Cutest thing ever!

Last night we met up with Jaclyn, Josh and Tatum at Kona Grill for dinner and afterwards went to find the "snow" at Santan. On the walk there Kayden and Tatum held hands the whole way. Not only were they holding hands but they were giggling the most infectious giggles ever. Every few seconds while they were running and giggling they'd look over at eachother and start giggling even more. They had so much fun running through the crowds holding each others hands. And the mommies and daddies had so much fun just watching them be there cute little selves. They really do love eachother, it is so fun watching their faces light up when they spot e/o at the park or when we go to one anothers houses. Thanks Tatum and Kayden for making a simple night so fun and joyful, you guys are the reason for the season;-)
Now the santan snow was actually bubbles, not that impressive but the babies made it fun even if the event wasn't what we'd expected (and of course the company of Josh and Jaclyn added to the night;-)

Thank you!

Grandma and Grandpa for coming to visit and spending Thanksgiving with me! I had so much fun playing with you in the playroom, jumping in rain puddles with you, taking you to the park, going on walks to "bobucks", and at the zoo. I love when you come visit and I get 2 extra people to entertain and share my hugs and kisses with!

Thanks too for spoiling me while you were here! I LOVE my build a bear monkey that we made together, Jax goes everywhere with me and I have to find him right away in the morning and he goes on all my adventures with me. And my new trike is so much fun! Mommy took me on our morning walk around the park today on it and I got to show it off to all the kids going to school. I felt so cool with my new "bike"! And all my trucks make my floor rug so much fun to play with!

Thanks for everything! Can't wait to come to Nebraska in 2 weeks and see everyone for Christmas!!

Love you! Kayden

17 months!

Playing in your wagon with ALL your stuffed animals, you love to be in the wagon with all of your "friends"

I am in shock that in 1 month it will have been 6 months since Kayden's 1st birthday. I still remember being at his birthday parties like it was yesterday, thankfully the memories are stuck hard in my mind and I have so many pictures to look back on. But how have 5 months already passed since his big day? I really wish you could bottle up all the memories and revisit them when ever you miss them b/c it goes way too fast.

Things I love from this month are:
*how when I ask you if you are my baby or my big boy you tell me your my big boy (*tears*)
*how you love to "count" everything, your trucks, bushes, leaves, anything you see you want to count "one" and you put your finger on each thing as we count together
*your secret "hiding spot" on our way to the park in the bushes, how you have to go in there and hide and then mommy and Fifi have to join you
*how much you love the park, walks, anything outside!
*how much you love trains, trucks, boats and airplanes, you are your mommies BOY, all boy all the way
*how you get in your wagon and then pull all your stuffed animals in on top of yourself and sit there so contently
*how you feed and give your stuffed animals drinks, they have to eat when you eat too if they are around during mealtimes
*when I start singing the wrong song you tell me "no" (sign it and say it over and over) until I go through all of our songs and get to the one you were wanting me to sing
*how you shout "jiji" for Fifi when you want her to come join us or when we are walking her and she isn't going the way you want her too
*how you have to take Fifi down the slide w/ you at the park
*that you are still a mama's boy to the core of your little being, everyone told me after a year you'd be all about daddy but so far you are still my little man
*how much you love babies right now
*when you carry your stuffed animals around with you everywhere
*when you put 2 words together (my ball, more milk, big boy, all done, etc)
*whenever you get a chance you climb up on the table or the office chair and dance around until I catch you and take you down

Love you to bits baby boy! Excited to spend another holiday season with my little man!

