Happy New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve from the JDab family! We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable evening. We will more than likely already be in bed by midnight, so bring in the New Year on our behalf! We wish you all a prosperous and healthy 2007 and if next year is half as good as this year we will truly be blessed! Happy New Year!

Love, Jaden, Shannon and Guy

Cousin Nick and Grandpa Tom!

Happy Birthday Cousin Nick and Grandpa Tom! Go Raiders.....In next year's draft!

Love, Jaden, Shannon and Guy

(Yeah, I know it's a day late, but I had a busy weekend!)

Mammaw

Well, we had some very unfortunate news on Sunday. Shannon's great grandma, "Mammaw", passed away at the age of 96 years young. We went to visit her back in September and Jaden and I had the pleasure of meeting her. It's a tremendous loss for the family, but from everything that I have heard about her, she lived a long and fruitful life. She was dearly loved and will be missed. However, by passing on Sunday, we truly believe that she was able to be with Jaden on his first Christmas and I am certain she will be watching over him for a long time to come. We know you are in a better place and you will always be in our hearts and thoughts.

TMX Elmo does NOT amuse Jaden

As many of you already know, grandma Karen and grandpa Tom got Jaden a TMX Elmo for Christmas. We weren't sure how he would deal with it and you can see in this video that Jaden had some "concerns" with the little red laughing furball. I'm sure he will get used to it over time, but Christmas Day just wasn't the day! Enjoy!

Jaden and TMX Elmo (29Mb)

The Best Gift EVER!

We got this gift from Jaden. He fingerpainted the wrapping paper at school. The card reads as follows: "This is a very special gift, that you can never see. The reason that it is so special is that it is for you from me! Never ever open it, just keep the ribbon tied. Hold it close to YOUR heart, it's filled with love inside! Love, Jaden"
How awesome is that? He gives pretty darn good presents!

Christmas morning at home

Jaden's new Radio Flyer wagon from Grandpa Shaun and Grandma Laurie Jo! THANKS!

Daddy got a piece of coal in his stocking. Mommy says it is a "good luck" piece of coal, but I beg to differ. Did I mention, it is a piece of COAL??

Yes, he is a stone's throw away from hundreds of dollars worth of toys, yet he goes to play with the box. Yeah, that makes sense.

Jaden started waving bye this weekend, and also saying "mama". Big, big weekend in the JDab household!

Pictures from Daddy's family gathering.

Three Raiderfans and one Colts fan. A Raiders uniform for Jaden from Grandpa Tom! YES!

Getting ready to open some more gifts.

Cousin Nick's Birthday. Grandpa Tom's too.

Jaden's new piano that Grandpa Tom got him. He loves it!

Watching others open gifts.

More pictures from Mommy's family gathering.

Jaden's new car. It tastes good!

Posing with the new ride!

More presents........

Mommy's family gathering at our house.

Who says Shannon can't cook? Look at this layout!

And we thought we didn't have enough gifts for everyone. WOW!

Gifts from the Cassuto family in Colorado who couldn't be with us this year. There also may have been a Denver Broncos outfit sent for Jaden, but I'm not sure if that picture will make the cut. Raiderfans don't care too much for Broncofans. ;-)

Mommy and the little Guy opening presents.

I knew Jaden didn't like socks, but I had no idea he didn't like pants!

Happy Holidays to All!

I just wanted to say Happy Holidays from our family to yours! We had a wonderful and blessed holiday with all of our families and we hope you did as well. I'm going to post as many pictures as I can of the family gatherings and presents. Please do not take it personally if I don't post pictures of gifts you might have sent. Our house looks like Toys-R-Freaking-Us right now and I don't have a memory card large enough in my camera to take pictures of everything Jaden received from our family and friends. Oh, and I'll address the newfound realization that I am no longer the "primary" gift receiver in this family anymore in another post. Anyway, thank you all for making Jaden's "First Christmas" unbelievable. Have a great week!

Closed for the Holidays!

