{HaPpY "pretend" bIrThDaY!!!}

Today we celebrated Ayden's birthday since we will be driving to Cali on Friday (his real birthday)!! I know...we are so mean for doing that!! But we ended up having such a fun day today! We woke up early and were out of the house early to Toys R Us for Ayden to pick out his birthday presents! I just ran out of time and his birthday just crept up on us this year, so that is why he ended up being with me during this shopping expedition!! He was loaded in the cart with toys as I watched him play to observe which toys were his favorites! I think his all time favorite that he ended up with was a lawn mower! He is obsessed with lawn mowers and hurries to the window every time he hears one outside!

After Toys R Us, we headed to the balloon store where Ayden picked out a "Cars" balloon and 6 others! He was so excited as he watched the girl blow them up! He kept running behind the counter to "help" her! She thought he was so cute and ended up giving him a FREE sucker since it was his birthday! He was in heaven...suckers and balloons....what more could a kid ask for!?!?!?

Our next stop was McDonald's for lunch! Whenever I ask Ayden if he wants to go to "Donalds", he always says no! But when we end up there, he loves eating the chicken nuggets and getting a toy in the happy meal! I think I often "pretend" that we are going there because Ayden loves it, but really it is me that wants to eat the fries out of his happy meal!! I know...what a selfish mom!! =)

After an exhausting morning of errands, we came home to watch the ENTIRE "Bee Movie"!! I couldn't believe that he sat there and watched the whole thing!! He just loves that movie!!

After nap time and when Daddy got home from work, we went to Rumbi for dinner. It's hard at this age when they can't tell you what their favorite restaurant is, so we just chose Rumbi because he LOVES the fries there!! We let him have the whole platter of sweet potato fries and he loves to dip them in the sauce! He was in heaven once again!! And luckily I slipped in some chicken and fruit without him noticing! But hey...even though they are sweet potato FRIES, they are still a vegetable, right? So it wasn't too much of an unhealthy meal!

The finale to this fun "pretend" birthday was a BIRTHDAY PARTY tonight! We had some friends, family and neighbors over for cupcakes and ice cream cake! Ayden got so many fun presents and had a blast playing with all of his friends! We let him stay up until 10:00 tonight because he was enjoying playing with all of his toys so much! It was so cute when everyone sang "happy birthday" to him! He was so excited and so giddy! He just LOVES the birthday song and he knew EXACTLY what to do when the song was over! He got up out of his seat and blew out his candles! On the 2nd candle, he got so close that the flame touched his lip, but he didn't cry...he just blew it out again! It was a fun day and I know that he had a blast! I'm glad that we celebrated early since Friday is going to be such a "not so fun" day of driving for 10 hours!!!

{NOT quite the ZOO!!}

On Saturday, we were going to go to Hogle Zoo. We have never been and thought it would be fun to go for Ayden's birthday which is this week! We were all packed up and ready to go when we saw that there was a carnival in the park near our house. We drove by and Ayden saw the bounce houses and rock walls...we asked him if he wanted to go to the carnival and he of course said yes!! It was funny how quickly he forgot about the zoo! So we went!! It was hot, but nice that we were so close to home! I'm sure it wasn't nearly as fun as the zoo would've been, but oh well! We will just have to go to the zoo another day!

Ayden loves to climb the rock wall at the park, but when he saw this REAL rock wall...one that required him to be hooked up to a harness, he was a little intimidated!!

And you can see....HE HATED IT!!!

But he did LOVE the bounce houses!!

Poor Zoe didn't get to enjoy anything!! She didn't even get to get out of her stroller because I didn't want her directly in the hot sun!

And I thought that these carnivals are usually just for the kids! Until....I looked over and saw Jeremiah and our neighbor Steve battling it out like American Gladiators! They were a bunch of little kids!! It was so funny!!

{ayden}

There are times when Ayden is driving me up the wall. For example, this morning I had to put him in his timeout spot NINETEEN times!! I was trying to be all "super nannyish" and didn't say anything or look at him each time I put him back. And this was all after we had to get a new timeout spot (the bottom step of the stairway) because he broke my lamp and knocked over a tree in the living room where he normally does time out on a bench in there! My patience were dwindling, so I called Jeremiah to the rescue! What is it about dads that make kids listen?!?!?! All Jeremiah said was "Ayden, DO NOT get off that step one more time. You need to sit there because of what you did!" I was expecting Ayden to laugh at him (like he did at me), run up the stairs and run even faster when Jeremiah would have to chase him (like he did to me) and make Jeremiah do it 19 more times!! But no...Ayden stayed right there on the step for 3 more minutes!! Jeremiah didn't have to say another word to him! I couldn't believe it and was a little jealous at the power that Jeremiah had over him! Anyway, that's not what this post is about and I am getting carried away, but it is times like those when Ayden is not my favorite kid!!

