No more Curls :(
Yesterday we got Kaiden's haircut and all of his curls are gone! :( I know that as soon as his hair grows again they will be back, but it makes me sad because his curls were so cute...just way too long! You can look at the previous post to check out his curly hair. The hairstylist styled his hair and I have no idea how to really style it. I guess I am going to need some shaping/gel stuff for his hair to make him look cool! He looks so different.

Jumpin Jaks
Monday we went to Jumpin Jaks for playgroup. Nick was off so he was able to come with me to help keep up with the boys. Jumpin Jaks is on the other side of 45 and 1960 by TC Jester and is a cool place for kids. It is basically a huge indoor maze in the walls with slides and secret passages. Nick and I both got up there a climb around. That place is not meant for adults at all. I had to literally crawl on my tummy in certain spots...talk about claustrophobia. The boys had a blast!

Zachary swinging on the tire swing


Kaiden checking out his map to figure out which way to go



Cute brother picture!

Big Boy Carseat

Zachary has officially moved up into a forward facing big boy carseat! This makes mommy sad because I know that my little boy is growing up, but makes Zachary happy. He gets so excited and laughs so hard now that he can see me. Ahhh things are good in his world!

Potty Training!
Yes we are potty training little Zachary early!! Just kidding. We actually got a new toilet the other day because we were having some plumbing issues and they had to take the toilet off in the boys bathroom so we decided to just replace it. Zachary thought it would be fun to just climb on up in there and play in it. Good thing it was not hooked up yet with all that water. Yes he climb up in there himself!



Kaiden though he would be cute. Heaven forbid that Zachary get all the attention!

We thought we would even try to potty train Kie too! Why not right? Kie really is obsessed with the real toilets so it does not surprise me that he wanted in on the fun too.

Zachary turns 1!
February 6 was Zachary's birthday...can you believe he is already 1!!! He is on the move too, walking everywhere. He has the walking thing down because he can get up from a sitting position and take off. I have had a hard time keeping with him as he moves from room to room all the time. His birthday was not exactly what we had planned for him, but he doesn't know any better. We had some major plumbing issues happen that day and had to work on them all weekend. It was not a very exciting day, but Zachary seemed to have fun. His birthday party was Saturday and I will have to post pictures later because they are on my moms camera. The shirt that he is wearing is from his "Aunt" Michele (mommy's best friend).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHARY!

Mommy's little man!
These were just some pictures of me and my Zachary the night I went to a "Girls Night Out" put on by our local Christian radio station. There was music and guest speakers. One of the guest speakers was Kate Gosslin from Jon and Kate plus 8. I love that show! I bought her book and stood in line for an hour to get her autograph. Totally worth it! She is really pretty in person and very sweet even though we were rushing to get through since it was after 11pm. If you have not read the book Multiple Blessings you must go get it.

Welcome Baby Braden

On February 6 my nephew Braden "Brady" Jones was born at 1:57pm weighing in at 7lbs. 6oz. We are so excited to have him join our family. This is my brother (Erik) and his wife (Cindy's) first baby and he is so cute with all of that blonde hair. They live in Boston but will hopefully be moving to Friendswood(1 hour south of us) very soon. i can not wait to hold Brady. Congrats erik and Cindy!

Brady and Zachary share the same birthday...how neat is that. they will be exactly 1 year apart. February 6th is also my Grandfather's birthday. WOW 3 birthdays on 1 day. February 6th is one amazing day. Here are some cute pictures of our sweet little nephew. You can also visit their blog at http://cindyanderik.blogspot.com/

Kaiden can read!!
We are so proud of our little man. The other day we were eating lunch at Olive Garden and Kaiden had a kids cup. He sat there and sounded out the letters to the word "friends" and then all of the sudden said "friends." He did this all by himself with no help from mom or dad cause we were busy talking. :) I thought maybe it was a fluke but the next day and a couple of days later I wrote the word "friends" on a piece of paper and asked him what it said. He looked at me and said "friends" in a very sarcastic sounding voice, like duh mom I know that already. He now knows all of the sounds to all the letters and has been working really hard to sound out words so he can read. Kaiden is growing so fast and soaking everything up like a sponge. He can also write his name all by himself and it looks really good. Plus if I give him a letter to write he can pretty much write them all. At school he rushes through his work (if it is coloring) so that he can flip his page over and write his name. :) We are so excited for him and all this learning, he will be ready for Kindergarten in no time.

