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!!!

Summer Time

It has been beautiful for the past few weeks, and we have definitely been having some fun in the sun! This is the only time that I could get Hayden to wear his sunhat (I gently placed it on his head, and he wore it for a whole 5 minutes before he realized it was there).

Hayden loves it outside and has been spending his days playing in his pool and crawling around the lawn chasing after Tucker, but most of all playing in the dirt. He does a really good job of not eating the rocks, he just gets dirty! He helps out with the outdoor chores, and loves to follow his dad around or do whatever he is doing. He especially likes to mow the lawn with him!

We go on weekly walks with a few of my girlfriends, and the kids get to play before and after the walk. A few weeks ago we went to Chena Lakes and Hayden and Tripp had a good time stealing each others toys!

When he isn't outside, he is busy getting into more trouble inside. He has officially figured out how to open the toilet seat and play in the water or dump the toilet paper roll into the water.

Whenever I cook, Hayden plays in the fridge and used to just empty out the first few rows. But now he has figured out how to be a monkey and climbs in the fridge, pulls out the drawers, and then tries to get things out of them (even if it means hanging onto the drawer).

We have really been enjoying the new boat, and took it up the Salcha this past weekend for Memorial Day. It was a really nice relaxing trip and was great to get out of town for a few days. EVERY time we go on a boat ride Chris has to tell me how much he loves his new boat....he is really proud of that thing!! So it will get good use and I think our summer will be filled with lots of boat rides.

We had a really long day Saturday getting everything ready for our trip up river so Hayden was really tired and hungry when we got in the truck to head out of town. He was so hungry, yet so tired, that he closed his eyes to go to sleep and would take little bites of his chicken nugget half asleep. It was the cutest thing in the world. He finally fell asleep with the half eaten chicken nugget in his hand...he was saving it for when he woke up!

Trouble!

The snow has melted in Fairbanks, and we are on our way to summer. It is great to be able to get outside and start all new activities with Hayden. It is a good thing because he is getting into everything right now and has figured out where and what he isn't supposed to be into to!

He loves to stand up and flick the toilet paper roll, as well as take is down and rip chunks of toilet paper off and then eat them!!

Tucker's toys are way more cooler than Hayden's and he enjoys taking all of the out of the basket every day. He then sticks his hand out to give Tucker the toy and when Tucker tries to take it, he pulls the toy back really quick and crawls away really fast! He also likes to climb in the basket and then play with the phone which is on the shelf above the toys. I swear you can by all the toys in the world, but the simplest cheapest things are way more fun for him!!

The minute the river opened up and we had a nice day, Chris had to test out the boat (when we picked it up last October we didn't have a chance to put it in the water...heck we didn't even get to start it). So, my dad met us down the boat launch and away we went. The boat is awesome and I can't wait for all of our adventures that we are going to have in it this summer. Hayden wasn't as thrilled as we were, he hated his life vest because he rubbed on his chin and because of the back floaty, he couldn't really move freely in it. He kept waving bye because he wanted to go bye-bye out of the boat....ahhhh!!! Hopefully he will get used to it.

As soon as the snow started melting I had to take Hayden out to see if he would play in the grass (I have heard that kids don't like the grass). So I stuck him out there and he did just fine because there were leaves on the ground for him to eat. We'll see how he likes it when it is green and squishy!

We traveled down to Anchorage for another hockey tournament, which they didn't play to well in. But, we had a blast hanging out with our good friend Danielle and Hayden had fun chasing around his new little friends, Gus and Pedro! He spent hours playing with them on the floor, and he would crawl up to them and open his mouth so they would kiss him (that's how Hayden kisses, full-on mouthing your face!!) It was gross but cute! We had a beautiful day on Saturday and Danielle got her Harley out to ride, Hayden was amazed at the big shiny object as well as her outfit!! Thank you Danielle for being a great host and for the fun weekend:)

It was a long week last week, Hayden is cutting two more teeth, so he almost has 6 now. The 4th top one is just about to cut through. He doesn't really eat, sleep or play that much when his teeth are cutting so he demands a lot of attention. Chris's work is gearing up so he has been working a lot of hours, which is great, but exhausting for me!! Oh well, it is short lived, and I am enjoying the neediness now because otherwise Hayden is very independent :)

Late Update!

Hayden has been such a happy baby lately, life is great! He can crawl around and get into just about anything you can think of....not to mention the fact that it entertains him and us!! His mannerisms crack Chris and I up, he has a bunch of big old smiles that will make all your troubles go away!

We managed to take my parents and Hayden to the Ice Park when it was 30 above and were able to walk through the whole thing. Of course my parents couldn't help but stop at every slide and take Hayden down each one of them!

The first week of April we made a trip down to Anchorage so that I could attend some training. Because I had to be there a few nights, Chris came along to entertain Hayden. I swear he drugged the kid because he slept 3 hours the first day and almost 5 hours the second day. I only wish that I could get him to sleep that much for me (I get 2 one hour naps a day). Come to find out later, he held him the whole time!

Chris took Hayden swimming for the first time in the hotel pool. He did great, just as long as you didn't get his head wet! It was like pulling teeth to get the two of them out of the water. As soon as my butt can fit in a bathing suit I will start taking him to swim lessons.

We got back to town (that is on a plane, we were not about to travel 6 hours with a child that cries after he is in his carseat for 20 minutes....still!) the night before Easter. We dyed Easter eggs with Hayden, which is pretty hard with a 9 month, and it turned into him crushing the eggs and trying to eat them, but hey it was still fun!

