Walking Videos

Here is a video I shot today of Kaeden walking...Enjoy!

August Fun

Well, it's official, Kaeden is walking now. He started about 2 days before his 10 month birthday and is now walking all over the place. Along with walking comes falling, and he currently has a bruise and two cuts on his forehead! It is SO much fun to watch him go and we are enjoying this new phase in his life immensely. I'll try to get a video of it posted ASAP!!

Kaeden playing on the banks of the Big Hole river while Jeff fished.

Kaeden's lunch of Mac n Cheese and Sweet Potatoes...I don't know how much actually made it into his mouth!

Kaeden sitting on top of one of the round bails in the field next to our house. He wasn't too sure about it!!!

Kaeden playing with rocks in the river.

We've spent most of August just relaxing and enjoying the last few days of summer. We've gotten lots of rain, so it has been nice as far as keeping up with the lawn and such! It is so much easier when Mother Nature does all of the watering for you! We got a new doggie, her name is Ducky and she is a golden retriever/yellow lab mix. She is 1.5 years old and we adopted her from the humane society. She's about 80lbs, but has had no formal training, so she is a puppy trapped in an adult dog's body. She has quite a bit of energy. She has been a wonderful addition to the family, but loves to chew anything and everything she can get her mouth on. It has been a challenge keeping up with the baby-proofing and puppy-proofing of our house. We got a fence built and that helps to keep all four-legged and two-legged critters reigned into our yard!

Here's a pic of Duckers playing in the river:

Lake Como

This weekend we were supposed to be in Billings, however on Thursday Kaeden came down with a nasty bug. So we moved our trip to next weekend and by Saturday afternoon he was feeling much better! Today, we decided to look for a new doggie at the Humane Society, and then head up to Lake Como for the afternoon. We didn't find the perfect dog, but we did have a blast at the lake.

Last weekend, Kaeden learned how to clap at a wedding we went to. Here is a video of it for y'all to enjoy!

4th of July

Well, the past few weeks have been incredibly busy for us. Jeff travelled for work 3 out of 4 weeks in June and in between we had Jeff's folks visiting from Washington, my Dad and stepmom visiting from Texas, a camping trip for Jeff and the boys, Father's day festivities, we helped Jeff's brother and sister-in-law and their 3 kids move in here in Stevensville, Kaeden's been battling a stomach bug, and on and on...it's all a blur!!

It seems as though we've had incredibly bad luck as well. One of our computers broke, so we got a new one and I think it's a lemon and I am taking it in to get worked on today. Jeff's commuter car's transmission needed worked on, a mouse got stuck in the A/C unit of my car so my car smells like rotting mouse now, my cell phone broke and needed replaced, and this weekend, our riding lawn mower's transmission went out! We are ready for our luck to change! The good thing is that we are all healthy and happy and we are thankful for that!

With all of the hullaballoo going on in our lives, we decided to use the 3 day weekend over the 4th to get in some quality, relaxing family time. We just hung out at home, napped when Kaeden napped and spent some nice time together. We watched the fireworks on the 4th from our deck - which is always an incredible view. Sunday, we took Kaeden to Splash Montana and had fun on the lazy river before we got kicked out because of a thunderstorm!

Kaeden has pretty much perfected crawling and is even starting to crawl on his hands and feet instead of his hands and knees. He is also pulling himself up to standing every chance he gets and "walks" on his own while holding onto the furniture. He loves to stand in his crib and I am awaiting/dreading the day when he learns how to climb out of the crib - I don't think it is too far off! We have had to seriously baby proof the house and I re-arranged the furniture last night to create a large play pen of sorts for him in the living room that he can crawl and walk and play in.

He is a very happy, active little boy that loves to tear up magazines, bang things on the coffee table to make loud noises, get into everything he's not supposed to, and in general, make our lives a lot more interesting! His favorite game right now is to crawl as fast as he can away from Mommy as I say "I'm gonna get you!". He has also started to give kisses to Mommy and Daddy and cousin Roma and has started to wave bye-bye to people. In general, he is loving life and making life worth living for Jeff and I.

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day here at the Gum household. We had a super lazy morning with a big breakfast and a nap. Then lunch at Dada's favorite Mexican Restaurant and a drive up Gold Creek. After the lightning and thunderstorm subsided, we went fishing at the wildlife refuge where Dada got another Father's day present: a big ol' fish! Kaeden was VERY interested in the fish...I think we'll have another fisherman on our hands as soon as he is big enough to hold the pole!

Seattle Trip

We flew to Seattle on Thursday and returned Sunday. It was Kaeden's first plane trip, and he did amazing. Jeff and I made sure to "walk" him around the airport while we were waiting both times to tire him out. On the plane, he just played with his toys and then fell asleep.

Thursday night and Friday night we stayed with our good friends, Chris and Clara Whitehead. Kaeden got to meet Chris and Clara's 8 month old son, William. The two boys loved to just stare at each other and play together. Oh, how I wish we were still neighbors with them. The boys would have so much fun on a daily basis!

Saturday night we made our way over to Seattle and stayed with Marc and Linny Taylor. Kaeden also got to meet his Uncle Ben Williamson Saturday night at the Taylor's house. It was a great trip, with good food, good friends, and great fun! It was fun to see our old haunts and relive so many good times out there. There were so many people that we wanted to see, but just ran out of time. Hopefully we can make a longer trip soon, or the Hood Canal Bridge won't be shut down so it is easier to travel around the Puget Sound the next time we come out!

