Yeah, so all winter I have holed myself up and cozied with Jaeden as we have become intimately familiar with the characters of Cars 2.  I have dreamed and planned and replanned a Disney World vacation for our family that we may or may not ever take. I have enjoyed the warm days outside with Jaeden... and let Matt enjoy the cold ones with him.

We have enjoyed Valentine's Day, even though Jaeden was sick. However, that didn't stop him from loving the cards from the grandparents... and a few treats. That's a mustache lollipop from my mom.

But the best thing that has happened to us this winter is that we all got to be sealed in the Bountiful Temple as a forever family! (If any of you have pictures that include me there, please send them my way!)

In explaining a little more about the concept of Christmas to Jaeden, I told him how we give presents to people to show our love for them just like Jesus gave us the gift of the Atonement. I asked him who he wanted to give a gift to, and he said, "Daddy!" I asked him what he wanted to get Daddy, and he hesitated and didn't say anything. I started listing off things Daddy wanted or needed, and Jaeden said he wanted to get Daddy a tie. Jaeden picked out the tie on his own, and I couldn't pass up the matching child's tie so that they would match for our sealing day.

Jaeden's Favorite Things

This is a short post dedicated to some of Jaeden's favorite things. Recently he's grown to love a few different songs, and he wants to sing them all the time. Here he is on two different car trips, entertaining himself by singing in the car. See if you can recognize the songs. (notice how he gets so excited about the "fighting" part. Such a boy.

Finally, here is Jaeden with his toys,

and Jaeden on a backhoe that his daddy rented.  He was so excited, until it got turned on (it was a bit too loud for him!)

 And, while we're at it, here is Jaeden's favorite Doggie, playing with our friend's dog (who is 20 times her size, by the way!)

Woah. Long time, no post... literally

To anyone who even still blogs these days, or more importantly, to anyone who looked at our blog once upon a time... my sincerest apologies.  We have been too busy (or lazy?) to update, and many have expressed disappointment with that.  So, without any further delay, we will attempt to catch up via photos and then continue to update the blog.  Here's some of our favorites from December 2011 on...



This was us figuring out why Jaeden wasn't sleeping back in January.  Note the duct tape... that went on all his diapers from that point on...


This is Jaeden saying thank you for his Valentines Day lolly-pop. He ate that for days afterwards... until mom found the rest of it on the carpet. Bye-bye lollypop.

Jaeden loved the "log ride" at Idlewild. However, he was totally unprepared for the drop this time (I think this was time # 76) and his face is the classic Jaeden worried face. It's not the best picture, but it's the perfect depiction of our son when he is nervous.

Here are some family pictures we took in July. Note that Jaeden is hamming it up in a couple of them. He gets that from his cousin Leah (who he totally idolizes). She has taken to posing for the camera whenever pictures are taken, and Jaeden thought it was so fun that he did the same thing. Also, he loves all his cousins, as you can see from the big family picture, as he's smiling up at his favorite cousin, Jackson.

A giant playground at Idlewild. We made the mistake of going here first with Jaeden. He didn't want to go anywhere else. He got over it once we found the log ride, but he loved running around the rope bridges and slides.

This was a "black widow" ride. We made the mistake of going on it with Jaeden right after another "spinny" ride (the spider ride spun in circles while the individual buckets also spun.) Jaeden spent the next several hours talking about how the spider-ride made him sick. Still reminds me occasionally, too.

He did like the ferris wheel, however, since it reminded him of the big ferris wheel we went to on the Chicago Pier.

His most favorite is probably the car ride. We ended up just letting him sit inside the car and continue to go around the track 3-4 times since there was no line, and he was in heaven. Until the ride broke down, and the workers had to physically take him out of the car and bring him to us. Poor kid.

And here is Jaeden in his suit, outside the bountiful temple. Being Jaeden, he's obsessed with water, but since he couldn't go in the temple, he hung outside with Kimi's friend Sammy while Kimi was inside being married and sealed to Casey. Doesn't he look good? Must get those looks from Renee.

And of course, props to Kimi, who, according to the pictures, jumped into this marriage with her eyes closed... but at least she's either hoping for peace... or she's Asian. Thumbs up to you too, newly wed Kimi!

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More of life with Jaeden

This has been a busy couple of months. We are just about finished with the basement, which we are finishing so that we can hopefully adopt a sibling for Jaeden, In the meantime, Jaeden has been learning and having fun at every turn. First, he still loves animals, and though he cannot have his favorite animal (a cat) due to allergies, he's still happy with his chickens. They will escape from their coop and follow him all over the place, and when Jaeden realizes that they are following him, he'll immediately talk to them, and pet them, and have a great time, as you can see below:


Also, Jaeden is really into games right now, and the funny thing is that ANYTHING interesting is a game. To see what I mean, here is a video of Jaeden intently trying to figure out the legos, and telling mom that he's playing a game. So cute!

What is Jaeden like when not a picture?

I just realized after posting last week that Jaeden is just a picture to many of you!  We have so few videos showing what he's REALLY like.  So I tried this week to capture a couple of moments ad hoc in Jaeden's everyday life.

The first is Jaeden watching cars.   No, I didn't replace him with a doll.  That is really Jaeden.  It's the only time we can guarantee that he'll be completely silent, still, and calm.  period.  Just watch, and you'll understand.

The second is our pre-church talk.   Jaeden actually talks a lot.  And I mean A LOT!  I tried to get him to talk for the video, but he didn't talk to much.  Must have been distracted by that foam/sponge thing in his hand at the end.  By the way, WHERE did that come from?  He's like a little magician, pulling that out and eating it!

A few fun pictures

Yes, it has been forever. From dealing with the court hearing, to having our car break down (today) we've had very little time to ourselves, let alone to blog. Sorry. Form here on out, we're going to try to do better. Rather than try to catch up on hundreds of fun times, I'll just post some recent(ish) pictures of our not-so-little-anymore baby boy...

Did I mention that he loves to eat? Must get that from daddy.


Sitting in his chair with his friend Chloe. I think he asks for her 5 times a day now that she's moved to Utah.

Jaeden loves to help moma cook; it's just that not much ends up in the bowl by the end!

And here is Jaeden cheezing it up for the ladies.

This one's actually for me... who buys a Prius, only to decorate it with anti-global warming/liberal bumper stickers? Seriously???? Too funny!




And Jaeden, who was too afraid to go on any rides by himself went on the "car ride" with mommy and Daddy at Kennywood. (the local amusement park, kinda like Lagoon). However, far more fun to him was the "ride" of swinging on the railings while waiting in line. Who needs expensive tickets to amusement parks... let's just buy this kid a pull-up bar!




Jaeden for his 2-year old birthday party got a Lightning McQueen pinata. He is absolutely obsessed with cars and trucks, and the movie cars sends him into 7 fits of ecstasy. We literally have to try hard to keep him from watching it 6 times a day!


We went to an airshow, which Jaeden loved (he now makes all airplanes fly around fast and loud, like the F16's we saw) and he got to sit in an old WWI car.


And, did we mention our son's addiction? This is him with "Finding Nemo" on the iPhone. He didn't move from that position on the bed for a full 1.5 hours. Well, we know how to keep him happy and quiet, at least...