Ho Ho Holy Cow You're Cute!!!

Last saturday we took brayden to santa so that he could tell him about all the things he wanted for christmas. I may be biased, but i'd say he looks pretty friggin cute.

For the record, brayden told santa he wanted tickle me elmo extreme..........and world peace.

Thanksgiving at Rece's

here are some pictures from our thanksgiving feast at Casey, PJ, and Rece's...

Opa and the boys...


Stephanie, Brayden, Mike.........and Rece???


The deRijke boys with Great-Grandpa...


Here's a picture of rece and brayden after they found out they weren't old enough to eat turkey...



And later when they found out about the desserts!!!


To finish the night, brayden showed everyone what he had learned at circus camp...



All of the pics from thanksgiving can be found HERE

First Rice Cereal

Brayden had his first rice cereal today!!!! (ok, not really today, but november 20th, but i'm catching up). He seemed to like it, and was a natural taking it from the spoon, he has since grown to despise it, oh well.

Here are some pics...


a little confused as to what he should and shouldn't be eating...


I do a really good job in this picture of blocking brayden's face from the camera...


A Natural!!!

Yuckboy!!!

Here are some pictures from our visit to zac and ashley's to watch the georgia florida game,
Brayden in his yuckboy hat and georgia gear, might have to break this hat out next year too...


brayden on his first horse ride...


brayden and bo, who was gracious enough to let brayden borrow his horse...

Jill and Parker...


Zac, Mike and Whit (or Webb)...


Lian and Lila...


Kelli and the twins (zach's a little nervous at how natural she looks with kids)...


Bo ready for bed...


Stephanie, Mike and Chiquita....

Oktoberfest

Keeping with the theme of being a little late in my posts, we recently went to Helen with Emily and Trip to celebrate Oktoberfest (the K makes it way more german). We had an amazing weekend. We woke up early saturday morning and took in a nice little hike through the north georgia mountains. brayden LOVED IT!!!


Emily and Trip on the trail...


It wasn't actually a midnight hike, as this picture suggests, it just came out dark, but here is brayden holding his first stick...


The falls were pretty amazing, probably dropping around 200 to 300 feet!!! brayden's wondering where he left that stick...


We were much more amused by them than this picture implies...


Ok, this is better (if you're wondering why you recognize this pose, its from the dancing elves video)...

After our hike we headed in to town and took in some traditional bavarian fare, tacos and margaritas. we would have eaten elsewhere, but the lines were absolutely unbelievable, apparently we're not the only ones who'd heard about the wonders of helen in october. We were actually lucky to get this table. stephanie convinced an older gentleman, with teeth the shade of brown m&m's, to let us sit with him. he left as soon as brayden and I arrived, apparently he thought he'd be dining with stephanie and a bunch of drunk teenagers, oh well...

not sure why the guy in the background is so made, perhaps he wanted to sit with the old man (there are 3 more pictures of this guy staring at us like this). Notice the traditional german "corona" umbrellas. also, notice how brayden still has hair at this point.

But we did stop in to the hansel and gretel kitchen and pick up some amazing chocolate, which lasted all of 2 days. We did our bests to fit in with all of the locals while we were in helen. Here's a pic of stephanie and I in our lederhosen...

sadly, this picture is not alcohol induced.

We were fortunate enough to witness an ancient german tradition, affectionately called "Misst Zeit aus"...

or translated to english "time out". it was hard to take this picture for a number of reasons, among others 1) i didn't want this guy to see me, 2) i was laughing too hard 3) the dad was genuinely upset at his son, and 4) i felt really bad for the kid because he was genuinely sorry for what he'd done.

We finished our day in helen by listening to some live music at helen's version of the hofbrau house. apparently there weren't stringent qualifications required to get the job of head entertainer at this venue, i imagine when they posted the ad in the paper it read something like "WANTED: Musician. Must play guitar and know most of the words to the songs you will sing". But it was Live music (with the exception of the background karaoke accompaniment cd), the weather was phenomenal, we were with friends and i had a cold beer in tote, so i really can't complain, it was a wonderful time.

