The New Crib

As I'm sure you've all seen in the previous posts, since he came home from the hospital Ayden has been making due with sleeping in his pack n' play. This last week his Grandpa George gave him a great gift - an amazing new crib! Not only is it a big boy crib, but his Grandpa made the whole thing himself, including cutting the wood, sanding, gluing, assembling, painting...you name it. What a lucky baby :) Thanks Daddy for the wonderful gift. I'm sure its going to become a special family heirloom.

The whole sha-bang

I love the sides! He did an amazing job and it looks like it came right out of one of those posh baby stores...only better!

Ayden playing with his bear Woods :)

Bathtime fun!

Ayden gets more and more animated in his baths as time goes by. Here are a few bathtime moments that we had lots of fun capturing.

Drying off in his ducky towel with Aunt Katie.

This is his most recent bathtime video. He now gets EVERYTHING in the bathroom wet when he splashes. Its like being at the Shamu show - whoever is bathing him better prepare to get drenched!

Why Do I Do It?

I hate going this long without doing a post because I then feel like I have a ton of time to catch up on! Its like my own personal means of torturing myself. Maybe I'm a masachist somewhere deep down...who knows. Sometimes life just seems to get away from me I think. I can't imagine how I'm going to manage when we have another kid and we're not living with built in babysitters...but I guess I have a few years to figure that all out. Anyway, here is some stuff that has happened over the last few weeks.

This is the piggy bank I received at one of my baby showers. Ever since then Jonathan and I have been putting most of our change into it (when we happen to actually have cash that is) to save up for Ayden.

Katie and I decided one afternoon to count it all and we were shocked when we got a total of a little over $65! Its not much in the grand scheme of things but when you consider that Ayden is only 4 1/2 months old...its not too shabby!

The weekend after New Years I went with my mom and siblings on a day trip up to Idaho. As always Ayden was an angel in the car. Here's a picture of him in all his carseat cuteness.
Ayden has this unique little habit of clasping his hands together. He started doing it when he was a few months old and is starting to do it less and less these days so I thought I better get a picture of it.

Christmas Cards

After finding a great deal online for Christmas cards I decided there was no reason good enough to stop me from sending them out this year. Jonathan suggested that we send Christmas emails...but something about that is just so impersonal to me. There's a nice feeling you get when someone takes the time to send something via post. My goal is to do these every year, but hopefully in the future I will do it far enough in advance that I will be able to send a family letter as well.

The printed card

Ayden Update

Sleepy Boy

Ayden loves to nap...as long as he's around people. Put him in his crib and he always wakes up sooner. Oh well :)

Here he is on our bed

Winter Fun

We found this fun hat at Target and I HAD to have it for Ayden. We took him out to lunch the other day and decided to put him in it even though its still just a tiny bit too big for him. He was being so cute and silly!

Ayden's Teddy Bear Outfit

Thanks to a loving Grandma Decker we have the most adorable little teddy bear pants and jacket set for Ayden. He looks so cute in it! She even bought him a coordinating onesie with little bears and trees on it. :)

Ayden thinks he is such a hot shot - he started sitting up this last week! We had been able to prop him up in a chair corner or on a pillow before but now we have to put things in front of him too because he's strong enough to pull himself forward now. I can't believe he's getting so big!

This is him watching some tv - one of his favorite things already.

He absolutely loves to play and is full of smiles! He has given us some small giggles before, but Sunday while Jonathan was changing him he actually started laughing for the first time! His daddy must just be a bucket of laughs...or he was mocking us for having to change his diaper.

Our Little Reindeer

A few weeks ago we were shopping at Babies R' Us and we saw this totally adorable reindeer sleeper - and I thought it would be perfect for Christmas pictures since its not just a boring Santa getup. My dad was gracious enough to lend me his Canon camera to take these yesterday and I am soooo thankful! I'm sure they turned out way better than they would have been on my camera. I took a lot of them...probably over a hundred by the time I was finished. Of course I didn't keep them all but its always nice to have a lot of variety, and with the use of memory cards it doesn't hurt to just take as many as you want and delete later on. I think I'm getting the photographer itch.....too bad I don't have $500 to drop on a nice camera.

My sleepy little reindeer fell asleep during the photo shoot...what draining work it is to be a model. :)

I love his little Charlie Brown wrinkles on his forehead.

He is too cute for words sometimes!

His pouty face...and he's still adorable. I know, I know, I'm a big sappy mommy. I guess it happens to us all sooner or later.

Getting up close and personal.

The rare smile...its hard to catch them on camera sometimes. When you do a shoot this long the baby tends to get a little cranky so I broke mine up into two blocks of time (he still got cranky though). What can I say, I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

Ayden's Nursery

So I finally have some pictures of Ayden's nursery...although I'm sad to say that its still not complete. We still have some shelves and paintings to hang, but these will give you a general idea.

The little cubes are nice for dividing clothes into sizes or hiding things that don't look nice on the open shelves. We've already got a ton of stuffed animals for him, but who knows if he'll actually play with any of them! I love TY Pluffies because they're machine washable so he will be able to drag them around or suck on them all he wants.


This is his dresser/changing table. This used to be a light colored pine dresser with a lacquered finish and brassy colored hardware (ick!) but over conference weekend in April of this year we sanded it down, repainted it, and gave it some snazzy new silver drawer pulls. Now it looks like new! Its worked great as Ayden's changing table and it cost next to nothing. How could it get any better?

Right now we have Ayden using a temporary bassinet for his crib. Its actually a pack'n'play, but it has a bassinet attachment which we are using until my dad finishes his real crib. Its actually worked out nicely because it was easy to have in our room when he was little, it has a vibrator and plays music, and it has a removable changing table attachment too. That way when we did have him sleeping in our bedroom we didn't have to carry him to his nursery to change him, which was especially nice in the middle of the night.

This is the chair that I have absolutely fallen in love with. The second I sat in it at Babies R' Us I knew it was the one! I appreciate that it has a shorter back because its better for a little person like me, and is still surprisingly supportive for Jonathan too even though he's way taller than me!

This is where a lot of Ayden's feedings, story times, and snuggles times happen. All I need is the ottoman and I could pretty much sleep in this chair because its just so darn comfy!