Crawling, Working, and Playing

More updates on our little Cayden, he's crawling!!! He started crawling on June 3rd. It was such an exciting moment. He's getting pretty fast now too. I think he saw too many other kids being able to move around and decided he was ready to move too. Now there is no stopping him.

Jared and I just returned from a 5 day trip to Utah. We went with the purpose of getting work done on his mom's house. We did quite a bit even though it didn't feel like we did a whole lot. On Saturday Jess came out with her kids. Its ALWAYS so much fun to hang out with them. After visiting for a bit we started working and moved everything away from the living room wall and started peeling wall paper. I would have had an entire sheet pulled off in one piece had Jess not tried to peel in and ruined it! Geez Jess!! I still love you though. SO this is the wall before...

This is Jess working and Jared playing

And this is the wall after...(minus a clock in the empty space that hasn't been purchased yet.)

It was really fun to see all the kids together. Tayler and Rylee loved Cayden. Jayson loved him too just a little to hard sometimes. I got some really cute pictures of the kids together.

Rylee would kiss Cayden and then say "Cayden slobber on me"

These are two of my favorites from the weekend. Tay was such a big helper with Cayden.

Falling asleep in front of Grandma's toy drawer

On Tuesday before we came home we went to the cemetery where Jared's dad is buried. It was very special to me because it was my first time visiting his grave site. But it was more special to be able to take Cayden and even though he doesn't understand us we could talk to him about who he is named after. It was a really nice afternoon.

One Last thing to post. Yesterday was my oldest brother's birthday. We took Chris to Gunther Toody's for dinner. It was quite entertaining. Happy Birthday Chris. We Love you!!

Love to all! Have a wonderful week!!!

Lots to catch up on....

First I want to say I'm sorry for being such a slacker and not blogging. There has been so much going on. So I'll try to remember everything.

My mother's day was awesome. Jared and I had a lazy morning because Cayden actually slept through the night. Well, we didn't want to be late to our ward (we haven't been late once since Cayden was born) so instead of being late we didn't go. We decided to surprise my mom and go to church with them. Well surprise for us....mom was teaching in Primary. So I didn't get to spend time with her at church. Before we went to church Jared gave me my gift.

Beautiful Gift Basket

AWESOME goodies inside!

After church we went back home to change and then went back to my mom and dad's house for dinner. It was such a wonderful day. Thanks Jared for making it special.

On Monday morning after mother's day Cayden decided to get up early and be fussy so I let him sleep with me for a few hours. So when it was time for me to get up I carefully slid out of be so I didn't wake him...

Then when it was time to wake him I got the camera again because he usually wakes up so happy and I wanted it on film....

On May 22nd we went to our third graduation in 2 months. This one everyone was holding their breath until it happened. It was a close call but he did it.

My little brother Matt graduated from Eaglecrest High school. He was bummed that he graduated as a Raptor instead of a Red Knight(the rest of us are Red Knights) but we are all so proud of him for graduating. It was a long a tiring road but he did it. CONGRATULATIONS MATT!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!This is what of Cayden thought of the graduation. It was better for us that he slept. He was proud of his Uncle Matt though.

Cayden had a few firsts this month too. He had his first trip to the zoo on the 23rd. I went with my school class and it worked out that Jared was able to come too. So my mom met Jared at the zoo and dropped Cayden off. We enjoyed our day and Cayden seemed to have a good time too.

Cayden also experienced his first soccer game. Last night we drove out to watch Julie's soccer game. Jared even got to put on the pink uniform, lace up his cleats, and join Julie on the field. In the first 10 seconds he was in the game he had an assist that tied the game 1-1. It was really fun to watch him play. He was dying after about 15 mins. though because he is so out of shape. But he did say those 15 mins. were worth it. We had to leave at half time because Cayden has been sick and it was getting cold and windy so we needed to get him out of the weather.

So to wrap this long and boring blog up. We are doing great! I am looking forward to being done with work for a few weeks until summer school starts. Jared and I leave for Utah on June 6th and we are excited for a break from Colorado life. Cayden is SOOOOO close to crawling. We are just waiting for him to start going forward instead of backward. He is also sleeping through the night from time to time so Jared and I are a little more rested than we have been. Thing are great with us. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!

The Joys of Being a MOM!

I love being a mom so much. Cayden doesn't like to go to sleep and the other night he got really slap happy. It was hilarious!!!

Cayden is now 5 months old. I don't know where the time goes. He is getting so big. He is already in 6 month clothes and will be out of them in a few weeks. At his 4 month check up he was in the 95th percentile for his length, 75th for his weight and 50th for his head circum. I really can't get over how big he is getting. It seems that just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.

With today being Mother's Day I just want to say how thankful I am for the privilege to be a mom. I can't begin to express the joy and happiness that little Cayden brings to my life. As hard as it gets I can't help but melt when I look at beautiful face.

