Thanksgiving, family & friends

We spent Turkey Day withDaddy's mom's side of the family. We brought our friend, Ayrton, with us, who is from Brazil and has never experienced a traditional American Thanksgiving. He loved it! He took pictures of everything to show his family. We enjoyed our time with him and hearing about his family's Christmas traditions in Brazil. Ayrton has been coming to The Bridge since August.

We also enjoyed our time with family, especially Jackson's great-grandmother, who is 95 & sharp as a whip!

Then, the traveling continued on Friday as we drove to see Daddy's paternal grandfather for a 90th birthday celebration. Jackson loved running around on the farm and sitting on all of great-granddaddy's tractors! That's great-granddaddy and cutie cousin Ethan below.

A frolic in foliage

Jack is really enjoying the leaves falling. On a recent adventure through our neighborhood greenway, Jackson and Mommy collected pretty ones to bring home. He enjoyed trying to catch them as they fell.

He also enjoyed the fruits of Daddy's labor - a big leaf pile to jump in!

college bound?

Does he look like a college boy or what??Just two of the A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E pictures from today's portrait sessions. I'm considering showing more later...

Our Little Musician

Jackson really loves instruments. Daddy brought his guitar home from the office recently and Jackson loves to sit down and play and sing!

"No! No Santa!"

While at the mall today, I was showing Jackson all the Christmas trees and lights - reminding him of the things to come. I was surprised to see that Santa was already there and waiting for children to take their over-priced pictures with him. No pictures were being taken while we were there - go figure. It is still November, after all.

I thought Jackson would be excited to see Santa, so I pointed at the man in red, while we were approaching in the stroller. Jackson immediately had a panic face and flung his arms at me saying, "No! No Santa!". So, I rescued him from the perils of evil and we strolled off in the other direction. I asked him if he was scared of Santa, and he just nodded.

I had forgotten our experience with Santa last year... we met Stacy & Nate at the mall. Jackson was dressed all cute. We heard that they would allow moms to take one picture with Santa WITH THEIR OWN CAMERA - so, Stac & I were up to that bargain. Jack had been talking about Santa for weeks. (Actually, he kept calling him Noah - they look similar in our story books). We had seen him at the mall from a distance and waved and smiled. I thought this would be a treasured memory for him, er.. Okay. For me. Our turn came, and I walked Jackson up to Old St. Nick and HE TOTALLY FREAKED OUT. Loud screams and calls for "Mommy!" followed. Needless to say, no pictures were taken.

It is amusing to me that my boy, who shows no fear of ANYTHING - not Halloween masks, giant mascots, clowns, BUGS, or strangers - is terrified of Santa Claus. Oh, and green vegetables. Go figure.

Little Linebacker

Daddy & Jackson have their own games that they play together. They race cars through the den and into the kitchen and back. They build a "house" out of all the sofa cushions. But, most often they play football. Jackson has learned how to run with the football and hold it REALLY TIGHT, as Daddy constantly chases him and tries to make him fumble. On the occasions that Daddy succeeds in getting the ball loose, they yell "FUMBLE!" and Jackson falls on it as fast as he can. I think Jackson likes the tackling the most of all. It's so funny. GrandDaddy Pete, you would be SO PROUD.

Trip to TN

We took a short trip to TN to visit with Mimi & Granddaddy Pete. Jackson was also able to see Uncle Tyson & Aunt Amanda, cousin Elle, as well as spend time with Aunts Kaye, Inez, Toni & Pat! It was a very busy weekend, but lots of fun.

Mommy was excited to take Jackson to one of her favorite parks when she was a child, but we soon discovered that it has now become a restuarant and yacht marina! We found another beautiful playground on Concord Lake.

Tyson, Elle, Mommy & JacksonAn early birthday present from Tyson & Amanda. It's a toy box, but Jack also LOVED to climb on and in it!

Elle was ready to cheer on the Vols!