Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jadeyn met Santa for the first time today and was fascinated by the big man in the jolly red suit. He couldn't take his eyes off of him, or his hands from out of his beard!! Maybe he could identify with the rosy cheeks!!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Spinning Until Dizzy

Spinning Until Dizzy

You have to check out this adorable video. Oh, the things we do to our children. The poor little guy is having a blast spinning with dad, until suddenly his little face drops and you can tell he's about to toss his cookies! (Luckily, he didn't!)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

Jadeyn got to see his 4th National Park this week on our way home from Thanksgiving. Who would have thought that the deserty sand dunes of Colorado could be so beautiful covered in snow! What a sight.

When we hiked the dunes it was easier walking ont he snow that trudging through the sand!

Jadeyn loved the visitor's center. Here he is sitting on a sand and wind machine.



Curious little guy couldn't get enough of the activities there.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We were lucky enough to be able to spend ours with Kevin
s sister Melanie and her family. They have recently relocated to Farmington, NM. We had a great time and were joined by Kevin's mom, dad, and two sisters, as well as Melanie's in-laws and a few more cousins. Let's just say we had a full house with 10 adults and 10 children!

Jadeyn had a wonderful time being the center of attention and got completely worn out from all the adoration.

We visited the Aztec ruins national monument and got to tour the many rooms from that amazing community.
Food is always the best part of Thanksgiving (besides family) and we had some wonderful grub throughout the trip: turkey. gravy, sweet potatoes, shephard's pie, biscuits and gravey and pie, lots of pie! Boy am I happy to be married to the chef of the family!
Thanks so much for the hospitality Melanie! We sure had a great time.

On our way home we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park for Jadeyn's 4th National Park. It was sweet and completely covered in snow! We stayed the night in a hotel wanting to spit the drive up into two parts. Ooops! We woke up to a blizzard and four inches of snow! Oh well! We had a great time and made it home safely.

Yummy Noises

November 11, 2008

Yummy Noises!!
Jadeyn really loves his food. Sometimes he gets a bit too exuberant and every bite is accompanied by a very satisfied Yumm!!! We do have to chase his bobbing head around a bit with the spoon and sometimes have to corral the cats to one place as he watches them wander around. He is a distracted but excited eater!

Love my Brothers

Even as Jadeyn grows bigger and is more of a "threat" to the cats, they still tolorate him pretty well...and he adores them! He gets excited every time he sees them and flaps his little arms for them to come closer. His favorite time is when he gets to witness a "cat fight" as they play and growl at each other.

A few weeks ago, we played this video for Jadeyn. Ever since then, he has been fascinated (again) by making raspberry noises!! He was so excited to see himself doing it that he can't stop. So we get a daily showering of baby slobber!

Out of all these toys, I love the remote control the BEST !!

Sylvan Lake State Park

We decided that the summer is just too short to fit in all the camping that we want so we went out for one last hoo-rah! We stayed in a Yurt in Sylvan Lake State Park near the Vail/Avon area. It was beautiful. We hit it at the last few days of the fall leaves. The aspens were all golden and shimmering in the breeze. The weather report was saying very very cold and stormy, but our first day was beautiful!













Jadeyn is happiest in the outdoors! He loves all the new things to see and especially to touch. His little fingers were into everything! We'd be taking a walk carrying him and all of the sudden we'd be whipped around as his little grappling hooks latched onto some passing branch!













The weather decided to give us a treat! Each night the wind blew so hard it was incredible. In the mornings there were trees down across the roads that had to be cleaned up. We didn't go for too many hikes because it was opening day for hunting season, but it worked out well, because the weather really did turn cold and it was nice to stay near shelter. On our last morning we were greeted by three inches on snow!! It was BEAUTIFUL and peaceful! Jadeyn got to see snow for the first time, but he fell asleep top soon to play in it! What a fun trip!

HAPPY IN THE LEAVES !!!

