Halloween!

Jaden had a really fun Halloween this year. It was so exciting for me, as well, because I got to see him interact and really get into the Halloween spirit this year. It was the first year that he actually knew what was going on. Here he is decorating his little pumpkin with some Halloween stickers. (I'm not a fan of actually doing the carving myself, so we stuck to something a little less messy, at this point).

He was so proud of his decorated pumpkin.

About a week after his own little pumpkin experience, we decided to actually do some carving. I observed while Jaden got some hands-on time with it.

He was so curious about the inside of the pumpkin. He was a bit hesitant to touch it after he said with a stinky face, "I smell something." But, with a little encouragement, he finally put his hand in it.

And here is the face we got after he finally got a handful of pumpkin guts....Yes, this is a classic shot of my little darling dry heaving. He kept gagging for about 30 seconds afterwards and his eyes were watering like crazy. I couldn't help but laugh a little. Needless to say, the hands-on part of this carving activity stopped. (I have a video at the end of this post with his initial reaction to it all. Seconds later came the heaving. I stopped video taping it just in case I needed to grab a bowl for him.)

This finished product. It's a witch.

He was so curious how the light showed through the pumpkin. It was pretty cute.

For Halloween weekend, we went down to Arizona. It was a lot of fun! I'm happy that Jaden had some of his friends to share this excitement with.

Getting ready for Trick-or-Treating!

My little Buzz Lightyear "to the rescue!"

"I no like it."

Hanging Out...

Not quite sure what to say here...

We had a fun time making rice crispies, too. Those are always fun, because Jaden can really be hands-on with it, and I don't have to worry about him getting burned. He loves helping me in the kitchen. I almost think that he does it because he knows that licking the spoon is definitely going to happen at the end :).

We are a big fan of "craft time" and finding new things to do. I found a fun recipe for homemade clay, in one of my old Elementary Ed. school books, so Jaden and I attempted to make homemade pots. He just poked holes in it, which was a fun little gift for Grandma, while I attempted to make a little bowl, which Grandma called an ashtray.....sooo, we threw that one out.

Homemade Finger Paint!

Yesterday we decided to do some finger painting. Jaden had a lot of fun getting his hands dirty and making "art" on pieces of paper. He loves doing little arts and crafts like this, so I try to do it every once in a while.

(I love his lips in this one. Very focused.)

Here he is painting a horsey...no doubt for Grandma. :)

My little Goof-Ball :)

Alabama!

Jaden and I took a trip to Alabama for about a week and we had so much fun!

Here we are in a pet store and looking at a little baby pig. Those things are seriously cute. Jaden was able to pet it along with some bunnies. This store had a ton of different animals in it, and Jaden did not want to leave it. We persuaded him to leave when we told him we would go to a different animal store later. We went to PetSmart that night and saw a lot of puppies that were up for sale, so Jaden loved that too!



Being a little rockstar.

Riding a little ride at Chuck E. Cheese! He was a little unsure and held on tight with both hands. He had a great time there, though. He loved the jungle gym thing they had and went down the slide a million times with the other kids.

One of the days, we drove down to Florida (about a two hour drive) and went to the beach. This was Jaden's first beach experience. He was a little unsure of walking on the sand at first, because he would sink in a little bit with each step. But he quickly started to enjoy it when a flash of lightening struck, and a massive clap of thunder hit right over head of us that made each one of us jump. Then it began to poor like you wouldn't believe. We had about 10 minutes on the beach when we were rained out and had to head back home. But I guess that is what we get for not checking the weather beforehand! :). Jaden called this his "big sandbox".

Here are some pictures of the aviation museum that they have on Ft. Rucker. It was pretty cool, and Jaden could not get enough of all the "copters".

Inside of a Cobra...these ones aren't very big, but Jaden had a great time pretending to fly it, pushing all of the buttons, and flipping all of the switches.

Looking at the exhibits. There was plenty of room for Jaden to run around and look at whatever he wanted to.

In the back end of a Chinook.

Here is a video of my little pilot! I love that he makes sound effects. He got so excited when he was able to play with all of the little things in there without me saying "don't touch". :)

I'm a big kid now!

