The Spirit of Giving....

Every year we have a few traditions around Christmas. The kids love them and look forward to them. One of our traditions are getting a "Christmas Angel" from the Salvation Army trees. Each kid gets to pick one. This year we explained that we were having a hard time budgeting it in. So the conversation went like this:
Daddy sits the kids down on the couch.
Daddy: "We decided to take back 1 present that we got each of you in order for us to buy our angel gifts. How does this sound to each of you?"
Marissa: "I understand and I still want to buy for a baby angel this year."
Hannah: "I still really want to get my angel a gift so take back some of my presents and maybe I will get 2 angels."
Ashlyn: "I WANT ALL OF MY PRESENTS.. DON'T TAKE ANY OF THEM BACK!! After a LONG temper tantrum she finally got the understanding of Christmas. Although while shopping she asked if we could still buy 2 of each thing so she can also have one!"
Where did I go wrong??

Growing Up with Sisters...

Poor Aidan, his sister's are constantly playing dress up with him. He now asks for "whipstick" and loves shoes and a purse. Daddy has a fit when he sees it, but the girls find it fun!

Halloween 2009....

We have a tradition on Halloween of chili and hotdogs every year. My parents and sister’s family come over and we eat then the guys take the kids trick or treating while the moms stay back and sit on the driveway with the firepit (even in AZ when it might not be cold) and pass out candy. This year daddy was sick so mommy pulled the wagon and traded daddy for awhile. We were also joined by my cousins families and Uncle Aaron this year. The kids had a great time. The night before Halloween we went trunk or treating with Grammy at her church. Ashlyn (my girly indecisive girl) was in 2 different costumes each night. Hannah had decades day on Friday at school so she too was in 2 different costumes. (good thing for dance costumes) Aidan loved that he could run up and say want candy (not trick or treat) and they would give it to him. In fact he would wait until they gave him everything in their hands. After all was said and done he had the most candy and they all had more than they needed!

Homecoming 2009..

Marissa went to Homecoming and according to her, "It was the worst one ever." It is her sophomore year so many to compare to. She met up with her friends as she isn't old enough to date and went to the dance with them. The end of the night she came home. So why was it the worst?? She has mean parents who didn't allow her to go to high school parties or have a date as she is on 15 and all of her friends had plans afterward. My answer is sorry you have mean parents now deal with it. I did offer to stay up to watch a movie but she opted for sulking in her bedroom. Ohh the woes of a teenage daughter at least I spent the money on the dress right??

Aidan Turns 2 (on Oct 22nd a little late on the post)

I say this with a little wince of sadness as I know my baby is growing up way to fast. He’s our last (YES OFFICIALLY) and my only little boy. He looks so big and has found his independence. The terrible 2’s have definitely have arrived (and I can’t wait for them to be gone). We had to reschedule his birthday as he and big sister Ashlyn were sick. We had a small party at our house a couple of weeks later. When it was time to sing Happy Birthday he led the song its his favorite song. He opened each present with such enthusiasm and loved everything.
A few Aidanism's:

• eat eat-always loves food and is always hungry
• (Insert Name) Meeee-everybody is mean when he doesn’t get what he wants
• I neeee you mommy-everytime he wants to be held
• A ka-Marissa (not sure where that came from)
• Ha Ya-Hannah
• A In-Ashlyn
• Gu E- Gussy the dog
• No No I O go broom broom- motorcycle goes vroom vroom everytime he sees one
• Mo Mo-Elmo
• Ooh Ooh- when he needs a diaper changed
• Tut Dow- Touchdown (any sport with something exciting happening.)

I love you little man. You are such a fun strong willed little boy. You are so eager to learn something new. You are always on the go and into something. You love to climb and try to take things apart. You are definately your fathers son. Thank you for being such an important part of our family. Happy Birthday!

Halloween at Dizz Wand aka: Disneyland.....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We love California so much we headed back just 2 weeks after we left. Ok maybe just because the plan was in place to join our good friends, the I’Anson’s over fall break to Disneyland. The drive was what I was dreading, Aidan wasn’t very agreeable to travel with and continued to scream in his car seat, because he wanted out. It had only been 2 weeks since we had gotten back from our beach trip. (The trip before Aidan got the flu on the ride home so it made it more unbearable.) The trip there went well and we pulled into town at 11:00 pm. The next morning we were up early. Hannah and Ashlyn had been here before, but it had been several years and they didn’t remember it. They were so excited and they continued to ask questions. What do the rides look like? Can I meet Mickey, Donald, etc.. We had a great time.

So our story goes little Miss Ashlyn was fearless. She rode Space Mountain (although she wasn’t so sure about it) and the Tower of Terror and thought the story line was “funny”. She followed Erika and Hannah around like she was a big girl and even stood on her tippy toes to sneak onto Mulholland Madness with them. (Figured out how to be sneaky and it worked!) On Soarin she made everybody put their hands up (even though it’s not a scary ride), but she was overall braver than the big girls.
My little Hannah aka Miss Hates the Unknown and change was just as expected. She cried getting onto Space Mountain, almost peed her pants on Splash Mountain as it didn’t have seat belts and almost had a panic attack when getting onto Tower of Terror. She couldn’t understand her sister’s fearless behavior.

Aidan was in awe at all of the characters and the little rides. He hated Peter Pan, but daddy put him on the Matterhorn and daddy insists he wasn’t scared. He misunderstood the “Happiest Place on Earth” and still had his terrible twos tantrums with no nap. Quite a treat! He loved most of the rides and danced at the parade. One funny story (I don’t want to forget) Aidan was giving fives to Brother Bear and he was “fighting” him. We were walking off and Brother Bear had started walking our direction after he was done with pictures and Aidan turned around saw him coming and startled he turned around to run and smacked right into a trash can! Very sad (but funny) moment.

Marissa has been there so many times with her dad that she just enjoyed seeing the kid’s excitement. Marissa, our tour guide was helpful when we needed help deciding where to go next and finding the closest potty’s. The ADULTS even felt like kids and we wore the kids out for a change while we walked 12-14 hours a day. We even whined to them when they wanted to stop and eat. turned around saw him coming our way.

Enjoy our pics from our trip. Thanks I’Anson’s for a great time, we had lots of fun!!

New Found Freedom....

I added pictures of his room so I can remember what it looked like later.

I use to brag at how well Aidan would go to sleep. He loves to be rocked or as he calls it "Bye-a-bye. "He then says good night to his favorite toys and goes to sleep. In the morning he plays until somebody comes to rescue him.

Then one day.. he discovered he can climb out!! Never had he tried it, but now he loves it. He would just get out of bed and tell us “NO NO” and go play with his toys in the playroom. I even found him watching the tv in the playroom that had been turned off. After a week straight of this he finally hit his head pretty hard so here is his new bed and new freedom. My 10 minutes of snuggling at night has turned into an hour and a half of crying and screaming and putting him back to bed when he keeps getting up. Don't get me wrong he still snuggles, but if he thinks he is snuggling because it is bedtime he screams and fights! Help!