Goodbye Binky, Hello 18 Months

We have said goodbye to a dear friend at our house. This past Friday Jayden turned 18 months and we have been preparing him for a while that we would get rid of binky at that time. I have been reading up about weaning from the binky for a while and I had a few friends give me some advice and I combined a lot of methods into one. We had alread successfully reduced binky down to only at night when we put him in bed. A few days before we gave bink the boot I poked a small hole in the top so that the sucking wouldn't be the same. Although that didn't deem to bother Jayden. On the D-day of Binky I cut the tops off of the binky and showed Jayden that they were yucky. He didn't even want to try putting them in his mouth. I told him that if he could throw his binky away we would go get an ice cream and he could get a small toy at the store. I barely even got all of that out before he hopped down from his chair and threw them in the trash. I think it helps that he has a facination with throwing things away right now. So we had a coupon for a free icecream and we went and got one. It was fun taking him out on a mother son date. Then we went to the store and he picked out these keys that make an alarm sound when you push the buttons. He like them so much that he didn't want to take his nap. Yay for us. So I was thinking man this was easy. But I knew the hardest was yet to come. The first night without bink he had a rough time. It took him about 1 hr 20 min to fall asleep. Then he woke up again at 12:00am and cried a little over an hour again. And then he woke up again at 4:45 and cried for a little over an hour once more. And then he woke up for the day at 6:30. I am glad it was on a weekend so we didn't have to go any where the next day because we were all exhausted. But the past two nights have been better. He still will ask for binky when we lay him down at night or he will ask about binky during the day and we just have to remind him that Binky went "bye bye".



On Sunday Jayden also got to spend his first day in Nursery. Oh what a blessed program. We were actually able to sit through two hours of church uninterrupted. They said he did great. We went in there with him for a few min. and once he saw the toys he didn't make a peep when we left. They said he did great too and only got a little sad at snack time and wanted to be held. When I went to pick him up he was just sitting in his chair coloring. It was one of those moments that as a mother you just cherish. My little baby is becoming an independent toddler and I am so proud of the growth and development he has had over the past couple of months.

We went to the doctor today for his well check. The doctor said he looks great. Here are his 18 month stats: Weight: 20lb 3 oz Less than 3rd percentile Length: 30 1/2 in 7th percentile

Our Jayden Man

Not much to post other than our son being cute. His vocabulary grows each day. The best part is he will "Say I love you too" whenever we tell him we love him. However the first time he said "I love you" with out being prompted he quickly followed it up with "cookie". He sure knows how to work it. Today I was sneezing and after I was done he said "Bless you". It was so cute. He also loves to laugh and say "Funny." He also said his first sentence the other day. " I want phone" He also loves Wheel of Fortune and will yell "Solve it solve it" When ever we are watching it. There is also generally a Campbell's soup commercial on during that time and he will say "Mmmm, mmm good" everytime after he sees it. There are about a million more cute things that he does but this is all I can think of at the moment. I love that kid
Singing in the microphone. He loves music and loves to dance too.

He was so obliging to let me take some pictures of him in his great grandpa's hat

He looks like a newsie. But I love that grin.

Our handsome little man

Our Busy Christmas

Warning Very long Post


So I know it has been a while since Christmas. But I am just now getting around to posting about it.

Santa came early to our house. He must have checked the flight schedules to see when we were leaving. We had our own Christmas at our home in Colorado on December 13th. We didn't want to haul our presents along with everything else. One of Derrick's co workers gave him Andrea Bochelli's Christmas Cd and we listen to that and had hot chocolate and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies while we opened our presents. Jayden loved tearing off the wrapping paper.

Jayden had found his bag of Christmas gifts in my room and had been wanting to play with them for weeks. He also went shopping with me for the gifts so he knew what he was getting. I think I will have to change that next year. We got him some crayons , which was one of his favorite gifts, some play food, Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, some puzzles, onesies, and pajamas.

Now many of you may not know this but I am married to an avid present shaker. He can always find out what I got him by shaking and feeling the presents. Most years I try to do things to disguise it but even that doesn't work. This year I didn't do much to hide what I was getting him but I succeeded in suprising him with tickets to see the Denver Nuggets.

