Trains!

Jaydon really enjoys Thomas and trains and so we looked up the local railroad museum and decided to take him to it (the hours aren't great for a napping toddler but since he had such a late night the night before he slept in and we were ready to go). He had a blast! In fact, I wasn't sure how long he would want to stay but he sure out lasted me, I was ready to leave waaaay before he was but fortunately grandma and dad were around so I could hang out in the chairs and relax a little bit.

There was an area for young kids with a large Thomas to ride on and then a train table with a ton of trains to use.

Then there was the big set up with a couple different trains going round and round. Jaydon loved seeing them come and go.

Jaydon and daddy watching!

After the museum we walked a ways to a lovely woodfire pizza spot for lunch! Such great pizza!

Coaches vs. Cancer

Every year for the past few years our basketball conference has done a large scale fundrasier to help fight cancer. Every team plays in a game decked out with pink and we all wear special t-shirts and have honorary coaches who have been impacted by cancer. This year with some snow changes to our schedule we went from hosting the game to being the visitor and while I was always going to have my mom come to my JV game, she got to be our varsity honorary coach as well. Jeremy was out of town and we had to bring Jaydon along as well so grandma got to be an honorary coach and babysitter. It was a great event raising money to fight cancer or crush cancer as our t-shirt logos said. Thanks mom for coming up and participating.

Jaydon watching from the stands with our statistician and a couple players. He later climbed down and came almost onto the cour during the game before I caught him and took him to the bench to be with grandma.

The girls getting ready for the starting line-ups to be announced and my mom with another coach on the side.

My mom had to stand in the center to be recognized, they always read a write-up about every honorary coach and this is what was written and read about her.

When Susan Lahti was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2010 her thoughts went to her mother, Jean, who had battled and beat breast cancer 3 times before losing her fight with colon cancer a number of years later. Susan decided that aggressive treatment was her best option and after her double mastectomy she was declared Cancer Free!! She has been able to go from a participant in Casting for Recovery, a fly-fishing support group for women with cancer, to an instructor, continuing to help others deal with this terrible disease. Susan is the mother of Squalicum Assistant Coach Sarah Smoldon and has helped instill in Sarah and her entire family the love of basketball and the pursuit of good health. Susan played basketball for the Western Washington University Vikings and basketball has continued to play a large role in her life and lives of her family. She is a physical educator at Mt. Lake Terrace High School where she coached varsity basketball along with having previously coached at the community college level. She is happy to be here tonight, back on the court, where she spent so many years playing and coaching, and is honored to be part of such a wonderful event to help CRUSH CANCER!

Candy Land

Jaydon learned how to play Candy Land (or Candy Lands - as he calls it). It has been fun to play with him and it came at the right time because we were able to keep him happy and somewhat still while he was recovering from being sick. He can also do some Chutes and Ladders but he prefers Candy Land.

Is it a bird, a plane... no it's Super Jaydon!

Jaydon loves Sesame Street. Cookie and Super Grover are definitely two of his favorite characters. He has taken to wanting to wear a cape like Super Grover and sometimes even a hat is necessary to be the helmet. He runs around shouting "up, up and away" and even sometimes just doing "walk, walk, and away" as one of our shows has Super Grover being unsuccessful at flying so he just walks towards the end. It is pretty funny. He has also started thinking that running around the house naked is a highlight of his day so with the cape and being naked (from the waist down he is a happy super hero.

Hmmm, what kind of parent am I?

Jaydon and Higgins were so excited about what we bought at the store that they were both on the stool in a somewhat precarious position trying to get more snacks! So far no major injuries have resulted so I guess we are doing ok.

Sick boy :-(

Well, I was hoping we would be one of the 'lucky' families who only had to deal with croup through the first year and a half of Jaydon's life but it appears he still has pretty small airways so whenever he gets a cold he gets croup. One of his favorite things to do is go outside and breathe in the cold crisp fresh air. So Jeremy and I were splitting shifts for a few nights in a row of our poor little guy wanting to just go sit outside. Jaydon also decided that he wanted me to sleep next to his crib for a few nights so big ol' pregnant belly and all, I managed to be fairly comfortable on some couch cushions next to his crib so we could hold hands. Pretty sweet and sad all at the same time.

And yes, Jeremy still wears shorts in the snow in the middle of the night when it is in the upper teens or low twenties.

We definitely watched a bit of Sesame Street during the worst of it. This was one of the first times Jaydon has truly been out of it while sick and did not want to move from the couch. Poor kiddo. Not to mention the fact that a week later we had to go back to the Dr. for our first ear infection which led to an epically bad day with Jeremy out of town and waiting in the Drs office for a looooong time and culminating in Jaydon spilling an entire bottle of amoxicillin all over himself and his carseat and some on me and it was just a beautiful mess. We survived!

