Proud Moments

One of our favorite things about being parents is bedtime! (I know...not most people's favorite activity!) Our routine consists of rocking and reading books and then Jackson runs off into his room and crawls into his bed. He wants to be "wrapped up" (tucked in) and then says his prayers. Jack loves to have some songs sung to him before bed. We have quite the list of bedtime songs, but one of those songs we have sung to him since we brought him home from the hospital, which is Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. Tonight I was making supper and heard Jack singing it while he colored!! It is so amazing to know that he is learning and catching on to the many songs that we sing to him! Now when he sings, he most often just repeats the same phrase over and over, but I love listening to him sing songs and seeing how proud he is of himself.

Speaking of being proud...we have started potty training and it is going amazingly well!! We started this weekend after he went #1 on his own 2 different times he tried. He's still having a few issues with #2, but overall he's doing really well!! I always hoped we would have this accomplished by Christmas and never thought it would be possible! We're all pretty excited about this!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a very thankful Thanksgiving! My brother and his family came up from Texas last Saturday, so we've had a lot of great quality time with them! Jackson is learning how to share his toys with his cousins, Rebecca and Ethan, and it's going much better than expected!! Everyone ventured down to Nebraska on Wednesday and we had a great Thanksgiving meal yesterday. Now, because of the fact that we have 3 toddlers, our dinner lasted a total of 30 minutes before the kiddos were done sitting and ready to get down. So it made for some fast thanking!! The kicker of the day was supper time when Ethan kept pointing at something and no one could figure out what he wanted. We got him out of his seat and he pointed at the mustard and the cranberries. So needless-t0-say, most of Ethan's supper consisted of handfuls of mustard and cranberry sauce...and 5 helpings later, he was done! Anyway, we hope everyone has had a very wonderful Thanksgiving and remembers all of the reasons we are so thankful! I know we have tons of reasons at our house.

Oh yeah, Jack quote of the day: We asked him what made him happy...and he thought for a little while and then looked up at us with those big blue eyes and replied "JESUS" It was adorable!!

Feeding Frenzy!!

So Jackson has been on a feeding frenzy/growth spurt lately!! On Friday afternoon, after his nap, he ate an entire cereal bar and a whole banana. For supper that night (which was only about 1 1/2 hours later), he ate two pieces of bread, a whole plate of spaghetti, 3-4 pear halves, plus 2 glasses of milk!

We're super excited because Uncle Reid, Aunt Stacy, Rebecca and Ethan are flying up on Saturday and will be here the whole week!! Jack keeps talking about it...I'm sure three toddlers running around our house could keep us all entertained!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Count all of your blessings and remember all that you are thankful for...I know our list is a long one!

Ear and Tushy problems!!

So Jack woke up Sunday morning with really goopy eyes. Jon and I debated whether or not Jack had pink eye...so away Jack and I went...off to Acute Care (one of the germiest, worst places to go right now!!). We got there a few minutes before 10:00, thinking we'd be close to the first people there, so would avoid the germy crowd...strike 1!! There was already a line and when we got through, we were #16!! So I tried my best to keep away from any masked person there was...strike 2!! It seemed like every single time I sat down, some masked sick germy person would sit behind us or next to us. Don't know how many times we moved!! So we get back to see the pediatrician and she takes a look in Jack's ears and Jack has a MAJOR bulging ear infection...strike 3 against mommy!! For the past month, Jack has been sticking his fingers in his ears and saying "I'm plugging my ears" so we figured he learned how to stick his fingers in his ears. Last weekend, he did it again so I asked him what was wrong...so when he stuck his fingers in his ear and said "What's wrong in there?" I didn't think much of it! Talk about feeling like a terrible mother!! AND he had a fever about 3 weeks ago and I figured it was just viral so didn't take him in. So needless to say, I felt terrible about missing all of Jack's clues. So Dr. Carroll asks me which antibiotic works best for him and for the life of me, I couldn't remember! So she put him on Augmentin since it has the best coverage. Jack gets 3 doses of this lovely antibiotic and starts having nasty diapers....which leads to quite the diaper rash. I figured out something was wrong when I went to pick him up from Jen's house and when I went to sit him down to put his shoes on, he started screaming....went to put him in the car seat...screaming again! We got home and he started saying "my tushy hurts" over and over! He wouldn't sit down at ALL...not to play, not to eat...not for anything! He wouldn't even sit on my lap to read books...he slept on his tummy and everything. Jon stayed home with him yesterday because he was so miserable! Today was a better day but he keeps complaining that his tushy hurts. So hopefully his ears get better and his tushy heals quickly!!

