Stuck in the Coop

For Mother's Day I wanted a new necklace that was custom and really looked like me and had a little bit of everyone in the family included on it.  I have been searching and searching (It is June now) and I think I have finally come up with a necklace! I wanted something I could wear everyday and I think Stuck In The Coop has just what I've been looking for.  She has two necklaces that I love and we are in the process of working to combine them to make just what I want. I can't wait to see the finished product and share it with you all!

The Family Charms Mixed Metal Necklace

Blessings Mixed Metal Necklace

Seriously??

Aidan and I stopped by my parents to see my Dad today but he couldn't hang out because he was on his way out the door.

Dad: I am so sorry Babe that I am on the run.  You are welcome to stay and wait for me if you'd like.

Me:  No, that's alright.  You'll be here tomorrow.

Dad:  You never know.  I'm 58. 

Me: DAD!  Don't say that. Your young.  You'll be here.

Dad:  Yeah your right I will, because my iPhone 4 comes tomorrow! Haha. 

Nickelodeon Story Time Live Series

Nickelodeon's Story Time Live was in town this weekend and I thought it would be fun to take Aidan on Sunday.  He really doesn't watch too much TV but he is a fan of all four of the shows they highlight in the series.  Ni Hao Kai Lan, The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets and of course Dora The Explorer.

Adam had a softball scrimmage so I had planned to brave uptown without a stroller alone with Aidan.  To my surprise, my dad called me early and asked if he could join us and that he would even pay for us all to go!  Aidan is just as crazy about my Dad as I am so of course I jumped at the chance to spend the afternoon with him.  I was honestly in shock he would want to go but he just wanted to spend some time with us as well.  We had great seats. Front row of the balcony at Belk Theatre.  Aidan was mesmerized by the whole thing.  He could barely speak.  Dora was the last one to come on stage and he did get up and dance a little.   It is clear my parents spend a good amount of time with Aidan because even my Dad new the songs.  I am pretty sure my Dad was on cloud 9 all day. Aidan wanted to hold his hand constantly and leaned up against him during the show. Afterwards we had planned to hit up Discovery Place's new exhibit but it was free to get in today so the line wrapped around the building.  We are members so we just decided to wait to see it when it was a little less packed.  Aidan loves riding the light rail so we took it home and Aidan got to play in the sprinkler at my parents house with my Mom while my Dad made home made pizza for dinner.  It was a great Sunday.

I am so lucky that Adam and I have my parents.  Adam has gotten so close with my family and he really looks up to my Dad which is really nice.  Having them live only 7 blocks away is a huge bonus too.   We are blessed to get to spend so much time with them and see they really enjoy Aidan.

Thanks for a great day DAD! Love you.

We Finally Did It!

I feel like we have been talking about taking the wall out between our living room and dining room since we moved in here 4 years ago.  Well we finally did it and here's the proof...

Well I almost freaked out because the guys got here to do the work while I was still in bed and I was afraid I wouldn't get a before picture!  They had already taken the moulding down but this is good enough.

9:00 am.

 Right side almost gone.

10:00am

Right and left almost gone.

12:00 pm

It took me forever to clean all the dust off of everything and put my life back together.  

Twelve hours later.  It was a loooong day.

12:00 am.

Somebody got new dining room chairs.  Woop woop! My hubby put them together for me at 1am. He's amazing. There is another guy coming tomorrow to sheet rock the beam on the ceiling and the spaces where the wall was.  I have so much decorating to do.  New chandelier is in the mail. 

 This is the view from the front door.  The room looks sooo much bigger! 

We decided to take all of the chair rail down and the stripes are going and the blue that I just did.

View from kitchen in to living room.

All of the things that were hanging on the walls.  I don't know what to do with it all!

So now we are finally talking paint colors because that will be our next step this weekend.  We have yet to paint the mantel like I said we were going to do because we want to make sure it will look good with whichever color we choose.

It's 2:28 am. I am exhausted and my feet are throbbing so I'm headed to bed.   Thanks for checking in!

