Let the Camping Season Begin!

Please Welcome the newest member of our Outdoor Adventure Family!!!
2011 POLARIS RZR 4

We can't wait for the adventures to begin with our new toy!

Dead Turkey Conversation

It has been quite humorous having a little chatterbox in our house.
If you want a good laugh, check out this conversation video about our Christmas Dinner!

January & February 2011 Update

Well, it has been way too long of a break since my last post to this blog. Just haven't quite felt the creative urge or something. Life has been a bit streefull these last six weeks and time jsut got away from us. So........here's a quick reprise of the last few weeks.
Jadeyn has been entertaining us constantly by the creative things that come out of his mouth. He is talking non-stop and yes, even sometimes in his sleep! He is potty training, so most of the funnies have to do with that subject. For example, he announced that "My dunderwears keep my wee-wee warm!" Potty training has gone much better than expected. It was a rough start, but we are well on our way to success!!!!! :)
We visited the Denver Aquarium and it solidified the need to retun to Sea World again this year! We are planning a trip to Florida soon because Jadeyn keeps begging to go back (and we wouldn't mind the warmer weather as well!) We are going to be hooking up with Brian and Kasi from Optometry school days and their son Peyton and we can't wait! Jadeyn loved the Denver Aquarium as well and since then, has not stopped talking about the Mermaid show!!

We've certainly been keeping ourselves busy. Work has occupied a good deal of time with all the end of the year stuff as well as the AAAHC re-accredidation survey at my office which pretty much took every spare minute I had for a few weeks. Its nice to have it done for another three years!
Been a bit busy working on some craft stuff. I have a spring show on March 19th and realized all my stuff in Christmas themed so I have to get busy!

We've been cooking and baking a ton!!!! My parents gave Kevin Alton Brown's I'm only here for the Food book and we've been trying out new recipes every few days and boy of boy has it been delicious! We also bought an 11 pound bar of chocolate to experiment with!!!! Lots of good stuff in store for that!!
Jadeyn and I got to spend a Saturday morning at our favorite store: Home Depot and participate in their kid's workshop. He got to make a Valentine shelf and did a wonderful job with it. He was standing so patiently in line for the lady to approve his finished product. Little orange apron wrapped around his big belly, holding out his finished shelf waiting for his certificate! It was precious!
We have had some absolutely spectacular warm winter days surrounded by sub-zero freezing days. We've been on bike rides to the lake to feed the ducks followed by our pipes freezing in our house a few days later! Jadeyn took a really bad fall on the ice after day-care one evening. It was a scary moment when I flipped him over and had no idea that much blood could come so fast from such a little nose. He was bleeding from the nose, and upper and lower lips which he had bit. His gums turned dark purple, but nothing was loose. It was so sad! He seemed to recover well except for at night when he tried to sleep on his face. We had several really long nights! He's happy and healthy again!
Two days after his fall I took him outside again to play in the snow to convince him that it won't happen again. We had a blast, but he decided that he needed to shovel all the snow INTO the garage so it could stay warm!!
We are anxiously awaiting spring to enjoy the great outdoors and see how our roses survived the winter!

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas is such as special time, and there is nothing else as wonderful as Christmas morning with a two year old!!!


















We set out milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer last night and it was the first thing that Jadeyn wanted to check on this morning (even before running to his whole GeoTracks that were set up beside them!) GeoTracks were a hit!!! Within about 90 seconds of figuring the remote control out, he had race cars, a dinosaur egg and a few other random items laid out on the track ready to be run over by his new train! These will certainly grow with him as he get more and more creative with them!!

A few months ago, Jadeyn really wanted a "baby bumblebee" from Transformers. I told him that maybe Grandma and Grandpa would get it for him and he has reminded me of it every couple of days. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa J came through with flying colors! He loved it! And again, within minutes of opening it, he was using Bumblebee to shoot his GeoTrains off their tracks, and Ironman off a table, and race cars in the air!!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a wonderful Holiday Season!!!!

The Outdoor Life—We spent as much time as possible in the beautiful outdoors this summer. Many camping trips for a total of 29 nights under the stars, too many brookies and rainbow trout caught to count, tons of worms squished by little fingers, and quite a few trails hiked and so many beautiful places.

National Parks -Highlights of our outdoor wanderings were an incredible trip to Banff, Yoho & Kootenay National Parks in Canada and Glacier, Teton and Yellowstone. Glacier has quickly jumped into our top favorites NP list! Bears, big horn sheep, mountain goats wildflowers, aqua-blue water!!!

Hobby Time! Kevin’s rose garden was amazing this year!! We have a total of 21 in our yard & they bloomed all summer long! Such a treat to have a fresh bouquet every day! Rebecca went a little nuts with crafts this year: miter saw, sanders, paint & vinyl filled almost every one of Jadeyn’s nap time, but she had a blast, did well at the craft show & made lots of gifts! Jadeyn was our constant little helper in both hobbies: usually covered in mud and searching for worms near the roses, or covered with tiny pieces of paper from Rebecca's paper cutter!

