Jaylen is ridiculous about eating things and I thought I'd make a list of the things we've found him eating throughout his 3 years of life.

-Toothpaste (first poison control call)
-Chalk
-Dirt
-Ants
-A goldfish
-Loves deodorant
-Many tubes of chapstick
- The ends of 3 bulb syringes
-Double bubble wrappers (yes, he pooped them out)
-Jolly rancher wrappers
-A library book cover
- Countless boogers
-Dog poop
-A stick
-Baking soda
-My business cards
-Candle wax
-Lotion
-Sucked on toilet scrubber
- Crayons (a black one on the way out the door to his first dentist appointment- UGH!)
-Marker tips

I'm sure there is much more that I'm forgetting. Any and everything has gone into this kid's mouth.

Some other stories from lately:
Jaylen decided to shave his lips with my razor. I was using the bathroom when he grabbed the razor and started running it across his chin. I told him he would get to ouchie if he played with it, and he was out of reach, so he ran it right across his lips. Blood was everywhere. Not good at all. Maybe he'll learn to listen.

As I was putting him to bed tonight he said, "Mom, water makes me happy, but juice makes me really, REALLY happy. My tummy just loves juice better." He reminds me of Aaron so much with his beverage choices. He loves juice just like Aaron. He calls soda 'spicy juice.' Really makes us laugh.

I woke up one morning to find baking soda ALL over the fridge. I asked him what he was thinking and he said, "I wanted to make sure to feed all the food so they weren't so hungry!" It was the day after we planted some strawberries and tomatoes so I think he got confused on what we feed and don't feed. Oh it was a mess, and I was livid about the food all having baking soda on it. The imagination of this kid!

Also, Gavin is about to rollover! Is this a normal age for that? Jaylen never really did rollover- he went right to crawling.

2 cuties

Oh, how I love these two. It's amazing how much I feel like my heart as grown since having Gavin.

Here's our boys with some cute shirts Grandma Merilee sent for them:



I couldn't pick just one to post, so I had to post them all! They're just too cute together!


Little Gavin- a week away from 3 months old..

Which one?

Let's play a game:

Which one is Jaylen and which one is Gavin?

1:

2:


1:

2:


And who is this?:

Memorial Day

We had a fun (and delicious!) dinner with the Collins on Sunday afternoon, including some four wheeler (or Jaylen says four-leeler) rides around their back yard. Jaylen loves that thing. Monday morning Aaron and I both worked and met up at the pool afterwords for some swimming. It was Aaron's first time with Gavin in the pool. He didn't seem to mind until he got splashed.






Jaylen's quick to go to Gavin's rescue when he's sad...

Gavin being cute at 2 1/2 months

Sorry for the enormous amount of crotch grabbing in this one, but it was too cute (besides that!) I found it as I was looking through videos... from the father/son campout...

Dinner with the Browns!

One of my long time clients, Pat and her husband Dave, had us over for a delicious dinner this weekend at their home. It was great! Here's some pictures I got from Pat of the night-

Pat has quite the touch with babies! (Well, actually she has the touch with any age of kid!)

Playing with lincoln logs..



Jaylen out playing on their deck..






They also took us out to see their plane. Jaylen got to crawl up in the passenger seat and look around. He seemed somewhat nervous but keeps talking about it!

So glad for great friends!

Cute Gavin at 2 1/2 months..

I found Aaron and Jaylen giggling on the couch outside. It was adorable!

A couple of stories I wanted to post:

We call Jaylen a turkey sometimes when he's being silly, so when we're teasing him he loves to call us turkeys, or even better, he's shortened it to turk. It just cracks me up to hear him call me a turk when I'm teasing him.

Jaylen is always trying to show his friends Gavin in the child care. It's so cute how much he loves to show off his new little brother. He also gets very protective if Gavin cries. He immediately comes over and says, "It's okay Gavin, it's okay. I'm here," and tells us to be "very, very soft!" It's really amazing to me how well, and seems instinctive how much Jaylen has loved and welcomed Gavin into our little family.

We took our first swim this summer and Jaylen is really a fish. I think we might be able to get him to swim on his own this year. Gavin was surprised by the water but seemed to enjoy it. Jaylen is great with his life vest on, so it's nice to be able to trust him swimming around and be able to hold Gavin in the water. The pool will be great this summer with the kids!

Jaylen came in one morning and laid down by me, moved my hair from my face, put his arm on my back, patted me and said, "I love you sweet mommy." It seriously melted my heart. What a sweet, snuggly boy we have!

