Photo Drop

Here's a new crop of pictures from the last few weeks. Pictures from Jackson's birthday party, going to the park, going to the zoo, going to the children's museum. All sorts of stuff.

New Years Eve

Another year comes to an end. In the month of December we moved from Carlsbad down to the Mira Mesa area of San Diego. We did this so that I couldn't shorten my drive to work from almost an hour each way down to about 10 minutes. We found a great house to move in to as well. It's a single story, a little larger than our last place, and a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. All in all a good deal.

We all had a great Christmas. Jody came out and visited for a few days and we had a pre-Christmas celebration with her. Then we traveled up to Ventura to celebrate Christmas. Jackson got more gifts than he knows what to do with. He's still trying to assimilate all of his new cars, fire trucks, legos, tricycle, planes, trains and stuffed animals. We have such a generous family, and we want to thank them for the wonderful presents.

Here are pictures from the last few weeks:

From 12-30-09

From 12-30-09

From 12-30-09

From 12-30-09

And a link to the photo gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/123009?feat=directlink





And a still more glorious dawn awaits. Jackson is turning 2 on the 4th of January. Two whole revolutions around the sun!

Jackson's School Photo

Jackson has been attending a "Mom's day out" program at a local community church for the last few months. It gives Mommy some time to run errands and Jackson gets to play with some other kids. He took a "school" photo the other day and it turned out quite well. It's the best little smile in the world.

Halloween 09

Jackson had his second Halloween today and we went trick-or-treating for the first time. Jill's mom, Jody, and my sister were with us. Jackson was in a cute dinosaur costume that Jill drove 30 minutes to find. We set out about 7 o'clock as the sun was going down and we walked to our first house. Jackson followed Jill up to the door holding his empty pumpkin shaped bucket. She rang the doorbell and without any prompting Jackson stepped up to the door as close as he could and tried knocking on the door, which is a gesture he had just learned a couple of days before. After a moment, the door cracked open and swung wide. Jackson immediately stepped up and walked right in to their house.

Jill said "No, no, no, sweetie." She reached out for him and brought him back outside as we all laughed loudly. The lady inside the door said "Happy Halloween!" and brought down a giant bowl of candy to Jackson's level. She asked him if he'd like some candy. Jackson looked at Jill to see what he should do and she told him it was OK to take a piece. He tentatively reached in to the bowl and grabbed a Reeses Peanut butter cup. He brought it to his mouth and he tried to bite the plastic. We told him "No, put that in to your bucket." He looked at his bucket to where his mom was pointing. He lifted the bucket and dropped the candy in. As the candy left his hand he lifted it and grabbed another piece of candy. And another. We had to stop him before he tried to take any more.

And the night progressed on from there. He was no longer shy, and he walked up to every house we went to. He knocked on the door, reached in to their bowls for candy, dropped it in his bucket and he would flop his hand goodbye. He had this down, he didn't need our help any more on this. He's got it figured out, thank you very much. Soon, his bucket was starting to drag because it was so heavy with candy. We tried to help him by carrying some of his candy. If we tried to take it out of his bucket he would stop and get angry. He would reach his hand up and demand for his candy to put back in his bucket. He wouldn't move again until he got it back.
This was all quite possibly the cutest thing the world has ever seen.

Here are some pictures:

From Halloween-09

From Halloween-09

From Halloween-09

From Halloween-09

From Halloween-09

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/Halloween09?feat=directlink

It's almost Halloween!

The weather is finally getting cooler here in Carlsbad as we get closer to Halloween. Jackson is going to be a Dinosaur, that is if he lets us put his costume on. We went to Legoland for a Halloween event, and he wasn't too please to be wearing the costume.

From 10-25-09

But, we had a good time none the less.

From 10-25-09

Jackson also got his first real haircut. That was something else he wasn't too happy about, but he kept it in until he cracked at the end and started crying. However, he looks like a new man now!

From 10-25-09

Enjoy the rest of the pictures after the jump:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/102509?feat=directlink

It's so hot

It's so hot, and with no air conditioning, Jackson has to just hang out in his diaper and enjoy some apple slices.

Sea World

Jackson went to Sea World today and saw his first dolphin!

When are you going to upload new pictures?

