Top Ten Cute Pictures

 Jackson got his first boo boos requiring Band-Aids :(  He re-opened some old ones, but he got some rockin' Cars "stickers" to cover them up :)

 Jackson and Rachel (and Pax) had a fabulous time playing in the curtains.

 TWINS!

 Sitting in rocking chairs enjoying cupcakes!

 Post-cupcake smiles :)

 Topless Toddler Reads Books He Hauls Around in Shopping Cart

Jackson woke up with a VERY high fever Saturday morning :(  He was pretty comatose most of the day.  His fever went down a bit mid-day, but I think it spiked again around dinner/bedtime.  We caught a little snooze together...  The next morning he was pretty much all recovered!  Weird!

 Boy and Dog

 Happy Jaxie and Daddy!  I love that Pax is sniffing at the snacks :)

 Watching lacrosse with Josh/Daddy




For more Top Tens, visit Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda!

Menu Plan Monday Hosted By My Adorable Sous Chef!

There is A LOT to cover in this post :)  Let me begin with my meal plan for last week, and I'll sprinkle in the rest!

Monday: A chicken and biscuit recipe that seems to have potential, but was an epic fail when I made it :(  There was confusion as to whether the noodles should be cooked first or not...  I'll post it if it is successful in the future...

Tuesday: Overnight Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast and Easy Crock Pot Pulled Pork for dinner with Quaker Choc-Oat Chip Cookies for dessert.  The cinnamon rolls were TO DIE FOR!  This was one recipe I was super-pumped to have my KitchenAid for since I didn't have a dough hook before.  The only challenging part of this recipe was I wanted to serve them to Josh before he left for his first day in his new position (YAY PROMOTION!!!) around 6:30...  I made the dough and got the rolls ready to go on Monday.  I got up at 5am on Tuesday to let the rolls sit in a cold oven with a pan of water for 30 minutes before baking them!  That's right--an early morning--got lots accomplished though :)  They were a HUGE hit!  The pulled pork was a special surprise dinner for Josh's first day accompanied by his favorite cookies.  Jackson LOVED helping me make special cookies for Daddy!  I was super excited that the KitchenAid wasn't as noisy as the hand beater so Jackson enjoyed watching the mixing process.  He previously would run into another room whenever I made "noise"/mixed :(  

Checking out the new mixer...

 All ready to help!

 LOVED wearing his fabulous apron and helping Mommy bake!

 He quickly learned this was the best part...

 He was very good at it :)

 Stirring

 A mountain of deliciousness!

Wednesday: Leftover pulled pork in quesadillas with rice

Thursday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Friday: Pizza for movie night

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: dinner at friends' house

Last Tuesday was a busy day for us!  First day of his new job for Daddy, a day spent cooking and baking, and a haircut for Jaxie!  He is still a sweaty mess in this heat, but I don't feel AS bad without the mop of hair on his head...

 The yummy treat we are making will be shared next week...

Check out more yummy recipes at Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie!

Fun Days Brought to You by Mimi!

Jackson LOVED having Mimi here to play with him! Here are a few shots of some fun times during her visit:

Tea for TC and Mr. Moose

Posing with the alphabet decorations in the playroom (a sneak peek of some of our decorating!)

Posing with Pax while "in a tunnel"

Snacktime amongst friends :)

Yes, the Cozy Coupe has successfully moved to Talon Dr., and it has had many successful adventures!

A little father-son outing into the woods right behind our house

Drink break on the porch

Snacktime

Silly face :)

Getting smiles from Liam before Brandi, Mom, and I headed out for a movie leaving the guys in charge :)

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!

The excitement didn't end after we moved into our new house!  Jackson and Josh took a drive to the airport to pick up Mimi on Tuesday morning!  Jackson was SO excited to go to the airport, see the airplanes, and then pick up Mimi!!!  We spent Tuesday showing Mimi the new house and just enjoying her company.  The Yanceys came over for dinner that night so we could hang out one last time as a group before Joe leaves for his summer deployment to Wisconsin.  It was fun to have our first "dinner party" in our new house :)   On Wednesday we took a field trip to IKEA and even ate lunch in their cafe.  It was my first "real" trip to IKEA, and even though I was SO excited with everything I bought, I ended up returning most of it.  LOL  But, I LOVE the few things I kept!  Thursday we pretty much hung out around the house, but on Friday, we went to Rachel's THIRD birthday party!  I cannot believe she is three already--I don't think I'll ever forget the day she was born!  Susie decorated with cute flowers and ladybugs--so cute!  Jackson immediately found a party blower and showed his skills!  Notice the turquoise fairy skirt: Rachel has lots of fun dress-up clothes, and Jackson likes to feel included.  He's worn this skirt a few times...  The other day when I was trying on a dress, he told me I looked like a princess!  Thank goodness for his little girl friends to introduce him to that world...;)

Jackson kept coming into the living room with strawberries, grapes, and chips.  Not a problem, but I wondered where he was getting his stash. Well, "Rachel's Grandpa" was keeping him supplied :)

The kids each got to decorate his/her own party hat--genius idea!