But then there are times like last night where the things he does melts my heart!! The last couple nights, when we say our prayers at night, it has been "Ayden's turn"! So Jeremiah and I will help him...we will say a prayer line by line. After each line, one of us says, "ok, Ayden say it" and he would sometimes repeat what we say, but usually not! Well, last night when we said a prayer, he repeated the last word in every line all by himself...without us having to ask him to say it!! It was so cute!!

So last night at about 2 am, he woke up and I heard him yelling "MOM, MOM, where's mimi (his binky)"? He doesn't normally wake up, but I went in to find his binky, which was hiding under his pillow! He was so excited when he saw it and gave me a kiss! Then I told him he was ok now and he could go back to sleep. As soon as I got up to leave, he folded his arms and said "prayer"! I asked if he wanted to say a prayer and he said yes in the sweetest voice. So we said a prayer and were thankfu that we found his binky! He then said it was ok for me to leave! I thought it was such a cute thing and it was so sweet to see him so happy to find his binky (yes, we do still have the binky, but are planning on "losing" it on our vacation next week in Cali)!!

One more funny thing....this past week, Ayden has been taking his diaper off when he wakes up in the morning! This wouldn't be bad, but these have been diarhea poppy diapers!! DISGUSTING!!! Two days ago, I went in and almost threw up because his room spelled SO BAD!!! I looked and the diaper was off and there was poop smeared all over the carpet!! I almost died!! Anyway, to solve this problem, the past 2 nights, we have been putting packing tape around his diapers at night!! It feels so "white trashy", but hey, it's better than poop on the carpet!! And both mornings that I have gone in to get Ayden in the morning, he says that is diaper is stuck!! Ha...good thing we made it "stuck" or else I'm sure we would've had a few more "poop on the carpet" episodes!! Thank goodness for packing tape!! =)

{a GIRLY girl!!}

It's been a while since I've posted! It has been a busy last 2 weeks at our house! I call it my "2 weeks before Ayden's b-day crunch time"!! I was the same way last year!! Before his b-day last year, I made him a scrapbook of his first year and gave it to him for his 1st birthday! I made a promise to myself that I would do this each year for each of my kids...so, although I had many excuses this year to not do it, I couldn't let him down!! Ha...not that he even knows about it because he is NOT allowed to even touch the book! It sits up high so he can't reach it! The first day we got his last book, he ripped one of the pages and I almost cried!! So the books are off limits to him now!! Anyway, the past 2 weeks, I have been up until 1 am every night trying to get the finishing touches on his 2nd book finished! Well, it finally got done...all 215 pages of it and was sent off for printing on Wednesday! I just can't wait to get it back and see the finished product! I know that this is something that my kids will treasure having when they are older and have kids of their own! Anyway, so that is what we have been up to here!!

We had a good Father's Day...a fun day spending time with our family and we also had dinner and hung out with some friends! I'm pretty sure Jeremiah had a good day...it wasn't much different for him! I told him that every day is Father's Day for him (I was trying to get the point across that I am a great wife for letting him ride his bike and fly his airplanes whenever he wants to)!! Anyway, here is one of the few family pics we have since Zoe was born!

Ok, about the "girly girl" title...tonight for our date night, we went to dinner and then went to the mall to get Zoe's ears pierced! I sware this was harder on me than it was on her! I insisted that we go when Jeremiah could go also so he could hold her! I didn't even want to watch because I was sad that I was putting her through pain!! I joked with the girl doing the piercing that I would be waiting outside until they finished!! Anyway, she hardly even cried and I'm so glad we did it because she looks so cute!! She looks so girly now and I just love it!! I'm glad we did it so early so that she will grow up having them and will hopefully never mess with them or try to pull them out! To be honest, I'm more worried about Ayden pulling them out instead of her! I think it's a good thing Ayden wasn't with us to see it happen and I don't think we will be drawing attention to her ears anytime soon...hopefully he won't even notice them!!

