Gender Reveal Party

With Jackson, we told our family and friends the day we found out that he was a boy. This time around, Jack and I found out on Wednesday and had to keep the news to ourselves until Saturday. It was so hard not being able to tell everyone! Especially when I went back to work Thursday and all my teacher friends and students kept asking me! We wanted to wait until our Gender Reveal Party though. Jack and I spent days on google and pinterest trying to find the way we were going to reveal the news this time. We found a really cute idea where they had their friends do an Easter egg hunt where only one egg had the news, but we felt like it wasn't close enough to Easter to do that. So we decided to tweak the idea a little bit. We put notes inside balloons instead of eggs. The notes said "Nice try!", "Keep tryin'", "It's a ?", and one balloon had the note with the news. We gave our guests a push pin and put pink and blue balloons on the floor. We counted to 3 and everyone started popping their balloons trying to find the news. Jon found the lucky balloon and shouted out "It's a BOY!" Everyone was shocked because almost all of them guessed girl when they first arrived at the party! We had them put on tiaras if they thought it was a girl or mustaches if they thought it was a boy. I think only 2 people had on mustaches! It was hilarious watching everyone popping the balloons and I am so mad at myself for forgetting to record it! So looks like we are going to be a family of 3 men and a lady :) Our son's name is going to be Nicholas Rian Burns and we can't wait to meet him!!

Baby #2

Just a few days after Jackson's first birthday, we found out we were expecting another baby!! Of course, as a teacher, I began estimating when my due date was going to be and hoping for sometime in the summer. Well, a summertime baby it is.. July 27th is when we will be welcoming our 2nd bundle of joy! The due date is a little later in the summer than we had hoped for, but oh well! So Jackson and his sibling will be 21 months apart and I can't wait to see the two of them grow up together! Since we already had Jackson's 1 year pictures scheduled, we decided to take some pictures for our announcement for the new baby. We invited my mom and hadn't told her anything yet so we got to surprise her with the news at the photo shoot! We asked her to grab a sign out of the bag and she was so surprised to read what it said...

Sunday Funday!

Last Sunday, Jackson and I took a trip to Fort Worth. I haven't been there since Jackson was born.. which is crazy because before then I was there all the time! We went there to visit my mom and her friend, Julie. They were cheerleaders together in College and hadn't seen each other in 30 years! We went to brunch at Blue Mesa and O.M.G. it was so good! Jackson sat and watched as we all devoured our food!

After brunch, we headed out to the Water Gardens. Jackson was so fascinated by the water! I tried getting some pictures of us together, but he wouldn't look up! He was too busy staring at the water. We managed to get one picture together though. His favorite part was in the Quiet Pool area. The walls had water trickling down them and he thought that was amazing! Our trip there did not last long because it was just TOO hot outside. Julie couldn't believe the heat. She thought Florida was hot until she came here!

It was so nice to meet Julie. It was as if I've known her my whole life because she reminded me so much of my mom! I literally met the "Blonde Carolann". We are going down to Florida in July to visit my family so hopefully we will get to see her again! I know Jackson would love to see her :)

Baptism

I have believed in Jesus Christ my whole life and have accepted him as my Savior, but have never been baptized. When my church mentioned they were going to be doing water baptisms I knew it was something that I wanted and needed to do. They emphasized that it was important to go public with your faith. I wanted to fully give my life to HIM and celebrate being a Christian by getting baptized. It was a remarkable experience. Hawaiian Falls closed down the water park at 6:00 p.m. for our church. There were over 100 people ranging from children to adults that got baptized that day! I was so grateful to have my husband, son, mom, Megan, and Topher there supporting me. So I am proud to say that on June 10th, 2012, I got baptized!!!

Jackson

Jackson will be 7 months old tomorrow! How has 7 months already gone by? I remember his arrival as if it were yesterday. We will soon be planning his 1st birthday, ahh! I am absolutely loving my summer time with him right now. He has done so many new things within these few weeks that we've been home. I have a feeling the crawling is about to start because he is rolling all over the place and cannot stay still! I'm already pushing the coffee table out of the living room because he almost rolled right into it the other day. Guess we need to start baby proofing the house! He has his 2 bottom teeth now and has been eating solid foods. We've only given him fruits so far and his favorite is bananas. It seems to be daddy's favorite too.. I have to tell Jack to stop eating it and to feed his son! As much as I've said "Mama" to him, his first word was definitely "Dada!" and he LOVES saying it over and over! It has been so much fun spending time with Jackson. Oh how I wish I could be a stay at home mom!

Father's Day

I could not wait for this day because Jack has been such an amazing daddy and he definitely deserved a celebration! I woke up early and went to pick up his favorite breakfast. I hung the Father's Day banner that I found on pinterest and placed his card and presents on the counter. I made him a Coupon booklet that included coupons like: a nap without any interruptions, a back massage, and so on. I also bought him the movie, Courageous, which is a must see for all dads out there! After breakfast we went to a wonderful Father's Day church service. Then the Burns' fam came by for lunch. His parents got him a Home Depot gift card and Jon and Brittany got him a book called, Why a Son Needs a Dad. Jack was very excited that Jon was able to be there. Overall, it was a great day! Although Jackson cannot verbally express his love for his daddy right now, you can already see his adoration through his eyes. There is something about the way he looks at Jack. He gets so excited when he comes home. He starts kicking his legs, waving his arms, his eyes light up, and the biggest smile stretches across his face. I just love watching the two of them together and cannot wait for many more father/son moments as Jackson grows up.

Mother's Day

Unfortunately, Jack had to work on Mother's Day, but I still woke up to a sweet gift left on the kitchen counter. He typed up a very sweet poem, put Jackson's handprints under it, and framed it. Of course the poem brought tears to my eyes! My mom and I attended a very special Mother's Day service at our church. They opened the service with a poem called, Before I Was a Mom. If you are a mom and have not read this, you need to! After church, Jackson and I headed to daddy's station. The fire fighters invited all the wives and kids for a Mother's Day dinner. It was super sweet for them to take time out of their work day for us! I really enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day because I am so blessed and proud to be Jackson's mom.