Weekend Summary

This weekend was filled with lots of fun! Friday was Ross' 30th birthday! Ross got a few new toys, and we celebrated with good friends that night.

The next morning we woke up to find that Santa had come early! Jackson had lots of fun checking out his new toys as you can see.

There are more pics of Jackson checking things out and our house decorated for Christmas in the album.

My dad drove down Saturday, and we spent most of the day finishing up the last of some Christmas shopping. He drove down to babysit Jackson that night so we could stay out late at a wedding for our friends, Chris and Shannon. Ross works with Chris, and he and Shannon are the ones that cleaned up our yard after Ike when we were in Leakey. Both the ceremony and reception were very memorable occaisions. I've never laughed so much in a wedding ceremony, and the reception was a blast. We didn't take any pictures, but another friend took one of the two of us after the ceremony.

We can't thank my dad enough for taking care of Jackson and letting us enjoy a night out. It wasn't an easy night for him because Jackson is sick again. We're really hoping his fever will go away and he'll be able to enjoy his 1st Chrismas!

Rolling Over!

I just found out this morning that Jackson rolled over for the first time on his own at day care on Friday! I'm having a bit of a hard time dealing with the fact that I missed it and that they forgot to tell us on Friday, but I'm so excited too! He just keeps growing and changing everyday. It's so much fun to watch!

We all had a pretty good week last week. We got settled back into our normal routines, and Jackson is sleeping better at day care, which makes me feel a lot better. We spent most of the weekend continuing our clean up efforts around the house after Ike, but we took a break Saturday evening and went to a BBQ at our friends' Christie and Jason's, new house. I was so happy about how well Jackson did while we were there...people actually got to see him awake for a change!

We have taken a couple of pictures recently, so I'll try to get those posted soon!

Amazing Friends & Family

I've said it before, but I have to say it again. We have the most amazing friends and family. I was starting to feel a little down today. I've been a little homesick after evacuating from Ike and worried about the mess we will have to go home to. Just to top that off, I had a flat tire this week, Ross is on a business trip that got extended an extra day, Bailey had a seizure today, and Jackson has not been sleeping well at all.

Then I got to thinking about it a little more. We have been so blessed to have a place to stay and hang out. Philip was able to fix my tire, which unfortunately was just the beginning of a really long day for him...fixed my flat tire, took an injured worker to the emergency room, and then lost and fixed the water at his house at 4 in the morning.

Our friends Emma and Chris have been wonderful about taking the time to check on our house and keep us posted in the midst of their own recovery efforts, and then to top all of that off our friends Chris and Shannon (Ross works with Chris) cleaned up our yard today with the help of one of our neighbors! Emma and Chris were going by to see if we had power yet and found Chris and Shannon working in our yard. What a HUGE blessing!!! They have suggested we stay put as long as possible since we still don't have power and would have to boil our water. That's the plan for now I guess. Work starts back up on Monday, so we'll probably make the trip this weekend. Hopefully, we'll have power back by then. Even if we don't, we have SO much to be thankful for...especially our amazing friends and family!

Pics of Damage

Here are pictures of the damage at our house and some of our neighbors courtesy of Emma and Chris. Ross was able to get his flights rearranged, so he's on his way to Philly now. We're still planning to stay put until we have power.

My day's off to a great start...I got a flat tire this morning. Philip is going to try to fix it later today...THANKS!

Hiding Out in Leakey

We got a report from our friends Emma and Chris on our house yesterday. They made their way down to the Clear Lake area after hurricane Ike tore through Houston. They said our house is fine. However, our fences are down, and we have a lot of yard work to do because a lot of limbs fell. We are without power and water there, so we're staying put for now. We can't thank them enough for the report. It has really put our minds at ease. We feel so blessed that it wasn't worse.

We're also thankful for having such a great place to stay and hang out. We're staying at Ross' parents' cabin in Leakey and hanging out with his sister and brother-in-law, Leslie and Philip, during the day. Ross is supposed to go to Philidelphia for work tomorrow, so we're working on rearranging flights so he can leave from San Antonio. Hopefully, when he gets back our house will have power and water so we can go home.

Jackson turned 3 months old while we were here, and he got to go on his first Polaris ride around the ranch. It was pretty funny to see his car seat buckled into the Polaris. I'm hoping to get a picture of it so everyone can see.