Mr. and Mrs. David Jackson

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on last night's wedding. Everything went very well and I have never seen JD more happy in all of my life :) I hope to do more with the pictures soon, but since there was so many of them all I have time right now is upload them onto my picasa. (I am a bit exhausted from the last two days to say the least haha) You can check them out by clicking here.

We are incredibly blessed!

JR and I are so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts we received this Christmas and are even more pleased that everyone loved the gifts we gave them... I always say it is better to give than to receive :) Christmas Eve we spent at the Isham's and then on Christmas day we spent the morning at my dad's and then the afternoon at my mom's. Somehow it did not seem quite just like Christmas to either of us.. but then we had to remember we arent 8 anymore so that excitement is obviously going to go away. We always enjoy time with family though and were excited to spend Jesus's birthday with those we love. We decided to do one BIG gift together from Reba and Vic and we are SO excited!

baby Tristan is getting big :) I will be an Auntie in T minus 2 months!

the boys

Sue with her apron I made

brothers with picture collages


did I mention that I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!?!?!

YAY! We can offically be tailgaters now :)

JR got a picture of his bride

Christmas for us is about traditions as well. Good breakfast at Dad and Sue's...Mimi, Potts and Poppa coming over for lunch... and everyone going to a movie at night.

One of my favorite traditions for sure though is when we continue to get to see some very special friends. My mom's best friends, Leann and Ginger, as well as all of their kids. Erica and I have known each other since we were in diapers and so many of my early early memories are with her. Now she has a baby of her own, Mr. Parker, and he is cute as a button!

group shot of the kids

Leann, Ginger and Cathy


Erica and I being silly

Parker loving on Mimi

I hope everyone had a great Christmas day! We are so grateful that our holiday is not over just yet.. we are still in Kingston right now and will be until the new year. JR has been enjoying some down time hunting with my dad and I went shopping with mom and Rach! Tomorrow starts the wedding fun for JD so stay tuned for LOTS of pictures come Saturday :) Hello.. I got a new camera hahah... you know that means even MORE pictures!

Guitar Hero

The whole family was SO excited when Rach got her new game Guitar Hero. For those who do not know it is a Play Station game where you hold an actual guitar and you are the rockstar that plays the song. You must strum and hold down the right cord to do well... it is definitely hand-eye coordination :) Tyler had to show us all how to do it.. he is a pro!

I cant quite get my hands to move fast enough ha!!!

JR's rockstar face

Mom had no clue I took this video of her "gettin jiggy with it" ha... watch her face at the end once she realizes she is caught on film. Love you mom! I knew you still had it in you :)

Manly challenge

A favorite thing for my favorite men is a little manly challenge of ping pong.

Little dudes vs. Big dudes

Man he hates to lose :)

And the big dudes pulled out the victory!!!

Lily's puppies

Mom's dog Lily had 2 little Christmas puppies! Look how small!!! :)

Christmas at Mimi and Potts

On Saturday we had the family Christmas party at Mimi and Potts house! It is always a treat to see my cousins and sweet aunt and uncle. we had a great time as usual.. but it is always WAY to short. Thank you Mimi and Potts for all of our great gifts :)

all of the grandchildren

the gibson's

the meadow's

Mimi showing off her new sweatshirt that I made her :)

Poppa and his girls

my handsome little cousins- Drew and Alec

JR and Cupid hanging out

before the party my other sister Mish stopped by to visit as well... always good to see her!

Lily the vacuum slayer

my mom's little yorkie does NOT like the vacuum. here is a video I took b/c i thought it was hilarious :)

One last day with the puppies

Everything went very well on the way back home. We were a little worried to drive 6 hours with 5 puppies but they were champs! Just a little whinning of course. I held one of them most of the way and here are some pictures of her laid on her back in my lap.. how cute!

prancer laid out in my lap on the way home

cute as a button :)

hanging out in the car before getting picked up

nap time on Cici's pillow

bath time in the sink

my crazy bro

Getting blow dryed by Uncle Tyler

Cuddling with Aunt Rach

taking a nap with JR

We only have 3 more left at this point but they will all be gone tomorrow :( I am definitely sad but am very happy they are all going to good homes.

Pictures with the new owners

Merry Christmas!

Here is a fun puppy picture collage that my sweet friend Jen made! Arent they cute?!? :)

SOLD!

HUGE praise that all of our puppies are now officially SOLD!!! They will be going to their new homes this weekend and I will have to say I am kindof sad :( They have definitely become my little babies and I will miss seeing them each and every day, however I am glad they all have good homes.

