Frustrating...

I just spend 3+ hours getting all of the pics posted from the last week and now it looks like some pictures are being left off, randomly. So, if there is a post that seems like it's missing something- it probably is. If you click on the post itself, and they click back, the pictures re-appear. UGH!

Back Home

We got back home on Saturday night and it was great to sleep in our own beds. Ayden must have thought so too, because he slept in again! Ayden was excited to get to play with is new kitchen set (thank you Uncle Daniel & Aunt Dee!)

Tour De Christmas Day 5

We finished off our Christmas celebrations with the Newton Family Christmas on Saturday. We were so excited to get to see Ken's sister Sarah and her kids for the first time since they moved to Texas in August. We had lots of fun and Grandma Newton loved having all 3 of her kids and grandkids under one roof for 24 hours!

The cousins in their robes

Anneke loves Camp Rock!

Gerret got Madden '08!

Our silly little boy!

Grandma Newton with her photo collage

Ken waiting his turn patiently

Tour De Christmas Day 4

We were so lucky to be able to catch up with some friends for dinner on Friday night. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like and the boys had so much fun playing together. Noah's super cute twin sisters will be joining in on the action in no time!
Ayden and Noah - this is quite a good picture considering how difficult it is to get a two-year-old and almost two-year-old to sit still!

Jayda

Taetum

Tour De Christmas Day 3

We went to my dad's house for Christmas Dinner. Ayden was excited for more presents to open!

Ayden got a cowboy hat from Great Grandma & Grandpa Groom in Texas. Grandpa went and dusted his off so they could be twins.

Ayden thought he was going to get to play poker with us....When we put him to bed, he was yelling, "No, play game!" He thought the pockets of his new robe were a great place to stash some poker chips.

Christmas Morning

We woke up on Christmas morning (at a late 7:30 am!) to see what Santa brought!

Ayden was super excited about this play hut with a ball pit & tunnels!

A very tired mommy and daddy with our stockings.

Curious George went for a little ride in the new shopping cart.

Tour De Christmas Day 2

Christmas eve was the annual Monson Family get-together at Grandma & Grandpas. We ate the traditional norwegian fare of ham and potato dumplings, then went to the candlelight church service, then back to the house to open presents. Ayden did a great job even though he stayed up WAY past his bedtime.





Ayden and Grandma




Ayden would sing "Happy Birthday" whenever he saw a candle and blow them out!

Tour de Christmas Day 1

On the 23rd, I decided it would be fun to make sugar cookies with Ayden. He had lots of fun and would say "shake, shake, shake" anytime he was asked about making cookies. I guess the sprinkles were his favorite part.



Rolling out the dough:





Cutting out the shapes:Shaking on the spinkles:So proud of his cookies:Yummy!

A Visit with Santa

Or "HO HO" as Ayden calls him. We went in the afternoon last week, which was great because there was no line and Santa was able to talk with Ayden for a few minutes to get him comfortable. It started out with a high five and took time to get Ayden out of the stroller and onto Santa's lap. The picture isn't the greatest, but at least he's not screaming and running away!

Family pics

We had some family portraits done a few weeks ago. A woman at Ken's work is taking a photography class and needed some test subjects. We were more than happy for some free pictures. These are a few of the good ones. She also had some black and whites, but we don't have the CD for those yet. I'll post them as soon as we get them.

What a good helper!

One of Ayden's favorite things to do is "help" in the kitchen. Here are a couple of pictures from today when we were doing some holiday baking.

Right after I took this picture he took a bite out of the crisco stick - gross!

We have a big boy on our hands!

This weekend Ayden finally figured out how to pedal his little bike. He's been close for a while, but finally did it. He was pretty excited!

Here is a picture from last year when he first got the bike a little under a year ago:

And now:

Ayden also moved to a "big boy" bed. We took the front off of his crib and put up a little safety rail. He only got up once the first night and hasn't since. He thinks it's pretty cool that he can get in and out by himself. I think we were lucky the transition was so easy!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We are hosting a neighborhood Christmas party next weekend, so we spent the day getting the house ready and all of our Christmas decorations up. I'm always so excited, until I remember how much work it is.

I have a ton of stuff stored - some of which I don't even use :)

Ayden was quite a trooper - I think he had fun just hanging out outside.

Our pretty house

Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah

Trying to get Ayden to cooperate was a little difficult - but it made for a cute video!

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's a happy turkey day wish for everyone!

Back from the cruise....

We had a wonderful time on our cruise! We enjoyed the sun and lots of family time - there were 18 family members on board (plus 2 longtime family friends that might as well be family). So, we were quite a force....Ayden was so cute because every time we saw someone we knew (at meals, in the hallway, or just walking), we would get totally excited, like it had been weeks since he had seen them. Here's a rundown of our little vacation:

Thursday - We boarded the plane to San Diego, then grabbed the shuttle to the cruise ship terminal. After waiting in many lines, we finally got on the ship and found our room. We were surprised to find a bed instead of a crib for Ayden, luckily the room steward fixed that quickly - this was not the time to try a "big boy bed." Then it was time for the muster drill - Ayden was super cranky since he had not had a nap - so it was quite difficult to keep him quiet. We finished with that, took Ayden back to the room for a quick nap, then went to dinner.



Friday - Ayden woke up bright and early at 6am (ugh!). We were on the ship all day, so we hung out in our room, wandered around the ship, went for a swim, and at a ton of food. We tried to drop Ayden off at Camp Carnival in the morning and they paged us after 1/2 hour because he was crying. That night was formal night - luckily Ayden successfully went to Camp Carnival so we could enjoy our evening with the adults.

The kiddie pool was empty most of the time. Probably because other people followed the rules. There were signs everywhere that said kids in diapers were not allowed (even swim diapers). My question is why they would have a "children's pool" that is only 1 foot deep if it's not for babies and toddlers. Needless to say, we broke the rules.

Saturday - We woke up in Cabo San Lucas. We waited in a long line to get off the ship, then walked around Cabo. We shopped a little, ate lunch at Cabo Wabo, then hiked for what seemed like forever to get to the beach. We swam a bit, had some drinks on the beach, then took a water taxi back to the dock to catch the tender back to the ship. Ayden wasn't real thrilled with the ocean - it was pretty rough and the undertow was pretty strong, so it was good he was afraid. We adults had lots of fun swimming in the warm water!

Ayden is a two-fisted drinker too!!

Sunday - Another day on the ship - we swam, read, took naps, and packed up our suitcases to go home. Because we had such a large group on board, we got to attend a hosted (ie. free alcohol) cocktail party. It was tons of fun and we took lots of family pictures. For our last dinner, we had cakes brought out for two of my uncles' birthdays (Bruce & John). They were a little less than thrilled.

Ayden made friends with many of the staff members.

These are all of my cousins that were on board (and my brother)

Monday - We woke up bright and early (5am thanks to Ayden) and ate, got our stuff and waited on the deck for out group number to be called to debark. We took a taxi to the airport, checked our luggage and then had a great lunch with a family friend to lives in the area. Luckily, Ayden took a quick nap in the airport - it made for a much more pleasant flight.

Watching the ship get loaded for the next cruise.

If you've made it this far - thanks for reading...this blog was partly so that I could get all of my memories out so they're down "on paper"!