Hope you had a BOOtiful Day!!

Jackson had a great Halloween! After his nap, we carved a huge pumpkin that my parents got for us! It was around 75 lbs and when it was done, Jack could fit inside of it!! He thought that was really funny!

Needless to say, when the doorbell started ringing at supper tonight, Jack was anxious to get out there! He thought trick-or-treating was a blast!! Whenever we left someone's house, he'd say "that was very nice of them!" as we walked down the driveway...it was super cute! He lasted almost 2 full blocks before his little legs got tired and he was a kinda cold so we headed home. We had a successful night and he had so much fun!!

Jack's new songs

As many of you know, Jack can be quite animated! This video took a while to get because he'd jump the gun singing before I could start recording! And obviously, when he starts saying his prayers, he's a tad bit intense! :) He normally doesn't say them quite like that, but it makes me giggle every time I watch it!! And yes, every single night, he asks that the angels watch him through the moon...don't know if he just thinks that's what it is, or we laughed about it when he started doing it, but he does it ALL the time!! Makes Jon and I smile every time he does it!

Snow....OH NO!!

Yes, my friends, it is snowing in South Dakota tonight! Jon came home from work around 8:45 and about 10 minutes later, the snow began to fall. We have literally only had a few weeks of fall. This could be a nasty winter! On a side note, Jackson has been having some...well...sleep issues the past few nights. He's not being naughty or bad, just not able to fall asleep for some reason. Last night, Jon was working late (as usual on Thursday) so we did our nightly routine, get pjs on, read a few books in the living room, run to the kitchen to get water, he climbs in bed, we say prayers, sing a song and then good night! The little guy went to bed as typical as ever, not a sound out of him as I shut the door. I'm sitting in the living room, watching Grey's Anatomy, and around 8:40, I hear this little Jackson voice, "MOMMY" out of nowhere! So I ignored him for a while, but then Jon got home about 10 minutes later, which kept him up. So we went in, said prayers again, sang another song and said good night. No noise and then tears about 10 minutes later. Who knows! So Jack didn't end up falling asleep until around 10:00.

So fast forward through the day to tonight. Same story...different night. He goes to bed at 8:00 with no problems. Jon was working late again, so he calls at 8:40...still no peep out of Jack. And then I get off the phone, start picking up toys and hear that oh-so-familiar toddler voice..."MOMMY." When he was still talking to himself at 9:30, Jon and I went in. Here's the cute part: So its snowing right now...and we said something about snow and Jon asked Jack if he remembered what snow was. He's all cuddled up on Jon's lap and you can tell he's thinking hard and then suddenly says, "its kinda wet." It was sooooooo cute!! So to get him to go to bed, we had to go to the window and watch the snow for a little bit. (And yes, to our Texans, there is enough to see!)

And onto another very exciting event in my life...we've lived in Brandon for 3 1/2 years now and I still have to drive to Target way across town...until now! The new Target has opened on the East Side and it's AMAZING!! Jack and I went yesterday, not even knowing it was open. We were being curious when I saw some cars drive that way and sure enough...it was open! Hallelujah...no more Wal-mart runs for us!!! Ah...the small joys in life! :)

Another Major Milestone!!

Jackson taking a nap...sideways of course!
This is how we found Jackson one night!

We've accomplished another big milestone at the Burns household! Jackson is officially sleeping in a BIG BOY BED!!! We tried it at Oma and Opa's house last weekend and he did just fine so when we got home, Daddy converted his crib to a toddler bed! He thinks it's great that he can get in bed by himself. Ironically, even though he can, he does not get out of bed and try to escape...yet! The past few mornings, he has been shouting out (like he usually does) "Mommy, I get out of my bed!" and then he'll wait until you get there to get out. Don't know how long it'll take him to realize he can get out of his room, but neither of us plan on showing him! :)

Sleeping in on the hide-a-bed at Oma and Opa's!

