Quick pics

We're still working on form here. :-)

It's Halloween every day at our house.

Anna is a little explorer. She loves to unpack bins of toys, especially the bin that holds all of the sports equipment. Footballs, soccer balls and baseballs are her most favorite toys!

Two laughs to start my day...

Aidan is the smartest person in the world. Just ask him; he'll tell you. In his eyes, he is hardly ever wrong- even when photographic evidence is presented to him to show him that he DID, in fact, hit the tee instead of the ball (but that's another story). Today on the way to school, he actually conceded a point, which is so very rare. It went like this...

Aidan: Mom, you know how you told me that there are no words that rhyme with orange or purple?

Me: Yes.

Aidan: Well, you were wrong.

Me: No, I wasn't.

Aidan: Yes, you were! You know that thing that lets you go under water and breathe? A snurple... That rhymes with purple!

Me: (Trying hard not to laugh)... It's not called a snurple. It's called a snorkel.

Aidan: Oh.


*****************
On the way home from taking Aidan to school, Austin and I were chatting. I looked back and thought I saw him picking on his lips (nervous habit that he has), so I said, "Austin, stop picking your lips." His response: "Mommy, I'm not picking my lips. I was picking my boogies."

:-)

Buddy Ball/Tee Ball

Here in Mississippi, they call it buddy ball. It's actually kind of a neat idea... They pitch the kids three pitches, and if they don't hit any of those, then they put the ball on the tee. We're pretty happy about that because we've never really worked with Aidan from the tee.

Aidan had his first practice the other day. He loved it! Jared and I both got to go the practice, and it was so neat to see Aidan actually engaged in a sport (so UNLIKE soccer where he spends all of his time trying to dogpile on the other players). Also, his buddy ball coach is awesome! He played baseball in college and is doing such a great job teaching the kids the mechanics. I think we're really going to get a lot out of this season.

At the circus

Austin has a tiny splinter that is pretty deep in his wrist. He showed it to Jared a few days ago, and Jared told him that it was so small that we needed to wait until his body pushed the splinter to the surface before we could take it out. Yesterday, Austin looked at his splinter and then said in a very excited voice, "LOOK! It's at the circus now!" :-)


*This picture was taken at the dentist's office after Austin received a raving review from the dentist. This was his second visit to the dentist... still no cavities! :-)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

This past weekend, we celebrated Jared's birthday. The kids and I made him breakfast in bed. They were so excited to carry his breakfast back - and especially excited to get to wake him up. I was on pins and needles the whole time they were carrying the food and orange juice back, but they did great. Apparently, Aidan has serving in his blood because he was carrying the plate of food like a true pro!



Note the disgusting amount of butter that both the boys put on Jared's toast. They were having so much fun that I just couldn't correct them. I did discreetly scrape off about three or four tablespoons of it, though.


See the pink and white streamers in the background? Yep, those were still up from Anna's birthday and my birthday. I did take them down before we did presents and cake for Jared! :-)


There can NEVER be too many sprinkles on a cake that the boys help decorate.

The tooth fairy visited!

Aidan officially lost his first tooth last Thursday night. I tried to pull it on Wednesday, but I was too squeamish. Luckily, Jared was home on Thursday night. He tied a string around it and then did some trick where he pulled the two sides of the string, and it pulled the tooth out. I would know more, but I couldn't watch it! Aidan has three more loose teeth, and I'm really hoping Jared is home for those, too! :-)

Happy Birthday to our sweet (and sick) baby

Our sweet baby girl is ONE! The last year has been so wonderful! It has been such a big difference raising a child in a two parent household. :-) I feel so blessed (and so spoiled) that we have had Jared home for an entire year.

We have been fighting the good battle here at our house against a very strong cold. The only one of us that did not get sick was Jared, who just happens to be the only of us that got the H1N1 vaccination. It may be a coincidence, or the kids and I may have gotten The Swine. Regardless, Austin, Anna and I still seem to be sluggish and fighting off the last of the bug. Aidan seems to be back to normal. Whatever it was that got us all sick, it was the most stubborn illness I've ever had. We're going on three weeks of someone in this house being sick. We've had fevers, lots of coughing, headaches, body aches, runny noses and congestion. Somehow (knocking on wood here), we have all managed to escape the stomach bug that has been making its way across Meridian.

At the very beginning of our illness, it was only Anna who was sick. She was put on an antibiotic, and on her last few days of the course, she broke out head to toe with a very bad rash. Diagnosis: Allergy to Penicillin

On the day of her birthday, Anna was feeling pretty bad, and Aidan was fighting a battle with Croup. Austin was running a high fever, and I was just beginning to feel sick. But we had a very important birthday to celebrate, and visitors that made a long journey to celebrate with us! So, up went the streamers; balloons were blown up, and a cake was baked. We put Anna in her beautiful birthday dress that her Aunt Emily made for her and did our best to celebrate. You can see from these pictures that we were a pretty rough group, but every baby has to have a first birthday cake picture. :-)