This week has been a bit crazy for me as I have been a sewing machine ha! I am doing my best to make a lot of my gifts and goodness it takes FOREVER! I hope to finish everything up in the next couple of days because we are leaving for TN on Friday!!! We are so blessed to be off until the 1st of the year so I will have over a week at home YAY!

I am sure this will not be my last post before Christmas, but until then I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! In all of the franticness it is hard sometimes to focus on the real reason for the season, but I hope that each of you will take the time to celebrate Jesus! He is why we celebrate and He has given us His love and grace and mercy, and for that we should be forever grateful. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Your Grandma's Favorite Christmas Sweater

On Saturday we celebrated the 2nd Annual Isham family Christmas party. Last year we started this tradition with the excellent idea of my husband. He wanted everyone to have to wear a Christmas sweater so we could have some fun with dressing up. Last year was a bit of a dud as far as costumes go... however this was AMAZING! A lady at the seminary let me borrow 18 bea-u-ties, so I had plenty to pass around. There is a montage below but I also needed to include this picture separately so you could see up close and personal the one JR not only picked out, but later emailed the lady to ask if he could buy it from her. She said yes and boy did that make his day... so I have a feeling this will not be the last time I see this sweater ha! Just so you get the full effect click on the picture to make it bigger and check out the crochet work as well as that it is 3D. Mine was quite a jewel too, with the iron on patterns and puff paint all around it. Oh we looked ridiculous :)



Thank you to everyone who came.. we had a blast! And you can guarantee that this will not be the last year for our party so go ahead and be looking for your sweater for next year too :)

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Chain reactions

First of all sorry for the delay in posting this week. It is graduation week at Southeastern as well as the end of classes, so needless to say my days have been jammed packed and nights have been filled with babysitting and Christmas parties :)

WARNING: The story below is hilarious now that I can laugh about it... but a bit graphic.

So last night I decided after getting home from our work Christmas party at 9:30 (yea way too late to start this but I wasnt thinking it would take until 1230!) that I was going to feed the puppies their first puppy food. They are now one month old and it is that time so I gave it a whirl. As I was bringing them all in JR said, "Honey I gave them a little before we left." A little... hmm.. okay well that was just a taste so they need more.. or so I thought. I get them all inside and they are all barking at me. I started them off with water and they gussled that right up. So I then filled up their food pans with just a little food and a lot of milk, so that they could pretty much just drink it. Well they all dove right in and I started taking pictures like a proud mom would. Then all of a sudden one started dry heaving for a few seconds and then bamm.... throw up. Few seconds later... throw up again. And after a couple of minutes the poor little girl had done it about 5 times. So as I am holding my nose (I have an EXTREMELY weak stomach to 2 things: blood and throw up. Anytime I see either it immediately makes me gag and I am actually gagging right now just talking about it!) and cleaning up the puke, I look over and the chain reaction had started. Another puppy was now puking, and then another, and yes another. The puppies that were not puking thought it would be cool to eat the puke that their brothers and sisters were leaving around.. and then of course what did they then do? Puke that right up :( Oh man I was so mad! This whole time JR is outside with his friend putting up the new ping pong table we got (thanks dad!) and so I am in the house dealing with all of this myself. I am sure he would have helped and ended up doing so after the fact but it all happened so fast that I didnt have time to stop and ask. Man alive.... note to self: Dont let puppies inhale their first real dinner, it will cause a chain reaction.

So after the reaction finally had stopped and I had 10 puppies that had puke either on their mouth, feet or back.. it was bath time again! :)

I was so thankful that I actually didnt puke myself and took the opportunity to take their one month pictures at midnight last night. Check them out ha! www.10labs.blogspot.com

Have trouble slowing down?

A co-worker sent me this and it made me stop and take a deep breath. I know I am the worlds worst at always going, going, going and it seems that God has been telling me to slow down a lot more lately. I hope that each of you take the time to slow down so that you can enjoy life as well :)

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word "refrigeration" mean nothing to you? How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ' Jeopardy' on te levision?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , "How about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain" And my personal favorite: "It's Monday." She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to ," "I plan on," and "Someday, when things are settled down a bit."

When anyone ca lls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker cone. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to...not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say "Hi"?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

"Life may not be the party we hoped for ... but while we are here we might as well Dance

Fun with Christmas Bows

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After wrapping Christmas gifts and then bringing in the puppies to play.. I simply could not resist this photo shoot!

Puppy Baths!

The puppies got their first bath this weekend!