Brothers having fun!
It was so much fun today watching my boys play together and having a blast. Zachary really does think his big brother is hilarious and of course Kaiden eats it up. It makes my heart melt to see them interacting with each other and I can not wait until the day when they can have conversations. You can tell that Zachary really look sup to Kaiden and wants to be like his big brother...it is too cute!
Today was one of those days where we lounged and stayed in our PJ's(or in some cases, just underwear! :) and relaxed! I thought Zachary was getting sick b/c he was having some bad diapers but it is just too much pizza and he is cutting another tooth! Kaiden was not feeling well this morning, but by mid morning he was totally fine, just some congestion from the night before. Oh what a day! We ended it with a fun trip to the park where we met our friends for playgroup. We sure did miss daddy today, he would have enjoyed this day with the boys. 4 more days until he comes home!

The boys had a cheerio picnic together. Kaiden was trying to feed Zachary out of a pretend egg. The picnic ended when Zachary picked up the bwol and dumped it all on the floor thus needing the vaccuum.

Kaiden pushed Zachary around the house several times. They both thought it was so much fun and Kaiden got a major workout. And we wonder why he is so skinny...I think we all need to start his workout program. What a good big brother!

Stopping to say "cheese" and then back to the races!

Eating wears me out!
Apparently in our House we put tranquilizers in our food to get the boys to sleep. LOL! These pictures were taken on two different days. Kaiden passed out from eating steak(and they say turkey makes you sleepy...what about steak?) Zachary just could not hold on any longer when Michele and her boys were over for pizza at lunch last week. Aren't my sleeping angels cute? We just wear ourselves out around here.

We have lift off!

YEAH!! Zachary is walking. He has been taking a couple of steps here and there, but last night he really took off. Watch the video to check out Zachary walking. We are so proud of our little man. Sorry the video is a little dark I grabbed the camera quickly and did not turn the lights on. Oh well, you can still see it. Enjoy!

Visiting Pops at Lowes
Since my parents have moved to Friendswood because my mom got a new job my dad has been trying to figure out where he wanted to work. Back in Arlington he was a manager for Verizon Online but took a package deal and left to follow my mom and her career last year. My dad has always wanted to work at Lowes or Home Depot when he retired. He was hired on at a brand new Lowes in League City back in November as a department manager for inside lawn and garden. He is enjoying his new job, but it is very tiring to say the least. Last weekend when we were down that direction we stopped in and said hi to Pops.

I have no idea what kind of face Kaiden is making.

Space Center Houston
Last weekend we went to the Space Center in Houston. We bought season tickets a few months ago and thought that we should go back. Kaiden and Zachary had more fun playing in the play center which is super tall. Kaiden wants to be an astronaut now.

Can you see Kaiden's lightsaber? He is pretending to be Star Wars guy.

Sorry for the belly shot!! :)

Our Handy Work
Nick and I made a shelving unit for Kaiden's room. We used MDF. There are a couple of little mistakes and it is not exactly measured perfect but it was our first project and I think it turned out great. Now we just have to paint it. We also created shelves in his closet too for extra storage. Now Nick and I are thinking about making more stuff, night stands, book shelves, etc. No we are not for hire! :)

Carnival
New Year's Day we went to one of those portable carnivals that they had set up close to our house. The prices were outrageous ($5 to ride one ride) so Kaiden and I both got a wristband where we could ride as many rides as we wanted. This place was not quite the cleanest place but Kaiden had a blast! Let's just say that the crowd had some character, especially the workers. He rode his first roller coaster and was such a brave boy. He loved every minute of it. He even rode a big ride with mom that was the tilt a whirl. This thing spins you around and around as you go in a circle. When we were getting on the ride the operator said "you can try but I think he is going to cry." I was like are you kidding me this kid is not going to cry. Sure enough he did the exact opposite of crying, he was yelling in excitement. We rode it 3 times! His favorite ride was the bug roller coaster which we rode like 5 times. I was able to even ride some of the big rides by myself which was a lot of fun, but kind of lonely without Nick. The worker asked if we wanted him to watch the boys so we could both ride. Yeah right, here let me leave you with my purse, camera, oh and my most precious value...my kids. Whatever! Kaiden rode every ride he could at least once, some 3 or 4 times. You had to be 36 inches tall and lucky Kaiden is 37 inches with shoes...whoo hoo!

mommy and Kaiden waiting in line!

