The Lowery Family

Jackson is One!!

2008-07-10T13:50:00.005-05:00

Jackson turned 1 on Tuesday, this year has flown by! We had a birthday party on Saturday with all of the "in town" family. I am not sure that Jackson had any clue what was going on, but he sure liked the cupcake! :)

He got to open a bunch of presents but the highlight for him was probably the cupcake and then the swimming afterward to wash off!

We are all doing well, Jon is busy working (both at his job and around the house) and I am trying to keep up with Jack while also preparing for the next one! We find out next week if this baby is a boy or a girl. Jon thinks it is a boy, I am not really sure. I go back and forth....so we will just let you know next week!

Hope you all are doing well, we miss you all! Enjoy the photos below. I am going to try to post some videos also...hopefully they will work!

This is Jack after the cupcake, he took a swim to clean off.

Jackson on his First Birthday

When Jack first got there, he immediately found his presents!

The cupcake tower

Jackson loved the book he got from Sam

Tasting the cake...

Enjoying the cake...

Big News!!

2008-05-28T14:36:00.004-05:00

Well, It's finally time to make the big announcement.....

We are pregnant again! This baby is due December 4th....which will put the kids (wow..it sounds weird to say that!) about 17 months apart.....pretty close!

We think it will all be a lot at first but then it should all even out :)

See the below picture for an updated view of Jackson...he needs a haircut!

Six Teeth at One Time?!?!

2008-04-11T14:09:00.003-05:00

Poor Jackson is currently cutting his top, front SIX teeth....all at one time! He has not wanted to nap all day and won't stop fussing. He will let me hold him for a little bit but eventually even that doesn't help! Pray that these teeth come through soon, he is breaking my heart!

More Often??

2008-03-26T13:09:00.004-05:00

Well we now have Internet at home so the hope is that we will update a little more often....and load more pictures! We shall see how it all goes!

Jackson is doing great, he is saying "dada" all the time now and just said "mama" today for the first time...we still don't think he really knows what he is saying, but we can pretend, right?? :)

Jon is busy with work and getting the house in order. We just finished painting and redoing the living room. We got a new couch and everything!!

I (Sara) am just busy with Jackson, Jon, our house, church and working 2 days a week. Time sure is flying by!

I plan to get some pictures up soon...just wanted to let you all know we would be around more often! :)

8 Months

2008-02-29T16:30:00.006-05:00

Wow! I did not realize how long it had been since I posted anything!!

Christmas was very fun, Jackson was just beginning to realize what was going on. He loved seeing so much family and getting so much attention!

Jack is now moving all of the time! He isn't quite crawling yet, but we are close! He sits up by himself really well and since he isn't crawling yet he just plays where I leave him, SO NICE!!

He is down to eating just three times a day, though he does have some allergies. We took him to the allergist (on recommendation from our doctor) and found he is allergic to milk, eggs, and corn. The corn is the hardest thing to be allergic to since it is in all formulas and formula mixes (except of course for the most expensive one!). He is a great eater...he is a big fan of prunes and anything sweet peas.

He has just started really interacting with other kids, laughing at them or talking to them as they run by. I think we have quite a social kid on our hands!

Jackson has just started a new trick today of crinkling up his nose like something smells...he has been doing it all day! He does it whenever he sees something he likes, when he is smiling, when he is studying something....it is too funny!

The past month has been so nice as Jon has had a change in his schedule to allow him to work 4 days on and then have 4 days off. Since he has this bigger break we are able to spend a lot more time together as a family, which has been so nice for all of us!

Hopefully I will be better about writing more often!!! Enjoy the pictures below!

Catching some sleep with Trey and Justin

Hanging out with Aunt Heather

Jackson got suckered into wedding dress shopping with Bubba and all the girls

Pop gave Jackson his first knife for Christmas....Daddy loved it too :)

The "Scrunchy Face"

5 Months!

2007-12-07T17:34:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that Jackson is almost 5 months old now! He has changed so much these past 2 weeks....talking constantly, interacting more, eating tons, giggling! So much fun.

We had fun in Chicago for Thanksgiving. Jackson did really well on the plane. We actually heard him giggle for the first time once we landed in Chicago...it was so cute! :) We all had fun spending time with some of Jon's extended family and touring Chicago. We spent one day in the city and we rented a car one day and drove into Crystal Lake (where Jon grew up). It was fun to see all of the places I have heard Jon talk about for so long. It was a really good trip, but we were glad to get home and back to a routine!

Some new pictures are below....we all know that's all you really want to see anyways! :)

Look! I can play with my food!

Almost sitting up!

All bundled up for Chicago!

Family Pic time!

Jack loves his Johnny Jumper

Baby Dedication

2007-11-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, last weekend was a busy one for the Lowery household. We spent all day Saturday getting ready for a large get together at our home...we had all of the family over to celebrate my sister's engagement...Congratulations John and Heather!