Some of my favorite memories as a kid were playing in the leaves in the Fall. We would rake up our own yard leaves and pounce around in them, or we would go to a park and really have fun in the leaves. Jadeyn sure loved it today. You can't ask for better weather than 77 degrees on Halloween. The sun was to warm, not a cloud in the sky, grass was still green and the leaves were all freshly fallen. He had such fun crunching them, slapping them and occasionally trying to eat them. What a sweetie!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Jadeyn got a special package in the mail from his Aunt Julie. A trick or Treating outfit! He was adorable answering the door for all our neighbor kids and saved me and Kev from having to dress up again. If he had worn his peasant boy costume we would have had to wear our renaissance costumes to match! Jadeyn even went to one neighbor's house to trick or treat. He's practicing for next year!

Happy Fall

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!!
We had a ton of fun at a local pumpkin patch with our little pumpkin. Once again his fingers had to reach out and touch everything aground him and he was fascinated by all the orage everywhere he looked!

Happy Hallowen

Longmont Vision Center once again participated in the Halloween parade on Main Street. We had a blast handing out candy to almost 3,000 children. This year we were proud to present our little peasant boy, complete with a little leather vest, patches on his trousers and a little tinfoil sword. He loved seeing all the kids in their costumes!

Super Pooper!
Well every mom just has to have one of those "explosive" stories when it comes to changing a little one's diapers. I sure had mine this week! We were at a very important financial meeting and things were going very well with little Jadeyn quietly playing at my feet under the desk. Then a very definite odor began filling the room. Humm. I lasted about 5 minutes before excusing myself to change the little guy. As I picked him up,I noticed a brown spot about the size of a nickel on the carpet where he was sitting. Oh no! Then I took a look at my son. The front of his outfit was streaked in brown seeping through. Time to move quick. I took him to the public restroom, locked the door, sacrificed his blanket and spread it out on the floor and began to determine the best course of action. Honestly, if I had scissors, I would have cut off his outfit. I got the little outfit off without to much incident. But the tie-die onsie underneath was caked! Eeoow! AT that point I decided that documentation was necessary to show Kevin what he was missing out on! Jadeyn had somehow exploded all in the front, all over his belly, chest etc. The photo was taken after I had wiped off his tummy. Well Jadeyn wasn't going to let me off with a normal calm diaper chage either. With a squeal, he began to pat his tummy and slap his legs in delight proceeding to finger-paint himself! Oh dear!
Needless to say, 15 minutes, 10 wipies, and a new outfit later we made it back to the meeting!
(By the way, the pictures are small so spare you all the graphic details! And this was even after I’d wiped off his belly and before he started fingerpainting!)

We have a character on our hands!

Filing the nails! I think we have a little character on our hands! What a face! I have heard too many moms say how terrible they felt when they accidentally cut their baby's finger when cutting their nails. Therefore, I have been filing them at least every other day to keep the scratches at a minimum. He puts up with it pretty well, that is, until daddy gets him laughing!

Winter is on its way! We bought Jadeyn a sweet wool cap for the winter months. We get to use it this weekend on our last hooraah of a camping trip (in a Yurt this time so we won't freeze).

Banana Sticker
Don't you just love it when you ask a baby to do something and he does it!! He followed the instructions on the sticker perfectly!! It says: Place sticker on forehead. Smile!

Long Johns and Mickey

There isn't much that is cuter that a sweet little boy in his red long johns hugging his favorite toy!!

Jadeyn has quickly learned to make sure that he is in the middle of all the action. He loves to be at the computer with daddy. Also, one of his favorite places to sit is at daddy's feet when he is tying his shoes. Just the little support of the shoelace gives him enough support to sit up by himself for quite awhile!

The Grand Re-Opening of Longmont Vision Center !!

Finally after months of hard work and lots of dust, Longmont Vision Center is ready for its grand re-opening and ribbon cutting. The dream has finally been realized and we are so proud of all the hard work that went into it. Kevin and Dr. Trudell did a lot of the work themselves, demolition, sand blasting drywall off, laying tile, constructing the desks, installing the doors, the list goes on and on.

