even more birthday pics

Anything else in here for me??

Reading his birthday card

Thanks Tyler and Chris for my cool blocks and wagon. They are so fun to pull out...and put back

Aaron celebrating with a birthday kiss. This is his girlfriend, Naomi.

more birthday pics

Birthday Cake

In my opinion, Aaron's birthday cake deserves its own post. Caleb's mom make it for him. Not only was it cute as can be, it was soo good. Caleb and I just finished the leftovers which were good days later. Robin, we can't thank you enough for making the cake. I hope you don't mind a few more in the years to come. Aaron enjoyed the cake and dug right in. I don't think he realized at first what a treat he was about to get. But once he got his bear, he knew how to take care of it.






more pics to come when the blog is working. Am I the only one having problems lately??

Family Pics

With Derek and Elisa..thanks for coming guys

With Caleb's family

With Brooke's family

Just the three of us!!!

IT...

For those of you who are interested, IT was a bird. Monday afternoon I was running a few errands then came home got dinner ready and Aaron ready for bed and kind of forgot about IT. Then when Caleb got home, we decided to find out what IT was. Well, Caleb got all ready in protective gear to find nothing living. So, as Caleb took to hose off the dryer, we found bird feathers. After more investigation, Caleb found a dead bird stuck inside our dryer (where the vent connects). It took some time to get it free with some pliers, but once he did, everything seemed ok. One thing we can't figure out is how it got in there. It wasn't a tiny bird. So, now the dryer is bird free and is on load 1 of 4 of laundry to be done. Hopefully I won't find any feathers as a fold laundry. It won't let me post pictures, so I will get them up soon along with pics from Aaron's birthday party.

Aaron's dedication

We had Aaron dedicated at church yesterday and had a great time celebrating with family and friends. One of the associate pastors, Will Dungee, dedicated Aaron. We have a great video of Aaron moving Will's hand of his head while Will was praying for him. I am having problems getting videos to work on my computer, but once I figure it out, I will have tons of great videos for you all to watch. Anyways, here are some pictures from the dedication and brunch with our family afterwards.

Playing with Grandmama before hand.

Right before he moved Will's hand from his head

What is IT??

I am sitting here at the computer uploading pictures from Aaron's dedication and birthday party yesterday and I am listening to IT. I woke up this morning around 6:30 hearing a weird noise. So, I did the obvious thing to do, wake Caleb up. After some investigating he determines that there is something (animal type) in the dryer vent, wall, ??? in the laundry room. So, I roll over and go back to sleep. Well, sporadically throughout this morning I hear IT at work. IT makes a loud scratching noise like IT has long claws. So, fearfully I open the door to the laundry room to figure out where IT is. My best assumption is IT is in the dryer. This is an assumption because I WILL NOT open the dryer to find IT, nor will I be around when Caleb gets the pleasure of freeing IT when he gets home. So for now I get to listen to IT claw inside my dryer, hoping and praying IT stays where it is and that IT doesn't die. I don't know what is worse...a live or dead IT in my dryer. So much for doing laundry today. If anyone want to come save IT...be my guest.

Aaron's one year pictures

one of my favorites!!!



GQ pose..I wonder how he feels about being 1???


Aaron trying to walk...reenacting the night before

Aaron's first steps!!!

I decided that this deserves its whole own post. Last Thursday, Aaron took his first steps. I was at mom and dad's and unfortunately Caleb was in Fl. Aaron was standing at the couch and Jen, Mom, and I were all there playing with him. All of a sudden, Aaron just let go and took about 3 steps towards me. Also, he was butt naked since I had just changed his diaper. This could be why he felt free enough to let go. For a while now I have said he could walk if he wanted, but he just seemed to scared to let go. So, on his timing he decided he wanted to go for it. Needless to say, we were super excited. We probably spent the next 30 minutes or so getting him to walk between us all. Don't worry, I got a diaper on him pretty quick so we could get videos of this moment and to keep any accidents from happening. Since that night he has continued to take 2-5 steps but on his terms. If he doesn't want to try to walk he lets you know my plopping on his butt or holding his legs up when you try to get him to stand. I am trying to encourage him to walk and give him opportunities to practice without forcing it too much. I'll keep you updated with progress.