This is the only picture I got of Jackson and Mimi on this trip :(  I'll have to get lots more when we go back to visit them in June :) 

"Happy birthday dear Rachel..."

This child has clearly learned how to enjoy the frosting on a cupcake :)

Happy Mother's Birthday Mommy!

I decided to combine the posts for my birthday (May 4th) and Mother's Day (May 8th) since they were so close this year. Also, Jackson combined the two greetings on Mother's Day, which I think is adorable! Josh took the day off on my birthday, and we had such a nice day! We went out to lunch at Firehuose Subs, then we drove to the new house and let Jackson nap there while we hung a few window treatments and Josh built our new entertainment stand. We then went out to dinner with the Buerstattes at Red Robin, which was delicious as always! Beforehand, Brandi took some pictures of us and the kids at the new house:

On Mother's Day, we loaded up in the Buerstatte's Pilot and headed to the National Zoo!  It had been WAY too long since we'd been there, and Jackson had a great time!  He LOVED riding in the wagon with KK, and he really liked checking out the animals.  The highlights were the prairie dogs, lions, tigers, monkeys, and the giant turtle! 

The daddies on wagon duty :)

Checking out the "doggies" (aka prairie dogs)

Family photo: Smiths on Mother's Day 2011

Brandi's first Mother's Day with two children :)

Old friends with kids now...  how fast the past almost 10 years have gone...

After coming home for naps, we met back up for dinner at Panera--what a lovely end to a fun day!

Moving Day: Made Possible By Good Friends :)

Thank goodness we have such amazing friends who understood how helpful it would be to have Jackson out of the way to prepare for and on Moving Day!!!  In my head I was going to ask each of our three close friends to take Jackson for one day each giving me three days to unpack child-less.  Then my mom was flying in and Mimi would be on duty!  Well, everyone definitely offered (and I took them up on their offers) more then one day.  We clearly needed Jackson out of the way to make progress on packing and while we took care of other moving issues.  We are eternally greatful :) 

Brandi picked Jackson and Pax up at our house the morning before Moving Day while she was in the area running errands and kept them until the evening of Moving Day.  That was nice because Verizon was coming to the new house to install our new services, and it was helpful to not worry about Jackson since I had a four hour window of when the Verizon guy would arrive and then installation itself can take multiple hours.  I think I'm rather brilliant for thinking of packing up the kitchen and loading all the boxes in the Xterra so I could unpack the kitchen while waiting for the Verizon guy.  I had the kitchen moved and unpacked ready to go before Moving Day even started!!!  THAT was an amazing feeling :)  Josh worked at the townhouse getting things ready to load on the truck.  Then he met me at the house and we did a few things here before going back to the townhouse for a busy night of bringing as many things to the main level as possible.  We got all of the boxes moved to the dining room and living room so that the guys could just load them on the truck and not make unneccesary trips up and down stairs. 

Saturday morning started bright and early as Josh and Joe went to pick up the U-Haul. They were back and ready to load by 7:30am--by far our most successful rental truck pick-up EVER! Scott joined the activity a little later, and they just pushed through. We worked them HARD, but they really never complained. I think my mid-morning donut run and lunchtime Five Guys really helped keep spirits up! LOL It did take about 5 1/2 hours to load the truck in Springfield. There were many doubters as to whether or not everything would fit in one trip, but Josh is a stellar packer! He utilized every inch of the truck as well as our Prius, Joe's similarly small car, and Scott's Pilot, and everything was moved in one trip! Hallelujah!

After a lunch break for Five Guys, it only took about 2 1/2 hours to unload the truck. The guys really did work hard, and we are SO thankful to have such good (and strong!) friends!

After we cleaned ourselves up a bit, we headed to the Buerstattes and had a delicious dinner Brandi had made. Jackson and KK were all fed, bathed, and jammied up hanging out on the front porch. Jackson was SO happy to see us, and we were so happy to see his smiling face :) The night before Brandi and Scott were nice enough to watch another friend's two kids so they could go out, so they had a regular party at their house! Jackson must have loved having so many friends to play with!

We did take a break on Sunday for Mother's Day (separate post), but on Monday, Katherine was nice enough to have Jackson hang out with her, Liam, and Colin while we worked on unpacking.  Jackson has an awesome time hanging out with his friends, especially because they got to take a wagon ride!!!