Jackson's First Birthday

It's official, Jackson is 1. This little guy has been adventurous from day one and has brought so much joy to our lives. Here's a look back at some of the highlights from his first year:

First trip to a fire station (<1 minute old) and a few since
First ambulance ride (<10 minutes old)
3 airplane rides (El Paso, Seattle and Florida)
Trip out of the country (Canada)
Snow in Houston, twice!
Real snow in Whistler, BC
New House
New room
New friends
2 trips to the beach (Galveston & Florida)
All around Texas (El Paso, San Antonio, Ft Worth, Grapevine, College Station, Galveston)
Swimming
First Aggie game (and they won!!)
First trip to The Dixie Chicken
Started "school", more new friends
Walking like a champ!
And much much more...

As you can see, Jackson has been busy this year. At his one year checkup, he weighed in at 22.06 lbs (50%) and 29 inches (25%) with a head of 18+cm (25%). He is back on an antibiotic to hopefully get rid of this cold which has turned into a sinus infection for good. Poor guy's eyes were all red and he still has his cough and runny nose but he was still happy and playing around.

Jackson's birthday celebration lasted a week! His first trip was to the fire station and a visit with the crew that delivered him, and others. He got his first birthday presents there, had some cake and explored the fire engines. What a great time...
Checking out his gifts

Yummy...cake!

All aboard

Here we go, I'm driving this time

Hanging out on the back

And of course my favorite sister got to check it out too. I love my big sister :)

Inspecting the hose

So, what did you think about that last call, it was a doozie huh?

Yeah, I'm the chief

What a handsome dude

Jackson and the crew

Haley, Jackson and the crew

Thanks for the fun time at the fire station!!!

On his actual birthday, Thursday, we took him to Chuck E. Cheese. Grandma came along too. It has become a Vara tradition as we took Haley there too for her first birthday :)

Jackson loved the horse, yee haw Cowboy

Big smiles

Hey Chuck, what's going on?

And to cap off his birthday week, a family party on Saturday. Grandma Vara was going to come down but unfortunately Uncle Michael got sick. We missed her but we are glad Uncle Michael is doing better.

The decorations

The cake and the mini cake. I have to brag that I designed the cake and I think it turned out perfect! And it was yummy too :)

Some of his presents. Check out the cool fire truck Grandpa Vara sent. Jackson loves it

Uncle Mark got Jackson his first electric car. Every kid needs a Lightning McQueen 4 wheeler (and an Uncle Mark!).

Checking out his firetruck

Opening up other gifts while sitting on his firetruck

Blowing out my candle

What Jackson's mini cake started like...

Diving in...

Silly Uncle Nathan made a mustache on Jackson, but he didn't mind...

Oh yeah...get after it Jackson. Several times he decided to forget his hands and went straight for the face in the cake

Almost finished...

But first I'll give some to Uncle Mark

After a quick bath in which the bathtub had to be filled with water twice to get Jackson clean, it was time to open more gifts. Grandma got him a ball pit.

Jackson liked all his presents and we thank everyone for making Jackson's first year memorable. We love you Jackson!