*SHOCK* Don't die from a heart attack.....YES I am finally posting!

OK.......OK..........I know I have be negligent in my postings. You see, my brain and body have been hijacked for the last few months when I get near the computer. Jamie and I have found a game that we like to play together on the computer...and so, when I sit down at the computer after Jaiden goes to bed, I don't think to check my email or update my blog or Facebook. All I can think to do is get on our game.....what an addiction! LOL! Anyway...I know you all have been dying to see the pics from Christmas time around here and the video of Jaiden seeing Santa at Christmas so here it goes.........

It all started with Thanksgiving.....Jaiden is very interested in Morgan. Especially the attention he gets from holding him....lol.

In December we got the storm of the ages....it seemed like. These pictures were just from the beginning of the snowfall. Didn't take any from the end part.....hehe.

But inside we stayed toasty warm, preparing for Christmas. Like Heather and Josiah, we too decided to make a tradition of making a gingerbread house at Christmas. Luckily, I read her blog first.....:) So I prepared the house and let it dry. Then put all the frosting on it. THEN had Jaiden come over and decorate it. Worked out beautifully. He got to eat a few pieces when we were all done. A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE that he waited till then. He was very proud of our house and talked about it at daycare for at least a week! Sadly the gingerbread was REALLY tough to eat. He got to eat two of the little trees, but I tasted them and they weren't very good....good thing they had frosting and candy on them.

We did get a tree this year....however, it died within a week and I never took any pictures. Additionally, the story of how we got the tree was just as sad. Of course being new to the area, we don't know where anything is. I looked everywhere (phone book, internet, etc...) to find a tree farm in the area. Nothing! So, we resigned ourselves to going to the local nursery to pick one out. They had the inside decorated beautifully, had a couple reindeers for the kids to look at (Santa's, of course, which Jaiden was not particularly fond of), HOWEVER, their trees were marginal at best. We searched for nearly a half hour (and the lot was small) to find a cut tree that was worth anything. Finally we both agreed on one, got it home, put it directly in water......and the rest of the story is history. IT DIED QUICKLY! Oh well! The REALLY sad part about this story is that the following week after we got the tree, my collegues at work told me that there was a tree farm out in Kennewick! ARGH! Live and learn!

The Friday that Christmas Break started we decided to take Jaiden for his first trip to Chucky Cheese's since he had been such a good boy for us during our stressful time at work. When we told him where we were going, he told us that he wanted to ride Scoop (the name of the bulldozer on Bob the Builder cartoon) when we got there. Of course, he has never been to this Chucky Cheese's, so I said, "Well, if they have one you can definately ride it." Of course thinking "They aren't going to have it and he's going to be upset...." In the car all the way there...."I'm going to ride Scoop....I want to ride Scoop..." Imagine our surprise when we got there and there was a Scoop in the toddler section! We still can't figure out how he knew there was a Scoop at Chucky Cheese's.

Christmas this year was a BLAST! This is the first year Jaiden REALLY got into it. He was excited to take pictures with Santa, open presents, see the Christmas lights on the houses, etc... We had fun decorating the tree and talking about the ornaments as we put them up. Christmas Eve, we went over to Melissa's house as we always do to open presents. Jaiden got a *HUGE* surprise! SANTA (AKA - Uncle Steve) came to visit before he had to go deliver presents to other boys and girls. We were not sure how he would react.....see for yourself.

(Video post)

He flipped....huh! He was soooooooo excited. We were shocked at his response. Then after Santa left he tore through his presents. He couldn't get enough and of course was soooooo distracted by the toys he got he forgot there was more. LOL! Grandma Colleen just had knee surgery so she was enjoying the show from her bed on the couch....and Dad was the designated toy opener, hence all the paper and such around him. Notice no pics of me.....of course....I was behind the camera.

On Christmas Day, we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa...unfortunately G-Grandma Dora couldn't make it in the house due to all the snow, so we took some presents to her and spent time at her place. She really had fun with Jaiden. She's a really good tickle monster!

After all that, G-Grandma Dora was tuckered out!

No pics from the new year yet.....look for some more around Jaiden's birthday....earlynext month! Stay tuned...and I promise I won't be as delinquent. :)

The many faces of Jaiden....Nov 2008

Jaiden has really been into games lately. We went to the store and picked out a couple and here is him and dad having fun learning how to play...

We have been enjoying the fall around here. We have a few trees in the backyard that dumped tons of leaves on our lawn. So, Jaiden and I used our new leaf blower to blow the leaves into a big pile and Dad put them in the yard waste bin. We didn't jump in them, due to the icky spiders around here. Can never be too careful. He was such a big help as you can see.

At daycare, Jaiden has been working on his art skills (drawing, painting, using materials to make crafts, glueing, etc...). Here are some of his recent projects for fall.

This last project was REALLY cute. They made a placemat for Thanksgiving. They read books and talked about Thanksgiving, then they took quotes from the kids and put them in the left corner. Jaiden said..."Turkey comes from inside (of what I don't know), cooks turkey with a pan, I am going to have chicken nuggets with turkey. Momma is going to cook it." What a riot!

Here are the faces he's been making of late. I don't know where he gets them! ;)

The life of Jaiden

As of late, Jaiden has been, well......, a handful. Of course, I'm sure that it is just that he is getting closer to three and his language has taken off, and that he is smarter than your average monkey... ;) Lately, he has been into putting things on his head and walking around. Last week it was his trick or treat bucket. Yesterday he was entertaining us with this....

In addition to these antics, he has been jumping on his bed and flying over his railing, much to my dismay. Jamie and I decided after this and other gymnastics that he's been trying that it was time to go to another, less risky bed. So, we went shopping today. Here's the end result... which will go nicely once we get to painting and putting up the decorations we bought for his room a couple months ago.

His Christmas present from us just got a lot smaller! :)

Halloween: Trick-o'-Treat

This Halloween season has been a lot of fun with Jaiden. He is old enough to definately have opinions about things and has actively participated in all activities that we have had for him. We finally got around to carving pumpkins tonight, after dinner, but before trick-or-treating. He was all for the drawing and the cutting of the pumpkins, BUT...forget about the cleaning them out. EEEWWWW...goooey! :)

Here is dad carving Jaiden's pumpkin. It's a one eyed, one horned, toothy pumpkin eater! :)

Then after we got done with the pumpkins, we got ready to go trick-or-treating...

Here is our little lounging monkey after we were done.

Jaiden's daycare has had some really cute activities for the kids during the last couple weeks. Here is Jaiden showing some of them off. The pumpkin hat was especially cute.

Eastern Washington Pumpkin Patch

Well, we ventured to the pumpkin patch today. What a BIG difference! The pumpkin patch was HUGE! The activities were good, but we had to pay for them. The wind was amazing! It was hard to see sometimes because of the wind whipping the sand and hay around.

All in all we had a GREAT time! We spent about 3 hours there between picking our pumpkins, doing the activities and going through the Country Mercantile store (which by the way is AWESOME)! Check out my facebook account for more pics.