So what I ended up getting for Derrick was the tickets, two pairs of new shoes and Transformers 2

Derrick is always good about suprising me. This year he got me a Wii fit which I am loving, a sewing machine I am so excited to start trying it out and a big bag of Reese's which kind of defeats the purpose of the Wii fit but it is my favorite candy and I was excited.

Another special thing that happened this Christmas was that my little brother came home from a mission. It was so good to see him. Derrick was pretty proud of the sign he made for him.

We were so excited to have him home with us. We went to the temple with him the day after he got home which was nice. It took him a few days however to get out of the habit of wearing his suit all the time. It was kind of funny.

As always we ate a lot of good food and played hard. Most of us women were in the kitchen talking while the men/ boys fell asleep on the couch.

This is just a cute picture of us getting ready for Church . This was the first time we put these pants on Jayden and we thought he looked like an old man.

We celebrated Christmas at my parents place on the 20th. My parents get books for Jayden every year for Christmas which we just love because we read books every night before bed and several through out the day. So we were getting tired of the roation of books we had. They also got him some art supplies, a toy cell phone, and a Catapiller truck. Whenever Jayden plays with it he tries to say "Catapiller" It is so cute.

It took Jayden a while to warm up to people while we were on our trip. But this was one time when he let his grandma hold him.

We are getting Jayden ready for bed and to open some more presents.

We had the wonderful chance to have all 7 of my sibling home together this Christmas. We have never all been together since my parents were married. I am just sad I didn't get a picture of all of us. But I got some pictures of my niece and nephews. This is Jesse he is 4 months yonger than Jayden but about 4 times as big. He is so cute.

My Nephew Boe posing for the camera.

My niece Sophie. She is such a girl girl it is so cute. Jayden loved saying her name and kept asking about her when she left. And contines to ask about her.

We did our white elephant gift exchange again this year and we had some people save gifts and bring them back. My brother in law got stuck with this Homer Bobble head two years ago and they saved it between 4 moves just so they could put it back in the mix. My Dad was the lucky winner this year. I think we may see Homer for many years to come.

And look what other prize my parents took home. That's right a fuzzy High school musical clock. I think it is sad but very humorus that my parents got stuck with the two worst gifts.

The night before we left to go back to Washington we made homemade pizza together. Here is my sister with Jayden man.

Grandma and Jayden mixing up the dough. He had a good time until he was told he couldn't fling the batter out of the bowl then he started to cry. But he was happy again when he got to snack on some of the fixings for the pizza.

After dinner we went to go see the lights on Peacock lane. It is this whole street where all of teh houses put up lots of Christmas lights and you can go and tour it. They were pretty neat.

We then drove back to Washington to spend the rest of our trip with Derrick's family. On Christmas eve we had our traditional fondue dinner. Plus salads, side dishes and desserts.

Look at all those kids and we are still not done yet. It was nice to see all of Derrick's siblings and their children.

We also had some of Derrick's aunts and Uncles and cousins spend Christmas eve with us. There was a lot of family, food and laughter. Just how Derrick's mom would have wanted it. Although it wasn't quite the same with out her there this year. But I know she was smiling down on us from heaven.

After dinner Derrick's uncle Jim entertained the kids with some magic tricks. they all thought that was pretty neat.

Derrick's mom had the tradition of having people share their talents with all of the family for Christmas eve. This year some of our nieces and nephews shared theirs. Kyle danced as we all sang some Christmas music

Tracer played his violin

And Kiya played her saxaphone, it was Derrick's old one. Then we ended with Derrick's Father reading the Christmas story out of the Bible.

After watching the kids open their presents in the morning. We had a nice big breakfast courtesy of Joe and Derrick. And then we went over to Derrick's sister's house for dinner. Jayden is helping Heather make up some juice.

We opened gifts from all of the family members and from Derrick's Dad. Derrick's sister got us My fair Lady which we have been wanting for a while.

Derrick's dad got these great glasses for all of the men and Cabela's gift cards. he also got all of the families a Wii nerf game and the movie Up. He got Jayden a singing bird that Jayden still has mixed feelings on wether or not he likes it. I think it scares him some times but he always asks to play with it. Derrick's mom used to get all of us girls sweaters for Christmas and Derrick's father with some assistance from his daughters carried that on.

