Happy Birthday Jaeden!

Jaeden turned the BIG 6 on January 24th. She had a great birthday, in fact it was actually more like a great birthday week!

Thursday evening: we went over to "old" grandmas house (this is my grandma, Jaeden gave her that name when she was 2. Thankfully old grandma doesn't mind!). Jaeden got showered with gifts from grandma and Aunt Esther. Not one, but two webkinz!, giftcard to build-a-bear, Hannah Montana socks, purse and a wallet! She was in heaven and I couldn't get her off of the computer that evening.

Friday: Her class made her a "birthday" book, each child drew a b-day picture for Jaeden and then Ms. Wagter had it binded into a book. Super cute idea! Thanks Ms. Wagter, we will treasure it forever! I brought in HSM cupcakes for the class to enjoy.
That evening we spoiled her with cheescake factory and took her to her favorite store, Build-a-bear, where so got a new bear from mom & dad!

Saturday (actual birthday):


We usually have a family/friend party for her, but since she's getting older and finances are tighter we decided to minimize it to just friends/cousins. We let her invite 10 friends (had to cut it off, otherwise we would have had her whole class!): Emma, Mariah, Anissa, Brianne, Mackenzie, Kristiana, Alyssa, Talia, and Rachel & Carly. We had pizza, played on the bounce house (which was free thanks to Crystal, thank you!), played limbo, and hit the unbreakable HSM pinata! The girls had a great time and Jaeden received so many nice gifts. She loved every gift and is still playing!
We ended the night at Jaeden's favorite restaurant, Serrano's with Grandpa, Grandma Kelly, Jordy and her Auntie Robin. She loved wearing the big sombrero hat and having the whole restaurant sing to her!


Sunday: At church, she got called to the front of primary where everyone sang her happy birthday and she was able to pick a prize out of the birthday jar! Her face got so red...just like her mom! But it made her feel so special.

Finally Monday: After a long day of school and soccer, she came home to a "Big" package from Grandma Naylor in Oregon. So many great presents all covered in kit-kat candy bars (another one of J's favorites). I wish I would have taken a picture! Jaeden thought it was the coolest ever...thanks mom!
My, if only all birthday lasted this long! Thanks for everyone who made her days so special! We love you Jaeden!

December Events

I thought I'd just make a slide show for most of our December events. Jaeden's holiday class party included making a gingerbread house among many other activities! She had a ball! I think my CLEAN daughter was the messiest..shocker I know!

We had all of Jaeden's friends over one day to decorate Christmas cookies. They are quite the artist's I must say. Then they played games and sang christmas songs. It was a great time and something I think we'll do every year.
I usually kind of dread putting up the Christmas tree, only because it's such a pain. But this year we ALL put it up and decorated it as a family. Talan thought he was so big putting ornaments at the top of the tree and Jaeden's always such a helper. It made this year so special! They even helped take it down!

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast and to the kids surprise Santa came! It was the most excited that I have EVER seen Talan. His face says it all! Jaeden was excited too, but did not quite yell as loud as Talan did when he saw Santa. She thinks that it wasn't the "real" santa, but it was one of his helpers. She said it didn't look like Santa. She's getting too smart for me!!

Happy Birthday buddy!

As for most of us December went by so fast, that now it's January and I have sooo much blogging to do! I'll try to catch up on all of it soon.

Well my little baby isn't a baby anymore :-( Talan turned 3 on Dec 7th and we had a family/friend party for him at the park. It was very simple, filled with Talan's love for tractor's and he had a great time! He received so many great toys, books, clothes, and more toys. Thank you!
This past year we can't believe how much Talan has grown up. He is such an active little guy and he keep's us going all the time. He has especially changed this past month couple of months. His speech is getting so much clearer (at least for us!), he has been better about sharing his toys, actually sitting when I put him in time-out, and being a kind sweet little boy. My favorite thing is when he tell us that he loves us. It's usually when we are driving somewhere and he will just out of the blue say "I love daddy, sissy, mommy, and bellzer's (our dog, Belle). Although I'm very sad he's growing up, this new year will be so fun to see him grow some more!

Jaeden's thoughts of me

I thought this was a fun idea from my friend Carol, so I asked Jaeden the same questions and here were her answers! Jaeden's thoughts of me at age five! Keep in mind these are her words directly, I didn't do any editing.

1. What is something mom always says to you? No (ouch!)
2. What makes mom happy? When me and Talan play nicely.
3. What makes mom sad? For us not to share.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? You tell me funny jokes.
5. What was your mom like as a child? You made cookies with your mom.
6. How old is your mom? 31 years old.
7. How tall is your mom? 6 feet.
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Cook.
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Take care of kids.
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? A famous mom.
11. What is your mom really good at? Cooking.
12. What is your mom not very good at? Doing the monkey bars.
13. What does your mom do for her job? nothing, watch Zach.
14. What is your mom's favorite food? Mexican (she know's me!)
15. What makes you proud of your mom? Your a good mom
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Dora, cause you have her same hair and skin. (Hmm..too funny)
17. What do you and your mom do together? Cook together
18. How are you and your mom the same? Cause Jesus made us (loved this answer).
19. How are you and your mom different? Cause we have different skin. Your's is dark brown and creamish. (Does she think I'm hispanic?)
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Cause you help clean up my toys.
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? Cause he kisses you.
22. Where is your moms favorite place to go? Serrano's (right on the money!)

