Dave, Amy, Cashel and Peter visit

Our good friends now live in Oregon but we are so thankful they have lots of family in WA and are willing to make a trip up our way to visit for a day. I didn't get the camera out as often as I should have but managed to snag a few phtos.

My sister had gotten us a gingerbread man to decorate and after the boys went to bed Cashel got to stay up and decorate it, she did a great job!

Ta Da!!

Before they were getting ready to leave, we woke Jaydon up to say good-bye. He doesn't do so well waking up when it is not on his own terms so he always needs a bit of snuggle time. Here Jeremy was letting him watch "C is for Cookie" by the Cookie Monster and of course Cashel and Peter got to enjoy it was well.

We had a fun visit and just wish it could last a bit longer.

At home enjoying some presents

Jaydon sure did enjoy his days of celebrating, however, he was not as into opening presents as I had thought he would be. There were certainly some he was excited to dig into but after one or two he would wear out and want to just play with what he had and not open any of his others. He sure has a lot of family and friends who spoil him and we are all so thankful for the love we are shown by so many.

Here you can see his football tent and his new train set both of which he loved.

Even Higgins loved Jaydon's presents, he and Lily have played and slept in the tent which is currently hosting many of the plush stuffed animals and toys Jaydon received.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We woke up at Grandma's and did stockings in the morning, then hung out for awhile before heading down to my step-grandparents' house in Tacoma to visit with my dad and Diane's side of the family. It was a whirlwind of travel but it was a great day visiting with family.

Atta boy, just dump everything out!

Doing some pull-ups to work off all the Christmas goodies.

The family at the table eating a lovely ham dinner!

Christmas Eve!

My mom's family always does Christmas on Christmas Eve and this year was no exception. A fun tradition when there are young kids who believe in Santa around is to have the child go out 'looking' for Santa in the car while the other people clean and get all the presents out. Then we notify the driver when we are ready and when Santa is here. My uncle used to play Santa when we were kids and this year my mom got her next door neighbor to do it for Jaydon. Quite a fun tradition for us and such a joy for the kids to get to find Santa at home giving out some presents before he heads on to the next house.

Jeremy and Jaydon getting ready to go out looking for Santa after dinner.

Low and behold, they got home and Santa was there!

Santa gave Jaydon a special gift but as you can see Jaydon had a hard time taking his eyes off Santa.

Finally getting ready to open his gift, yes Santa did listen and Jaydon got an apple, some bunny crackers and some dried apple pieces. (Sure made for a nice easy gift, I can only hope Jaydon will continue to put inexpensive snacks on his wish list).

After Santa left and had a cookie, Jaydon got to select a cookie to enjoy!

His Grandma and Gram spoiled him with a Skoot bike, it is a very nice balance bike that Jaydon immediately enjoyed.

Auntie Jenny and Uncle L also did a great job by getting Jaydon this stuffed Giraffe. Jaydon was so excited he played tackle with it for quite some time.

Opening more gifts.

Giraffe riding his bike.

New head lamps for the cousins. Sorry I didn't get very many photos of the family. Those dang toddlers tend to steal the show.

A video of our Santa delivery.

Attempts at the Family Christmas Card Photo

Wow, if you recieved our Christmas card you saw that we didn't actually get a photo of the whole family together. The holidays sure started out a bit hectic this year and between coaching, traveling, having houseguests and just having a toddler we only tried a couple attempts to get the family photo. I decided to share the sequence with you just for laughs. As you can see by the end the cats had definitely had enough.

Injury

It is a bit strange, Jaydon has an injury and we cannot figure out what is really wrong. On Friday he was jumping around in one of the big bouncy houses and sort of crumpled down and cried owie. He then limped and didn't want to walk on his left foot/leg. After a trip to the Dr. that evening we decided on no x-rays because he was putting pressure on it, but that he should stay off of it and rest as much as possible (oh so easy with a very active two year old). So after watching a bit more Sesame Street then we care to we got him to rest. By Sunday he was still limping quite a bit so we decided to take him in for x-rays. They did the foot (not the leg) and didn't find anything. Thus figuring a sprain and to let him use it but monitor it. The injury seemed quite a bit better after last evening of being able to be on it and walk around but then tody he had another instance of just falling over (not even doing anything) and really crying because it hurt. We may be in for more Dr. trips or we might just have to try going back to takign it really easy for awhile. Seems weird to have a young kid like that be able to sprain their ankle with such loose tendons and ligaments but that appears to be the best answer at this point. Unfortunately, it really sucks to try and keep him not as active and he still can't quite communicate with us everything that is going on. Send good healing vibes and prayers his way!

