Friday, January 1, 2016

2015 in Review

Erin lost her two front teeth--not naturally! 
She now has fake ones until she's a little older.
 2015 was quite the year for the Jackson family.  We had several big moments: both girls lost their first teeth (though Erin lost hers first, which totally ticked off her big sister); we got our first dog; we had our first family vacation; Sean and I celebrated 10 years with a second vacation; Sean got a promotion; we bought a new house; and are under contract and will hopefully finalize the sale of our Washington home by mid-January.  And that's just to name a few!

Welcome to the family, Roxie!  How tiny she was just a few months ago!
 

We got a great family photo at Easter
We were able to take the kiddos to SDC several times.
This was the first year we bought the Silver Dollar City/White Water season passes for Elise and me (Sean uses our guest passes).  I felt like Erin was old enough to enjoy White Water (I was a little off on that--she didn't want to ride anything, though she was definitely tall enough this year to ride things with a parent).  We got to make several trips to White Water and Silver Dollar City and the kids always had fun--I decided to buy them again for 2016.  I'll reevaluate it again next year, when Erin will no longer get in to the parks for free!

We added a new family member in June: the girls got a new cousin and we got a new niece, Rose Elizabeth!
Our little hikers
 In July we went to Gatlinburg, TN.  We had an even better time than we had hoped to when we booked it.  The girls tolerated the long drive really well, we had so much fun hiking, and checking out the Ripley's Aquarium, and our cabin was great! 

It was great to spend some of our time in TN with MawMaw and PawPaw, too!
Elise got to have a visit from the tooth fairy in September!
The girls loved each other that day
 Erin is finally old enough that the girls play together quite a bit more than they have in the past.  3 1/2 years is still a bit of a spread and Elise likes her time to herself, but they do have fun together.  They also find plenty of time to bicker, but that's what sisters do!

TEN YEARS?!  FOR REAL???!
The views from all 4 corners of our rooftop patio in Mesa, AZ
 Sean and I celebrated 10 years by flying out to Mesa, AZ for a long weekend shortly before our anniversary.  Neither of us had been in the Southwest before and we loved the scenery--it is definitely different from what we're used to in the Midwest!  We got to go on some great hikes, enjoy some delicious food (the best of which was at the house of a family friend, THANKS to Tommie and Gary!), and have a nice weekend away to celebrate a decade of marriage.
Our 3 girls
Overall, 2015 was a great year.  I'm excited to see what 2016 holds for the Jackson family!

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas with the Sweaneys

 Dave's "Chinese" Christmas gift.  And his attempt at Chinese.



I'm usually the taker of the photos, so I had to make an effort to get in one myself!









After a morning at home with the girls, we went to MawMaw and PawPaw's for Christmas.  We still have one more Christmas to go: Jackson extended family Christmas is January 3rd!

Christmas with the Stevens



  Poppy opening the present Elise picked especially for him.  I love this face!
 Stocking time!

 This ham...
 Mammy and Popa brought the kids awesome stocking caps from their trip to Colorado.
We had Christmas on Christmas Eve with the Stevens family, so I let the girls wear their Christmas jammies home--good thing since Erin was wore out from the festivities!

Christmas with the Lippys and Cookie Decorating

 The kids' favorite thing to do is wrestle with Logan.  He's a good sport about it. 

   They love their Logan (even if they make it challenging to get a good pic with him!)

Christmas Eve we decorated cookies at Mammy and Popa's before our Christmas festivities.  We try to get together before Christmas for this, but with Mammy and Popa being on vacation and crazy schedules, we didn't get it done early.  Link decorated about 4 and was done.  Elise and Erin were a lot more interested in the process, and both were pretty particular about their decorations.
 Part of the finished product!

Christmas Program and Jackson Christmas

 These little elves put on quite the Christmas program through their daycare.  I absolutely loved every minute!
 They were all dolled up and I had to get a pit of them with Roxie before we went!
 MawMaw and PawPaw came to watch them, too!
 Daddy was on-shift (as he always seems to be for these kinds of things), but I was there to cheer on my girls!
They even served us dinner!
 At the Jackson Christmas, I only took a few pics of the kids opening presents, then got distracted.  They all seemed really excited about their gifts!