We took a trip to N. Carolina to visit Jason's best friend Josh and his wife Sam. One of the days it was raining so me and jay took the kids to Ripley's Aquarium in S. Carolina (2 hour drive) ... it was worth it because of all the crazy facts they had. The eels in the picture above are called Alien's because they have a smaller jaw inside their mouth that comes out to eat the animals... really weird :)

we were amazed by this fish... it looked like a lady wearing makeup (the picture doesnt really do it justice), it was beautiful, but right by its back fin it had an extra fin that came out on attack like a switchblade, as sharp as one too.

Paige was attacked by a giant jelly fish :)

These were the mega jaws, larges found. By the size of the jaws they determined that this shark would have been as big and long as a bus.

Paige got to pet some manta rays... they had an enormous tank of them.

JD's first birthday party... he had no clue what to do with the cake until we told him to eat it... before that he was painting himself with the frosting :)

he is so proud of himself that he can walk now... he is pretty good at it too.

we decided to do all cupcakes and a small cake for JD... it was easier :)

Uncle Matt is his favorite person for some odd reason :) love ya Matt!

Just before Jason lost his job we decided to get a new home for our dog Zahn... he needed more excersize than we could give him, and more room to grow... he now lives on a horse farm on the outskirts of Holland with a great family that has two kids and one on the way and everything is going well... we are able to visit him so that is a plus, but he still is missed...

Jaydin's uncle David has a lightsaber that lights up and makes noises... everytime the noise goes off Jaydin will dance to it... David challenged Jaydin to his first lightsaber dual... lets just Jedi knight is not in Jaydin's future :)

we took the kids to the mall one day because we still had 4 hours to kill before bedtime and had run out of ideas of things to do ... Jaydin kept going through the tunnel and turning around and coming out the other end... Paige rallied up a few girls and dictated what they were going to do and how to do it for an hour :)

David rocked Jaydin to sleep in his toy box.

Jaydin likes to just pop up behind out table by the couches, and Paige just likes to be in pictures... they are goofballs :)

instead of carving pumpkins we had David and Jenni over and decorated cookies... mummies (actually used a ginger bread man cookie cutter but it worked) and pumpkins :)

Jaydin now had 6 teeth and i think he is teething again already.

instead of trick-or-treating this year we went to a few "treats from trunks" events and to Kalee and Kristi's (Jaon's sisters) dorm at Cornerstone College, they decorated the main halls in a few dorms... there's was a carnival theme where you got to play games for tickets...

this dorm had a "Finding Nemo" theme and this was the Jellyfish Fields :) ... theirs was really cute all around.

i made this octopus costume for Paige this year, and i got Jaydin's costume for $2.50 last year at Toys 'r us so i had to use it :)

We got invited to a birthday party at BOUNCE PARTY... i think it was more fun for Jason than most of the lil kids there... not Paige though, she was having a BLAST!

a few weeks ago we went to Fred. Meijer Gardens with Jasons father, stepmom and sister Madison. It was a little cold and the sculpture park has some strange things that i wouldn't consider art, but what do i know? :)

the orchids were beautiful.

Paige at a 'splash bash' at David and Jenni's school

Jason's mom sat on the floor with JD and started rubbing his legs ... he stayed there for over 5 minutes and about three minutes in he flipped from his side to his belly so she would rub the backs of his legs too ... it was so funny because he was still, quiet and relaxed for longer than i've ever seen him be.

like father like son ...

he fell asleep drinking his bottle :)