pay it forward

This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones.

--so I normally don't do the tags but i love making things these days so I thought this would be fun. come on. let me make you something!

Jackson, why are you crying?

"Jackson do you want your sandwich?

"NO!"

"Jackson do you want to play basketball?"

"NO!"

"Jackson do you want your blanket?"

"NO!"

"Jackson do you want to help with laundry?"

"Yeah!"so he did. carried the basket (almost) by himself. put the soap in. pressed the buttons. put the clothes in the wash. then eventually put the clothes in the dryer. i love my son.

William Jackson

Did you know that Jackson is William Jackson Barnes? like that's his full name. I really like using family names but Brent's not that in to it. We knew we wanted William because its both of our fathers' names. Wendell Jackson is Brent's maternal grandfather's name. William Jackson O'Bryant is Dee's grandfather's name, Jackson's great-great grandfather. you following? so here's the story. We were eating dinner at the Barnes' a few weeks ago and noticed a painting on the floor. It used to be in grandma's room but since she died they weren't sure what to do with it. She asked if we were interested and we said not really. Then when we looked closer we realized that William Jackson O'Bryant painted it. SOLD! I'm a sucker for old family things, especially since its a namesake. I just wanted to share our cool new addition.

Toy bags

I know, I know, enough with the projects. Anyway, these are bags my friend Emily has for her toys. They hang on the wall which I like for a couple of reasons. An adults gets them down so she can say "we'll get out the blocks after we put away the cars" thus keeping down the chaos slightly. Hers have these little windows with different shapes so you can see what is in each bag. genius. I made the window bags a month or so ago and just love it. I don't hang them, I put them in the toy box bench so that all the little toys don't get lost in the bottom. Today I decided to make a bag for his art stuff and whipped that one up in like a couple of hours. I have never done applique before and while its not perfect I still love it. They're totally easy and cute and I just thought I'd share a great idea for storing kids toys. thanks emily! oh and thanks lori for showing me applique. i used heat'n bond and it was simple.

My Valentines

My three Valentines: Brent, my soul mate and love of my life, Jackson, my inspiration for improvement, and Elmo. (I know I'm so lucky.)How romantic are his eating skills!!I don't know what people see in anybody else but him. He is the cheese to my macaroni. (Yes we watched Juno last night.)
Oh and he also found Cadberry Creme Eggs for me at Walmart!! SWEET!

My New Apron

I finished my new apron tonight! Yeah! This pattern was from the Anna Maria Horner book that I got for Christmas. This is a big step for me because it had a lot of firsts for me. First time for me to cut and assemble a pattern all by myself. The first time I've cut bias strips. The first time I've used binding. The first time I've done gathering. It is by no means perfect but I think I'm pleased. Now if I burn Valentine's dinner tomorrow at least I'll know I looked good trying!

Weeeeeee

I know she's not sliding but I still thought it was cute. Needless to say we had a great time in Alabama.

Aunt Pat

At the end of our trip to Alabama we stopped by my Aunt Pat's house. She is the kind of woman who sincerely amazes me. She lives way out in the country. She has these amazing gorgeous plants all over her house, eats out of her garden year round, always has...I don't know....mom would you say like 10 dogs? She is a country woman.

I told you everywhere! This GIANT plant was in her bathroom. I think I heard my nephew thought it was a dinosaur.At first I'd say that Jackson was one of the braver ones. He'd walk up to these dogs that were well taller than him.But then one got him, meaning they licked and smelled his face a lot, and then this was his face whenever they walked up to him.Thanks a lot Aunt Pat!

Just a taste...

We had a taste of summer in Alabama this week getting up to the upper 60s. I know Spring isn't really here but after this weather it feels so close.

Updated playlist

For some reason I wanna mess with our playlist when I get missing my honey, who is visiting her family in Alabama for the week. I added six new songs in addition to replacing some of the corrupted ones. Imeem has some weird issue that only allows playing 30 second samples of some songs on playlists embedded on 3rd party sites. If you want to hear the whole song, just open the stand-alone player in a separate window by clicking the little box in the upper right corner of the player in the margin. Leave comments for me if you find any of the songs are messed up. Miss you and love you Natalie!

Bryant David Barnes

My newest nephew was born Sunday February 1st. He was 8 lbs. 15 oz. which is really bigger than I ever expected from such a little thing as Becca. I'm dying inside because I won't be able to see the baby til....? Grandma and Grandpa Barnes and Brittany will all be going out on Friday though to stay for a week so I trust them all to take a ton of pictures. Meanwhile, I'll just continue gazing at the one's Travis has posted on facebook. I love this one of mom dad and baby. Not that new parents will be spending anytime checking out other blogs but...we love y'all tons and congratulations.

Just some info

Well this is twice this year that we've had snow. You can't tell by this photo but they were the biggest flakes (in my small amount of snowfall experience) that i've ever seen. It's always fun for us southerners. This man is demanding! always insisting on snowballs!

When he first walked out he fell so then he wouldn't walk out without my hand. kinda sweet though.
Jackson got a haircut this week. First by me...it was horrible. This is after getting it fixed. He loves being read to.
Attempting to cover the bad do with hats. (His great grandpa Barnes' hat)

He peepee'd in the potty. Don't get too excited mom. I asked if he was done and he said yea then pee'd as soon as he got in the bath. I'm not really trying to potty train but I just occasionally ask him if he wants to try. Nobody's ever trained me on how to train. Looking at this picture makes me think I should have been more concerned about the toilet paper than the picture b/c he almost overflowed the toilet with it!