Well, sort of :)... Jaden is at that age where he wants to do a LOT of things by himself. Putting on his pants is one of them. He had me laughing pretty hard with this one. I just love him!

Water Table

Jaden got this amazing present for his birthday. He played with it for the first time today, after we got home. He played with it for a good hour and a half...and still could have played with it much longer if I let him! No kidding: he LOVES this water activity table.

He was like this the whole time, playing with each piece and talking about while making sound effects. It was the cutest thing! In the second video, the "Go Navy" was all on his own. It cracked me up.

Go Navy!

We learned a few new phrases last week :)

Happy Birthday, sweet baby boy!!

July 24th: An early mini-party with just my little monkey and I.

To kick off the party: I blew up a handful of balloons and let Jaden run around in them and kick them all over the place. He was so excited when I came into the living room with my arms full of balloons and dropped them all over him. His face was pure amazement. That is when we both got all excited and started jumping around and having some fun.


Present time! I have been giving him little presents here and there all throughout the week. I figured he would be VERY overwhelmed if I had waited to have him open ALL of the presents in one sitting. So here are a couple that he opened today and couldn't stop playing with...

First experience with Legos!

Mr. Potato Head! His new favorite toy. Thank you Grandma and Papa!!

Watching "The Return to Snowy River". You thought I was kidding when I said this was his favorite movie in past posts? I wasn't.... :)

Now it is cake time! Since they were going to celebrate his birthday in Nursery with cupcakes, I decided NOT to go through the trouble of making a cake (although it wouldn't have been "trouble"; I would have loved to make and decorate an entire Birthday cake for him...and me). Anyway, I decided to warm up some Warm Delights, a little personal sized one, for Jaden...and one for me. He enjoyed it just the same as he would a regular cake, I'm sure! I don't think his mouth could open any wider...

July 25th: Jaden officially turns 2!!!

Enjoying his Birthday morning pancakes with strawberry syrup!

A few pictures from Nursery. They had a little celebration for him and his nursery friends with cupcakes. He was really excited to go to church on his special day......Well, he's actually excited to go every week, which I love!

Happy Birthday, my sweet little boy! You have blessed my life more than you could ever imagine. I love you with all of my heart and always will. Lots and lots of kisses to you!!

Also, I wanted to say thank you all so much for all of your love and support over the past couple of years. We have both been so grateful for all of you. There is no way we would be where we are without you. I can't emphasize or express enough how extremely blessed we are for having you in our lives. We love sharing our journey, adventures, and milestones with you all. Thanks again! We love you!!

Some Videos!

"Cool toys! Open...". Of course, when he gets super excited about anything, he has to go and do a little show-off :).

"I'm a big kid now!" I started potty training him the afternoon before this one. So this has been in the process for about 24 hrs. I am amazed at how quickly he caught on to it! He tells me everytime he has to go. I am so excited for him! I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Two milestones hit within days of eachother: first he uses the bathroom to go, next he turns 2 years-old! I kind of wish they were a little more spread out--it was a huge thing to take in, for me :). Wow, my little monkey is a big boy now!

"The Return to Snowy River": This was definitely his request. He watches this every chance he gets. I love how focused he is when watching it. He had my computer cord and pretended it was his whip, like Jim Craig (lead character). He pretty much wants to be him.

"I no want..."

Jaden was galloping around the house on the stick-horse that Grandma made for him, so I wanted to capture that on video because it was the cutest thing! Right when he saw that I had pushed "record" on the camera and aimed it towards him, this is what I got..."I no want..."

"Weee!"

Happy Fourth of July!!

We had a wonderful, pretty quiet, 4th of July. We spent the day at church, and then came back home and had a great day together that was spent outside and, towards the evening, inside watching Return to Snowy River.







Some pictures taken before Church!




I want to take this opportunity to express the love that I have for this amazing country. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to grow up a "Navy Brat" and be surrounded by the military my entire life and to have a dad who served this country for the large majority of his life. There is so much that America offers that no other country in the world can offer. I am very blessed to be living in the United States and very proud to stand behind the servicemen and women who are fighting for our freedoms and defending this nation. I am SO proud to be an American. May God continue to bless America and continue to bless the troops and their families.


I hope you all had a fantastic and safe 4th of July weekend!