Nothing Super New...

...going on in our neck of the woods. In one month exactly from today Jackson will be 2 years old!!! Time sure does fly! His new word this week that he learned at school is "MINE"....oh the pleasant words they learn. It could never be something like "love" or "gentle" it has to be "MINE"! Also, now when he jumps he actually gets off the ground. For awhile there he was putting all is effort into jumping and not even getting off the ground!

This weekend we had another garage sale, I know, I know we just had one! This one was community wide though and when we were moving things around for the hurricane we found some more things to get rid of. Then the rest of the weekend we did a whole lot of nothing, which was nice. Oh we did put up Jackson's newest toy from us. We bought him a bouncer, we were going to rent one for his party but found one at a sporting goods store around here for the same price as a rental. It will last us for years for birthdays and we have his birthday gift taken care of for this year! I love killing two birds with one stone! Then last night our friends invited us over for a delicious meal and dessert, great way to cap off the weekend!

This week is busy busy for us we have something to do every single day! It seems to be that way until next month!

WOW....

... Has it really been a month since I last posted??? What a crazy month it was to say the least! Before I get started I wanted to thank everyone who thought and prayed for us during the hurricane, we appreciate it more than you will ever know!
SO, the last post I wrote was about Jackson's first week at MDO. An update on that, he is doing great there now...he even did great after not being in MDO for 2 wks after the hurricane! Our big man!!!
Rick's sister flew into town on Sept. 11th (the night before the hurricane) with her son Alexander (13 months). We warned her on what was coming our way and she decided to brave it out with us. The day before the hurricane (Friday the 12th) was spent getting our house prepared, boarding up windows where we were going to be in the house, pulling all the lawn furniture in and getting all of our important things in one spot. By about 830pm that evening that wind was really starting to pick up, our power flickered at that point and we lost our cable. Our neighbors across the street still had theirs so we would run over to check updates on how things were looking. I have to be honest I was getting VERY VERY nervous at the unexpected by this point. God was my calming source! We all "slept" in the living room at first, we felt very safe there. I knew our house would with stand a lot because its brand new and built to withhold hurricane force winds. Our main concern was flying debris, which you can't prevent with 120mph gusts! By 115am we lost power completely, and at about 2am we went into our "hunker down" spot in Jackson's room/closet. I think I maybe slept 1 hr that night, it was pretty bad outside until 430am when it went completely silent (the eye was above us). We (rick and I) tried to take my mom's dogs out to go potty really quick at that point, but they knew something was up and wanted nothing to do with being outside! It was SOOO crazy it be in the eye, the humidity is almost breath taking and there is complete and utter silence along with stillness. Its not a very comforting feeling because it almost feels like something bad is going to happen. Then the back side of the storm came through, felt like it was worse then the front side but at least it was starting to get light out at this point so you could see what was going on. The storm took about 12 hrs to pass us completely. There were a TON of trees down in our neighborhood and surrounding areas. The first 3 days after the storm there was no gas, no power and a lot of stir crazy people!! Rick's sister and baby left as they had planned on the 6th day after. Jackson and I flew out to California a day early than planned since we were still without power. We did not get power for 17 days at our house. We are thankful to the gracious Lord that we did not suffer any bad damage to our house and continually pray for those still suffering from the effects of the storm.
Rick flew out to California for vacation with us on the 25th. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and I know everyone enjoyed seeing Jackson. Jackson is in aw of his Auntie Ally and would spend most days trailing behind her every move! It was a nice break for mommy, the usual entertainer, and Auntie Ally loved every minute of it! We came home on Sept. 30th just in time to start a new month at home with power!!!!

First day...

... of mother's day out was this week for Jackson. For those of you that don't know what MDO is, it is a program where kids go to school at our church from 9-2pm Tue./Thurs. The first day for Jackson was REALLY rough, he cried almost the entire time! He wouldn't eat or drink, they got him to nap for an hour though and it then started all over again.

It broke my heart to hear that he was so sad at school since he is such an easy going (but strong willed...shocking) little man. Jackson is VERY much an observer (meaning strangers are good from afar) and has been since he was tiny and he is all about personal space. Which is nice for mommy because he doesn't want to be hanging all over me all the time. But these two things combined make it hard for Jackson to go to people he doesn't know easily. Once he "knows" you he is waving me or daddy off as if we are chopped liver. I am hoping it will get better over time, I can only except that it will because of how he has been in other situations (like nursery at church).

Today was positive though, they said that he did much better. Not as much crying, but still a lot of "observing" his surroundings and the new kids. He actually ate and drank today. They did say what a sweet boy he was and what a good listener he is....which makes mommy proud. They wanted me to pick him up early so that he would leave on a good note today to make the transition easier. SO...all in all today was promising.

I have included a pic of his first day at school...and the pic of him laying down is him saying his new word for this week.....can you guess it???? That's right the big fat N-O.....he has been saying "oh no" like when he dropped something for awhile but has just realized that he can say "no" to something he doesn't want. Here comes toddlerhood!!!!

This weekend...

Was pretty relaxing...nothing exciting around the Zeller house. Saturday we spent most of the day just being lazy, which I LOVE!! After Jackson's nap (and mommy's too) we decided to head to the mall for a little window shopping. It was SUPER crowded there, I guess because school is starting this week. After the mall we went and shared fajitas at our favorite mexican spot in town. When we were done stuffing our bellies we came home and went on a long walk to the lake. We ended the evening with some Olympic watching. Since they have been on we have not been getting to bed till 11pm which is rather late for us!

