Cute Pics!

We have been spending lots of time with my friend Jannette and her 2 kids, Zach and baby Madison and our friend Brianna and her 2 kids, Cassidy and Eddie.  The kiddos play really well together and always have fun wherever we go.

We have a plan to get together every day during the summer to do fun stuff like the pool, splash pad, zoo, etc. to stay busy and keep the kiddos entertained.  We all met at the Zoo's splash pad yesterday afternoon and then walked around afterwards.  Here's some cute pics of the fun.

 

Face Plant!

Well, the little sports injuries have for sure begun in our house.  Matt was chasing Hayden and the other 7 kids from our team around the bases today and the boy behind Hayden stepped on his shoe and fell on top of him.  Hayden didn't see him coming and landed straight on his poor little nose on the ground!  He definitely was shocked since he didn't know he was going to fall, and it took him a second to cry, which was enough to scare me right out of my chair on the sidelines.  Luckily Matt was right there and picked him up to check on him.  He had his whole face covered in dirt and a little scratch on his nose and one on his forehead.  His nose is a little swollen now but luckily one of our assistant coaches is a Paramedic and another is a Firefighter, so they checked it out and he is totally fine.  

He's actually becoming quite the little tough guy.  He really only cried for a second and brushed himself off to finish practice, which surprised me because he usually can put on quite a show if he's hurt and everyone's attacking him to check on him.  Now he thinks he is really cool with his scratch and swollen nose and I have no doubt he will milk that for all it's worth with the girls at school tomorrow.  Anytime he gets a little scratch or anything at school, he just has to show his favorite two 5 year-old girls because they always give him the sympathy hugs and offer to take care of him (yeah, he's got them figured out).   I am going to be a nervous wreck if he ever wants to play football or Rugby or one of those other full-contact sports...no more injuries for the rest of the season please, Hayden!

Site Meter

I got this awesome program for our blog the other day that I know some of you may think is really cool.  It tracks what parts of the country and world our blog visitors come from.  I know that Sid and Di visited today, as well as My grandma in North Carolina.  We also got a few local visitors, one from the U of A (I know who that is) and a few others in town that I don't know.  I think it will be fun to have a little map of our family and friends from all over the world that visit us on a daily basis.  I can't wait to see it in a few days when it fills in more!

Hayden's first 3 Years at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I finally made time to finish my 3rd birthday slideshow for Hayden.  Three months late is better than never!!!

Mother Nature's Playground

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We had the most amazing day trip today, and I wish I could go back this very second.  We went to Madera Canyon, which is 40 miles south of Tucson.  It's park of the Arizona Park system and it was just wonderful.  We found our own stream of fresh snow runoff to play in and we ended up spending 2 hours on our own in a gorgeous spot with no other people around.  Hayden was wearing his awesome Merrill shoes, which he can get wet and then continue to wear, since they dry really fast and have awesome tread.  We taught Hayden several things about Nature including how and why moss grows, what happens to trees when they die and how the runoff water from the snow helps the plants down below the mountains.  He was so excited the whole trip and then a Park Ranger gave him a Madera Canyon Jr. Ranger nylon patch and he was over the moon with it.  He's been carrying it around all afternoon and also really liked the brochures the Ranger gave him with pictures of the plants and animals we were able to see.  We actually saw about 6 things in the booklet and I was so glad to be able to show him each thing.  We are planning on taking Jane back next Sunday to explore some more.  I am hooked on Madera Canyon.  We had so many photos that I figured out how to use our slideshow maker and this is what I came up with!

Senita Valley Carnival

One of the things that I love about the Vail School District is the pride they have in their schools and the sense of community you get when visiting them.  There was a carnival at a local school called Senita Valley this evening and since I am slowly visiting each Vail Elementary school to find out where to send Hayden to kinder, I figured it was just one more to check out.  The school was beautiful with signs all around with reminders to be respectful, feel good about yourself, etc. and the classrooms were orderly with lots of artwork and projects displayed proudly on the walls.  I am most impressed with this school above all others in the district so far.

Hayden and his friend Zach went classroom to classroom to play all of the games and earned little prizes all of the way.  Hayden even played a word matching game that was set up for the kinders and actually got all of the letters correctly matched to spell the words.  The kindergarten teacher running the game was speechless that he figured it out and had him play again.  He got them all right the second time as well...Go Hayden!

Here's some cuteness from playing the games and of course the jumping castles.  He is now watching a movie with Matt with his huge bag of blue cotton candy that he will never actually eat.  Tomorrow is another attempt at a T-Ball video!

Wow, BRRRR!

I knew when the clouds started rolling in and the wind blew my hair into a tangled mess yesterday afternoon that there must have been some sort of weird weather coming through.  Last night I let Buster out back and he made it about 2 steps, tucked his butt under and ran back in.  Then I realized the poor little guy was getting pelted with hail!  It rained a lot last night and when we got up this morning, it was 40 degrees and cloudy still.  It was 87 on Tuesday and now today's high is 49.  It has been raining and hailing on and off all day and it's absolutely gorgeous.  We obviously aren't practicing T-Ball in 40 degree weather so it's a special movie night with blankies and popcorn.  Hayden thinks it is really cool.

