The Wild Azalea Festival

On Saturday, March 15, Jerrod, Jackson & I set out for White Springs, Florida. Home of the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. THE most beautiful state park I have ever had the luxury of visiting & walking around at. I highly recommend going! Here are a few pictures from our family outing, which was quite fun too. Here's Daddy & Jackson... Here's The Stephen Foster "house". Pretty sweet for a backdrop of a wedding, which was taking place later on that afternoon. Mommy & Jackson in front of the Garden of Azalea's at the Stephen Foster S.P. The 97-bell carillon, built in the 60's, sort of reminds me of Denny Chimes on the Quad at The University of Alabama...
The Fam...

Silly Hat Day's

Need I say more?

Master Gardener Jackson

Jackson has a new love - The Great Outdoors. Every chance he gets he's out the front door, off the porch & into something... anything. He LOVES to get his hands dirty and his clothes even dirtier.

I will have many more pictures to share over the coming weeks as we will be planting lots of seeds in our flower gardens. This past Sunday we planted some sunflowers & morning glory's. We'll post some pictures of any of the flowers that grow.

Jackson enjoys hanging out in his new wagon, courtesy of Granny & Papa Fletch - Jerrod's mom & dad. We pack it full of "gardening tools" & essentials. I may have to invest in some type of slicky-pants for Jackson, as his pants are ALWAYS covered in dirt when we are done gardening.

Florida's Finest

Thanks to our friends Uncle Tommy "T-Bone" & Auntie Dawn Lowe for Jackson's personalized Florida Gator Football Jersey.

Only Gators Get Out Alive!!!!!!

Jackson turns 1 & other fun facts...

Jackson turned 1 yesterday, the 3rd of March 2008. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday with family & friends out at the Farm. Jackson got to dig in to his own birthday cake, which was a Strawberry Country Cake (A Barefoot Contessa recipe). It was 2 layers of cake, with a layer of whipped cream and strawberries in the middle and on top. He loves strawberry's and with it being strawberry season in FLA I decided to let him have one of his favorites. Here are a few pictures of him digging in. (More pictures to follow).





Also, we had Jackson's 1 year check up w. Dr. Michelle yesterday. Jackson is 25 lbs and 33" tall. He has 10 teeth & is speed walking everywhere. He's sleeping in his very own toddler bed, has been for the past few weeks and as of last night we decided, with the encouragement of Dr. Michelle to allow him to fall asleep on his own for naps & bedtime. Something that Jerrod & I have been slowly working towards over the past few weeks.

He's not a happy camper about "self-soothing" at all. However, he is 1, he is now in the stage of Autonomy V Shame & Doubt (Erikson) and he's doing so many other things on his own, plus Dr. Michelle said that now is the best time to do it. We, Jerrod & I, both agreed. Last night was one of THE hardest nights of sleep in our house, 1 I am sick with the flu, and 2, the first time he woke up the cry lasted almost an hour. This was an opportunity for me to truly rely on the power of prayer and God's love, not just for me, but for Jerrod & of course, Jackson. I can say this without hesitation, I can now understand on the tiniest of tiniest levels what I must have been like for God to allow his son to suffer so much for us (make no mistake about it, I am SO not comparing 1 night of self soothing to what our Lord and Savior did for us, just noting what it's like to be a parent).

These next 3 pictures of are Jackson taking a stroll in the yard one day 2 weeks ago. The weather was chilly (yes, it does get chilly in FLA!) and we went out to enjoy it. He LOVES being in the yard, digging around, finding pecans, sticks, you-name-it.

I'm trapped & I can't get out!!! Who put my baby crib outside?

Here's a few of Jackson swinging.. another favorite thing to do in the yard... He enjoys waving to all the cars that drive by the house too. Please note the stick... his favorite book is The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. In this story there's a page or two about a stick - "a stick that was just right for smacking a snow covered tree"... well we don't have any snow covered trees here, but we've got plenty of sticks. I'll blog later with an omage to sticks & Jackson.