Oh and I just have to post these pics of Zoe also!! Look at the rolls on her legs....she is finally getting so fat!! I love it!! =)

{BITE ME!!!}

Ayden had a pretty traumatic day at church last week! His nursery teacher told me that someone bit him on the finger. He was crying pretty bad, but I think he was being overly dramatic because I didn't even see much of a bite mark! As soon as I took him out of his class, he kept saying "bite me, bite me"! He would forget about it and be fine for a few minutes and then start crying and say "bite me, bite me"! It started getting funny over time and the way he said "bite me" was just too cute!! Anyway, after about a half hour in the hallway, I took him back into his classroom and decided to sit in there with him because he cried when I tried to leave! When I was in there with him, I asked him to show me who bit him and he intently searched the room...looking at each kid...until he found the poor little girl that he is accusing of biting him!! As soon as he saw her, he said "bite me, she bite me"!! Today is Saturday...it has been almost a week since the incident and he is STILL talking about it!! We will be driving in the car and he will randomly say "bite me, a girl bite me, bad bad, in nursery"!! It is so funny to see him trying to put a sentence together!! He has such a concerned look on his face when he is talking about this and gets a mean scowl on his face! The other day, he was eating strawberries and a couple minutes later he comes running to me, holding up his finger! He showed me and he had a little speck of strawberry on it! He must have thought it was blood and it reminded him that he got bit (even though he didn't even bleed when he got bit)!! And he would start again with the "bite me, she bite me"!! It has been a whole week and we hear about it at least 5 times a day, but I'm not sick of it at all...I just love the way he says "bite me" and how he is trying so hard to express himself!! Anyway, I'm just thankful that it wasn't Ayden on the other end of this...we are lucky that he hasn't learned to bite yet! At this point, it's kinda nice to see this bully get bullied...he's getting a little taste of his own medicine!

This is the worst quality video because Jeremiah took it from his phone, but we didn't have time to get out the video camera once Ayden was telling his "bite me" story!! And it's so funny how he was telling his story and got distracted by the camera and had to ham it up with his "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEE!!!"

{Ayden and Zoe}

Now that Zoe's birth announcements are out, I can finally post the pics we had done at Kiddie Kandids a few weeks ago! These were Zoe's 6 week pics, so they are from a while ago, but I think they turned out pretty cute! I love the close up of both of them together...even though it looks like Ayden is squeezing the guts out of Zoe! He was such a big boy and did so good until he got sick of holding Zoe and would just let go right then and there! Good thing I was right next to them to catch her when he had enough! Zoe did a great job and slept through most of the pics!

{I almost CRIED over SPILLED milk!!!}

Ok, so I guess I was a little premature a few posts ago in bragging about the fact that Ayden is becoming so independent and can get his own milk out of the fridge. It was bound to happen........

A couple days ago, I was talking to my mom about what a big boy Ayden is becoming and how it is so nice that he can do some things on his own! I was bragging about him getting the gallon of milk out of the fridge and bringing it to me along with his sippy cup!! My mom reminded me about the time when I was 4 or 5 years old and held 2 full gallons of milk in my hands and said, "mom, look how strong I am!!" And then SPLAT....2 gallons of milk went ALL OVER the kitchen floor!! So after we were talking about Ayden getting his own milk, she said "just wait, you have your milk all over the floor coming to you!!!" I can't believe it!! She jinxed me!!!

A couple days ago, Ayden went in the fridge to get his milk out!! Unfortunately, it was a brand new gallon that I just bought that day! I didn't even think he could lift a whole gallon...he usually only gets his milk out when there is less than a half gallon! Anyway, he lifted it out and SPLAT!!! It fell and broke and milk went ALL OVER the kitchen floor!! I had to laugh for a second because of the conversation that my mom and I had just the day before! Ayden was so upset when it happened and kept saying "towel, towel, towel" as Jeremiah and I were taking our time cleaning it up because I had to get some pictures! He almost cried over his spilled milk!! It was funny!! And the only reason I thought it was funny was because my floor was not clean at all!! Usually this kind of thing happens right after you mop the floor!! If that was the case, I might have been crying myself over this spilled milk!! =)

{a MAJOR blowout!!!}

Ok, I know this is gross, but YAH for POOP!!!! Zoe has had some serious constipation issues for the last month! We have been wishing and hoping for one of those "up the back" blowouts, but have only been blessed with rock hard pellets!! Well, I think that her new formula is agreeing with her because she had her first major blowout the other day!! I was so excited that it got all over her pants and had BLOWN out of her diaper!! I know that sounds weird, but the poor girl has a months worth of poop backed up in that little body!! So....YAH for poop!!! Ha, I can't believe I just did a post about poop!! =)

{OuR cUtE gIrL!!}

Zoe is getting cuter and cuter everyday!! She is really starting to be a lot of fun! She is awake a lot more each day and is so alert! I usually just have to sit her up somewhere that she can see Ayden and she is entertained by watching him run back and forth like a maniac! It's great to have a permanent entertainer in the house!! He often will take a break from playing to run to her and say "hi"...she responds with a HUGE smile!! I think she already loves her big brother!! It seems like we're really starting to get into somewhat of a routine these days and that is making me feel a whole lot better since I am a major control freak and can't stand when things are up in the air!! Zoe is sleeping through the night at least a couple nights a week which is so nice! We can't complain about that at all!! She is constantly smiling and is such a happy girl!! I just love her cute chubby face!!

