Jayden's 2

I can't believe that Jayden is already 2. Wow how time flies. The past 2 years have been so much fun! He's such a smart kid. It's fun to see the new things he comes up with every day! He is catching on to everything. And he is sleeping through the night and putting himself to sleep on his own! It has been wonderful! He IS a toddler though and he DOESN'T like to listen to me at all! It's frustrating sometimes, but I'm trying to just enjoy these times, because I know they are going to be gone before I know it and I'll wish I could have them back! He is such a sweetheart to Jennilyn. He is so gentle with her and he loves her so much! He's been such a good kid for the most part. We feel really blessed to have such good children!

Since we got a bumbo seat for Jennilyn, Jayden has always wanted to sit in it, so we decided to get him his own chair and see if that will fix the chair problem. So he got a cars chair, and a bike. He LOVES bikes!
The bike was in the room when he came downstairs, and he was thrilled!
Jayden loving his BIKEAfter church sunday we got home and put Jayden in his chair for lunch and he was just being all cranky and our church gets out at 2 so we just figured it was WAY past naptime. So I picked him up and he was ON FIRE! So I took his temp and it was 103. So I gave him medicine and put him to sleep. When he woke up the fever was lower, but only 101. So I kept doing the same thing all day and all day monday. His fever wouldn't be so high when he was on the medicine, but once it wore off he was up to 103 again. The highest it got was 103.7. Poor kid. Terrible timing. He didn't have the best birthday ever! Of course he hasn't slept very well for the past few nights, because he has had such a high fever. He woke up on his birthday at 6, of course, so I took him downstairs to try and put him back to sleep. Well he wouldn't go back to sleep. He was wide awake and as happy as could be. So we woke up dad and opened presents. As you can see from the pictures that he was so happy. Sadly that didn't last all day. He helped me make his birthday cake and talked about it all day, but when it came time to eat it he wouldn't eat anything.
Our poor little guy was all but thrilled when it came time to blow out candles!
(He did blow, but because his throat hurts, he doesn't swallow his saliva, so he's just constantly leaking out of his mouth. LOL. So thankfully he wasn't close to the cake when he did blow! lol)
He ate breakfast, but since then he hasn't really eaten much of anything. He has a bunch of canker sores on the back of his throat and it hurts. He won't drink anything. He won't eat anything. The poor kid won't even take medicine. So last night we took him into the dr. I was afraid it was strep and I've had that before and it's miserable. I didn't want him to be miserable all night so we went in. They said it's a viral thing. Herpangina. It can also cause sores on the hands and feet as well as in the mouth, but Jayden doesn't have any. Anyway, so there is no cure. But we did find some sore throat suckers. YAY! They are helping. It doesn't seem to last very long after the fact, but enough to at least get some fluids and food in him.
This is how he was today after he realized it didn't hurt to eat his yougart. :) He sure enjoyed his food!
So it wasn't the best birthday, but at least he's only 2.
Happy Birthday bud! We love you!

Lake Tahoe

We went to Lake Tahoe last weekend for a Family Reunion! WOW, that place is Gorgeous! I LOVED it. The water was PERFECT! They said it's normally colder than that, but it was perfect. My Uncle Steve has a boat so he took us all out for rides. It was so much fun! Jayden loved riding the tube! He kept saying, "Bouncy, bouncy" and then the water was splashing him in the face and he was seriously drenched, and had water dripping off his face and he was grinning and saying "splash me, water splash me" It was the cutest ever. We hiked up to Eagle falls. Very pretty! It was so much fun!

We had to find lots of ways to entertain Jayden on the drive. (It took us 11 hours) These are just a few of his fun times!

He was tired and needed to take a nap, but of course didn't want to, so Chris showed him how his pillow case could work as sleeping bag. He loved it and did it again on the way home to sleep!

I made these glasses out of Pipe Cleaners. He loved them until he pulled them apart! But has anyway seen UP?

Jennilyn wanted to try them out too! She was so good for the ride. It was hard for her to not get good naps, so by the end of each day she was really done and just wanted to lay down and not be held, but she did great!

It's amazing how much fun one can have with pillows!

The Beautiful Lake Tahoe!

Us up Eagle Falls with the lake in the background

Jayden LOVES the water and the sand. He had tons of fun. He would play in the sand and then rub his eyes! haha!

Chris, Jayden & I on the tube! We rode the tube from California to Nevada and then back! Thanks Uncle Steve!

Me, Uncle Steve, Chris, & Jayden on Steve's boat

Hanging out on the beach

We had to get some pictures with the bears! They are everywhere up there!
Chris & Jayden and the Bears!

Me & Jennilyn and the bears!

Thanks for showing us your part of the world Steve and Rita. It was so much fun!

New York

We went to New York for Tyler & Mckenzie's wedding reception back there. It was so good to see all the family! We don't get to see them near enough! And the reception was beautiful! Great job at decorating mom and all who helped!

The Bride & Groom with Jayden & Jennilyn. Of course Jayden wouldn't cooperate! Jayden met Josiah, he is the son of Vicky, Chris' moms friend. He is such a cute little guy. The 2 of them were instant friends. It was cute! They look like they could get in a lot of trouble together don't they? haha!