Well, daddy is off work today and Jaden has the day off of school as well. Unfortunately mommy has to work today, so it's just the boys at home. That could be trouble. Don't feel too sorry for mommy though, as she has ALL of next week off, while daddy has to go back to work. Anyway, I plan on taking a lot of pictures over Christmas and will do my best to get them posted early next week. Also, sorry the postings have decreased, but I have been very busy at work and I have a feeling it is going to be like that for awhile. I'll see what I can do to try to post a little bit more. Happy holidays to everyone and may 2007 be better than 2006. However, I don't know how that could be possible for our family! Enjoy the weekend!

TGI Friday's

Saturday we went to meet some of Shannon's friends and thier family at TGI Friday's. We had a great time and Jaden really enjoyed the day out on the town. He made some new friends as well.

Excited and ready to hit the road!

Chillin with Daddy!

Jaden's new friends!

We didn't expect to see Santa at TGI Friday's!

Big, Big Weekend

Well, it was very eventful at our house this past weekend. Jaden not only turned 10 months old, he had a tooth break through!!! Finally! It seems that we have been waiting on this day forever. He has been a drooling, runny nose mess while this has been going on. He even has bags under his eyes in this picture. Actually, you can't really "see" the tooth, you kinda have to feel it. It's on the bottom middle of his mouth. So exciting!!!! Additionally, Shannon went shopping this weekend and gave him a gift early. It's a car that he can walk behind. He gets about 6-10 steps in and looks around for our approval. It is very cute. He has also been standing up on his own for 10-15 seconds at a time. Sometimes he doesn't realize he is doing it and when he does, he falls right down. Anyway, the little Guy is growing up a bit more every day and I love it! Well, have a great week and I'll try to get some more pictures in later.

Visiting Santa Claus

Here is a picture from this weekend, while visiting Santa. Shannon AND Jaden got to sit on his lap and tell them what they wanted for Christmas. Surprisingly enough, Jaden was very good and just looked at Santa like "who are you?" This was a breakfast with Santa event that Shannon's company held. We had a very nice time and Jaden even ate some scrambled eggs off of daddy's fork. Merry Christmas everyone!

TV or not TV, THAT is the question......

Recently I truly realized how "haunting" children's television can be for kids AND adults. Our nightly ritual is to feed the little Guy when he gets home, maybe a bath, put him in some "jammies", and then watch a little TV and play before his bottle at 7 o'clock. From 7 to 7:30 we watch a few of the shows "he" likes and then it is off to bed. However, through the course of watching these programs with him, I have become consumed with the freaking shows and the theme songs associated with them. I actually dream about the songs and find while doing monotonous things I hear them in my head, if not humming or singing them out loud. I went out to lunch the other day at a restaurant that had a cartoon on and the server asked if I was enjoying the show. I looked at the twenty-something "smarta**", and said "actually, I've seen this one. I have a ten month old and I am quite well versed in the Backyardigans." I'm not sure if he thought I was joking or not. I'm positive he went right back to the kitchen to ask if anyone knew the name of the cartoon on the TV to see if I knew that of which I was speaking. The crazy thing is that I actually look forward to our time from 7 to 7:30 to watch the cartoons with him. Occasionally, while I am flipping through the hundred channels or so we have on DirecTV, I will actually stop when I see SpongeBob Squarepants, only to realize that Jaden is not sitting there with me.....I obviously have a problem......Enjoy your weekend!!!

Holiday Pictures

Well, we "tried" to take some pictures of Jaden last night to place on Holiday cards to send out to our family and friends, but the little Guy just wasn't wanting to sit still. Anyway, I think we got a few we can use, so look for those in the mail soon, but here are a few that didn't make the cut. I didn't say they weren't cute, but we found a few we liked more. Enjoy the preview!

Jaden Update

All is well with the little Guy. We had a great weekend playing, watching TV, and watching both the Colts and Raiders lose. At least we expected it with the Raiders. Guess they will get the first pick in the draft next year. So, there is SOME good news with them. Well, Jaden has a little bit of a cough right now, and so does his daddy. I assume he brought it home to me from school. Anyway, he will be ten months old on the 9th. I can't believe that he is almost a year old now. Where does the time go? He is crawling around like a maniac, standing as much as he can with the help of the ottoman and couch and is very, very close to putting words together. Not sure when he is going to get a tooth to finally come through, but we are being patient with it. Also, his newest thing is "dancing" when he hears music. Actually, it is more of a bouncing up and down, but we call it dancing. Very similar to how daddy dances too. LOL. Man, I hope he doesn't end up with my rhythm, or lack thereof. Other than that, everything is about the same. Just trying to get ready for Christmas and the new year. I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Birthday Grandma Libby!