The next morning the Easter bunny brought him a basket full of goodies, that is Easter eggs full of puffs, yogurt melts, crackers, and fruit! What a thoughtful bunny! Grandparents are the ones that get to give him all of the chocolate, and then give him back dirty and hyper, which is exactly what happened!

We had a fun day of church with my parents, brunch with Chris's family, a nice 3 mile walk with our family, and then dinner at my parents with Skip. I must add that we had a perfect dinner at my parents and not a single food item was over/under cooked :) Hayden was our entertainment for the evening....he loves bread and so he had a piece of roll in each hand but wanted to eat some orange, so he would take a bite of his roll and then lean over his highchair and try to eat a piece of his orange with his mouth (of course not letting a single breadcrumb drop to the ground).

Chris has been playing a lot of hockey lately, my dad and him had a tournament this past weekend, he has an alumni tournament this weekend, and he is gearing up for another tournament in Anchorage next weekend. Hayden is great at every game and enjoys watching all of the action, so it looks like we are making another trip down to Anchorage soon, which is fine with me I love getting out of town and shopping!!

Birthdays!

This month Hayden is 8 months old, and this has been a really fun time with him. He is learning new things everyday and is very inquisitive about everything. He has finally mastered crawling and can get around and into things very quickly! He is climbing up on everything and has figured out how to surf from one thing to another. He loves to wave bye to everyone, and knows that when he gets in his carseat we are going and so he starts waving to everyone!

He is eating like a horse and growing like a weed...I only wish I had his metabolism!

Chris had a great time in Whitehorse, and his hockey team won the championship in their division. We thought we would surprise him with a picture of Hayden the morning of his birthday.

When he got back from his road trip we took him out for a wonderful dinner at the Turtle Club. He told me NOT to tell them it was his birthday, but I couldn't resist...it was worth it to see the excitement on Hayden's face when they brought the cake with the candle to our table! He was excited but also very curious about the thing that lite up!

It was my mom's birthday last week, and we also enjoyed a nice dinner and a scrumptious dessert that my dad had gotten. Of course the grandparents couldn't resist sharing this dessert with Hayden, and we all know he loves chocolate! Chris caught this cute picture of him, he was looking at his dad with a mischievous look.

Now that Hayden is mobile, it is a lot easier to get things done because he can "help" out. I am getting caught up on my house chores so we can enjoy the wonderful weather that we have been having. I think spring is in the air....it has been over 25 above for a week now.

I am staying really busy with work, and work a few hours at home every day and go into work about every other day. It works out great, Hayden stays very busy getting into everything, I get a little adult time, and also get to stimulate my brain :)

Tucker had a rough time last week, he got attacked by a pit bull and also finally got neutered. It was a long time coming, and we finally decided to get it done. We had it done through a local volunteer program that was absolutely wonderful. They donate their time once a month to spay/neuter animals...all right in front of you. Thank goodness Chris was there! People are amazing in this community and we are so happy being around such nice people! Nothing has changed with Tucker, he is still the same dog, and I can't tell you how much of a friend he is to Hayden. Whenever Tucker goes outside, Hayden looks out the windows and tries to find him. Also, we take Tucker on lazy man walks and let him run by the car down the road to get his exercise (hey it is too cold to get my butt out and walk him sometimes!) and we let Hayden "drive", and he peeks out of the windshield trying to see Tucker run!

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much

Chris and I celebrated our fake anniversary last week, we have officially been together for 10 years. We were friends for a few years before we started dating and have grown into best friends today. I was going to scan some old pictures of the two of us but my printer decided to malfunction, so just imagine the both of us about about 30 pounds lighter! It has been an amazing 10 years and we have grown incredibly close and have been able to share so many milestones in life. I couldn't imagine a better life partner and look forward to the next memories we have in life together.

This week we are celebrating Chris's birthday. Lucky for him, he gets to celebrate it in Whitehorse, Canada playing hockey with his friends! So Hayden squeezed in his dad time before Chris left...Hayden is getting pretty good at "brushing" his teeth!!! The tournament they are playing in has a cash prize so hopefully they won't have too much fun on Friday!!!

We have had some wonderful weather lately and are taking full advantage of it. My sister got us this amazing light backpack for Christmas and it has made taking the dog for a walk in the snow quite easy!!

Hayden has become quite the monkey lately, and can pull himself up onto just about anything. He is still figuring out the consequences of letting go of whatever he is standing up against and what he can't stand up on (like the dog that moves once he stands up or the rocker chair that rocks out from underneath him!!!).

Although Hayden has been fighting a cold these past few weeks, he still managed to squeak a few smiles out for me :)

Seven

Hayden is officially 7 months old today! It was a pretty uneventful January for us, it seemed like a dark and cold month. The darkness was really noticeable this year because I was at home to watch the sun rise and set whereas you would normally leave for work in the morning and it would be dark and then come home from work and it would be dark.

But we now get over 7 hours of sunlight! The picture above is my favorite Hayden pose...when he is playing and you call his name, he throws his hand on his hip and looks up at you with a big smile!!

He absolutely loves to bother Tucker, and he is constantly climbing on him. I am so glad we have such a patient lab, he is a great dog and I love the fact that he keeps Hayden entertained.

The picture above shows Hayden two bottom teeth that have finally cut through. Two down and twenty something more to go...wow, I really hope that the first ones are the toughest because it was not very fun!!!

Chris and I both have huge hockey families, so it would be fit for Hayden to have a hockey set already!! He loves to eat the ball and bang his stick, a great start to a long career in hockey (well that is if he wants to play!!).

We are enjoying the warmer weather and can't wait to start the snowmachining season. Chris is working in Ft. Greely every few days still, but I am so very thankful that he isn't in Prudhoe right now and we are having such a fun time being parents :)