Walking With Dinosaurs

I was surfing the web looking for things to do a few weeks ago and ended up looking on ticketmaster.com for some ideas. Well, they had a few things listed for the Tucson area, 2 of which were Walking With Dinosaurs and Monster Jams. Well, we went to Walking With Dinosaurs tonight and bought tickets for Monster Jams for the 6th of March. That will be one of Jackson's birthday gifts!

We have been waiting for the day to come and here it is! I think I was more excited then Jeff and Jackson, but I think I was more excited to see Jackson's reaction. He's seen the commercial for WWD and thought it was the coolest thing and insisted that we go right then. I had to keep reminding him that the dinosaurs had to travel here and it would take some time. You can't really explain to a 2 almost 3 year old that it takes time for things. You can, but they really don't get it, but I tried and for the most part and I think he understood!

So the day has/had come and we did a semi normal routine today. We headed to the zoo/golf course trails and went for a nice long walk followed up with feeding the ducks. Then Jackson decided that listening wasn't a rule and he didn't have to do what we told him. Well, that got him in trouble and put straight in his car seat and we headed home.

So we came home and tried to get him to eat lunch and that didn't happen, did I mention kids his age are just down right naughty at times? Well, that's a whole blog in itself! So he went down for a nonsleeping nap that he does these days and ended up just playing, but he stayed there for a while! (I am telling you this because it is leading up to the picture below!)

So, long story shortened! It was about 30 minutes before we wanted to leave and this is what happened do to our long day of playing and no nap!

I just have to tell you, if you get a chance to see this show we recommend it! It was an hour and a half long and just right for Jackson's age. He loved it and wanted to see more. We thought he would have gotten scarred or Jeff and I even joked that he would think dinosaurs are real after seeing it, but he hasn't said anything. We sat on the floor and splurged on the tickets, but we wanted to be close! I do have to say that these dinosaurs were pretty realistic and it was just awesome! We really enjoyed it and would see it again! They went through all the stages of the dinosaurs and how they evolved with the earths ever changing environment. Very informative and funny!

I am going to just put pictures this time and no comments!

Sorry some are so blurry! No flash photography!

It was so funny when the T-rex was growling at these little guys, He yelled " kick his butt!" There were a few people in our section that laughed! He is so funny. Jeff and I have no clue where that came from!

We ended the night with dinner at Claim Jumpers!

Today was a really good family day!

Pima Air & Space Museum

Jeff took Jackson and I to the Pima Air & Space Museum yesterday. It was pretty cool to see so many old airplanes and new ones that have been used and abused or just used for a test run, but mainly sitting and collecting dust! LOL I'm kidding, but it was pretty amazing to see so many. Many that I have never seen before in books or videos. Believe me we watch and look at a lot of air craft material!

I included the link above, it's highlighted if you want to take a peek at their website! I really wanted to share some pictures of Jackson running around and exploring! They had some really fun kid friendly exhibits and a great gift shop! He added an F-16 Thunderbird to his collection and a glow in the dark jet t-shirt!

Here is the start of our venture!

We found this in one of the many hangers! Thought I would share it with all of you.
Jackson sitting in a model plane playing with the rutters!
They had some stations for him to hear pilots talking on the radios and buttons to push telling him which runways were which. All to much for him to understand, but he had fun doing it!
This one is my favorite! He had Jeff's navigator glasses on and he just looks to cool!
We had a really good time spending the day together! Jeffrey even took us to lunch at Claim Jumper!

A Gift From Tonya Harrison

I received a Hooter Hider from Mrs. Tonya Harrison today and what can I say other then Thank You and I Love It!

She made one for a friend of mine at her baby shower and it was absolutely beautiful! I do have to say that Tonya is very creative and has an eye for putting colors together!

Here it is, it's reversable and very soft! I can't wait to use it!

She included a note with the gift!
The two different fabrics she used.

Just another picture of the colors!

I wish I knew how to sew. I would love to be able to make a gift from the heart!

Thank you, Tonya!

I absolutely love it and will think of you every time I look at it!