Today we decided to check out early service at church, we normally go to the 11am service, but today we managed to get out the door in time for the 820am service. It was actually very nice to go to church and get home with a ton of time left in the day. So we might start going to that service on a regular basis. When we got home we had some minor things to do around the house, hang a few things, file some papers, mow the lawn etc. My brother Jacob came up later in the afternoon to spend the night. When I am done writing this we are all going to sit down and watch the closing ceremonies.

I have included some pictures of our newly organized garage...I know it still looks full of stuff but before to the left of my car was just heaping piles of boxes. Shelving works wonders!!! Of course I inserted some pics of noodle too!! I hope each of you had a great weekend!!

I can't believe....

....how long it has been since I have posted a blog! Shame on me (so this blog will be extra long)!!! So I guess I should start with the beginning of August. We said goodbye to my mom as she moved to Norway for 3 years. It was hard to say goodbye (I have never been good at them) but it truly is a blessing from God for her.
The day after she left we drove to Oklahoma (a 6 hr drive) to see my family from California. My sister Madison who is an amazing softball player had a tournament there with her team. We left at 745pm after Jackson's bath so that he could just fall asleep in the car. He did just that at about 845pm, then about 12am the poor guy could not get comfortable in his car seat so he was awake for and hour and a half. Not crying which was awesome just awake....and the schedule nazi here was thinking "holy cow...how bad is this going to throw him off?!?!?!". Well he slept again briefly until we entered Oklahoma City, then all the lights from the town woke him and was awake until we went to bed at 3am (HOLY GEEZ). But he was an amazing little traveler and he slept till 1045am!!! We were SO stoked about that. Needless to say, it did not ruin his schedule, which I should have known in the first place since Jackson is such an easy going kid!
We had a great great time with my family....it was WAY too short...we left Monday afternoon to drive back home. Jackson was awesome the whole way home as well! I guess all the traveling to California has helped out a lot. We got home in the early evening, just in time to let him run wild for a bit then get ready for bed.
The following weekend was another busy one for us. We had a garage sale on Saturday which we were up until midnight getting ready for on Friday, then had to be up at 530am to pull all the stuff out. My cousin Kandace and her family came over to sell some things as well. Our neighbors on each side of us (whom we love dearly) joined in the fun aslso. It was a good turn out, but SO stinkin' hot!!! I know that is shocking for Houston right?!?!?! I felt at some points as if I was going to melt away!!! Then that night my cousin and her husband watched Jackson while Rick and I went out for a couples night out. We went out with the mom's and their hubbies from Jackson's weekly playgroup. First stop was delicious mexican food, then to a bar and lastly a dance club to get our shake on! We did not get home until after 1am!!! We were SOOO tired from such a long day! Sunday was spent relaxing and doing a whole lot of nothing but thanking God for our blessings!
Now we are finally at this last weekend! Last weekend I had a Southern Living party at our house to launch the new fall catalog. It turned out to be quite a poopy day out but had a good turn out for the party and a ton of fun! Then on Sunday we spent most of the day cleaning out the garage and organizing it! It looks SOOO great, we are so excited to have an organized garage now!
SO, that is our last couple weeks in a nutshell or a novel I should say. I am including some pics of our trip to OK and I am going to take some pics of our garage and post them on here soon!

Oh me Oh my!

Its been quite the busy week for Jackson and all of us. This weekend was my grandpa's 80th birthday celebration. We had tons to do during the week to get prepared. During all the running around Jackson managed to scrape his leg at the pool, fall while trying to help daddy take the trash out and scrape his forehead and get a black eye at target when he fell and hit a clothing rack! I think I might have a heart attack within these next few years.....or get CPS called on me for Jackson looking like he is beat up! I feel so bad for the little guy right now he is all banged up! But he could totally careless! He looked great for family pictures this weekend...let me tell you!!
He also got his hair cut this week and he did such a great job sitting for the lady while she did it. I think he managed to eat three lollipops in a 10 minute span. The last two nights due to the festivities for my grandpa he has not gone to bed until 10pm which is a tad later than his normal 830pm, but his cousins have been around to keep him throughly entertained!
On a side note....Friday I watched a friend's daughter (Bailey) for a couple of hours. Jackson and her are in a weekly playgroup together and they are just about the same age. They play together quite well but can I tell you this little princess has not one bruise on her! Nor does she ever trip on imaginary things, she takes her time getting on and off of toys and delicately moves on to the next thing. This is POLAR opposite of Jackson's world!!!! Oh the differences between boys and girls! Maybe God will bless us with a little girl one day....I can only hope and pray....if not He has a great sense of humor!!!

Musical Chairs....

So at the end of our day for some reason Jackson and I always end up playing in his room till its either A) its dinner time or B) daddy is home. Well yesterday Jackson wanted to sit in or on everything that he could in his room. It was like he was playing musical chairs! He sat for a few minutes his rocker, then on to his old bouncy seat, then to his rocking lion and lastly his crib. I had my camera on hand to document the whole thing. I just thought it was too cute not to share these pics!