Happy Birthday Jackson!

Happy Birthday Jackson! (on March 12th) I know it is completely pathetic that I'm posting about Jackson's B-day 2 weeks late. In my defense, I had the stomach flu on his birthday day and that weekend, so plans were a little altered. No big deal though. Jackson had a wonderful time! I'm really only making excuses. Below are some pics of the BIG 4 YEAR OLD, but first a little about Jackson. He is such a sweet boy and I have loved being at home with him watching him grow and learn over the past 4 years. It is so fun to see all the stages of his life. I'm truly blessed to be able to spend my days with such a wonderful, happy little boy and soak him all up. Jackson is full of life. He is talkative, funny, energetic, and super sweet. He is helpful, playful, and always silly. Of course he's not perfect, but we couldn't be more blessed!! I'm already sad that he will be going to kindergarten soon. But for now, we're just going to have lots of fun together!

Now for some birthday tidbits. We took him to the Bentonville Fire Station for a tour (which will be a post of its own) and we went to Harrison. The family party got canceled because of sickness, but we took him out to eat with Grandparents, Aunt Jilly Bean, and Uncle Rusty for his Birthday dinner. He wanted shrimp and lobster so we took him to a seafood buffet in Harrison which he was very excited about it. They didn't have lobster, but they had crawdads....aka "little lobsters." Uncle Rusty pealed them for him and he ate them up. You might ask why shrimp and lobster for a child...well, it's a funny little story. First of all Jackson loves shrimp. A few weeks before his birthday I had made him some popcorn shrimp for lunch. As I handed it to him, he said " mamma, why don't you ever buy me lobster, you know I like it." It made me laugh. He's never tried lobster. I don't even know where he got that. I guess t.v. Anyway, I told Josh we would have to find him some lobster for his B-day. It worked out great. After eating Grandma Debi and Pa Lloyd took Jackson shopping for his gift. Jill and Rusty met up with us too. It was like pulling teeth to get him to pick something. Not because he wanted everything he saw...it was the opposite. He said he didn't need anything because he already had toys and clothes. I thought it was funny and kinda sweet to see the practical side of a four year old. Of course grandma and pa were not going to let him out of the store without a gift, so he ended up with a helicopter and some Twinkies. He was happy enough. Jill and Rusty got him a dart gun. He has barely put it down since then. The next day, Grandma Diana made him a cake and let him blow out some candles and open a few more gifts. It was fun. Overall his party didn't work out how I had planned, but he had a great time with lots of love from family and that is what counts.

This is when we were singing Happy Birthday to him. He was loving the attention.

Blowing out the candles. That's always fun.

True excitement. I'm so glad I captured this shot. Jackson got a bike for his birthday from us and he was truly surprise and ecstatic.

His new "big boy" bike!