December 31

Found a new love.

two down. one to go.

In our house injuries ALWAYS come in threes.

#1. running smack into the mailbox with his face while riding with no training wheels

#2. rain boot accidentally flying into his eye. (could have used a couple stitches)

#3. hasn't happened yet but we're patiently awaiting its arrival. Hopefully this one won't require a trip to the hospital.

learning to ride

Yesterday Kaiden decided he was ready to take the training wheels off of his bike. He told us that he would be ready when he got elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards from Santa Claus for Christmas. And sure enough - Santa came through!

He had a few rough tumbles (including smacking into the mailbox getting a nice bloody cut on his jaw) but always got up laughing.

With just a day or two more of practice he's going to be riding on his own.....sniff sniff.....he's growing up so fast!!!

December 25

This is what most of our Christmas day felt like......wonderfully lazy!

Kaiden snuck out of his room at 5:15am and just couldn't control his excitement - "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!!!! SANTA CAME SANTA CAME SANTA CAME!!!!" at the top of his lungs. We tried delaying by saying "just 30 more minutes" or "let's eat breakfast first" but we just couldn't resist his excitement. There we were at 5:30am sitting by the Christmas tree opening our gifts.

After all the gifts were torn open and Kaiden was settled playing with some of his new toys Randy and I went back to bed. We lazed around the house in our jammies ALL DAY. I didn't get into the shower until around 4pm and I think we took another nap somewhere in between too! It was one of our most enjoyable Christmas yet. Usually we're a little stressed with all the running about and visiting family but this year we just enjoyed being together.

men at work

We've been doing some more work to the bathroom and luckily Randy has a good friend, Adam, to help and really knows what he's doing! Randy ripped up the old nasty green linoleum and found very old terracotta tile. The tile was in horrible shape so he removed that found the original wood floor underneath. The wood was covered in a tar material they used to glue the tile on and couldn't be sanded down. So Randy and Adam tore out all of the tar covered wood to find yet another wood floor! And look at the shape of this floor! UGH!!!

And yes, this is a HUGE hole in the floor that goes straight through. That is the earth underneath our house. A lot of the floor was termite eaten and rotten from water damage.

But these two fools have it all figured out. They worked so hard today cutting new wood for the floor! It's going to be gorgeous! Randy's going to sand, stain, and seal the floors tonight. I can't wait!!!

Next project? The abandoned furnace area in our kitchen will become a much needed closet!

December 18

My little sister, Samantha (or as Kaiden calls her, Dah), had her Christmas show at the Players Theater tonight. Usually the small shows are kind of painful to sit through and I only enjoy the parts where we get to see her smiling face. But tonight we truly enjoyed it! They have a great group of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that are very talented and are lots fun to watch. Kaiden had a blast up until the point that he couldn't hold his eyelids open with his fingers anymore and passed out on the armrest. He woke up and insisted on staying to see his Dah. He simply adores her and I think she likes him a bit too...

new years resolution

I try very hard throughout the day to be as present as possible but i often find myself slipping. I get caught up in the mountain of laundry, the dishes calling to me in the sink, the dirt on the floor that sticks to my feet, and other small unimportant things that I feel have to be done before I can stop and really pay attention to my little guy. I find myself saying "just let me finish this" or "give me just 10 more minutes" more than I would like. While trying to enjoy simple moments with Kaiden often times I find my mind wandering thinking of all the things that aren't being accomplished.

My new years resolution for 2008 is to be more present in the everyday moments!

I will stop and enjoy Kaiden's imagination every time I sit down to play with him. I will truly listen to his very important questions and give him the best answers I can. I will tie his shoe laces to go out the door without griping about how wiggly he is or how dirty his face is. I will help tidy up the toys without whining to him about having to do this over and over again. I will buckle him into his seat without yapping about all the crumbs on the floor of the car. I will let him get out projects without first saying, “Try not to make a big mess, okay?”. I will slow down. I will enjoy the little things. I will do my best to keep my mind fixed on the moment without planning for and worrying about the moments ahead.

I will!!! At least I'm going to try really really hard!

by the fire

What perfect weather for a night by the fire! Crisp, cool, a little windy... Kaiden had a blast running about finding the perfect roasting sticks, making burnt hot dogs, marshmallows, and experimenting with throwing things into the fire.

We let the dogs join us and boy were they excited! We shared our hot dogs with them(we went through 2 packages!) and they were more than happy to pick up our burnt marshmallows that dropped to the ground. Charles was a bit concerned about the fire due to an incident many years ago that has obviously done some emotional damage to him! He wanted to make sure that every marshmallow that caught on fire was out and spent most of the time in our lap making sure we weren't being hurt.

I'm so happy we made this little pit. It was so relaxing sitting by the fire, all curled up in our sweaters, just spending time together doing something so simple.

egypt expedition

Archaeologist, Dr. Kaiden, invites you to join him on an archaeological expedition of ancient Egyptian civilization for his birthday...

Kaiden was chief Egyptologist at the dig site. He even had an official "EGYPTOLOGIST" t-shirt specially made.

Many artifacts and treasures were unearthed. Jewels, bones, sculptures, pottery, mummies, treasure chests, and daggers were a few among of the discoveries.

After a hot afternoon of digging the crew cooled off with a water balloon fight.

Innocent bystanders beware!!!

When the balloons ran out buckets and mud worked just fine.

All cleaned up and pizza'd out, an ensemble of 16 gathered to sing and celebrate Dr. Kaiden's big day.

A Nile crocodile was seen near the site and needed to be removed and terminated for the safety of the crew. But the bugger just wouldn't die.

Thanks for all your expertise and hard work team- it was a successful expedition!

he turns 5...

Happy birthday spirited one!

backyard capers

We had some fun times out in the yard today...
A new super speedy slide was installed on the treehouse (courtesy of Pa - thanks!!!). It's even more fun with the hose making a water slide! All that MUD! love it.

This is Friendly the snake. He's a Southern Ringneck that we found slithering around the yard. We could have held him but opted not to. He's a tiny little bugger and not very intimidating but we like furry creatures much better than scaley ones.

Kaiden helped build a firepit in the back with some bricks we've had lying around for a long time. We're going to test it out tonight and of course make some s'mores!!
Our crooked tortoise that is rarely out for a photo was out for a walk today. He's so much smaller than Chomp but he's actually a year older! He's called Q, short for Quiasimoto, because he's got a crooked shell that has made his whole body deformed. He's a shy little guy and I was shocked he didn't crawl into his shell when I put the camera in his face.

We found this beauty in the attic the other day! It used to be the window for our bathroom. We also found our old front door wich is just as gorgeous. Ran surprised me and put in my garden and I love it! The door is in our bedroom right now.

indianapolis

i went to indianapolis for a few days to visit my old college roommate. this is brandon. he hates the cold, he hates the snow, and he hates the outdoors. but i drug him to this state park where we hiked through the snow, climbed down to a half frozen waterfall, and saw some wolf caves. he was sore and complained for two days afterwards. them colts fans are out of shape! after i showed him what i like to do, he took me to a dueling paino bar in down town indianapolis. it was surreal. thanks brandon and jena!

refreshed

We took advantage of the weather today and made an afternoon trip to the beach. We've been craving the fresh air but every morning that we wake up planning to go its cloudy and muggy or cold and windy. Today was simply perfect. Bright blue sky, small breeze, cool water.......ahhhhh.

:: We feel much better now ::

World Aids Day

Our friend Carson invited us to join him at the World Aids Day event at Ringling College this afternoon. There were lots of stories told, beautiful quilts dedicated, music and arts and crafts.