21 Week Sonogram

Yesterday I had my 21 week sonogram. Normal procedure and this is when they tell you what your having! I already knew that, but it was nice to have her see is boy parts and say, "yep, it's definitely a boy!" She checked everything and measured all the body parts she could get to.

He seems to be quite comfortable in there and didn't want to move around for her to check him out! He has his head laying on my left pelvis/hip and his feet are up across my belly. I figured he was laying like that because all the kicks I feel are on the upper and middle right side of my belly. He does however make it really uncomfortable for me to bend over and especially when I have to use to bathroom. He is so low, I am in pain half the time when I get up at night to use the restroom. I think I am going to be down a lot in those cat stretches. The one when you get on your hands and knees and move your back up towards the sky and lower you abdomen to the ground to get him to move.

Here is a side profile of our little man

This one is confirming he is a boy!

She did say from her measurements that he is already over a pound and according to my weekly updates on pregnancy.com, he should weigh around 3 quarts of a pound.

Otherwise, I just can't wait to meet him! I am feeling so much better about this pregnancy and feel a great amount of love for him already and I haven't even met him!

Viper Driver

So here it is, the day I have been waiting for my entire life. I took my first flight in the mighty F-16 , and I am proud to say I am finally a Viper Driver. I haven't had much to blog about for months because of the move to Tucson and all the academics and simulators I have been doing to get me ready for this day. Here I am getting suited up in the life support room.

My Instructor and I walking around the jet before we strap in.

There are a lot of things that need to be set up in the Viper. I was a little nervous about all the ground ops we have to do during start, and yes I screwed some stuff up, but no big deal.

Fighter pilots by nature are perfectionists, I mean it is either perfect or it is crap, so everything we do has to be perfect and it all starts with ground ops.

The start up today was awesome. I have never felt the rumble of an engine that puts out 25,000 lbs of thrust before, the entire plane was shaking, and it was definitely intimidating. The Viper definitely lets you know she is ready to party the moment she starts up.

In the chocks still doing checks of all of the controls and avionics.

We taxied out and the takeoff was insane, this plane is very powerful, and I didn't even light the burner this flight ( it takes a few rides to get used to the power so I get to do a burner takeoff on my 3rd ride). The flight was a lot of fun. This plane is very easy to fly, but right away I realized she doesn't mess around with the G's. The viper doesn't respond to G's like other jets, I mean she will hurt you real bad if you ask for it. I pulled on the stick (sts) during a maneuver and hit 7 G's right away and it hurt, cant wait for 9 G's. My landings were a little rough, but I greased on my full stop to leave me feeling in awe as I taxied back thinking that I am finally one of the big boys!

Old Friends

Do you ever hear about FaceBook and how people have been in contact with people they haven't talk to in years? Well, yesterday we went to visit an old friend of Jeff's! Jeff and I were sitting and talking one night about old times and who we used to hangout with. This is an on going conversation, I think we always wondered why we never crossed paths earlier in life. We hungout at the same places and some of the same people.

So we were talking about old friends and I told Jeff to look them up on FaceBook. There was one friend who he always had so much in common with and lost contact after Sheldon moved to Arizona and Jeff moved to Huntington Beach. So we looked him up and found him!

We went yesterday to meet up with him and meet his family. He is engaged with a son and another son on the way! How perfect, we are pretty much in the same boat. We have a son and another one the way. We hungout, got to see his brother and had a BBQ! It was a fun filled day! The only thing I didn't do while I was there was get a picture of Jeff and Sheldon:( I totally regret it now that I am posting these pictures.

Jeff and Jackson riding on one of Sheldon's 4 wheelers

They were having so much fun, Jackson even got to do the throttle all by himself!
This is Sheldon's old brothers daughters mustang. She even had a helmet that Jackson wore around pretty much most of the day!

Up and down the street they went! Jeff eventually got on a bike to keep up with him!

All n all it was a fun filled day! We were so tired on the way home!

We will be seeing them again!

20 Week Check Up

Today I had my first appointment with my new doctor here in Tucson and it went really well. Especially with how spoiled I have been with my previous doctor. So my expectations were set a little high and she passed.

