More Funnies from Jaden

Jaden has had a runny nose all week, so he had been getting the dreaded nose wiping much more than cares to ever have it. Yesterday, I caught him taking out his frustrations on his toy chicken. He pulled a baby wipe out of the package, wiped his chicken's nose (beak) and said "ewww!!," then threw the wipe aside, got another one and repeated the process. I usually don't let him waste the wipes like that, but it was just too funny to stop him! :)

A couple of hours later, Jaden was playing with his little bubble gun. It's a tiny little battery operated gun with a fan on the end, so you can dip it in bubbles and it will blow them into the air. Well, he also likes to use it as a blow dryer, since it kind of looks like one, and it make a sound like mommy's dryer. It was just fine while he was using it to dry his own hair, since he doesn't have much...But then he decided to dry mommy's hair as well. That game ended abruptly as the little fan was suddenly wound tightly and jammed with six inches of hair. We thought we were going to have to get the scissors out. But luckily, after several minutes of untangling and nearly going cross-eyed trying to look to the side of my head, I figured out how to get the fan apart and free my poor hair! :)

My Fun Head / Spaghetti

My Head is Stuck! Thanks to both of Jaden's grandpas, he has been blessed with a nice, round, ample sized head. So we frequently encounter the "stuck shirt" problem. Luckily, he finds it quite amusing! :)

I Love Spaghetti! Just like my daddy, anything Italian, and I'll be sure to clean my plate!

Easter at Grandma & Grandpa's House

We spent Easter Sunday at my parents house. Daniel and I gave talks on the Resurrection for the Easter Program at church. After Easter dinner, we had Easter egg hunts- one for the kids, then one for the adults. Jaden had a lot of fun, but we had to keep getting him back on track, as he wanted to keep stopping to eat his treats instead of hunting more eggs. My older brother and his wife and 3 kids, and my younger brother and his wife were both there, too. I think the adults may have even had more fun egg hunting than the kids. It's a lot of fun to still act like a kid from time to time!

What My Fabulous Daniel is Doing!

Daniel has finally gotten through the struggle of finishing school while working and taking care of a wife and baby. There was a time period where he was going to school, teaching seminary, working another part-time job, and tending 3-month-old Jaden while I was working part-time. What a struggle those days were! I just remember always being tired, and I can't even imagine what Daniel felt. Most of the time he was trying to prepare a lesson between classes and seminary, with Jaden strapped to his chest in the Snugli. All I can say is phew! We made it!

Daniel, Jaden, and I went to Orlando, Florida this Summer, so he could make some extra money selling security systems and I could quit working and stay home full-time with Jaden. That made things so much easier and happier for the both of us. Then when he graduated with his bachelors degree in December, it was another big sigh of relief!

Daniel has been working hard as a seminary student teacher for a little over a year now. In places where there is a high enough interest, the high schools release the students for one school hour per day, call "release time," and they can take a religion class. Daniel is teaching from the Old Testament this year.

The process of getting hired as a full-time seminary teacher is a very competitive one. It is such a great job that there are lots of people that would like to do it. So the process of getting hired involves a lot of training and frequent evaluations, most of them unscheduled. The evaluator just shows up to your class one day, and you better have a good lesson prepared! For those that make it through the rigorous training and evaluation process, about 1/2 to 2/3 of them actually end up getting hired, depending on how many job openings there end up being on any given year.

Anyway, Daniel has been doing this for a little over a full school year now, and we are finally nearing the end of the process. He had a huge evaluation from the main hiring guy for the seminary program last week (luckily a scheduled one!). It was a little nerve racking, and Daniel stayed up until 2 am preparing. But it paid off, and things went wonderfully! He's got one more big eval coming up soon, from the guy over hiring in Southeast Idaho. It was supposed to happen yesterday, and we were so excited to have it over with...and then we got more snow and wind and school got canceled! So there is still one more to get through in the upcoming days. We will find out if he gets hired on the evening of April 18th. We've got a paper chain we've been using for our countdown, as we are excited that it is finally getting near the end! A few weeks after that, we will find out where we have been placed - it could be anywhere that has a high enough LDS population for a seminary, from Idaho to Arizona to Colorado, who knows!

I have sat in and watched Daniel teach a few times, and he just amazes me. He is teaching kids that are generally already good kids, but he really inspires them to be even better. He helps them resolve and act upon things all the way from keeping all the big commandments, to doing better at all the little things, such as choosing cleaner and more uplifting music and entertainment, treating everyone with kindness, not gossiping, being more loving and patient with their families, recognizing and being grateful for our daily blessings. The feeling in his class is so amazing - a feeling of being uplifted and stronger and better and grateful for all the good things in life. With the help of the Holy Spirit, Daniel is really making a difference and changing lives, and he loves his job!

The last lesson I sat in on was actually about keeping a personal history, remembering the things the Lord does for us and inspires us to do, and passing those things on to strengthen the faith of future generations. Therefore, I decided that I had better get going, since I haven't been very good at keeping a journal lately... and thus the blog was born. It's not all that I need to do, but at least it's a start, and it is helping me preserve some of the wonderful memories and blessing received in my life.

I have such an amazing and wonderful husband and I am more and more grateful every day to have him and to know that I can have him forever if I do my part!