• I love the way he smiles in his sleep.



• I love the way he clings to my fingers when he is taking a bottle.



• I love his stinky little toes.



• I love the way his ears stick out.



• I love when he wakes up from a nap and when he sees me he gets the biggest smile on his face.



• I love to see how much he adores his Daddy.



• I love when he talks to me and wish I knew what he was saying.



• I love the way he uses his eyebrows to express himself.



• I love when he falls asleep in my arms.



• But most of all I love the way he makes me feel as if nothing else in the world matters and that when the three of us are together that's all we need to make it.

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father, Jared, and Cayden for making me a mom. I couldn't have been give a better gift.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mother's in our family!!! We love you all so much!!!

I DID IT!!!! - Graduation Day

Well, I know that some of you might not believe it, but I finally graduated. It seems like it has taken forever (and it has - 7 years to be exact). My goal was to beat Brent, which I did. So I'm pretty happy about that. It was a great weekend. It was really busy, but very fun.

Mom flew in on Friday night. It was so great to have her here. I was happy that she could make it. We picked her up and then headed to dinner at Atlanta Bread Co. - DELICIOUS! We were all pretty tired and I still needed to do some last minute prep for my big day so we just called it a night.

The next morning the Alumni Association at my school hosted a breakfast. We all headed out early so we could get something to eat. After we ate we had some time to kill so we headed over to the gallery to see the graduation exhibit that was still up without anyone being there. Then it was time for the big event.

I had to be there early for pictures but eventually the ceremony got underway. Art schools aren't so organized and proper like other colleges so it was interesting how everything worked out. My graduating class was pretty small, maybe between 30 or 40. We had 2 valedictorians, one that gave more of an Academy Award acceptance speech than an actual graduation speech. But like most graduations go we were told that now we are ready to go change the world. So here I go. Wish me luck!

After graduation there was a reception back at the gallery on campus. It was fun to be there without any more stress. I was done and it felt SO good.

So with graduation done and over with there was just one more thing to do - Eat! We had dinner back at our place, but I have to tell everyone about the dessert that we had. It was so yummy. It was really simple, but super tasty. It was a pear boiled in white grape juice, sugar, and lemon juice and then placed on a plate covered in pureed raspberries and a dollop of whip cream. YUMMY!!!! You have to try it. If you want the actual recipe just let us know and we would be happy to share.

So that pretty much wraps it up. Everyone keeps asking me what I am going to do now that I am graduated. I keep telling everyone that I am going to Disney World. J/K I plan on working full time for Ideations. I am trying to find studios that I would want to work at and then I can start sending out my resume and demo reel. Then its just a matter of finding a job. Most likely we will be in Colorado for a little while longer, but then we will probably end up moving. For now though we are happy with how things are and it has definately been nice to be home more often.

Just a quick funny story - my friend Josh (the kid walking behind me in the very first picture of this post) was supposed to have honor cords like me, but wasn't given any. So I untied my cords and gave him one and I kept one. So we shared our honors. I felt bad that he didn't have any. So if anyone noticed that that is why I only have one cord instead of two.

We hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all your cards and phone calls. I love you all very much and appreciate your support. Love to all.

So proud of my GRADUATE!!!

I'm not going to blog very much because I want Jared to be able to tell you about his wonderful day and weekend. But I just wanted to say how very proud of him I am. As I sat in the audience at his graduation I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear with tears in my eyes throughout the entire ceremony. As I sat and watched him I had an overwhelming feeling of happiness. Then when I watched him walk across the stage with "diploma" in hand and saw the beautiful smile on his face I couldn't stop my tears of happiness. Jared has worked so hard to finish school. He has worked endless hours, finished projects that he had no clue how to finish, learned things he never thought he would understand and overcame all opposition. What a truly amazing man I married.

Jared, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for being the man that you are. CONGRATULATIONS!!! I love you!!!

Jared's Graduation Exhibit!

The Big Night!!!

Friday night we had Jared's Graduation Show. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! It was so nice to see all the hard work and endless hours pay off. Last week Jared probably got 10 hrs of sleep total. Thursday night he only got 30 mins. before he had to get up and go to work. But it is done and he is very excited for graduation on Saturday. I couldn't be more proud of him. I love you Jared!!!!

Putting his name on the wall

Jared's display

Jared told me that Saturday he was all mine. We had so much fun hanging out. He had a few firsts this weekend. The first of them was his first time feeding Cayden solid food. It was quite cute to watch. He was really unsure of how to do it but he caught on pretty quickly. Jared feeding Cayden

The result of Jared feeding Cayden

Jared's other first was trying to juggle bocce balls. Now for those of you who don't know what a bocce ball looks like here they are....

