Wedding dress shopping!!

As many of you know my sister got engaged in July. She and her fiance Grant recently set a date, of May 28th 2011 at Granite Bay Golf Club. We are so excited but with the wedding fast approaching she needs to find her dress. My sister had heard about a wedding dress sample sale in San Francisco. The sale only sold designer new wedding dress samples, size 6 & 8. The let 20 people in the store for 1 hour, yep you heard me right ONE hour!! The dresses are sold as is and all sales final. The sale was on Saturday December 18th, yes a week before Christmas!! We decided to make a mini weekend out of it by spending Friday night in SF. The weather was dreary and raining, thankfully we had our silly rain boots to keep our feet dry! We stayed overnight so that my mom and sister could get in line extra early. The store opened at 9am they planned to be there at 5:00am! I decided to take advantage of this mini trip by sleeping in and met them around 8:15. Well it paid off













They were FIRST in line. They said they couldn't believe it as the taxi turned to corner to see no one was in line... The line was pretty crazy and wrapped around the building. Kelli not only found her dress (which is amazing!!) we were back at our hotel with the dress at 9:45!! It was such a crazy fun experience and I picked the winning dress (yay me!!) which ended up being the first one she tried on! Here are some pics from our adventure.

A Special Delivery from Florida!!

While we are so lucky to have almost all of our extended family close, Nic's Auntie Anne, Uncle Larry & cousins Grant and Laura live in Florida, along with Nic's Auntie Em are the family that live far away from us. :( Though we do have very fun places to visit/ vacation as the Johnson's live in Florida and Emmy lives in San Diego...how great is that?!! Anywho...Jackson received a present in the mail from his Florida family. Here are some of the pictures of his special gift.

As an added bonus he is appropriately wearing a Gators sweatshirt which is Uncle Larry's Alma mater. Jackson likes it but for another reason. When your two, you pick your college teams by color & mascot, haha!!


Opening a Wooden Toby...one of his favorite trains :)


A travel Toby too!


Telling us who is on is beach towel....TIGGER!


He loved his beach towel!

Thank you Johnson's!! We can't wait to see you in July!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Here is a video taken on Jackson's birthday....I cut it down so that you don't have to listen to our "amazing" singing voices. His reaction is just too cute! Turn down the volume a little & enjoy :)

Jackson's Birthday Party

Yes this is how we are smiling now....taken on the morning of his party!


On December 5th we had a family birthday party for Jackson. We are so lucky that almost all of our extended family lives within an hour of us. Our house was filled with our family (46 people to be exact) and even a few of our friends who have kiddos Jackson's age came too! We had a sit down brunch and plenty of Mimosa's and Baileys! Jackson was one spoiled little guy...pretty sure his growing collection of Thomas the Trains &Gymboree clothes could be one of the most expensive things in our house..ha ha! I loved celebrating his birthday a little earlier in the month and he is enjoying playing with all his new toys a few weeks before Christmas. Our park has been more like a swamp lately and he loves to play outside, these new toys have been great! The winter rainy months feel so different when you have a active toddler! I am so THANKFUL for our mild sunny days, like today 60 and sunny, he got to burn off a bunch of energy. Here are some pictures from his party...and tomorrow he turns 2!


Nic brings these huge building plans home from work for Jackson to color on. We used them to cover tables, creating lots of coloring space for kids and adults. Before the party Jackson went around and colored on a few places, he loved it!


Family


Aunt Linda catching a pic of Jackson and Lexie


These two are so silly together. Jackson just adores Lexie and she is so sweet to him.


Looking at his new Thomas Story book


Opening up a Thomas Train


He is going to be a pro at opening gifts at Christmas!


Happy Birthday Jackson!
Guess I should have used more concealer...you can tell I've had no sleep leading up to this party!


Later that night with reading with daddy


Hard at work on the Island of Sodor :)

First "professional" Haircut!

On Saturday we took Jackson across the street to the Plaza to have his first haircut. Juan, the owner of Murieta Barber shop cut Jackson's hair. Nic and I have trimmed it before but never have taken him anywhere to have it cut. He was pretty good, just didn't like the smock around him so we had to take off his shirt. Of course he spotted a green blow pop in the candy jar so he had to have that too! Juan's son also let him play with his Nintendo DS which he loved too. The end result was so cute and he looked very handsome! Check it out!


Even cooler than mom's iphone!



NOT a fan of kid smock!


I love how he is checking himself out!


Final result! Looking good Jackson!

Thanksgiving, Christmas Lights & Milo's Birthday

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to my parents house on Thanksgiving. My mom & Nic cooked an AMAZING dinner. After dinner Jackson got to open up his birthday present from Aunt Diane & Uncle Jim. We played Cranium after dinner which turned into a booze fest complete with name calling and lots of yelling. It was awesome! The guys dominated and won both games, boo! After the games we started to map out our shopping attack...we hit the Folsom Outlets at 10pm followed by Wal mart at Midnight. We got home at 3a then left at 9:30 the next morning to hit Target, Bath & Body Works, Ulta, & Costco. It was a great success and we had a blast! Thanks Mom, Diane, Kelli and Grant!







Buddies

Jackson is absolutely fascinated with all the Christmas lights this year. We have been out driving or riding in the golf cart almost every night enjoying all of the hard work that our creative neighbors have done. I will have to take some pictures of our favorite houses. Jackson loves to spot the houses with the lights, happily shouting out "lights" every time he spots them. Jackson even got to help Nic with some of the lights at our house. He loves to turn them on every night.

On Monday December 1st was my parents dog Milo's birthday. Mymo as Jackson likes to say...turned nine years old. We took him to the park with Jackson and he enjoyed a nice golf cart ride. Happy Birthday Mymo!



Helping daddy with lights


Milo & Jackson in my mom's "decorative" sleigh, lol!


Trying to fit in the golf cart basket with Milo