Bowling Montage

As I mentioned yesterday in my post, we took Jayden bowling for the first time on Saturday night. He had so much fun and we did too because of that fact! It's much easier to enjoy yourself (as all parents know and feel I'm sure) when your children are happily occupied. We let Jayden bowl quite a few frames as you will see from these videos. You have to listen carefully since they were playing really loud music but you can hear Jayden screaming in some parts, it's so funny. He also does some dancing. He was fascinated with the bowling balls and his favorite place to stand was right by the ball stand.

Notice how the ball is barely rolling down the gutter; that is where the ball often ended up for me and Jayden that night.

At the very beginning of this video is where you can hear Jayden screaming; you probably wouldn't guess that he could make such noises so I had to point it out. Ha ha

Birthday Recap and Other Weekend Activities

As you know from my last post, it was DJ's birthday on Friday. To "celebrate" I got Jayden from day care and went to DJ's work to surprise him with balloons and a special card made out of candy. We also put a little banner up on DJ's desk, which he promptly took off as soon as we left. He said he doesn't like the attention... I meant to take a picture of everything but I completely forgot, darn it! I did get a little video of Jayden playing with the balls though. It looks like he has a mullet but I promise his hair is just staticky. I find it particularly funny when DJ tries to calm it down but to no avail.

DJ was really surprised when we showed up and I think Jayden liked the deviation from his routine. That night I made special raspberry dark chocolate brownies for dessert. Mmmm. Surprisingly there are still some left over today!

We had a really fun time on Saturday as a family. We went swimming in the morning, came home and had lunch, took a good looong nap (or at least Jayden did) and then, because Jayden took such a long nap and didn't wake up till 4:30 pm, we decided to go bowling that night! I'll post a few videos of Jayden's first bowling experience tomorrow. He had a blast and by the time we bowled two games, we were all tired and ready for bed.

On Sunday we had plans to go to church in the evening because we had signed up to help with dinner cleanup (the church hosts a dinner every Sunday night for the college students) but I think the whole day's routine was thrown off since we didn't go to church in the morning. By the time we were about ready to head to church , DJ and I decided that only he would go because Jayden had only taken about a 30 minute nap earlier that morning, had woken up at 5:45 am that day and was starting to show signs of tiredness already at 4:00 pm. I had visions of a toddler screaming his way through church, on into dinner and well into the clean-up, and knew that I would feel horrible for keeping him up so late when he hadn't even napped, so unfortunately DJ had to handle clean-up by himself. Looking back, I have no idea what we were thinking even signing up for that particular event knowing that it would fall right around Jayden's bedtime. Now we know! So Sunday was a bit off but it was still a good day and it ended with McDonalds ice cream! Yum!

11 Step Program

DJ and I laughed so hard after reading this article that I thought I'd share it with you. This was much needed after an especially trying time getting Jayden to nap this afternoon. I hope you find some humor in it as well!


11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Having Kids

By the way, for those of you with no children, this is funny, yes. But also, so, so true.

Happy Birthday to DJ!!

Today is my wonderful husband's 28th birthday! Here are 28 reasons why I love him so much!

1. Makes me laugh
2. Has a sensitive soul
3. Great daddy to Jayden
4. Watches Jayden twice a week all by himself so I can work out
5. Has great hair
6. Is a very dedicated hard working employee
7. Is a great friend
8. Thoughtful with his advice
9. Willing to try something new with me
10. Enjoys watching a good movie with me on a Saturday night
11. Has a great smile
12. Loves to teach Jayden animal noises
13. Is athletic
14. Enjoys going to sports games with me
15. Loves to spend time together as a family
16. Is willing to change diapers
17. Forgives easily
18. Is patient
19. Is a safe good driver
20. Willing to go the extra mile for his family
21. Has sweet warm eyes
22. Smells soooo good
23. Knows how to just relax
24. Loves music, which his son seems to have inherited
25. Loves chocolate cake as much as me
26. Is technologically inclined
27. Is a good brother, son, cousin, nephew, son-in-law, brother-in-law, etc
28. IS OLDER THAN ME!!

