Janae Turns 8

Eight years ago, I was at the hospital, hooked up to pitocin, waiting for my baby to make her appearance. She didn't want to come out to meet us, she was happy in her little hot tub in my belly, but the time had come to evict her. Time has gone so fast since then. I can't believe that I have an 8 year old!

She is a joy to have at our house. In the past little while, she has matured so much. She is especially helpful, caring and wants to please us, most of the time. :)

Some of her favorites are:
Food- lasagna, spaghetti, roasted red potatoes, pizza
Book- Fudge, Captain Underpants
Colors- Hot pink and fluorescent green, turquoise
TV Show- Hanna Montana
Toy- Littlest Pet Shop
Candy- Airheads
Thing to do- Play "house" with Addyson
Accessories-Rings, necklaces, bracelets, eye glitter, lip gloss

Janae is such a special part of our family. She loves to snuggle in the mornings. In fact, her alarm is set a few minutes early so that she has time to come snuggle in my bed before she has to get ready. One of her favorite things to do is play with Addyson. They love to play house or school, especially if Janae can be the mom or teacher.

Janae is one smart cookie. She is the youngest in her class but that doesn't stop her from being at the top of the class. She has qualified to be in the gifted and talented program for the last 2 years. She is a great reader, reading at a 5th grade level. Math is her favorite subject and she does really well in it. She usually gets perfect scores on her spelling tests. She is all around smart!

Janae is a girly-girl. She loves jewelry, makeup, dressing up, and doing hair. She just doesn't want to go shopping for clothes. She is fun to have around. These are some of my favorite pictures over the past 8 years. Check out her personality in them! We feel blessed to have such a sweet girl in our family and we love her so much. Happy birthday!

Daddy's Girl

Scott left this week for a trip to Atlanta for work. Janae used his leaving as an excuse to snuggle with him instead of just going to sleep in bed. From the looks of things, they both enjoyed the snuggle time.

The Last Hurrah

Since it was so nice last week, the girls wanted to get the water slide out one last time. It has been warmer these last few weeks than the whole rest of the summer. They popped a hole in the tube on the slide where the water squirts out, so they improvised with the hose. I'm pretty sure that the hose was much more fun anyways. :) They played for several hours until we made them come in for a late dinner. I wish that the weather would stay like this, but unfortunately it won't.

Mountain Man Rendezvous

The girls have never been to the Ft. Bridger Rendezvous before, so we decided to take them. Driving up to it, they were impressed with the tepees that were all over the place. Apparently lots of the people who participate in the rendezvous camp out on the grounds around it in tents and tepees. We wandered around and saw lots of hides, buckskin clothing, jewelry and many other mountain man or Indian item booths. We toured the houses and saw how people lived in the mid 1800's. We heard drums and found these Indians performing native dances for the crowd. The girls liked this the best. Janae even got her picture taken with, as she said, a "REAL" Indian. We snacked on some Indian fry bread and Navajo taco before heading out to wander some more.

There were even some bagpipe players they were able to watch for a while. Not sure how the bagpipes played into the mountain man theme, but the girls liked them anyways.

Addyson's Teacher

Addyson finally got to find out who her teacher will be this year on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Cordova was my pick and Addyson seemed to agree with me all summer. When she went to school the first two days though, she met Miss Lefferdink and liked her better. When I asked her why, she told me that she was funny. So I asked if she told lots of jokes, to which she gave me a look like, "Whatever, mom." Apparently she is just funny when she talks. I'm glad she got the teacher I wanted for her, even if she doesn't agree with me, yet.

Cinnamon Rolls

With her new rolling pin, Addyson thinks she needs to be making something at all times. We decided to make some cinnamon rolls the other day so that she could practice rolling out dough. Her rolling pin may be small, but she makes up for its size with the her determination to have flat dough. She is also great at spreading butter.

What cute dimples!

Both sisters in on the action.

No picture of the finished product. We went to the football game and planned on having dessert when we got home. Who knew it would be 10:45 before they were done?!? They tasted pretty darn good though.

First Day of School 2009

School has started! I enjoyed the day yesterday, free from fighting and whining. What an enjoyable day, even if I did do some cleaning. The girls got up, showered and then had breakfast with dad before he left for work.

Addyson started kindergarten this year. She has been excited to go for a long time now. After spending so much time at the school in the last couple of years while I was volunteering in Janae's class, she pretty much knew what to expect. We got them new backpacks with their names embroidered on them. She wanted me to drive her to school in the morning and then ride the bus home in the afternoon. I took her into her assigned classroom to drop her off and she sat right down and didn't hardly give me a second thought, not that I expected her to have trouble. She is rotating through the kindergarten teachers for the first 2 days of school and then has the next 2 days off. We find out who her teacher is on Friday. She was so excited to tell me about her day and the gummy bears she got for listening. She looked like such a big girl getting off the bus with her backpack on her back yesterday. I can't believe that my baby is is school already! Time has flown since she was born.

Janae started 3rd grade. She has Mrs. Jones for a teacher this year. She came home so excited that she had the best 3rd grade teacher ever. If you don't believe her, just ask her teacher! She informed me that Mrs. Jones would only get mad at the class if she had to because they weren't listening. We know that won't ever happen! The girls wanted pictures next to the Jackson sign now and again at the end of the year so that we can compare them to see how much they grow during the year. I don't have to worry about Addyson at school because Janae will be there to take care of her,whether she needs it or not. She is a great big sister and does a great job watching out for her little sister. She told me that the new principal, Mrs. Court, told her class that 3rd grade is her favorite class, but they had to keep it a secret. I'm sure that she will have a great year again, seeing as she is so smart and all.

Pastry Chef Addyson

On our trip to Cody last week, we let the girls pick one thing to help them remember the trip. Janae, being her usual self, honed in on jewelry and couldn't be led away from it. She ended up getting a mood ring in the shape of a butterfly, to match the mood necklace she bought from Lagoon. Addyson on the other hand, looked and looked, until she came across a jr. rolling pin. It is an exact miniature of mine. She could have chosen the blue like mine, but picked pink instead. (Go figure) She was dying to make something with it and kept suggesting we make chocolate chip cookies, rice crispy treats or anything else she could think of. We had a roast for dinner on Sunday, so we needed some rolls to go with it. She was more than happy to help with the rolling out of the dough. She did a great job at it too. Gone are the days that I will doing any rolling out dough by myself. :)

Ice Cream for Dinner?

The girls begged to have ice cream dinner again but after last year's flop, I was hesitant. I finally gave in but didn't tell them what the plan was. I went to the store and got everything that we needed. When it was close to dinner time, one of them asked what we were having for dinner. I casually replied, "Ice cream." You would have thought they had just won the lottery! It was a much more successful event this year. After we ate, we watched a movie as a family and I surprised them again with snack food for a snack. We had chicken fries, potato skins, pizza, crackers and cheese, fruit and of course, raw veggies and dip. They couldn't believe that I was letting them eat so much junk in one day!

We now have agreed to make ice cream for dinner an annual event at our house, right before school starts. Anyone care to join us next time?