birthday boy!

more pics from kara! 

don't ask what i'm pointing at or telling court because i have no idea!

bo climbing on!!

sophia and ryan "fixin" stuff

birthday boy

court had a FABULOUS 1st birthday party last saturday. the weather did not cooperate, but we managed to survive having 4 construction vehicles and a home depot tool station in full force for 2 hours (all in the living room). the kids had a blast riding the trucks, "fixing" things, eating dirt cake, and helping court open his presents. i wish i had pics of the kids on the trucks on my camera, but i did not get any that day :(. to say that court was "wired" after his party is a major understatement. court usually goes to bed between 7:30-7:45 each night and it takes him about 10 minutes to get himself to sleep. saturday night i finally had to ROCK him to sleep because it was 8:30 and he was still bouncing up and down and wanting to play. maybe too much cake??? :) thanks to all who came and made it such a FUN PARTY!!! 

sophia and cousin hadley are helping court open his presents

balls, balls, and more balls (from uncle jon)..... we are already thinking of a payback present, don't worry

dirt cake with bull dozers on top

yum!!!

i'm 1!

happy 1st birthday court jackson

1st time i laid eyes on my handsome baby boy!

i'm 1!!!

my baby is not a baby anymore (sniff, sniff). i just can't believe how fast this year has flown by. if they all go this fast, court will be graduating from TEXAS A&M (WHOOP!) before we know it. i can't believe a year ago today i got to hold this tiny little gift from God in my arms for the first time. that first day is such a blur because 1. we had been up since 2 AM with contractions, 2. i ended up with an emergency c-section and was all drugged up, and 3. we were just so excited that court was finally here, we really had no idea what we were doing for the first 24 hours (thank goodness for nurses). i am going to miss so many things about my "baby" like those tiny squeaky noises they make when they are brand new, the newborn smell, how content he was to be all swaddled to go to sleep, how he use to sleep right up next to me in the early morning after a feeding,.... i could go on and on. but, now there are new memories to make this year. he is growing and changing so fast. court has SUCH a personality. he loves to jibber-jabber and if we could just understand what he is saying, it would make everything easier. the other day i gave him a drink out of my cup with a straw and when i put it down, he stood right up, held out his hand, and yelled at me. i think he was "talking back" to me for the first time. he said he "was not done drinking, hello!" mom & i got so tickled that we were crying. he will be walking before we know it. right now, i think he feels like he can get where he wants to go faster by just crawling. he is interested in EVERYTHING. he wants to know what everything is called. and he has a FABULOUS memory! i can't believe the stuff he remembers for just being 1 year old. i think i might have a G.T. boy on my hands!

so we celebrate our "baby's" birthday today with family and close friends. rhett says i can still call him my baby if i want to. :) how lucky we are to have so many people who love our court. 

the big party is this afternoon. it is FREEZING today  - winter decided to return! we are having a "construction" party with dirt cake and everything. we have construction toys out our ears that the kids were going to ride outside. but, with the weather like it is, we moved out the furniture so they could ride inside. what's a construction party without construction toys to ride on?? i'll post pics later next week of the festivities! :)

i'm sure we're all going to need some tylenol tonight. :)

stay tuned!

more pics

we got the cd of 73 pictures from brandi at b4 photography. 73!!!! and we get to keep all of them and do whatever we want to with them!! i've already got an order ready to pick up at sam's first thing in the morning!  here are some of our (my) favs! rhett didn't really get a vote on what went on the blog because he is on the couch right now. :) i guess he does deserve that since he's been studying non-stop every night for the last 3 months! 

i needed this

boy, did i need to read this today:

"I think if you're a stay-at-home mom or dad, the main thing to remember is that you're staying home to raise children and spend quality time with them, not to have the perfect house."

i sometimes get in manic cleaning mode and want everything put away in it's place, all the dog hair vacuumed up, the counters cleaned, beds made, etc. just to feel normal. but, it's always good to read something like this to make me remember why i am staying home. i am so thankful for rhett for working so hard to provide for our family so i can play with court all day.  i love you babe!

so, i won't be cleaning much today, just playing with this little man and his daddy (who is finally done with the cfp test!! woohooo.... now we are just praying he passed!)