Jayden & Josiah in the rocking chairs!Jayden did lots of swinging! He loves to swing every way possible!! :)Another of Jayden's friends was the dog, Nadia! Although this one was not an instant friendship, they did end up getting along, as long as Jayden was nice! (sadly I didn't get their first meeting on video! It was so funny! Jayden freaked out! But as you can see he quickly got over that.)
The girls taught him how to pet her tummy!

4 Generations! Nana Hess, John Hess, Chris Hess, Jayden Hess, & Jennilyn Hess

Jennilyn was so happy to have a few days rest before traveling all day again! Flying with 2 kids was very different then with 1. We got a seat for Jayden because we just knew it would be too much for him and it would have been! And too hard for each of us to have a kid on our lap the whole flight. And the poor person who would have sat by us. haha! but we didn't have that problem. Our flight left at midnight, which wasn't the best idea on our part, but we had to have a layover that was longer than 45 minutes or we wouldn't be able to catch our second flight. And we didn't want to be stranded! So we took the red eye flight. Jennilyn did super good on all of the flights. She just went right to sleep every time. Jayden was a little too excited to sleep at first. So we walked onto the plane very last and we're each carrying and kid and we had Jayden's carseat. Well for Jayden never being on a plane, and not liking big crowds or confined spaces, this was the WRONG place for him. (Oh we were last getting on the plane, what happened to letting those with kids get on first? I don't know) So we start walking down the isle and Jayden is kinda starting to freak out, because there is not a ton of space and all these people. So he starts crying and Jennilyn starts crying because Jayden was crying. LOL! I just laughed as I looked at all the faces that said "Are you seriously on my flight?" "Why did I get stuck on the flight with the screaming children" LOL and I just thought to myself wow, I hope they all don't hate us by the end of this flight! So it took Jayden a few minutes to settle down, but he was as happy as could be by the time we took off. Wonderful! But he was wide awake. He finally did sleep about an hour or 2 into the flight. We caught an amazing sunrise. I always LOVE them from the air! But overall it went really well. No screaming kids the whole night long! We had a layover in JFK for 2 hours and then got on a smaller plane up to Syracuse. This time Jayden found that the seats were closer and he could kick the seat in front of him. Not the greatest idea. The poor guy in front of him was on our all night flight too. I felt so bad!! But that flight was only about an hour! We made it. We were all exhausted, but we did it. Now we only had to do it once more to get home! So we started home and on our first flight I sat in front of Jayden so he could kick my seat the whole way! Wonderful, I didn't stress about him kicking someone else, and Chris sat next to Jayden and held Jennilyn, so I got to just enjoy it. Although my mind started playing games with me about what would happen if we were to crash! I hate that! This time we had a 3 hour layover at JFK. So we got us some food and tried to entertain a 2 year old in an airport. WOW, by the time we were ready to get on the plane I was so done. I told Chris I am NEVER doing this again! It is so stressful on me. I don't like all the looks I get. I don't like being the odd one out, and sticking out like a sore thumb. I'm a sit in the back and mind my own business kind of girl. Well that can't happen if we keep flying with our children. I know we'll do it again, but I'm shooting for driving all the way!! Anyway the last flight was great! The kids did fine again, but it is just so much work to travel with kids. I'm learning, and it's not quite as much fun. But I do love to be with my kids and with family, so we'll keep doing it. Good thing I find joy in packing or I'd say it so wasn't worth it! haha!
Here's Jayden and Jennilyn chillin at the airport! We had such good flight attendents on all our flights. They even gave us extra cookies and won Jayden's heart!

What we've been up to!

We have had a VERY crazy month of July! It's been lots of fun, with lots of traveling, but it was crazy! First, for the 4th of July we went up to Sugar City Idaho for the blessing of my little nephew Mathew Kire Madsen. It was so much fun, and he is such a cute little guy. Congrats Jenn & Kire!

We went to the Rexburg parade in the morning, which was the BEST parade I've been to in quite a while. They had this HUGE shopping cart for the float for Broulims (The grocery store up there) Super cool. And amazing that they could actually build that!
Jayden absolutely loved the parade. He was just running around crazy. He loved the fact that people were throwing out candy for him. haha! Him and Jason were having a blast dancing to all the music! And those 2 can sure move!

Jayden needed a break - Rest on dads head!
Jennilyn was so good!
After the parade Kire & Jenn took us all out to the river to ride the Jet Skis! Thanks guys. It was tons of fun! Jayden was a little hesitant at first, but he loved it. Chris said on the whole ride he was practically crying and saying "Fun, like it. Jayden like it" haha!
So this red ski was not quite as steady as the blue one and wow, we almost tipped the thing a few times. haha! But it was so fun!
We decided since we were in the area we would go to the famous Idaho Falls Fireworks show that they have on the 4th. So we went down and parked in a warehouse parking lot on a street that headed out of town. (Thanks Kire for the directions out of town away from the traffic) It was nice! We didn't even get stuck in traffic headed back!
Sunday Kire blessed mathew and he was so good.
Thanks Jenn & Kire for letting us all come invade your house for a weekend. It was lots of fun! You have such a cute family! We love you!

3 years! Happy Anniversary to me

I can't believe it's already been 3 years that we have been married. Wow how time flies when we're having fun!

Both our families coming together with us

Our Honeymoon

The Statue of Liberty

The sacred grove

Niagara Falls

I just wanna tell my wonderful husband how lucky I am. You are so good to me and the kids. And I'm excited for many many more years together!
I Love you babe!