Hayden's New Trick

These days Hayden thinks it is fun to hold onto my hands and "walk" up my legs. He has been doing it so much lately that I decided to ask Matt to take some pictures. Hayden was more than happy to show off!

Hayden's New Hobby (that we have put a stop to already)

Last week Hayden thought it was really funny to empty out the entire contents of his toy box and then getting inside of it himself and closing the lid shut. I thought it was pretty funny myself (hence the pictures) until he tried to do it again the next day, and then another time after that. We quickly moved on to the lesson of only pulling out a few things at once. But here he is, hard at work, before his mean mommy took all of his fun away:

You'll notice the reappearance of a certain unwelcome "friend" of Hayden's (yes, I am talking about the pacifier). He had a rough time towards the end of the FLorida trip and then shortly after we arrived home came down with a double ear infection and, just like that, it was back to stay (or so it seemed, much to my chagrin). However I am happy to report that on Wednesday morning I felt like Hayden was distracted enough to snatch it away when he wasn't looking, so I did. When he did start asking for it and I told him he didn't need it, he just said "binky, night-night". And just like that we were back to nap time and bed time only for his pacifier! We have had some bumps since then, and are sure to have some more, but over all I would say we are having success and he is missing it less and less each day. The plan is to get rid of it all together here soon. It just seems that if he knows it is in the house somewhere he will keep asking for it, and I am also getting tired of getting up at least once a week in the middle of the night to pick it up off the floor (this is a recent occurrence as well). It also provides less chance of another regression if it is not here anymore. So, that is our saga as of late- such is life with a toddler in the family!

How Often do you Clean?

A friend of mine (who recently gave birth to her fourth baby!) has been pondering the question of how often she really needs to clean. So she decided to put a questionnaire on her blog to find out how much other people really clean their houses. I found it very interesting to read some of the answers, so I decided to steal the idea. I have posted her questions with my answers. Please humor me and copy and paste them into the comment section and replace my answers with yours. And be honest! Otherwise its pointless. Should be fun!

How often do you change your sheets? every two weeks

How often do you change your kids’ sheets? same as above unless he has an accident

How often do you clean our your refrigerator? once a week (quick clean-out before I restock groceries) How often do you clean out your kitchen sink? quick wipe down after dishes go in washer, bleach about every 2-3 weeks.

How often do you vacuum your main living areas? once a week (okay, to be honest, Matt does this part) How often do you vacuum bedrooms? once a week

How often do you vacuum stairs? n/a

How often do you clean kitchen floors? sweep daily, mop every 2-3 weeks.

How often do you clean bathroom floors? every 2-3 weeks

How often do you dust? usually every two months, would like to do weekly

When was the last time you cleaned your oven? never

My microwave looks: 1)spotless 2)like it needs a quick wipe down 3)like you could eat lunch out of it with all the food splatter *2*

How often do you clean out your car? take all the trash in almost every trip, good vacuum about 3x a year, never really do the panels and stuff.

In Other News...

Matt's squadron, the Force Support Squadron has been nominated as the best FSS in the entire Air Force! They already won the best FSS for ACC (Air Combat Command, their Major Command...okay I am losing people...basically a Major Command refers to a base's main mission or purpose and there are about 12 bases in ACC, so Mountain Home won the best out of those twelve). Now they are one of 4 bases in the Air Force being evaluated to win the award. The other bases that have been nominated are in Turkey, Japan, and Florida. The award is called the Eubank award and would be a huge honor. The team doing the evaluating arrived on Friday evening and will be here through Monday evening. Matt is taking a small part in a presentation to them at some point tomorrow, so prayers for him would be appreciated. We will finish up their time here with a dinner on base tomorrow night, and then we wait until they finish all the evaluations. We will be sure to let everyone know when the results are in!

The Last of the Florida Pictures

I've finally come to the end of the vacation pictures. Here are some of Hayden playing at my parents house towards the end of our trip.

Hayden loves playing with his Uncle Mike, probably because he is so much fun. My brother loves kids and is great with them.

Hayden has a way of making people do silly things.

Grandpa and Hayden in their Beatles shirts

Playing with Grandma. They spent lots of time kicking the ball around while we were there.