We got my dad a set for his birthday. Each ball probably weighs 5 lbs. So Jared decides, with some coaxing from my younger brothers, to try and juggle 3 of the lovely 5 lb. balls. He started out pretty good and maybe juggled two balls and then it looked as if he threw one at his head trying to head in back into the rotation and it smacked him straight on the bridge of his nose. It made quite a loud crack. Needless to say he dropped what he was doing grabbed his nose and ran for the house. He didn't start bleeding right away which we thought was a good sign. So while he was in the bathroom observing his nose I was in the kitchen getting him ice and thinking that we were going to have to spend the afternoon in the hospital. Luckily my dad was/is an X-ray Tech. and knows a broken bone when he sees one. He said Jared would be fine and that it is just badly bruised. Then my next thought was that Jared has graduation on Saturday and now he has to go with his nose looking like this....

We are hoping that the swelling goes down by Saturday. Do you think our hopes are too high???

Anyway, things couldn't be going better. We are very excited for Jared's graduation and for the thought of going somewhere new and exciting. Who knows by this time next year we could be in England. Or if Jared gets his way, Spain.

So I'll end this post with a cute picture of Cayden and wish everyone a fantastic week.

We also want to wish a HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY to our wonderfully cute niece Alyssa!

WE LOVE YOU and hope that you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Eli Southern Moore

We have been pretty busy lately but we want to welcome our new sweet little nephew Eli into the world. Our prayers are with you and we hope you get to go home soon. We can't wait to meet you and hold you. We love you!!!!

Congrats to Jenny and Steve on such a beautiful boy!

Florida Trip!!!

I have such a wonderful husband. Jared let Cayden and me go to Florida for my Spring Break. It was very last minute but I am so glad we were able to make it work. With Cayden and me gone Jared was able to get school work done without feeling guilty about not spending time with us.

We got in late Saturday night and when we got back to Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house everyone was still up and waiting for us. It was so worth the trip to see the look on G-mom and G-dad's faces when they saw Cayden for the first time. I was so glad that they got to meet him and hold him. It meant so much to me for Cayden to have the opportunity to be held in their arms. Grandmommy and Granddaddy have been such a huge part of my life and want them to be a part of Cayden's as well.

We are hoping that G-mom and G-dad will join us out here in "Colorful Colorado" so the goal of the trip was to help clean out their garage. We spent some of our time doing that. But it was so FUN. I never would have thought that cleaning out a garage would be so much fun. It gave me the chance to hear new stories and find so many treasures. They had boxes that were never unpacked when they moved from New York over 20 years ago. Not everything was worth keeping but the things that we did keep are quite special. We also found some fun things too. My Granddaddy worked for St. Regis Parer Company in New York City. He was the Vice Pres. and Treasurer. He had so many keepsakes from when he retired. We found lots of pens (that actually still work), playing cards, notepads, golf balls, clocks, and lots more things all with the St. Regis logo on them. We found lots of silver too. Granddaddy marked all the boxes with silver in them with a special code of HI-HO. He has quite the sense of humor. Cayden was a trooper hanging out in the Florida heat but he had quite the little set up to keep out of the sun.

Monday and Tuesday were spent in the garage. We took the day off on Wednesday. While G-mom and G-dad were at an appointment Kimmy and I took the babies and went shopping. I bought Cayden a swim suit so we go go swimming that afternoon. He looked SO cute!! The pool was a little cold so Cayden didn't like it a whole lot. It was still fun though.

His shirt is supposed to be short sleeved

Me and Cayden & Kimmy and Spencer

Cayden on the couch after swimming

On Thursday we took a little trip to the "happiest place on earth"....

That's right! We went to Disney World! I always made fun of people who took infants to Disney World. But while we were there I realized that it wasn't about the child going and actually remembering it. Its about the parent being able to see such excited and sweet looks on the child's face as they look at all the amazing things around them. Cayden was so fun to watch, when he was actually awake. He got sick while we were in FL. and while we were at Disney World he was really allergic to something. Just look at his poor little eyes...

We actually almost didn't go to Disney because Wed. night Cayden woke up with a fever of 103. But Thurs. morning it was back down. So we went and he was such a trooper. We had so much FUN.

Cayden with his Uncle Mikey

Me and Cayden in front of Pooh's house

Meeting Donald and Pluto

So tired halfway through the day

Friday was kind of a lazy day. My friend Megan came to visit us and spent the day with us. Me, Megan, Mikey, Kimmy, Mom, G-Mom, G-Dad, and Krissy just spent all afternoon talking. Then we went to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Iguana Mia, for dinner. IT WAS AWESOME! They have the best fried ice cream.

Saturday was spent just visiting and packing. It was so hard to leave Florida again but I was excited to get home to Jared. I do miss the warm weather though. It snowed today and now its freezing. Is it possible for my blood to have thinned out again that quickly??? Anyway, I'm glad to be back.

I hope everyone is doing well!!!

Love to all!!!

I just had to post this picture because its one of my favorites from our trip. He's just too cute!

Taking a bath in Great Grandmommy's kitchen sink