Tonight, out of the blue, he started blowing us kisses...I, of course, captured with pictures. Cutie Patootie.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
blow me some kisses
It's so true that kids do everything in their own timing. I "teach" Jackson stuff all the time but he doesn't do it back until he's good and ready. Every now and again though, you'll ask him something like "where are your eyes?" and he'll point right to them. The other night we were reading his "Ears, Nose and Toes" book and he pointed out ALL of them. Cutest part was when we said "where are your teeth?" and he chomped down on them.
before and after
Dining Area before:
After (table is getting painted this weekend):
Kitchen before:
After:
View from Kitchen Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Bathroom Before:
After (table is getting painted this weekend):
Kitchen before:
After:
View from Kitchen Before:
After:View from Front door before:
After:
Before:After:Bathroom Before:
After:
Another view before:
After:
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
onesie chancey
Visit this blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a free onesie:
http://poshpointofview.blogspot.com/2008/10/posh-point-of-view-appledonia-tee.html
http://poshpointofview.blogspot.com/2008/10/posh-point-of-view-appledonia-tee.html
tagged
My sweet friend Hannah tagged me to list seven random facts about myself. I know Hannah from grad school. She is one of the funniest people I have ever met and she and her husband just had their first baby in September...sweet baby Pratt. I've been trying to think of things that might be "new" information so here goes.
1) All of the hangers in my closet have to match. I have all white hangers...the plastic kind and I can't handle it if there is a wire one or a different colored hanger mixed in. Jackson's closet is the same way...his are all blue baby hangers. Ben's closet - well that's a different story...it has 432949 different types of hangers in it because he likes a different type of hanger depending on the article of clothing. I can't even look at it.
2) I make up words and use them in regular conversation... sometimes I forget that they aren't real words. For example I once argued with Ben that bulgeoning was a word. Like, "he has bulgeoning biceps" No, it's not a real word but you can totally get a picture in your head from that word! Conjongulated is another one. There are too many to list. I just feel the english language could use a few more descriptive words lol.
3) I was on a plane, in the air when the twin towers were being flown into. My mom doesn't know this one. I'll be getting a phone call shortly.
4) I peed my pants when I was in the 6th grade. I was in the middle of the dollar store in the mall and I had to go to the bathroom really bad. Next thing you know I'm peeing all over myself and couldn't stop it. Afterward my mom asked me why I didnt just tell her I had to go to the bathroom. I have no idea. I got some really cute tommy hilfiger boxers out of the deal though. I've still got them. I can't believe I'm sharing that.
5) The thought of living forever freaks me out. Don't get me wrong - I'm super excited about Heaven and love the Lord with all my heart but I just can't wrap my mind around eternity. I can't think about it or I get sick to my stomach.
6) I love the holiday season...so much that I can't WAIT to start decorating for fall. At midnight every September 21st I put my decorations out...because then it's officially fall.
7) When I was little I had a friend over playing and asked if she could spend the night. My parent said no but I really wanted her to stay so I told her she could stay anyway. Whenever my parents would come upstairs I would throw a blanket and some dirty clothes on top of her so they wouldnt see her. After about 3 times they figured it out. Moral of the story is I'm sneaky. I could blog for days about sneaky stuff I've done.
I tag...
Mary Ramsey
Katherine Maxey
Laura Shachmut
Lindsay Oliver
Lauren McKnight
Courtney Ortega
Amber Weaver
1) All of the hangers in my closet have to match. I have all white hangers...the plastic kind and I can't handle it if there is a wire one or a different colored hanger mixed in. Jackson's closet is the same way...his are all blue baby hangers. Ben's closet - well that's a different story...it has 432949 different types of hangers in it because he likes a different type of hanger depending on the article of clothing. I can't even look at it.
2) I make up words and use them in regular conversation... sometimes I forget that they aren't real words. For example I once argued with Ben that bulgeoning was a word. Like, "he has bulgeoning biceps" No, it's not a real word but you can totally get a picture in your head from that word! Conjongulated is another one. There are too many to list. I just feel the english language could use a few more descriptive words lol.
3) I was on a plane, in the air when the twin towers were being flown into. My mom doesn't know this one. I'll be getting a phone call shortly.
4) I peed my pants when I was in the 6th grade. I was in the middle of the dollar store in the mall and I had to go to the bathroom really bad. Next thing you know I'm peeing all over myself and couldn't stop it. Afterward my mom asked me why I didnt just tell her I had to go to the bathroom. I have no idea. I got some really cute tommy hilfiger boxers out of the deal though. I've still got them. I can't believe I'm sharing that.
5) The thought of living forever freaks me out. Don't get me wrong - I'm super excited about Heaven and love the Lord with all my heart but I just can't wrap my mind around eternity. I can't think about it or I get sick to my stomach.