I love you babe and hope you have a great birthday!! Jayden is a lucky boy to have you as a father!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DJ!!

Solo Flight

I flew solo this weekend as DJ went on a business trip to California and boy, was it an eye-opener! I have a whole new appreciation for my military wife friends! I guess, thinking back, this was my first time for more than one night by myself with Jayden (this time was technically 3 nights but I'm going to say 4 nights since DJ didn't get in till almost 1 am Monday morning) and although I was able to spend some great quality time with my boy, it was also exhausting. Especially because DJ's presence in the house seems to really soothe Jayden so without DJ, Jayden did not sleep very well at night, waking up about every 2-3 hours. I made sure to stay busy too on Saturday and Sunday so I wouldn't go crazy bored and Jayden wouldn't get restless but that also meant that I was worn out by the end of the day. So needless to say, I am so glad that DJ is home and I have a renewed appreciation for him and what he does around the house!


Here are some pictures and videos from this weekend! Also forgive the quality of the pictures and the fact that one of the videos starts out upside down... obviously I don't have a future in filmmaking since I can never seem to get the videos going the right direction!


We got out some new Legos for Jayden to play with. At first he wasn't really sure what to do with them and just wanted to put them back in the box but once I showed him how to stack them together, we had a lot of fun playing with them!

Jayden's "thing" lately is to sit in this chair and "rock rock". He is so cute sitting there all by himself but we are working on him only sitting and not standing up in the chair. I get these visions of him landing on his head and am trying really hard to avoid that!

This was nap time on Saturday after a very long attempt at getting him to go to sleep. Those 30-60 minutes that it takes to put him to sleep at nap and bedtime are almost more exhausting than the rest of the day put together! But this time he did finally go to sleep and ended up on top of all his stuffed animals.

Jayden LOVES his books these days and the book he is reading in this video is one of his favorites (again, so sorry it starts out upside down!!). He can sit forever just looking at this book and it's very helpful especially when I shower in the morning. He just sits on the bathroom floor reading, reading, reading.

We blew up a new ball and spent some good time playing with his balls. Jayden is too funny when he plays with this ball!

Rough Week but with Happy Parts!

This week has been crazy. But as always God gives us reasons to be joyful even when there is mourning. What a blessing that is!


On Tuesday we learned that, tragically, a child from Jayden's day care had died from a cold that turned into pneumonia that turned into sepsis. It all happened over the weekend. The news completely rocked my world because the child was 18 months old, just a few weeks older than Jayden. My heart is completely broken for the family and I don't even know who they are. The child was well loved by the day care because his family had been taking their older son there since he was only 6 weeks old. The daycare had also watched as the mom carried this child through pregnancy and then also welcomed him into the daycare family when he was a baby. It's such a heart wrenching thing to hear about a child that dies so young.


We also received some unfortunate, and also heartbreaking, news about friends of ours who have decided that they no longer want to be married. I've wondered before what it would be like when we learned of friends that were getting a divorce since, sadly, it is an all-too-recent occurrence in our society. I just didn't think it would happen to this couple, even though I don't know them well, I knew OF them and my perception was that something like this just wouldn't happen to them. So I also felt pretty rocked by that news, also received on Tuesday.


Lately the bad news has been more frequent than I am used to (cancer has also reared its ugly head in another friend who is the same age as DJ and I and she also has young children). The fact that this is not "typical" is a blessing in the fact that I have had so much GOOD in my life to be thankful for. But all this bad news has made me really think. At first, these situations completely consumed me and I couldn't think of much else. That really bothered me because I just couldn't seem to get past it and I knew that's not what God wanted for me. So I started thinking about who God is and it made me realize that even in the bad, He has not left us. These things happen and they are horrible and heartbreaking and senseless. But God is still God. And He WILL use this for good; that's His promise to us. "All things work together for good..." Even when a baby has died. Even when a seemingly strong marriage is broken. Even when cancer takes center stage. He uses even the bad for good. And that gave me hope again. It gave me the perspective I needed to get through this hard time. And although these things are not happening to me, if anything, this is proof that God is already using these situations for good. They have shown me more about the character of God and given me a great reminder that He is our Rock, our Shelter and our Hope. Even when nothing in life is making sense, God still brings order and hope.


