Saying hi to the reindeer

While out doing errands, we came across Blitzen and Dasher! This is the second time the kids have been able to see the reindeer and they think its just the coolest :-)

Christmas 2011

Aiden made antlers at school today and his teacher sent one home for sister. They are soooo cute!!!

First pony!

Ponytail that is :-) can't believe it is already possible but it is by far my fav and sooooo cute!!!!

First pony!!

Ponytail that is!! Can't believe it is here already!! It's by far my fav :-)

Personality

They each have very different personalities and interests for sure...this picture sums it up lol as crazy as the can (and often do) drive me, I love them more than anything!

Aiden is too funny!

 Watch "Super Chargers!" on YouTube 

I am still trying to figure out how to upload videos again but the link is a video that I took today and makes me smile :-)

Madison is 18 months old!!

It's absolutely shocking how quick 18 months has gone by!! It definitely went by faster than Aiden's first 18 months. She is quite the little girl too. She gives the best loves and cuddles. She loves bath time more than anything and eats everything in sight. She is about 25 lbs and growing great. She is saying several words including please, thank you, ball, coffee (Haha), milk, bath, and my most favorite go ducks :-)

Before I know it, she will be in her big girl bed and potty trained! We love everything about her and wouldn't be a complete family without her.

The picture was her after her appt when she had to get three shots...not a happy camper but she did as good as expected and sat in that spot on the couch for a good 20 mins before getting down and saying "owie" lol

Meet Caco the dinosaur

Loving Aiden's new imagination and creative personality. He is always playing jail, firefighter, and anything that he can pretend is a gun or shrink ray lol he is also so good at drawing and tracing for such an active little boy!

Little moments

The little, and often brief moments that the kids are sitting still and show their love are some of the best moments I could ever have imagined. My plan is to keep these images together so when they start to fight I can remind them of how much they really love each other!

Our little girly girl

Madison has definitely started showing her girly side.  She loves wearing shoes and her newest joy is her tutu...she finds it in her drawer and will put it on all her own and come tell me "tutu" :-) I even find her doing turns lol she is getting so big!!!

Halloween 2011

It was my most favorite Halloween so far!! Aiden had a blast looking at the other costumes and trick or treating and Madison walked with her treat bucket the entire time and even said thank you on several occasions (she usually gets shy around strangers). Great night but exhausting!!

Artist Aiden

With very minimal help from Nathan, Aiden colored this "masterpiece" :-) I think he is gonna be quite the meticulous little man haha

Play time

The kids don't play together well always (mostly Aiden being too rough or Madison being too dramatic lol) but today they did great. When I went back to check on them, I found Madi in her toy drawer.  Aiden informed me he was giving her a bath because she got dirty from fighting fires. Hahaha he is getting such an imagination lately and its so much fun!

GO CHARGERS!!

Thanks to mom and Danny for the awesome Rivers jerseys...we don't get the game today but we are cheering on our Chargers! :-)

Our cutie pie :-)

Madison is such a fun little girl!! Can't believe she is growing so fast. Each day I get more excited to watch her grow and see her personality shine :-)

Aiden goes to school

Aiden started preschool last week and he is loving it!!! He was even the star student on his third day :-) we are so proud of our big boy!!

Testing...testing...

If this is a successful post, everyone will finally start seeing more updates :-) GO DUCKS!!

summer has arrived!!!

Summer is finally here!! We are enjoying the sun, friends and lots of time outside :-) here are just a few fun photos from our recent adventures!

Our "new" backyard!!!

Such a project but SO happy with the end result! 4 yrs in waiting, our backyard is finally a usable space =-) We now have a garden with corn, green beans, peppers, lettuce and some herbs just to name a few. The playground is in and all our ground cover is done! Nathan has worked so hard to get this backyard looking so great and we are very lucky to have him.