Sunday was filled with Jackson's dedication and a big family lunch. We were so glad that so much of our family could be there to celebrate such a special day with us. It was very important to us to publicly dedicate Jackson back to the Lord. We had done it privately as soon as he was born, but wanted to have the public accountability and encouragement that comes with doing it at church. Sparky gave a brief challenge regarding Jackson's Christian heritage and our job to continue it before him. We were reminded of the importance of our actions before this little guy, who will (Lord willing) see Christ first through what we do and how we love. We are so fortunate to have such a loving family and godly heritage and can't wait to teach Jack all about it.

On other fronts, Jackson is growing like crazy recently....I don't have any really good pictures with me but as soon as I get some, I will load them.

We are leaving Monday to go to Chicago to visit Jon's side of the family. They have never met Jackson (I have only met them once) and so we are excited to be able to spend about a week with them. We can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!!!

Love to all!

Here are some pictures of Jackson's dedication...courtesy of Carol Hoffman...

4 Months

2007-10-31T19:02:00.000-05:00

Well, Jackson is now 4 months old, time has flown by! He is talking and smiling all the time now. We are having so much fun getting to know him. There are nights when he is so much fun we don't want to put him to bed! :)

We did have an incident the other day.... I was at MOPS and Jackson was in the nursery getting a bottle. He was having formula...one of the first few bottles we had done. He ended up having a reaction to something, we are guessing it was the milk. He broke out in hives, and those hives eventually turned into a blotchy rash all over his body. He also started vomiting and continued that throughout the night. Now anytime I feed him, he breaks out in a little rash around his mouth and gets horrible gas pains....to the point where he is crying for huge chunks of time (basically until he can pass whatever he ate). We go to the doctor again on Monday and will more than likely end up going to an allergist. Please pray for wisdom as we wait to see what the best treatment is for him (changing my diet or putting him on a milk free formula).

I know I promise pictures all of the time, so here is one of him in his Halloween "costume" :).

Love to all!

Jack hanging out outside

My Little Pumpkin Head

3 Months Already!?!

2007-10-02T16:01:00.000-05:00

Please forgive me for being so long in posting....life has been crazy!!

Jackson is now 12 weeks old, we can't believe how quickly time has flown. He is already not fitting into most of his 0-3 month clothes!

We are very happy to say that the little man is now sleeping through the night (from about 9pm till about 7am) which is so nice for mom and dad both! He has started to roll over from his front to his back (he thinks its a fun game to play when mommy is trying to have BELLY time with him!). He is cooing all the time and starting to laugh a little bit...we are having a hard time catching a smile on camera. He smiles all the time but as soon as sees the camera, he gets distracted and just studies it! We will keep working on it!

We are in the middle of either fighting off a cold or teething...we aren't sure which yet! Jackson has been quite fussy for a few days now, and has a little fever as well as a runny nose and the need to chew/gnaw on everything in sight!!

Jon is busy working and playing with Jackson...as soon as Jack sees his daddy he lights up with a huge smile...its too cute!

Still no Internet at home so and I forgot the memory card, so no pics today..sorry! I will try to get some new ones up soon! Hopefully I will have more to write soon!
Love to all!

5 Weeks, 2 Days Old

2007-08-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

Well, Jackson is over a month old now, which is hard for us to believe! He smiled for the first time the other day, though dad didn't get to see it so we are still after him to smile for daddy!

We are all finally emerging from the fog we were in for a few weeks. We are still tired, but we do feel much more like ourselves again, which is a nice change.

Jackson has stared to be awake more often in the day, making our days a little more fun. He loves his swing and usually likes his "belly time" quite a bit as well. It looks like he might just get to keep that full head of hair, since he hasn't lost any of it as of yet! He is starting to coo more often now, especially to any singing going on around him (he must have inherited that from the Lowery side!)

Oh, I almost forgot...Jackson started his first swim class (a mom and me class)with Mrs. Kerin this week. He has loved being in the water and moving around in it...even though he fell asleep halfway through his first "lesson"! :)

All in all we are doing quite well and look forward to the changes that will take place over the next few weeks.

This is the only picture I can get to load right now, so it will have to do! :)

Jackson Bryant Lowery

2007-07-28T19:03:00.000-05:00

Well, a lot has changed since our last post...the biggest thing being the birth of our son, Jackson Bryant Lowery on July 8th, 2007. (Has it already been 3 weeks?!). He weighed in at 7 pounds and 5 ounces, though he weighs well over 8 pounds now, and was 20.5 inches long. We are so thankful for his safe arrival and are enjoying getting to know each other.

We still don't have Internet at home so our post will still be a bit hit or miss until we can get that all set up...please be patient!

