First fish

This is what Eliza caught on Saturday. Well, it had a head and a tail at the time. Matt said when she reeled the line in and saw a fish there, she had never been more excited! I was worried that when they, uh, prepared the fish to take home, she would be upset or grossed out but I'm not sure she even thought twice about it. Must be a little more McCann in her than Burton because a Burton would have left empty handed. :)

She was so excited to eat it! I cannot stand anything about fish - the smell, the look, the feel, and most especially the taste. But, I didn't want to taint her so Matt cooked it (outside) and the two of them ate Mr. Fish for lunch on Sunday. She actually liked it!

2nd Annual McCann BBQ/Kickball game

Last Saturday we had both families over at our house for a barbeque and kickball game. A little bit of a poor showing from the Burton side...but we still had a blast. That morning as Matt and I were getting the yard ready, we noticed not one, not two, but THREE bounce houses out in our park. Turns out it was our next door neighbor's daughter's 6th birthday and they definitely throw a better party than us! They had the bounce houses, tons of food, a pony, a magician, and very cute party favors. And the best part is, Eliza got an invite. She had such a good time and still hasn't stopped talking about it. The only downside to this (besides the total upstaging of our party) was that even though their party ended by the time ours began, the bounce houses were still up so it was torture for the kids in our family to stay out of them. Our neighbors were very generous though and let the kids jump for a little while before they took them down.

Anyway, back to the McCann's shindig. Matt manned the grill to cook everyone's steak and it was delicious! We had fruit, rolls, chips, cookies...you know, the usual cookout spread. Matt had some games like "Guess the number of Skittles"and "How many people has Jack Bauer Killed?" to try and win amazing prizes. It was great.

I sat out from kickball but it looked like fun. Couldn't tell you who won but everyone was good sports and I hope all the children were very tired afterwards.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped make our party so much fun! Not "bounce house and pony fun", but still a good time! In case you're wondering, Jackson was being put to bed by grandpa during picture time so we don't have any of him. He had great time too!

Ugh...

Ear infections...aren't they just awful?! I feel like we've been battling this for weeks and weeks. Back in March, we took Jackson to the doctor and found out that both his ears were infected. Round 1 - Amoxicillin for 10 days. A week later, he was still grumpy and pulling on his ears so I took him back. Round 2 - Omnicef for 10 days. A week later he was STILL grumpy and not sleeping, so I took him back. Not all the way cleared up but not totally infected. Just fluid around both eardrums still and that was probably causing the discomfort. A week later...well, you know. I took him in again. Totally infected. Round 3 - Azithromycin for 5 days. That ended on Sunday. He has STILL been rubbing and pulling on his ears. But he was a little happier. A good sign but today I took him back, yet again, just to make sure. The doctor said they didn't look good. Not awful anymore but they just don't look "normal." So he wrote a prescription for Augmentin which I think is the last resort. Next step will be tubes in his ears if this doesn't work. I'm supposed to wait a few days and see if he is any better, if not, we'll start the Augmentin. Our doctor is great and I know he's doing his best to get Jackson's ears better. I told him that Jackson had actually been doing pretty well with all these antibiotics and he hadn't even had any diarrhea. The doctor said, "Well, don't worry. The Augmentin will take care of that!" Great.

Incidentally, Eliza has an ear infection now, also. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend. Let's all hope things get cleared up soon. I want my happy boy and girl back. I'm trying to have a positive attitude because truly, things could be MUCH worse. Here's hoping for better days!

Easter dress

Since General Conference was on Easter Sunday, Eliza didn't wear her new dress to church until yesterday. Not bad for $7 at Walmart if I do say so myself. I think she looked adorable.

I love this girl.

Beautiful Eliza

Let me start this by saying with Eliza's long hair, it can look pretty. It's just that most days, unless we are going somewhere where we might run into someone we know, it's not worth the struggle of combing her hair and doing something cute with it. For me, a clip or a messy ponytail is pretty good. But I was looking at it the other day and it just looked so uneven and scraggly. So Saturday we got it cut. Chopped, really. I love the way it turned out. She looks so pretty, and so grown up. There's still a little of her natural curl but it's SO much easier to comb and it's not always getting in her face and food.

Before:

After:

9 months

Here are Jackson's 9 month stats.

Weight: 25 lbs. 13 oz. (still off the charts)

Height: 29 1/2 in. (90%)

Head: 48 cm. (95%)

I absolutely can not believe how fast the time has gone by. Seriously, there is no way he is 9 months old already.

His double ear infection had not cleared up all the way so we're starting another round of antibiotics. I hope that knocks it out. Poor little guy. Nothing like letting your child go weeks with an ear infection you didn't know about to make you feel like a great mom.

Other than that, he's doing really great. He has 5, almost 6, teeth and is busy learning new things and trying to figure out how to become more mobile. Some days I wish he could get around on his own so I didn't have to carry him everywhere. Most days, though, I'm happy that he's not all over the place yet.

Jackson is such a blessing in our family. He brings a happiness and spirit that is very special. We love you buster!

Easter 2010

Easter was great this year. I think Eliza had four egg hunts that she went to. We definitely got our dollar's worth out of her Walmart bucket. We were hoping she'd be a little more aggressive by the last hunt but she is always so timid. She's pretty happy with 1 or 2 eggs and doesn't like to fight the other kids for any more.

Even better was that the stock market is closed on Good Friday and Matt only had to work for a couple hours in the morning so we got to have dad home for an almost 3 day weekend.

We got Eliza and Jackson each a present for their baskets but we made sure and talked about why we celebrate Easter. Eliza loves talking and learning about Jesus.

I love this picture. I bet you can't guess which present was from me and which was from Matt.

Jackson got in on the action too.

This was our first year dyeing Easter eggs. It was really fun and now we get to eat slightly colored egg salad sandwiches all week.

There's not a lot of Jackson here because we tried to plan the potential spilling/choking hazards around his naps. But here is Eliza showing what a good sister she is. When I was getting Jackson dressed for the day she said she wanted to rock-a-bye with him and read him a story.

I love them so much. And I love this time of year. If it could just decide to be spring, that would be even better. Happy Easter!