Thanksgiving & Aidan's big first birthday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were able to get to Chad's parent's house Tuesday night so we could have an extra day there. We had Christmas with them so Ty and Aidan could open all their presents from granny, granddad, and uncles and aunts. Ty was so excited to get his buzz, woody, and slinky from toy story. He was so much fun to watch this year, so much more excited about presents than last year. Aidan just loved playing with all the wrapping from her presents. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. Even though Ty still doesn't do a great job at eating he managed to eat some of Granny's turkey, stuffing, and fruit salad. However, our little Aidan ate everything on her plate, sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing, fruit salad, etc. Our little girl loves to eat!! We had the first of three birthday celebrations for Aidan on Friday after Thanksgiving. Aidan was able to celebrate with cousins, aunts, uncles, granny and granddad. We decorated with hot pink and lime green balloons, good food, and amazing cake and cupcakes made by a local women in town. Aidan was not shy with her cake, she dove right in. We will put pictures up very soon. We drove home on Sunday and went pick up Nana (my mom) on Monday from the airport. Nana was able to come spend the week and celebrate another b-day party with Aidan. On Tuesday night I made the traditional quiche, hot apple cider, put on our xmas music and we got the tree all decorated. We got some good pictures of Ty finding some of his favorite ornaments and hanging them on the tree. Sadly on Wednesday Ty began running a high fever. Being a bit nervous about the H1N1, on Thursday after we had Aidan' b-day breakfast I took Ty off to the doctor. He and Aidan were both put on Tamiflu but it did no good. Both had fevers on Friday and have continued now for 5 days. They do not have H1N1 but the virus they have is not fun. We are doing constant hot showers, mentholatum, humidifiers, etc. We are praying our babies are well soon. Ty is so excited about going to see Santa, we have to get better so we can get out of this house and enjoy the Christmas season.

All our favorite things of Fall

I apologize for length of time since writing last, so much to catch up on. Aidan got to spend her first week alone with Granny and Granddad at the end of September. Granny and Granddad were reluctant to bring her back, they had a blast. Ty was able to have some alone time with mommy and daddy. We went our first annual camping trip of the fall at the end of September, we all had a blast in spite of all the rain. Ty loves camping, after returning home he requested to sleep in his sleeping bag in his own little tent in the playroom instead of his bed. In October we made another trip to the beach, this time Aidan really got into playing in the sand and not eating it. She and Ty both enjoyed splashing in the water, although it was quite a bit cooler than our last trip. We returned home from the beach with just enough time to shake off the sand, do a little laundary and pack up again for our second annual camping trip, the trip that Chad and I actually plan for our group of friends here. Aidan did fabulous sleeping in the tent, and loved being outside. Ty, as always, had a blast playing with all his friends in the woods and of course enjoyed the junk food weekend. Soon after getting settled home from our final camping trip of the year Granny and Granddad came for a visit. They were able to go with us to the pumpkin patch where we rode the hay ride, went to the barn to feed the animals, and pick our pumpkins. Ty was also more than excited to take Granny and Grandad to the stores to show them what he was asking Santa for this year. Little did Ty know that while he wasn't looking Santa began packing his sleigh that very day :) This year Santa isn't the only thing Ty was excited about, he was actually very excited to pick out his halloween costume. He and I would sit down and look at the catalogs. With Toystory being his most favorite movie right now, he decided early on that he wanted to be buzz lightyear. Once we got his costume he proceeded to wear it for 2 days straight, only taking it off to take baths. He was so cute as he "flew" around the house yelling "to infinity and beyond". Aidan was our precious pink bunny, and actually didn't mind wearing her costume. We went to a very cute little local downtown area on Friday night where they do a candy crawl and the shops all hand out candy. On Saturday night we had some of our close friends over for some hot chili, and good old fashion trick or treating. The kids all had a blast, as well as the adults. It has been a busy few months, but that seems to be how our fall goes. We are looking now towards Thanksgiving, where we will also be celebrating Christmas with Chad's parents. We are also busy planning Aidan big first birthday, we can hardly believe our baby girl is already going to be 1. She is a speed crawler now, and beginning to walk around ottomans, and up and down next to the couch. It won't be long before she is taking steps on her own. She is getting so big, she is signing "eat", "more please", "milk", "all done". She loves to play peek a boo and blowing kisses. She is a happy girl, however no one can make her smile quite like Ty can. Anything he does she thinks is hysterical, her face lights up simply when he talks to her. He is such a sweet big brother. They are our two most precious blessings, in which we give thanks everyday.

Family

We mourn the loss of our beloved Papaw who passed this afternoon. We cherish the wonderful memories and rejoice in his life (of 87 years). We are so thankful that our two children had the privilege of knowing him. We leave tomorrow to travel for the funeral. Tonight at dinner Ty said a prayer for papaw and grams. We told him papaw was with Jesus now, in heaven. Ty said "I want to see Jesus too." Daddy replied, "We aren't quite ready for you to see Jesus just yet." We hold close all the precious pictures and memories we have of Ty and Aidan with papaw. He lived a long, wonderful life and we know he is in a glorious place now. However, he will be greatly missed.