Here are some pictures of our new family and the little one! He has already changed so much from these pictures so I will have to load some more soon! Enjoy!

36 Weeks, 4 Days

2007-06-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well...just to update everyone out there....

We went to the doctor today and everything looks good. She said the baby is starting to move down and "things are starting to happen." I am measuring right at 37 weeks and the baby is around 6 lbs right now...so far, so good!

We are very ready for this little guy to join us. I (Sara) am having a hard time sleeping at night now...I have heard from numerous people that this is God preparing you...so we will see! :)

We finally got a new camera last week and have enjoyed playing with it...so we should have lots of pictures to post once the time comes!!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

34 Weeks, 4 Days

2007-06-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

Thought you all might like to see some of the pictures from our 3D/4D ultrasound we had done yesterday. He has some BIG cheeks! :)

Everything seems to be progressing well. I (Sara) am home now getting things ready, which has been a nice change of pace. We are very ready to meet this little guys, especially now that we have seen his "picture!" :)

Check out these cheeks!!

This is is foot in his face, he kept kicking himself in the head :)

31 Weeks, 2 Days

2007-05-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post this belly shot for you all. I stole it from Katheryn Morgan's facebook. It's at the family shower this weekend. I was right at 31 weeks...I still have 9 more weeks to go until my due date!! I don't even want to think about how big I am going to be!

30 Weeks, 4 Days

2007-05-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has been so long since I posted! Life has been crazy around here! We are busy getting everything ready and time is flying!

I (Sara) am done with work at the end of this month, which will give me about a month to get everything ready for the baby and get some extra rest. I am getting bigger and bigger as the days go by. Most of my maternity tops are getting too tight around my belly now so I guess I need to go shopping again (maybe in Jon's closet?).

Jon is working hard to get the house and yard ready for July and it is all coming along rather well. We had a nice trip to the beach a few weeks back with the Lowery/Van Gorden side of the family. We got a chance to really relax and not HAVE to be anywhere...so nice!

We do have new pictures to post but since we don't have Internet access at home, we will have to get them up from somewhere else. Hopefully soon! Love to all!

25 weeks, 5 Days

2007-04-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

Well to update everyone on recent events, I have started having VERY SLIGHT contractions. It's enough for the doctor to tell me that if I feel them again to come in right away, but not enough to limit my activity (besides the advice to take it easy and drink ridiculous amounts of water).

I feel like I am getting larger everyday. In fact, the pictures below are from 2 weeks ago and I am bigger than that now! I guess I will have to take some more soon.

The baby is moving all the time now, which is usually fun....though not so much when he flips around at night! :)

My belly at 23 weeks...so much bigger now! :)

Up close of the belly...

24 Weeks, 3 Days

2007-03-28T09:50:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess it's about time to update everyone on our progress! Things are moving along rather quickly now. I feel like my belly is larger everyday! (By the way, pictures to come soon...they are on the camera and I just need to load them up). We went to the doctor on Monday and she said that everything looked good. I have gained a total of 13 lbs so far, which she said was good....it still freaks me out to see the number getting so high on the scale though! :)

The baby is moving around all the time now. He is very active in the late afternoon and when I go to bed. Since he likes to move so much a bedtime (and since he getting so big) sleeping has become somewhat of a challenge, but I guess that doesn't really go away for a while now!

Jon has started work on the nursery/house in preparation for the baby's arrival. He has pulled up carpet, is about to put down toe board (or something like that) and start painting. It has all started to seem very real recently and we realize we have quite a bit to do before July 15th!

Pictures to come soon....promise!

Registry

2007-03-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

No big update, just wanted to let you know that we added links on the side to our registries at both Babies R Us and Target. Have a good one!

20 Weeks, 1 day

2007-03-05T10:09:00.000-05:00

This has been an exciting weekend at the Lowery household. We went out Friday night and got our registry started for the baby at Babies R Us. We are planning to add a few things from Target as well.

The biggest news of the weekend is that Jon felt the baby move for the first time! It was actually only the 2nd time I had felt if from the outside. Jon came over quickly and patiently waited and sure enough, he punched his dad in the head a couple of times! :)

If you want to check out our registry feel free to visit www.babiesrus.com (We were totally overwhelmed by all of the choices!)

20 weeks, 2 days

2007-02-27T12:52:00.000-05:00

We just got back from the doctor and found out that....

IT'S A BOY!!!

We are very excited to begin planning even more now! The doctor said he is right at 1 lb. which is perfect. Everything else looked good and she was very encouraging. Here are some of the ultrasound pictures below. They aren't nearly as clear on here as they were on the screen but it's better than nothing! Enjoy!!

This is his profile:

His face, you can see the skeleton features b/c skin doesnt show up:

His leg, pretty clear!

His spine (at the bottom of the picture)

It's a boy!!

