Christmas, Pt 1

Christmas week, oh where do I begin?

I suppose the beginning is best. Monday morning we had an impromptu doctor's office visit. That doctor's visit turned into a visit to the ER (per doctor's orders). Ayden had a temperature of 105 and was breathing very rapidly. After three LONG hours (remember, we were in a small, windowless room with a 16 month old, who feels absolutely terrible!) and two breathing treatments later, we were released to go home. The ER doctor actually told us that when we first arrived, he was sure Ayden would be staying with them. Fortunately for us, the breathing treatments and double dose of Tylenol and Motrin worked well. Unfortunately, we were diagnosed with RSV and an ear infection. Ayden was allowed to go home but with a barrage of medication (antibiotics, Zyrtec, and a steroid).

Oh, steroids - how I love loathe thee! My sweet little man was a TERROR! He would sporadically break down into a hissy fit. Cry and cry about nothing. I seriously thought he was switched in the hospital. Luckily, a few family members brought it to my attention that the steroids were the culprit (albeit it was Christmas Day by the time this occurred! 4 days later...) Fortunately for my sanity, Ayden took his last dose Friday night and let me tell you, by Sunday - he was back to his old self! Kendall and I figured while we were already used to his fits, let's take his plug away... So little Ayden has been plug free since Saturday morning! Whoo hoo! Now for those of you still reading and haven't jumped to the pictures yet, move along!

A little montage of Christmas morning breakfast. I hadn't mentioned it SNOWED crazy like Christmas Eve night... We made it back from The Colony just in time, just didn't manage to make it home. We ended up staying the night at Keni's, which was ok seeing as to how we always eat breakfast there anyway! Love me some ham and eggs...

Ayden did an excellent job as Santa. Every now and then he needed a little direction, as given by Aunt Jennifer.

Remember me saying he attacks the camera when you try to take a picture? It's because he is more interested in looking at the pictures already taken.

He finally made it home to see what Santa brought him. I'm pretty sure it was a hit, judging by the look on his face.

He got these shoes for Christmas from Grandma. He has a shoe fetish I think. Hopefully this will pass...

Holiday in the Park

We had the awesome opportunity to spend a Saturday with family at Six Flags. The park was open from 10 -2 for Bell Helicopter employees and their families, so crowds were not too much of an issue. The catch: it was freezing! Poor Ayden had two sweaters on and he was still cold. Cousin Cole, Aunt Jennifer & Uncle Mitch came, too, but didn't have the opportunity to have their picture taken with us.

Here's my big boy sitting on a stump waiting for Daddy and Jayton to ride the Tony Hawk ride - which they never did! Apparently the line was too long...

Cousin Cole got to drive a big truck.

Jayton looks so excited to be with the family... At least Jesse enjoys our company!

Ayden didn't want to stay in his stroller, but he also wanted to walk in the opposite direction everyone else was headed. This made for a fun afternoon! He did get to eat some yummy fajita quesadillas, though! I think everyone that had one would agree with me that they were some of the best!

This little booger almost won't let you take his picture anymore. Once he sees the camera is trained on him, he comes running at ya!

As far as more blog posts, I am currently typing this one from my work computer. I still haven't figured out why I am not able to upload photos from either of my home computers. I will do my best to keep this updated, however!

Glitch in the system...

Just wanted to let everyone know I have been trying to update the blog for a few weeks now, but it isn't cooperating. I can't seem to get any pictures to load. I have even installed Fire Fox per Blogger's suggestion, and that didn't help either. Not sure what I am going to do but as soon as I get something figured out, you will see the update! Until then, here is the only picture I got for ya...


;(

Halloween came late this year...

Actually, I just took forever to blog about it! Halloween wasn't a big deal to us this year as Ayden is still too young too appreciate the sugary goodness it possesses. And yet that statement came from a girl who never ate her candy, but instead hid it so no one else could have it... Alas, a story for another time...

For those of you who have had to buy costumes for young toddlers, you know that the selection is not too great. Unless, of course, you would like your child to be a superhero. And not that superheroes are terrible costumes, just not mine and Kendall's thing. So with that, we decided to stick with last year's theme: Star Wars! Last year Ayden was Yoda, and might I say a mighty cute one!