My sweet daughter. I will cherish these answers forever.

Donuts with Dad

For some reason I forgot to post this and I just found it in my "edit posts" section. Anywho...this happened a couple of weeks ago, but is worth posting!

Chad got to attend Jaeden's school for "Donuts with Dads". For a couple of weeks now, Jaeden has been practicing these "special" dad songs that they have learned at school. She has been singing them constantly in her room, shower, car..and once she almost got caught as Chad heard her and asked what she was singing. She got so embarrassed and said, "never mind, dad!". So up to this point she has been very careful not to ruin the surprise for him!
Chad called me after he left the school and said it was really cute. She sang him songs, made him a tie to wear, and then they enjoyed donuts. After, they walked to the playground, where Jae showed him how she masters the monkey bars and he stayed for about 15 mins. When he told her he had to go, she turned to him and this was the conversation.

Jaeden: "my eyes keep watering"
Dad: "Are you sad that I have to leave for work?"
Jaeden: "no, my eyes just keep watering"
So he started to walk away and then he turned around and said that she had a 1/2 smile/grin on her face.(I'm picturing the one where she's about to break down into a full crying mode). Then she nodded for him to "just go" with her hands. How sad!!
Getting ready to leave...Talan of course had to be in the picture. Sorry Jae!

Happy Birthday Belle!!

Call me crazy...Actually call Jaeden crazy! I was driving Jaeden to school on Monday, and realized that our dog Belle should be having a birthday soon. Jaeden was so excited and insisted that we must have a party for her! So when she got home from school, we pulled out Belle's "dog info" and indeed Belle had turned one on Sunday. We were a day too late and I thought for sure we might be off the hook for a party...NOT!
Jaeden woke up on Tuesday and tried to get ME to call everyone. Yeah right, I wasn't about to take credit for a dog party! How silly would that be?! So she called her aunt Robin, who has 2 dogs; Tyson & Emie. Then she called Grandma Kelly, who has just one dog, Sissy. Jaeden didn't leave them anytime to get ready, since she insisted the party was taking place the SAME day. She advised them that the dogs needed to be dressed and no gifts. So, since Jaeden gets everything she wants...all the dogs came dressed and bearing gifts! The dogs enjoyed some freeze dried dog ice cream, or at least Belle did! I'm pretty sure she finished all of it off. Overall, I think the dogs had a great time sniffing each other and marking their territory all over the grass :-) The best part was seeing Jaeden so excited and so proud of herself for putting a party together. Thanks for coming and supporting Jaeden!

Jaeden's welcome sign on the front door. Mind you, this was all her idea!
Trying to get all the dogs to pose for a photo was quite challenging. This is as good as it gets!
Gift from Sissy: New dog bowls. Too cute!! Gift from Tyson & Emie: A new toy dog bone!!

Trick-or-Treat

First of all, I can't believe that Halloween has come and gone. It is almost Christmas...Yikes! Last week we took the kids to Schnepf Farms for a great time. They rode roller coasters, watched pigs race, ponys, hayrides, slides, Jaeden got her face pained, picked pumpkins, ate a chili dinner with lots of dancing, and we ended the night riding the night train. It's a little pricey, but definitely worth the hours of fun. The kids had a blast we'll for sure be going back next year!! Dance Machines!



Jaeden was chosen as a "pig leader" during the races!
I was able to go Jaeden's school to volunteer for their "Fall Celebration" day. Because the students aren't able to dress up and actually celebrate Halloween, they celebrate Fall. So the past couple of weeks they have been learning about pumpkins, leaves and everything that makes up fall (sure miss the fall leaves from Oregon). Each child has a 6th grade buddy, Jaeden's buddy is Patricia. Each child brought in a pumpkin and with their buddies, they weighed & measured the pumpkin and then gutted it to find out how many seeds were inside. Jaeden's had something like 423!! The kids had a great time. It's especially fun to volunteer in her class and I try to do it as much as possible..I guess I'm living out my dream of being a teacher ;-)
Jaeden's class, getting instructions

Jaeden & Patricia

Swinging with her buddy!
Moody's carving pumpkins. Once again Jaeden's throwing up a sign. I guess it's her trademark! We all know she didn't learn that from me!
On Halloween night we had an enjoyable evening BBQ'ing with our neighbors before off to trick-or-treat. We were grateful to have our neighbors directly next to us back home. Their son Elias (16) was diagnosed with brain cancer recently and so they have been literally living at the hospital for about a month now. He was released to come home on Halloween!! As neighbors we were so happy and we wanted to make their welcome home special..we decorated their yard and made welcome home signs. I think he was truely surprised and really enjoyed it!
After getting the kids full on some healthy food we set off. Talan got to meet up with his best buddy Logan, aka..his twin hulk. They were inseparable and just too cute!! Jaeden also got to trick-or-treat with her best buddies, Emma, Mariah & Anissa. The kids went hard for almost 2 hours ended up with tons of candy and I'm pretty sure we shut down the neighborhood. Needless to say, the kids crashed! Finally, introducing Sleeping Beauty and The Hulk!
Our girly girl!
T was so cute, he wouldn't take off this mask all night!
Belle even got in on the halloween action, not by choice of course! Jaeden says she's a beach dog in her bikini. She's such a good dog!