19 weeks, 3 days

2007-02-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

Not too much to report since the last post. Everything seems to be going very well. The baby is kicking me ALL the time now!

We just hired a doula today. For those of you who don't know, a birth doula helps during labor. Our current plan is to try to go as naturally as possible and having her should help quite a bit! Her name is Shirley and we met her through a friend at church. She is a Christian, which makes a big difference. We are both excited about having her help us with the preparation for the baby as well as the labor and delivery.

That's all until next week....when find out if its a girl or boy! :)

18 weeks, 5 days

2007-02-16T12:11:00.000-05:00

Finally, the long awaited "belly shots!" I have to apologize for the quality of the picture. We need to get a good camera soon! The fist shot is at around 13 weeks. I didn't realize until I loaded it up how hard it was to see my belly with the white background! The second shot was taken just last night..so its closer to 19 weeks. I have to admit that I feel like I have gotten huge almost overnight!

Everything still seems to be going about the same. I have been feeling the baby move a little more now and the anticipation of our appointment on the 27th is killing us! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Thirteen Weeks...please excuse the tired eyes and frizzy hair..it was late!

Nineteen weeks...again...it was late

Nineteen weeks, up close

17 weeks, 3 days

2007-02-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

Baby movement?!?

I am pretty sure that I have felt the baby move now! It's only been a few times, usually right after I eat and only for a few seconds (just long enough for me to notice it and then its gone). I am looking foward to being able to feel the baby move more often! Jon is dying since we read that you can't really feel the baby kick from the outside until around 28 weeks...that seems like FOREVER to us!

Jon is still confident this baby is a boy while I am leaning towards it being a girl...I guess all arguments will be settled later this month! :)

Oh! One more thing....I just set up this baby game. You can go on and guess what you think the baby will be, how big he or she will be and when he or she will come! Thought it would be fun to see who was close! Just go to this website:

http://www.expectnet.com/games/LoweryBaby

Hope you all have a great day!

16 Weeks, 2 days

2007-01-30T14:29:00.000-05:00

We went to the doctor for our 16 week appointment today. Nothing too exciting. We get to find out the sex of the baby next time (Feb. 27th) which we can't wait for! Doctor says everything looks great. Then she broke the news to us that she is pregnant....with twins! She is due before me so there will be some time towards the end where she won't see me. But she is planning to be back working by July so she should still be able to deliver our little one. That's all for now...we will keep working on getting some pictures on here soon! Promise! :)

15 Weeks, 2 Days

2007-01-23T14:08:00.000-05:00

So I had someone tell me the other day that they had NEVER seen someone as big as I was at 15 weeks. Nothing like the "good night?! you sure are fat!" comments! Thing is, I don't think I am really that big at all. If I am not wearing an obvious maternity shirt I hardly look pregnant!

I promise we will work to get some pics on here soon so you can all see how fat I am getting! :)

14 Weeks, 1 Day

2007-01-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

This week has been a good one for the most part. I still don't feel like I look pregnant, just bloated but apparently the next 2 weeks are supposed to bring a lot of change, so maybe I will look pregnant soon!?

For some reason the lily pie ticker I had up went down. So I have added a new one, this one is cool because it tells what it developing this week for the baby. Enjoy!

12 Weeks, 2 Days

2007-01-02T10:24:00.000-05:00

This weekend was quite eventful for the Lowery household. I (Sara) got pretty sick on Saturday and ended up having to go to the ER to get some fluids. Everything is fine...better safe than sorry, right? The upside of the hospital visit was that we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! Needless to say, it was by far one of the best sounds we have heard in a while. It made it all seem more real.

We also went to the doctor this morning and everything looked really good. We got to hear the heartbeat again and get a few of our questions answered. Our next appointment is January 30th. We will be sure to keep everyone posted. We are planning to start the "belly shots" this week sometime...we will get them up as soon as we can! Happy New Year!

The Real Reason

2006-12-26T16:21:00.000-05:00

Now that news has officially gotten out, here is the real reason we have started this blog. To keep everyone updated on the growth of our NEW BABY!!! That's right, we are expecting! We are due July 15, 2006 which puts us at 11 weeks, 2 days. We go to the doctor next Tuesday for our 12 week appointment. We are a bit nervous about this appointment but very excited at the same time.

This pregnancy has been rather mild, Sara hasn't been sick much at all (a HUGE blessing)... just tired. Our excitement is starting to build as we tell friends and family our news.

We appreciate your prayers both for our little one and that God would begin to prepare us to be the parents He desires us to be.

Be sure to check out our "baby ticker" below with a countdown of how many days are left!

Let's give it a try!

2006-12-11T13:39:00.000-05:00

This is our attempt to keep everyone updated on our lives. We hope to be able to update on a somewhat regular basis, though probably not until after we get through Christmas! We look forward to being able to keep in touch with you all! Merry Christmas!