When You Know, You Know

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me when Aidan was younger that he was going to be a busy boy, I'd be rich.   I think for a long time I was in denial.  I had every excuse in the book.  He's a boy.  He's got more personality than most kids.  He'll get past this stage.  This is how perfection acts.  Well I give up. My boy is BUSY.  I don't really even know if busy is the word.  The boy is in to EVERYTHING. There is not a minute in the day that if I am not watching him while he is awake he won't destroy something.  For example:  I'll go easy on ya here in the beginning...

If I fold a load of laundry and I go to put some away, he has destroyed the pile by the time I come back for more. 

If I tell him to go to the bathroom and blow his nose, by the time I get in there he has taken the roll of toilet paper and somehow managed to plug every drain in the facility. There are pieces of toilet paper all over the house for DAYS following. 

I thought Aidan really liked yogurt. For the past 6 months I have been buying him organic raspberry yogurt and he eats like three at a time. So I thought. I have recently discovered he eats one and paints on the side of the entertainment center with the other two. Do you know how long it takes to SCRAPE weeks old yogurt off of a wood entertainment center?

A few weeks ago, Adam and I decided we would tag team wash our cars.  The radio was blaring, vacuums were buzzing, Windex was flying and we were making serious progress.  We thought Aidan was sitting in the front seat behaving.  Why? Why would we think that? He had managed to somehow finagle my brothers shed key off our key hanger and stick it in my ignition.  $300 later I have a new ignition.


Aidan has seen me feed the cats and change their litter on numerous occasions.  The last time I went to change the little box I stopped when I saw someone had already cleaned it out.  Totally out of character for Adam but I thought "it could happen."  Last time I went to feed the cats, I did my usual routine and stuck my hand in the bag, felt around for the scoop and tossed some food in to the bowl. Except it wasn't food. Aidan had scooped all the cat litter and it contents in to the cat food bag.  I found myself trying to sift the cat litter out of the food with my All Clad strainer before I finally said a four letter word and just chucked it.

I let Aidan nap in our bed and I took the opportunity to cuddle up next to him while he couldn't move and just breathe him in.  Because I do love him so.  Somewhere in between me going off to dream land and Adam coming home from the Dr. Aidan managed to wake up, slither out of my bed, take the cat's water and baby powder and create the perfect paste in which he spread all over our bathroom.  It hardened.  Then he took my bronzer, which consists of small, medium and large balls in the loveliest of pink, brown and gold tones and dumped it on the new bath mat and stomped on them.  

Do you get the picture?  He's not just busy, he is the busiest.  Sometimes I think I am going to loose my mind and most days I forget to pee and my friendships are all suffering.  But don't think I'm complaining. Sure I wish it was easier but even when he is doing something wrong, when I see that sweet smile everyday and when he is calm enough to stop and hug my leg or tell me he loves me, I forget about scraping the yogurt and I really feel blessed to have this job.  It's the hardest job I'll ever love and I wouldn't change a thing about my busy boy.

Photog Frenzy

I went to bed  playing with my camera today and I woke up and started taking pictures.  Poor Aidan will be lucky if he doesn't see flash spots for the rest of his life.  It's amazing how clear my pictures are now!  I love my camera.  I think the best way right now to try to figure it out is to just take a ton of pictures so that's what I am going to do.  When I stumble upon an extra $400 I will take the camera class down the street.  It might be a while!

Spike.  I mean isn't that the cutest little kitty ever!

Aidan

Aidan wearing Adam's sunglasses.

Hydrangeas (near death)

I started taking pics of little things in my house just to see the clarity.  Someone needs to shine her silver.

More hydrangeas.

My antique seltzer bottle. At least that's what I think it's called.

One of our cat's, Ruby. I cannot believe I caught her with her tongue out.

I have no idea how I got this picture to look this way though so I can't reproduce it. 

I am having so much fun!

