Snapshots though the month...

Well it has been way to long since I have 'blogged'. We just haven't done a whole bunch with our camera lately. However finally in the last week or so I broke it back out. :) Ayden is growing like a weed. I think he is up to a whole 23 lbs now (at his last doctors visit he was still in the scrawny percentile... 5%) But thats ok because we still love him and he is growing faster now. I call him a grazer. He can't sit still long enough to eat, so he eats on the run. Takes a bite goes and plays and then comes back and takes another. The boy can't sit still (I have heard he is a little like me but I can at least sit still long enough to eat) Ha ha... Anyways here is our first adveture swimming. I though he would be entertained by the water but he soon found out that there are lots bags hanging out and that he could go from lounge chair to lounge chair and find something new to play with at each chair. Once again with myself and Cy tailing close behind. He certainly keeps us on our toes!!














Here he is with his white 'Hendricks' skin (or maybe that is the Ellis side that I thankfully didn't get). Thank goodness for spray on sun screen. Don't worry we were only outside for about 30 minutes and nobody burned!!

Walking in the water was a bit tricky. Also making sure he didn't fall over and suburge his little ears that have tubes in them was fun to!!

Ok had to take this pictue. We just had come home from the barn and he was soaking wet so I pulled his shirt off and he went running for dads tools. Gotta be a boy with tools!!















This is the catch me if you can look. We went to the horse parade and all he wanted to do was run up and down the side walk. He stopped long enough for me to snap the picture, again all wet



This little video clip was taken yesterday. We took the tram up to the top of snowbird to get some pictures of Ayden with all the wildflowers. We figured he needed his 15 month pictures and we thought we would put Cy's nice camera to work. Those pictures turned out real nice but they are all on the other camera so I will post them soon.

We rode the mountain on the tram to 11000 feet and then hiked down about 1200 feet to the flowers, walked though a new tunnel that goes though the mountain and ended up by the ski lift that was running to take us down the rest of the way. So Ayden got to go on his first ski lift ride. It was fun. He loved it. It was about 3/4 the lengh of the tram ride and was about a 12 minute ride down the mountain. He stayed strapped in his back pack was actually content the whole ride down. He started waving at people going up and it was really cute. Enjoy this one!!















Ok and lastly here is a picture of the trail ride that I got to go on last night because Cy was so nice and told me to go do something for myself. Jake my horse was good and Sharee who is in the picture with me, and her horse Missy it was there first time out ont the trail together and they did great. Darcey took the picture-she was with us to0!!. She tried to get a picture of Jake looking over but he didn't want to corporate so we got the side view. It was a fun quick ride!!

Horses, Cousins, and Fun

This last weekend, Lis and her boys Christian and Aricin flew in so Lis, Tracy and I could go to a Parelli conference in Reno. Grandma watched Lisa's kids and Cy played single dad (with the needed help of Rena our trusty babysitter during the days), and off we went. Here we are at the conference. It was very educational and very nice to get away.














Here is a picture of Tracy, Lis and I with the world famous dressage instructor Walter Zettle. He has joined up with Parelli to help teach his top students. One day I would love to be one of those people!


Once we got back into town we had a very small amount of time for some cousin interaction. This was the first time since last year that when Ayden was three months old that the cousins had met. The Rask boys had a great time totting Ayden around and he loved the attention. Cy came over to grandmas one night and took the boys on a motorcycle ride. A much anticipated event. They loved it and wanted to go farther and faster but they are still a little small. Uncle Cy had fun driving them around, he even got to take Lis for a ride. A first for a few years.. she got brave and even let him go over 20mph! Go Lis!
Grandma got some old toys out for the boys. Here are the rollar racers. Lis and I use to have tons of fun on these. So I thought I would try it out. The picture I am not going to show you is the one of my backside with my crack hanging out (only grandma got that view), my butt just isn't as small as it use to be :) Christian, Ayden and I raced. Christian won!

Somethings missing here... Here is a rare moment that Cy and I never have anymore. A picture of us with out Ayden , Amazing! (don't worry he was crawling behind us only 5 feet away). Amazing!
Hanging out with the boys on the bed. Christian and Aricin were teaching Ayden how to jump on the bed. It was cute!
Here I am on an evening trail ride that Lis and I took when we got back from Reno. I don't have a ton of pictures of me an my ponies so I thought I should put one in now. This is Sunny and Cleo.

Here is Lis and me on and ready to go. We rode up for about an hour, everything is very green and we even saw some deer. It was a great spring ride. The ponies were good too! I am so glad Lis got to come, we had lots of fun and I tried to brain wash her while she was hear into moving back to Utah. I mean really what does North Carolina have that we don't, besides perfect all year round weather, no snow and the ocean. Hmm, maybe thats why she is staying there. :)


Me and Sonny! :)

Happy 1st Birthday Ayden

Happy 1st Birthday Ayden!
On Saturday April 18th we had a BBQ for Ayden's first birthday. He started the party by taking an unusually long nap (3 hours), so he kept his guest waiting for about an hour but they didn't seem to mind because they were all eating pulled pork sandwiches and drinking italian soda's. Ayden had had bronchitis all week so I am glad he took a long nap. He held out well though all of his presents (he got a ton, so thank you everyone!) and his cake diving. He doesn't get a lot of sugar and he doesn't paticulary like his high chair (to confining) so the combo was pretty funny to watch as he picked through his cake delicately. He's a cutie!

