Aidan Eating his Birthday Cake

Happy, Happy Birthday Aidan Dear...

Aidan turned ONE today! We started out the morning by letting Aidan open up some gifts with a little help from his big brothers!

He got this cool, happening outfit from my Mom and Cheryl...so CUTE!

He got a couple of toys that hook onto his crib from my Dad and Laurie. He was having fun just walking around the house with these...we could hardly pry them away long enough for us to hook them onto his crib!

Aahhhwwww....what a cute little birthday boy!

Time to blow out the candle!

...With a "little" help from Mama, that is!

He's not sharing his cake with Daddy!

He had a lot of fun making a BIG mess, so it was straight into the tub for a quick scrub down after he was done!

We'll be having his official party on Saturday when some family is coming to town, so stay tuned for some Zoo Party Birthday Pictures coming soon!

And...HE'S OFF!

Ah, yes, the dreaded, but also well anticipated moment has come when my sweet little baby has taken his first few steps! Dreaded because, well, he's mobile and can reach more than just crawling--not to mention that he looks like such a little man instead of a baby...I have a hard time with how fast my babies grow up...I can't believe Gavin will be SIX this summer...that's just CRAZY...am I really that old? But, really, it has been very exciting for us to encourage Aidan to reach that next milestone of walking. He's such a little sweetheart.

Just look how proud he is of himself...I love that when babies just know they've done something really cool, and how happy they are about it! Being a mom is so awsome!

Connor, Connor, Connor...

The other day Connor was running around wearing this hat and it just made me laugh because it's way too big for him and especially so since he had it unrolled. I'm not sure why he had it on all day (maybe I need to turn the heat up in the house?), but he was having fun wearing it and didn't want to take it off.


Later that night, I went to check on Connor to tuck him in and found him like this! Silly boy...he looked so cute I just had to take a picture. It was really hard not to laugh and wake him up!

Aidan Learns to Wave Bye-Bye

Here's a video of Aidan just learning how to wave bye-bye and of Gavin and Connor eating lunch and trying to help Aidan figure out how to wave.

Aidan's First Haircut!

It's hard to see just how scruffy Aidan was looking because his blonde hair doesn't show up the best in pictures, but it was getting bad. I had given him a bath that morning and noticed that with his hair wet it went to his shoulders in the back...almost like a mullet...yeah, definitely not good! So, we drove over to Jason's Mom's house where she has a hair shop, and she offered to cut Aidan's hair if I held him. He actually sat really still while we cut his hair as long as we let him hold onto his own comb!
The before shot.

After Jason's Mom was done cutting Aidan's hair.

Some after shots. Aidan was definitely done sitting still by this point and kept trying to wiggle away before I could take his picture but, luckily, I got a couple of good ones!

Sledding!

Jason's cousin works up at a place called Badger Creek that is owned by the college here, and he invited us to go sledding. There's a really fun hill there that has these cords that pull you up on your sled, so you can go sledding down the hill over and over again without getting tired! There was also a little hut there to get your sleds and to warm up. The first time Connor and I went down, we accidentally got turned around and went down the hill backwards! That was a little crazy, but fun! Later, Gavin went down the hill by himself and the same thing happened to him, and he thought it was great! It was a little windy outside that day, so Connor didn't last too long (he hates being cold!), but Gavin stayed outside with Daddy for a long time after I took Connor back to the house Jason's cousin is staying at.


The sled shed.

Where you would grab a hold and get pulled up the hill.

Sledding!


Jason and I decided to have a race down the hill...he swears that he and Gavin beat Connor and me, but...the proof is in the pictures!

Bowling

My sister-in-law, Angie, and I took our kids bowling over the holidays. Gavin & Connor had so much fun! It was so entertaining to watch them. When Connor would get up there, we were always nervous about which lane his ball would end up in because he was determined to throw the ball himself. My nephews, Justin & Tyler, were so patient with my boys and helped them a lot. My boys LOVE their cousins and are always sad when they go back to Boise and they don't get to see as much of them anymore.

Here are some of Connor's wild throws!


After throwing the ball, Connor would walk away and wait for his ball to come back up even before it hit the pins! He loved watching his ball come back up!

It took a while (a long while!) for the kid's bowling balls to actually make its way down the ally and hit the pins, so the kids would "take a little rest" sometimes while they waited for their ball to make it to the pins! A couple of times I was worried that the ball wouldn't make it all the way down the ally, but luckily that didn't happen!


Angie, Aidan and me cheering for our bowlers!

My nephews!

After the kids were done bowling they all wanted to get some subzero ice cream that they freeze right in front of you with dry ice. I decided to get a large for the kids and me to share. Well, Gavin and Connor had much more fun just watching the ice cream being made with all the smoke from the dry ice. When it came to actually eating the ice cream, they each took about three bites and said they were done! The ice cream was good, but my kids don't like to sit for anything! So, it was up to Aidan to do damage control with the ice cream, and he didn't mind one bit!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve we were at Jason's parent's house. Jason's sister, Angie, and her kids and Jason's brother, Travis and his family were able to visit from Boise and Utah. We had fun staying up playing games while the kids played video games and slept in a fort!
Here are Jason and his mom getting the fort ready for the kids.

The kids in the fort.

Playing games.

Here we are at midnight! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Video

Just Getting Started with the Fun...

Gavin came in my room this morning and whispered to me, "Mom, Santa came, but he didn't bring me any coal...why?" I said, "Well, Santa probably knows what a good boy you are." That's when he said, "Well, I've been good except for yesterday, but he still didn't bring me any coal!" (Yesterday was a rough day for him, so apparently he thought he'd been bad enough to deserve coal for Christmas, but he never said a word about it last night! No wonder he couldn't sleep. I just thought he was excited! Silly boy!) The kids got to digging into their stockings and shared some of their chocolate with Aidan.

Gavin sucking on a piece of chocolate and opening his presents...multi-tasking!

Here's Connor telling us that he asked Santa for a train, and he got a train!

Aidan playing.

Getting down to the business of opening the presents!

Christmas Fun

Opening the gifts.

Aidan needed lots of help staying focused on the opening of the gifts...there was too much going on for him to know what he was supposed to be looking at!

Aidan playing like it's nobody's business!

Jason was excited to get a sword from my dad and Laurie. He loves swords and had no idea it was coming.