Fall Fun

I love fall in Alaska and the beautiful colors and activities it brings! We have had a fun month and Hayden has been enjoying the last few days of being outside without having to be bundled up!

Hayden and Tucker have had fun playing with the fall decorations...those two are trouble! Hayden throws my fake pumpkin off the porch and Tucker chases it and brings it back to him!!

Chris has been working down in Ft. Greely for the past few weeks and so we have been trying to pass time without missing him too much....it's been pretty hard! He has a few more weeks of working down there, but we luckily get to see him on Sunday's.

We are ready for winter, all of the wood is cut, split, and stacked thanks to Chris's little brother, Tyler. It was really nice to have it all taken care of and for Chris to not have to worry about it.

We were able to make one last trip up to the cabin a few weeks ago, and had an amazing time. It was so nice to get out to town and to have a fun relaxing weekend.

We were able to fire up the hot tub and Chris was able to see all of the progress we have made with Hayden's swim classes. We have been going two days a week to a mom and tot class, and it has been so much fun. Hayden loves the water, and has learned to kick and move his arms. It has been a great activity for us to do together and hopefully we will get Hayden comfortable with the water for next summer!

One of the great things about the cabin is the four wheeler, which Hayden and Chris love to ride! They had a blast going all throughout the woods and down on the riverbanks.

Fall brings the fair, and it was a lot more fun with a kid!

Chris took Hayden on the go karts and it was hard to tell who had more fun!

The petting zoo was awesome and Hayden couldn't stop chasing around the goats. They ate his shirt and he thought that was hilarious! We had fun walking around with my dad and enjoyed the best part of the fair, people watching!!!

We head to Anchorage on Sunday to meet with the immunologist for three days of testing. Please say a little prayer for us, we hope that they will find some answers for our little guy and get him feeling better.

Summer Flashbacks

We are currently having an Indian summer and are having beautiful fall weather. It makes me sad to think that summer is wrapping up already. It has been such a fun summer full of lots of great memories.

Although I am sure that my husband would say that we didn't get to take the boat out as much as he would like, I thought we made lots of fun trips fishing and enjoying the rivers. Hayden loved to fish, or shall I say carry around his fishing pole!!

My parents live right next to a park and we live about a half a mile away from one as well so we all made lots of trips to the playgrounds with Hayden.

He loves the slide and over the summer has gained way to much confidence on it. He climbs up the jungle gym all by himself and then sits his butt on the top and scoots himself down the slide. I swear the child has no fear.

On an 80 degree beautiful weekend we decided to make a little road trip to Birch Lake (about an hour away.....a very long hour with a bored one year old). Needless to say once we were there, we had an awesome time knee boarding and tubing. Friends of ours came out and we had a blast together, good company and good times!!

Let's just say that once Catherine and I figured out how to get on the tube, we had fun....although we were exhausted from our mile long swim (okay I might be exaggerating a little, but it felt like that after my dad was driving like a maniac and flipped us off the tube!!!)

As you can see, Hayden was in good hands with grandma, grandpa, Vern and Rhonda while we were out on the Lake. He was exhausted from boozing it up in the sun:)

We are currently busy getting all of our summer projects done before winter...as you can see we were way to busy having fun to work on our house chores!!!

Hayden's New Hardware

We had to make a trip down to Anchorage this past weekend to get a heart procedure done for Hayden. We've been dreading the procedure, but it needed to get done sooner rather than later. He was born with a heart murmur and it lead us to find out that his pulmonary duct never closed after birth. The pediatric cardiologist has been monitoring it for the past year and came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to close naturally and we needed to close it because the blood was flowing through his heart twice and it could lead to infection or an aneurysm. We needed to do it while he was young because as they get older then the duct gets more brittle.

So, we flew down to anchorage for the cardiologist to perform a procedure to close it with a coil. He put a catheter into his main arteries through his leg and then inserted a stainless steel coil with what he described as baleen on it into his pulmonary duct. The coil stopped a majority of the blood flow within 10 minutes. We will find out in a month whether or not it completely closed the duct.

We flew down to Anchorage on Thursday for Hayden's pre-op and thought we would stop in at Build a Bear and get him a special animal to bring with him to the hospital. He had a blast running around the store trying to pick out what animal he wanted. He had a hard time picking between the monkey and the puppy and drug them around in circles.

On Thursday night we took Danielle and Hayden to Walking with Dinosaurs, and we all loved the show. It was amazing to see the life size dinosaurs....they were huge and really realistic.

Hayden was enthralled the whole time and didn't take his eyes off of the dinosaurs. Chris bought some popcorn and they both sat there eating the popcorn staring at the stage!!