Kelly's Korner-Ideas For Kids

This week for Show Us Your Life at Kelly's Korner we are swapping activity ideas for kids.   I may take the time to read everyone entries because I am always looking for new things to do with Aidan.   I am probably one of the worst at entertaining my child.  I try my best to incorporate activities for him in to things I have to do around the house.  We also have memberships to everywhere possible for kids to go in the city.  Here is a laundry list of things I do to keep my child busy. 

We have a huge art box.  It's packed with markers, construction paper, kid safe scissors, crayons, finger paint...you name it, it's in there.  When I need to pay bills online or talk on the phone for a few minutes or just need some quiet time.  I sit a few feet from Aidan and take out the art box and let him go to town. 

Water is our best friend. I thought about spending the money on a water table but then I thought I can get just as much use out of a sprinkler.  We let Aidan play with the hose and the sprinkler a lot.  We also will fill up a bucket and let him take a paint brush and "paint" the house.  The brick gets dark and he thinks he is a painter.  He's allowed to spray the cars and anything else he can reach with the hose.  We also have a baby pool.  We spend a lot of time at the splash park.

Side walk chalk. Enough said.

When I am doing laundry, I let him sort clothes with me and we can work on our colors.  He has to say every color out loud.  He gets to press the buttons to start the machine too.  If you saw our pile of laundry, sometimes this takes up 30 minutes of our day.

(For Charlotteans) We frequent Monkey Joe's and Discovery Place and Imaginon.  Monkey Joes' has discounted days and parents are always free.  We have a discounted Discovery Place (children's museum) membership because they were under construction for so long.  Imaginon has free story time and lots for kids to do and it's all free.  There is also a kids movie at AMC Carolina Pavilion at 10am on Tuesday mornings.

I let him participate in cooking as much as possible. He is so curious. I just pull up the kitchen stool and give him little things to do.  If I am doing something he can't help with, I just give him a small mixing bowl with water, a little flour in it and a spoon and he's cookin' away. 

If you are looking for activities that cost a little bit, We have done swim lessons, gym classes, and he is going to an all boys camp at the YMCA this summer.  The Y is great. We try to avoid the pool because it's nuts but their other programs are great.

We take walks and let him burn energy.  We walk on the sidewalk and he runs about 10 feet in front of us.  Adam and I get to catch up on each others day and he gets to run wild.

Our local Parks and Rec department has activities at neighborhood parks that cost $5 and under and are a lot of fun. Most cities do this.   We have done a teddy bear lunch and lots of nature walks.  Lunch is included (the $5).

The hubby has friends that live in the country on lots of land with lots of farm animals and we love to take him there and let him play with the animals.  He gets to ride horses and pick eggs from chickens and chase baby calves. It's great.  I am sure there are farms that let you come and do this for free. It's so educational.

We have a park near our airport at the end of the runway and he loves to go there and see the planes take off and land.  We also drive right to the end of our street and watch the train pass by.  He loves it.

I guess that's about it. I am racking my brain trying to think of things we do to keep him busy and while I feel like we always have something to do I would love more things to do.  I do also love a good rainy day and a Disney movie on the couch.

Look forward to reading the other entries to get ideas.

Happy Friday to you all! xoxo

The Life and Times of Spike Jones Harvey

Don't even ask where I came up with that name.

Our little Spike has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  

He is a little curious.

There is a good chance he has been in this washing machine before and I just don't know about it.

Octopus Cookies

In case you haven't heard, Aidan has a little bit of extra energy to burn these days and it's like 100 degrees here.  I have been looking for things for us to do inside so we don't burn up and turn in to a pile of dust. 

I have a million and one cookie cutters that I bought to use for Candace's baby shower and today I had Aidan pick an animal he wanted to use and we could make cookies.   An octopus it was.  Now a photo montage of our cookie making day...

Believe it or not I do actually typically make my sugar cookies from scratch but I already had this mix for emergencies so we just used it.   Aidan poured all of the ingredients in to the bowl and stirred it all up.

We called in the muscle man to roll out the dough for us.