Unfortunately, most Star Wars costumes involve masks. Mask + 1 yr old = no bueno. The competition was between R2D2 and Chewbacca. The R2D2 costumes were very cheap looking, so we went with Chewbacca. And I thought he looked great! But he wasn't so keen on the costume. He never even wore the head piece. Oh well, there's always next year!

Doing what he loves best!

I get a kick out of what other kids dress up as. Below is a small montage of the kiddos we came in contact with:

Halloween may have been late, but apparently Christmas came early! And in all honesty, this costume was his idea 100%! Kid's going to make millions with that creativity.

She was a princess, but never really wanted to put her costume on, just the jewelry. But she looked absolutely adorable either way! She even had a Shrek to save her, then Shrek proposed to her mommy! (And mommy did say yes!)

The group shot. Not a single one with Ayden smiling. We weren't too sure if fault belonged to the costume, or Alex as a vampire...

Kam even stopped by for a visit. Cutest little train I've ever seen!

Leaves are a fallin'

We have a yard full of leaves and I thought Ayden might like to play in them. I was wrong...

We were walking back to see bandit yesterday when we got home and the wind had blown a huge pile of leaves onto the side of the house. We had to walk through them to get to the dog. As soon as his feet were submerged, Ayden stopped dead in his tracks! He looked down and couldn't see his feet! I thought he might think it fun to kick around in the leaves, so I grabbed my camera. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Once he realized he was in new territory, he ran directly to me and latched on to my leg as pictured below:

(Boy is 15 months old and is almost half my height!)

I managed to snap a picture of him running to my legs!
Here is has just noticed the leaves after I got my camera. I was kicking them up in the air, but he didn't seem to think that was a fun game.

A boy and his cheese...

Proof he is his father's son! I suppose all the cheese I ate while I was pregnant didn't help, either! He has taken to sitting in the book shelf instead of using it for storing his toys. Of course, this is after we removed the bottom shelf. There was a bit of a mishap with it and Ayden's eye...

The other photos are just for aesthetics. They aren't of great quality, but I am trying to play around with the settings on my camera as I have decided to take up photography as a hobby. We'll see how well that works out!

My husband is the greatest husband in the world...

And I may have to pop his head when he gets home tonight! ;)

I mentioned to him yesterday that I wanted to get a photo editing software. Not the kind you can just download that lets you crop and remove red eye, but a high tech one like the pros use! I have wanted this for a while, but I am a bit of a miser...

Well, Kendall brings the lap top home yesterday and guess what I have...a really awesome photo editing program! Whoo hoo. He may regret this, as I spent about an hour and a half last night editing 2 pictures. That's right, just two! But they are so dang cute!

I am a really big fan of the black and whites with a touch of color, so I am so super excited!

So I was sitting at the computer...

Which I don't do a whole lot at home. And for a few reasons. First, Ayden thinks he needs to come in and control the mouse for you. Or add a few numbers from the 10 key. He has also discovered the power button on the tower. Yay. Second, I sit at a desk all day staring at the computer. (you would think I would have more time to blog, huh? ;)

But I stumbled across a blog (ironic) that I have started reading and had a lot of catching up to do. So I was doing a little reading and Ayden was playing with his ride on toys. I noticed they were getting closer to me, but I didn't think much about it. OK, let me backtrack a step. Ayden has started going in the bathroom and attempting to play in the toilet. I always seem to hear the toilet lid go up so he just gets a hand in there. Needless to say, we are going to be purchasing toilet lid locks soon! Back to the story, our front bathroom is behind me (while taking this picture). I was sitting at the computer and hear the toilet seat go up. I go to get up and...

I am blocked in! The little bugger is way too smart. He positioned his toys so I wouldn't be able to get out. Well, as I go into the bathroom and see his face of "How did you get out of my booby trap?" I just start laughing because that is when I realize what he did! Sometimes that boy is just too smart for his own good.

And these pictures made me think we may need to show some TLC to the wood floors, huh?

