Here are Some of the Highly Requested Pictures (Now leave me alone - just kidding)

Here are some pictures that I took with my good camera about a month and a half ago right around the time of Jackson's first birthday. Unfortunately they are all in the same clothes, just in 10,000 different poses. Enjoy.

This is just a smattering of pictures over the last couple of months. They were all taken on our point-and-shoot camera and most of them are not "fixed." Forgive me if they do not look professional. :-)

On the couch watching football together.

Jackson's favorite place to be - outside

On the back deck next to one of the wood piles

Cutting wood with Daddy

With cousins Cassie and Haley

Jackson got into a kick pushing a chair around the house

He loves to hear and watch me play the guitar

Besides being outside, this is one of his pther favorite places - the tub.

This is a very famous tree in Virginia because of who is associated with it. Robert E. Lee did a lot of correspondence while staying in the adjacent house during the Civil War.

You get an idea of how big it is. This is one half.

And this is the other.

He loves to play the piano and hear the piano played. He loves music, and I think it has a lot to do with all the music we used to play where he could hear it before he was born.

Playing with the set of blocks I made for him before he was born.

Like I said, he loves being outside. We were washing the car one day and he got to playing in the mud. He loved it!

Jackson Turns One - Already!

Well, this is the end result of the cake ceremony, but let me show you how we made it to this point.

He was pretty tired because he barely took a nap. I think he was so excited about the party that he didn't even know he was gonna have. But this is how the party started.

Still obviously pumped.

He's been learning not to touch most things in the house. He was waiting for permission.

Didn't take him long to dig in once he got permission...And a taste of the frosting.

And this is when mommy said he had enough.

Time to open presents. He was more into the wrapping like kids usually are. He did stop to look at his presents for a second or two before he played with the wrapping.

His cousins were there for all the action.

A laughing dog...that got him pretty excited.

Granddaddy and cousin Micah.

Grandmama.

And after all the partying Momma and Jackson are both worn out and ready for bed.

It's Been A Crazy, Hectic, Busy, Way-too-fast Summer

Its been a very very busy summer and, unfortunately, the blog has been one of the things that suffered. I am going to try to post most of the pictures I took this summer in the next couple of weeks. I thought that videos would cover a lot of that ground. Jackson is walking now and he is a ball of energy, but extremely happy and ready to smile, as always. He's a great kid and I love being a dad. We have a couple goats that he loves to play with. I'm not sure the goats would say the same for him.

Vacation to Pigeon Forge

We went on a vacation to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee this past week. My wife's parents, brothers, and sister and their families all rented a 5 bedroom 5 bathroom house in the mountains for 5 days. It was a lot of fun. There was a small pool available for anyone staying in the houses to use. We were a little disappointed at first by how small it was, but it proved to be a blessing because nobody else came up there all week. So we had the pool to oursleves. Jackson got his first taste of the water, and w couldn't keep him out. He absolutely loved it. Here are a few pictures. I plan to put some more on as I get the time. Hopefully soon.

First attempt at sunbathing I suppose. He actually doesn't look too happy because he is already more than satisfied with his tan and he wanted to get back in.

I like this one of us.

This is a video of Jackson swimming for the first time. We discovered an accident at the end!!!

This is a video of Uncle Jason feeding Jackson some of his leftover whip cream. He was only teasing to show what he does when he is anticipating more food.

A day or two after we got home, Jackson finally put everything together with the whole crawiling thing he has been working on. This is literally one of his first times crawling more than a foot or two. I'm sorry it is sideways. I held the camera upright to get a bigger view without realizing it couldn't be turned back. Warning: Support your head with your hand or you may end up with a crick in your neck before it's over.