A Quick Update.....

Just to let everyone know, I've finally gone through and updated and added pictures to all of our Christmas posts. And for your patience here is a short video:
ENJOY!!!

Christmas Parte Quatro!?!?!?!

Well we definitley didnt think we'd get to a part 4 during our Christmas vacation! Turns out our cancelled flight gave us an extra 5 days in PA! We spent it mostly at the malls (there were 3 in the area!!!!!) spending our Christmas money! My parents even watched Kaiden so Darren could take me to see "Tangled" in 3D. Way cute! One night my parents took us all out to eat at a delicious authentic Italian place called Frank's where we all had the most amazing pizza. And let me tell you no one does pizza better than the east coast! The day before our flight home we all took a 1 1/2 hour drive to Hershey, Pennsylvania! Home of the Hershey Chocolate Factory also referred to as Chocolate World! We took a fun ride inside and took a tour on a trolley through the town of Hershey! The best part was the gift shop where Darren stocked up on FRESH Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (his fave!) And we swear they are FAR better fresh at the factory than we have bought at any store.

At the Hershey Factory infront of their giant Christmas tree.

On the indoor ride. Kaiden LOVED it! Especially these singing cows! Haha

On the indoor ride! Darrens favorite!

Still on the indoor ride!!!

On grampa's shoulders in the Gift Shop!

Kisses for Kisses!!!

The next day we said our goodbyes and headed for the airport which I will save you the lengthy details, but was the worst flight experience of our lives. Thankfully my Aunt Stacie and Uncle John let us spend the night at their place which was fantastic because after the flight, Darren and I were exhausted! The next morning we packed up and headed towards Inkom! We spent a few hours at Aunt Darla's and Uncle Rod's playing games and snacking! YUM! And of course picking up Jozlyn who they generously watched for us. Then we headed over to Grandma Joyce's to spend the night! Uncle Steve and Aunt Heidi even came down to visit with us! Although Kaidedn shyed away from Grandma Joyce, when Uncle Steve came through the door he ran right up to him and gave him a hug and a kiss! lol Kaiden definitely wrapped Steve around his finger. He even warmed up to Heidi not letting her put him down for a minute! haha. Well we spent the night and the next morning drove the final leg of our trip after stopping at the grocery store of course. Gotta say we're glad to be back! Darrens only request was I make him my homemade mac n cheese straight away. haha. And the best news is Darrens school starts on the 5th not the 3rd like we had thought, which is why we took our time driving home. =) I can't say I'm happy to be in FREEZING weather with all this white stuff but it sure is good to be home. One more year and we're outta here!!! Im still hoping Darren gets accepted into a law school in Texas!! ;)

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Parte Tres!

Okay, okay so the day we were planning on going to New York City the weather channel predicted at least a foot of snow! Needless to say, that trip was cancelled. We decided to hit the mall up with our Christmas cash instead! It was also our last day so we we crammed in a bunch of family time. Kaiden even got his second hair cut EVER!

The reason behind the need for a haircut. I mo-hawked it for emphasis. lol

I had to help keep him still, but I think the candy cane in his mouth did most of the work! ; )

After his haircut (and a wardrobe change). He was strutting his stuff! Future male model? Who knows! lol

Big toothy grin!! :D

The next day we got up and checked our flight to make sure it would be on time. Everything looked good so we spent the morning getting ourselves and Kaiden ready and packing our bags. I had even timed Kaidens nap just right so that he woke up 10 minutes before we were heading out to the airport. Since I had gotten him ready so quickly and had a few minutes to spare, I decided to double check our flight. I pulled it up online and the words FLIGHT CANCELED were written atop the computer screen. Hooray! Another day with my family! Turns out we got an extra 5! We'll now be flying home on January 1st which is lucky for us since Darren's classes start on the 3rd! Hopefully he will be ready to jump right into school after such a long break.
Jump to Kaiden: He has been having tons of fun! And enjoying all the extra attention he's been getting and all the extra space to run around in. He even picked up on saying the names of Grandma, Grandpa and today said Ashlea! He picks up on words so well it amazes Darren and I!

And now for some random pictures!!!

Uncle Derek jumped in Kaidens play tent, tunnel. He's so crazy!

