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!

Look what I did, Mom!

That would be the contents of an entire bottle of baby powder.

Sandbox

Here's just a little peek of Jaden playing in the sandbox with his cars.

Lovin' the Outdoors!

Whenever Papa comes around, Jaden is his shadow, mimicking everything he does. I went to WalMart and got him a little tool set of his very own so that he could "fix things" like Papa does. Here he is helping to gather up some scrap wood and put it in the box. He would be doing work like this all day if he could!

There is a new sandbox up at the cabin, and Jaden just loves it! He was a little unsure of the sand at first, especially when I took off his shoes. He put his legs up on the side, but after a while he realized that the sand was kind of a fun texture to explore with his feet. In Jaden's words "it tickees" (meaning it tickles) :).

The Garden of the Gods, in the Springs, was so beautiful! We were only able to capture a few pictures, because the camera decided to die out. Here is Jaden and I.

Jaden found his new love of rocks.

Grandma and Jaden in front of a massively tall rock. There were hawks and all sorts of birds flying around the top of it, too. It was incredible!

Jaden can't get enough of the outdoors. He has found a new fascination with bugs. He held a ladybug for the first time yesterday, and today he tried to catch a wounded moth with his bare hands. He was very gentle with it, but it escaped. We'll have to find some more later on. Maybe we'll even catch something in a jar :).

Craft Time!

Painting!

I was a bit reluctant to do painting with an almost 2 year-old, but he managed to keep things pretty clean! Jaden was trying very hard to make this rock beautiful for "Gamma". He loved to mix up the colors and make new ones. We were learning about primary colors, hence the red, yellow, and blue :).

Homemade Peanut Butter Play Dough:

It actually does taste amazing! Jaden couldn't stop shoveling it into his mouth, neither could I :).

He played with this for a good 40 minutes, which is a VERY long time for him to be doing one thing. He rolled it, cut it, made marks on it, and, of course, ate it.

I love, love, love his surprised look and "whoa!" when he realizes that impressions were made in the dough. He is starting to make connections like these everyday, and it is the greatest thing watching him do that. He is growing up and learning things so quickly. I just can't get enough!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of those beautiful and wonderful Moms that I know! Since it is Mother's Day, I figured I would take this opportunity to share with everyone why I love being a mom!

1. Moments like these, where Jaden is just as goofy as I am...and actually enjoys it!

2. Moments when he gets an owie and suddenly my kisses are magic and makes all of the pain go away.

3. Moments I am frustrated, and he says "sowy" (after I tell him to, of course)...we are learning manners :).

4. Moments when he sees a "bebe" that is younger than him and goes over to give them a toy that he was currently playing with...practicing his sharing.

5. Moments when he is a HUGE cuddle bug.

6. Yes, even moments when he throws his little tantrums...it makes me more appreciative of when he is being good :)

7. Moments when he makes a confused face, raises his hands palms up, and says "Huh?"

8. Moments when he is so tired and his hand goes straight up to his head to start playing with his hair as he lays his head down on my shoulder.

9. Moments when I say "I love you" and he looks up with his brown eyes and says, "too", in his deeper than deep baby voice.

10. Moments when I look at him and really realize that he is mine and families are forever.

I absolutely love being a mom. There are definitely difficult moments, but the moments that are special and amazing far surpass those that can be frustrating and patient-trying. Jaden is the greatest blessing that I could have ever hoped for. He has kept me strong. He is definitely something special, and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a mother, especially to this very-active-always-getting-into-everything-sweet-as-can-be-baby-boy, Jaden. I love you Bubba!

(Jaden in his new favorite shirt, with Fido on it)

Pool Time with Papa

Jumping into the pool

Fly up to the "Syke!" Jaden can't quite get the word "sky" down. He tries so hard, but each time it comes out "syke!" I laugh every time.

Singapore Zoo Time!

My little tourist baby, ready to go off to the Zoo!

"Splishin' and a-Splashin" At the end of our Zoo adventure (I know this post is backwards :), we stopped by the KidZone that they have there. There is a petting zoo, pony rides, and a pretty big water park! Jaden had a ball! The slides are always his favorite when we go to parks, but this slide was his extra-favorite because it had water! His first encounter with a water slide, and he had zero fear. He literally spent about 25 minutes sliding down, running to the stairs, climbing back up, and back down again. I loved seeing him having so much fun!

"G-day Mate!" Here Jaden is in an Australian Outback Jeep! We went and saw the Kangaroos, but they weren't very fun. They just slept under the trees as we walked by. At least Jaden got to see them! Maybe one day I'll be able to take him to the REAL Australian Outback....maybe :). (Shirt is off because it got extremely hot towards noon)

Riding a pony! He loves horses. His new favorite movie is...The Man from Snowy River because of the horses. He is a Cowboy at heart. Who could blame him, spending most of his life in Colorado up in the mountains! :)

Giving the Gorilla kisses. I love the profile of his lips in this one!

Riding a cow! His face is pure joy.