Family summer fun

We had a blast on our annual family beach trip. The beach was so much fun, Ty loved looking for shells and Aidan (much like her brother on his first beach trip) wanted to eat the sand. Ty has many beach trips under his belt now, and joined in with mommy's excitement many weeks before we left for our trip. After almost a dozen plane rides for Ty this was the first one that he really enjoyed, and stayed awake for. When we were landing we flew over the ocean, Ty was amazed. Aidan and Ty both loved the pool. Ty was in the pool every morning almost as soon as we got up. Ty and I would be up early (usually at sunrise) while daddy and Aidan slept a little longer. We would go outside to watch some blue's clues, eat a little breakfast, then by the time I got my coffee he was asking for his swimming trunks. If we weren't at the beach Ty was swimming. We will continue to have a busy couple of months with another beach trip planned for Sept, along with two camping trips. Aidan has been army crawling for about 3 weeks now. She is getting really fast. She is up on her hands and knees often so it's only a matter of time before she decides to really get going. Ty is bigger than ever. He is now riding the bike he got last Christmas. He rides it everywhere. Each morning, if the weather is good, I load up Aidan and Bailey and we take a long walk so Ty can ride around the neighborhood. It is so sweet to watch Aidan and Ty together. Ty enjoys so much making Aidan laugh, and he does it with such ease. She adores him and thinks anything he does is just hilarious. We are so blessed.

Busy summer

We love our summer, the pool calls our name about every day. Ty is still our swimmer, he loves to dive under the water. He is swimming small distances, from us to the steps. Aidan has begun to love the water as well. She has so much fun splashing. The first part of our summer has been a lot of parks, pools and family time. We took the kids to their first drive in movie, that was exciting. We were actually in town for the 4th, which is very rare, and enjoyed the towns parade. Afterwards we had friends over for a lot of food, games, and fireworks. We haven't traveled as much as we normally do but that is getting ready to change. Last weekend mommy went away for a short girls weekend and daddy, Ty and Aidan had a blast together. Daddy constructed a big fort that covered the entire living room and half the kitchen. They had such a good time. We leave this weekend to go visit Chad's younger brother/wife and their son (cousin Warner). Then we are on to Granny and Granddad's house. I made the mistake of telling Ty yesterday where we were going this weekend and he has begun to get upset that we aren't loading up the car now to go. We are staying about 5 days and then Ty gets to spend a week with Granny and Granddad, we still aren't quite ready for Aidan to be gone from us yet. We will be making a weekend trip to the mountains to spend with Chad's parents and pick up Ty. We have been doing the potty dance here frequently, Ty is really doing well. He has been very excited lately from doing the BIG poo poo on the potty. Aidan is working on her third tooth so we are chewing on everything. She is taking her time on crawling. But of course why would she hurry that up, she is the crowned princess and enjoys sitting to play while her toys are brought to her :) I am excited for August as well for our family beach trip, it will be Aidan's first trip to the beach and of course Ty is our little beach bum. It should be a blast.

Our babies and summer fun

I appoligize for taking such a long break between our last entry. I had some surgery which kept me down for a little while. Nana (my mom) and Aunt Angel (my sister) came into town to take care of the kids and the house. The kids were spoiled as usual. Their cousin Brayden came with Aunt Angel and they had a blast together. We have such cute pictures of the three of them. It's been a little hard on Ty and Aidan. Mommy hasn't been able to hold them for a while and it's hard when things are not normal around the house. I've recovered pretty well now and we have been having a lot of summer fun. Aidan had her first trip down to the pool last Saturday. She was unsure about it at first but began to splash and play and really enjoy it. Ty was the dare devil as usual diving under the water. He swam from daddy over to the steps, it seem he is getting better and better at swimming. He likes to swim under the water. We have made many frequent trips to the splash pad. Ty loves running through the water with his friends, Aidan just loves being outside watching her crazy brother. We have been enjoying our family bbq out back and we love having picnics outside for lunch. We just love being outside in the summer. We are having vbs at church this week. It's been busy but it's been such a good week. Ty loves going and singing all his bible songs. The toddlers sit up front so when we are up there he gets involved much more often with Mr. Paul, which he loves. We have a lot of trips planned for this month along with a fun party here for the 4th of July. We love summer time.

Our babies

Aidan is getting so big now. She is sitting up by herself and is beginning to scoot across the floor on her stomach. She has two teeth coming through on the bottom now, so she is chewing on everything. She is our happy little girl. In the mornings she never wakes up crying, she just talks sweetly and has such a precious smile when she sees either me or Chad. She adores Ty and laughs at anything he does. She is not a fan of baby food but is beginning to tolerate sweet potatoes. She really is not a fan of the fruit, bananas she hates. She is not a big eater but she has gotten better over the last couple of weeks. She loves bouncing, and gets pretty airborne in her bounce seat. It's so hard to believe that she will be 6 months in a few weeks. She, however, is still wearing 3 month clothes. Our little petite girl. Ty is still such a sweet big brother and is very gentle with Aidan. Just within the last month the only sign of jealousy has been that he would like to be a baby. He wants us to hold him like a baby and he has mentioned wanting a bottle. Once we are holding him like a baby it is usually short lived. He is just too active to sit that still for too long. He continues to amaze us with the things he says and remembers. You can not say anything with him not remembering what you are saying. Example: We were driving out of town to go take care of my best friend in the hospital (due to pregnancy complications) I was talking on the phone to my sister about going to wash Lisa's hair. Later that afternoon Ty said to me, "you wash Aunt Lisa's hair". He just listens to everything and remembers it. Another cute thing he is doing now is shaking hands with people he meets. While the weather is still cold outside we walk in the mall before it opens each morning, and Ty usually doesn't want to ride in the stroller so he gets his excercise with me. One morning we were walking and this elderly couple was walking past us. Ty went up very calmly to them, stuck out his hand shook the man's hand then the women's and said "how you doing today". I think he made their week. They were so impressed with him. We can't believe how big our babies are getting, time goes by so quickly.