Love Shannon, Jaden and Guy!

Catch ya later!

Well, I have an update on the "bob, bob" phrase. When Shannon dropped the little Guy off this morning, and was getting ready to leave, the teacher said: "say bye, bye mommy" and as soon as she said that, he said "ba, ba". Maybe he is actually saying "bye, bye" after all. This picture has no correlation to this story at all, I just thought it was cute. Have a great day!

Baby's first words????

Well, over the weekend, the little Guy may or may not have said a new word. He does say a lot of "da, da, da, da, da", which I'm sure really isn't "dad", but sounds close enough for me. However, he doesn't say a lot of "ma, ma, ma, ma" yet and it is upsetting Shannon a bit. This weekend, we thought he was saying "bye, bye", but after further review, and having the TV on, it appears Jaden's new word is "bob, bob" as in Spongebob. Shannon said she turned on the TV and when Spongebob came on, he was "ba, ba, ba, ba, ba" the whole time at the TV. Now I'm sure we are wrong, but how humorous would it be if Jaden's first words were Spongebob? Hahahahahahaha!

Jaden and "Bob, Bob".

HO, HO, HO!

Our little elf crawling over to have some fun with his new expensive toys.

Oh no, wait, he doesn't play with the toys we shell out all of our money for, he plays with magazines, empty coffee cans, empty water bottles, remote controls and the like.

We put the Christmas tree up this weekend. I think this is the earliest I have ever put up a tree.

After a long, long holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting anything the last few days, but we had a lot going on here with the holiday and such. I apologize that we didn't really get any Thanksgiving day pictures of Jaden to share with you all, but we did take a few others and I will post them shortly. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and had a chance to appreciate all of the things they have to be thankful for as we did. Remember, only 27 days till Christmas! Have a great week!

Weekend of Playtime

Mommy and I thought this picture was cute, so I thought I would throw it up on the site for your viewing enjoyment. It's a little dark, but still kinda neat. Anyway, we had a really, really fun weekend. Mommy played with Jaden all day Saturday while daddy went out and watched football and then Sunday daddy spent most of the day playing with Jaden while mommy cleaned the house. Sure sounds like mommy is getting the short end of the deal here. We put a blanket on top of Camp Jaden and had big fun playing and laughing and scratching daddy's face up (before daddy clipped some fingernails) all day long. Mommy is off all week and daddy only has to work Monday and Tuesday this week so we will have lots of time to play this week too. Gonna have some of mommy's family over for Thanksgiving and go visit daddy's family on Wednesday or Friday. We can't wait! Enjoy your week and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sad, Sad Monday!

IU lost to Purdue and their chances of a bowl bid were squashed. I love eating squash. I like eating applesauce too, but I digress. The Colts chance of an undefeated season has been put to bed. I like sleeping in my bed. Sleeping is fun. Daddy says his Raiders are crappy. Well, I think you know where I am going with this.....Now someone come change my diaper!!! Enjoy your week and Happy Thanksgiving!

TMX Elmo

No folks, your eyes do not decieve you, I currently have in my poession an authentic TMX Elmo (English speaking even)! I have been on the waiting list at KayBee Toys for over a month now on a preorder / prepaid list and today the shipment arrived. For those of you that have no idea what this is, here is a video: Elmo in Action. They run about $40, but are going for about $100 on EBay right now. Hoever, this one is all Jaden's, unless they go up to $500 before Christmas and then it goes to the highest bidder! ;-) Enjoy your weekend!

Thanksgiving Lunch

Today we went to meet Jaden at school for his Thanksgiving Lunch. We had big fun while we were there. They even provided us lunch as well. Turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and a roll. Mmmmmm, good. Jaden had his bottle and some cereal, but we did sneak in some mashed potatoes and gravy and he LOVED them! This kid is a freaking garbage disposal when it comes to food. Anyway, we had a great time and I thought you might enjoy some of the pictures!

Mommy and Jaden at school for "Thanksgiving Lunch"

All set up and ready to chow down!

Daddy, why are you over there and not over here feeding me?