Always Coasters—We couldn’t let the year pass without a coaster trip. Carowinds, NC gave us the perfect excuse to spend some time with Kevin’s sister Stephanie and family as well as Kevin’s college roommate and family. Good times!!! We can't resist a great thrill ride!

A New Toy? We fell in love with a new toy: a Polaris RZR4! We rented one of these machines along with a 4-wheeler and had an amazing time in Taylor Park, CO. Needless to say, Kevin thinks he needs one to explore all the Colorado mountains next year!!!

Family—We were lucky enough to have so many visits with both sides of our families. Rebecca’s parents visited us twice and Jadeyn fell in love with his Grandpa and Grandma all over again. The Cottrell family reunion took place in Telluride Colorado where 32 of us romped through the mountains in chaotic bliss!

Random Happiness! All in all, this has been a wonderful year! Jadeyn keeps us moving and laughing at all the creative comments that come out of his brain! He is a non-stop boy in motion and we love him to pieces!!

Little Chef

Our "Little Chef"

Is the pie done?

Ready to Trick Or Treat?

Jadeyn was such a joy this Halloween! Besides being absolutely adorable, he was the funniest little guy and cracked us up every few minutes.
On Saturday we joined the Longmont City Parade and enjoyed watching all the crazy people, kids, dogs and goats in their costumes. Yup, I said goats! It was the funniest thing seeing goats dressed as pumpkins! We saw some great costumes and Jadeyn loved it all. He was so excited to see a Ghostbuster kid and latched onto him and kept shouting "Ghostbusters!!" Luckily the kid was a good sport.

We had a pot luck dinner with all the neighbors on our alley before the trick or treating began and it was such fun to get everyone together again! We have such wonderful neighbors!!

He loved his costume since he loves cooking with both of us. We even watched Ratatouille a few nights ago to get him in the mood and to see the other chefs wearing their big hats! When it came to Trick or Treating, he had a few really funny things to say. Reaching into a bowl at a few houses and dropping the candy in his bag, he promptly announced, "I need more!" Oh dear! Then, at one house the man dropped the candy in his bag, Jadeyn set his bag down and started digging through it. He found some Smarties and tried to give them to the man! We figure he was either tried to make a trade, or he was showing the man what he would rather have! Clever. Then another time, Kevin was distracted and Jadeyn was ready to move on. So Jadeyn looked around, saw Pierre, one of our neighbors, grabbed Pierre's hand and hollered, "Next house!" It didn't matter who it was, he was ready to go!!

It was such a special holiday having our little Chef around!

Time with Grandma and Grandpa J

My parents came to visit us for a few days this month and we enjoyed every second of them! They were on their way home from a month long vacation to Cape Cod, Nantucket, Florida, and I'm not sure where all else, but they still had the energy to party with us!
Jadeyn loved having Grandma and Grandpa to play with him every day. He ran to them right off with great big hugs and squeals of delight. Every morning we would have to hold him back to keep him from jumping on their bed and hollering "wake up grandpa!" Tinker Toys and the giant creatures Grandpa could build were a hit. Grandma's IPad was a source of wonderment for Jadeyn. He was fascinated by it. Throughout the days we watched the progression of his artwork change and improve as he went from straight lines, to circles, connecting dots, etc. It was such fun to watch.
Jadeyn and Grandma enjoying a happy moment together snuggling on the sofa.
We spent an afternoon at Rocky Mountain National Park to see the beautiful aspens changing color and to watch the elk in the rut. Those magnificent animals are so fascinating as you see them vying for rank and control of the females. We watched a few stand offs and challenges between the males and wayward female requiring a reminder of who is their boss! We watched until sunset and listened to the eerie bugling echo through the meadows. Amazing! The elk at Rocky Mountain National Park were putting on a marvelous show in the dimming light.

Each morning Jadeyn got to partake in Grandpa's mighty pill challenge! It consists of Grandpa holding our a handful of about 12 pills, Jadeyn choosing one for him, one...two...three! Grandpa tosses the pill in the air and catches it on his tongue!!! What a showman! Jadeyn loved it!


We spend a day at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder people watching, meandering through shops and enjoying a beautiful fall day. Here is Jadeyn being introduced to Bruiser, a sweet and playful street performer with all the behavior and actions of a real dog: its pretty impressive. We watched a fire street performer who wowed us and Jadeyn got a balloon fishing pole and fish to play with. Lunch was at the Cheesecake Factory! YUM!! It ended with Jadeyn cutting his upper eyelid again on a sharp corner, he only cried for a few minutes and was ready to go again. Tough kid!

Here is all of us on Pearl Street!

By the river in Estes Park. Not a bad picture if we could only keep Jadeyn's eye from trying to see a fish!
Great times!