SNOW!!!

We had a pretty epic snowfall for our neck of the woods. I can only remember one other week in the past where we have had school cancelled for the week. That time before was right after Thanksgiving about 5 years ago (we had and 1.5 feet of snow that time) and now this past Martin Luther King Jr. week when we got about 8inches of snow. It was fun to take Jaydon out and play in the snow. Unfortunately, he got pretty sick after the first two days so we were not out enjoying it as much as we would have liked.

We had about 3 inches of accumulation on Sunday so Jaydon got decked out in his gear and went adventuring.

He was enjoying it!

Our neighbors built an awesome snowman and so Jaydon decided he wanted to try building a snowman too.

Here he is with our neighbors building a mini-snowman.

Hard at work, he reminds me of his father, not wearing gloves and not minding much!

Trying to put the carrot noses in.

Jaydon's finished project in the front, ZZ's snowman in the back.

Jaydon was pretty thrilled with his finished result.

We got more snow the next day so we went out again and this time it was fun to watch Jaydon try trudging through it as the snow came up to around his knees.

Making a snowball!

Jeremy and Nana shoveling away. Again we have great neighbors and everyone sort of just pitches in and helps everyone else out. Jeremy was a shoveling machine and kept our area pretty nice.

Happy 2nd Birthday Brenna!

With coaching basketball we weren't able to make it to Brenna's 2nd birthday party but luckily I got to watch her on the day of her birthday so we celebrated at our house. She loved Jaydon's bike helmet so we went out and bought her one! While the sizing isn't great, she loves it and I was very thankful she chose the Elmo ABCs as the pink Barbie one and red Cars one were a bit too much for me.

We made cupcakes that day and before Brenna left we had her and Jaydon split a cupcake after singing.

Good stuff

Happy Birthday Girl!!



Video of "Happy Birthday"

Animal Train

Jaydon got quite a few new stuffed animals for Christmas. He is loving having them and of course they are loving playing 'tackle football' with Jaydon. This morning he decided to line them up and make a train out of them.

We then asked him to sit by them and keep practicing his smile. Pretty cute!

I will say being 7 months pregnant and having a child who loves to play tackle football more than anything else has been a bit of an adventure. We run around the house, and 'gently' crash to the floor. I am starting to get to the point where this is pretty uncomfortable so thank goodness I now have a lot more stuffed animals to crash onto and to help me tackle Jaydon.

Sunrise and Packing up Christmas

One morning right after the New Year Jeremy was up and had to go to his car for something, this was his view behind our house. The picture of course doesn't do it justice but it was an amazing sight to see. Such a vibrant sunrise.

One of my least favorite things to do in the entire year is put away all the Christmas decorations. My house has been so festive for months with different holidays and then it is a bit of a let down (I do decorate for Valentine's Day but I wait a little while and it is not nearly to the same extent). I was not the only one who was bummed this year, Lily did not want to see her tree skirt bed disappear and Jaydon still talks about "Santa come" every day. I love how excited he was about the holidays this year and hope he will continue to have that love for the season for many years to come.

Oh and a side note of success, Jeremy and I got our prelit tree un-prelit as all the lights were no longer working so now we just have a regular tree that we will string lights on. It wasn't as bad as I had feared but did take an hour and a half to get all the lights off.

Happy New Year!

What do you do for New Year's with an awesome toddler and fun neighbors? Celebrate like crazy with a kid party where you watch the Sydney countdown and fireworks on TV through YouTube (isn't technology great) at 7:40pm, have some good sparkling juice and then get the kid home for bed like normal for a nice relaxing evening enjoying the last of the holiday festivities.

We have great neighbors who have a 3.5 and almost 2 year old. Jaydon loves playing with ZZ and Emmett so it was great when they invited us over for some kid fun. Another friend Crystal came with her two girls Kiera (3.5) and Kadance (almost 2) so it was definitely a wild and crazy kid party. The house has a terrific hallway around a corner and the pictures of the dog piles are what ensued after numerous screaming and running trips up and down the hall from all five of them. It was loud and fun and we only had a couple injuries!

I think Jaydon was in heaven being able to 'tackle' and play with all the kids.

We then watched the Sydney countdown and firework show with a bit of an impromptu dance party for the kids and rang in the 7:55pm New Year with a sparkling cider or champagne toast.


The kids getting to all clink 'cheers' and drink their special juice

After Jeremy and I got Jaydon home (an easy walk next dor) and put him to bed around 8:30 we pulled our mattress into the living room to sleep under the Christmas tree, watch the latest Harry Potter (that we never made it to the theaters to see) and have a fabulous relaxing New Year's. Quite reminiscent of two years ago when Jaydon was just four months (check out December 2009 for a flashback to that one).