Jackson is 6 months old!

Half a year has already passed since Jackson arrived! Joey and I are so grateful for every moment with him and feel so lucky to be his parents! Joey commented recently that Jackson's smile never gets old. Hearing Joey say it melts my heart - How right he is! Maybe we appreciate it a little more when it's absent for a while, which was the case with all 3 of us being sick at some point or another over the past few weeks, but either way, we consider ourselves so very blessed.

At his appointment Jackson has grown or maintained in every category - he's still average or below 50% in most, but still so happy and healthy that there's nothing to be concerned about. He's finally rolling himself onto his side, but still seems disinterested in actually rolling over. His legs are quite strong though so we're almost convinced he will literally walk before he crawls. We'll count the delayed rolling as a blessing that we get to wait a little longer to baby-proof the house. :) Again, nothing to worry about and he's doing just fine with other milestones. One of the questions asked at his appointment was if he's babbling and I had to laugh because sometimes babbling is an understatement. He definitely has the Shoup "gift of gab" as some have said. :)
I still can't believe it's already time for another monthly comparison!
6 months!

5 months
4 months
3 months
~2 months
1 month

"Birthday"!
...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Our first playdate

Joey and I had originally planned to be in Vegas for the whole weekend of Friday the 13th (to help celebrate the 30th birthdays of our friends Amanda and Lori), but when that trip fell through, I opted to keep that Friday off and drive out to Aledo (about 60 miles from our house - on the SW side of Fort Worth) for a little mother/son playdate with Kim and Ben. At this point in the boys lives, it's really more for Kim and I to catch up since the boys aren't really "playing" yet, although Jackson did have a good time in Ben's exersaucer while Ben looked on. It's really funny because if you know Joey and Stan (Ben's daddy), you'd say it was like watching the 2 of them. Joey is the more boisterous of the 2, always laughing, talking, and carrying on, while Stan is more of the quiet type (most of the time) so seeing Jackson going crazy making all sorts of noise while Ben was content to be held, was cute and funny! We look forward to many more of these and watching the boys grow up together!

Kim & Ben at lunch:


Jackson "testing out" Ben's exersaucer



The boys being posed for the camera. The first is all of our favorite - it looks like Jackson is waving to the camera.




The 4 of us (all wishing the day could have lasted longer!)


...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Trip to Mississippi

Halloween weekend for us meant a trip to Vicksburg Mississippi for a Malik family reunion (Joey's dad's mom's family). We were the last to arrive and I didn't even realize just how big of a reunion it was to be - I was really expecting just about a dozen people! :) There are some pictures that other people took, but here are some highlights from my camera.

Friday made for a bit of a dreary drive, but Saturday was a beautiful day so we made sure to take Jackson to the Vicksburg Battlefield - Joey says there are pictures of him sitting on canons when he was little so we obliged with the same pose for Jackson.


Here are the boys in front of the Illinois monument - where there are several Shoup's listed


Inside the Illinois monument:


Other than that, I did a horrible job of making sure we got pictures, but since it was Halloween, at least we got some of Jackson in his costume!

Our little "Jackson-o-lantern"



One of my goals is to do better about taking pictures even though Joey sometimes makes me feel like "crazy picture lady". :) I take some snapshots almost every day on my phone, but haven't done as well with actually using the camera so that's an area that needs improvement, especially if I ever hope to own a nicer camera. I do have a tripod already which I used for many of my pregnancy pictures since by the time I was ready for work Joey had already left for work and at the end of the work day I wasn't usually feeling much like being photographed. :)

...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Who's a bigger ham?!

I still owe a post update on our Halloween weekend trip to Mississippi, and the great visit Jackson and I had with Kim & Ben this past Friday, but for now, I just wanted to share one picture from that outing...Kim took us to "The Club" (Mira Vista) for lunch and while she was in the bathroom getting Ben all set in a new diaper, I was taking some self-portraits of Jackson and I. This one made me laugh because I wasn't looking at him while taking it so I was talking and making noise and apparently it worked - we both have big open-mouth smiles, but I wouldn't have it any other way!



...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Friday Night Lights

Another football game - the last of the 2009 season for the Sachse Mustangs. It was a bit chilly and the kids weren't in the best mood by the time I finished feeding Jackson and tried to snap a pic of Jamie, Camryn, Jackson, and I, but here we all are!


I'm really glad we went and know that once Jackson is able to move around, he will join Connor in having a blast with Joey and all the "uncles" (like Uncle Baker who made sure Connor got some thundersticks at this game)!

...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Kisses

Once upon a time I might have been bothered by the slobber, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything as lately Jackson seems to be trying to learn to give me kisses (or possibly eat my face). Here are a few pictures I tried to take on my phone while he was "kissing" me on Saturday evening:




I did have Joey take one between all the kissing. Maybe I'm biased, but what a cute (ornery) little guy! Obviously Jackson was enjoying it, although I'm pretty sure mommy enjoyed it more!

...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

We Shuffled!

We have been so blessed to have such beautiful weather for the ALS Walk our previous 2 years and this year was more of the same!

We haven't raised as much money as in the past, but hopefully we'll find a way to get back to that moving forward. We did forgo ordering new shirts to donate the money instead and have actually talked about combining efforts for the many charitable walks we do with our friends and making our own ALS/Cancer/Heart Walk in honor/memory of so many of our loved ones.

A family picture:

I just love the look of wonder in Jackson's eyes in this one

We've made it a tradition to have lunch at one of our old favorite watering holes after the walk. Rick, Brooke, and Baby Avery couldn't make it, but here are our other 3 little ones (with their dads) on their first trip to Adairs:

These are the amazing friends who physically walked with us this year (not pictured is Don who gets special kudos for doing another walk earlier that morning and still making it to Grand Prairie to finish our walk with us). We have so many amazing friends, not just those who physically walked with us, but all of our family and friends - We are so lucky! While it hasn't been exactly the same group each year, we've always had such a great turnout and it's been fun to watch our group go from about adults and 1 kiddo (only Connor the first 2 years) to 18 adults, 4 little ones, and a dog (Jason'g dog Oliver - aka Ollie) this year!

...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!

Our little Noisemaker

Jackson can be quite loud when he wants to, as is evident from the following video. One minute he was quietly playing in the exersuacer and the next, we think all hell has broken loose. Joey and I were trying to get dinner ready so at first I thought Jackson was just done with it and wanted out, but it turns out, he just wanted someone to watch him play! Since he always seems to pull a "Michigan J Frog" when I hold the camera to video him, I decided to just set it on the coffee table and watch him from the couch. (I love how Buddy is just sitting on the love seat in the background!)


...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!