Ahhhh, much better. A full belly and a happy boy!

Camp Jaden

Welcome to "Camp Jaden". These are a couple of Shannon's purchases from Babies-r-us (a.k.a. The Evil Empire) in which they have found another way to manipulate us out of hundreds of dollars. I guess this shows me not to go out and watch college football on a Saturday anymore. ;-) Anyway, this is Jaden's new "fort". There are actually doors on each side of it and it can be connected all the way around, be we chose to open it up to the ottoman, where he likes to hold himself up and stand and watch television. As much as I joke about the fort, it really is helpful. With the little Guy crawling around like crazy, it was tough to keep him in one area and away from the t.v. and iron end table. He seems to like it and it makes mommy happy, and isn't that all that really matters. So what if daddy has to take on some part time work to pay for all of these luxuries. Also, the froggy chair in the picture, is for Jaden to pull himself up on, NOT TO SIT ON!!!! Yeah, no one told daddy that until after the second time he sat Jaden on it, only to watch him fall off of it onto his face. It seemed to upset mommy more than it hurt Jaden, but apparently daddy "should have known" that chairs are not for sitting on anymore. Well, I'll quit rambling now. Have a great day!

Weekend Update

Well folks, we had a very nice long weekend. We got to spend a lot of time with the little Guy and even had our friends Michelle and Kevin over with their three boys on Sunday to watch the Colts game. It still went by fast, but I am certain Jaden was looking forward to getting back to school to see his friends today. In fact, I think we were all a bit happy to get back to our little worlds at work today. As great as it is to have a few extra days off, it's still a lot of work with Jaden being so young. We really just kinda hung out in our sweats and sweatshirts for 4 days playing with Jaden. I think Shannon even showered each of those 4 days. I really have to thank Shannon for everything she does with the little Guy. I actually got to sleep in on Monday until 11 a.m. That's not something that happens often, so thank you honey! Oh, Shannon DID get to do a little shopping for Jaden this weekend, but I'll show the purchases on another post. Enjoy your week!

Long Weekend

The little Guy is doing well, other than a bit of a runny nose and waking up in the middle of the night crying. This is where I normally say we think he is teething, but since we have been saying that for the last 7 months, I will refrain. I'm not going to mention teething again until I see a freaking tooth come through. Anyway, Shannon and I both have some vacation time we need to use up by the end of the year or lose it, so we are taking a long weekend this weekend. We are off on Friday and Monday and plan on spending some quality time with Jaden. For some odd reason, Shannon doesn't consider my time watching football with Jaden on Saturdays and Sundays "quality time". Not sure what that is all about, but what do you do? After watching the Hoosiers AND the Raiders get killed last weekend, I'm not sure that I even want to watch football this weekend.....Buuuut, I'm no quitter, so I'll tough it out. Hopefully we get some good pictures or video during our time together and I'll update the site accordingly. As a side note, can anyone believe that it is already November? Wow, where did the time go. Have a great day and wonderful weekend!

Crawling Machine

The little Guy is crawling around very well now. He is even pulling himself up on things too. I captured some of these feats on camera for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Crazy Crawling Machine 37MB (click here)

Dinner's on Me!

Jaden: "Oh, this is great mommy. Spaghetti and tomato sauce. Yessss! Thanks for letting me play in my food. I am having SO much fun. Ok, I think I have this spread around really good right now. Please give me some more so that I may become more of a mess and so I can cover this whole tray in tomato sauce. Oh, man this is fun. Ok, I'm waiting......I need some more food like an artist needs his paint......Mommy???"

Jaden: "What do you mean ALL GONE???????"

Same Chair. Different Child????

Was Jaden REALLY this tiny?

Where does the freaking time go?????

By the way, how do you have a better tan at birth than you do after 9 months of life?

Halloween

Here he is at "school" for dress up day for Halloween. Looks like he was the only one dressed up. As a side note, look at all of the freaking toys he has to choose from and what does he pick? Yeah, that's right, the empty box. Crazy kid. Oh, and he can kick every one of those kids butts!

Here are our jack-0-lanterns.

Another view of them. Still not smashed yet. Not sure what's up with these Northside kids, but where I come from, these should be smashed by now.

Daddy's little Devil!

Daddy's favorite "Devils".