Beautiful Destination Weddings (Part 2)

Ok, so now i am officially over a month behind, but back in early October (the start of my paternity leave which is sadly now completed) stephanie, brayden and i ventured out to vail, colorado for the wedding of erica derr and chris mcmillan. Anyone who knows Erica knows that the event was absolutely beautiful and went off flawlessly.

Erica was nice enough to have our room upgraded from a jr. suite to a full size suite. Our room was absolutely MASSIVE!!! It had a living room dinning room, 1.5 baths, a large bedroom and balcony, and a bathroom bigger than most people's bedrooms (with a tub to match). I felt like bon jovi or ozzy ozbourne (without the parkinson's). To top it off, the room overlooked the chapel at which stephanie and i got married on our last visit to vail (3 years ago this coming tuesday). A lot's changed since then.

We were so ready for this trip, our first chance to get away as a family. Brayden did fantastic on the flight out, sleeping for nearly the entire 3 hour flight, and we luckily had an empty seat between stephanie and I (not so lucky on the return flight). And brayden was all set for the trip, bringing all of his newest patagonia gear.

(did i mention how well brayden slept in the cool colorado climate)

We had an absolutely awesome trip, taking the time to sleep in (as much as brayden would allow)


We also did a little epic hiking to take in the absolutely gorgeous views offered by our surroundings in vail's "off-season" (you can tell how extreme our hiking was by our jeans and baby bjorn).

We also took some time to walk around the picturesque downtown vail


And we, of course, took the time to take in happy hour (not sure if you call it apre ski in the fall) at the Tap Room, site of our rehearsal dinner.

(warm enough to sit outside when we got there, but we actually saw snow the last night we were there)

And of course, we made a special trip to The Club the night before the wedding. Here is the happy couple celebrating the night before their nuptials, i believe they are practicing for their first dance.


We had an absolutely unbelievable trip, now the only thing to do is convince all of our friends and family to move out to DENVER!!!

Bonus Pictures!!!

view from the plane as we leave denver:


Brayden, Bert Einstein, and I hanging on a bench:

Brayden bundled up for happy hour at the tap room:


Brayden obsessing over his friend "roger":


Brayden in his little man patagonia vest:


You know you've had to much to drink when:
a) you're at the club the night before your wedding
b) you're dancing with your hands over your head
c) you're dancing with your fingers pointing (to anything other than "staying alive" or any "swing" dance
d) you're still dancing, yet the band clearly isn't playing (see guitarist in background)
e) you're at the club

Our Trip to the North Pole

We've been working as a family to put together a little something for the holiday's, i hope you all like it!!!

Check out our routine here

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween!!! One of the best holidays on the calendar every year by far is halloween. A great excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of candy (not that i've ever really needed an excuse), dress up like a fool (which i probably do more often than once a year unintentionally), and get engaged!!!! Ok, that last one might just be for stephanie and I, but we've celebrating our 4th engage-aversary this coming all hallows eve (or dia de muertos for jumpings spanish contingent). So think of us while your stuffing your second Candy Corn or Peeps into your mouth (i can't believe people actually eat those).

Brayden picked out our costumes this year, and he decided that as a family we should go as the fruit of the loom guys (i tried to tell him the banana wasn't one of the official fruits, but whatever, i personally wanted to go as crazy celery hand guy).

Anyway, i'm going as the apple, but i'll just be holding my breath until i turn real red, but here are some pictures of brayden in his costume.


A closer look, gotta love potassium...



And his special PJs for the day (notice the feet as well as the bum)...


And brayden in our nightly starring contest (his record is 104-0)...


And here he is taking some superman lessons...


Can you believe its been 15 weeks?!?!?!?!?!



And in the halloween spirit, here is brayden's Edvard Munch's The Scream impression


Happy Halloween Everyone, now give me some candy!!!!