I'm a big girl now!

I can't believe it, but Kaylen is 11 months old already. I have ordered all her birthday stuff, but still can't fathom it's time to actually have her first birthday party. SO bitter-sweet! I was gone for four days last week (conference in Dallas) and she changed so much in the short time I was gone. Before I left, she was barely pulling herself up on the furniture, was crawling but not very fast and was very hesitant at walking. When I came back, she was pulling herself up on everything in site, crawling like a mad woman and will walk anywhere as long as she has something to hold on to. How quickly they change :-)

She is also getting quite the vocabulary. Here is her growing list of words:

Mama
Dadda
Aidan (Ayda)
Dog
Cat
Hot
Uh Oh
Wow
Hello (Heywoh)
Up
Yuck
Papa
And her first two word sentance: Papa Bill

First day of school

Today was Aiden's first day of preschool. Amazingly, it wasn't as sad as I thought it would be. To be honest, I fully intended for HIM to have some tears over the whole ordeal. He is still a mama's boy and pretty hesitant with new situations. Well, not today. He ran in, hung up his book bag and went on like he owned the place. I had to go chase him down to get a hug and kiss goodbye. Ouch...hurt to my ego. Really, it was nice to see him act like such a big boy. So, I have a few years to get myself used to the preschool schedule and then it will be on to kindergarten. That may be a bit harder!

Irrigating with Grandpa Bill

Here is Aiden's comments after irrigating with Grandpa Bill last night:

Aiden: "Grampa, whatcha doin?"
Grandpa: "I'm setting this dam so we can irrigate"
Aiden: "Grampa wees not 'pose to say damn"

Growing up too fast!

As I sit and watch my amazing children tonight, I can help but be a bit sad as to how fast it all goes by. It seems just yesterday when Aiden was at the stage Kaylen is now; learning to crawl, first words and personality starting to show through. I wish I would have started blogging when Aiden was a baby as I know there are so many thing I have already forgotten. In an effort to preserve my last few brain cells, I wanted to write a few of my favorite things about my babies:

Aiden:
*I loved to give big kisses to his chubby cheeks. You could almost bury your whole face in his squishy sweetness.

*He has always had such a big belly laugh. Even as a baby, it was easy to get him giggling. When he was younger, he had a spot on his butt cheeks that made him wiggle and giggle with laughter every time. It was hilarious.

*Aiden was always on the move. I think that is why he was so quick to pick up on physical milestones; turning over, crawling, walking, jumping. It just came so easy for him.

*He is stubborn to the core (I say he gets that from his Dad), but once he decides he wants to do something, you can't hold him back. For months we struggled to get him to try and learn to use peddles on his bike. He refused to try and got so frustrated, but one day he said he wanted to do it and he has been a peddling fool ever since. That was only two months ago and now he is almost ready to take off the training wheels.

Kaylen:
*My favorite spots to give her kisses are in the crook of her elbows and on her neck. I don't know why.

*You really have to work to get Kaylen to laugh. Lately she has developed this really high pitched little twitter laugh - almost like a bird. It is hard to explain, but I wish I could bottle it and take it with me wherever I go.

*Kaylen loves to just sit and have you near her. That is all she wants and it makes her completely content. She doesn't have to be entertained or on the go, just be near her and she is happy.

*She is our cuddle bug. Kaylen loves to give big sloppy kisses and hugs. When she first started to give her sloppy kisses, she would suck on your lips just a little. It was so funny and sweet.

I love to watch both my children sleep, and of course rocking them to sleep has to be one of the most calming, relaxing and special times I have spent with them. When I use to work shift work when Aiden was little, even when I was so exhausted, I would wish for Aiden to wake up in the night just so I could rock him back to sleep. This is one of the things I will miss the most as my children grow older.

Aiden Aphorisms

A few of my favorite sayings this week:

"Look mommy, the trees are dancing. When the wind blows it makes music and the trees dance."

"We weren't jumping on the bed, we were flying and then falling down." (sounds a lot like jumping to me)

A: "Grandpa, where is your floatie?"
G: "What is a floatie?"
A: "That thing that flies in the air."
G: "The frisbee?"
A: "Ya, the frisbee. That's what I said."

A: "Daddy, start your engees!"
D: "You mean start your engines."
A: "Nooooo, start your engees. Engees are faster then engines. They're super fast. Vroom Vroom!"

Slip N' Slide

My brothers were in Powell visiting last weekend. They came so the kids could watch Trent in the derby...second place, YEAH!

The slip n' slide was a big hit. (thanks grandma!). The kids always have so much fun hanging out together. This weekend we will all be headed to the mountains for a family camping trip.

Thomas the Train

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our trip to see the real Thomas the Train. We got to ride the train and they had lots of other fun activities.

The bottom picture is on the way home. Aiden put stickers all over his face and then fell asleep for the remainder of the trip. I had to pull over to get the shot. It was too funny to resist.