As we were walking through this exhibit, this particular tortoise slooowwlly made his way over to the walkway where we were. He was literally centimeters from us. There was nothing stopping him from coming all the way out, besides those wooden stakes. I chatted with him for a while, and then I told Mom I wanted to pet him. Oh come on...there was NObody around... I was feeling sneaky, and so I touched his shell and rubbed his front leg. He didn't mind at all. I think he needed a little bit of attention. :)

Riding the Giant Tortoise! He will try to ride anything he possibly can!

We got the chance to ride the Elephant that my sisters and their families rode when they went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun, actually. Jaden really liked it and expressed his joy by saying "weee!" as it walked around the trail. He was just SO cute this whole day!

"Zebas!"...as Jaden would say :). He was happy to wear his "Singapore Zoo" shirt that had a 3-D stuffed Zebra on the front.

Jaden was super excited to see the giraffes! He was thrilled. When the coast was clear, Mom and I let him run across the street over to them. He was telling us all about them as he walked and pointed on the other side of the street.

A White Asian Tiger. This cat was walking back and forth on that little ridge the entire time we were watching him. There were others observing, and I kind of think he was agitated. Luckily there was a river in between us!

These monkeys were totally crazy! They quieted down after a while. I should have gotten out the camera earlier so I could capture the sounds they were making, absolutely unreal! We could hear them on the other side of the park! Anyway, here is one in action...swinging, like monkeys do! I love it when Jaden says, "whoa". He was so mesmerized the entire day. The closest thing we've gotten to seeing cool, semi-wild animals is on the Animal Planet or Nat Geo Wild (which happens to be his TV stations of choice instead of cartoons). He loves his animals!

Yee-Haw! I love how he is having a conversation with the guy as he is riding around. He was just chatting away. I sure don't have a shy one! :)

Jurong Bird Park

So, I am definitely NOT a bird person. However, Singapore has a beautiful Bird Park here (I heard about it from somebody that was doing my nails). I looked it up online, and it looked pretty fun and something that Jaden would really enjoy. So, when my parents were gone last week to Hawaii, Jaden and I took a trip out there; we both really enjoyed ourselves, apart from getting eaten alive by masquitoes :).

My absolute favorite bird (if I had to choose one): The American Bald Eagle.

The penguin exhibit was small, but really neat. Most of them were sleeping, but a few were swimming around in the water. I got Jaden a little stuffed animal penguin that he sleeps with, along with his puppies, every night. I had a coupon for the gift shop, so I figured "why not?". :D
Here are some really gorgeous and colorful birds that would be flying around the park. Here they gathered for a little socialization and eating. Jaden thought this was really cool because of how close they all were!
Posing with statues in front of the African Exhibit.

Sitting on a mossy rock that he said was "Ew". I had to quickly snap the picture before he moved or fell in the stream!

There was a gorgeous "African Waterfall" in the African Exhibit in the Park. Jaden loves waterfalls and fountains, so I had to make sure to hike to the furthest part of the Park and let him see it. He was very excited!
These were some really neat looking, bright, green birds that Jaden had a conversation with for about 2 minutes when we walked up to them. You can see them hanging on the fence in the background....kind of..
This was a really cool, exotic Hawk that was on display. It looked beautiful, but when you would look at his face, he appeared to be totally jaded and hating life. But he cooperated for the pictures, just fine, with the occassional screeching yell.
My poor attempt at getting a picture of BOTH of us at the Bird Park. It is hard to hold a squirmy soon-to-be 2 year old, a camera, and a smile while trying to press the take-the-picture button...But you take what you can get, right? :)
These were some storks. Jaden was amazed at how HUGE they were. So was I. I had no idea! I figured I would take a picture since Jaden has little, what the doctors call, "stork bites" on the back of his head. It is just a birthmark, but I thought that this would be a very appropriate picture to take because of that :).

"Hillbilly bone b-bone b-bone bone!"

So...Jaden loves to dance. Here is a little clip of when we put the Country song "Hillbilly Bone" on. It is only of the very beginning of the song, but I loved his little "peace out" action when he was done dancing and then walked away.

He LOVES this song. When they sing the chorus he yells "Bone!" at the top of his lungs. This is our driving-into-town song, so he has it pretty much down--well, the chorus part at least.

Anyway, here is my baby with rhythm! :)

Water Baby!

Jaden used to love the water, but then he stopped about a week ago. I don't know if he had a bad dream about it, or what? But, when his Papa took over in the pool, he started to love it again! He wanted to ride the horse (his new favorite thing), which was Papa, and have it gallop and swim in the water. He also loved to jump in from the side, and I mean JUMP! He gets both feet off of the ground and everything! I'll have to post a video of that when I get the chance to take one. Apparently, the pool is more fun when a little guy time is involved! :)

He LOVES to play and drink from the hose. He would be completely content if that were the only toy he ever had.

I absolutely love the mischievous face he makes at the camera. He thinks he is sneaking away!