The Aquarium

My awesome friend Hana and I decided to make a trip to the Sandy aquarium. The boys were so excited. They tried to make a couple friends in line.
Jaiden couldn't help but try to show off. He's such a goober.

This is Hendrix. He sure is one cute kid!

This picture kills me. He definitely loves sharks!

Jaiden kept calling the lobster an "icky buggy." It was freakin' huge!

Nemo.

My super cute friend, Hana.

The penguins were so cute... but they were fast. I could hardly get a photo. We had some great fun. I should have taken more pictures but it just started getting crazy. The funniest moment of the day had to be when we went to pet the sting rays. One finally came up out of the water to us and Jaiden screamed bloody murder. It was hilarious. I tried to get him to touch it but when he's scared, he's one strong dude. We will have to go back soon.

One Big Surprise!

This has been a long time coming.

I started seriously painting my senior year of high school. I felt like I was at my very best. I studied art in college, but that only lasted a year. After that, I stopped. I felt like it was slowly disappearing from my life. Now that we are blessed enough to have more room, and room of our own, I decided to revive my passion... and fulfill a promise to my father-in-law.A very patient little boy. Jaiden sat and happily watched me nail the frame to the painting. I think the loudness scared him to sit still.

I couldn't be more happy with the 38''x45'' finished product. I feel like I never lost any of my talent despite the years of never using it. It's like I'm right back there in my 3rd period class... painting my heart out. It definitely filled an empty space in my soul, as cheesy as that sounds.

The initial reaction.

I had so much fun painting this. I loved surprising the heck out of Randall! Thanks for being such a great father, father-in-law, and Papa. We love you!!

My Little Dal

Where's Jaiden??

Oh wait, there he is!

I kept Jaiden up through his nap today on accident. We just played downstairs for hours without any concept of time. It was great, but when 4 o'clock rolled around Jaiden had had it. Dal called me downstairs to show me, what I thought was, an empty kitchen and living room. Little did I know that Jaiden fit perfectly in sleeping form on one of the kitchen chairs. He was out cold. He's just like his dad... sleepin' anywhere and everywhere. I love it!

Just Too Funny!

No, I did not put his hat on him just so I could take this picture, haha, this was all him.

Jaiden: Mom, I wan' some chippies.
Me: Dude, you look hilarious.
Jaiden: Uh huh... Mom, take picture my shoes.

At 2 years and 4 months, Jaiden is crackin' us up right and left. At the top of his ridiculously long list, he's very obsessed with baseball, his hat(obviously), trains, watching movies, and wearing his shoes 24/7. He's talking like crazy and we can understand him 99% of the time. It's so nice for him to be able to tell us what he wants or needs. He's super easy to deal with, when he's not yelling "MOM...MOM... DADDY...DAD!" 80 times in a row. We tend to get a little "mentally fried" by the end of the day. He takes his naps and goes to bed well, as long as we "leave door OPEN," and "light ON." I think he's starting to get a little scared of the dark. It's real cute. He counts from 2 to 9 pretty good, haha, he misses 1 for some reason, but we're working on it. He has a ton of new friends here in our neighborhood and loves going to church to see them in nursery. We can't believe how big and smart he is getting. We love you Jaiderbuggy!

Christmas

December seems like a blur. It went by so fast that we could hardly keep up. I'm sad Christmas is over but I feel like we have a renewed spirit here in our home and in our hearts. I'm so thankful for the time we had to spend with our families. Times like that are priceless.

Jaiden and I had a blast secretly shopping for Daddy Dal. He loves riding in those bulky, unruly car carts. But, I really can't complain. He's too cute when he's having that much fun. And it keeps him under control.

Yes, the infamous Christmas card picture. We took this a couple weeks before Christmas when we had a bunch of friends over. Jaiden snagged one of the almost-empty rootbeer bottles. He tried to get out every last drop he could. It was just cute.

I'll be honest... Christmas morning was a joke. Jaiden woke up at 6. Not his normal wake time. He's usually a bit kinder to us... 8 or 9. He was one ornery little boy. He wouldn't open any presents. He just wanted to watch "All aboard!"(The Polar Express). We helped him open a couple presents and he started to get a little happier.

Jaiden has a one-track mind. He had a hard time understanding that it's exciting to open a bunch of presents. I finally had to help him pull the paper away from his mit. When he saw what it really was he started to scream, "Look a mit!!" He held it up in front of himself with a big grin. He was so excited.

We, also, got him a train set from IKEA. It was a perfect gift. No too expensive and super cute. He loved that as much as his mit. We kept it pretty simple for him this year. His 3rd favorite gift was a train/slide whistle set. He about passed out from whistling. Christmas was great! I can't wait for next year!

We're back!

We finally have the internet again! It's been a grueling month without it but we can now sleep easy haha. December has been an amazing month so far. I love this time of year! We have met a ton of new people and have some awesome new friends. Our ward is amazing and so different from any we have ever been a part of. It's nice that Jaiden is not the loudest one in the chapel anymore. I feel like our family has been so blessed. We know we are in the right place at this time in our lives. With all the new things that have been happening to us, Jaiden has developed something new of his own. His first COLD. Yes, I said first. Our lucky little boy has never had a cold. He had RSV when he was and infant and a couple ear infections but has never had one of these little beauties. So, he's been a couch potato this week. Kinda nice for Dal and I(not gonna lie). He's been extra snuggly and I like that.
I decided to jump right on the decorating wagon. I painted this wall in the family room...


...and this wall in the living/front room. I'm very happy with end results. I, of course, would like to add a few more things in the future. But I love my start. It's been nice to have some color to look at. It makes us all happy.

I had to add this picture of my tree. It's the first time I've been able to have a tree that I absolutely love. I'm sad that it will be put away in a couple weeks, but I'm enjoying every minute that is it up. Yay for Christmas and the wonderful holiday feelings it brings! Merry Christmas!

Finally...

We never thought it would happen, but it finally did! We got our house! We have been so blessed through this whole process. Thanks so much to our family, friends, realtor, and loan officer! Without them, this never would have happened. We just started moving in and are loving every minute of it...well, I am. I'm sure Dal is sick of the driving and heavy lifting.

Here's a little preview... I have a ton of ideas in store for this home of ours. I'm practically bursting at the seams, dying to get started.

I can't believe I actually have a kitchen! And windows that let tons of light in!

This is my favorite part. The view to our backyard. It's so pretty and peaceful.