My little baker.  He has flour all over his face.  He had a great time.  I loved hearing him say "Mommy, I  helping." Over and over and over.  He really enjoyed it.

I did not realize we were half naked baking until I took this picture.  When you are potting training sometimes underwear are optional. Spike wanted a piece of the action too.  He just loves being around his BFF Aidan. Woah my kitchen was a mess! At least we had fun.

Octopus Cookies ready to be frosted.

I used the neon food coloring gel to die vanilla frosting purple.  Yes, that's right our octopus are purple.  My fav color.

Our finished product. I had everything we needed at home to make this. I didn't spend a penny!  In the future I would probably buy different candy for the eyes but I already had these M&M's and I didn't feel like dragging Aidan out in the heat so we used them.  He loves the cookies.  I wish I could eat one but he has already promised them all to his grandpa. 

We just want to ask everyone to say a prayer for the octopus cookies that are no longer with us.

We lost about 6 cookies in the process because of my bad spatula skills.

Their cute huh?

P.S. Shout out to one of our besties Michael Caulder.  It's his birthday today. Mike is like a member of the family.  We love him dearly and wish him many more wonderful birthdays to come! Love you Uncle Mike!

Conversations With a Three Year Old

Adam, Aidan and I were in the car this week and we were chatting, driving along and before we knew it we were coming up on a yellow light going 45 MPH and Adam was forced to slam on the brakes so we didn't run the light.  From the backseat we hear this

Aidan: Daddy, you need to slow down. 

Adam:  Sorry bud. You are right.

Aidan: I know Daddy. 

Not The Sharpest Tool

Me: Oh my gosh Babe, when Aidan and I were in Mass, my aunt made the most delicious hash brown casserole with frozen hash browns and it was either cream of chicken...wait is there a cream of chicken?

Adam: Uh yes, there is a cream of chicken soup.

Me: Yeah well it was made with either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom.

Adam: Well it's pretty easy to decipher.  Were there mushrooms or chicken in it?

Me: Oh! Good point. I don't remember. I don't think either. I thought that it was just flavored that way.  But before now I have never said that out loud. I know it didn't sound very smart.

Adam: At least you've got your looks babe.

Design Daydreams

Well I am taking the advice of a blog reader and going to try and have can lights installed in my kitchen.  I am hoping Adam can do them himself because we are weeks away from having the walls taken out between the living room and dining room and I would love to have can lights installed in both rooms once that is done.

In the meantime, as usual, I have a million things racing through my mind that I want to do around here.  On my list of things this week is to finally paint the living room a lighter color.  Our living room is the only room we haven't touched since moving in 4 years ago.  I will also be painting the fireplace black.  I am so excited about that.  Adam and I were going to start it tonight after Aidan went to bed but we decided to hold off until the morning.  We are going to paint it in an eggshell finish. 

Here are the colors I am considering for the living room.  The yellow is probably my least favorite but I will entertain it because well "You can't knock it til' you try it." So, there will be a yellow test square painted on the wall. Haha.

Color Ideas:

Benjamin Moore Natural Linen

Benjamin Moore Natural Cream

Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore Hush

Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore Marscapone

Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore Jicama

Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore Hawthorne Yellow

Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore Nantucket Breeze

My favorite is Natural Cream.  I hope it ends up looking good. More than that, I hope Adam and I can agree on it. I have to tell you that painting a room this light is a huge step for me. I usually lean towards darker colors.  I am sure with the black fireplace and our charcoal sectional.  It will all look good together. Let me know if there is a color you like better.

Just so you know what your working with when trying to make a decision for me...This is our sofa... I don't always have the ottoman there. 

Happy Father's Day to My Hubby & To My Daddy

I didn't post this post yesterday because I was too busy spending my day with my dad, hubs and little man. 

