Hayden is 2!

Wow I never thought this day would come so quickly. We held Hayden's birthday party actually a day late this year since the weekend always works better. So, on his actual birthday I bought a few cupcakes, because everyone deserves at least a cupcake on their birthday, I decided to have him try blowing out a single candle to practice for his party cake. He wouldn't do it at all, I just kinda stared at it. So the next night we light his candles and what does he do, immediately blows them out before I can even blink, and of course I had to relight them so I could get a picture. I guess he got the lesson quickly from our one session before. We had a wonderful party with a few of our friends here in Savannah, Preston made some wonderful smoked ribs and I of course made an adorable train cake. Hayden loves choo-choo trains as he says right now so I knew I had to do a train cake. The hardest part was trying to keep him away from it all day.  Hayden we love you so much and can not imagine our lives without you in it.

Hayden was also trying to open his gifts super early, this is one such attempt.  Success!

Hayden and CJ playing with his new trains.

Sneaking leftover train candy for breakfast.

He's such a frosting lover like his mommy.

Disney suckers from Aunt Brady and Gavin to help pump Hayden up for our Disney trip next week!

Hayden tidbits for the scrapbook:
*Hayden's 2 year check-up he weighed in at 25 lbs. and is now 33.5 inches tall.
*He's attempting to talk up a storm, even though I can only understand maybe half of what he is trying to tell me.
*Still climbing any and everything. He is definitely my little monkey.
*He loves his dog "Twigger" and they are starting to become good buddies.
*He knows most of his body parts and loves going through them on mommy and daddy.  I wonder if all that prodding will one day lead to something.

April 2011

Finally caught up enough to call a post by it's proper month and not feel extremely late! This month we've enjoyed having spring/summer arrive here in Savannah. The weather has been very warm and we've had almost no rain. Hayden loves being outside so this has been a welcome change. Hayden also loved watching the Master's this year and made his Grandpa very happy, he's secretly hoping for another golf lover. This prompted the purchase of a plastic golf set which Hayden loves to hit around the house. Also this month one of Hayden's cousins sent us a Flat Stanley from his first grade class so we had the opportunity to take him with us to visit Preston and the helicopters at work. Hayden loved sitting in the "copper" and getting to play with some of the buttons.

Watching the Masters!

Hayden loves playing in the water and can't wait for bath time.

Hayden's first time eating corn on the cob, it was a huge hit!

EASTER

We celebrated a wonderful Easter this year and felt very blessed to have Preston home with us. To make it even better Preston was also given a 4 day weekend and was able to spend some extra time at home. Hayden loved finding all the eggs that the Easter bunny left him and was very surprised when he later realized there was candy inside.

Yummy, chocolate Easter candy.

St.Patrick's Day Parade

Every year the City of Savannah hosts a wild St.Patrick's Day weekend which includes a huge parade reporting to be the second largest in the nation.  Thousand of people pour in for the parade and wake up super early to get good viewing spots.  We decided that before leaving Savannah we wanted to see this fun parade.  So we woke up super early and headed to one of Savannah's famous squares where we enjoyed homemade green cinnamon rolls while waiting for the parade to start.  Hayden loved seeing all the horses, marching bands and parade floats.  I loved seeing his excitement and am happy we got to experience the Savannah St.Patrick's Day Parade at least once.

 Playing with bubbles while patiently waiting for the parade to start.

 Parade party goodies!

 The best viewing spot around, daddies shoulders.

 All that excitement sure tires a boy out.

Friends Forever

Well I'm only about 2 months late getting this post up and since I'm using this more as a family journal now everyone else gets to come along for the ride. We've had some amazing friends who recently moved away and as we got down to the last few weeks I found myself reflecting on all that we've been through with them. Michael, the father moved to Ft.Drum with us at the same time and purchased a home a block away, shortly after he married his sweet wife, Jaclyn, who quickly became a close friend. We shared both of our deployments together, welcoming family pets, pregnancies for both families and a move to Savannah together. When we returned to Savannah Hayden quickly became attached to Emily. He would walk around the house calling for "Emme" as he called her. We are so sad to see our friends leave, especially Hayden who doesn't quite understand where Emily has gone. Here's best of luck to all our friends who know the Army lifestyle all to well and to new friendships may they be as cherished as ours.

Hayden and Emily enjoying soft play together, Aug '10

Halloween together 2010

All the kiddo's at Christmas (Ethan, Emily and Hayden)

One last trip to the beach together.

They even shared matching pj's for a night!

 They loved swinging together.

 
 We tried for one last photo before saying goodbye, but as kids do they just wanted to run and play.