This little guys heart beat sounded really good. He was being a little wiggle worm and kicking so it was hard to find it at first. She took a blood test to check my thyroid due to my really dry itching skin. A symptom of me being pregnant! She also suggested a fish oil vitamin for my mood swings, I will start taking those tonight and see if they work! Hopefully soon! LOL I think Jeff will divorce me if the mood swings continue after the pregnancy! LOL

I go back next week on Wednesday for a sonogram. This will check to see if everything is looking good, measuring right and to confirm if he really is a boy! No doubt, but she said they will check it for sure! The last time I was seen was Dec 15th and since then I have only gained 6 pounds. I think that's pretty good considering I gained 60 pounds with Jackson.

So far so good! She did however tell me that she is going to go off my original due date of June 22nd instead of June 20th, so we will see. I am curious to know on Wednesday if he is measuring bigger, because I was told I was a whole week ahead of my due date. Who knows!
I will update on Wednesday and let you all know how that went and hopefully have some pictures!

What A Day

Warning! I used a cuss word!
Today has been the day from hell as most of you know from all my posts on Facebook. It started out with no sleep thanks to Jackson. Jeff and I went to bed pretty late last night (11) and Jackson decided to get up at 12:40 am. I got up with him and went back to bed at 1:20 and then was woken up at 3:40. We had a friend staying the night so it was a little difficult to be stern with him while our guest was asleep next to Jackson's room. I finally had it around 4:30 and made Jeff go in there to lay down the daddy rules. Well, that didn't work and ended up fighting with Jackson until 6 something and he finally fell asleep and obviously no sleep for me.
I took advantage of catching up on my DVRed shows. There was really no point in going back to sleep. I knew if I did, I would be more tired and a grouch. So I waited for him to wake up and that was finally at 8:30.
We ate breakfast and got ready for Little Gym. We had one timeout before we left and that was because he wouldn't pick up his toys, I asked him a handful of times and every response was, "no, you do it." WHAT! So off to his room he went. We finally got out the door and in to Little Gym where he didn't want to follow directions until it was almost time to go. So, he finished class got some stamps and decided to play with the blocks. I was standing at the door telling him to pick them up, he acted like he couldn't hear me. Now, this is the thing that really urcks me. I told him 2 more times and finally another mom told her daughter to help him.
So they finished and when it was time to head out the door he threw a fit, so I picked him up and carried him out like a football. This is when he twisted around and slapped the shit out me. It literally hurt and I started to cry. ( Have I mentioned that I have been super emotional?) So, I put him in his car seat and he put up his fight. I grabbed his arm and kind of gave him a good pinch and he stopped but continued to scream bloody murder. At this point I was ready to kill him. I literally wanted to knock him out, but the good mother I was trying to be didn't want to cause a bigger scene. We finally made it home with screaming and yelling the whole 20 minutes of the drive. Luckily Jeff was home waiting for us and when I saw him I lost it. I got Jackson out of the car and marched him to bed where he stayed until 4 o'clock. Mind you we got home at 12:30!
I am so glad Jeff was hear to calm me down and just talk with me. I wish on every bad day, I could just call him and have him hear to fix it or help. So, needless to say while Mr. Jackson was fast asleep I took a nap myself! The rest of the day was fine, we made dinner and got some ice cream. We just finished getting him to bed and hopefully tonight will be better.
Tomorrow he goes to school and I think the break will be well deserved for both of us. I am trying to keep him busy and active!

20 Weeks

I am officially half way done! I don't really look that big when Jeff takes these pictures of me, but it was the same way with Jackson. My mom says I'm a late bloomer! Which is true, I didn't get big with Jackson until 7 months + and when I took my pregnancy pictures at 8.5 months, my photographer was telling me to stick it out! Go figure.

In the last 4 weeks I have had at least 1 day out of the week that I am dog tired and can't seem to bring myself to do anything. I guess maybe it's just the baby growing and taking all of my energy? I have also been a little crampy this month and my weekly updates from pregnancy.com said to expect a growth spurt this last month.

I am emotionally a wreck. Jeff has told me at least every other day that he has never seen me this unhappy. I don't think I am unhappy, but I do feel different with this pregnancy. Hopefully it's not a bad sign of an unhappy baby.