Adam,

I hope that I do a good job of telling you everyday how much we appreciate you and love you.  Just in case, here it is...Sometimes I am dancing around here and I stop and see you with Aidan and I wonder how it was that I got so lucky to get you.   At what point was it that I did something so right that God would put you in my life to make a family with?  I can't begin to tell you how amazing it has been to parent beside you.  You are a far better Dad than I am a Mom.  I was so nervous about bringing a baby in to the world but you assured me we would be great.  Since the day Aidan was born, you have been one hundred percent immersed in his life.  You never want to miss a thing.  People don't believe that every day since we've brought Aidan home you have been the one to get up with him in the middle of the night and every morning.   Even if I got up, he would want you anyways.  You two have a bond that is unbreakable.  I love that you want nothing more to be his best friend but you know where to draw the line so he respects you as well as loves you.   It warms my heart so much that he sits at the door and cries everyday when you leave and runs to your car every night when you pull in the driveway.    You are an incredible provider and caregiver.   You make it so easy for us to love you.  Thank you for being an irreplaceable father to our son.  I can't wait to make more babies with you.  Love you forever, April


Dad,


Happy Father's Day! There isn't a card out there special enough for a dad as wonderful as you and sometimes it's hard for me to get things out so I figured I would write you this email to let you know how much I love you and appreciate you.

I think often about all the things that you do for me and all the things you do for my little family too. You have helped us out so many times when we've needed it when you could have easily said "figure it out on your own" and "I told you so".

I hope that you can still believe in me. I have let you down a lot in the past few years. I've done everything ass backwards and I am sorry that I have done things a lot differently than you would have liked. I promise to work harder to make you proud.

I have always looked up to you, respected you and trusted and valued your opinion. Thank you for providing me with a safe, loving, comfortable life. You have taught me that if I work hard enough I can have the things I want in life. You have been a shining example of that. I hope I can be half as great of a parent as you and mom have been to me.

Thank you for being such a great grandpa to Aidan and for treating Adam like your own. You'll never know how much that means to me.

There really isn't a better man alive. Your my hero. It's an honor being your daughter. I hope that even though I don't always say it, you know that I love you so much and appreciate everything you do for me everyday.

Happy Father's Day.

Love, April


We had a really nice lazy day.  Adam was out the night before with some of his friends so Aidan and I got up early and went to my parents to celebrate with my dad.  Even though we should have been cooking for him, he wanted to make me and Hap (short for Happy, my dad's nickname for Aidan) blueberry pancakes.  They were delicious and then the two of them headed outside to play in the sprinkler.  I sat on the terrace and read design magazines and they laughed and laughed and laughed.  I can't explain the feeling of seeing my dad with my son.  Their relationship is more than I could have ever asked for. Aidan is crazy about his grandpa. 

We came home and Adam wanted to just relax.  It was his day after all!  To our surprise, Aidan actually laid on the sofa with him and watched TV for a couple hours.  Adam was in heaven.  They snuggled and laughed and chit chatted and I refreshed their drinks every now and then.  Haha.   We had take out from three different restaurants because Adam couldn't decide what he wanted.   We ate on a blanket on the living room floor.  Afterwards we climbed in our bed.   Adam said the day was perfect.  

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there! xoxoxo

Design Daydreams

Well it's finally happened.  Our low voltage track lighting in our kitchen has proven to be our worst purchase yet.  Well the worst one I can remember right now.   I am literally cooking in the dark.  So I am on the hunt for a light fixture for the kitchen. 

I think that sometimes have a knack for interior design is a downfall for me.  I have access to all these wonderful resources and it makes it so hard to make a decision.   I have a little dilemma in the kitchen lighting department.  Ideally, I would love to buy this and hang it above our island. 

ALTHOUGH, our island is not fixed to the floor.  It's a Crate & Barrel island with casters that can be moved.  So, I am thinking that it will look goofy when the island is not in the room.  It's rare that we move the island out BUT the kitchen is much bigger without it so I can see myself selling it on Craig's List one of these days.  I could have Adam install four or six can lights in addition because we need lots of lighting in there. 

I feel like I am going around in circles.  This is my other option.  Two of them.  Or do we think that I could do two of these and then the chandelier above?  HELP!  See how confused I am??  I'm never this bad.