Kaiden loved eating breakfast with Grammy! Most mornigs he refused ANYONE but his grammy to feed him. His favorite was her homemade oatmeal! Yum!

Red Sox fans! lol

Siblings

Us girls with our Papa!

The girls!!

Our lil family!!!!!

TTFN!

Christmas Parte Dos!

Okay for the past few days we have been shopping our lil hearts out! My mom also cut and colored my hair! Hooray, it was needing some extra lovin. We also got some pedicures! One day while us girls were out shopping, Darren and my dad met up with Farrah's husband Ben who took them on a tour of Westpoint! They had alotta fun!

And of course we decorated a gingerbread house. Nothing fancy, but it was fun!

Me and my sister Ashlea working on the gingerbread house.


Sneaking in a belly pic which POPPED over Christmas break.

On Christmas Eve we had our BIG dinner! So delicious!

Excited to be scoopin up some yummy food! Darren's face is priceless!

Food Babies! lol

More pictures from Christmas Eve:

This isn't technically from Christmas Eve, but sooo sweet!

The grandparents and their grandson! They love him so much!

Me and my parents. I get my good looks from these kind people! ; )

And Kaiden must have been a really good boy this year caused he asked for his Uncle Derek to be home for Christmas and when he woke up his uncle was there! (Derek came in on a midnight flight Christmas Eve!) Christmas morning was full of fun and lots of presents, Kaiden scoring bigger than everyone of course! Now we just need to find a way to take home all his gifts from Santa!

Chrismtas Morning!!!!

Derek got this for Kaiden! He helped himunwrap it and once Kaiden saw what it was he was sooooooo excited to get it out of the packaging to play with right away!

Uncle Derek reading a book Santa got for Kaiden. Kaiden also has packs of gum in both hands. haha

Happy family Christmas Morning!

We love our boy! <3

After everything was opened and the paper and ribbon were all picked up, we ate a delicious breakfast and everyone changed into their Christmas jammies! Its tradition at my house to have a pajama/ movie/ goodies day on Christmas.

Daddy and son playing Christmas morning!

Kaiden playing in our giant bin of Beanie Babies. Yes, we collected them! Haha.

So the rest of our day has been filled with lots of Rest & Relaxation! Good thing too, because tomorrow we're heading to the Big Apple!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!!

Christmas Parte Uno!

Alrighty, we'll start with the flight! Darren I had had to get up at 3 am to get ready to leave Rexburg at 4 am! Sooo early. And poor Darren had finished 3 finals just the day before! We wanted to get to Salt Lake by 8 am. That way we would have plenty of time to stop for breakfast and make it through security with time to spare for our 10 am flight! On a good note I thought our flight was 4 1/2 hours but it was only 3 1/2!! And Kaiden slept for 2 hours of it! Awesome! The rest of the flight he was great! At the end of the flight we even had 5 strangers tell us how good he was. It made us pretty proud! The grandparents were super excited to see us and by "us" I mean Kaiden. Haha. Since it was the first time having a grandchild at their house they went all out on toys! They bought a pop up tent with a super long tunnel and a rocketship ride on toy and tons of other fun things for him.

Grampa helping Kaiden ride on the Rocketship!

Grammy teaching Kaiden piano!

Of course his favorite toys were an old recorder from my elementary school days, unwrapping presents under the tree, taking Christmas ornaments off the tree, climbing stairs, playing with wrapping paper tubes, a basket filled with plastic Easter Eggs and my sister's cat Maverick whom Kaiden chased EVERYWHERE. Kaiden even started making meowing noises! lol. Sooooo Kaiden!

Playing on the recorder!


Unwrapping presents!!!! Days before Christmas!

Climbing up stairs! Look at all those teeth! There are 4 up top and 4 on bottom..... so far!

This is the cutest! Reading Winnie the Pooh under the Christmas tree!!!

Using the wrapping paper tube as a mega phone! lol

Best friends getting their morning milk!

They both love being outside! haha.

We enjoyed our evening with them and the next day ran errands. On sunday we went and saw Farrah and her family since they only live 2 hours away from my folks. They were very excited to see us and their little boy Trenton is adorable! We had gotten them a Wii game for Christmas and we were all having fun playing the games together. Addylyn loved having Kaiden around. She was holding his hand and leading him all through the house to show him all her toys. I even walked in on her playing a song on her mini piano for him. It was very cute! We had so much fun together the kids asked us not to leave! Aww! They wanted us to come by and play every day! And I really wish we could!