Ayden has brought so much joy to our lives. His laugh brings a smile to everyones faces everytime (I will post a video of that later, its to cute) and he is a pretty mellow kid. He falls down and gets back up without crying, he laughs at everything, he is a little 'mover and a shaker' (as Grandma Ellis says), he loves everyone and everything (including the animals, yeah!!), and we can't imagine life without him now! Happy birthday!


















Cake and sun... umm anyone have any shades?













Done with cake... next activity please!













Sharing the joys of cake filled hands with dad! Mom got cake handprints on her sweatshirt!













Life of the party, Ayden with all of his friend in his present circle.



















A fun toy from Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Laren













Enjoying the new 'goods' with Nate. Ayden's cousins gave him a webkins Nemo, I am sure in this day in age he will know how to use it by the time he is two :)












Grandpa and Grandma Hendricks (with D in the background scavanging)



















Grandma and Grandpa Ellis












Our little birthday boy!













Hanging out after the party. I wanted to get a shot of his skinny little body so as he starts growing more in the next year we can see how much he has changed.

Easter bunny and Ayden

The Easter Bunny and Ayden had a photo shoot on Friday. Ayden loved it and the bunny enjoyed it to. In fact this bunny is friends with Ayden. The bunny belongs to Darcey and Rena Aydens babysitters. They apparently have quite the relationship. Ayden chases the bunny and the bunny chases him.

Cutest boy in the world

We went to get some pictures of Ayden done this last Saturday. I have been trying to get it done for the past month but time just seems to get away from me. But we finally did it. We took him to Target because I had a coupon and there was no sitting fee. I brought him three outfits to change him into and when we got there we were told that kids get to fussy and we would be lucky to get two changes in. So we went in and started taking the pictures. Aydens new thing is when he sees a camera he just smiles so he was in heaven. We got 3 outfit changes and about 50 pictures taken in 20 minutes. Not to shabby. He loved it and as you can see we got some very cute pictures. Enjoy!


He is just so dang cute!! I can't believe he is almost a year now. Amazing!

1st surgery

So today we had a fun experience with Ayden. We got to take him in for surgery to have tubes in his ears. We have been battling ear infections since he was 3 months old and he has been on all kinds of antibiotics so finally the doctors said it was time for tubes (I said this three months ago but oh well, they don't have to live with the poor kid) .
So we got to get up at 5am and go to the hospital. Ayden couldn't eat anything after midnight and he only had a little water at about 2am so I was thinking he was going to be a bit grouchy but as you can see at 6am he was pretty chipper. They were trying to get the SP02 monitor on his toe and he hates having his toes touched (he gets that from me), so it took about 10 minutes to get an accurate reading. We finally got it and then he was the 1st surgery scheduled for the day. He was pretty styln' in his baby hosptal gown (they definitly do not look this good on adults).

He started gettting hungry right before they came and took him but he held it together prettty well. The nurse took him off to surgery and he didn't even care. The surgery took about 10 minutes and the doctor came out and told us everthing went well and that he had a lot of thick fluid behind his ear drum. He was in recovery for 2 minutes (until they were sure he was breathing well) and then they brought him back out. He was mad but not as bad as I thought he was going to be and he calmed down in about 5 minutes.
Here's an after shot, leaving the hospital. He slept all the way home, woke up ate a little breakfast played for a bit and now he is taking another nap. I wish I could recover that fast. We will see how he does as the day continues! I hope it will help him sleep better at night. That is my greatest wish!! :) But we are really happy all went well today! Now hopefully he can start to hear all his words better, the doctor said he has been hearing like he is underwater all the time.

Karissa bithday and Ayden playing

So we haven't had much going on lately except Ayden growing, and myself getting older. I turned 31 years old in January. I feel like I am getting old. Its funny because as you grow up you can't wait until you turn 12 then 16 then 21. Then after about 25 years old you want to start counting backwards. They always say you are only as old as you feel. So I guess I still feel younger, for now. We will see after another year of chasing Ayden around. :) He never slows down. If he ever stops moving he is asleep or he stops for 2 seconds to give you a brief moment of peace and then he is off and moving again.

Here Ayden is getting ready to go out to the barn with me. He loves it outside but doesn't like that he can't get on the ground and cawl around. Its way to muddy!
Here is my brother and Ayden hanging out at our house for my family birthday party. I also had a barn surprise birthday party, but Jessica and Cy forgot the camera, (opps) but Jessica Smith had a camera but I have not been able to get them from her yet.


Ayden and I opening presents. The paper and ribbons are the funnest for him to play with. He likes to eat the paper. Yummy!

Here we are posing for a birthday picture. This was the first time he had really seen ballon's and he loved them. He pulled them around with him for a week. He had a blast!


And last but not least, here is Ayden all ready for bed and wiggly as can be. He never slows down until the last second before he closes his eyes.