On a not-so-fun note, Jack has caught his first cold of the season. Monday night he had a temp of 100 and then around 2 in the morning spiked to 102. He's got quite the cough but luckily hasn't had a temp for a few days. The cough is pretty nasty, so hopefully he recovers quickly!

Apples, Apples Everywhere!!

It's been a great week at the Burns' household! On Wednesday night, I went out with my two very best friends, Christina and Erica! Christina just graduated from PA school and was back from Oregon for a wedding. It was awesome to be able to to have a girls night and hang out. We haven't done that in years!! While I was gone, Daddy showed Jackson something new. As you can see from the pictures, Daddy taught Jack how to hold a baby...his baby penguin! He wrapped him up and I guess Jackson sat for quite a while rocking his penguin.



Friday night, we went to the Brandon Valley homecoming game. Jack did awesome through the whole game!! He had so much fun and really enjoyed watching the band. Saturday Jon had to work so Jack and I met Christina and her family for the Apple Festival. He had a great time jumping in the bounce house, seeing all the animals, dancing to some goofy guy singing, and, of course, picking apples!! He got to ride on the tractor hayride AND the horse hayride, so he was in hog-heaven!! He's still talking about picking apples from the tree. Last year, the pictures we took at the apple orchard were my favorite and this years rank right up there! That place makes for some awesome pictures!! Like most parents, when we try to get him to smile, we say "cheese"...well we better think of something different because Jack just scrunches up his eyes and has a huge wide smile....but his eyes are never open!! Hence, the around 10 pictures we have with no eyes open. :)

Needless to say, with so many apples, we've had a lot of cooking going on! Last night I made apple crisp, Jack and I had apple muffins for breakfast and then we made apple cookies tonight! After peeling a whole lot of apples, we have enough in the freezer for 2 more apple crisps and 2 apple pies! Mmmmm...can't wait!

Labor Day Classic 2009

Jon and I took our annual trip to Worthington for the Labor Day Classic! At the last minute, one of my parent's neighbors passed away so we took Jackson down to Oma and Opa's house for the weekend so they could go to the funeral. I drove him down Thursday night to Sioux City, which turned into quite a fiasco!! Oma was going to keep driving past Sioux City until we met. Well...we figured out where both of us were and agreed to meet at the next exit...unfortunately, there was a lot more road construction than either of us knew about and ALL of the next exits were closed until Beresford!! So Jack and I had to turn around and drive the 15 miles back to the next exit, which happened to be Beresford! Oh well...it got everyone where they needed to be!

Jon and I headed up with Stu and Crystal and met Becky and Jamie, Den, Julee and Nikki in Worthington. Adam and his girlfriend, Bethany, got there later that night. The guys played their practice round, playing some crazy game/competition that none of us girls could figure out!

The weekend was so much fun! The guys didn't play as well as they wished, but we all had a great time. They couldn't complain a whole lot because an Augie golfer won the whole tournament this year! It was awesome to get to spend the weekend with everyone and we can't wait until next year! Enjoy the pictures!

A little bit of this and that!

Here's a bunch of pictures from this summer!

Yesterday, we had an absolutely great day!! Mommy and Jackson went and walked in the Heart Walk with Aunt Nikki and some of Mommy's co-workers. Then after a trip to Target and a nice long nap, we all went golfing. Jackson did extremely well!! He stayed in the cart when he needed to and got out and putted...he did great! Then we decided that we would go to our first Brandon Valley football gam! When we got there, we couldn't find a single seat on the home side, but found a few people that we knew! Mainly, kiddos from Jack's daycare, but it was neat to see people that we knew!! So we decided to venture over to the visitor's side and see if we could find a seat there. As we were walking, we saw Charlie, another kiddo from daycare! Charlie and his family were sitting with another daycare family, so YAY for finding someone we knew to sit with!! We had a great time visiting with the other daycare kiddos and Jack was excited to see them too! We made it to the end of the 3rd quarter before Jack was kinda tired and it was getting pretty chilly. So we don't know if Brandon won or lost, but it was fun anyway!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson!!

