Rob's Birthday Weekend

We had a fun weekend despite the birthday boy getting sick. :( On Friday, Rob took the day off and we headed to the zoo. We rode the sky ride which is now one of Jaedyn's favorite zoo activities, visited the polar bears, took a peek at his favorite animals the otters which unfortunately were taking a nap, and visited the reptile house for a peek at some HUGE snakes!



Ashlyn practicing her monkey climbing skills...


Riding the sky ride!


A nice view of Balboa Park...


For Rob's birthday we took Jaedyn ice skating...or I should say Rob took Jaedyn ice skating. It was super fun and Jaedyn did great for his first time on ice skates. Next time we'll go a bit more prepared though.....poor Jaedyn's hands were like icicles and now that I'm looking at these pictures I'm surprised his stomach didn't turn into an icicle as well!

Beach in November? You betcha!

Today I was feeling the need for some sand on my toes so I grabbed Ashlyn and Jaedyn and headed to the beach for a couple of hours before dinner. It was a beautiful afternoon with brilliant blue skies and that sparkling Pacific Ocean. Before our departure Jaedyn had suggested that we "change into our swimming suits", but my response was "neh, you and Ashlyn won't go into the water....it's too cold!". One would think that I would know by now that it doesn't matter what time of year it is and how cold the water is (although it really wasn't that cold). To children it's a huge sparkling pool shouting out get wet, get wet! So off we went without suits or towels. Thankfully I at least packed extra clothes for Ashlyn. Jaedyn ended up riding home short-less. :0)



Miss Picky pants won't eat her sweet potatoes, but she'll gladly enjoy a piece of slimy seed weed.



Watching Jaedyn....that's him in the distance.

Rock tasting 101....the specimens.

Hmm....this one looks like a good one.


Hey Mom! Mind if I taste this rock?

Insert rock into mouth.
Delicious.

Our photo shoot

As some of you know we had our pictures taken recently by a friend of a friend who is just starting up a photography business. We had a fun time taking pictures in La Jolla and it was a gorgeous day as usual. However remind me next time.......#1 do not get any haircuts the day before a photo shoot...Jaedyn's hair quickly disappeared when the hairdresser busted out her shaving tools #2 plan around your 1 year old's nap time....Ashlyn's personality is all but existent in these photos which is such a bummer. :( Oh well...here's some of my favorites.








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Start your engines.......

Ashlyn truly loves Lambie more than anything else on this planet. Lambie is now a common word in her vocabulary along with Dad, Mama, Neh Neh (for Jaedyn), and a few others that are less consistent. When we are at home she'll stand at her crib saying "Lambie, Lambie, Lambie!" until one of us gets her out so that she can suffocate Lambie on the floor as you will see in this video clip.

Creeps and Crawlers to Smooches and Walkers

Not too much happenin' here this past week. I was sick for the majority of the week with a bad cold, so I didn't take too many pictures. Up until this week Ashlyn had been taking a few steps, but nothing crazy. She decided that this week was a great week to get a little braver and now is a walking machine. She has figured out that she can walk around the house if she just shuffles around to various pieces of furniture. It's very cute and of course she's very proud of herself. I will add a video clip when I can catch her in the act!






Looking at the highway from above.....totally nuts when you actually stand there and watch the cars zoom bye!

Could we possibly have any more lanes here in SD? 14 lanes for crying out lucy.

Returned home and once again Ashlyn tired Jaedyn out. It took me FOREVER to wake him up!



Jaedyn and I found this wicked creepy spider outside this past week. After a little research I figured out that it's a St. Andrew's Cross Spider. I couldn't resist posting this paragraph....

"When an insect hits the web, the spider runs out, shrouds it in fine silk and bites it to death. Then, digestive juices are injected into the wrapped prey and the contents sucked out when the digestive process is complete (in a day or so). The careful geometrical arrangement of the capture threads and the spokes allows the spider to move around the web on the thread without becoming trapped."

This pretty much puts an end to all of my tent-less, under the stars camping adventures. From here on out I'll be sleeping in a tent thank you very much.





It seems as though the threes is an eruption of independence. Jaedyn insists on doing things by himself constantly and one of these things is getting himself dressed. This actually is quite nice as it is one less thing that I have to do in the morning. It's amazing how long it takes me to get out of the house when I have to get myself dressed, Jaedyn dressed and Ashlyn dressed. I can't imagine having a giant family..we would never leave! Anyway, as you can see he's still working on putting his shirts on the right way. :)

Halloween Part 2

Our little flower wilting away....




At Rob's company Viasat, the children of the employees can come out and trick or treat around the offices for Halloween. This is the second year doing this and this time Jaedyn was ready and had definitely figured it out the goal of Halloween as you'll see from the video clip. Poor Ashlyn looks quite sad in most of the pictures.....she's had a rough last week, very lethargic and just not her happy jovial self. I think she's getting some more teeth, but who knows! Despite her little sad face she certainly makes a pretty cute little flower!



Ashlyn cracks me up...she spends a good deal of time crawling around or walking around with something in her mouth. It can be anything from a shoe, to a comb, to a piece of candy in this picture.


Ashlyn is saying "gee Elmo, you have rather large eye balls".







Without a doubt one of my favorite video clips of Jaedyn. He definitely had the trick or treating thing figured out! :)