Last week Hayden talked to my mom, my brother and Matt's mom on the phone. He was in a talkative mood and they all enjoyed it. He listened as my mom asked simple questions and responded with a "yes" at the appropriate times. Then he would point to his trucks in the room as she asked about them, as if she could see them. Then he abruptly said "bye!" when he was done talking. Then my brother got on the phone and I put Hayden back on the phone and after saying "hi Mike!" he proceeded to point and tell him about his trains. Later, when he talked to Matt's mom he said "hi GG" and told her Merry Christmas. So, later that night at the dinner table I asked Hayden to tell Matt who he talked to on the phone. He thought for a minute and then said "Mama GG!" (which I translated to Matt as being Grandma and GG). When I asked who else he had talked to, he sat thinking very quietly but wasn't coming up with anything so I prompted him by saying "uncle..." and his eyes got bright and excited and he exclaimed "Mike!" It is fun that he is enjoying having "conversations" with us now and he often repeats things that we have already established, like telling me Matt is at work, or that daddy has a truck, or that we are going to see his friends, etc. It's fun waiting to see what he has to say next!

Hayden Meets a Penguin

My best friend from High School, Carlie, has a job with a research company that is conducting research at the Florida Aquarium. While we were in Florida she invited us to bring Hayden down and she would "get us in." Hayden loved the aquarium, which is always a neat place to visit, and it was great to see Carlie.

Checking out the sting rays.

This one came out dark, but a good picture of the two of them with the sharks.

Hayden enjoyed looking at all of the sea creatures.

Then he got to see a penguin up close!

Us and the owl :)

Hayden really loves duck for some reason. They are so funny to him!

Christmas Day

We started Christmas morning out at Matt's mom's house. We had a fun time exchanging gifts- Matt got a new leather jacket and Hayden got some cars and a Curious George movie. Matt also got a stocking full of candy and Hayden wasted no time getting his fair share. Then we had a very yummy meal with ham and turkey and all the trimmings. Later we went to my parents house. There we had a family devotional and read the Christmas story, opened presents and had some more yummy food. All in all a good day.

Kensie is getting the hang of opening presents.

Grandma is taking it all in.

Hayden loved his new cars

sugar high, anyone?

A trip to the Fire Station

One of the trips we made while visiting family was to the Fire Dept. with my dad who has been a firefighter there for about 34 years. Hayden LOVES fire trucks and kept asking to go for a ride as soon as we got there. Once we starting climbing up and getting inside, though, he was a bit intimidated by the size and height of everything. For the most part he had a great time and was talking about it for the rest of the day. When I went to get him from his nap that afternoon the first words out of his mouth were "ride fire truck! woo-woo"

Hayden and Daddy

Capt Brad Shirley, proud dad and grandpa

Matt and Kensie...I love how Kensie plays with her hair, so cute!

After he warmed up

Before he warmed up. My dad took us on a few laps around the station

Watching the fire truck leave on a real call with Uncle Mike and Kensie

Can you tell Kensie is a one year-old?

"Where's my hat?"

Driving the truck

Grandma showing Hayden around

Back Home

I've decided to take a break from the vacation pictures to share a few from what's been going on back in Idaho. We are enjoying getting back to our normal routine and back in our own home. Hayden seems happy to be back as well although I think he is missing not having Matt here today. We got right to unpacking and Hayden found a prime opportunity for something to hide in. Matt joked that we had found a way to save money on our next plane trip!

"Can we go back to Florida?"

"I'm ready!"

Our first night back home we put on the movie "Cars" that Hayden got from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas. They also gave him some Lightning McQueen slippers and he was very cozy watching his movie.

Christmas with the Shirleys

One of our Christmas traditions has always been to have a family get together at my grandparents house. Our family has been growing steadily in recent years, first with people getting married and now with BABIES! It is always exciting to see what the kids will do together and to have four generations of family together to celebrate. We kick off the evening with homemade chili, then spend time singing Christmas carols and opening presents, then finish off with dessert! It tends to go by like a whirlwind but I managed to snap a few photos to share.

Hayden had fun toting Kensie around in her new wagon.

Kensie was "reading" the song lyrics

Hayden had to make sure he knew the words too

Taking a turn on Uncle Mike's Guitar

Getting all of our ducks in a row before present time