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.

They were finally old enough to come home, so we finally got our two adopted kids - both girls!

But first let me show you a couple of pictures we took in Indiana before we got the girls. I took these myself with a remote. You can probably see it in my hand if you look close enough. We really didn't get very good pictures for two reasons. #1 was the wind, and #2 was the fact that there was nobody else there to get Jackson's attention toward the camera. These were among the very few where he was actually looking slightly in the right direction. It was actually quite frustrating, but we made it work.

I thought the next two shots were great. They were just candid shots that I took as I was trying to get the camera set up in the right place for our family picture. They look so relaxed and natural together. They're both just absolutely beautiful!



These are some pictures I took of Jackson with my little point-and-shoot camera. He was in a really good mood (as usual).

Grandma Boots gave him the overalls while we were up in Indiana.

His Favorite pose

This is the original version of the picture on the header.

Here are "the Girls," as Becka likes to call them.

They are two-month old pygmy goats, so they are "kids," and they are both females. They won't get very big. They really have warmed up to me in just the last two days that I have had them. They jump on me and beg to be petted, just like dogs.

This is Clara Belle. (Becka picked that name).

This is Snickerdoodle. (My idea).

You should hear them yell when they see us. They sound like a babies crying.

Here are a few pictures from our trip up to Indiana for the Preaching Conference.

Jackson loved riding the luggage cart at all the hotels we stopped at.

Grandma and Jackson

This is what you do when you are bored while you are driving. You take pictures of yourself while you are driving.

She only looks calm in the picture!

This look means, "I've been in this stupid car way too long!"

The next few pictures are Jackson's idea of travelling.

He was much better than I thought he was gonna be. In all honesty, as much as we are in the car running here and there for church and visitation, etc., he is a really good kid. Always a smile even when he is dead tired, and only cries when he's starving. God gave us a wondeful blessing in this little boy. He acts much more mature than his short little 7 and half month life.

Jackson is growing up too fast

If you look close you can see that he is starting to get his second tooth in. I don't know if you can see it or not by these pictures because there is always a tongue or a pool of slobber in the way. He always smiles when you try to look at them though because he likes to show them off.

This may give you an idea of the size of this kid.

He is adding new things to his list of firsts all the time. We got a bike seat for him and he absolutely loves it. We ride over at the state park some, but that is pretty bumpy and rough. We had a day off for spring break so we went to a bike trail that they are in the process of building from Richmond to Williamsburg (about 60 miles I guess) that they have finished about half of. It's paved and very nice so we went and rode there. We rode about 15 miles and he couldn't stop laughing and smiling. He loves being outdoors - he's his father's son. The honest reason he is not smiling in these pictures is because every time we stopped he started to fuss a little because he wanted to keep going.

He's added something else to his list of firsts. He helped me mow the grass the other day. And, as you can tell by the next picture, it was old hat to him. I realized he could do two things at once. He can mow the grass and suck his thumb at the same time.

This is THE Cutest Baby

Even his feet make the whole thing cute. He has the greatest feet position. Maybe I'm making up terms because I'm biased. I will gladly admit it.

How can you resist that look?

He was done being cute and he made it clear.

He's is finally getting long enough and flexible enough to to eat his feet. I think he took offense when I told him the other day that he was too fat to even stick his feet in his mouth. Now he does it without thinking.

Ever since he learned how to roll over he doesn't stay off his stomache. He found his stomache and he found his thumb and it makes for a good night's sleep.