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.