Jackson Conrad Burns has officially turned 2!! His Mickey Mouse party was a success! He woke up Saturday morning and saw all of the plates and his face got this huge smile on his face and goes "my party!" He was so excited!! He watched all morning as I made his Mickey Mouse cake and wanted to eat it so badly. His party was fantastic. We had all sorts of family and friends come and celebrate with us! He got lots of great gifts, including Mr. Potato Head, a dump truck, some new tricycles, racetracks, semis, a lawn mower...the list goes on and on!!Jack enjoyed having all of his friends over to play. They blew lots and lots of bubbles, played on the swingset and ate cake and monster cookies. Jack loved having Happy Birthday sung to him over and over since Saturday!



Jackson also had his 2 year check up today which he "passed" with flying colors! He weighed in at 25 lbs 10 oz and was 33" long. Dr. Wallace laughed at him when she walked in and Jack said "Hi, Dr. Wallace" with his ever-so-cute smile! She got a kick out of it!

Until next time...

"Fire"-Free house!

It's been a while and Jack has had a few new accomplishments since the last time I posted anything! The biggest accomplishment Jack has made so far is that he is now PACIFIER-FREE!!! YAY!!! That (well, besides potty training) was probably the thing I was the most nervous about. I just made all of the pacifiers disappear and then when it was time to get ready for bed, Jack went to look for on and I just said they were gone. He told me they went on a trip and that was that! The first 4 or 5 days was a little rocky for bedtime and Jen said naps were a little sketchy for a few days, but as of last Wednesday, Jack has been going to bed without a fuss (most nights) and has been sleeping great! So YAY for something I thought we would never accomplish!

We spent this last weekend in Hartley for Jon to play in the Northwest Iowa Amateur Tournament. He played really well and placed 7th. Out of 350 people, I'd say that's pretty awesome! Anyway...I'm trying to upload some new videos, but am having some troubles...hopefully can figure it out soon! Check back soon!

New things about Jack

• As you saw in the video, Jackson can now count to 10, which I found out when I was cutting his fingernails and counting how many we had done...I was shocked!
• I was making supper last night and heard Jackson run by and all of the sudden heard him say "slow down!"
• He is big into sharing. If he's playing cars, he'll bring you a car too, and that is YOUR car...don't try and give it back or put it down...he'll find you to give it back!
• Jackson loves the swimming pool! He is not such a big fan of being sprayed in the face though.
• He remembers everyone now! Since being in Hartley and West Point with our families, he asks for his cousins a LOT now!
• He answers "no" to everything...and if he agrees, he answers "k"
• If he drops something, he'll say "oops" or "oopsie"
• Jackson is talking in somewhat sentences now. A few days ago, I cut a strawberry in half and he said "two of them"
• He really likes to pick out things...and if he does, his response is "dis one"
• Our garage door has been on the fritz for a while now...when we pull into the driveway, he'll say "Daddy, fix it" (must have said that one too many times!)
• Jack loves to help cook right now...he'll push a chair over to help stir or watch what's going on in the kitchen
• Jack goes "racin" a lot with his new matchbox cars that he loves! He'll grab his cars and go, "racin, mommy, racin"
• He can now sing the clean up song...although he doesn't always help clean up when he sings it, but it's getting better!
• Jack is starting to figure out how to prolong bedtime...he sure tries hard! Good thing Mom and Dad aren't suckers!! When it's time for bed, he'll run into his room, he used to lay down and just go to bed...now we put him in his bed and he immediatly says 'nuggle' (snuggle). The crazy thing is the routine now is to go in his room, snuggle and sing one song and then bed...that satisfies him now and once the song is done, he'll say "nigh-night" and go down like a champ!
• If he likes something a lot, he'll say and sign "again" over and over...tickling, fish kisses, anything...he'll giggle and say "again"...it's adorable!!
• If you ask Jack what we should have for supper, you'll get one of two answers: pizza or tacos...doesn't matter if we ate it for lunch and supper...he'll still say that! and that's what he still eats the best!
• When you say it's time to go (or Jen told me when they go outside) Jack will go and find your shoes for you
• He now dances to the Madagascar "I like to move it"...it's cute!
• We went to the zoo last week and Jack knew most of the animals there....his favorite right now is the "elf-anants" If you ask him what he saw, that's what he'll say!
• Jack will sign "I love you" (kind of...it's more like just raising his hand) but last week actually said love you to Aunt Stacy!

