Merry Christmas from Jack!

We finally got our tree up a week before Christmas! Jack has been mesmerized. I took these in the morning after he woke up. The first thing he says when he comes downstairs is "Christmas lights."

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Edward's Graduation!

Edward graduated on Friday with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and Construction Management from CSU! We are so proud of him and so excited about what's to come. (First things first, praying for a job!) Jack did so well at the ceremony. He sat next to me on the steps and stood when we stood, clapped when we clapped... But of course, by the time they were starting to read names and hand out diplomas, that's when Jack was ready to go. So we took turns with him in the hallway and he loved that!

Toy Car

Click to enlarge

We went to Christmas in Windsor this weekend and there was this lovely man named Bill Hanway who had a booth featuring his wooden toy cars. He said hi and asked how old Jack was, then he picked up one of his little toy cars and handed it to Jack and said Merry Christmas! Jack being the shy little boy that he is just hung onto it without really any other interaction. But when we got home he loved it!

I think it's such a beautiful piece of work and he has put great thought into making the toys as kid-friendly as possible, including using non-toxic olive oil on the wood. And to top it off, his prices are very reasonable. If anyone is looking for a beautiful toy for Christmas, let me know and I'll get you his contact information! He lives in Loveland.

Family Fall Photos!

We met Kadie, Hahn and Henry, and Kim, Todd, Hannah, and Aaron (and baby on the way!) at Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park in Loveland to take family photos of each other. Jack was pretty edgey that day as he hadn't taken a nap, only napped on the way there, and then woke up unhappy after only 30 minutes of driving. Luckily, he pulled through with the silly antics of his Auntie Kadie.

I wish we'd been able to pry the blankie away from Jack but at that point,
he wasn't going to last!

(Click images to see larger)

The Tovens

Guess who's still up at 10pm...

This guy.


1. The cute thing is, he started calling me "Sam" tonight, when "Mom" just didn't seem to do.

2. The sad thing is, he hasn't been sleeping because his thumb-sucking thumb has a sore.

3. Flattering but tiring, Mom is the only one in the world right now that can cut it. That means the last two nights mom has been up probably 10 times either rocking him to sleep or rubbing his restless back. (Not sure why she's smiling in this photo)

Pumpkin Patch 2010!

We took Jack to a Pumpkin Patch this year! We went to Bartels Farm just on the North side of Fort Collins. It was a great farm--they had some animals that Jack loved including an Emu! They had tons of pumpkins and we even found some gourds! The weather couldn't have been better.

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Another Photoshoot!

Jack and Henry were in another photoshoot together at my work. They did a great job and after about 25 minutes, they were done. It's so fun getting to see them in a new situation like this. Boy, does Jack need a haircut. I need to bite the bullet and go get it cut!

Talking Heads and Crackers

Jack totally digs Talking Heads...

I can't get the video to stay vertical so you'll have to view it with your head tilted.




Burnin' down the house!

Fall Trip!

We took our semi-annual trip to Breckenridge/Silverthorne with Kadie, Hahn and Henry! The boys were so excited to be together, as you can see, they also wore each other out playing.

We took photos of the boys out on the deck last fall and then again this time. They were a little more...active.

Here's a photo from last year (Sept. 09)...


The park in Silverthorne that Kadie used to play at as a kid was crazy awesome now. Totally updated--it felt like the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! Too bad the boys were too young to climb up there but they had tons of fun on the baby slides and in the sand.


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Jack and Faye

Faye came for a visit on Saturday (She's just 6 days older than Jack!). Jack realllly enjoyed sharing her snack. We finally had to take away the Chex Cereal or I think he would have eaten it ALL!

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Summer 2010 Video!

http://animoto.com/play/SVDngucAnZzROCboDk6qVw

Check out the video of Jack from the summer! It's so crazy to see how much he's grown in just a few short months. I love that baby.

Ready for Halloween!

The other night Julie (Gunnar's mom from across the street) was talking about looking for Gunnar's Halloween costume. It hadn't even hit me until that moment...last year we did the last-minute search for a halloween costume for an 8 month old that was not too pricey and I swore I'd be more prepared for this year! Well, thanks to Julie's reminder, the next day mom and I went to Once Upon a Child and found this Tigger costume for Jack. When we were at Disney World Jack LOVED the characters (the one's in full costumes, not the one's that you could tell were just people dressed up), especially Tigger. So I thought this would be a fitting costume for this year.

And although you can't exactly tell, he loved the costume. He actually asked for us to put it on him and once it was on, he seemed pretty content to chill as Tigger. So we're ready for Halloween! ...Hopefully he'll still feel the same way by the end of next month!

What a Summer!

I am so disappointed that the summer has flown by and my blog has suffered! We've had our ups and downs but mostly ups. Jack has been such an adorable little sponge...and also opinionated. We just can't believe how quickly he picks up on things. He repeats us all the time, he remembers where we hide stuff, he insists he's a big boy that can get his own water from the refrigerator door...the list goes on. His vocabulary has greatly increased. A few of his favorite words: Mommy, Daddy, Ami (My mom was going by Oma but he seemed to decide Ami was better...spelling TBD), Henry (more of an "Enry"), NO, Up, Shoes, Bird, Puppy, Giraffe, Bye-Bye, Night-Night, Car, Ball, Rock, Tree....