I'm uploading pictures! Yay! I've been exceptionally busy with my job so I just haven't had the time to post new pictures, but here are several sets of new pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Here's are pictures from our recent trip to up to the Bay Area.
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/8809?feat=directlink



Our recent trip to Ventura:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/GnP2009?feat=directlink



And some random recent photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/91309?feat=directlink

It's hot in July

It has been very hot (for San Diego) and unfortunately the house we're living in at the moment does not have air conditioning. That makes it pretty uncomfortable to be downstairs, and downright unbearable to be upstairs during the day. Fans mitigate the heat, but it's still pretty hot. So, what have we done about the heat? We go to the beach! We have really been taking advantage of living so close to the beach now that we have moved back to California. Before we moved to Austin, we'd go to the beach once, maybe twice the whole year. Even then it was usually to Dog beach so we could bring Einstein. Now that we're back we are hitting it up almost every weekend we're free. Carlsbad has some great beaches that are good family spots. One of the best things about the beach is that it's free. Well, it's free after you buy an umbrella, beach towels, beach toys, beach chairs, sun-block, and a swimsuit for the baby (And mommy wants a new one too). But, after that it's free.

Here are some more pictures of us at the beach.
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/72209?feat=directlink

Picture Bombardment

Hey, long time no post. So, here are some pictures to quench your thirst.

Here's the link to the whole album of recent pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/62809?feat=directlink

6-28-09

And, here are some cool ones I'd like to point out:

Jackson at Music Class:

From 6-28-09

Jackson doing his Al Bundy impression:

From 6-28-09

Jackson being forced to make Father's Day presents:

From 6-28-09

Jackson chillin with the Fam:

From 6-28-09

Jackson meeting the ocean for the first time:

From 6-28-09

Oh, that's right, we have a blog

Monthly blog update incoming...

Another month has gone by, with lots of things going on.

I finally managed to get myself a job. A friend put me in touch with a mobile games company that has an office in San Diego, and they were looking for a producer type person with experience in the console market. After about 7 interviews with people all the way up to the president of the company I finally got an offer. I accepted and I'm going to be starting next week. Woot for me!

We took a trip to the Carlsbad Flower Fields. It was beautiful day. Sunny with a nice coastal breeze keeping it cool. Jackson got to see all the colors of the flowers, and even tried to taste some dirt. He didn't like it very much.

We also made a trip up to Ventura to my grandparents for Easter, and had a wonderful time. Everyone loves Jackson and can't get enough of him. Jill's Mom came out and stayed with us for a few days over her Easter Break, and she got to spend a bunch of time with Jackson.

May's coming up soon, and Jackson will be 16 months old. He's walking so much, and he's starting to run. He also likes to practice climbing stairs. The normal stairs are too big for him, but he likes to step up on the fire place ledge, and then step down. He'll do that over an over for what feels like hours, but really is about 10 minutes. He's blabbering up a storm, and it's fun to listen to him because he sounds like he's really trying to communicate something important to you. We've got him pointing to his belly and his nose when you tell him to. We're still working on words with him. He can still say ball (or "bah") and sometimes he'll say "bobow" for elbow and "bebe" for belly. He doesn't like to "perform" so he'll shake his head no sometimes when you ask him to do one of those things.

We can't wait to see what he'll start doing next!

Here be the new photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/42409?feat=directlink

4-24-09

Beware the ides of March

Well, it's not the 15th of March yet, but it's close enough.

Let's see what's going on in the past couple of weeks.

I think I forgot to mention that Jackson and I spent a weekend in Mesa, AZ with my Nana a few weeks ago. My mother and sister also came out and we all had a great time.
Nana has a Wii, and I think I almost wore my arm off playing all of the Wii sports games. It was definitely interesting to see my mom and Nana beating the crap out of me at Wii Bowling. I'm supposed to be the video game guy.

Jill spent a week in Scotland for work. She had to collaborate with some of their folks over there on the project she's been working on. At first it was between Scotland and Milan, and she was cheering for Milan. Of course it was decided that Scotland would be the better choice, but at least she was going to stay in a nice hotel. But wait! It turned out that hotel didn't have enough rooms for everyone and she ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Express at the Glasgow Airport. I think she put it well when she said she might as well have gone to Michigan for a grey and bleh as it was there.

