I found my camera!!

It was hiding in Stockton's closet. I won't speculate how it got there, but I am guessing it might have been the same person that keeps unrolling the toilet paper and pulling all the DVDs off the shelves. Your guess is as good as mine.

I need to catch up on things, so prepare yourself for a really long post...

Stockton went on his first trip to the zoo. My friend had free passes so Stockton got to go with his little girlfriend, Liv. It was a beautiful day. I didnt realize it when we went, but Stockton was sick so he didnt enjoy himself as much as I think he normally would have. We will have to go again when it warms up a little. We had a very low key Thanksgiving this year. It was an "in-law" year so both of my sisters were spending the holiday with their husbands' families, but Troy had to work so we couldnt go to Idaho. So it was just the 3 of us with Troy's dad. It was a very relaxing day, but it didnt really feel like Thanksgiving without all of the normal chaos. I guess we will have to make up for it on Christmas.

We had the biggest scare of our life the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My sister's husband, Pete, went into severe cardiac arrest in the middle of the night. My sister had to do CPR until the ambulance arrived. He was on life support for 3 days and they gave him a 2-5% chance of survival. That was the longest 3 days of my life trying to cope with how my sister, who is 5 months pregnant with their 3rd child, would survive without Pete. It is truely a miracle that he is still with us today and expected to make an almost full recovery. All of his doctors at IMC have said there is no medical explanation why he rocovered like he did. Whatever the reason, we are so glad you are still around, Peter. Please dont scare us like that again!! If you would like to read their full story you can check out their blog at www.vanderlindenclan.blogspot.com.

Troy and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We were planning on spending a night at the Alaskan Inn, but due to Pete's accident, that was put on hold. He had just woken up and was still suffering from severe short term memory loss. My sister needed some sleep so I spent the day with him. Yes, Pete, that's how much I love you, I spent my anniversary explaining to you over and over again where Jenni was and why you were in the hospital. :) After I got home, the 3 of us went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate. While Troy and I were talking, Stockton managed to sneak Troy's leftover steak off his plate. I think he liked it, dont you?

We spent this past weekend in Boise celebrating Christmas with Troy's family. (Lori, you will have to send me the pics you took) We decorated gingerbread houses and exchanged gifts with everyone. It was a very fun and relaxing weekend. Stockton really cleaned house in the gifts department. He got 2 new trucks, the cutest John Deere camo boots, some new PJs, and bath toys. Seeing him having fun opening gifts is more fun than me getting gifts has ever been.

Those are the main things that have been going on with us. Tonight my family is spending the night at the Marriott downtown to go see the Christmas lights, have dinner, and SWIM!! It should be fun spending some time together. I have tons of pictures of Stockton that I have taken the last couple months. I will try and post some of those soon. Until next time...

Family Pics 09

I am sure all of my faithful readers (Thanks, Ganny) have been dying for a new post the last month and a half. There has been alot going on and I assure there will be new posts sometime in the future. My lack of posts was initially triggered by my lack of motivation, but now it is supplemented by the loss of my camera. I was hoping I would just stumble on it one day, but now it looks like I am going to have to initiate a full fledged Search and Rescue Mission. What would I do without it once Christmas is here???

Anyways, I thought I could post our family pictures that we had taken last month. A friend of mine is just starting out doing photography and is charging next to nothing so we thought we would take advantage of such an amazing oppurtunity. I thought they turned out GREAT! :)

If any of you are interested in having your own pictures done, let me know I will get you her info. :)

Happy Halloween

I think this picture pretty much sums up how Stockton felt about Halloween this year. Anytime we put his costume on him he went from a happy baby boy to a sad, pathetic tiger. We thought a tiger would be perfect for him because he likes to growl so much. Maybe he actually wanted to be a lion and was mad at us for getting the animal wrong so he refused to smile or growl in protest.
We hosted a Halloween party at our house the weekend before Halloween so all the cousins could get together and celebrate. The day of the party we decided that we should try and dress up too. Troy put on his army camo and was a GI Joe. The best I could do was a farmer. Boring, I know.

The food turned out really good. We wanted everything to have a Halloween theme. I thought we did a great job not having only sweet, sugary treats.

I made Witches Fingers

And Eyeballs.

Stockton was bored all night long...

It looks like he ALMOST smiled for WeeMa. That's the best he could do.

The weekend of Halloween I surprised Troy with a trip to Idaho to see his family. Can you believe I actually kept it a secret until the day before left??? I am getting good, i know. Our niece's boyfried surprised us with AWESOME seats to the Boise State game. It was alot of fun even though it was a blow out. It was nice to have a day out together without having to worry about Stockton.We had a Halloween party at Scott and Lori's house with yummy chili, carmel apples, homeade rootbeer, and pumkin carving.

Matt and Chantal thought surfing the internet was more fun that carving pumpkins. Boy were they wrong.

Last year I did the Batman logo, so this year I opted for Superman. I figured it was a double whammy since the 'S' could also stand for Stockton. :)

Looking forward to another fun-filled trip to Idaho this weekend! :)

Yes, we are still alive

Here is the Stockton update for the last few months.

Troy's brother gave Stockton this chair. It is the same chair that all of them grew up sitting in at their grandparents house. I thought it was a pretty cool thing for him to have now. He absolutely loves it. He will just sit in it with the biggest grin on his face and rock back and forth and then turn around and smile at the bear's face. The eyes kind of freak me out when I go into his room at night because they reflect the light from his night light and that's the first thing I see when I walk in.

He still loves taking baths. I think he would stay in the tub all day if I let him.

He has always sported the "hand in the light socket" hair style, but it started to get a little out of control.So, we decided to give him his first haircut. The sides and back are little more controled now, but I dont think there is anything we can do to keep the top from sticking up.
He loves playing in his crib before and after his naptime. It is nice because even after he wakes up, I know that I still have a good 15 minutes before he is ready for me to get him.
He has learned how to pull himself up on the sides. We need to lower his mattress down, but havent gotten around to it yet.

He has 5 teeth now with the 6th starting to poke through. This isnt the best picture but it turns out it isnt very easy to get a picture of all of this teeth at the same time. It was impossible to include his bottom ones, too.
One of his other favorite things is the vacuum cleaner. I think one of his favorite activities is vacuuming the floor. It takes me twice as long to do it now that he likes to chase the vacuum cleaner.
He is starting to go through a Mommy phase. He gets really clingy to me when we are around new people. I wish he wouldnt be so shy, but at the same time I love being his source of comfort.
He is really turning into a Daddy's boy, too. He loves spending time with Dad which is nice for me because then I can get more stuff done. I am lucky to have Troy to give me so much extra time for myself.
Dad's been taking him to car shows.

Teaching him how to work in the garage.

And, teaching him how to ride the skateboard just like him.

The latest development is that Stockton has learned how to crawl this past week!!! Every day he gets faster and faster! This video is from the early stages, he is now a pro!