Wisconsin

Our trip to Wisconsin was a great success. We were able to celebrate the life of Grandma Clark with family and we really enjoyed being together. Jackson was a great traveler! After our long drive we met Grandpa and Uncle Bob at the hotel. Grandpa was loving on Jackson the first second he saw him. We ended up going to dinner at a local place with Todd and Connie and Alvin and Kathy. They are Bryan's...cousins? They are Bryan's dad's counsins.
After the memorial service on Saturday, we hung out at Todd and Connie's. This is our four generation picture.

We also went on a walk to Uncle Elmer's farm to see his miniture horses. Jackson rode along in a stroller and was very alert.

He was teeny tiny in that big stroller. This is where the horses live on Uncle Elmer's farm.

There were three miniature horses.

Greta and Addie are pros at taking care of the horses. They put some hay in the trough for the horses.

There were several of these hanging around too. Yuck!

Walking back from the farm on the country roads.

By Sunday, Jackson was pooped. He slept through the lunch for family at the church.

Before we left, there were LOTS of pictures taken. These are two of Grandma's brothers and their wives, a wife of her older brother who has already passed, and Grandpa.

The trip was wonderful. Being reminded of so many things about Grandma really makes me want to be a better person! She was amazing!

Hanging In There

Things have been tough around here. Jackson is proving to be a sleep challenged little guy. He likes to wake up every hour after his first stretch of sleep. It's really wearing me down. I have a hard time going back to sleep during those short stretches mostly because I worry about why he is up so much. There seem to be so many different ideas on how to fix it and I don't know what I think is best. I question every decision I make.
Bryan has been working a lot too and the days seem pretty long when he doesn't get home until 8:00. I am headed to Kansas City towards the end of the week so I am looking forward to having more people around but I am a little anxious about how he'll sleep. He gets to meet more family though!
I tried to upload a few pictures several times today but Blogger isn't letting me. I'll have to try again later. Hopefully I can sneak a moment to get them up soon.

Time Warp

I apologize for being so bad at updates. I have been in some weird time warp since Jackson was born. Maybe it's the sleepless nights! Here is a little of what we've been up to.

Dan, one of the Quad members is getting married. He's marrying another Quad guy's younger sister. They are perfect together! Bryan went to Indianapolis for Dan's bachelor party a couple weekends ago. While it was tough for me to be home alone with Jackson, I was so happy Bryan was able to go. They guys had a great time.

They went to a couple bars

and played golf

and stayed in this house. It is another Vacation Rental By Owner deal that Jeremy found. It's all fixed up on the inside.

See?

All the Quad members.

I was also a mean momma recently and made Jackson take some pictures. He loved it as evidence by this first picture. We were just having too much fun. He hated it less once I gave him his paci. I think his hair looks red in these pictures.

I sure do love this little guy that never sleeps!

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

That took a long time. I finally figured out how to change my template back and then I created a new blog header. I loved some of the headers I was seeing on other people's blogs and I wanted one too. There are people who can design them for you but of course it costs money. We have Photoshop Elements so I figured I could probably figure out how to do it myself. It took a while and some guidance from Bryan who has done a litte design from his days in Journalism. Now I feel like we can get on to the blogging again.

Ooops!

Well I started messing with the template of my blog and messed it up. Bear with me while I get it figured out. It may look quite different for a while.

One Month

Jackson is one month old today! I don't know which set of pictures I prefer yet but once I decide, the other months will just be the one style.

Jackson, you:

• weigh 9 pounds and are 21.5 inches long. That's the 35th percentile for height and weight.
• are sleeping in three hour stretches during the night. You wake up for a bottle and then go back to bed.
• like to look at the black and white pictures next to your changing table. You stare at the lion during diaper changes.
• fall asleep on every walk and on most car rides.
• scream the loudest when you're hungry. You eat about 3 ounces every couple of hours.
• smiled at mommy for the first time today!
• sometimes don't know how tired you are. You cry really loudly until we can get you to sleep.
• have some crazy hair. It is most fun right after a bath. Mommy likes to do funny things to your hair.
• are loved like crazy!

Muddy Buddy Weekend

Lee, Lea, and Steven came to visit us last weekend! They arrived on Friday night and we went to dinner at Giordano's. Saturday we just hung around the house mostly but we did make a trip out to Meatheads, a yummy burger place, and to the park. We had an early morning that we needed to be rested for. Steven and Jackson met but Steven was more pleased with the situation than Jackson.
Bryan couldn't believe how big he had gotten already. It's crazy that he was ever as small as Jackson. Steven is such a smiley, happy baby!

We walked to the park for a bit and Steven enjoyed the swing while the daddies shot some baskets.

Jackson just hung out in his stroller.

Sunday morning we had to be at the race site at 5:30 to register and pick up the race packets. It was an hour away in Gilberts, IL so that meant a 4:30am departure time. In order to get all of us ready, I was up at 3:00am. It was really foggy and there were giant mosquitos everywhere.

Here are the guys before the race.

We hung out in the car as much as possible to keep the babies away from the mosquitos. Here is Jackson in his sling ready to go watch Daddy cross the finish line.

Mommas and babies ready to go

This is what the boys looked like as they crossed the finish line. The race is a six mile course that alternates running and biking. One person starts running while the other person bikes. The biker gets to the first stopping point, leaves the bike and completes an obstacle. Then the biker takes off running and when the runner catches up, he takes the bike to the next obstacle, and that continues for the whole race. The whole race is through muddy fields so the terrain is quite difficult. Right before the finish line, the partners meet up and army crawl through a mudpit toward the finish line. This is what they looked like right after they crossed.

Muddy and tired!

I can't believe Bryan allowed himself to get this muddy. He does not like to be dirty but you can tell from the people behind him that he was in good company.

The boys hosed off and changed clothes and we went to Pomegranate Cafe for a delicious breakfast. Lea and Lee had to head back to Columbus that afternoon so we snapped a few more pics before they left. Here are daddies and babies.

and mommies and babies.

Lea and I decided we should do Muddy Buddy next year so the guys are in charge of watching the boys or finding alternate care so they can race again too. Anyone wanna come watch some babies next year????