They had to sandblast off the drywall to expose the beautiful red brick walls beneath. It sure is a beautiful touch.

The building used to be an old department store complete with the huge recessed windows in the entry way for the mannequins. By demolishing that area and bringing the storefront forward to the sidewalk, they gained an extra twenty or so feet more optical area. The doctors refinished the wall displays, refurbished the chairs and laid the beautiful tile pathway.

With all the extra room and a bit of planning, they were able to add on five new rooms including an new contact lens room, a dispensing room, two new exam rooms, and an office for the doctors.
The oak finishing on the doors, cabinets and desks tie the place together nicely.

They wanted the reception area to be a welcoming and crowning feature and it turned out that way. The granite countertops and the brushed nickle ceiling just shine as the sun pours in through the stained glass window. The stained glass was a real treat. It was discovered during demolition and preserved. It is estimated to be over 100 years old to when the building was constructed in 1906.

Real Food

Jadeyn tried real food for the first time this weekend. He wasn’t too big of a fan of the rice cereal, but he decided that hands down: he loves the prunes!!
He’s a pretty strong little guy. The pediatrician and the ladies at day care all agree that at 5 months he is as strong as most one year olds! Therefore, we knew that feeding him would be interesting. It was! If he liked the food, it was hard to get it in him fast enough to keep his hands from trying to help out. And if he didn’t like the food, it was a challenge to keep up with his head twisting around!!

Ahh, the joys we have ahead of us!

Opening of Football Season!

Football Time!!!!The only thing good about summer coming to an end is that football season begins!! Kevin wanted to get Jadeyn properly prepared for the new season and ready to be a Bronco fan. (Even though Plummer isn't their QB any longer we can still cheer for them you know, and boy did Cutler put on a show. It's going to be fun to watch them!)

Jadeyn's First Tumble

Nice Shiner!!

Well, we knew that an active boy like Jadeyn couldn't go too long without taking his first tumble. We had decided to wax our vehicle and Jadeyn wasn't about to take a nap to allow us the opportunity. So happy in his car seat he sat on the garage floor while we worked away. We both looked back at him at the precise moment he straightened his little body and slid right out of his car seat, onto his knees and then right on his face! He lay there a bit stunned facedown 'til we got to him. Happy as could be, he smiled at us with a big ol' dirty spot on his forehead, arms and his little knees. Poor guy! No bruise at all! Not deterred by it at all, he got washed up, back in his carseat (strapped in this time) and he played for five minutes and fell promptly asleep!

Before Jadeyn

COASTER SUMMER

Virginia: This last summer was our big coaster year! We planned a trip to Virginia to visit two of the funnest coaster parks in the country. We hooked up with Kevin's sister Stephanie and her kids and had a blast!

The Griffon

The Griffon was by far one of our favorites. One evening, we rode it 8 times in a row at the end of the night! Its a hanging coaster where your feet dangle free. At the top of the big hill, the coaster pauses for a full three seconds and you hang and ponder the giant drop below. So much fun! Pardon the video being sideways, I couldn't figure out how to turn it!

Ohio: Right after we found out we were pregnant, we went on an amazing coaster trip. We decided, well, this will be our last time to do this for awhile and even though I wouldn't be able to go on all the ride, it would still be fun. And it was!! We analyzed each ride before deciding if I could go and we steered clear of any woodys because they are always rough.

Top Thrill Drag Racer

The hardest part for me was waiting in line for the Top Thrill Drag Racer. 42 stories straight in the air and going who knows how fast. I wanted to go so bad! When we got to the front of the line, I had to sheepishly step through like a wimp claiming I was pregnant. At eight weeks pregnant, no one believed me! Kevin had a BLAST though!! He was nice enough to save one of the other huge coasters to ride with me later when I could go!

Nice Rental!

Our rental was a sweet little sportscar and we had to chuckle since we knew that then next time we would be renting a car, we would need one with a backseat for the little one!