A Boy and His Box

This box is one of Jaden's new favorite toys! I had asked Grandma H to save me some milk cartons for some projects (we drink out of gallons) and she sent them to me in this box. Jaden has been having so much fun with just the box and the cartons that I haven't started any of the projects yet!

Trip to CO

At the end of last month we were able to travel to CO for a Pastor/Church worker conference and visit a wonderful church - Peace with Christ in Fort Collins - that has helped us tremendously by providing scholarship money for Stephen's seminary study.

Here are a few details of our adventure!

We have found lots of great travel toys after all of the trips we have been on. One of the best and most recent ones is a little sheet of stickers, a clipboard, and a pad of paper. Jaden has a GREAT time with these....

This day, the main attraction was putting the stickers on daddy's nose!
As you can see...it was VERY funny

Ooo..Daddy got one on Jaden's nose too!


After arriving in CO we got a rental car and spent the night with friends in Denver. The next morning Jaden was still sleepy when it was time to head out but, after a short spurt in the car he woke up happy as can be!
Stephen happy to be with family and on the road.
Heading toward the mountains
the LONGEST tunnel I have ever been in. TRUST me....there is no trying to hold your breath through this one. Stephen (who has an AMAZING ability to hold his breath for a LONG time --- all that singing and trumpeting breath control you know--- barely made it halfway!)

The outside of our hotel (sorry for the reflection in the window) situation right in the middle of the mountains.
Out our room window toward the conference center. Note - no snow....
Jaden had to explore the hotel room. I think this is the first time he has been aware of a phone that had a cord. We had to unplug since the buttons were really fun and there was an emergency button that looked really fun with a cross above it! Jaden spent a lot of time "talking" on the phone while playing in the room.

Sitting with Daddy by the balcony.

We woke up the second day to SNOW! See the difference on the mountain!
After the conference toward Fort Collins and were able to stop and visit one of my college friends on the way. Jaden had fun playing with their daughter....

...although he kept running away when she would try to give him a nice hug!
In Fort Collins we got to visit this GREAT park. LOTS of fun toys!






And, at our host home we got to have some fun outside in the crisp fall weather. The home across the street had some animals that Jaden was eager to meet. They must be used to people giving them food because they came right over to the fence and looked expectant.



Returning to the airport we had to pause to watch all of the buses before going in.

A fun, relaxing, beautiful trip.

Men with Hammers

Well, man and boy anyway!




We've been needing a toy storage solution for some time. After weeks of wondering what would work best, looking up plans for making our own shelf, and considering our complete lack of power tools....I found a shelf on sale at Target that pretty much met my wishes EXACTLY. I'm already thinking that maybe I should have bought TWO!

I realized that I didn't really have any pictures of the "before" but, you can see our old shelf in the background. It really didn't work because Jaden could only get the things that were on the bottom two shelves, things got stuck on the wires and he would get frustrated, and when I got down on the floor toddler level I realized how SCARY that tower on the top shelf must have seemed.

Daddy started the assembly and Jaden quickly joined in. You see the bookshelf relocated under the window.

"See my hammer mommy?"
"Woah - this thing is the BEST to climb in!"

Making sure everything is tight

Taking a break

Pounding hard

Make a Smilebox slideshow

All assembled and organized

Upon discovering that he could reach his colors and coloring book Jaden decided to use the top as a table.

Of course, later that day we had to have a lesson about NOT coloring on the shelf or the puzzle or things other than paper and the coloring books!

Ahh....finally a PRETTY solution. Balls in the corner, nice looking shelf with stored toys...

a reading corner with a beanbag chair and the books close at hand...

Jaden really likes being able to get at his favorite toys by himself. We still have a ways to go on getting everything put back away every day...but we'll get there.

Oh...and we have our very own parking lot!