Thanksgiving and Decorating for Christmas

Jayden getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner

Here is our spread of food. Doesn't it look great!

Our first real tree as a family

Jayden helping Derrick set up the tree

The ornaments I made this year

Jayden "untangling" the lights

Helping decorate the tree.

The finnished project

This was the first Thanksgiving since we have been married that we haven't traveled. We had a good time making dinner together. We had some great rolls (thanks Ketra for the recipe), garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, a roasted chicken, and an apple pie. We all enjoyed dinner. Jayden loved it every time he would take a bite he would say Mmmm. The Monday after Thanksgiving we got a Christmas tree. We went for the real thing I can't remember the last time I've had a real tree. We had a good time decorating the tree together. And keeping with the tradition we started last year I made ornaments for us again. The house looks great and Jayden does an ok job of keeping out of the tree. He does however steal a broom from one of the snowmen Derrick's mother made for us.

October updates

We had a very fun but busy October. Beware this is a long post!

Normally in the fall we go and look at the leaves together a family but since we were so busy this year we didn't end up having time to go as a family. We were planning on going the day after Derrick's birthday but he got a great suprise of snow on his birthday. However we are very lucky to live by a beautiful walking trail so Jayden and I took some pictures of leaves on a walk together. I have posted some of my favorites.

I love the orange and yellow on this one

What a beautiful red

A tradition in my family is at the start of fall we make sugar cookies and have apple cider. I wanted to carry on this tradition so we made sugar cookies for FHE

On Derrick's birthday some friends invited us over for a murder mystery dinner. It was actually a lot of fun. Earlier in the day Jayden and I surprised Derrick at work with cake and icecream. Although his coworkers had already had two cakes before we came.

The day after Derrick's birthday we went out for lunch at Rodizio's. He had said that was all he wanted for his birthday. Several friends from Derrick's work came and some friends of ours from Wyoming.

My two handsome guys with very full tummies

A few weeks ago we had the chance to go to the pumpkin patch. I had to find a different one because the one we went to last year was so expensive. Thanks to a little searching on the internet and some friends from church we found a great one. There was no entrance fee and it was huge. This picture does not do it justice.

They had these really cool carved pumpkins at the pumpkin patch

Jayden and mom on the hay bales

They had this little hay maze for the kids. Jayden was holding on the walls walking around.

Look how big some of those pumpkins are compared to Jayden

Nice family shot

Jayden with his pumpkins. He just loved rolling them around and calling them "Ball". These two pumpkins only cost us $2

The next Monday for FHE we decided to carve our pumpkins. I really wanted Jayden to participate somewhat but of course I didn't want to give him a knife. I found these really cool pegs that you use a mallet to pound into your pumpkin. They look like Light Brights and they come with paper patterns. Jayden enjoyed the mallet more than anything.

Derrick is working on his Pirate pumpkin

All finished. Looks great Arrr! (before)

We put the pumpkins outside and apparently the squirrles around here love pumpkin because this is all that is left of Derrick's pumpkin. (after)

Jayden with his finnished pumpkin. ( Before)

Three days before Halloween we had a big snow storm. We had about 21 inches in total. Here is Jayden's pumpkin with a new hair do. It had almost double what you see by the time it stopped snowing. (after)

Jayden was a dog for Halloween. He looked so cute but he really didn't like wearing the hood.

Here is our family at our ward trunk or treat party. Jayden is a dog, I am a cat, and Derrick is an animal control officer. He had to keep us wild animals in check. We had a lot of fun. We did the Thriller, did an apple on string contest and I won 3rd place for my costume. Jayden enjoyed just walking around all night.

This is all of Jayden's loot aka candy for mom and dad. The day before Halloween we went trick or treating down town. It was a lot of fun although it was a little cold and Jayden was falling asleep. Also on Halloween we went to a friends house for a party. Then later that night we had friends over to eat pizza and watch the Cosby show.

Jayden checking out all of his candy.