So that was the "rough" part of the week but, as I mentioned, there have been happy parts too! Jayden has slept two full nights for the first time ever! And by full, I mean from about 7 pm to 6ish am. Amazing! Tuesday and Wednesday night he slept the whole night through without waking (fully) once. I say "fully" because he did make some noise a few times but he was able to put himself back to sleep without needing DJ or me to go in and comfort him. This is a HUGE deal and I hope we have finally turned a corner. This is a much needed reward after working with Jayden for many, many weeks now. Another positive is that he is getting much better about going to bed. DJ still has the best success and is able to actually sit out in the hall before Jayden is even sleeping. Also the time it takes for Jayden to settle down and fall asleep is down to about 30 minutes (it only took 20 minutes on Tuesday!). Yay! We couldn't be more thrilled and we hope it continues!


Another happy part is that Ava seems to be growing in leaps and bounds...literally. Her movements are so distinct now and I love love love it every time I feel her move her arms and legs. I am SO excited to meet her in less than 3 short months! I have been feeling good for the most part which I attribute to my attempts at working out fairly consistently. Now if I could just curb my appetite... Nevertheless I hope to find out at my appointment next week that I am still keeping my weight down. I will also have my glucose test done. I'll keep you posted!

Picture (+ Video) Post

I realized that I had several pictures on my phone that I hadn't shared yet so I thought I'd make into one post about daily life around here. There's also one hard-to-see video at the end but I figured I'd still include it since it just shows Jayden messing around. Enjoy!

 We've all agreed that pink is not Jayden's color. And just to be clear, this was not my doing. Daycare apparently felt this was an appropriate change of clothes for our sweet B-O-Y when he had a blowout one day. (And yes, I did have a change of clothes for him but the person in the room at the time was a substitute so I guess he didn't know that.) I thought it was hilarious; DJ did not.

 Jayden looooves to play with the syringes that come in the boxes with the ibuprofen. These can be found all over the house and in the car. I also want to point out how cute his outfit is; I think he looks like such a little stud. It's been fun putting him in "real" outfits these days since everything is fitting so well on him right now.

 I think I see a little piece of heaven every time Jayden smiles. His smiles are the best.

 Now, THIS face... this has mischievous written all over it. The way he is kind of looking upwards with a smirk. Yes, I see that more and more these days. I would pay lots of money to know what he is thinking here.

 I got my hair colored. Unfortunately, as you can see from these pictures, it looks the same. Boo. I was hoping for a bit darker but I do think that "in real life" my hair looks more vibrant and not as dull as before, which is partly why I got it colored in the first place. It was looking so blah. I really tried not to play it too safe but apparently, I need to try harder next time to get an actual change.

 Ahh, so sweet. DJ has had more opportunities lately to really bond with Jayden as we work on sleeping. I love that they are forming such a special bond, especially because momma is about to get a lot busier in about 3 months.

Obviously, here's why. I am now 26 weeks along and starting to enter the uncomfortable stage. Amazing how quick the cute, uncomfortable stage of pregnancy goes by. I finally get energy back and I was really enjoying that but I was having too much fun apparently because time has flown! I have less than 100 days to go and honestly, not looking forward to it as I am starting to get reminded of what those days are going to feel like. Read: hurting ribs, sore back, tender hips... I'm so glad there's a happy ending to that though!

And this is a a video of last night right after we turned off the lights (it's sideways, by the way) and we're trying to encourage Jayden to get into bed. I especially like the part where he realizes I'm filming him. Big smile. At the very end, you can hear him ask for water. It sounds like "GAgoo". So obvious right?? Ha ha