Happy birthday, Ayden!

Let me start off by saying, Ayden is one loved little man! lol On Sunday, we went over to his bio. families house and celebrated his first birthday with them. Oh, quick side note... these are not all the pictures.. to see all of them go to our picasa or facebook :o)

On his actual birthday, we had a bunch of friends and family over and had cake, ice cream, and presents

Like  I said, this is one loved kid!

At one years old Ayden is 15 pound, 5.5 ounces... he is 27 1/4 inches tall...

Ayden crawls around and is into EVERYTHING! He loves to test boundaries! He is a major daddy's boy. He loves playing with his toys! He is getting to be a bit more cuddlier... which makes this mom extremely happy! He loves to be thrown around and bounce on the couch/bed. He's a very happy, fun baby! We couldn't be more blessed to have him in our lives!! 

phone and ipad pics

So I need to do better at unloading my phone and ipad pics. Oh well lol... I will try to be better. In the mean time, enjoy just a small, impromptu photo shoot of Ayden I did.

If you are just dying to see my phone and ipad pictures (we're talking like 400) go look at our Picasa page or facebook :o) I warn you now, some of them are blurry, and some I may have already posted. Anyway~ Love to all!

Jared has a job!!

Yes!! We are so excited to announce that after 4 weeks of being unemployed (6 weeks if you count when he was laid off)... Jared has another job! He will be working for a company called

We have heard wonderful things about this company and we're excited to start on this new adventure. We are so grateful for all the prayers, love, and support in our behalf during this last month!! We have definitely been blessed!! Love you all!!

Guest post

Hey, hey... i did another guest post for another adoption blog. Check it out :o)

http://ldsadoptioncouples.blogspot.com/2012/09/guest-post-devin.html

Why hello there

I will have you all know, I have tried numerous times to get Jared to update our blog... and he won't. SO! If you want to hear from him, you'll have to bug him. Until then, you're stuck with me :o) Anyway~~ here's a bit of an update of us. I'll put random pics of us too... maybe help break the post up a bit.

sorry~ it was with my iphone while we were waiting to see "Wicked"

Jared is ... well, getting bored. It has been a huge help having him home, most of the time, but we are both ready for him to go back to work. He is in the negotiation stage with a couple of companies. We should have a job lined up by the end of this week! Which is actually kind of fast... we're talking 3-4 weeks of unemployment. Not bad. Like I said a previous post, we have definitely seen the Lord's hand in all this. Thank you so incredibly much for all the love, support, and concerns.

This was 4th of July.. not many pictures of me since I have to remind Jared to take them, and I don't like to be in pictures so yeah :o)

Nothing too new with me. Just keeping the house in order, lovin' the little man, and keepin' busy. Life is good.

this was last night- in can you tell it was past bedtime?

Ayden, Mr. Ayden ...Love this little man. We started him on a medication that increases his appetite. He's eating way good now! He's a picky eater, but at least it's possible to feed him now. I don't worry about leaving him for a while any more. Okay, well, not like I use to :o) Anyway~ not sure how much he's gained since starting it last week, but he does seem to be heavier and taller to us. Could be our imaginations. We have a WIC appointment Tues. I'm anxious to see what their scale says.

Ayden seems to get more personality every day too! He loves his dad! I think Ayden will have a hard time when Jared goes back to work. Ayden also loves to "help" (in the pic. above, we had just finished putting in a load of laundry), annoying Buddy, and throwing his toys! Ayden is definitely all boy and it is so fun! I can't believe he'll be one years old soon! Guess we should start planning specifics for his party :oP

Anyway~ that's about it for us! Hope this finds everyone well. Thanks again for all the prayers and love!! It's definitely felt!! Love to all!!!

I'm so old!

At the beginning of July, we had the honor of attending my nephews pack meeting. This was a special cub scout meeting BECAUSE... and this is where the title comes in... my nephew is graduating cub scouts! Meaning, he's turning 11! I remember the day my bro. told us his cute wife was preggo! Shoot, I remember them getting engaged! Anyway~ At this pack meeting he received TONS of awards. One of which was his arrow of light! For those of you that aren't cub scout people, arrow of light is the highest award you can get in cub scouts AND it is the only award that goes with you onto boy scouts. We felt so privileged to be invited to this special event. We are so proud of our nephew who is growing up to be quite the amazing young man.

Zoo visit

Yes, this is a long over due post! Back in like the second or third week of June a good friend invited us to go to the zoo! It worked out so a second friend came too! It was so much fun hanging out with these two ladies and their adorable kids. Ayden did fabulous too! I thought at least.


First we rode the carousel

I promise Ayden did like it! lol Then we saw an AWESOME bird show. Ayden watched people, unless one of the birds was actually flying

Then we ate and Ayden ended up doing this:

 

While the rest of us did saw a whole bunch of animals 

 sorry... that's what he was doing the whole time we were there.

Ayden woke up while we were at the elephants

After the elephants, we had ice cream and we went on a train! 

As you see Ayden LOVED it. We saw a whole bunch of monkeys

can you tell he loved the monkeys too? I really think "monkey eyes" is a suitable nickname!

I know it's blurry, but I love his smile here

"Enough of the camera, Mom!"

We had such a great time! Thanks so much Vicki and Bethany!! I can't wait to go back when Ayden's older and Jared can come too!!!