World Wildlife Zoo

Kayden loves zoos so we decided to check out another local zoo with his grandparents today. This zoo is in Litchfield Park on the "west side" of town. We headed there after church today and Kayden loved how close you can get to the animals at this zoo. We got to feed giraffes, get right up next to zebras, pet deer and Kayden went on a train ride with grandma and grandpa. The zoo had lots of monkeys, which are one of Kayden's favorite animals so he was super happy to see them. The giraffes tongues are super long, sticky and rough, Kayden preferred throwing the food at the giraffes instead of letting them lick it off his hand but grandma, daddy and mommy all let the sticky tongue lick our hands. We even let a goat out of the petting zoo going in so we had an exciting day:-)

Thanksgiving

Kayden eating pumpkin pie

giving grandma her turkey tile

daddy carving the turkey

grandma making her famous pumpkin pies

We celebrated Kayden's 2nd Thanksgiving this week with grandma and grandpa W. They flew in on Monday and Kayden was so excited to see them. As soon as we got home he brought them both back to his playroom to play. We have had lots of park time and play time while they have been here. It was so nice having them here to help (or do:-) the food on Thanksgiving. Kayden didn't like the food, or any food really that day. He is teething pretty badly so he is going whole days with barely eating anything and it stresses his mommy out. Pumpkin pie was the only thing he did eat some of that day, he would go from my pie to daddy's, to grandma's and then grandpa's and steal a bite from each person's plate:-) Pretty cute little guy we have.
On Friday my mom and I got to shop the black Friday craziness for the first time in 5years. Every Friday after Thanksgiving before Kyle and I moved away my mom, aunts and girl cousins would get up very early in the morning, eat a piece of pumpkin pie for breakfast and go and shop all day long while all the men stayed home, slept in and watched football all day. And this year we got to hit the stores up again at the early hour of 4am! We didn't have time to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast b/c we had to get out of the house before Kayden heard us up and about, so we made a stop at Starbucks instead. We shopped at Kohl's, Wally world, Target, and then headed to the mall and shopped all the stores there. We shopped a total of 9 hours before
2pm:-) We had the tahoe full of presents and headed home to rest our tired feet and join the boys on the couch. The crazy stores here were way crazier than we were used to in Kearney, NE our previous black Friday shopping location but we got some good buys and had lots of fun doing it.

IKEA!

Look at our cool hats!

Loving Mav of course! I think he really wants him to get bigger so he has a boy in his little group that he can chase the girls with:-)

We get "how cute is that" all the time when others see us out w/ our big group of babies so today we asked for them to take a pic of our cuteness:-)

They did this all on their own without us telling them too! We looked over and they were holding hands:-)

Today we ventured to IKEA with some mommies from our playgroup. The breakfast was....I guess what do you expect for $2. Tula promptly spit the eggs out as if to say these are not eggs guys. And Kayden spit the potatoe fry out too and decided Christa's fruit chip was a much better option. But it was fun sitting and chatting and laughing at our ???able food. And then we went to the kid section of Ikea and the babies thought that was pretty cool that everything was there size and fun colors. And Christa is happy they had beds b/c.......

We Decorated!

We did it! Yesterday we decorated for Christmas. Kayden was napping when we started so when he woke up he was in awe of all the lights and the trees. He kept running back and forth from one to the other and was in a little state of ecstasy over the excitement. Of course, he doesn't like the not touching aspect and I don't like that either. I try to make my house very Kayden friendly so that he doesn't have to hear "no" over and over and so I don't have to be a broken record saying "no" all the time. So these decorations are a big change for both of us. I thought about not doing decorations b/c of this reason, but I am too much of a Christmas lover to not do them and one of my favorite memories growing up is getting ready for the Holiday season and sitting in the living room drinking hot cocoa with the tree lights on and watching Christmas movies as a family. So. we have to have decorations and we have to learn to not touch them. My mom had a great idea of letting him have his own "decoration" that he can touch (she also had the brilliant idea when we were little of putting our Christmas tree in a playpen........I guess my brothers wouldn't listen to no and that was her answer but come on mom, that did not give the pretty holiday look a tree is intended to give (however one more toddler and I might resort to something crazy b/c all I can handle is Kayden at this moment in holiday decoration world)). So we made a big deal out of his santa potatoe head and that is helping a little bit. Now I have to find a soft, kid tree for him to play with....anyone w/ any ideas do share:-) I know Hallmark has had them in the past. After he woke up he helped hang up his ornaments and loved being a helper. So excited to spend this holiday season with my little toddler. (stay tuned for mental breakdowns over the tree saga:-)