Family Get-Togethers

Since we live so close to Ryan's siblings, we are going to try and get together more often through the year.

 Over the long weekend last week, we were able to get together with a few of them.

 Asher playing the Wii with his cousins.  He was super cute and just sat and imitated everything they did.  He loves having friends over.

 Rich and Emily came and stayed the weekend with us.  We love hosting them!  The adults were able to play some games too.

 Cute baby Vaden getting passed around:)

 Asher and Vaden playing.  Of course Vaden doesn't have much choice.

Rich and Emily took Asher on the carousel.  Funny thing is Asher loves it and wants to go on the ride, but he doesn't like the horses.  We usually just sit in the bench that rocks back and forth, but this time he tried the spinning cup.  It was a good idea until other kids got in too.  They spun it a bit too much for Asher, he started falling over but he made it out just fine.  Thanks Uncle Rich and Aunt Emily!

Asher the Entertainer!

Lunch time with Asher

Family Photos

 On our trip to Utah we were able to get together with my entire family.  It's been a few years since we've all been together so we took some pictures.

 This is my favorite one of everyone together.

 Our individual family photos.

 Asher without his pacifier!

The Haddock Family

 Top: Melanie, Kasey, Leslie

Bottom: Blake, Dad, Mom, Brian

 The Grandparents with all the Grandkids. (I was in the back holding Asher up.  He was so ornery because he was sick.)

All together again.

6 months old!

 Vaden is 6 months old now!

 Height: 27 inches (95%)

Weight: 17 lbs. 14 oz. (85%)

Head circumference: 17 inches (85%)

She is a healthy, happy girl.  

She loves attention!  She is interested in toys and grabbing onto things.  She reaches for our faces and loves when we make noises at her.  She loves to be in her jumper and play and jump around.  She likes the noises and lights of toys.  She can roll over (but only from her back to her tummy.) but she can't sit by herself yet.  She is now completely on formula and loves to have her bottles.  She doesn't eat any solids yet, but we are working on it.  She loves to laugh and giggle and to snuggle.  She is a lot of fun and we love everything about her.  She is so cute when she gets excited, which is often.  She throws her arms up and bounces up and down with a huge smile on her face.

Vaden is an easy happy girl.  She's adjusted well to Asher's schedule, they both take nice, long naps at 1 everyday!!!  I love nap time:)  She does still take a morning nap too.  However, she doesn't sleep through the night yet.  She still wakes up 2-3 times a night.  She sleeps well in the car and is usually easy to travel with if she has her pacifier.  She's good at daycare too.  I'm always so glad and proud that my kids are happy and easy to handle for others.

She adores Asher and is so good to put up with him as he 'takes care of her.'  She is constantly laughing at him and watches him all the time.  I'm hopeful that she'll be sitting soon and able to play more with him. 

She has beautiful and long eyelashes.  She loves to smile.  She is a drool machine too.  She loves to have her pacifier and if not, she has her hands or her feet in her mouth.  She is also getting good at buzzing her lips, which she does when we are trying to feed her rice cereal and it gets all over everything and everyone.

We love this little girl so much and are so happy we get to be her parents.

Last Holiday Post

 Happy New Year!  Again!

 Since the kids go to bed way before midnight, they got to celebrate the new year on New Year's Day.  They look so cute in their hats.

For Christmas, my parents gave us some money instead of a present since we live so far away and already had a set full luggage.

 So we were finally able to get a bed frame!

 I've been wanting one for forever:)  Thanks mom and dad!

 It looks great and matches our lamps and our end tables.  Now I just need to finish our bedspread to complete the look.

Of course Asher thinks everything new if fun.  He runs his hand up and down the slope on the bottom and thinks it's great.  The only problem is now Asher can climb on our bed so I'll have to keep my eye on him.

Crockett Docket Update

 There are a few random pictures that we have that didn't go with any posts but I wanted to put them on our blog.

 Vaden is almost 6 months old!  We have tried feeding her some rice cereal but have had no success.  She just smiles because we are paying attention to her and talking to her.  She hasn't figured out how to swallow yet so it just runs out the sides of her mouth.  She also isn't rolling over yet, but she is getting the hand-eye coordination down (most of the time anyway).  She is a bit slower than Asher was, I'm pretty sure he was rolling over and eating cereal at this point.  I'll have to check.  It's amazing how quickly I've forgotten what Asher was doing at what age.  I am glad we blog about it and I can go look.