Kaeden tried a bunch of new foods while we were there including cantaloupe, watermelon, potatoes, salmon, avacado, yogurt, graham crackers and cheese. Most of them, he really enjoyed. He still would rather have mommy's milk versus any other food though.

He also really started to be able to get some forward progress down in his crawling development. He mostly just pulls himself with his hands and moves around that way, but he is getting to the point where he will use his toes to push if he is on his belly and will take a few crawls if he is up on his hands and knees. Time to REALLY baby-proof the house!

Here are some videos of the trip.

This video is of Kaeden and William playing together. Could there be any cuter babies than these two?!?!

This video is of Uncle Marc and Uncle Ben trying to get Kaeden's pajamas on after his bath. Kaeden loved seeing both of his uncles!

This video wasn't on our trip, but it was too cute not to post!

This one wasn't on our trip either, but it shows Kaeden's version of a crawl and his little rebelious personality all in one. I couldn't resist!

Fairmont Hot Springs Trip

Jeff and I spent our 7 year anniversary at Fairmont Hot Springs. We couldn't quite envision being away from our little bear for more than a couple of hours, yet, so Kaeden got to come on this trip as well. We had a blast and Kaeden absolutely loves the water. Here is a video of him swimming.

Kaeden's First Fishing Trip

The three of us went fishing in the wildlife refuge last night. Well, Daddy and Kaeden went fishing and mommy played with her camera! It was Kaeden's first fishing trip, and he LOVED it! Jeff got skunked, but the water was so high and muddy because of spring run-off, he wasn't expecting to get anything. Perfect evening!

A little red robin! How pretty - it's always time for a picninc when you see the first red robin of the spring! Yay!

Oh, this poor, confused, stupid goose nesting in the Osprey nest. She's been there for a couple of months now, and Jeff and I keep wondering how she is going to get her gosslings down. I think last night she was wondering as well. Jeff says it's "Natural Selection" because she is a really dumb goose for nesting up there and we don't want another generation of dumb geese, but I feel so bad for her. Poor thing!

Like Father, Like Son

Kaeden playing with his favorite toy.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Kaeden and Jeff woke me up by bringing me a present - an opal ring, which is Kaeden's birthstone. Then, I told Jeff that I wanted to sleep in, so he took Kaeden and they went hiking up Kootenai. I stayed in bed until 10:45 - how delightful! When they got back from their hike, we went cruising around in the woods - first up Ambrose, back to town for a cheeseburger, and then up 3 Mile. Then, we came home and Daddy BBQ'd for us! It was a wonderful day. I got SO spoiled, reality on Monday was tough! ;)

Kaeden is Cruisin'

Well...it's official...Kaeden is mobile. I set him down in front of one of his favorite "stand and play" toys while I picked out his outfit for the day. When I turned around to check on him, he had pulled himself up to standing and was walking around playing with all of the gadgets on the toy. He was able to figure out how to move his feet in order to get to where he wanted for the first time today. He was even able to stand without holding on to the toy for short periods as well. I was shocked!

I guess he decided to skip this whole "crawling" thing and go right on to walking. Maybe it was a fluke and he won't do it again, but it was sure fun to watch this morning! I'll get a video uploaded if he does it again!

I never imagined how fun it would be to watch your child develop!

Hiking up Kootenai

Jeff, Kaeden and I went for a hike up Kootenai creek yesterday. It was so beautiful up there. The water was crystal clear and just rushing with lots of small waterfalls and the butterflies had just hatched. We probably saw 10 different kinds of butterflies. It was a great time. Kaeden loved the hike and just kicked and squealed the whole time.

Kaeden and I went on a picnic today at the wildlife refuge. Here are some pics!

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We got some good pics today, so I thought I would go ahead and add them now!

The three of us after dinner...we are all stuffed and look a little chunky. Can you tell we enjoyed our meal?

Playin' in the water with Mama! What fun!

Playin' outside while Mommy planted onions and potatoes in her garden today.

Hello all! I'm finally getting around to setting up a new webpage, since the old one quite working shortly after Kaeden was born. (I know, I know...6 months is a long time, but what can I say? I've been busy!)


Kaeden is now 6 months old and a VERY active baby. He is sitting up, rolling over (in fact...doing barrel rolls around his crib at night and at nap time), babbling...ma ma ma ma...da da da da...nya nya nya nya..etc. He loves to stand and "walk". He'll grab onto your hands and walk all around the house, store or wherever you are. He is also grabbing onto his toys and pulling himself up to standing from sitting. He loves to play in the water. I try to take him to Currents in Missoula at least once a week, and he really loves going to the hotsprings. He is a tall and skinny baby, just like his daddy was. Kaeden is almost the exact same as Jeff was at this same age, so we're thinking he'll be really tall as well.


Jeff is still loving his job. He is working in the research and development department at GTSolar in Missoula. He has developed a couple of patents for the company, which is very exciting. He is currently testing those patents, and has been traveling quite a bit in order to get the testing done. His latest trip was to Korea for most of April.

I am taking time off teaching in order to stay home. I have been keeping myself busy with the little guy, gardening, running, and the normal day-to-day housekeeping chores. It doesn't sound like much, but I am thoroughly enjoying it and so thankful of every day that I get to spend with Kaeden.


Kaeden is not so sure about this whole "solid foods" thing. So far, the only thing he likes are sweet potatoes. Everything else we've tried, he absolutely refuses. At least he's having fun making a mess with it!



I'm lookin' too cool in my shades!





Swimming at Currents in Missoula.