Trip to San Diego

Aiden and I were so fortunate to be able to take a trip down to San Diego at the end of June for a mini vacation and visit with the family...guess that's one of the benefits of not working anymore! =-) We had lots of fun and were able to do much more since our trip was about a week long. Aiden and I went to the beach for Aiden's first visit with Gpa, Mimi and Aunt Leah with only minimal complaining from Gpa ;-) A short but sweet trip (let's face it...I am not the tan SD girl I once was!) but Aiden thought it was too cool...sand, water and toys, what more could he want!





It was very nice to see everyone at the family BBQ. Aiden had lots of fun playing with his cousins. We were glad to be able to visit with "Aunt" Carynne and Hailey since they are quite the busy bunch. In all, we had a wonderful trip!!! I am so glad that Aiden is able to experience all these adventures in his life. Someday he will be able to look back on these photo memories and see how much he is loved!

Summer Time!!!!

It's here and we could not be more excited! Now that Aiden is more active, keeping him in the house all day because of crappy weather is miserable. Luckily, we have been getting some beautiful weather the last month and have been able to enjoy lots of trips to the park and time in the pool. Aiden has always been a water baby and LOVES being in the bath, pool, lake, or any other body of water he can. He also recently discovered that the park has a water pump at the sandbox, so now I have to be sure to bring a change of clothes because he is always soaking wet by the end of our visit. So, here are some pictures of our fun in the sun!!

Pictures as promised

So, to complete my last post...here are the cute pictures of Aiden's drive to Portland =-)

Trip to Portland

We recently (about 2 months ago by now) visited our good friends Chelsea and Cody in Portland where they live. They had bought a house last October and we still had not been able to make a trip up to visit as they are planning their wedding and we have a one year old! As always, we love to see them and were so excited to finally get together. Their home is beautiful!! The picture here is the cup we bought to get ice...since we have issues of leaving the house missing some essential items. Kinda hard to travel for the day with no milk or ice to keep it cold when you have a toddler. =-) Of course, he had to make sure there wasn't anything to drink in the cup too.

And after a long day traveling the streets of Portland and exploring some Fish stores, we started our 2 hour trip home...clearly Aiden was relaxing in his seat shortly before crashing to sleep for the rest of the trip LOL but now I can't upload photos due to an error on the site so I will work on posting them in just a bit.

Catching up!

It's been too long, I know! It's been quite the busy month...so this will be long I am sure. Let's see, to start, I am now a stay at home mom!!!! After months of discussion and sleepless nights thinking about it, we have finally decided that it would be best for Aiden and our marriage for me to be home. Our lives are very crazy at times and never predictable. This left us feeling as if we were a divorced couple with a kid doing the "swap" of responsibilities and never getting a chance to slow down and be a family. This is not what we wanted for our family so it was time to make the change. I have been home for almost 2 weeks now and it is AMAZING how good it feels!!! Although, Nathan has been working a lot, we know that we will soon be able to enjoy trips and adventures as a family.

Now on to the fun stuff...Aiden is now 15 months old! He has quite the personality coming through too. He has a small vocabulary that keeps growing. He always says "bye" and blows kisses no matter who or where we are leaving lol. He says "dog" and will point but does not like getting too close. He is now only eating table foods and prefers to eat what we are eating then what was made for him. He is enjoying the sense of freedom he has now that he walks and we are working on allowing him to explore more of the world (even if it freaks me out!). He is also quite the helper around the house. Loves to help change the laundry, vacuum, and clean his highchair. We go to the drs soon for another check-up and I will update then.

I will post again with pictures off all our adventures lately...our home computer is quite slow so I need to work on that =-) Hope everyone is enjoying their Father's Day!!!!

Sunshine in Oregon

We have been experiencing some beautiful weather the last couple of days which has been wonderful with such an active little guy! I think this picture is such a good one to describe his ever growing personality. He has moments of complete insanity in his playfulness...he will literally walk in circles laughing at times! He has really started enjoying his independence. He prefers walking rather than being held and usually will only eat if he can feed it to himself.

He has also started playing more independently then he used to. There are times where I will be folding laundry in the living room and I will turn around and he will be sitting alone in the hallway looking through a book or playing with a toy.

Recently, Aiden has been on a roll learning and maintaining new habits. He will click his tounge anytime you ask if he wants food or milk, give kisses and wave goodbye when you leave, clap anytime anyone around is clapping, laugh this amazingly cute fake laugh when others around him are laughing, and has finally started standing up without the assistance of an item to pull up on. He is growing SO fast!!!

And to share the best news...I have finally quit my job to be a stay at home mom. For those that knew, I was supposed to go part time when Aiden was 1 but my employer could not offer my position part time. I have continued to work full time despite the hardship on our family, but we are finally at a place where it is reasonable for me to be home. We are very excited for this change (and just a little worried). I have about 6 more weeks of work...let the countdown begin!!!!

Parks and Haircuts

YAY!! Aiden has finally made it to the park!! He really thought it was the coolest ever. He really enjoyed digging through the sand and finding the smallest little sticks to hand to mom and dad. But above all, he loved the SLIDE. He could go down that thing a million times and still be ready to go again LOL! Of course, he is not quite ready to go down by himself, so we assisted which made for some tired parents. There are more pictures and a video that are on the other computer...I will attempt to get to those soon.

After looking at all his fun park pictures, I realized just how out of control his hair is!!! I have been attached as I really expected to have bald babies, but after cleaning food out of his hair on a regular basis, I knew something needed to be done. Sad as it is, I even "phoned a friend" for support!! =-) So, we did it...we took a one inch clipper to his lovely locks and they are gone! I had trouble for the first couple days, wondering if I was going to regret it, but I am SO happy we did it! He looks so cute and so much like a little boy! And we can even spike it into a little mohawk HAHA

You tell me...what looks better...

OR

I will post again soon...everything is going well, everyone is feeling well, and we are looking forward to an exciting and fun summer!!!