Ayden and I spent the day cleaning mommy and daddy's room. Some of you know that is quite a task! But he was up to it. After all, he wasn't doing any of the work. Rather, he helped create twice the work for mommy! I had folded a pile of Kendall's shirts, and apparently Ayden thought they were improperly folded. So he just started grabbing them one by one and tossing them across the room.

He has become fascinated by baskets, and I do believe I have Cole to thank for this. Ayden will crawl into a basket at Jennifer's house and Cole will push Ayden around the living room. Both of them find this extremely hilarious. Not so hilarious when Ayden is at home with mommy and wants to be slid around. After his initial fuss because I gave up after a few trips, he decided he would just play in the sock basket. This actually entertained him for quote some time. He would put the socks on his head, behind his neck, as many as he could in one hand... He actually started putting the clean socks in with the dirty whites! Ah, to be 1 again.

Poor thing won't be able to fit in this basket much longer.

This was actually the first picture I took, and I took it because he was trying to put one of my socks on!

I do apologize for the hiatus I had taken, but I am honestly going to try to keep this updated! It's just so very hard to do when Ayden is awake because he thinks he needs to be on the computer with you!

Holidays are coming up, so I hope to have a lot to blog about!

The video says it all...

I have been trying to add the photos to the last post but have been having issues with Blogger's uploader. As soon as I can I will get them posted.

We're back!

So I haven't gotten as much flack as I thought I would for not updating this thing. Mostly I have gotten complaints about Ayden's birthday not being up. For those immediately interested, the Shutterfly page has all pictures up. I promise I will do a post on it soon.

For now, this is somewhat a birthday post. For Ayden's actual birthday, we went to the lake. Grandma found some old pictures of Kendall (I believe at Galveston?) and thought we would like to see the two together. Oddly enough, we have copies of these pictures but I never thought about them! So, have a walk down memory lane with Kendall and a fresh look at Ayden. I hear the word 'clone' a lot...

Gettin' Jiggy

Ayden hung out with Grandma and Papa one day and got to go on a four wheeler ride. Don't let the face fool you!

A couple of weekends ago (yes, I am aware how far behind I am on my blogging) we visited Grandpa and Grammy. Ayden used the opportunity to swim in the pool. It was still a little chilly, but we gave it a go. His first reaction when the water touched his feet? He busted out laughing!

His hair is very light, so we just bought him this totally awesome hat to save his head from sun burns.

I bought him a pool for our house. It doesn't quite compare, but he seemed to enjoy it a little bit.

A deep sea friend and America's past time

Ayden has started moving around in the bath tub, and he tends to head towards the spout. I have been on the look out for a spout cover, and finally broke down and just got one. I plan on doing his bathroom in sea creatures anyway, so this Octopus cover should go nicely.

At first, he was a little tentative...

He then realized it was all good!

He was amazed at how the water came out the four legs. During his bath this morning he decided he wanted to play with it and took it off. Of course, that defeats the purpose!


On Saturday night we went to the Rangers/Athletics game with Mitchell, Jennifer, and Cole. We had bought the tickets a few months ago and we were super excited the day had finally come! It was very hot (high 80s) but we had great seats that were in the shade. For those of you Ranger fans, you know that the Temple has been filling up since the first of March so we had a full house around us. Ayden did great! He didn't realize there was a baseball game going on, but was rather enthralled by the kids behind us. He also enjoyed using mom and dad as jungle gyms.

We got there rather early because our plan was to see the Casting Crowns concert. Word to those who would like to attend a concert at a Rangers game: Get there hours before the concert not the game.

I took more pictures, but they are horizontal so I opted to not put them on here. But here is a little side note:

Casting Crowns was in concert to help bring awareness to a program called I Am Second. I actually researched this group a few months back because there was a billboard with the website, iamsecond.com, and Josh Hamilton's picture was on the board. For those of you who have not heard his amazing story, he was the number 1 draft pick in 1999 by Tampa Bay. Within a few years, he was a drug addict and no longer in the game. He attributes his remarkable comeback to his faith in God, and I Am Second is a program for recovering addicts that focuses on faith. I encourage you to read Josh's story somewhere (but of course I recommend his book, Beyond Belief). Ok, I will now step off my soap box! ;)