Just Playing Around

It won't be long 'til Ali Grace is running around the house right along side Jack. She's been pulling up on everything for a while, and then she started cruising and letting go without a care! She would fall and tumble and roll and then get right back up without a sound. And now she's doing this:

Pushing Jack's dump truck around like a pro. I have to help her turn around and get out of corners, but she's cruisin' along behind the truck like she's been doing it for years. Ali gets the dump truck and Jack gets the "Mater truck." It makes for great entertainment when they get tangled up, or when Ali Grace decides she wants Mater. Jack is sooo in for it when she starts walking. She already follows him around and gets into all of his stuff, but she's going to be a terror! :) I love it!

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' along!


Posing for a picture--finally. I took about 5 pics of his back before this one.

He still loves his rocking horse that Papa built for him. Ali Grace likes it too.

Smiling Girl! Those cheeks look familiar. I don't know why. :)

Jack's Big Boy Room

I've been wanting to make Jack's room more of a big boy room and less of a baby's room for a while now. Since he loves anything that is motorized I thought a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles theme--or travel--or something along those lines would be great. We finally got around to hanging everything this weekend.I found this picture online at pottery barn kids for about $100. Of course I was not about to spend that on Jack's room, so I copied it with a few changes to make it my own. I had a BLAST painting it, and I think it came out great. I used a large canvas I bought months ago for about $15, and painted it with paint pens and acrylic craft paint I already had. I really like how it looks.

I bought the license plates at a antique shop in North AR on our trip for about $4 each. I like the colors with the map.

Here's the map a little closer.

I wanted to make a place to display some of Jack's artwork that would be easy to change, and that he would be able to help put up. Brian put three picture hanging hooks in the wall and we tied jute twine to them, clipped the art on with clothes pins, and Wah-La! Jack loves to point out his pictures and talk about them.

My Dad made these letters for Jack a while back. I had them painted white and hung with cute striped ribbon on the wall. I wanted to use them, but wasn't sure how, so I decided to paint the side of the letters different colors, but leave the front white. Well, some of them got kinda messy, so I started smearing the paint on the front and liked the way it looked. I did it to all of them and I think it looks cute now. The little car, truck, and plane are stuck on the wall with mounting putty, which I thought was clever, UNTIL Jack came in, saw them and immediately started whining for them. I had those things down in seconds--we were not gonna deal with that! :)

I put some more of Jack's artwork over his crib. The one in the center is the first crayon drawing he ever did. I still think it's worthy of museum display--but I may be biased. :) The others are canvases he painted.

I have a few more things I want to do in there, but I really like how it's coming out. We're now starting the transition to a big boy bed. I just took his bumper pad out and next is to take the side rail off. I think he'll do fine, we're going to have to reeeeealllly work on teaching him to stay in bed and not get up and play. I know some people have done it, we'll see if we can. We're also going to start getting serious about potty training. I'm scared! :)

Family Trips Part 2--DESTIN

Last week we went to Destin with my side of the family for a few days of relaxation, sun, and sooo much fun! We stayed in a HUGE beach house, which we needed because there were 14 of us! It was such a blessing to be able to go and spend some great quality time with my aunts, uncles, and grandparents--not to mention my parents and siblings! We did a lot of relaxing, EATING, joking around, and sunbathing and some swimming, fishing, shopping and beachcombing too.

The picture above was taken from the deck behind the house the first night we were there! It was gorgeous!

Here we are before leaving Jackson and heading south to the BEACH!!!
Sleeping in the car...so nice! (For him and for us.)

Ali Grace gets zoned out like this just before she goes to sleep.

On our way out of Jackson.The Mobile Tunnel. Jack enjoyed this, I think we "choo-chooed" our way through it. He still loves trains!

Skip ahead about 8 or 10 hours (the traffic was insane in Mobile and Ft. Walton) and we were pulling into Destin!

Cap'n Jack Chisholm

My Uncle Tim and Aunt Lisa have a big fishing boat that Jack loved! Here he is taking us for a cruise around Destin(not really).

Catching a BIG fish!

I am in love with this picture of my PawPaw and Ali Grace! He is such a big teddy bear especially when it comes to his great-grandkids!

I love this one of Ali Grace and my MawMaw too! They were so sweet together.

MawMaw held Ali whenever it was time to feed her baby food. I think she enjoyed it.

"We goin' the beach!" as Jack says.

I don't know who was more excited, Jack or Brian and I. :)

Testing out the water.

Both Jack and Ali Grace really liked the water and the waves.

They both like the sand too--but in different ways.

Jack wanted to dig in it. Ali wanted to eat it.

Happy girl!

One of the guys.

Papa (my Dad) had a blast playing with Jack.

One of the girls.

It was so awesome seeing them experience the beach for the first time.

One afternoon we all piled on the boat and took a cruise around the bay. It was so pretty!

There's my sister and Mom in the crow's nest waaaay up at the top of the boat. I wasn't going that high.

Michael and Jack chillin' in the back of the boat.

We ate breakfast one morning at the cutest little diner called Camelia's or something like that. It has long curved lunch counter-like seating and we were all able to sit down together. They had some incredible omelettes!

Jack liked the chocolate milk.

And Ali reeeeally liked the bits of waffle I gave her. The girl gets downright bossy when it comes to feeding her!

Cap'n Jack again, this time in full costume. He loved his sword--he even slept with it.Baby Pirate.

And Daddy Pirate.

Getting ready to get in the pool. Poor kid, we could barely see him.

Loungin' in the pool.

After this we loosened up a little, took the vest off, and let him float in a little tube. He was so funny! He was completely relaxed just floating along humming.

Our trip was Fantastic!!! We were constantly talking and joking about staying in Destin forever, we really didn't want to leave. There's just something about being on the water--I think it's the "Coast Rat" coming out of Brian and I.

The best part was spending time with family. Letting them see and get to know Jack and Ali Grace a little was priceless. We're planning to make this an annual event!

Jack Pictures

Some of these are from a few months ago, and even in that short amount of time Jack has changed so much! He looks more and more like a little boy each day! We love this silly boy!