cross Race #2

Today Lou had another one of those gruelling Cyclo-cross races, and this time Jackson got to go too. We also took my sister Brittany along just for fun.


Jackson got a real race bell and rang the heck out of it. He was so cute cheering on his dad. He was yelling the whole time. At one time when he saw Lou out on the course he said, "Come on Dad, show 'em what you got!" I just though it was so cute. Here he is with Brittany...he really wasn't in the mood for pictures today, but he mustered up a smile for this one. Here is Lou out on the course....He wasn't really feeling up to racing today, but we had already told Jackson about the race and he was so excited to go and watch Lou. This morning Lou told Jackson that he wasn't feeling all that well, and Jackson said, "That's okay, it doesn't matter who you cheer on, I can go and cheer other dad's on if you don't feel up to racing dad." I looked at Lou and said, "You got that right? He's going whether you go or not." And so Lou decided he would go. It was hard on him, but he did great. We were so proud of him.

Here he is all finished....
Jackson just idolizes Lou....Checking out all the mud on his bike.

Like father like son....

Thanks Daddy for doing the race even though you weren't feeling so well. It was a lot of fun for us. Thanks for the fun picnic afterwards, the duck feeding, and the baseball. We really crammed a lot of fun into today.

I love my family.

Happy Halloween

Well, I know this post is terribly late...I don't know what happened to me. I felt kind of lazy lately. We had quite a big Halloween...or maybe I should say long Halloween. It started back mid-October...We went to Zoo-Boo again this year. Thanks to Adrienne we were able to get some tickets and make it once again to the annual Zoo-Boo at our local zoo. All the kids dress up and there are games and booths set up to go trick-or-treating at, and there is music and magic shows and all kinds of fun stuff. Anyway, we always have a lot of fun and this year was no different. We absolutely loved it.

Here is Jackson getting ready to go...He dressed up as a Ninja this year. At Zoo-Boo...waiting in line for some kind of carnival game. Can't forget to check out the animals...Going thru the hay-maze...This was fun. He did it a couple of times. So a few days after Zoo-Boo we went to the pumpkin patch. I couldn't remember ever going to a pumpkin patch (I'm sure I probably went as a kid)...It was a lot of fun. We didn't take any pictures there, but we did pick out some darn good pumpkins.

We carved them a few nights before Halloween. Daddy did most of the carving...Jackson told him to make fangs on this pumpkin.
We carved two great looking pumpkins...Jackson made a cape for one of them (it was a piece of felt glued on the back of the pumpkin). After carving we decorated some little pumpkins. We had a lot of fun with this and will probably do this again. I still have not gotten rid of them...They look so cute. Jackson was very good at this and seems to be quite creative. He comes up with some great ideas. Here is Jackson's pumpkin....
Here is Lou's pumpkin.....And here is mine....Once Halloween night came around...It was time for trick-or-treating...Here is Jackson in his best Ninja pose. Ready to go out... He got quite a bit of candy. He told us when he was ready to stop trick-or-treating and we headed for home. Of course Jackson has been wearing this Ninja costume as much as possible. When ever he watches 3 Ninja's or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles he wants it on and we find him in his room practicing his moves. It's quite cute.

Meet Sophie

My cousin Jill and her husband Kevin had their first baby yesterday. We are so excited for them, but sad that we can't be there to meet her. Jill and Kevin live in Pennsylvania so we have to wait until Christmas time to meet cute little Sophie. I was so glad to get these pictures today in my email. She was born yesterday, October 28th at 6:50pm. She weighed 9lbs 4oz.

What a sweet little bundle.
And just look at all that hair. Jill, I'm sending you some bows and clips and headbands....they are on their way. Look for our package. We miss you guys.

Cyclo-cross - Race #1

Cyclo-cross: (sometimes cyclocross, CX, cyclo-X or 'cross) is a form of bicycle racing. Races take place typically in the autumn and winter (the international or "World Cup" season is September-January), and consists of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5 km or 1.5–2 mile) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike whilst navigating the obstruction and remount in one motion.[1][2] Races for senior categories are generally between 30 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions.

My husband LOVES LOVES LOVES bicycles! And he rides his any chance he gets...In fact he's ridden over 2500 miles this year (his goal is 3,000 for the year...and I'm sure he'll do it). Anyway, this last weekend he rode in the 1st Cyclo-cross race of the season. Honestly, it looked like the hardest thing ever...there is NO WAY I could have done that. There were a few girls that entered the race, but not too many. The course consisted of hurdles (I call them hurdles...I don't really know what they called them), hills (steep ones), grass, dirt, mud, and gravel. Lou finished mid pack...8th place out of about 16-20 people.

Getting ready...
Getting his gear on...
Starting line.....
These are the "hurdles"...

Out on the course...Doesn't look so bad.
Coming across the finish line....
All done...and muddy.
After all that...He's not done. He is doing about 4 or 5 more (it's a series of races). The next one is this next weekend...And...It's supposed to rain which means even more mud. I thought they'd just cancel it, but NO they like it better that way.

I'm proud of you honey. Love you.