 Asher and his friend Will.

 Asher loves the play place at the Mall and being able to run around.

 Asher and Emmy.

 Vaden is getting so big.  She can now sit in the shopping cart with Asher!

 This is what Asher looked like after his bout with diarrhea.  So Gross!!!

 The poor kid was so tired that he didn't want to get up, but was miserable lying in his crib.  Wonder why?!?!

Now he's all better and running around like his old self.  He got a flashing, musical ball from the Clark's Christmas Exchange and he loves it!  He plays with it all the time, we've already had to replace the batteries. 

Happy New Year

Here's a review of our Christmas Holiday!

At Home:

We put up Christmas decorations.  Here's our Christmas Tree.  We hung stocking, had our countdown calendar, and even put up Christmas lights outside:)  Asher loves the lights and always wants to turn them on, then 'oooh and aaah' at them.

Ward Christmas Party:

 Asher loves his sister.

 The whole family enjoying the festivities.

Utah:

 We went to Utah this year and were able to visit with friends and family.  I was able to visit with my best friend, Leeah.  The kids are the same age and got along great.  Asher had a great time with Otto.

 Unfortunately, just as we were leaving, Asher got sick!  Of course we all got sick too so we spent a good deal of our vacation being sick and recovering.  We didn't get to do all that we wanted to but still had a good time with everyone we were able to visit with.

 We also stayed at Robert and Kristin's house a couple nights.  Asher and Courtney are the same age and had a great time playing together (when he wasn't sleeping or being sick).

Morgan:

 Asher had a fabulous time with his cousins Ady and Brock.  We spend Christmas Eve and Christmas at my parents home.

 Brock is 10 months older than Asher and is slightly taller.  But that won't last long;)

 Vaden got a lot of attention too and enjoyed every minute of it!

 Asher was a great big brother and played with his sister.  He was also protective of her, so cute.  At one point Brock was pointing to Vaden and saying 'baby' but Asher didn't like that so he would push Brock's hand away and shake his head 'no'. 

 Since Asher was sick a lot of the time, we spend a lot of time holding both the kids.  What a handful!

 Cute baby girl!

 Asher's cousin, Landon got a puppy for Christmas.  Of course that meant Vaden was a great target for the puppy love as she couldn't get away.

 And it wouldn't be a family gathering if we didn't play the Wii.

Clark Family Party:

 Christmas Eve we got together with all the Clark cousins.  It's so great to see everyone, especially since we live so far away and don't get the chance very often.

 The kids ready for presents.  My 2 older siblings and I are the oldest cousins, who now have kids of our own.  It's kind of fun that our kids fit right in at the bottom of the long line of cousins.  (Of course, that sometimes makes us 'Aunt Melanie' and 'Uncle Ryan' even though we're just old cousins:)

 Asher with the boys.

 Vaden found a new friend!

 Asher's cousin, Annalise was so cute to watch.  She would turn the chairs over and Asher would put them back up the way they are suppose to be.  He would also shake his head 'no' at Annalise, not that it did any good.

 My Aunt Patrice announced her engagement, congrats!  We will now have 2 Brian's in the family.  With such a large family it is surprising there are not more overlapping names.  There are 2 Jennifer's and 2 Jessica's and that's it!

Christmas Morning:

 Our kids are still too young to really get into the spirit of things.  They were happy to sit on Ryan's lap and watch everyone else open presents.

 We did get Asher to open some presents though.

 He mainly liked playing with everyone else's new toys.

 Taking a break with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Leslie.

 Asher shoveling snow with his Grandpa.  He also helped Grandpa make him a little toy truck.

  I have a feeling that Grandpa is going to be one of Asher's Heroes.  He couldn't get enough of Grandpa when they came to visit us here and he had a great time with him there.

 It helps that Grandpa is always working with tools and going outside and doing all things that little boys love:)

Happy Birthday Grandma:

We went out to eat for my mom's birthday before we left.  We even sang Happy Birthday and had a candle on her dessert!

It was a great trip and makes me miss everyone dearly.  Someday we will live closer, but until then we'll just have to make our visits count and keep blogging so they can all share in our lives.

Happy New Year!