Our garden:




The playground area:





The posts you see in the pictures by the patio are for our future patio cover. That will be a project in itself so that is not done yet, but luckily we haven't had many hot days so we aren't running from the sun =-)

She is getting the hang of it!!

Cannot believe we are already posting about this...Madison has taken her first steps!!! SO excited that I was able to get the most steps she has taken on video!!! Enjoy =-)

sunny days are coming!

We have finally started getting some nice sunny days to enjoy (maybe one every 5 or 6 but that's better than nothing!). Aiden hasn't had much time to learn how to ride his new bike Santa got him so as soon as we had a chance, we jumped on it!! He surprised all of us when the first time we really worked with him on it, he did GREAT!! Here is a little video of Aiden riding his bike!

At the end, he was singing "go, go, go, go...on an adventure!" which is a song from The Cat & the Hat cartoon he likes. It made us laugh pretty hard!

Although it was sunny, it was still a cool breeze so Madison and I played inside...but she really wanted to go outside. She sat at the window watching brother and daddy outside for quite some time.

And a video of Madison watching them too...cuz her little "talking" makes me smile =-)

Our growing little girl!

An update on our precious little girl...Madison is now 10 1/2 months old!! She is gaining quite the personality. She crawls faster than any other kid I have met and tries to keep up with her big brother at all costs. She also LOVES to eat!! Not only her food but any food in her sight. When she was younger, she was actually quite a bit smaller than Aiden, but now she is almost outweighing him when he was her age haha!! She has been standing independently for about a month and a half and has taken a couple of steps. I thought she would have been walking already but she finds that crawling is so much easier. She has 8 teeth with more on their way. She has been sleeping through the night for several months now but I am happy to say she is now sleeping through the entire night and all her naps in her bed!!! =-) That was a huge challenge for us and she has far exceeded my expectations on success. We are working on transitioning to a sippy cup...she can drink out of them but she prefers the volume she gets from a bottle better, the cup comes too fast and she doesn't like it much. Last night she did drink 1/2 of her milk out of the cup so we are making progress. Lets hope she transitions well because the bottles are gone at a year!

She absolutely adores her brother and is a bigger cuddler then Aiden too. She is still just babbling, but does a great job of communicating her needs in her own way. She has some cute little quirks too. She insists to be naked after dinner. She also loves to put things (clothes, blankets, rugs) on her head which is TOO funny! And probably my favorite, when she starts to get tired, she will just stop what she is doing and lay down of the floor. PS - she is a thumb sucker too! (sorry, some of the pictures are off my phone)


How about that smile?? WE LOVE HER!!

Aiden is 3!!!

Our little man is 3!! I never knew time could move so quickly! I have no idea where the last three years went...it seems like just yesterday we were changing diapers and being spit up on by him. Although it seems like forever ago that he was an easy little baby haha. As he gets older, the more opinionated he becomes. He is very smart and picks up on everything! He is will ask you to listen to him if he thinks you are not paying attention and gets frustrated with you if you don't understand him. He is fully potty trained during the day but still has accidents at night. He feels it is necessary to "fling" his undies off everytime he goes potty and will not go #2 with his potty seat on. He asks for particular items of food for meals. His favorites are pb&j's, Z-bars, mac & cheese, "nuggets and apple dippers from the diet coke place" (aka McDonalds haha) and any fruit he can get his hands on. He is more of a snack eater then a meal eater but is growing great!! At his 3 year check up, he weighed in at 31.5 lbs and is 33" tall. As far as his developmental progress he far exceeds expectations at his age. He enjoys running, jumping (especially off the couches), kicking balls, "golfing", and pretty much anything that involves being active. Although he doesn't clearly pronounce his "L's" he talks great and had a ton to say. He has been drinking out of big boy cups and is great at feeding himself at this point. He is such a joy in our lives and our family wouldn't be the same without his little personality in it =-)