{Camping,,,,the way I like it!!!}

There is a lot to catch up on since I have been a blogging slacker this week! Last Friday night we went to our ward campout! Originally, Jeremiah and Ayden were going to stay overnight and camp in a tent and Zoe and I were going to come home at the end of the night because there was no way that I was gonna sleep in a tent with a baby! Well, Jeremiah thought of the idea to borrow his brother's trailer....so I had no excuse anymore and all 4 of us ended up staying! I'm glad it all worked out because we had such a fun time! The campout was at such a cool place...there were so many fun things for the kids to do and so many fun things to look at!! We camped on a farm...my kind of camping because there was grass!! No dirt, sticks, rocks, mud, etc!! I would take the smell of cows any day over dirt and mud!! Ayden had such a blast running around and playing with all the other kids!! He went on a zip line and a little rocket ride, but the most exciting part for him was watching all the cows and trying to feed them grass from his hands (he must've thought they were horses)!! There were a bunch of little calves and Jeremiah let Ayden pet them all when I wasn't looking!! Yuck....I was pretty grossed out at the thought, but he thought that was the coolest thing EVER and he talked about it all day!! When it came time to go to bed, I was so glad to have the trailer!! It got pretty cold and windy and even rained....ummm....is it really June?!?!?! But thank goodness we were inside a trailer, sleeping on comfy mattresses!! I felt kind of guilty because we actually got hot in the night and had to turn the heater down when everyone else was freezing cold in the 35 degree night with rain and wind!! The only bad part of the whole trip was that Ayden woke up at 5:30 am...of course he did this the night that Zoe decided to sleep all night until 8:00 am!! Luckily there was a flat screen TV in the trailer and we had the Bee Movie!! We were able to go back to sleep while Ayden watched the movie (and got in to all the candy that was in my bag) for a couple hours!! Anyway, it was a fun trip and Ayden had a blast!! He still talks about camping and can't wait til we go again! And as long as we can go to a grassy area with a heated trailer that is equipped with a bathroom, warm water and a TV....I am in for as many camping trips that he wants this year!!

Ayden loved the zip line...

And he was in heaven when it was time to make SMORES!!! He loved the fact that the graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows were right there for the taking and he could make as many as he wanted!! Daddy even let him hold the stick to roast the marshmallows!! He thought that was so cool!

{All Smiles!!!}

Zoe is 2 months old today and she is all smiles lately!! It's so fun to see her personality starting to come out! She is such a happy baby!! She eats, sleeps and SMILES!! All we have to do is look at her and she busts out in a huge smile...it's the cutest thing ever!! This is one of my favorite things about this stage...since babies don't do much! There is nothing greater than the feeling you get when your little baby smiles when she hears your voice or sees your face! I love it!! It's so fun to see that Zoe is really starting to be aware of her surroundings...she likes to watch everything that is going on. She even smiled a huge smile for Ayden the other day! I told him, "Ayden look...she is smiling at you!!" And he got so excited and then kept saying "hi" to her to try to get her to smile some more!

Zoe is really changing EVERY day...every time I post pictures, I feel like I need to post more and more because she looks so different each day!! She is really filling out and finally fitting into all of her clothes! I am having a blast playing dress up with her and now that I have invested in some cute bows, I can't wait to dress her each day!! I'm starting to realize that bows are as necessary of an accessory to a baby girl as shoes are to our outfits! I love it!!

Ayden is also amazing me more and more each day with how much he knows and remembers! He is talking more and more every day and it is so fun to have conversations with him! Just yesterday we were talking about what he wanted for his birthday. Ayden told me he wanted a new trampoline, a guitar, a new bike (don't know why...he just got one) and bubbles!! About an hour later, when Jeremiah got home, I asked Ayden to tell Daddy what he wants for his birthday! He said, "Ummmm...." and then he named off ALL four of the things we had talked about an hour earlier! I couldn't believe it! It was so cute!

Since I've been so busy capturing Zoe's cute smiles on camera, Ayden has been needing to take care of himself more and more! What can I say...mom is just too busy with the camera! =) Anyway, this morning I was feeding Zoe in the family room and Ayden was watching his shows. He walked over to the kitchen, got his cup out of the drawer and then went to the refrigerator, got out the gallon of milk and brought me his cup and milk. I couldn't believe that he got this all by himself! I was so impressed, so I poured the milk right there and asked him to take the gallon of milk back to the fridge...and HE DID IT!!! Woohoo...that means that the days of him getting his own breakfast, getting himself baths and getting himself dressed are right around the corner, right?? =)