The Cutest Things

Last night I was changing Jaden's diaper and getting him ready for bed, when he sneezed twice. Then immediately after, as clear as ever, he said, "bless you." That was a first and it made me smile from the inside out!

His favorite phrase now is "Thank you." He says it when we get him dressed, when we give him food, when we "let" him put something in the garbage, when we change his diaper, when we get him out of the tub, etc, etc, etc. I can't complain about his choice of favorites right now. I feel so appreciated! :)

Dance!

We love to dance!! Well, I love to dance! Daniel likes it, and pretends to love it for me! What a man... That is how everything started after all - when we were first introduced, we were both too preoccupied to really notice each other...
But after one dance, it was all over - he could dance, and he was mine! :) Here are a couple of pictures of some recent dances we have been to, for Christmas and Valentine's Day. The Christmas pic is one of my very favorites... wow, my husband is a hottie!!!

Our little Jaden has also caught the dancing bug. He always likes to have the music on. He points at the radio nearly every day and says something that sounds like "box." I haven't deciphered it yet, but I know if means he wants the music on. Then he runs around in circles, dancing like a crazy man. Usually after a few minutes, he'll start pulling on me and saying "dance, dance!" until I get up and dance with him. He's keeping me in shape, I guess! :) He really goes crazy with his dancing when we watch Dancing with the Stars. He's so adorable!

ZJ ULTRASOUND

We are excited that our ultrasound date has been moved up! Our Dr's office had a cancellation, so we will now get our ultrasound at 20 1/2 weeks instead of 24 weeks. We will be going in April 3rd to find out if our little ZJ is a Zion/Zyan Joseph or a Zoe/ Zoee Jane. We can't seem to agree on a spelling yet, but we will worry about that after we find out the gender. There is a poll posted at the bottom of the page if you would like to make a guess as to what gender our ZJ will be! We are now at 19 weeks along and doing great! We seemed to have skipped the fluttering movements this time (or maybe I was too busy chasing Jaden around to notice them this time), but the baby is definitely letting me know it is there with frequent pokes. The first ones happened at 17 weeks. That's one of my favorite times! :)

Our not as helpful little helper :)

Here are some earlier pics of Jaden not being quite so helpful, such as wanting to get into the dryer instead of getting the clothes out, and pulling the bottom rack out of the dishwasher and hopping in himself. He sure does keep us laughing!

Our Little Helper

Here are some recent pictures of our little helper:

• Helping make the Jello
• Helping shovel the driveway
• Helping carry the groceries in (I tried to give him a box of crackers to carry, but he squealed until I gave him the gallon of milk. I guess I offended him by assuming he could only carry crackers! :)
• Helping daddy vacuum the floor
  

JADEN!

We've finally done it...created our own blog! I guess for our first post, we'll talk about our favorite subject -- Jaden, of course!

Jaden is now almost 19 months old, and is so much fun! At his 18 month check up, Jaden weighed 27 pounds and was 32 3/4 inches long. Though his growth has slowed down quite a bit since turning a year old, he still seems so big to us! Especially considering mom is only 60 inches tall, he's well over half my height already!!

I'm sure Jaden's development is perfectly average, but as everyone thinks their child is the greatest, we are no different. He amazes us every day! He's such a little chatterbox now. We were keeping track of all of his new words until we got to about 35, and then we lost count. It seems like he comes up with a new one every day - most of them we haven't even tried to teach him. He just listens, and then surprises us by repeating things and naming objects that neither of us were aware we taught him. He's got probably 50 + different words that he says now. It's so fun to see what he's going to come up with next!

Thanks to his daddy, and his daddy's genes, Jaden is a very coordinated little boy. He can throw a ball overhand, and kick well. He and daddy play catch and soccer in the house all the time, and he picks up on things very quickly. Unfortunately, mommy's athletic abilities are pretty much limited to skiing and dancing, so any of that coordination involving playing with a ball and catching and throwing, doesn't come from this side!

Jaden is also at the "I want to do everything mommy and daddy do" stage. I'll post some pictures I have of what a big helper he has become. He likes to take the clothes out of the dryer and carry them to the living room to be folded, take bits of paper to the garbage, put dishes in the sink, and help mommy put the clothes away, to name a few. Though he still likes to empty out drawers and cupboards occasionally, it's very nice that this is no longer his main activity, and he has now found some other interests!

Jaden has recently developed a great interest in pens and markers and drawing. The other day I was working on the computer, trying to get some things done before he started helping me type or started unplugging things. (He can only handle me not paying full attention to him for a short time.) Anyway, I was sitting on the floor, so Jaden decided to sit in the chair behind me. He got a pen out and started "drawing" on my back. I was periodically checking to make sure the pen was turned off, and all was well with each check. I was glad that his activity was keeping him busy, so I just let him be. Well, a couple of minutes later, Jaden ran to the kitchen and got a dish towel, and started scrubbing on the back of my shirt, trying to clean it off. I couldn't see what was going on, but I figured out pretty quickly that he had gotten the pen turned on when I wasn't paying attention, and was trying to get his mess cleaned up before I noticed. It was pretty cute, but unfortunately the dish towel did nothing for the pen marks! :)