For his birthday, we had a party at Bounce gymnastics (or as Aiden calls it "the trampoline place"). He had about 8 friends come and all the kids had a great time running around, jumping on the trampolines and being silly. Of course, having Madison crawling around and being a hostess, I didn't get pictures of the kids playing but here are a few of present opening:
I made the kiddos "dirt pudding" instead of cake and it was a hit!! And so were the gift bags...lol you would think these kids had never been to a birthday party before! =-) And of course, the presents seemed to carry a theme...puzzles! He just LOVES puzzles. But I think the present he liked the best was his new Nerf gun. Yes, I know, he is only 3 and shouldn't be playing with "guns" but his friend Oliver from across the street has one and it is pretty much the only thing he plays with over there so Oliver & his sister Ava got Aiden his very own.

He also got presents from Great G&G Barnard in California. He loved his stickers (quickly took them all off the sheet and onto his shirt they went) Oh, and of course, had a big mouthful of animal crackers too =-) He also got some very handsome shirts!!
Such a big boy!!! =-)

Happy Birthday Aiden!!!

Here is a video of us singing to him at his party this weekend. I also have a video here of Aiden's "walk" after he had his shot at his doctors appointment LOL so dramatic!!! I will post more pictures and a better update very soon!!

Catching up

Well, we finally resolved our camera issues and just in time for Christmas! (sorry for the date stamp in the pics, I need to fix that) We had a great holiday this year...my favorite Christmas in recent memory. We enjoyed a quiet morning just our little family of 4 opening presents and spending time together (of course, our Christmas was on Christmas Eve since Nathan worked Christmas day but it worked out great!). Santa brought Aiden a big boy bike and Madison a walker toy. They both had lots of fun with all their new toys...Aiden would open a gift, play with it for a couple of minutes, jump back on his bike then open a new present haha!! He did that with every gift! In the evening, we had Nathan's family over for a delicious dinner and more presents for the little ones. It was so nice to be able to stand back and watch as the family got to enjoy their time with the kids opening presents. Santa also brought Aiden a guitar which he left at grandma's on accident (Grandpa Jackie was sure happy about that one!!).


This year, unfortunately, was the first year since Aiden was born that we did not see my family in San Diego =-( we were so sad not to be down there this year but we were so happy that all of the family was able to meet little Madison at some point throughout the year! We are looking forward to seeing them all again soon.

To update on us otherwise, we are all doing well!! I started working part time in October at a Credit Union which I really enjoy! Its much busier in our house now but the kids love having their dad home more with them and its been a good challenge for me (although in a perfect world I would still be at home). Nathan is busy working and being home with the kids. He ran his first half marathon in November and finished with a great time!! He is now training for the Seattle Firefighter Stairclimb in March and the Eugene full marathon in May, all while studying for the Engineer promotional...whew!

Aiden had his first ear infection a couple weeks ago. He held up pretty well except at night. He is talking like crazy!!!! Only a few words (and really not the worst ones) we need to remove from his vocabulary =-) He has continued to do great with potty training too. No regressions after sister was born at all. He has had minimal accidents during the day but we are still working on naps and bedtime. He seems to be a really heavy sleeper at times and will have accidents. He loves playing with his friends and trying new things. We have hit some rough patches but that is to be expected with a 2 1/2 yr old.

Madison is growing SO fast!!! She is just about 8 months old already, has 8 teeth (yes, 8!), is crawling everywhere and pulling up on anything she can. She loves finger foods and is a great eater! She has quite the scream when she is upset which usually makes me laugh...it is so dramatic! haha She is so sweet too and gives the best smiles ever!! She loves her brother and will laugh and play with him all day. She is still on the small side but proportionate in height and weight so the doctor isn't worried at all. We are so happy to have her in our family!


We are so anxious to enjoy this new year!! Crazy to think how quick the last one went by but we are excited to make more memories as a family =-) I assure you that I will post more often now that our camera situation is resolved! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and are also looking forward to 2o11!!! And it would be wrong if I didn't end my post with...

GO DUCKS!!!!!!!