South Dakota 2017

After years of saying we needed to meet Brandon's family in South Dakota, we finally did it!

When the boys and I went to North Dakota in June for Brandon's cousin's wedding, Aunt Paulette and I started talking more and more about making the trip happen (and how Brandon was even saving vacation time so we could go!), so after getting home, Paulette started looking at Black Hills cabins and found the PERFECT one!

Fast forward 3 months and we were on the road to Rapid City!

Mal and Evie walking around the roads near the cabin

Jackson wasn't excited at all about being in South Dakota!

First night at the cabin!

We ate like KINGS the entire trip -- each family/group took turns cooking breakfast and dinner, and on the first night the Petersons/Dekkers grilled steaks. 

This was a tough day... after MONTHS of our little history buff (Jax) reading/talking/watching documentaries about Mount Rushmore, he ended up getting a 24 hour bug and was a mess the entire day :( He didn't feel like doing much of anything, cried a lot, and just wasn't himself. 

Not even the bust of Gutzon Borglum could get him excited.

After about an hour, I took Jax to take a nap in the car. I got him bundled up really well and he fell asleep right away.

Gabe with his wonderful Great Great Aunt Paulette and Cousin Evie

Daddy and Gabe checking out Mount Rushmore while Jax and I stayed in the car.

Spongebob popsicles from Great Grandma Bonnie

After Mount Rushmore, we took a trip on the old 1880 Train...

...and poor sick Jackson literally cried and panicked the entire trip, especially when our window was open. 

Gabe did great, too! *eye roll*

All-you-can-eat crab legs in Deadwood... yum!

Feeling MUCH better in Deadwood (the second day of the trip)! 

Walking around the casino while the dads gambled

Photo by Jax

Everyone took it easy on Day 3, so we made the trip back to Mount Rushmore... Jackson enjoyed it SO much more when he wasn't sick! 

Last night :(

Cousins Paulette and Sandy

Birthday boys and their birthday kuchen

Craft night!

Jackson is THREE

What happened? It seems like it was only last week when our sweet little Jackson Lee was released from the NICU and into a room with me... it feels like I quickly blinked my eyes and BAM -- our 5 lb. 13 oz. Jax is THREE YEARS OLD!

I don't know where to even begin this post... Jackson has absolutely flourished this year and has become his own little person. I'm sure I'm not the first parent to say this, but Jackson really is the sweetest little boy I have ever known.

His smile spans his entire face and his big eyes can light up a room.

He loves watching/observing (and copying!) people and literally squeals with delight whenever he sees "big kids" that he can play with.

He's smart and amazes his dad and me every single day. (He has a tendency of putting his mind to something new and doing it on his own -- like the other day when he just randomly started singing the ABCs to me during lunch or when he had just turned two and started just randomly counting things!)

I have never seen him push or hit another child, which seems to be a pretty feat at 3.

After months and months of worrying about how our only child would do with a younger sibling, he completely exceeded our expectations and hasn't shown an ounce of jealousy toward Gabe since we brought him home... In fact, he won't leave him alone and will often stand over him until he wakes up! One of the sweetest Jackson/Gabe moments was a few weeks ago at mom's group when I had a giant box of pastries I was taking home to freeze for our next meeting -- anyway, I can never leave Jackson alone at church (because he's completely scarred from the one time I left him in the childcare room with his friends for an entire 3 minutes), so I brought him out to the car with me to leave off the pastries while a few of my friends were still in the room with a sleeping Gabe. I guess Jackson thought we were leaving because he began to fuss and I couldn't figure out why and asked what was going on and with tears in his eyes, he points back to the door and starts saying "Baby! Baby!" He was NOT about to let me forget his brother and became really upset at the thought of leaving him behind. Gabriel is very lucky to have such a loving and protective older brother :) Other memorable big brother moments include him informing us that Gabe is "WAKE" every time he walks by (which is comical when we're either holding him and/or Gabe is crying), his random forehead kisses, and making faces at his brother in an attempt at making him smile.

Jackson loves to "read"/be read to, which makes this book loving mamma very happy. (I have even found him laying on his bed, legs crossed a few times just reading a good book to himself!)

He gets SO engaged with whatever he is watching (which has recently been Fixer Upper and Finding Dory), acts out what is happening with toys (like cars, if the characters are driving), and copies whatever is being said.

I have never seen a toddler act so well during church! He is usually really great about sitting through mass with or without his snacks.

The list seriously goes on and on, so instead of sitting here making myself tear up, I will share a few pictures from his 3rd birthday party!

Our original plan for Jackson's birthday party was to once again have it at our local rec center, but they were completely booked through the month and we needed to come up with a Plan B. Since Jackson LOVES movie theaters and talks about seeing Finding Dory in the movie theater last summer, we decided to throw him a movie theater birthday party at home! Since our December was crazy busy, we threw it the Saturday of the month and the kids had a blast!!!

Happy Birthday, sweet Jackson! Thank you for making me a mommy three years ago today!