Friday was a long day, we had to be at the hospital at 7 am and get him ready for his iv and whatnot. They gave him a medicine to help relax him before the iv and the doctor warned us that we will figure out whether he was a mean or happy drunk when he gets older. The medicine really made him act drunk, thank goodness he was a happy drunk! It was really cute, he was being super goofy and was happy through all of the tests and poking and prodding. The hardest part of the whole thing for Chris and I was when we went into the operating room with Hayden and they put him under. We got to hold him through it, but afterwards they put him on the table, and he was very lifeless laying there and the doctor told us to give him kisses goodbye. Ugh, pull at your heart strings. Then we had to wait two hours for the whole thing to be done. The hardest part of the whole thing for Hayden was that we had to keep him laying still and flat for 5 hours after the procedure. It was really hard for an active 13 month old to lay down, let alone not move. They didn't want the clog in his artery to blow out and him to bleed so it was really important. We pinned him down and he cried so hard that thankfully he went to sleep for most of it!

We were discharged on Saturday and Hayden was doing great. He was up and playing Friday night and we all got some much needed sleep. It was a beautiful day so we decided to take him to the zoo. He really enjoyed looking at all the animals and sitting on his daddies shoulders to get an extra close view!

On Sunday he got really sick and the doctor said that he probably picked up a virus from the hospital. Sunday and Monday were filled with lots of clothes changing for me and him and lots of resting. But I am happy to report that today he is feeling much better and is almost back to normal! A special thank you to Danielle for all of her hospitality and for being there for the little H man all weekend! Thank you to everyone for all of their thoughtful messages and prayers. We really appreciate all of your support and for getting us through this :)

Alaskan Summers

I have quickly realized that in Alaska we utilize our summer time to the fullest! We only get a few months of nice weather and long days of sunlight and so we try and jam pack everything possible into our days! We have been staying busy and are enjoying every bit of it. We had a wonderful visit with my sister and her dog Hank. Hayden got sick at the end of her visit, but still managed to squeak out a few smiles with his superman buddy! My sister was very kind and volunteered to take Hayden for his first sleep over. He did good with them and only woke up a few times and Chris and I enjoyed a really nice and well needed full night of sleep. I can't tell you enough how awesome it was to finally get some good sleep....thank you sister for everything we love you:)

On the fourth of July weekend we went up to the cabin with Chris's family and some friends of ours and had a great time attempting to fish as well as many four wheel rides and a lot of relaxation! I say attempt to fish because we only caught a few little grayling. Oh well, Hayden had a blast shaking the pole and reeling in the line with his pappy!

He has finally gotten used to his life jacket and does a great job on boat rides....well that is as long as he has a lolly pop! Here he is enjoying a nice ride on the Salcha river with his Uncle Tyler.

Before his birthday, Hayden got his first haircut. He did amazing and sat still the whole time on daddy's lap! He was enthralled with the lady and the scissors and all the people at the barber shop.

As you can tell, he really needed his hair cut, it was getting really long!

We went to Pioneer Park with my mom last weekend and enjoyed 80 degree weather and playing in the sun. Hayden played in the sand at the volleyball court and enjoyed a carousel ride and running around in the grass. He has almost master running, that is when he is trying to get away from you!!

I am very nervous about winter coming because Hayden loves being outside. He gets your shoes and brings them to you or attempts to put them on and then stands by our front door. He often bangs on it and whines to go outside. The other day he managed to put his dads shoes on, but then couldn't figure out how to get them off and didn't really like being stuck with them on!

A great thing about this time of year is that the strawberries are in season. My parents have a huge strawberry garden and the boys spent an afternoon picking all of the big yummy fresh strawberries. Well, Hayden enjoyed eating all of the strawberries that my dad and Chris picked:)

We had another amazing session with Chelsey Mach and she did such a wonderful job taking Hayden's one year photos. Please check them out on her blog at: http://machcphotography.com/2010/07/fun-at-one-fairbanks-child-photographer/. If this link doesn't work then you find his pictures on her July 26th post "Fun at One".

Birthdays!

We have had an awesome fun filled past few weeks! This post is purely about all of the birthdays that we have celebrated :)

It all started with my birthday, check out the amazing bouquet that my husband sent me for our anniversary/my birthday:) We are in the process of teaching Hayden how to smell the flowers, but he would still rather eat them. For my birthday my husband treated me to a whole nights rest...the first time in 11 months and 3 weeks (not that I am counting or anything). It was really nice, especially because Hayden's eczema has flared up since it has been hot outside and he was waking up every hour.

The next evening we had a great time celebrating Skips birthday at the antique car museum. We had a blast checking out all of the amazing vehicles, some of them were one of a kind. We are lucky to have such awesome friends to share great memories with!