Conversations With a Three Year Old

Aidan: Mommy can I have some milk?

Me: Sure Baby, I'll get some for you right now.

Aidan: Make sure it's cold.

OK WOW

I some how convinced my husband to watch the third part of the Real Housewives of New York reunion and I have to tell you we are sitting here cracking up from confusion. I have watched the show since it started as I have with all the Housewife shows.  I am the queen of trash reality TV ok.  There are two people in the entire series of Housewives that drive me nuts and they are Danielle Staub and Kelly Killoren Bensimon.  There is not enough time in the day to type a post about Danielle but Kelly on the other hand I can come up with a few words to describe her.  Out of her mind.  In a bad way.  Why has someone not intervened in her life and tried to figure out what is going on in her head. It's not even funny or obnoxious anymore, it's scary and sad.  I do not know what possesses Bravo TV to keep her employed.  I am not a Dr. but she is extremely unhealthy.  I am not saying anything of this to be judgemental or mean I am genuinely worried for this woman's health and I think her involvement in this show is making it so much worse for her.  WOW. 

If there is someone that reads this blog that has some idea what is going on can you try to explain it to me please?  Thank you. Really.

Kelly's Korner

This post was scheduled for Friday but didn't post. So sorry it's late!

This week on Kelly's Korner she is asking us to tell our engagement stories.  I bet there are some really amazingly sweet engagement stories out there!!! I can't wait to read some of them!!!

My Engagement

August 27, 2007

You should probably read this to get a little bit of the story of our little family before you read on. 

It was a Monday night and Adam came home from work and like so many nights before, asked me if I wanted to go out and get something to eat.  The only difference was we would be leaving Aidan alone with a family friend for the night (for the first time) and I need to dress "cute". 

I was already a little stressed because we were leaving later in the week for Boston to go to my cousin's wedding and leaving Aidan for an entire weekend with family friends so the thought of giving him up for the night wasn't very appealing.  After an hour of trying to get out of going to dinner, I finally gave in and Adam and I dropped the baby off and headed to dinner.

For those of you Charlotteans, we were on the big bridge connecting us from I-77 to 485 when Adam started telling me how lucky he felt to have met me and now made this beautiful little boy together.   I am lucky enough to hear these things on a pretty regular basis so I still wasn't thinking anything was out of the ordinary.  I then started to notice his voice getting a little shaky and from that point I heard nothing except "So, I guess what I am asking you is, will you please do me the honor of being my wife and spending the rest of your life with me."  All I could say was "Are you asking me to marry you right now."  We laughed for a second and then he opened the ring box and I couldn't even get "Yes" out.  The ring was beautiful and he placed it on my finger and it fit perfectly.  It felt like an eternity before Adam finally said "So, is that a yes"?  At this point I was balling and managed to get out "Yes! Yes! Of course Yes!". 

Isn't it so sweet when they get so nervous?  Bless Adam's heart he was shaking so bad when he put the ring on my finger.  I mean did he actually think I might say No?

The first thing I wanted to do was call of my family and friends and tell them and as I fumbled through my purse I realized I had left my phone at home.  And then as luck would have it, I looked in the side view mirror and realized that my BFF Amanda was randomly driving home from the gym and right behind us.  I grabbed Adam's phone and started waving my hand out the window and as soon as she answered all I could get out was "I'm engaged!"  She was so excited for me.

My next phone call was to my parents and I was floored to find out that my dad had been holding the ring for Adam for three months!  Adam had met my mom earlier that day to pick it up.  It was also super sweet to find out that even though they had the ring for all that time, they didn't think it was right for them to see it before me so they had never opened the box and we never knew that my parents had too gotten engaged in the car. 

The story behind the car engagement....Adam had planned to pop the question at the Red Sox game while we in town (Boston) for my cousin's wedding.   Coincidentally the week before he asked me we were all having a family dinner and some how the conversation came up that you can sometimes steal the bride's thunder if you get engaged on her day.  Unbeknownst to us, he had his entire proposal planned out for the game but was now nervous that he would be frowned upon for asking me during my cousin's wedding weekend.  He was already so pumped up about the engagement he ditched the Red Sox plan and just went with it.   Adam had told his mother and sister that he was going to ask me at the game and for some reason to this day, his sister still thinks we got engaged there. 

