Acker Country Living: May 2016

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

John Turns 1!

The world's favorite ginger turned ONE on Sunday! To say we love this little man is an understatement. John Garrison is absolutely a ferocious animal these days, and it's wildly cute. He loves on his mama so much that Pete and I are convinced he'd crawl back inside me if he could. He finds just about anything funny that you'd like for him to find funny, so he's a great audience! And he and Susannah adore each other still, which makes me melt often throughout the day. We can't believe it's been a year!

And as for his 1-year checkup, John KILLED IT. All of his percentiles went up to just above average, but the truly impressive jump was his weight, which went from 27th percentile 3 months ago to 59th percentile on Monday. Our pediatrician asked me, "So, what are you feeding him? Steak??" And I replied, "Yep!" The boy eats everything we eat, and consumes more than Susannah at each meal. And still nurses. He's not messing around.

Here are some more fun birthday pics!

The great decorator!

Helping me ice John's cake and our cake

Singing "Happy Birthday" to our boy! He's a little confused.

Sus got to lick the candle, and John was all like, "What the...?"

All business.

"Oh hey, Sus, I'm covered in icing and up to nothing..."

"...I'm gonna getchya!"

"Cake for EVERYBODY!"

Checking out his birthday present!

Here's a video of the smash cake for those of you who don't find it disgusting:

And here's a video of John sitting in the super fun chair that the Cutchins got him. This is the first time he's even sat, and he was content right there for quite a while!

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Visitors and Mother's Day and More Visitors!

We had a great time with PopPop and Dizzy at the end of last month! I invited Mom to go to a Beth Moore conference with me nearby, so she and Dad came up for the week. Of course, Susannah and John had a blast! Even now, weeks later, when Sus gets upset about something, she will often cry and cry and then state boldly through her tears, "Susannah go airport right NOW! Go PopPop-Dizzy house right NOW!" Can't blame her!

For Mother's Day this year, I was thankful to do some fun stuff with the kids and Pete without having to cook dinner or change diapers. (Pete normally takes on the latter task when he's home anyway, but that combined with no dinner prep was the best!) Pete and Sus fixed me a special dinner and a special dessert, which entailed all the best homemade carnival food a gal could ask for! Pete killed a turkey last week, and the best way to eat wild turkey is deep-fried, so while the oil was hot, he dropped everything in, including a funnel cake for dessert! It was delicious, but you better believe Pete and I took the kids for a long walk after dinner. I have the sweetest babes (hubs included) and am so thankful to be the mommy of this house!

This week was extra special because we had some surprise visitors -- Hudson, Holland, Hendricks, and Lauren came in town! It was nonstop energy and fun the whole week, and we were so sad to see them go. A few cute and/or funny things from this week:

Hendricks called me "TayTay." His first attempt at naming me confused me with my twin. ;)
Holland taught Susannah a new dance move at church on Wednesday that some like to call "dropping it like it's hot."
Last night, Hudson stayed outside with Pete until dark shooting bows and talking man stuff, so Sus and Dutch went to bed earlier than him, where Sus was in bottom bunk and Dutch was on the floor. Hud had been sleeping on top bunk, so when Sus realized that the lights were out and Hudson wasn't in bed yet, she was DEVASTATED. When Hudson heard her crying for him, he got the sweetest smile and ran to the room, poked his head in, and said, "I'm coming, Susannah! It's okay, I'm coming! I just have to brush my teeth!" Sus immediately got quiet and all was well. They are just so sweet to each other, it's adorable.
Holland told me to take another shower last night because I smelled like Uncle David.

Lots of pictures!