House Full of Boys!

The other day we were coming home from Target and Aidan was mad about something - I can't remember - and he started saying 'We never do anything fun'. This was the same day that we had just come home from camping the night before. Jared and I just looked at each other like 'you have got to be kidding me - this is the thanks we get'. So we started to name off the fun things that we have done with the kids lately. We named the obvious - 'we took you camping last night', and Aidan replied with the usual 'But that wasn't my idea' or 'that wasn't fun'. Then we said - 'we took you to the zoo two weeks ago' and Aidan responded with another 'But. . .' So we proceeded on with our list. 'Grandpa Bird, Andrea and Ashlyn came to visit us', again another 'But. . ." So we just kept listing - 'Did we go to Pisgah Inn, did we go to the Fish Hatchery, did we go to Lake Lure, we went to Pigeon Forge for a wee...

Eli is now 7mos old and wants to be mobile so badly. He has now figured out how to get up on his knees. He can actually stand up on his toes with his hands still on the ground. He kind of rocks back and forth and if something is in front of him - he will just lunge forward and back down on his belly - hoping that he has gained an inch or two to get to the toy that he so badly wants. He does eventually get there. Here is a picture of him on his knees and a video of him this morning rocking on his knees. I fear that in a week or so he will be crawling everywhere. Which means I will then need to barricade my house with gates. Eli practicing

Recently Aidan has been having bad dreams again at night. He had them a lot when he was around 18mos old but then they went away. I think with the new change and nervousness of going to preschool they started up again. He is usually not awake even though he is crying or screaming or waving his arms. Usually turning the TV on and getting him to focus on something snaps him out of his dream. Anyways the other night he was afraid to go to sleep. I told him that we could pray to Heavenly Father and ask him to take away the bad dreams. He thought that was a good idea but wanted to know how Heavenly Father would do that and why. I told him that Heavenly Father didn't want him to be afraid and that if he believed or had faith in Heavenly Father then his dreams would go away and he wouldn't be afraid anymore. He said he had faith that Heavenly Father would take away the bad dreams - so we prayed and he went to sleep without any problems. He woke up in the morning and the first...

This past weekend we took the kids to The NC Zoo in Asheboro. We left on Friday afternoon and drove the 3 1/2hrs to get there and stayed in a hotel. Our drive took a little longer than normal b/c Adley can now unbuckle his car seat and he did this several times. One time I didn't even hear him and I turned around to find my self face to face with him. Scary as we were in heavy interstate traffic. Anyway - Aidan loves to stay in hotels and even though he was mostly asleep when we got there he had to run around the room saying 'mommy we are in a hotel, look they have a fridge, look there is a microwave, mommy we are in a hotel'. Even while we were at the zoo he asked when do we get to go back to the hotel. Saturday morning we met up with Emily and Craig and their kids and Jared's brother Ehren. We started our trip on the Africa side - it is a 2 mile walk. It is a natural habitat zoo so the exhibits for the animals are really big. Here is a short video of the kids before w...

We decided that since Aidan turns 5 in November and missed the cut off to start kindergarten this year that he needed to get out of the house and interact with other kids. So we decided to put him in preschool. So this last Tuesday we went to an open house at school so that he could meet his teachers - Miss Wilma and Miss Linda. Then on Thursday Aidan went for his very first day of preschool. He will be on a Tues/Thurs schedule. Aidan was excited to get a new backpack as well as a lunch bag. Adley also wanted to be included in getting all of the new stuff too so we had to buy him a lunch bag as well. School is about 3hrs long and will give me time to run my errands with 2 children instead of 3. Plus it will give me some one on one time with Adley. As much as the boys fight at times I know that they love each other and miss each other when they are separated. Adley kept wanting to know when Aidan was done with school. So here are some pictures from his first day. He had a great time a...

Wow - time sure does fly by quickly - I am yet late again updating on what has been going on here. Recently - (21st of Aug) some of my family from Arizona came to visit. My dad, my sister Andrea and her daughter Ashlyn. It was so nice to see them as it has been about 8mos since the last time. They stayed for about a week and we got to do a lot of things around NC that I hadn't done yet. We went to the Fish Hatchery, had breakfast at the Pisgah Inn on the BlueRidge Parkway, went on a boat tour at Lake Lure and saw an Asheville Tourists game. Who knew there were so many fun things to do so close to us and I have lived here for 4 yrs and hadn't done them yet - except the breakfast part. Anyways here are some pictures from our fun week I appreciated so much my family taking time from their busy schedule to come and spend some time we me and my family. Ashlyn is a beautiful little girl and I enjoyed so much having a little girl in the house. I was sad to see them go but we will se...