We were married less than 2 months later on October 12, 2007 and then again on October 12, 2008.  I told you to read the story first.

I saw some people posted pics of their engagement rings.  Adam had my ring custom made and I can't even find something similar online to show you so I took a bad picture with my phone.  I love my ring!  I was so surprised at how well Adam did picking it out after all I said was that I like rings that looked "antique". 

(I told you the pic was bad).

I am so blessed to have been happily married to my best friend for almost three years now.  All you single girls reading this that are dying to be engaged, I want you to know, I never thought someone would love me enough to want to spend the rest of their lives with me and I wanted it so bad.  There are so many great men out there waiting on you to be their wives!  Try to remember that meeting the man of your dreams usually happens when you aren't looking for it.  He is sitting somewhere praying for you to come in to his life too!

Happy Friday Y'all!

Pray for Baby Cohen

If you aren't already, I really, really need y'all to start praying for sweet Cohen! He was born on Aidan's birthday and has had several surgeries to try and fix some issues with his heart.  His kidney's are having some trouble keeping up and therefore he is retaining a lot of fluid.  He really could use some prayers for his kidney's to start working! His mom Megan is posting about him here and he has his very own website here.    You can grab a button for you blog on his website and I am sure his parents would love some encouraging emails. 

So many of us take for granted how lucky we are to have healthy babies born to us.  I cannot imagine what Megan and her husband Brent are going through.  Megan has only held Cohen once.  That brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.  Let's please all try our best to surround them with some love and prayer so that she can get to hold him as much and as often as she wants when they get through this!   Thanks y'all!

A Sweet Slideshow of Cohen

Aidan's Birthday Party

I have been meaning to write this post for a week now but I was so busy entertaining I took no pictures of my own so I had to wait to steal some from friends on facebook.  I am a terrible picture taking mom these days. 

For the kids, the day was perfect. Jump house turned water slide, pinatas, presents and cupcakes.   For the adults, the food and company was as well but the heat was another story.  It was 95 degrees and there was no way we were all going to fit in our little house so we were forced to hang outside and there wasn't enough water or Mexican dip to make any of us feel better.  Watching Aidan have the time of his life made it a little bit more bearable. 

I did manage to snap this photo before everyone came over of Aidan in his birthday shirt.  It of course had to have a fire truck on it.

The second the bounce house was blown up, Aidan was glued to it.

He was getting a little hot here.

We got this brilliant idea to fill up the baby pool Mike got Aidan and put it at the end of the slide to keep the boys cool.

And it starts...

The next thing I knew, he was naked and having the time of his life.

It does look like fun doesn't it?

This was his pull apart cake we got from Polka Dot Bake Shop here in Charlotte. We love their cupcakes.

At this point I was super disorganized and happy to even get Aidan to come inside for 5 minutes to blow out candles so everyone could have a cupcake.  That is the reason he is sitting on the dining room table.  He loved having everyone sing to him.

His candles spelt out his name.  He let Daddy help him blow them out so that we didn't have spit all over everything.

I did decorate in firetrucks but sadly there are no pictures. 

These were our plates.

Cups for the kids.

Napkins.

We had a ton of balloons blown up and tied to the umbrellas and tiki torches out back.

The fire truck balloons.

And in typical Aidan birthday weekend fashion, Sunday we hit the boat with Jordan and Hannah to finish off the weekend.  It was so nice out. 

Daddy, Aidan and Uncle Jordan.

I just think this photo is adorable.  Look at those little flip flops.  He loves the boat so much.

Thanks to Hannah and Mandi for the pictures from the weekend and for everyone who came out and helped our little guy celebrate.  We are so blessed to have so many wonderful family members and friends to love Aidan as much as us.