The peanut dance

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there." No word are more true in our household. Aiden is so excited for Christmas he can hardly stand it. Trent and I are so excited too. It is so fun to watch the kids open their presents, the excitement dancing in their eyes!
We have been enjoying the holiday festivities to their fullest...looking at Christmas lights, going to Christmas concerts, watching all the holiday movies on TV, etc. Last night we were watching the Nutcracker. Surprisingly Aiden was really enjoying it.
So tonight, as we were settling down for the evening, Aiden says "can we watch the peanut dance again?" The Nutcracker...get it...ha ha!

Birthday Party!

Can you believe that Aiden is four years old already? Where does the time go? Now that Aiden is getting older, he is asking questions about when he was born. So, here is his story...

It was a dark and stormy night...literally! Is was super cold and hadn't been above zero for days. Fresh snow had fallen and the change in weather had begun to stir up some contractions. I was still working night shift OB and had worked the entire night before I went into labor. After a long 12 hour shift, I went home to sleep for three hours and then went to my doctor appointment. While I was at Dr. Ellis' office, my water broke. Up to this point, it was one of the happiest days of my life because it meant I wouldn't be pregnant too much longer AND because that meant Aiden was almost ready to join us in the world! So, after only a few hours of sleep, the excitement began. That was at 1 in the afternoon. By two by contractions had started. Unfortunately I wasn't blessed with my mothers fast labors and Aiden didn't arrive until 12:32 the following afternoon. 22 HOURS OF LABOR! It was all worth it to hold him in my arms. What a blessing. He weighed 7lbs and was 18 3/4 inches long. Up to that point his name was Gavin, but that name really did not suit him. We decided to change to Aiden and later found out "Aiden" meant fiery spirit. I guess that name was meant to be as fiery spirit fits him to a T.

I always tell Aiden that 2's and 3's are his lucky numbers. He was born on December 3rd at 12:32 in room 32 after 22 hours of labor!

As you can see by the pictures, Aiden chose to celebrate tractor style! Grandpa Bill was nice enough to bring over a real tractor for the boys to play on. Hard to see, but in the tractor is Aiden, Parker, Chance and Braylen. Aiden hasn't had a single birthday where is has been nice outside and this year was no different. The tractor excursions didn't last long as it was only about 10 degrees outside and the wind was blowing at least 30 mph. Brrr! All the kids had a great time, especially Aiden. He is now to the age where he will start remembering some of this stuff. Hopefully this was a birthday worth remembering. Happy birthday sweet boy!

Little ladybug birthday

Here are a few pictures from Kaylen's first birthday. She had a great time. While I don't think she realized all the hoopla was centered around her, she was thrilled to have so many people she knows in one room. She loved all her new toys and had a great time demolishing her lady bug cake. So, now she is officially a toddler. That sounds so weird to say. Baby or big girl, we will continue to enjoy all her sweetness. (until the terrible twos hit that is...yikes!)

Kaylen - a year in pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Following Kim's lead

So a friend of mine, who followed a friend of hers, decided that blogging, while fun, often creates this picture perfect world of your life...whatever! So, in order to keep it real, here are just some of the not so perfect things going on in my life:

*Kaylen is a year old this Saturday and is still using a pacifier at night. I said I would break her of it by 8 months at the latest. I know I need to do it, but I'm one of those mothers who just can't make her kids "cry it out". So, when she has buck teeth later in life and hates me for it, I deserve it!

*On the topic of Kaylen and hitting the one year mark, she is no where near walking. You never want your kids to be "delayed" in anything, so of course I worry. To be honest, she is kind of a chicken. Through the inner workings of my private mind, I know I want to raise a smart, strong, independant woman. I know it is weird to associate her walking timeline with her personality traits of adulthood, but as a mother you constantly worry.

*Aiden, bless his heart, is the social director of life. This is not a good thing. He has his "rules" for everything! Games, playtime, bedtime, eating; you name it he has rules that go along with it and when you don't follow the rules, life quickly becomes a meltdown. I know that this is partly just his personality, but I also know that I have been a part of this growing bad habit. For Aiden, I do not worry about him becoming a strong, independant sole...this will not be problem! However, I do want him to learn that we all need to work together and get along. You can't always have your way and you need to be part of the solution, not the problem. Trust me, we're working on it!

*Aiden can't draw...period! I fear the right side of his brain is actually not intact. He can scribble like nobody's business, but to actually draw anything coherant; good luck. Shouldn't he have learned this by now? Worse yet, was I suppose to teach him and didn't!

*I have had so many "bad parent" moments, I have lost track. Every time I say it will be the last time, but of course that doesn't happen. I just hope my kids aren't old enough to remember my mistakes and that someday I will hone in on my parenting skiils before they realize what a bad mom I am (kidding - just some days).

*I'm going back to school. While I know this will be good in the long run, I contantly worry that this is affecting my family in the present. Am I spending enough time with my family? Is my homework distracting me from my family? Really...how irritable am I from the late night of studying? Only time will tell.

*Trent and I have become one of those old married couples. Yikes! When did that happen? We never go anywhere, we never do anything. Luckily, we rarely ever fight, but sometimes I don't really feel like we converse either? While I love our kids to death, sometimes you can't help but admit they suck the life out of your marriage. On the other hand, the kids have strengthened us in many other ways, so I guess you take it one day at a time and hope for the best.

*This year, my Dad turns 60. My Mom is not that far behind. This sounds so old (sorry Mom). I know the day will come that I won't have my parents to lean on, and that scares me to death. They are my rock. They are always there for whatever I need; cooking tips, parenting advice, plumbing & electrical emergencies, or just general life instructions. What is worse is the thought of explaining to my children why they can't see their grandparents anymore. Life lessons are the hardest to learn!

This is only a small glimps of the many worries and fears I think about on a daily basis. You do the best with what you have and hope for the best possible outcome. I'll go with the Beetles - all you need is love. If I need more than that, I may be out of luck :-)

Visit to the fire hall

The fire hall had their annual open house a while back. What a perfect chance for Aiden to go check out some real fire trucks. They let all the kids get in the trucks, play around with the sirens, the whole bit. It was awesome. Now, (shocker) he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. That or a transformer...it's a toss up.

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