My dad celebrated his birthday the next week and got a special present from Hayden....he mastered walking that day! What more could a proud grandpa ask for:)

Last but not least we celebrated Hayden's big first birthday. We had an amazing day and he was spoiled rotten with lots of celebrations from all of the people that love him! On his birthday we went and fed the ducks with his friend Tripp, and then we played in the park. Hayden had the most fun crawling around in the pea gravel and getting dirty!

Then we met Chris at home where Hayden got to open his birthday present from us. It is a little electric 4 wheeler that goes about 2 miles an hour. We taped the button down so Hayden just went in circles in the yard for about an hour. We cannot get him off of the thing and now he just whines to go outside. He has figured out how to push the button but not how to hold it down, so he keeps himself entertained by pushing it then stopping and pushing it....all the while jerking himself down the road!!!

Next we headed over to the Bunch's where we took some beautiful family pictures with their amazing antique cars! Nickole, my sister-in-law made cake for everyone, including Hayden's very own little cake. He is a pretty picky eater and wasn't having any part of it but to stare at it! Then he was spoiled with lots of presents from his auntie and Mamie and Papie.

After that we went home and met my parents for another special treat for Hayden, a blackberry cupcake. He enjoyed eating just the blackberries that he selectively choose from the cupcake, who would have thought a kid would pick fruit over something sweet!

My sister made a special trip up from Seattle to help celebrate Hayden turning the big ONE, and we had a cookie monster party for him. He loves cookies because his grandpa gets him one every day that we go into work, and he is a monster so what a perfect theme:) Amy made an awesome cake with special treats on it for Hayden, that of course he picked off!! But he had to get through the frosting first so he ended up with blue frosting and fruit everywhere (with a little help from his auntie)!!!

I can't believe that time has flown by so fast and that our little man is already one. He has changed our lives so much and we couldn't imagine a life without him and hearing his cute little giggle and staring into his big blue eyes.

Blue Eyed Monster!

The one thing I have loved about having our own home is the opportunity to plant flowers all around it! There is something about the smell and beauty of them that adds to our joy for Fairbanks summers! It has been a bit of a challenge to keep Mr. Hayden out of the flower box, because he too loves the pretty colorful flowers! He has unplanted a few as well as eat or pull off the flowers of a few others. Not to mention the fact that he loves to play in the dirt as well as eat a few bites!!

Over the past month we have had a lot to celebrate, and there is more to come! Tucker turned 2 at the beginning of the month. Hayden is getting really good at standing and loves follow him around crawling and then stand next to him or hang on him!!

Hayden is still getting into everything and has mastered his new skill of being a monkey!

I am lucky to have a few friends that have kids around Hayden's age and that are stay at home moms as well. We get together every week and the kids play and afterwards we go for a walk. Last week the kids enjoyed the nice weather and played in the pool. I wish we had more than 3 months of summer.

Chris and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. It was really nice to sneak away for a few hours and have some time to ourselves. We had a very nice dinner while my parents spoiled Hayden rotten, as usual! I am very blessed to have such an amazing husband, and it melts my heart when he is with Hayden, and my love for him grows even more. It just keeps getting better and better :)

We did the Midnight Sun Run for the first time this year, and it was a blast. I was very happy that Chris was kind enough to suck it up and join me...he wasn't too thrilled about it, but I think he had a good time! The run was on Solstice weekend and it started at 10:00pm. Of course my child doesn't fall asleep in moving things, so he was awake for the entire 6 miles that we walked. There were 4,000 people that participated and some of them were dressed up in costumes, so he had a good time people watching!! After we got to the car, and got home (once again, he won't sleep in moving things like a normal child), it was almost 2 in the morning when Hayden finally went to sleep....long night but lots of fun!

On the few days that it has been nice, we have tried to go to Chena Lakes so that the boys can play in the water and sand. One afternoon Chris was able to come with us and through Tucker's toy in the water for about an hour!

Hayden was busy crawling through the freezing cold water and playing in the mud. He was covered in sand from head to toe, and so was everything else that he decided to play with (including my diaper bag!!). He is very fearless and kept going out further and further in the water, until his whole chest was underneath it, that was enough for paranoid me! I do not know how we used to swim in there as kids, the water was seriously about 55 degrees!

I couldn't have a post without a picture of Hayden playing in the toilet! The other day at work he found a duster and decided that he needed to clean the toilet with it. He would stick it in the toilet and move it around and then pull it out of the toilet onto the floor. I swear the whole bathroom floor was covered in water, as well as Hayden! It was hilarous, it looked like he was plunging the toilet, his plumber dad and grandpa were so proud!!!