Sid, Di, did you make some wish to send us your weather for a few days?  If you did, thanks because I am loving it!

Sweets for the Sweet

I was thrilled the other day to learn that the ice cream shop right down the street from our house has one lime flavor of sorbet that contains no dairy.  Up until now, we have been driving at least 20 minutes to any place that has ice cream Hayden can eat.  Jane, Matt, and I surprised Hayden with a trip to "the place with color-changing sprinkles" and he was thrilled.  I have noticed that now he has stopped asking to choose a flavor of ice cream at places we go because he has learned that each place just has one flavor for him.  He's so good though, he never complains.  I look forward to him outgrowing this crap so we can let him choose all the damn flavors he wants!  I also will apologize in advance for all of the ice cream shop posts, it's getting warm out and we always do this at the onset of warm days!  Here he is being goofy with his ice cream and cone...

Cyclovia

I am quite impressed with the Cyclovia event we attended today!  It was nice to go visit Matt at his TriSports tent and watch him play basketball with random people before we set out walking along the route with our friends and their kids.  Hayden rode his bike (which is now WAY too small for him and he needs a new one) and he actually ended up riding about 2 miles before declaring, "My butt hurts so it must be time to walk!" I am 99% sure that the seat is even too small for him now and it probably was digging into his poor tushie.  Anyway, we walked all over the Cyclovia route and really enjoyed some semi-cloudy weather.  We probably did about 4 miles total and after that, the kids, Buster (and us!) were totally tuckered out and are actually still napping now, 2 hours later.  I am really excited that we are so into fitness and I am proud to be showing Hayden since he was a baby, good choices such as riding bikes, walking and just getting outdoors instead of being inside.

I have already lost about 5 pounds in the past few weeks since we have been Mountain Biking as a family and I can't wait to lose more.  I feel actually about 10 pounds lighter but I have definitely gained some muscle that has prevented as much of a loss on the scale.  I'm not worried about it since I feel absolutely wonderful and I am so thankful to Matt for helping me feel so good about myself and for not leaving me out at Fantasy Island when he could go WAY faster than I could!

I can hear Jane snoring in the next room so I think I have succeeded in wearing the whole family out.  Check out these pics...super cute!

T-Ball Video

Well, I had this grand vision of putting music to the T-Ball video of Hayden from yesterday and posting it here, but Blogger seems to have other ideas right now. I decided to abandon ship on that plan and I have posted it on You Tube for your viewing pleasure. The music won't work either right now, so you get the grainy version with tons of background noise. It is still very cute, of course! now i'm on a mission to make a good one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0wDlDApUs

Today Matt is working all day at an awesome event called Cyclovia. They will have 5 miles of streets closed off for people to walk, skate, ride bikes, etc. and all along the way, there are fun things to do. Jane, Hayden and I are going down there so I'll post some photos later!

The More Dairy-Free, The Better

We have discovered yet another place that we can go to take Hayden out for a bowl of dairy-free ice cream. It's called BTO (By The Ounce) and it's all self serve yogurt and toppings.  They always have one dairy-free flavor and even have several cereal toppings and sprinkles that don't contain dairy, so he can make a huge concoction of whatever he wants.  I took him after school yesterday and he loved it!  Here's some post-nap, still tired pictures of him chowing down!

I am going to make a video of Hayden at his T-Ball game today, so look for that this afternoon.

Look At Me....

I'm 3 and 3 and 3!!!

Today our little Hayden is 3 years and 3 months old, and he's also 3 feet tall!!!  I am so happy he has grown an inch since January and finally crossed the 3 foot mark by getting to 36 inches.  He's decided that he's "as tall as a giraffe" today.

Today is also special for me and Matt because it was the day that 3 years ago, the doctor finally cleared us to take Hayden to public places besides his school classroom and home.  It was absolutely liberating and such good news that our little guy was strong enough to go out finally!  I remember taking him to the pulmonologist to have his lungs checked for a final time and as soon as she gave us the all-clear, we went out to lunch to celebrate!

Ah, we have come so far and I am just so proud of this little man!!

I love Sunday

I just love Sundays when we don't have any plans with specific people or times we must do things.  I love scheduling play dates and activities on any other day of the week, but lately, unless it's a specific event, I just love doing our own thing as a family on Sundays.  We get up and make waffles or pancakes from scratch, watch a half hour of tv, play in the yard and then the rest of the day is ours to hang out.