I am feeling him move a lot and Jeff gets to feel him as well. This little guy loves to roll around and kick me when I lay down at night. This is my favorite part of being pregnant. Nothing can describe the feeling of your unborn child kicking away! I absolutely love it!!!

I finally am going to the doctor here. My first appointment with my new doctor is on Thursday. I am curious to see how much I have gained and to hear his little heart beat.
Until then, I will post after my appointment!

All Lined Up

Have I ever told you about Jackson and his jets? Well, if I haven't then I must tell you now!

This kid of ours loves his jets. I'm not sure if "love" is even the right word. You could buy him anything like Thomas The Train, Monster Trucks, Dinosaurs or even a Scooter and he would rather play with his jets. To top it off he could name just about everyone one of them, thanks to his daddy!

So, this morning I was checking my email and could hear him playing with his toys, but I wasn't sure what he was doing exactly. Now don't get me wrong, but he does this often and it's usually on the floor. I think he likes the table more then the floor now! As I was saying, I was checking my emails and Jackson comes in and says, "Cindy, come look at my jets!" Yes, he said Cindy!!! So I go look and this is what he has done and boy was he proud! I told him that I wanted to take a picture and this is what I got!

What a good job he did at lining them all up!
He even remembered his flag! He must be proud to be an American!

Good job Jackson!

An Update On Mr. Jackson's Life These Days

Mr. Jackson has definitely been through a lot of change in the past few months. We left Jeff in October to finish training in MS, we stayed with lots of family members, moved and now that we are getting settled, we started making him sleep on his own in his room!

The start of all of this is when we left Jeff, I thought that Jackson would be fine with the separation but who was I kidding. My poor son missed his daddy and it really started to show when we had some knock down fighting matches, I think all of the moving around and staying here and there didn't help. He threw some nasty temper tantrums and I seriously thought I was going to loose it. Being pregnant I physically and emotionally thought I had my last straw with his little attitude. This was just about the time for Jeff to finish up and come home, so thank god for that. Since being back with Jeff we haven't had as much of the attitude, but he does resist timeouts and on occasion he will hit when he gets mad. I honestly would rather have these little faults then the kicking, punching and screaming at the top of his lungs that we had at my dads. Someone did tell me that the 3s get worse!

After we moved and were back together in our own home things have gotten a lot better but Jackson still has his tantrums. I am guessing this is all apart of the terrible 2s!

I know this is like the 3rd or 4th time that we have tried to get Jackson to sleep in his own bed, but this is the last time. He is a snuggler and when we sleep he is right next to me or practically on top of me. He does stay in one spot, no flipping or kicking so that has always been a plus. But now that I am pregnant and starting to get uncomfortable at night I just can't handle it anymore. Especially when we bring home our little man and I am getting up to nurse in the middle of the night. Besides, it's time for him to be a big boy!

I starting telling him a couple of months ago that when we move he was going to have to sleep in his bed like a big boy. He would say ok and that would be the end of it. I tried to prep him that way it wouldn't be such a surprise. He was also seeing some cartoons like Little Bill and Olivia and they were going to bed by themselves. He was aware of this and would say, "I want to do that." So last week on Sunday we started putting him to bed by himself. It was rough for the first few day. We went through the whole 2-3 hours of walking him back to his room and then it got to the point that he wouldn't even listen or stay in his room. So my last resort was to lock him in his room. Luckily there is a key to unlock it from the outside, but he has no clue how to open it from the inside of his room. A friend suggested putting a baby gate up instead of locking him in his room, but if you know Jackson this wouldn't work. I would have to block the door way from ground up. He would climb over it. So needless to say I only locked him in the for a couple minutes at a time. He finally would get tired and give in. So, the last two days have been so easy! He goes to bed and has woken up once in the night and I go back in to tuck him in and sit in the computer room for a few minutes and walla! Nighty! Night for all of us!

It is so nice to be able to lay next to Jeff and not have Jackson there. We miss him sleeping with us, but it's for the best.

I think from all of the lack of sleep my body finally gave in and decided to get a cold. So I am fighting that now.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of him yesterday.

