Weekend Events

We had a fun weekend - Aaron's Gi Gi and Papa came in town from Florida to visit us and see Harvest in action for the first time. Gi Gi was only 9 days out of a fairly major surgery to remove a large cyst in her abdomen so we were especially grateful that all went well so she could make the trip! We borrowed a wheel chair so that we could get out and do a few things, like go to the zoo...

Aaron loved having constant activity and attention, and having his grandparents around to pay him lots of attention. Monday morning is going to be rough when it's back to normal with just mom.

With willing and able free babysitting in the house, Lee and I also rode last minute in a local small 14 mile mountain bike race. It was so fun to do it together!

How can I say this nicely..... The course and the competition weren't..... hmmm..... very hard at all. We happened to each get first place (me for the women's division) but we don't quite feel like we can really brag about it.

What I would like to brag about and point out though, however, is that my award is on the right and Lee's is on the left - notice that mine is much bigger. Yep. Because I'm cool like that.

Anyway, all in all - it was a fun weekend! Thanks Glenda and Tim for the great visit!

Halloween pics

Aaron is fascinated when we have taken him to a few local high school football games by the "football guys" (as he calls them), so we of course had to go with this idea for the costume. This little football player and his cousin the cheerleader had a great time getting all the free candy walking from house to house....

Aaron would have nothing to do with the helmet, the little stinker.

Cousin Noah also came along....

It was a fun and busy day, as it was also Lee's birthday. And still plenty of candy in the bucket. =)

Also, a random story - a few days ago, we had Sesame Street on and Elmo was talking about violins. Of course, Aaron doesn't have a violin. But he has a guitar. And a drumstick. So he improvised and was very serious about it....

He cracks me up.

Safety Latches my foot

My son, the little engineer, has figured something out this week....

So much for child-proofing.

October days

Sorry for the blogging delay - between lack of inspiration, the busy-ness of life, and a crashed computer, I have been out of the swing of things on here....

We have had lots going on these past few weeks. One highlight was meeting and welcoming in a new family member for our good friends, Micah and Bethany - they brought home their 3 year old daughter, Mikayla, from Ethiopia and it was a very exciting time.

This is Aaron, Mikayla, and Micah and Bethany's other son, Eli. I fortunately caught this cute moment of all of them playing together just before Aaron tossed sand in Mikayla's face making her cry..... Sigh. Such a boy....

I also celebrated my 31st birthday and looking back, I think Aaron has benefited more from my presents than I have.... A new hand-held vacuum,
and a huge bag of sour patch kids that he "picked out" seems to have mostly been eaten by him as well....
Some slightly cooler weather has allowed us to plant our yearly flowers and Aaron loves to help plant and take care of them all....

Also this past month, he has taken off in his bike-riding ability. Here's some footage of that....

Watch out - he'll be on the mountain bike trails with us in no time!!! =)

Random pics

Yeah.... We don't get much personal space with this little boy.

Not sure why Aaron resumed this position with my oven mitt for his pillow.

Coloring with his second cousins Noah and Caleb

Discussing life over goldfish in their underwear.

The cousins. And yes, it is what it seems; Owen, at 3.5 months, IS almost as big as both of these two year olds.

"Movie Church"

Something that I have gained new perspective on GREATLY since becoming a parent is the childcare provided at a church; It is a huge bonus for a parent to feel comfortable dropping their child off somewhere where they will be cared by others and out of their immediate sight, which I'm sure you all can attest to!

Aaron has always had difficulty being dropped off and staying in nursery in his short little life and it is always something we seem to be working through, esp. the last few months of transition out of R.M.C.C. and into Harvest. (Many of you have gotten to witness and experience the brunt of his wrath in childcare) It was a point of stress for me, because really, we don't have a choice - with the responsibilities Lee and I have on a Sunday morning, Aaron just HAS to stay put in there. And not only stay put, but be happy so I'm not stressing about how he is wearing out the children's workers!!! =)

Fortunately for us, Harvest has an awesome children's pastor in Brian Baker who has established an amazing group of volunteers for Sunday mornings.

You can't really see Aaron in this pic, but this is a shot of Aaron's "Clubhouse Kids" classroom at "Movie church" (his title for Harvest). He has come to LOVE his time in this class every Sunday morning and I can't say enough what a relief it is to see him have fun and be happy, as well as hear and learn about the Bible.

Here is a picture of Aaron with one of his teachers named Kathy, who he has grown quite attached too:

Um... let's try not picking our nose for the nice picture, Aaron...

There. That's better.

A few weeks ago, they talked about Daniel and the Lion's Den and made lion masks....

Aaron had to carry his mask EVERYWHERE with him for the next several days. He was so proud of it....

These children's workers minister directly to my son, but in effect, they minister to me at the same time because they take such great care of him. I am so grateful for them!

Choose to Obey

Just a little brain-washing tactic that we are not afraid of.....

He LOVES to recite this frequently, even umprompted. And in the meantime, we are continuing to work on backing this simple statement up with our actions. =)