Riding the teacups. He was a pro and knew exactly what to do without us having to tell him to turn the wheel. He was the only one riding this ride...he looked a little lonely. :(


He only rode this once. It goes up and down and I am not sure if he liked it because he never wanted to ride again but he was laughing the whole time so who knows.

First Ferris Wheel ride. This was not very safe. No buckles, just a little gate that would definitely not hold us in.

First roller coaster ride!! Whooo Hooo!

Kaiden's New Soccer ball video

Kaiden got a new soccer ball for christmas and this is a video of him testing it out. You have to check out his little happy cheer/dance at the end.

(Make sure to press pause on the music on the right hand side of the page so you can hear the video.)

Christmas Day

This was our first Christmas as a family of four to wake up in our own home. It was such a joy to see the excitement on the boys face. Kaiden was amazed that Santa ate the cookies, drank the milk, and took the reindeer food. This year Kaiden asked for a rocket balloon which is a cheap little toy where you use a pump to blow the balloon and then let it go to see it fly, he loved it! He also wanted a camera so he could take his own pictures. Zachary of course can not tell us what he wanted but I think he was happy with all the things he got.

Around lunchtime we headed down to Pops & Nana's house for Christmas with he rest of the family. All the grand kids had on their matching PJ's which are adorable. I will add a picture of the four of them later when I get it. I think Zachary had a lot of fun playing with Maggie's dishes and tea party set. He enjoyed banging them together way too much.

We all had a great time playing games and trying out all our new toys/gadgets. It is sad to think that when you have your own kids it is not all about your presents anymore because it all goes to the kids!

Our we cute in our matching PJ's or what?

Zachary was mesmerized by the tree. I wish I knew what he was thinking.

Zachary's gift from Santa. He loves to open and close the door.

Kaiden and his rocket balloon.

Kaiden got his camera. He really did take pictures of EVERYTHING!

Here is a picture Kaiden took with his camera of his cousin Cameron!

Christmas Eve
We spent our Christmas at home this year for the first time. It was nice going to Christmas Eve service at church and then coming home and making cookies for Santa. Kaiden was sick during christmas because he had been running fever and was having some issues with his breathing(asthma) and allergies. But he was a trooper and hung in there.

Family picture in front of our christmas tree. This year we bought a real tree, but I think from here on out we may get a fake tree to stay clear of all the allergies.

Our cute boys in their matching sweaters!

Making christmas cookies for Santa. Zachary looks like he wants to help.

Kaiden was very proud and excited about setting out his christmas cookies, milk, reindeer food, and letter to Santa.

December Update

I realized that it has been almost a month since my last post. I'm sure like everyone else our December was busy. Nick was gone for the first 2 weeks to California. When he returned on the 18 he had vacation time for 2 weeks. So we have been spending a lot of fun family time together plus having to take care of some sick kiddos and a sick mommy. Everyone in our house got sick with something except for Nick, lucky dad. We are all doing better. Zachary is still getting over his ear infection and breathing issues, plus he is teething four top teeth right now...what fun!

Here are some things we did this past month:

We put on our PJ's and went to look at Christmas lights a few times. We drove to a couple of really neat neighborhoods in West Houston and NW Houston. One time we even met my parents. The boys had a great time and loved looking at all the lights. Kaiden rode in daddy's lap and Zachary rode in mommy's lap.

We went and saw a live nativity scene at a local church and Kaiden got to feed and pet a real camel. We tried to explain to him that daddy rode a camel when he was in Egypt but I don't think he really cared because he got to see a live camel. How cool!

We met Santa, twice!!! Kaiden was really excited this year to meet Santa and Zachary did not know what to think except stare at him. The first picture was when we met Santa at a local toy store in town. The second picture was at my brother's church where we had pancakes with Santa.