Wednesday, November 21, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A day of turkey, family and thanks.

We are so excited to spend another holiday with both families. Nate's parents have invited my family over for thanksgiving dinner which has been a tradition of ours for a few years already.

It is so nice to stay at one location and not try to please everyone by spending the day traveling around to visit. Especially since Nate has to work on Friday.

We are so fortunate to have a large family that is very close and likes to spend time together (spoiling Aiden).

We wish everyone a very "thankful" day! We will definitely be counting our blessings into bites of turkey and pie!

Monday, November 19, 2007

A hack in the house

Its been a week full of virus at our house. Aiden started with a cough then a cold about 5 days later and as the cold was calming down the cough wasn't. So we went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't something more serious. The doctor couldn't diagnose it directly but felt we'd do process of elimination. First, a swab of Aiden's nose for whooping cough, antibiotics in case it was whooping cough and nebulizer for possible asthma. We received the results on the whooping cough test 4 days later and its negative...whew! We haven't been 100% successful in the nebulizer treatments because Aiden isn't fond of the noise of the machine or the fact that smoke comes out from a tube. We have managed a few successful treatments and will be more diligent about it over the holiday weekend.

Now that Aiden's cough is calming down...mommy and daddy have caught it. Nate has been running a fever on and off for a few days. I, on the other hand, seem to keep the worst of the virus at bay so far...my body must know that I don't have time to be sick. I have a household to run.

I hope for all of us to recovery over the holiday weekend.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Life on the Farm

We spent the weekend on my Uncle Kim and Auntie Julie's farm in Orange City, Iowa visiting family, celebrating an early holiday and have church doors dedicated to my grandparents.

It was fun to see cousins, meet new cousins, get educated on farming and come together as a family - which we hardly do anymore.

We scheduled our driving around Aiden's sleeping schedule which worked pretty well on the way down but on the way back he only slept for about 45 minutes. Which as ok because he watched a movie and was content. His schedule was a bit mixed up with the time change, losing daylight savings time. We're still working on getting the schedule back in order.

We are so lucky to have a large, healthy extended family and hope to keep in contact with them as our lives change.

It was really fun to get together!


Monday, November 5, 2007

To My Poppa...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
luv - Aiden








Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween 2007

We had a wonderful Halloween season this year. I found a great Elmo costume on Ebay since we didn't like what was in the stores. I ordered a 4T to make sure there was extra room for warm clothes underneath, it's a good thing because it fit just right~!

We spent a Saturday night carving pumpkins with the Johnston family. Aiden wasn't that interested in the pumpkin carving, not fast paced enough for him. He did like getting to spend time with his cousins though! I attempted to carve Thomas the Tank Engine and Nate did some creative carving as well.

The next night we visited the local zoo's Halloween event, ZooBoo, the kids get a trick-or-treating bag when they get to the zoo. The zoo is decorated with characters and such for the kids to see and activities throughout the trick-or-treat trail. We went with my friend Sara and her adorable daughter Audrey, Uncle Dave, Aunnie Missy, Anna, Bradley and Auntie Caly. Aiden had a great time!

Then finally the big day...Halloween through the neighborhood. Aiden did a fantastic job walking around to collect candy from the neighbors who thought he was adorable as Elmo. He even received a special baggie of toddler friendly treats from the neighbors next door. We vistited Uncle Jason's (and Auntie Micky but she wasn't home though), then some friends and off to Grandma's house to show off in her neighborhood. While we were there Uncle Dave, Aunnie Missy, Anna and Bradley showed up to try to scare Grandma, but Aiden knew who they were right away!

It was a great Halloween season this year! Aiden did a fabulous job with all the activities and even though he doesn't get to enjoy most of the treats he received, it was fun anyway :)

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Aiden's 2 year check up

Aiden did AWESOME at his appointment. Not only did he do well for his flu and hep shot, they also took blood for 24 month lead test. He watched the girl take his blood and didn’t hardly flinch. I couldn’t believe it! He was very curious about what she was doing to him.

After the long doctor’s appointment, we took him to Toys R Us to get another Cars movie (ours is lost), then went to the pet store to get fish for his aquarium. We picked out 5 guppies in bright colors, food for the fish and a few new plants (fake, of course). Nate put the aquarium together when we got home while I made dinner and Aiden obsessively played with his new toys.

Nate basically tried everything to get Aiden to eat dinner so we could put him to bed…bribes, tricks, forcing…don’t mess with a kid who just got new toys.

Aiden will be happy to have an evening with his new toys tonight since we don’t have anything planned.

Aiden's 2nd Birthday

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Aiden’s 2nd birthday. Aiden had a blast!

He woke up the next morning and said “TOYS?”. He had not forgotten all the fun things he got from his party.

When I drove him home from the party, I kept driving around the area for ½ hour trying to get him to settle down and fall asleep. He did fall asleep for a few minutes right before I brought him home, but perked up as I took him out of the car seat. Then it took another hour to get him back to sleep.

After finally getting him down, Nate and I spent the rest of the night getting toys out of the massive amount of packaging the toy companies feel the need to provide for “toy safety”. After we unleashed the toys, I put them all in their own little “tote home” so they are perfectly organized and not all over my floor….yet.

I left the set of Weebles and his Cars racetrack out to play, we’ll swap for new toys in a couple of days.

Poor Aiden went to school on Monday so daddy could fish, that means he didn’t even get to stay home and play with the new stuff. Then after school Mommy and Daddy will take him to his 2-year check up with Dr. Anderson. And after his appointment we are going buy the movie Cars and get new fish at the pet store for his brand new aquarium that Daddy setup. He won’t want to play with all the news toys after he gets fish in his tank.

What an exciting week for one VERY CUTE two year boy!

We really appreciate having the best family EVER!