Christa is 6 months!

Cousin Maggie Beth, Aunt Bethany, and Christa on Maggie Beth's 1st birthday!

Getting ready to go see Lights of the South

Having a small, family Christmas in Augusta


(I will post more pictures later. I went to download them, and realized my new battery is dead, so it's charging. Apparently, my laptop doesn't have a card reader, so I have to install some software to download from the new camera. Here are a few from my Kodak until I get a chance to do that)


Hello again. Well I've obviously been wasting my time! I spend hours creating the perfect post and get maybe 1 comment. I hurriedly throw something up there about how I don't have time to post, and get 3 comments on the first day!! LOL! Well, I'm writing anyway, even though I know that all 5 of you who read this blog just come for the pictures :) I guess I'll start with our Christmas! God smiled on us and worked it out for Cline to have Christmas off, even though he had the last 2 years off. So, we went to Rome for a very fun, but hectic few days. We learned that Chas and Bethany (Cline's twin and wife) are having a little boy! We are very excited, as this will be the first grandson for the Jacksons. (We have 2 girls so far - Christa and cousin Maggie Beth). A funny thing happened while we were home. Christa sucks her thumb pretty much constantly now. Even when I'm feeding her baby food, she sucks her thumb in between bites. I have a feeling we may be in for some dental work later on... At any rate, she spent our time in Rome sucking her thumb as usual. Her cousin, Maggie Beth, who is 1 year old and a pacifier baby, must have noticed this because our last night there, Maggie Beth started sucking her thumb, much to her parents dismay. It was hilarious to see her "copy" Christa and to think of my child being a "bad influence" at 6 months of age. (Sorry about that, Chas and Bethany:)

My favorite gift for Christmas was my Canon Digital Rebel. The majority of people I polled recommended it, and said I couldn't go wrong. They were correct. We saved a few bucks and got the 8 megapixel, and I am very pleased so far (except for that dead battery I just discovered - we did use it a lot over the weekend, so I'll hold off on ordering a spare). It is sooooo much easier to catch Christa's cute facial expressions - it takes 3 pictures per second! Christa's favorite gifts so far are a Mother Goose book (I read all 120 pages to her yesterday, and she just listened and looked at the pictures), some rubber blocks, and a Sesame Street pop-up-singing thing. She is starting to interact more with her toys, but shows little interest in learning to sit up by herself. I am not worried about this - she's always been a laid back baby who is perfectly content to sit in a bouncer and suck her thumb all day. She's getting stronger for sure, but every time I try to sit her up, she just rolls to the floor after about 2 seconds (if I haven't mentioned it before, she has her mother's lack of patience and persistence:) She also got lots of adorable clothes (she'll be wearing LOTS of pink for the next six months, but I love pink, so that's OK) and other toys we can't wait to play with.


Since we got home, I've been very busy finding room for all of our gifts and catching up on the laundry. It's always nice to go to Rome, but there's a ton to do when I get back, especially at Christmas time. We're definitely looking forward to next year when we can just enjoy being with our families without the hassle of traveling. It was nice to run into Shanda at Longhorn while we were there - Gracie is too precious - I can't wait to get to know her better :)


Well, that's about it for now. I'll post some more Christmas pictures and Christa's 6 month photo later this evening. Have a great day!