Stockings!

So excited! My stepmom is a knitter and while I had a homemade stocking from my childhood we didn't really have a family set of stockings and I wanted some that coordinated so Diane volunteered to make us matching ones! Dad and Diane arrived in town yesterday and brought with them the new stockings! They are great, I am so pleased! We have already planned out what baby girls stocking will look like to be added to the mix for next year.

The cat stockings we have had for quite awhile, and while I love my cats dearly I am not going to ask Nana to knit us some cat stockings too!

Hello Deer

I was in the kitchen and looked out the window and this is what I saw. I was a bit in shock because while we have seen deer droppings in our yard in places I haven't actually seen a deer just saunter right through our two houses towards the cul de sac. Unfortunately Jaydon was napping so he didn't get to enjoy seeing the big animal but Higgins got up to watch and poofed up quite nicely.

Hudson's Christmas Party

Jaydon has a friend from his parent and me preschool class who had a lovely Christmas party. We decided to take Brenna along for some fun festivities.

Posing by the Christmas tree.

Brenna working hard on her ornament.

Hudson (the party thrower) and Jaydon in front of the tree.

Enjoying some Mac and Cheese, along with lots of other delicious food and goodies.

Singning carols with all kinds of instruments.

Smiling Practice

After Dad got home from AK and our trip to Leavenworth he saw the newest Santa photos and decided it was time to really try teaching Jaydon to smile. Here are a couple of the shots he got one night while I was away at basketball.

Quite a cutie when he smiles!

Leavenworth Weekend!

Our annual family trip to Leavenworth with my mom's family is so much fun. We sure are able to cram a lot of fun activiites into one very full Saturday. If you want to look back to previous Leavenworth Christmases look through our Dec 2009 and Dec 2010 files and you can find the other links.

Jaydon and Ed enjoy playing with Legos together, this year they both also enjoyed the singing Snowman that our neighbors, the Nanas, sent with us for the trip.

Uncle Bill up to his old tricks, trying to teach Keeloch a new trick.

The cheese was strong incentive but neither Keeloch nor Bailey were all that fond of the laundry basket.


Inside SNOWBALL FIGHT! See video at bottom.

Jaydon out for a walk with the Dad.

Auntie Jenny, Dad and Jaydon

Joe with the football!

Jaydon on the snow, it was pretty hard and crusty but he still enjoyed being on it.

Ooops a slip!

Looking at the ducks with Dad.

Shoulder ride! Dad had been gone in AK the previous week so Jaydon always loves to spend a lot of quality time with him when he comes back.

Jenny and L, finally Jen was the non-photogenic one :-)

Better!

Lunch time! Jim, Sam, Joe and Jaydon.

Grabbing food for the feast! We have such glorious lunches we don't need to eat much for dinner which is nice because it leaves more room for cookies and Aunt Mary's Almond Roca.

Decorating Cookies!

This year the winner was Jeremy, for his Santa hat dinosaur in the middle! Awesome!

Out for the lighting of the streets in Leavenworth.

First the tree, then all the buildings! Jaydon loved seeing all the "Santa Lights"

Family photo

Jaydon did a great job meeting Santa here and was having a good conversation with him, asking for an apple of course.

Photo op.

Family in town, Jim, Jeremy, Jaydon, L, Jenny, Grandma, Britt and Gram.

Next adventure were the car races! Jaydon really enjoyed playing with the cars.

Dad modifying the track to make it have a loop!

Joe gazing lovingly into Santa's eyes. We were a bit full of good food and sweets by this time!

Our indoor snowball fight!