Merry Christmas 2012!

I know this is a few weeks late, but what does everyone say? better late than never? :)

We hope you and your families had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We sure did! It was our first Christmas in our new house and it was fun (and somewhat challenging) to decorate!

We have a tradition, of sorts, of opening a few gifts on Christmas Eve, so that it won't be so overwhelming Christmas morning. Here's Olivia picking out a gift or two to open:

And here's Caleb doing the same...it took a bit of coaxing for him to realize he wasn't going to get in trouble for ripping the paper. I guess that's what a few weeks of "Caleb don't touch!" will do to a boy...

Christmas morning dawned early this year...Olivia crawled in our bed at 5:30! We had lots of fun opening gifts with the kids!

New football? Awesome!

New activity table - so he can STAND UP and play.

New socks - in her favorite colors, of course!

Can you say "chaos?" We had to be careful or Caleb would get lost in all the wrapping paper!

Levi's parents, Joe and Melba Jackson, came to visit for Christmas this year. Olivia always loves it when her grandparents come to our house - undivided attention and captive playmates!!

Later in the afternoon we went to the clubhouse of our community and played some pool! Olivia liked to help hold the stick. She did pretty well! Maybe we'll have to play more often!

Again, we hope you all had a lovely Christmas. we are blessed to have each of you in our lives. Stay tuned for our 2012 recap, coming soon! :)

Circus Time!

This past weekend we went to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus! It was the first time for Levi & Olivia (and Caleb, obviously), and I hadn't been since I was very little. It was a lot of fun! Very loud, and a little long, but definitely entertaining. We joined our friends Carrie and Jenna (and one of Jenna's friends) there, and had a great afternoon watching the spectacle.

Eating her $12 SnoCone. She'll be eating breakfast out of that bowl for a very. long. time. It was acutally pretty cute...every time the vendors came by with something Olivia would ask, "Why aren't they giving me one?" apparently she thought they were just handing out the snacks and toys to all the kids and was worried they were skipping her! Silly girl.

Up on Daddy's shoulders for the preshow!

Mesmerized girls.

The clowns of the family...Olivia wouldn't put her nose on for the picture. And Caleb decided to be fuzzy.

At this point in the show Levi turned to me and said, "I feel like I'm in a Dr. Seuss book." An apt description, actually!

But Mommy, I'm thirsty!!

We've decided that we need to do more things like this...it was fun watching Olivia be so excited. If only we could figure out a way around the post-show traffic...

Long Overdue Update - Family!

I know it's been 2 months since I've updated. I know this because Caleb is now 2 months old! (8 weeks exactly, today). It's gone by so fast! We have had lots of family visitors, which was very helpful, and we have moved into our new house - which is another post entirely, and one I'll get to soon. :)

Part of the reason I haven't updated is because, well, we've been quite busy adjusting to our new family of four and moving and all. The other part is because I wanted to wait until all of our visitors had come so I could post pictures of them all at once. So...here you go, in order of appearance! :)

Melba Jackson - "Grammy"

Joe Jackson - "Papa Joe"

Joe & Melba came in a few days after Caleb was born, so they got to see his sleepy side. :) Olivia had a ton of fun playing with Grammy...I think they wore each other out every day!

Tim Lickliter - "Grandpa"

Kathy Lickliter - "Grandma"

Tim & Kathy arrived around 2 weeks after Caleb was born. Can you tell his favorite sleeping position? We called him our little Snuggle Bug...or Stink Bug, depending on the diaper situation! He still prefers to sleep up against your chest like that, actually. Mommy and Daddy are building amazing arm muscles!

Mary McDorman - "Great Grandma Mary"

Jim McDorman - "Great Grandpa Jim"

Jim & Mary were able to stop in for a day on their way home from vacation, which was nice. Great Grandmas have wonderful laps for rocking, and Great Grandpas are fun for big sisters to play games with. :)

Joanie Weber - "Aunt Joanie" (blurry but the only picture I have!)

Chris Weber - "Uncle Chris"

Joanie & Chris came for a weekend at about 3 weeks of age. It was great to see Joanie's own little baby bump growing, too! :) They both got in some practice holding a newborn...

Di Massey - "Nana"

Di came to visit when Caleb was a month old...and since our little Snuggle Bug doesn't like to sleep for more than 10min unless someone is holding him, she was invaluable help as a babysitter while I packed up our house to prepare for moving!

Thanks so much to all who have come to visit and help us out in the first several weeks of being parents of 2! It was wonderful to see everyone, and great to have all the help! We love you!

Pictures as art

I have been doing a lot of planning for the decorating of our new house lately. I've opened an account on Pinterest to keep track of good ideas or things we plan to buy:
http://pinterest.com/charityj02/new-house-decor-ideas/
http://pinterest.com/charityj02/diy/

I've collected lots and lots of pictures in a notebook. And I've done lots and lots of looking online at DIY projects.

One such project I came across appealed instantly because it combined two things I love: using pictures of my family as art, and using Adobe Photoshop to modify/change pictures.  I wanted to share them with you because I love them so much! :) The process makes regular pictures look old-fashioned. For instance, I took this picture of Olivia:

And made it look like this:

So pretty! I love, love, love the effect. Here are some other before/after pictures I've done:

I have a few more, but you get the idea!

Again. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way they turned out!Now I have to get them printed in a large size (Walgreens, here I come!) and buy frames. And figure out where to put them...I'm thinking either a hallway/entryway, our bedroom, or the staircase. We'll see! :)

In case you want to do this for yourself, here are some links to tutorials on how to do it. Also, you have to have some working knowledge of Adobe as well as the program itself.

Original idea & sample layout of pictures

Tutorial for how to use the special effects

Like the tutorial, I used this file for my layering. I don't know who made it but I'm thankful it was free!

If you decide to make some old-fashioned pictures of your own, please share them! I'd love ot see them.



Labor Day Weekend

Levi's sister Joanie and her husband Chris came to visit us for the long Labor Day weekend. It was a great visit. It's nice now that we only live about 6 hours from them - they're our closest family neighbors now! Hopefully we'll be able to visit with them often.

I think Olivia had fun with both of them...of course her Aunt Joanie brought her some shoes (Aunt Joanie has always bought her the coolest shoes). This time they were pink cowboy boots! When in Texas, I guess...

She immediately had to put them on with her pj's.

And then we had to bring her pony downstairs for her to ride with them on. Silly girl. I think she wore the things all weekend...even with her red and black preppy skirt. lol.

We went swimming on Saturday, which was fun for all.

And then on their last night we met some other friends of theirs at a Japanese Steakhouse. Olivia loved the show that the chef put on!

Waiting for the show to start...

Wow! I love the look on her face. She did this through the whole thing, along with laughing and squealing. Fun!

Other random pictures:

Reading with Aunt Joanie (which gave Mommy and Daddy a break!)

Having fun with Uncle Chris

Lovely girl!

Having fun!

Melba and Tammy Jackson's Visit

This past week, Levi's mom, Melba, and his oldest sister, Tammy, came to visit. They were our first visitors since we moved to Austin! I think they had fun...swimming in the mornings, playing in the afternoons. We had dinner at Chuy's one night, an Austin original restaurant. It was very yummy!!

I think they liked our house, and enjoyed the visit. Especially with Olivia! :) She kept them occupied...and they helped to wear her out!

Next up for a visit: Levi's middle sister, Joanie, and her husband Chris! They will be here this weekend!