6) I love the holiday season...so much that I can't WAIT to start decorating for fall. At midnight every September 21st I put my decorations out...because then it's officially fall.
7) When I was little I had a friend over playing and asked if she could spend the night. My parent said no but I really wanted her to stay so I told her she could stay anyway. Whenever my parents would come upstairs I would throw a blanket and some dirty clothes on top of her so they wouldnt see her. After about 3 times they figured it out. Moral of the story is I'm sneaky. I could blog for days about sneaky stuff I've done.
I tag...
Mary Ramsey
Katherine Maxey
Laura Shachmut
Lindsay Oliver
Lauren McKnight
Courtney Ortega
Amber Weaver
Monday, October 6, 2008
still spinning
This has been one crazy week! We started the week with my birthday and ended it with Jackson's first birthday party at the zoo! Ben and I got sick at the very beginning of the week with some sinus stuff, luckily Jackson didn't get it. This helped delay our projects around the house as well as my blogging. I was feeling much better by wednesday and other than a few fever blister battle scars, I was back to normal by the party of Saturday. On Jackson's actual birthday we just did stuff as a family. Ben came home for lunch and as soon as he got home we headed out to build a bear and Cheeburger Cheeburger for his big birthday dinner. We had the best time. 
When we got home we opened presents and Jackson had his first "cake" experience. I searched the internet for a healthier option for his first cake since the only sugar he has had has come from fruit or a gerber graduates cereal bar. I feel as a parent it is your responsibility to teach your kids to be healthy at all times and birthday's are no exception. I found a recipe for a Pumpkin Apple Harvest cake and sugar free cream cheese icing. Jackson absolutely loves cream cheese so I knew this would be a hit...turns out I was right. He ate the entire cupcake with only a few crumbs behind as evidence.
Thursday we went in for Jackson's one year check up. He is 24 lbs 5 oz and 31 inches long. One more inch and he'll have grown a foot since birth! Everything checked out perfectly and we're so thankful. The dr said "I'm not even gonna ask about delevopmental milestones...I can tell he's hitting all of them." Jackson is so funny these days. He has this new game where I'll say "say mama" and he'll say "dada" and laugh. He'll see my coffee and say "that's hot" and hold his hand back and my new favorite thing he does is squeal when Ben gets home from work. So funny. His vocabulary is growing every day. He surprises me with how much he knows. It's amazing how fast they become little people with big personalities. He has a newly found obsession with shoes and will bring them to you and say "ssshhhhss" and put his feet up for you. So cute. 
He absolutely LOVES music and loves to dance. Loves. to. dance. I can hum a beat and he'll start breaking it down. We bought him a Wiggles dvd for his birthday ( i know...the wiggles) and he loves it. Who knew?
Friday night my mom and brother flew in for the big "one" celebration - we were so excited for them to make it out here! On Saturday we were all off to the zoo where I was late to my own kids birthday party because I went left when I should have taken a right...needless to say THIRTY MINUTES later I made it to the zoo. Unbelievable. Jackson didn't notice or care so that was good. We had lots of fun snacks for everyone to eat and I made some devils food mini cupcakes for the adults and other kids to enjoy. I made them with applesauce instead of oil so at least that helped out the "health" factor with those. Ben's family drove out and Jackson got to spend some time with everyone in the Jungle room before we all ventured out to enjoy the zoo. My grandfather stopped by on his way to see my aunt to wish Jackson a Happy Birthday and the Walkers had to cancel at the last minute due to a stomach bug. Yuck. We missed seeing them there but understand! 
There were a few glitches, but all in all it was a GREAT first birthday for Jackson. We appreciate those of you that thought of Jackson and made an effort to be a part of his birthday this year. I know it meant so much to him. Here are some pictures of the big birthday extravaganza:
There were a few glitches, but all in all it was a GREAT first birthday for Jackson. We appreciate those of you that thought of Jackson and made an effort to be a part of his birthday this year. I know it meant so much to him. Here are some pictures of the big birthday extravaganza:
information worth knowing
For those people that are so quick to blame the current economy on President Bush and his administration, please read the following NY Times article for September of 1999. The article can also be found here : http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
September 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''
Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.
September 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''
Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.
Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.
Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.
In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.
Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.
The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Charged
Yay I found my charger and not a moment too soon! First of all...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!
Tonight we are going to build-a-bear and dinner followed by presents and cake here at home...I made homemade pumpkin apple harvest cupcakes with cream cheese icing for the little man...not nearly the fat and sugar as a regular birthday cake and still super yummy!
Here is a picture of the new armoire...we're loving it!
More pictures to come of the birthday extravaganza when I have a few minutes to get the post together!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