Stacking his letters
It's so funny to see boys play! Jackson would stack them and then just knock them down.
Jeff and I are going to enroll him in a 2 day a week daycare over by Jeff's work! Jackson is super excited about this. They have a few different rooms for learning and then their regular classroom. They have a library, a science room, forecast and music room in 1 class, a dress up room with a bank, grocery store, fire station, etc and they can dress up while playing. There is also a rec room with 3 big aquariums that he loved when we did the walk threw. We are also going to an introductory class on Thursday at Little Gym. I enrolled him in this right after he turned 1 and I think it did wonders on his motor skills, climbing, balance and self confidence. We are signed up for a sports class this time! It's time to keep him super busy and lots of learning!

Changed My Mind

Yesterday I was looking at the living room space and telling Jeff that something is missing. He totally agreed and I kept telling him that we needed to go get something for that wall. Sooo, being that we are only going to be here for 7 more months, why would we go and buy something! Might as well use what we have, besides we still have a ton of boxes that aren't even unpacked.

Back to my wall! I love love love my collage of pictures and just decided to move my sofa table to the picture side instead of the window side. This picture below is of the room before. See the table under the window?

Now here it is under all of our pictures! I think it looks so much better!
Well, I just thought I would share my rearranging with all of you! I just really like this wall! Oh, I have also decided that I am going to add some color to our life. I am getting tired of all this beige and neutral coloring that everyone has! I think I am going to add some hot pink, green and purples! I just feel like everything is drab! There is a ledge above these pictures and I think I may start filling that with color before I buy anything big. Maybe just some pots with flowers or something like that! I will have to show you when I do this!

New House

We are finally settled! If you didn't know, we are living in Tucson, AZ instead of Goodyear. Goodyear was right outside of Phoenix, but they decided to move us 1 week before we were moving from Mississippi and we had already signed a lease in Goodyear. What a pain in the butt that was to get out of that lease and find a new house in just a week. I just told Jeff to choose one and sign a new lease. We were supposed to be in Goodyear from Jan to the end of October, but Tucson's ANG base training is shorter so we will only be here until the end of August! YAY!!!!!!!

We got here on the 8th of January and were totally unpacked by Tuesday. I have just been hanging pictures here and there. We didn't unpack everything this time. This house is roughly 1380 sq ft and doesn't have the storage space nor the room for all of our stuff. Plus, I don't feel like repacking everything in August with a newborn and Jackson running around. I have already arranged for my mom to be here the last week helping me pack and take care of the kids! She's not getting much choice in this matter! LOL

Our house is in a gated community, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room and a connecting formal dinning or family room. We don't have an extra dinning room table so we've made it a sitting/play area for Jackson. Our kitchen is pretty small and I really like the entry way. I also love the fact that we have a backyard for the dogs and Jackson can go out and play and not hurt anything or get hurt. Well, that's if he doesn't fall or something!

Here is the front of the house.

Our backyard.

The kitchen coming in from the garage .
The kitchen coming in from the entry way.
Looking at the kitchen from the sitting area.

The entry way. I like the little sitting area!

Our sitting area/ living room. This is the view from the front door.

The hallway.

Master Bathroom! Finally something normal, especially coming from thee smallest bathrooms in the world.

Jackson's room. They aren't that big and we didn't even unpack all of his toys.

Spare/computer room. Not unpacked yet!

Our room!

Spare bathroom.

We are definitely figuring out what we will need and not need in our future home buying! There isn't much room for another child especially if we will be having company after the baby. All I know is that when we buy a house, we will need a 4th bedroom. That is a must! I guess until we move back to Fresno, the little guy will be in a bassinet in our room.

16 Weeks

(Negative Part) Here it is! I look like a fat cow, but what the hell I'm pregnant, right? LOL

I have gained 10 pounds, which it looks like a lot more to me. My back is killing me all the time and I don't sleep!

(Positive Part) I am feeling so much better! Besides the no sleep , I pretty much have all my energy back. I am starting to feel movements and just like Jackson, this baby seems low. I thought it seemed high at first, but now it really putting pressure on my bladder! Yay for that.

Jackson checking me out! He didn't want to join in on the fun this time.
I really can't wait to get back in the gym and hit it hard after this baby. My goal is to loose most of my weight by Christmas. Hopefully I can do that!