Thanks for coming to check on us...Jackson is growing and thriving so much! There have been times at my job when we'll have kiddos come through about the same age as Jack and it makes me realize just how advanced Jack is...it makes me know that Jon and I must be doing something right!

Here is a video we took tonight of Jack...a few of his new tricks! I didn't even know that he could count to 10 until last weekend...Jack and I were counting something (can't remember what now!) and he suddenly counted to 10! He's learning a lot at daycare which is exciting!

We just got back from an awesome week with my family. Reid, Stacy, Ethan and Rebecca flew up last Saturday and we got to spend the whole week at my parent's house in West Point. We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo with Jon's aunt Jeanne on Tuesday, saw all of the animals and went home exhausted! Thursday we headed into Lincoln to visit relatives. Oma and Opa took the kiddos home and the adults got to stay and hang out with Jay and David, which was wonderful to have some adult conversation without tackling a child! :) On Saturday, the weather wasn't the greatest but cleared up in time for an awesome firework show! The kids did much better than expected. No one cried or even flinched, in fact, Ethan and Jack both fell asleep part way through! Rebecca was sitting with me and when the finale started, it was super bright and she had to shut her eyes...it was cute! I'll post some pictures with the cousins soon!

Lots of Pictures!

Here's a bunch of pictures from the past few months! Pictures from golfing, going to Hartley, spending time with our cousins, and lots and lots of other randoms!

Bottomless Pit

So over the past few weeks, Jon and I have realized one thing...Jackson eats a LOT!! Yesterday was one of those days. Every morning this week, Jackson will wake up, watch Mickey Mouse for about 5 minutes and then ask for something to eat. A common request is "sea-yall" (cereal) or "bar" (cereal bar). So he is now eating a double breakfast...one at our house, one at Jen's house! So I went to pick up Jack yesterday and the first thing out of Jen's mouth..."Man can that kid eat!" I guess he proceeded to have 2 bowls of cereal for breakfast, 3 tacos at lunch, and 4 grahm crackers while at her house. Then we went out for dinner that night and when we asked, he wanted pizza. (He even told the waitress!) It was this cute little 7" pizza...yeah...he ate half of it! We're both going to have to get second jobs to keep up with this appetite!! For supper tonight, he had half a can of green beans, roast beef, 2 pieces of bread and about 4 half pear slices!! This kid better be about 30 lbs by the time we go for his 2 year check up or I have no idea where this is all going!!

Robert J. Burns 1924-2009

Our family lost an amazing person last week. Jon's grandfather passed away last Thursday. His health had been deteriorating so it wasn't unexpected, but no matter how prepared we think we are, it's never easy. Grandpa was a wonderful man and he will be missed so much! Great-Grandpa Burns meeting Jackson for the first time!
This picture is at our last stop at Grandpa's place. This is the last memory Jon and I will have of Grandpa...smiling and laughing at Jackson as he ran around his apartment. Grandmpa just kept smiling and saying "man, he's getting big...man, he's a happy kiddo...man, he's one smart cookie." We know that Grandpa is enjoying a round of golf up there and can now watch over us and see his grandkids and great-grandkids each and every day! We will miss you Grandpa!!

Runnin' and Chh-Chh-ing

These are a few of Jack's new tricks!

Home again!

It's been a while since I've updated...sorry! This past weekend we went over to Cedar Falls for Uncle Adam's college graduation. We drove over in rain on Friday and, luckily, Jackson slept for a few hours of it! We got their on Friday and went swimming...the first of three times this weekend! Jackson thought swimming was great but really wasn't a big fan of the floaty boat thing we had. He wanted to kick and swim! He even attempted to jump to Daddy a few times. Dylan and Austin did a great job of keeping him entertained and throwing the fishy over and over!

It was wonderful to watch Adam achieve such a great accomplishment with graduating! Jack did amazingly well during graduation, coloring most of the time. We went out for dinner at The Isle and Jack ate up a storm! He was enthralled with the escalator and thought that was fun to go up and down. He entertained people with this new ch-ch thing he does. (for those of you who have seen it...daycare didn't know what it was, so it's a mystery!)

It was great to be with the Burns family this weekend and spend some time with family we haven't seen for a while! Love you guys! I'll post pictures soon!