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!!!!!!!

This may be a long one

It has been much too long since my last post but we have been enjoying some beautiful Oregon summer and have been on the go daily with little time at the house. So, I will attempt to update on all the excitement with this post and hopefully maintain it a little better from here on =-)

Aiden has been quite the character lately. He seems to grow up more and more every day! He has a funny personality and demeanor which makes each day exciting and sometimes difficult. I try and remember how lucky we are to have such a well behaved toddler but it is difficult when you are trying to tell him to stop doing something and he replies with "No mommy, you stop that right now". But I will say one thing for sure...he LOVES his little sister!!! She has him wrapped around his finger for sure. She barely makes a fuss and he tells us to "help sister" and if we are busy, he will do it himself. I don't think I could tell you how many times he has said "Mommy, sister needs binky" or "Madison is hungry, feed her mommy" LOL I am so happy that he is protective of her and look forward to watching their relationship as siblings grow! With all this nice weather, Aiden has gotten in lots of park time and working in the yard with daddy. He is so happy when he is outside I am sad to think of what winter will have in store for us...


Aiden at the park with Riley in the firetruck. What is so cute about this picture is that Riley's dad works with Nathan and very well could work as his captain when Nathan is an engineer (the way the boys are sitting would be the same if that were to happen lol).

We also took Aiden with us to our last dental cleanings so he could check it all out. He has been going with us since he was born but he got to "ride the chair" this time...he wasn't so sure at first but seemed to like it by the end!


I also have to share this funny story. Aiden loves to build things with his blocks. He tells me he is Bob the Builder lol!! Anyways, he is getting so smart (knows colors, shapes, numbers, letters, ect) but I am seeing things he does that are too much like Nathan and I...mostly OCD type things haha. The other night while I was doing dishes, he came and said "mommy come see. Aiden is Bob the Builder!" and this is what I found...

Yes, the blocks were lined up that neatly and he had put the color coordinated frogs on all by himself! It makes me such a proud mommy!

Madison is 3 months old already!!! We just got her monitors in the mail today so she will be sleeping in her own room tomorrow night =-) She is an awesome sleeper (just like her big brother was). She will eat around 9 or 10 and go right to sleep and not wake up until around 5 or 6 to eat. She will go back to sleep until around 8 when Aiden gets up so I can't complain! She also takes her longest nap when Aiden is napping so I can grab a break usually too =-) She is such a happy little one. She could sit for an hour at a time and just look all around as happy as can be! When she wakes up in the morning and I go get her up, she always greets me with a huge smile. She loves to watch her brother play and her eyes just light up when he is around. My bet is she will also be a thumb sucker since as soon as she loses her binky, she searches for her thumb. she has been sitting in her bumbo chair the last couple of days and really likes being able to see things from a new view.

She also started rolling from belly to back about a week and a half ago. And has already started to get her first tooth!!! She has been a drool factory lately but I didn't think she would really get teeth already but sure enough, she has a white bump just about to break through. =-) She loves to smile and I am so excited to see her smile with teeth lol

She still does a lot of sleeping so I should post a recent sleeping picture too =-)



Nathan and I are both doing well. I have been walking with the kids a lot and enjoying our short and sweet summer. Nathan has been working lots (as usual) and been putting up a new fence in our front yard. It's still in the works, but looks great so far!! Pictures will come soon =-)

This last weekend we spent an afternoon at the coast. My camera stopped working after just a few pictures so I will work on getting those soon too (which is why the photos on this post suck...they are from my cell phone LOL)

6 weeks old already?!?!

Are you kidding me?!?! Madison is 6 weeks old?!?! Well, technically she is 5 1/2 weeks old ;-) Things have been going great! Time flies by for sure...it seems like we were just bringing her home. She is a wonderful and happy little baby. She is eating good and growing quick. Just like her brother, she is VERY strong! She holds her head up so well for being so young. She likes being on her tummy and stretching out. She has been such a good sleeper too!!! Usually she will sleep about 5 hours at a time at night before her first feeding (much needed block of sleep for mommy). Aiden has been SO good with her too. He is always concerned about sister and needs reassurance on her well being. For example, if we are leaving the house, he will get her carseat and say "Madison leave too." just to make sure that we don't forget her LOL! Or, if she is crying in the car, he will tell me to stop the car..."Madison needs binky mommy". He has made me smile so much the last few weeks. I am so happy that he has so much love for his new sister. As well, Madison is always checking out her brother. When he is playing around her, she will watch and track him wherever he goes. If she hears his voice, she will turn to him...I LOVE IT!!!! =-)

Pictures aren't taken nearly as much as with Aiden, but she sleeps a lot so what fun are sleeping baby pictures?! LOL However, a good friend of mine took some great photos of Madison a few weeks ago so I will post those. We are working on getting some family photo's done soon (just waiting for the sun to arrive haha).



PS - I love the pictures of the kids together...they melt my heart!!