I had my 31st birthday a few days ago. Unfortunately, Jill was in Scotland at the time, but we had a little pre-celebration before she left and we went out to dinner. She got me a Jawbone II bluetooth headset, which is awesome. She also got me a cooking class later this month at Sur La Table, which I'm super excited about. Over the weekend Jackson and I took the train up to my Grandparents in Ventura. It was interesting taking the train. It was about an hour longer than a drive, but Jackson didn't have to sit in a car seat the whole time. He still fussed quite a bit, but over all I think he liked it better. The weekend was nice, and my parents came down as well as my uncles and their families came up. After everyone left on Sunday I spent an extra day with my grandparents which was wonderful.

Jill's back from Scotland today, and she is missing Jackson so much I hope she doesn't drive to fast coming home from the airport. I don't think we have anything major planned coming up in the next couple of weeks, but if anything comes up we'll be sure to post about it.

I've posted a few more pictures of Jackson so be sure to take a look:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/31309?feat=directlink

3-13-09

Blogging Negligence

I know, I have been horribly negligent in posting new stuff to the blog since we've moved to California. You would think I'd have all the time in the world to take new pictures and videos of Jackson and then post them. But, I've slacked off. Sorry.

I grabbed a bunch of pics I took on my iPhone, and I've posted them on Picasa, and I've taken some video of Jackson and I'll try to get that posted soon too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/PatIphone?feat=directlink

Pat Iphone

First post from California

I'm finally getting some time to make a post from since we moved in to the new house. We're pretty much settled and most everything is in its place. We still have a garage full of boxes, both empty and half full, but that shouldn't take too long to clean up. We love the new house, and the backyard is wonderful.

Jackson had his first birthday a couple of weeks ago and I've posted a few new pictures from his party as well as some others from over the holidays.

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/11709?authkey=5P_piPG7uGY&feat=directlink

1-17-09

I'll try to post some video today if I get a chance.

It's been a busy few weeks

We're at the end of the year, literally, and a lot has been happening for us in the past few weeks. Like I mentioned in our previous post we've moved to San Diego (or technically Carlsbad). It took a lot of doing, but we made it happen on a fairly quick timetable. Jill's mom came out and helped us pack and then, along with the help of her aunt Jenny, they drove the Scion to San Diego and brought Einstein along with them as Navigator. Jill and Jackson flew out from Austin to San Diego, and I coerced my sister in to making the drive from Austin with me. With the help from my good friend Bob, we loaded up a 26" Uhaul and attached a trailer with the VUE on it and started our drive out here. It should take about 19 hours for that drive, but that is for a normal car that can make decent speed. We we're driving that behemoth and could only make 45mph up some of those hills. Over two days we drove for a total of 27.5 hours, and traveled 1,337 miles. To say that drive sucked would be an understatement, but on a morbid note we did count 43 dead deer on the side of the road in Texas. It's a weird thing when you see Tara jump up and shout, "There's another one! That's 43 so far!"



We got a great house in Carlsbad, that's only a few miles from the beach. We just moved in a couple of days ago and are still in the process of unpacking everything. I'll post some pictures of the house when I get a chance to take some. It's great being back in California and we're excited that Jackson is going to be able to spend more time with his family.

Speaking of Jackson, his first birthday will be on January 4th. We've got lots of people coming and we hope that the weather stays good for the party.

I can't forget to mention that we took holiday photos, and I've posted those up. Please check them out!

Holiday 2008

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/Holiday2008?feat=directlink

What's the news in town?

The news is we are moving back to California! Woot!

It's been tough living away from our family, especially with Jackson. Everyone wants to be able to see him but it's a pain to fly out here. Flights are expensive, and there are almost no direct flights from California to Austin. A while ago Jill and I made the decision that we wanted to start looking at moving back. I've been looking for jobs for a while and nothing has worked out for me so far. But, Jill has had some really good luck. She applied to a bunch of jobs and heard back from one that she was perfectly qualified for. She did the phone interview for that job and they made her an offer the next day. Pretty awesome. The pay is decent enough that we can survive off of one income for now. If I'm lucky I may qualify for Texas Unemployment too, which would be really helpful while I'm looking for a job out there.

The job is in Carlsbad, which is just north of San Diego along the coast. We'll probably live either in Carlsbad or one of the other north San Diego county coastal communities. Living there will also give me some flexibility if I find a job in southern Orange County, like Irvine.