BUBBLES and springtime!

court's first experience with bubbles......

he got SO tickled!!

no more rain!!! swing time!

stick in hand - do i see danger & destruction in my near future????

this piece of wood went straight to the mouth!

aaaahhhhhhhhh! grass!!!!

indoor picnic

it is cold and dreary around here this week. so, court and i headed to downtown dallas yesterday to have an indoor picnic with rhett. every time we go to rhett's office, court is swarmed by the ladies. rhett took court to the break room to get drinks and there were 2 women waiting for them with me in his office when they came back. they wanted to know where "mr." was! he loved looking at all of the cars on the street from rhett's window. he would point and talk to them. he also loved trying to get into everything in rhett's office. hopefully, the next time we head to dallas, we can have an outdoor picnic and enjoy some "spring" weather. 

watchin' the cars

dad is showing court downtown dallas

my 2 handsome boys

i love babywise!!

i don't know how many of you know that i LOVE the babywise books! it is definitely not an easy concept to incorporate, but the benefits are FABULOUS. it helped court start sleeping thru the night (7-8 hours) by 11 weeks old and it has alot of other helpful tips regarding discipline, highchair manners, naps, etc. the books are a little hard to understand because they are very general. but, i found a blog site that is WONDERFUL and goes into SO much detail. i've been trying to incorporate "independent play" for court over the last several months because i would like to actually get "some" things done while he is awake without having to carry him around with me ALL the time. lately he has wanted to be "glued to my hip" which i LOVE most of the time. it's just a little hard when i have to do some things that require 2 hands! the main thing about incorporating this and some of the other concepts is consistency. even if it doesn't work at first, keep trying. i didn't really believe this at first,  but i've done it the last 2 weeks very consistently... and guess what - court has been playing by himself for a total of 44 minutes this morning (i'm typing this as he is playing contently). i play with him for about 15-20 minutes and then i leave to unload the dishwasher, eat breakfast, fold clothes, etc. he can still hear me because i'm in the kitchen or living room and he is playing behind the couch with all of his toys. he fussed just a little the first couple of times we did it, but now he plays like a pro. i'm sure we'll have our ups and downs, but i know this will be a great benefit in the long run. i know that this will come in handy if we are ever blessed to have another baby in the future because he will know how to entertain himself without me having to be his constant source of entertainment. it will also teach him how to solve problems by himself, independence, focusing skills, creativity, a longer attention span, etc. as a former kindergarten teacher, ALL of those skills are so helpful once they start school. so, if you're interested in the babywise blog for all sorts of helpful topics, head on over here. now, i definitely pick and choose what I  agree with and incorporate as i'm sure everyone does with all baby advise. enjoy!

11 months

this post will be short and sweet because i have to soak up all i can of court before he turns a whole YEAR OLD!! less than 1 month of having a "baby" in the house. :( sniff, sniff....

my top 11 favs:

1. court loves to practice walking. as soon as you grab his hands, his legs start going and he cracks up laughing. he still hasn't figured out how to bend his knees, but we're working on it.
2. court LOVES to start laughing at you and turn around quickly to crawl away. it's his favorite way of playing chase. too cute!
3. right before nap time, while i'm changing his diaper.... i'll give him his paci and his eyes close immediately.... it just puts him right out!
4. when court was sick (which i hate) with the stomach flu, we had to do alot of rocking to sleep. one day, i was sitting with him in the rocker and we were rocking, and i leaned back and closed my eyes. he started saying "mmmm" so i looked down at him and he immediately closed his eyes to go to sleep. so, i closed my eyes again and about a minute later i hear "mmmmm" again - so i look down at him and he again closes his eyes. apparently, i have to WATCH court sleep.... i'm not allowed to close my eyes myself. it just made me giggle. 
5. anything court picks up, he has to shake to see if it makes a noise. he loves to help me shake his bottles to mix it up! he gets a big smile on his face as he is shaking!
6. court LOVES to turn the lights on & off over and over again. he started this about 2 months ago, and then got tired of it. apparently, we are loving the light switch again.
7. he loves the magnets on the refrigerator that mimi showed him. they are a bit tiny and NOT child-proof, so i guess that will be our next purchase.
8. we took the bath seat out of the tub and MR. is loving his freedom in the tub. much less water is in the tub but he loves crawling all around and playing with the toys. last night was the first time he cried when i pulled him out of the tub because he was getting very wrinkly. i have a feeling that might now be a daily ritual from now on. 
9. court loves it when we play "this little piggy" with his toes. he pulls his feet back and giggles and then sticks his foot right back out at you so you will keep going. 
10. court loves to play on rhett's guitar. he sees it in the office and heads right for it. he knows how to pluck the strings and everything without anyone teaching him. we have a little rocker on our hands.
11. we have 1 open trash can in the office, and let's just say it now stays empty at all times. court is a master at emptying the trash and sticking everything in his mouth. so, we probably just need to get rid of that thing anyway since we can't use it for it's original purpose. :)