what Jackson learned at brave girls camp...

the many faces...

of j.j.m.

In my last post, I mentioned that I have drafted several posts in my mind.  This is not one of them BUT when I was looking through my camera I found SO many funny pictures of the little man I couldn't help myself. :)

{Jackson LOVES to watch movies and will ~mostly~ sit through an entire show.  If ever his car seat happens to be in the house like it was on this day when I had to wash it because he puked all over it, it is his seat of choice.}

 {silly face}

{He thinks it's SUPER cool to hold something in his mouth with no hands.  He's probably right.}

{This face means "you just tried to hand me something and it's not what I want!"  Somebody call the waaambulance...:) }

{The nearest soft thing becomes his pillow whenever we say "nigh night"}

{Happy that he got a hold of the remote, which he knows is off limits.}

{Not sure what this means...certainly not anything happy}

{This one is new...not sure where it came from, but I think I saved the best for last.  It comes with a "shoo-shoo-shoo" sound.}

We sure love this little guy!

Cinco de Mayo = Happy Anniversary to Us!

 Happy Anniversary!

Jeff and I were married on Cinco de Mayo 3 years ago.  It's not like getting married on May 5th was something either of us had planned since childhood or anything...it just happened to be the day that worked out best for us.  BUT since it worked out that way, we ran with it.

We had mexican food at our luncheon.

And a pinata.

And Jeff wore a sombrero.

We've been celebrating on Cinco de Mayo ever since....though I can't say we've ever had a pinata or a sombrero since the wedding.

This year we thought we'd celebrate in a small way - just going out to dinner together...baby-free.  As you know, money has been tight for a while.  We hadn't been out to a nice dinner together for a while.  It was a real treat to go on a real date.

We went to Brick 29...a cozy little restaurant in the basement of an old Masonic temple.

It was lovely.  The food was incredible, the service was great (seriously our waitress brought us our next course as we were finishing the last bites of the last course...it was super-human).  AND as icing on the cake, there happened to be live music that night, which is one of my favorite things.

{Leave it to me to ONLY take a picture of the dessert...and not even be able to wait to take a bite before taking the picture} :)

 {The live music...loved every second of it.  I was too embarrassed to take a picture with flash...you get a crappy picture because of it, but I think I did the right thing socially.  My mother would be proud.}

It was nice to sit and talk and eat really good food that I didn't make.  It was really nice to be on a date together and to feel all the feelings that brought us together in the first place.

It was nice not to be distracted by a cute, sweet and demanding little boy and just be able to spend time with my number 1.

We were done with dinner by like 8:30...didn't really know the area or what there was to do.  Didn't want to spend the money to go out to a movie, so we did what old people do and went home....to my mom's house where we were staying.

I can say that this anniversary will go down in history as the most different of them all.  We went home...Jackson was in bed...my mom and sisters were in the living room and welcomed us home warmly (as always).  We went into the girls' room where we were staying and saw that Tessa (one of the twins...age 11) had decorated with balloons that said (in her handwriting) "Happy Anniversary".  She also made us a card.  We LOVED it all.  We sat with the girls for a while, watched a little tv, then went to bed in the twins' bunk beds...wonder what next year will be like?  :)

If I were to write a book on how a man should be, I would make Jeff the main character and the 'ideal' for other men to go for.  He is everything a man should be.  He is loving and strong and protective and helpful.  He is fair and helpful and loyal as a friend, a son and a husband.  He never ever laughs at me for my weird ideas...even though I know he doesn't always 'get' them at first.  He makes me feel loved and cherished and honored.  He takes care of all the man jobs in our life.  He always carries the heavy stuff.  He always opens my door.  He holds my hand whenever he can.  I am lucky to share his name and lucky to get to go through life with him.

Yahoo for another anniversary together...here's to 60 more! :)