Addy was getting ready to play a tune for Kaiden on her piano. And I think Kaiden is holding a tamborine to play along. lol

Darren holding baby Trenton. Isn't he precious!

Again I walk in on these 2 playing! haha

Kaiden loved this rocking horse! Kaiden even does the "one arm in the air cowboy pose!"

On our way back to my parents we picked up my sister from the airport. My parents are pretty excited to be having all their kids home for Christmas. Derek flies in on Christmas Eve and we can't wait!

What a theme!

I've had the funnest time picking out a theme for this lil guy! And I think I've settled on one, are you ready? 101 Dalmatians! My family (specifically my sister and I) loved these movies. Enough for our mom to adopt a dalmatian all our own who we loved very much! And thus, I choose this theme! Downside? Well apparently this theme isn't very popular at the moment and all I can find is 1990's retro products on ebay. I even looked up Disney's online store and NOTHING! Some would think this is inconvenient, but I love a challenge! I would say however, the most annoying part is not being able to find crib bedding. Well I found a fun tool that lets you design your own crib bedding which is highly addictive and really fun (check out cribbedding.com for the tool), but who has $300 to spend on crib bedding!? I've heard making your own is fairly inexpensive and easy. But being a beginner anything sewing related will be hard for me! lol I might have my sister show me the ropes at Christmas since she said I could have her barely used machine!!! And I've already looked into the sewing group in my ward! Hooray for Relief Society!!! (If time and/or skill become an issue I've even thought about buying a solid light blue crib set and buying seperatley black and white polka dot sheets.) Also if anyone sees 101 Dalmatians themed (from the Disney movie not just any ol' dalmatian stuff) please let me know! I've seen a few clothes and a stuffed dalmatian puppy at Wal- Mart which gets me kinda excited that maybe they will be making a comeback! They sure need one, new stuff hasn't really been issued since 1996!
On to some good news, Kaiden is finally getting over his sinus infection and Darren has gotten over his cold! Nothing worse than having a sick family! I made Darren's favorite homemade candy, Buckeyes, for him the other day. He was VERY excited. Turns out Kaiden loves the stuff just as much as Darren! Well this next week is finals for Darren meaning he will be a very busy boy. But it will all pay off with his 3 weeks off including the time spent in Pennsylvania with my family! We're pretty excited for a relaxing vacation!
Well, TTFN!

New Nephew, Milestones & More Teething

Last night Farrah had her little boy! We are soo excited for them and super excited to meet him at Christmas! His name is Trenton Benjamin which I think is super adorable! We heard from her this morning and it sounds like she and the baby are doing really well. =)
Also last night, Darren felt the baby kick! Hooray! We're 19 weeks along, this was the same week he was able to feel Kaiden! Although Kaiden was alot more active at this time. Darren was pretty happy and of course so was I! As far as names are going, we've had a harder time picking one out for this lil guy. The name in the lead is Jaxton Tripp, but Connley is still a close second. I dunno, maybe we'll have to meet the little bugger first. The name Kaiden just came so naturally, so its weird to think he might not have a name until he's born. lol. I guess we still have alot of thinking to do, good thing we've still got time! =)
Now to Kaiden, the poor guy has been teething for the past 2 weeks! He just broke his 4th bottom tooth making the total to 8 teeth now! He has been drooling all over and his teething has caused a sinus infection that just wont go away! Oh and to add to the craziness, the most popular brand of teething tablets have been recalled for 3 months!!!! Making the other brand fly off the shelf since its the only option. Luckily I tracked some down online and now all we have to do is wait for it to arrive!
The count down is on for Christmas! Since I really hate the cold and we live in an extremley cold place, I've decided to push aside all of that negative energy and focus on the positive-ness of Christmas!! Its a good thing we have so many holidays during the cold winter months. Last night I even decorated my first wreath as a project with some friends. It was alotta fun! One more thing to look forward to is our 5 hour plane ride with Kaiden. lol. If anyone has any ideas about flying with VERY active babies, we'd like to hear about them!!
TTFN!