The rest of these pictures are just of cute things Jayden has done lately. This one is Jayden letting the heater blow in his face and then he will blow back. Jayden is my cuddle bug and loves to give hugs and kisses.

It is hard to keep Jayden entertained when I am making dinner but one day this is what I found when I turned around. ( Is this the return of space boy?)

Jayden loves to cuddle this blanket. We call it Aslan because it has lions on it. This was Derrick's blanket when he first transitioned into a big boy bed and he will give it to Jayden when he goes to big boy bed. We hope you all had a great Halloween. We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays

Jayden's First Steps

Jayden took his first steps. We are so excited. Although he does have a long way to go before he is full fledged walking but we are pretty excited that he is on his way.

Summer Fun

As summer is coming to an end I thought I would share with you all a little bit of what we have been up to. Even though our summer has been a very busy one we have still been able to take time to have some fun together. This will start from the most recent to the latest.
For Labor day we went to the Denver Aquarium. It was pretty neat altough it was busy so it was hard to get around. Jayden liked it for the most part although he didn't like the flash flood simulation or the elevators. He did like the coral and the sea turtles.

Jayden and mom getting up close and personal with the fish.

Having fun together

I love this picture. Jayden and Dad are looking at the sea turtles together.

There are several splash parks around Fort Collins. We have tried to check all of them out and spend some time playing at them. This one has a fake water fall and Jayden really enjoyed it.

After dinner one Saturday we decided to go on a short hike. You can see the foothills behind Derrick and Jayden. We got this neat little hiking backpack and Jayden loved it.

Jayden playing with the rocks on the trail

Thw whole family on our hike.

Jayden loves going to the park and swinging. We went to the park to play on the swings and in the sprinklers with his friend before they moved to Wyoming.

Here is Jayden and his friend playing in the water.

For Jayden's Birthday he recieved $2 from his great Grandma Jackson. So I decided to take him to the park to ride the train. This is a minitaure train that has a bell and a horn on it. We were the only ones on the train when we rode. Jayden was a little unsure of it but I think he had an ok time.

Mom and Jayden on the train

As a family we went on a picnic at the park. They have a splash park there and we let Jayden play in that for a while. He was unsure of the water that day he didn't like it in his face and was enjoying playing with his cups more than the water.

Jayden loves the pool he loves to kick around like a little frog. For a play group we went to a pool and swam for a while. Jayden was in the pool for about 30 min and was kicking around almost that whole time.

One Saturday we decided to go to the splash park in Oldtown, This was Jayden's first time at a splash park and he loved it. There was also live jazz music and Jayden was bouncing to the music the whole time. After wards we got some gelato and Jayden loved it

Jayden all wet from the slash park

When we were doing all of our traveling back and forth from Washington we would have to take two days to drive down and back so we would have to stay in a hotel. There was this really nice hotel in Burley of all places. They had a swimming pool that Jayden just loved playing in.

Have you Ever Seen a Pink Leopard?

Now you have

Jayden spotted pink

We had our very own Pink Leopard crawling around our house for a week, Jayden had his 12 month doctors appointment on the 7th. The doctor said he looks great and is developing well. He is still a small fry though. Here are his stats: Weight: 17lbs 5.5 oz (less than 3%) Height: 28in (5%) and get this his head is 181/2 inches which is in the 70%. Derrick says he is an orange on a toothpick. I joked and said that is why is isn't walking he is top heavy. Thanks to the Jackson genes for babies with big heads. I think all the growth is just going to his brain.

Now you may be wondering why Jayden was spotted pink for a week. He had an allergic reaction to his MMR shot. The doctor said that since it was a such a severe reaction this time that we really need to consider whether or not we want to give him his MMR shot when he is 5. He said the reaction could be worse or it could be better but we may not want to risk it. Luckily it didn't bother Jayden too bad just a slight fever and a little fussy and we were keeping the Beandryl going. I didn't realize how bad it was till I walked into the doctors office and everyone asked " What is wrong with him?"But he is all better now and not a trace of having a rash.