The plan is to be moved out there over the holiday break, and Jill will start her new job on the 5th of January. That's about 30 days away, and we've got a lot of work to do. Better get to it.

It's time to fall in to autumn

Another month goes by and it's time to post some more pictures of Jackson. Let's see, what do we have to share with the good people of the internets?

We took Jackson to a local pumpkin patch where they have a little fair each year. Jackson got to see lots of pumpkins, and I don't know if he knew what to make of it all, but he likes to get outside and see people.

From 10-28-08

He also got to see some animals at a little petting zoo. I can't say that he was very impressed, but I think he enjoyed it.

From 10-28-08

We also went to Kansas City to visit Jill's dad and her sister Nicole. It was just starting to get cold up there and we had to bundle up when we went out to see Nicole cheer at her High School's football game.

From 10-28-08

Here's a link to all of those pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/102808#

Then, my parents came out at the end of the month and visited for Halloween. We dressed Jackson up as a pumpkin since that is one of our nicknames for him. He turned out to be a pretty cute pumpkin.

From 11-6-08

Here's a link to those pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/11608?authkey=PDMPVxHvHCA#

Be sure to turn in next time, same pumpkin time, same pumpkin channel for more pumpkin cuteness.

Interactive Jackson 1.2

Jill's mom, Jody, came out to visit this weekend. She hadn't seen Jackson since August and was so excited to see him grow and doing all the new things he's doing like crawling, and cruising. We took a bunch of new pictures, so be sure to check them out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/101208#

10-12-08

Also, we think we hit a new milestone with Jackson yesterday. At dinner, after he was done eating Jill had given Jackson the spoon and he was playing with it and making a mess as usual. But, then Jill leaned over and said "Jackson, mommy is hungry!" and opened her mouth wide. Jackson turned to look at her and immediately brought the spoon over and put it in to her mouth!

From 10-12-08

It doesn't sound like much, but it means several things. First, Jackson recognized his name, which he's been doing for a while. Secondly, it means he saw Mommy's mouth open wide which he knew meant that she wanted food. Lastly, it means that he knows that spoons carry food, and they go in to mouths. Yay for learning!

OMG, is it October already?

Boy, time is sure flying along this year. Jackson just turned 9 months old last Saturday, and it still seems like he is growing and changing almost every day. He's moved from his army crawl to a full hands and knees crawling which allows him to get around even faster. It's as if Jackson has some sort of Terminator vision where he scans his environment and identifies things that he hasn't yet put in his mouth. Once he finds that thing he bee lines for it and in to the mouth it goes. You could put a dozen of his favorite toys in front of him and one old dirty shoe and he'll go for the shoe every time. I guess it just means we have to clean up all the time, and don't forget to baby proof!

Jackson has also started to do what's called "cruising." That's where he can pull himself in to a standing position on something his size (like a piece of furniture) and then start to walk along the piece of furniture. It's pretty exciting to watch him start to get close to full on walking.

My family came out to visit us in September. My sister, Tara, and her friend Katie came and out spent several days with us and took the opportunity to check out one of Austin's big events, the Austin City Limits festival. My parents came out for a long weekend. All told, we had a great time, and they all loved seeing Jackson.

We're going to have a pretty busy fall and winter as we've got lots of visits and trips happening. Next up, Jill's mom is coming out to visit this next weekend, and then some of Jill's friends will be in town the next weekend. After that, we have a trip to see Jill's dad in Kansas City. Moving on in to November, Jill's mom will be in Austin for Thanksgiving. Then in December, we'll be visiting my grandparents in Ventura. Lastly is the Holidays, and lets not even get started on that.

I know that no one wants to read, they just want Jackson photos, so here you go:

CAUTION! OBLIGATORY BABY IN THE BATH PHOTOS AHEAD...

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/100808#

10-08-08

Picture Delivery

Jackson has had another great month. He is really scooting around on the floor now. He's still just doing his army man crawl, but it gets him where he wants to go. Also, now that he can move he seems much happier. He has always had that look of "If I could just get over there and put that thing in my mouth I would be much happier." Well, now he can.

He did have an ear infection in each of his ears a couple weeks ago, but a round of antibiotics cleared that up and he's feeling much better now.

Here are some new pictures of Jackson:

http://picasaweb.google.com/phorne96/91708#