Jaylen's bedtime prayer tonight:

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for today.
Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Gavin and Jaylen.
Thank you for my blessings.
Thank you for my wonderful life.
Thank you for grandparents.
Thank you for everything.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

It made me smile that he said, "Thank you for my wonderful life." What a cute kid!

Jaylen's is dang smart. This one totally cracked me up: Steve gave Jaylen a couple pieces of gum and told him to give me one. After I put Gavin in the car, Steve asked him if he had given me the piece that he gave him for me. Jaylen took the two pieces, put them side-by-side to see which one was bigger and gave me the smaller one. We died laughing!

Jaylen and I went into the bathroom at church, and after we both went in our stalls, Jaylen started giggling and said, "Mom, we're both making silly peeing sounds! How funny!" It struck me so funny.

I know I have more. I'll keep putting them here as I remember them!

Father and Son camping!!

Hello everyone... Its Aaron, and I'll be your guest poster for today, and will be telling you the story of this year's fathers and sons camping trip Jaylen and I were able to go on together. I must preface this post with a previous story about Jalyen and camping. Some time ago, Jaylen out of nowhere said he wanted to "go camping and fishing with daddy". Where he came up with that is a mystery to me. If I had to guess, it would be this book that I read to him every now and again called "Just me and my dad". Anyways, it's adorable because Jaylen gets so excited when he says he wants to "camping and fishing with daddy", and alltogether hilarious because, well... I'm not exactly the camping and fishing type Don't get me wrong; I'll go, and like it... But of all the things we all do together, and that he has actually seen me do, he comes up with camping and fishing... that's our little boy.

The picture above is us at the top of this mountain where there was a "waterfall". Since theres been a drought here in New Mexico, it was really more like if a group of people were wizzing at the top and it trickled down. Still a great hike and view!




Us climbing to the top. I had to periodically put him on my shoulders so he wouldn't run off into the woods, or too far ahead of the group. Our little adventure seeker, just like his momma!




On the way back down the mountain. Note: if this were a "Family" camp-out and not a "Fathers and Sons" camp-out, the climb up the mountain would have been vetoed by 9 out of 10 mothers. We made an unofficial pact not to mention it... sorry guys.



Happy boy at the TOP!! Again, Jaylen hated that I was wanting to hold his hand the whole time we were up at the top, thus the quick descent down.



Our tent and our "beds". Jaylen was so excited just to be in a tent! Here's him rolling around in his blankets right after our hike. So exciting!




Cera bought Jaylen a few "tools" the week before we left, so we were fully equipped with a little shovel, rake and sifter thing for the sand. After everyone had made it to camp and were just hanging around for the night before bed, Jaylen and a few other kiddos loooved climbing up and around this little dirt pile, using the tools.



A little snack before bed. We had just put away the marshmallows. During the weeks previous, Jalyen reiterated his excitement for going camping as well as eating marshmallows!!




Jaylen with Cody (back) and Landon. They played in the tent for a little while after getting in PJs and before going to sleep. Jon Vraines and I sat outside the tent in our camping chairs laughin it up at those kids in the tent. They loved jumping around and shining the flashlight around. Cute boys.




Right before bed. Its probably about 9:30p when I took the picture... Jaylen was seriously asleep 60 seconds later. Such a late night and fun evening playing with his buddies and hiking!



It was pretty cold that night so we had, in addition to sleeping bags, a number of blankets to keep us warm. Sometime during the middle of the night Jaylen wakes up in a panic, kinda rolls over and is shivering asking "where did my bed go". I guess he was rolling around and kicked out of his sleeping bag and blankets with nothing covering him. So I helped him get all bundled up again and put his hat on him... poor little guy.




Jaylen making his mark on the site before we took of that next morning!! He had to go sooo badly, so we walked over to where the bathrooms were and opened up the first one... stood there for a few seconds... started walking back and said, "I don't need to go anymore".... I asked, "oh, Jaylen did you already go in your pants?" and he says, "No, this bathroom is too stinkeeey"... It WAS pretty bad, so we made it to another one just in time.

There were a number of other friends of mine up there who took their boys, so it was pretty fun to have us all together. I found myself just so happy to be with Jaylen and watch him run around that I didn't really get much of a chance to hang with the guys... It was a special time to be with my sweet little boy!!

Gavin and Hailey

Cute Hailey and Gavin- cousins 1 mo apart