As soon as my parents email me the video's from that night i will post them. HINT HINT MOM (Jen, you might have to help them if you don't mind).

Aaron is 1 year old!!!

I know I am a little late on this blog, so prepare yourself...its a long one. With all that has been going on the past 2 weeks (details to come in another post later) Aaron's birthday has not gotten all the attention it deserves. So, here goes some of the late attention. Aaron's birthday was on April 3rd. I was getting our house ready for renting and Caleb was in Fl, so we didn't do anything. His birthday party is going to be next weekend. So, celebration to come.

Aaron is in a really fun stage right now. I think I might go out on a limb and say that it is my favorite stage so far. This is probably why everyday I think so much about how much I love being a mom and having Aaron. Here goes a list of Aaron's new skills and all the things I love about him:
- SLEEP!!! Aaron goes to bed around 7:00 and wakes between 7 and 8. We typically don't hear anything after he falls asleep.
- Going night night: anytime Aaron gets sleepy for a nap or bed, we just say night night, give him is blanket and he goes to bed. Sometimes he says night night back (more "nigh nigh") and on a couple occasions he has said "night night" to let us know he is ready for bed. Its amazing we have reached this stage because he use to fight sleep so much.
-When Aaron wakes up (especially in the mornings) he is soooo excited to see us. He is normally standing up when we walk in, but as we get closer, he dives down, face first and starts wiggling around with a huge smile. It is absolutely adorable.
-Cuddling: Aaron never has been a big cuddler but now he will cuddle more than ever. He lets me rock him before bed most any time I want. And this is totally for me. He also rest his head in my shoulder when I am holding him. Sometimes it is to flirt with whoever is talking to him (the ladies that is) others it is to be sweet.
-His little hands. I could sit and watch his little hands at work for hours. He blows kisses with is adorable and recently started playing peek-a-boo by covering his eyes. I love seeing his little hands spread across his face. They are also so cute when he is feeding himself with the cutest pincher grasp or playing with any toy. I probably kiss them 50 times a day. Every time he puts on or takes off a shirt he sticks them out for me to kiss. This happens a few times a day because he makes such a mess eating.
-Getting active. I know that i might not like this soon, but I love the fact that he can get where he wants now. He finally decided it is easier to crawl on his hands and knees instead of the army crawl but he would still prefer to cruise furniture or the walls or walk holding your fingers. I also never thought I would love watching him crawl up the stairs...but I do, its adorable.

As he is getting older and more active he is also getting sweeter. He is understanding more and more and even says a few things on his own. I think this is why I love this stage...independent yet sweet. Also, we are starting to get over the separation/stranger anxiety so I am very thankful for that.

As of our Dr.'s appt Monday, Aaron appears to be doing well. He didn't like the Dr at all, but he flirted with the Med student that was there. He weighed 21 lbs and 2 oz (below 50th %tile), and is over 31 inches tall, which puts him around 90th %tile for height.

Well, after all this reading, I will add some pictures soon.

Florida

Last week Caleb worked week #2 in Miami. So, instead of Caleb coming home this weekend, I went down and spent the weekend with him in Ft. Lauderdale. Aaron spent the weekend with my parents and Brian and Jen. He was spoiled rotten...but as cute as ever when I got back. Caleb is still in Miami this week but I came back Monday to spend the week with Aaron. We had a great time down there. We did miss Aaron, but enjoyed the time alone. We got to have some great meals (especially dinners), lay around on the beach, and spent some quality time together. Sunday we took a water taxi of Ft. Lauderdale down the intercoastal waterway. We got to see some nice, beautiful, rediculously expensive homes. We also saw some huge beautiful yacht, one being 130 millions...what is the point??? Too bad Sky Bus went out of business while we were there because we really liked it and were already planning to go back. Oh well.

One last thing...Caleb is coming home today!!!