Today, Matt and I rode to the park with Hayden in the trailer, which he still really loves.  When we got back, we went to Subway and Hayden actually ate a mini kids turkey sub.  The white bread at Subway is dairy free and he has just that with plain turkey.  He loved having the same lunch as we did since usually he refused to eat lunch meat in the past and we ended up making his lunch at home.  I love our expanding list of food that he will try...It's making things much easier for me.  After nap this afternoon, we went to a new frozen yogurt shop that offers a dairy-free option and lots of toppings that Hayden is allowed to eat.  He gobbled his yogurt up and we are definitely going back there soon.  When we got home, it was time for some serious messy art creations.  We cut, painted, glued, colored, splashed water all over the place and of course put a ton of shiny sequins all over everything.  I love putting a ton of things out on the table and just letting Hayden go crazy creating anything he wants.  That's what being 3 is all about!

See what I mean?  Sunday is just the best!

Here's some pictures from the park today and of our art fun...Yeah, Daddy is just a little big for the baby slide at the park   :)

Hayden had his 2nd T-Ball game today and of course it was a total blast. Every kid on our team really loves to play and gets along so well. I really thought they would start to fight over the ball by now, but they stay on their bases and return the ball to 1st base after a hit. When it is time to bat, they wait in line with their little helmets on and cheer for each other. It brings tears to my eyes to watch them play the games. It is just that cute. Hayden devoured his whole lunch after the game today and is still sleeping right now. Gotta love the post game naps! Here are 2 very short and rough videos of Hayden hitting a ball and running in for a home run. I will try to get some better video next week since Matt is better than I am at the video thing. He's in Phoenix today for Tri For the Cure, which he's working at. It's a breast cancer awareness Triathlon and he was very honored to go work for them today. Much love to all!

Check out what we borrowed!

Matt and I have been wanting a bike trailer for a while so we can take Hayden on long rides with us without him getting tired.  Matt's boss has one for his kids and let us borrow it for a little while.  I wasn't sure if Hayden would like sitting in it and going fast, but he LOVED it!  He spent the whole ride to and from the park yelling at Matt to go faster and to race Mommy.  We will definitely need to invest in one of these things soon (which will be super cheap since Matt can get it through work)!  Here's a couple of quick pictures of Hayden in the trailer before we took off!

It's getting warmer in T-Town!

Wow, just over the past 4 days, it has gotten significantly warmer here!  We are getting the real Spring sun that lasts all day and the light breeze in the air even has a tinge of warmth.  I have noticed the kiddos at school getting the sweaty hair and red cheeks on the playground and at T-Ball, the kids are asking for water every 2 minutes.  I am enjoying the warmth right now, but I know that pretty soon, we will be wishing for Winter once again!  How is England for those of you that are enjoying much different temperatures?  You would all probably love to swap places with us, as much as we will with you in June, July and August!  I really don't have all that much to report from this week, except that I am on head cold #3 since the start of March and Hayden and Matt are just fine as usual!  We have a T-Ball game, a bbq and a trip to Flandrau Science Center planned for this weekend, so I will get back to my picture taking!

Easter picnic and a whole lot of kids at the zoo!

Well, Spring Break is coming to a close and I have enjoyed every minute of our 5 days off.  Hayden is missing his friends and can't wait to tell them about his weekend.  I am sort of dreading the post-Easter craziness at school tomorrow but I know by the end of the week it will settle down, as it usually does.  I wanted to share the cute pictures of our picnic yesterday, including ones of Hayley and James' dog frank with Hayden.  Hayden and Frank are best friends and I wish we could keep him for ourselves.  Check out the photo of Matt and Hayden in their matching hats for T-Ball...adorable.  I also have posted pictures from the zoo today. We went with 4 other families, with 8 kids total.  Hayden was once again the only kid without a brother or sister in the group, but I'll keep my whining about that to myself.  We can't afford another kid at this point, so he better get used to being the only one without a sibling, lol.  We had a blast with all of our friends and I can't wait to have the summer off to hang out with them since they are all stay-at-home moms.  I'm off to make dinner and lunches for school tomorrow...Goodbye sweet Spring Break...until we meet again   :)

New Layout

No, you aren't on the wrong blog...I changed the layout yesterday while Hayden was in a picnic coma.  I also changed the music out and I love it!  I have pictures of the picnic to post, but I have got to get some laundry done before we go to the zoo.  Love to all!

Happy Easter!

We are in full swing Easter celebration mode and I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Easter!  Here's some photos of egg dying from last night and of Hayden's Easter Basket Scavenger Hunt from this morning.  He figured it out in 2 seconds and found his basket but he was very excited that it "Magically" appeared in his favorite place, his tent.  The Easter bunny outdid himself this year...Hayden got bubbles, moon sand, cars, legos, a baseball bag, a new bike helmet and a Thomas train!  The photos from this morning are a little fuzzy looking and I'm sure it's because Matt uses different camera settings than I do and I didn't have time to let him fix it before the fun this morning.  Today we are having a waffle breakfast and then heading to Reid Park (our original park, Agua Caliente is closed for a wedding).  Once again, Happy Easter and can't wait to talk to everyone soon!!
(Sid and Di, we will be on Skype until 9:30)