I love this picture. Jayden is not quite sure what to think of his Dad in those funny glasses.

That was all the pictures my camera would let me take. Although after Christmas Jayden got sick so I wouldn't have had much chance to take pictures any way. For those of you who may not know. Jayden was running a fever of 102 or higher for two days despite our best efforts to lower it. So we took him into an Urgent care and they diagnosed him with an ear infection. They said that if his fever did not go down that we should take him in the ER. A few hours later his temperature continued to rise so we took him in. And since Derrick's dad lives 30 miles outside of town he decided it would be best to take the ambulance. His temperature climbed to 106 before coming down. The doctors said that Jayden was dehydrated and that we were underdosing him on his meds although they said we could give him way more than Jayden's doctor here has said. So any way after giving him a popcicle. They put an IV in him and gave him some more antibiotics and pumped him full of fluid.

Desipte having that happen we had a very nice Christmas and we truly did feel of our Saviors love as we remembered him this Christmas.

The Year in Review

2009

To our Dearest Friends and Family,

It is hard to believe another year has gone by. It seems like we were just writing our Christmas letter last week. This year has had its fair share of ups and downs. But we have so much to be thankful for and this is what we would like to focus on.

Derrick: This has been an incredible year. We have really seen an outpouring of blessings and I honestly feel that we have drawn closer to God this year as a family. My family lost a wonderful woman this year-my mother. Mom lost her brief battle with cancer and passed away in July. The expereience made me realize how blessed I am to have a family that has been sealed in the temple. My beautiful wife continues to be such a pillar of strength for me and really helped me through the difficulties we had in losing my mother. I love my wife dearly. Jayden has had an explosion of development and I'm happy to say he is one of the goofiest kids I've ever seen for his age. He's very talkative and inquisitive, and even though he keeps us on our toes I'm very excited to have him in our lives.

Another exciting thing that's happened this year us that we got accepted into an MBA program which I'll be starting in January. This will cause us to adjust some things here and there, but we are excited that this will allow us a better opportunity to provide for our family. As I reflect back this year, I'm most grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ and for my Father in Heaven. I'm constantly amazed at the love They have for us. I'm blessed beyond what I deserve to have such a wonderful wife and child and for such a supportive family. I've also listed a few other things for which I am grateful: disposable diapers, the gospel, ping pong. onions and bell peppers, Catherine, Jayden, accepted to Grad School, my Savior.

Concerning table tennis (aka ping pong). I have found my second calling in life. I'm seriously considering going into an amateur leauge this next year. I'll inform you all when I make my youtube.com premier.

Catherine: I truly have so much to be grateful for this year. We have been blessed with so much and I know my Heavenly Father is watching over us. I would first like to express how grateful I am for Derrick . He is such a strong person who inspiries me each day. I am so grateful to have him in my life.

As a mother of a 16 month old, one thing that I am grateful for is patience or learning to be so. Some days I am not as patient as I should be but I have been learning to be better. Even though some days it is not easy to realize I am so very grateful for Jayden. He is such a joy to have around. He has an infectious laugh and always knows the best time to give me hugs and kisses.

I am also so very grateful that we have all of our needs met such as a place to live and food to eat. I am so very grateful for a husband who works so hard to provide these things for us. I am also very grateful that I can stay home and take care of Jayden and that Derrick makes it possible for me to do so. I am so very grateful that I have been given health and strength and I am able to do all that is required of me. I am so very grateful for our family that give us so much love and support. I don't know where we would be without you all.

Lastly, I wanted to express my deep gratitude for my Savior. I have truly felt his influence in my life this past year and I know that it is through his great sacrafice that I am able to become better each day.

Jayden(as observed by his mom and Dad): I am grateful for prayer. I am grateful for my blanket, my binky, and Doug (stuffed elephant) at night ot help me sleep. I am grateful for a new car seat that I can face forward and see out the windows and see my mom and dad. I am grateful for good food including peanut butter, bananas, toast, French Toast, cookies, juice and milk. I am grateful for books and music. I am grateful for spoons and that I have started to feed myself. I am grateful that I can communicate with my parents through words and sign language. I am grateful for my mom and dad.

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.