the deer

some deer found their way into our yard the other day...

jackson had lots of fun watching them roam around and eat our grass...
then the deer left...
jackson wasn't so happy anymore...
(he really was this upset about them being gone)

the quail

one evening last week, we were sitting in the living room when we heard this loud thunk on the screen door. i had seen something out of the corner of my eye and thought someone had thrown a ball at the house. eric went to check out what was going on and found this:
a quail had flown into the window part of the screen door. it hung out on the porch for awhile while it regained it's composure. eric helped it off the porch and when we checked later it was gone. i'm just really glad we have a screen door. i HATE birds and would have been a mess if it had made it into the house.

false alarm

because i know you all are very consumed with what's going on in jackson's mouth, i thought i should let you know that the 5th tooth announcement was made prematurely. i could see that a tooth was trying to make it's way through, but jackson never lets me feel to see if it has actually poked through. eric has a special in with the boy, so i had him feel for the tooth. he assured me it was through. well, today i was feeling around (sometimes i am able to, but mostly against jackson's will) i realized that tooth number 5 was still under the gums. so i apologize profusely for the incorrect information...i hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive us.

super important update...or maybe not that important

jackson's 5th tooth made its appearance today. why do i want to make sure and document each tooth that comes in? will i do the same for carter? what will i do with this information...his baby book doesn't even have one of those teeth diagrams to record these vital statistics. oh well...i will still post this entry and you might be lucky enough to get to hear about jackson's 6th tooth. i bet you can't wait!

we're moving

we applied for and got the job as camp manager/caretaker at twin lakes friends camp. what we'll be doing is living at the camp, doing general maintenance, taking care of rentals, and being involved with hiring and training the summer staff as well as the 6 weeks of camp each summer. it's not winterized, so at this point there won't be any rentals during the winter time...this will allow us time to not only take a break, but get things ready for the next season. after we move (which will be in the next couple weeks) we'll put our house on the market and pray that the right people come along to buy it. we are provided housing at the camp so that will be nice (and it's at least twice as big as our 720 sq ft house we're now it!) i'm sure there's more i could tell you, but can't think of it at this point. i'll try to get eric to write a blog so you can hear/read about our new adventure from his perspective.

jackson's 1st ear infection

we went to jackson's 1 year checkup on monday. the timing was good because he had started getting sick late last week and i wanted to make sure it wasn't anything more than the common cold. when the doctor went to check jackson's right ear, he couldn't get a good view due to a large piece of ear wax (i know...kinda gross). after removing that (which, by the way, jackson HATED), he saw that jackson had an ear infection. i'm not sure if that had anything to do with his cold, but i'm sure glad we found out. so now jackson's on antibiotics and hopefully will be feeling back to normal real soon.

the park

now that jackson is getting more mobile, he does more at the park besides sitting in the kiddy swing.

steering the boat...good thing it doesn't really move since he's not even close to seeing over the steering wheel
he had a lot of fun on the motorcycle
i think this tunnel was his favorite...he crawled back and forth through it probably 20 times

birthday blanket

when my mom's first grandson turned 1, she made him a blanket that looked like her baby blanket. she has done the same for each of her grandkids' 1st birthdays. jackson received his in the mail yesterday. when eric opened the package jackson got really excited. although i'm sure he loves his blanket from grammy, i think he was thinking that daddy was going to play one of jackson's favorite games...put the blanket over my head, but don't take it off-i like it to just stay there. thanks for the blanket grammy (now you have to get busy making carter's...you have 1 year and 10 weeks!)

jackson's party

we had jackson's birthday party on saturday at my in-laws house. we invited family to join in the celebration (including my sister and her 2 kids from newberg. she makes great cakes and i really wanted her to make jackson's 1st cake. thanks for making the long, quick trip!) we had a little bit to eat, jackson opened presents (with his dad's help of course) and we had cake. i think jackson's favorite parts where playing with his cousins and his new tractor. here are some pictures:

jen decorating the cake
opening the presents (with help from the cousins)
he wasn't sure what he thought of the birthday hat
one of his new toys...thanks oma and opa, he loves it!
eating his cake...that's about all he ate, too! (cute cake, huh?)

same cake grandma made for me on my 1st birthday
jackson with all his birthday guests.

cousins

yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday, so we watched their 3 kids while she and her husband went to dinner. jackson was definitely excited to have other kids around!

paige is almost 5 months old and had lots of fun in jackson's exersaucer

lauren and jackson in the cardboard house...they had a blast in there!

daniel's such a farm boy...he really liked playing with the barn and animals

paige-y poo...super cute!

fireman park

there's a park just down the road that's behind the fire station. jackson's too little to play on the big firefighter hat, but he enjoyed the fire chief's car and other toys for smaller kids.

walking

jackson's getting better and better at walking. he still prefers crawling, but the other day he walked all the way across the living room!

jackson's 1st birthday

we didn't do too much on jackson's actual birthday because we're going to have his party tomorrow. we did make sure to celebrate the day a little, though. the day started with jackson giving me a present by sleeping in until 8am (an hour later than normal). after breakfast, we went to the middle school where i used to work to say hi to the other secretaries. we've visited them about once a month over the last year, so i thought it'd be fun to stop by on his birthday. of course he gets lots of attention from "his ladies". after that, we stopped by the store and i got him a happy face balloon. he played with it a lot that afternoon and is still playing with it quite a bit 2 days later. when eric got home from work he took jackson to dairy queen and they shared a hot fudge sundae and then they went to the book store where jackson picked out a fun noah's ark book. although i'm sure he didn't realize it was his birthday, he had a good day and we're looking forward to celebrating again with the extended family. here are some pictures of his day:

good morning birthday boy!
trying to figure out how to get his balloon in his cardboard house
success!
dairy queen!!!
yummy...ice cream

happy birthday little man

it's jackson's 1st birthday today. like every parent of a 1 year old says...we can't believe how fast it's gone. he's gone from the sleeping, eating, crying, pooping, tiny baby to a little guy that has started to walk.

on our way home from the hospital a year ago...
...and now he can drive!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN...WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

a quick review...

we've had company for the last week, so i've been a bit absent from blogging. i wanted to jot a few things down to keep my many, many faithful readers informed with what's going on in the woods' lives...okay, so maybe i don't have many, many faithful readers but i just want to remember some of this stuff for later.
*jackson's been giving me kisses for the last couple days. it's do precious and they're not like the slobbery "kisses" i used to get from him. now it seems to be intentional and i love it!
*he's been taking more and more steps. our friends that are here were counting the other day and he took 20 steps in a row across the living room!
*his sleeping has continued to be excellent. i'm sooo grateful for that. he very rarely cries when we put him in his crib and sleeps 12 hours at night at takes 2 naps (usually for 1-1.5 hours each). today he missed his first nap because i've started going to a morning bible study. i was a little nervous about how he'd do, but it didn't seem to bother him much. i ended up putting him down a little early for his afternoon nap, but then he slept for just over 2 hours. to have him sleeping so well has been a huge blessing for his dad and i.
*tomorrow jackson turns 1! we have a small family bday party planned for him on saturday. my sister and her 2 kids and my mom are coming. i'm excited to have my sister make his 1st birthday cake.
*i have another doc appt tomorrow to check up on carter. after this appt, i'll be going every 2 weeks. i can't believe i'm already at that point in my pregnancy. it sure has gone faster this time around. in less than 3 months, we'll have another precious little man joining the family!

now, im off to bed...i'll try to get bday pictures and walking pictures up in early next week.