He loves it when you "Buzz" your finger into his belly. Then he'll point to himself and say "Bee!" He still loves to "Swiffer" the floor or push things around (including his own stroller). He also loves to play with water (ie. watering our plants for us...and watering mom and dad with the hose).

More photos and video to come from our trip to Disney World this month!

Spring Canyon Park!

We went to Spring Canyon Park in Fort Collins with Dylan, the other boy at Jack's daycare (he's 2 months older) and his dad. There's a wonderful water feature for the kids to play in, a huge playground, and also a ages 2-5 playground that is made for younger kids. We spent 2-1/2 hours there. Jack had a blast but he was past worn out by the time we got home. He ended up going to bed at 6 pm without dinner! And he slept in the next morning! We couldn't believe we had worn him out that much but it ended up being a lovely break for us. We ordered pizza and ate it while watching TV on the couch. Then I was able to get my entire closet completely re-organized, something that's been on my list for some time!

LOST Series Finale

Kadie hosted an awesome LOST Series Finale Party. It started with an amazing letter from the Dharma Initiative informing us of the party and that we would soon have our paperwork from them. Then we received our airline tickets.

Jack's First Hike of 2010

We took Jack to Devil's Backbone in Loveland today for his first official hike of 2010 (and nearly his first hike at all). The look on his face in this photo pretty much sums up his thoughts on the trip overall. (Click image to see larger)

We found a single tree to stop under and take a break. Jack loved the little stream and we let him stomp in it (of course he was extra mad when we had to put him back in the backpack to head back to the car!)

Devil's Backbone

When all was said and done, we had walked a total of 1 hour and
were stopped a total of 45 minutes.

Crazy Hair

One day we got home from a walk with Jack and this is what we found when his hat came off. That baby has some hair!

I'm a winner!

I attended a "CS5 Celebration" for work this afternoon that is hosted by Montage Graphics in Fort Collins (a printer/graphics company). For those that don't know what CS5 is, it's a collection of the latest and greatest applications for designers from Adobe (like Photoshop, etc.). At the event, an Adobe representative actually goes through tons of new features of each program. I've gotten to attend once before (I think for CS3). I thoroughly enjoy this kind of thing and took notes about every detail that I found interesting about the new ways you can do things with this upgrade.

At the end of this *FREE* event they gave away a full version of CS5 to the lucky winner of the drawing and it was ME! If you go to Adobe's website, it costs $1899 and I am thrilled to have it to use at home! (Now we just need them to upgrade soon at work!)

I think this is the most expensive thing I have ever won. I guess it makes not winning the Albertson's Monopoly game a little bit easier...

Swimming Season

It's the start of swimming season and Jack had his first outing to the pool (indoors since it's been snowing in May here in Colorado this year!) Dad pulled his old goggles out and Jack really got a kick out of having them on. (And notice his snacking face while wearing goggles).

Fork and Spoon!

I decided to feed Jack with his new Toy Story plate, fork, and spoon today. He looooved the fork and spoon. The problem was, then he didn't want to bother eating...he just wanted to play with these cool new toys called a fork and a spoon! He chatted, banged them around, held them up, pushed food around...then he finally would put one down in order to pick up a piece of food, shove it in his mouth, then pick up the fork/spoon again. This was a long meal but luckily, it was just Jack and mom at home so we chatted, played, took pictures, and ate lunch.

Climbing

So I realize this probably isn't the kind of thing to encourage your baby to do but look how cute he is! Jack was determined to play on the door of the dishwasher so I did what most moms would do...pulled out my camera! He loved to put the spoons where they go with the silverware. He couldn't figure out how to get to the stuff on the top rack.

Happy Easter!

Kadie and I decided to host an Easter Egg Hunt for the little one's on Saturday. Although they were still a bit young, we all had fun and they loved their treats inside their eggs ("Chickadees" (Goldfish Crackers), Bunny Grahams, and Cheerios!) We had quite a few babies/kiddos attending including, Henry, Jack, Gunnar (from across the street), Mason & Aidan (Kadie's nephews), and little Natalie (Tyson & Elisa's 2-1/2 month old).

Today we had a great Easter which included church in the morning, nap time for Jack immediately following, dinner at our house with both our families, then Jack playing with his "Entourage" and opening gifts (That baby is sure popular!)

Praise God for His un-deserving blessing by sending Jesus to take away our sins!
Click images to see larger. View more images at: http://tinyurl.com/yfn7oc5

Photoshop Challenge

I had to mock-up a muffin mix package for something at work. I designed the cover and logo, then had to make it look like an actual pouch of muffin mix. It was definitely a fun challenge in Photoshop!
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Cannibal Baby

Jack has been putting objects (His blankies, Ernie thermometer, sippy cups, etc.) in his mouth to free up his hands for crawling and other various baby activities.

In this case, years ago Kadie and Hahn sent us a Christmas gift with magnets of themselves, along with gift cards to the various places they wished they could go with us (this was when they lived in Wisconsin). Jack loves the Auntie Kadie and Uncle Hahn magnets but it took on a whole new meaning when he started crawling around with Uncle Hahn's head in his mouth!

March Pics

Jack is in between the world of being a baby and a toddler. Sometimes he still seems like my baby...maybe that won't change much, but he is also starting to be such a little opinionated toddler. He keeps us hopping and laughing. He definitely "deserves" what he wants, or at least thinks he does!

Recent Pics

Here's a few recent pics of Jack. He definitely knows he's cute. The one's on the left are of him trying to get a hold of my camera. That baby. (Shakes head) :)

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