Birthday party

We decided a while back that it would be fun to celebrate Aaron and Brynn's birthday together with my immediate family since they are only a week apart. So last night was THE party =)

Brynn ate her cupcake like a polite little lady. Aaron sort of smashed his and ate it while smearing it all over his chest....

Aaron got lots of wonderful new toys and clothes from everyone!

A cool basketball hoop from Uncle Brad, Auntie Tanya and Brynn....

From Papa Bob and Grandma, a lawn mower,

and a "busy gear" toy....

Sometimes it was hard to share all of the toys or let the adults take them to put them together properly.... =) Of course, this inevitably prompted my cheesy joke, "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to."

We got Brynn a shopping cart (it was an easy choice since she wouldn't leave it alone in the toy store Monday afternoon when we were shopping together) and it was still a hit!
It was a fun night and we had lots of good laughs and memories! Thank you all for all of your comments and phone calls for Aaron's birthday. We know he felt very loved!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron's birthday is today, but we are having our real "party" tomorrow. Lee and I decided to give him a cake tonight for fun and as I was going to look at the pictures to put up on the blog, I was laughing at the progression of messiness and intensity he had about eating it.... At first he isn't so sure what to do.....







But by the end, he was laughing and squealing like a mad scientist! Happy birthday Buddy! We love you so much and are so grateful that the Lord blessed us with you!

Shopping for bday presents....

Since the big 1st year birthdays are coming, Tanya and I took Brynn and Aaron shopping today to pick a toy out. They each had a few favorites....

Thank goodness for the TV at Gymboree for a little diversion and quiet.... =)

They were pretty good shoppers and we had fun!

New Cousin Caleb

Aaron has a new baby cousin! Caleb was born Saturday, July 26th. We are so excited he is finally here and we can't wait to until he can "play." =) Maybe next time we visit him I won't forget my stinkin' camera so I can post my own pictures. Sheesh! =)

Breakthrough

Something wonderful has happened....

Aaron is finally and consistently sleeping through the night! He would have sporadic good nights here and there, and we tried everything to keep it going - Crying it out (one night I stubbornly let him go an hour and 20 minutes) rocking, drinking water, but he would only go back to sleep after a bottle (sometimes at 2am, sometimes 4am - always before sunrise). It's been 3 weeks now of sleeping consistently anywhere from 9-11 hours at a time and I have to say, I feel like a new person. Praise God!!! Not sure why the breakthrough - probably a combination of prayer, weaning from daytime bottles, God's grace, all of the above - at any rate, we'll take it!!! =)

Pointing?

Aaron has been doing this.....
obsessively and constantly for 2 weeks now. I think it's his version of pointing but it rarely involves just his index finger - usually all of his fingers and his wrist at a funny angle. As soon as I go into his room in the morning to get him out of bed, he starts doing it, wanting me to take him to whatever object he desires to touch. It is so funny..... Did anyone else's kid(s) "point" like this?

All together

We have been partying lots and having lots of fun this weekend as our out of town Fox "family" members are all visiting, including.....

Kyle's girlfriend from California, Sarah.....

and Steve and Serina (my "blood in Christ" Sister =) ).
So the full family being around has made for good pool volleyball match ups all weekend....
Brynn has been such a great little walker now for several months so we are waiting for Aaron to try to catch her....He's still working on it. =)

Freeway opening

A cool tradition that AZ has is "Freeway opening parties" - as the completion of a freeway happens, they have a one-night celebration on the new stretch of road before cars are allowed to go on. They let all kinds of vendors come and set up booths so thousands of people come out to ride bikes, walk, skateboard, and SWEAT on the freeway while visiting the different booths. Our church set one up and passed out free water bottles to "advertise" ourselves - It was a great time! The very exciting thing about this stretch of freeway is that it is very close (but not TOO close =) ) to our own house which will definitely help out our gas tanks!


Sidenote: This was Aaron's first experience with a popsicle. I'd say that he quite enjoyed it.... And I just came to realize that the last 3 posts of him all contain pictures of him eating sweets. I promise this doesn't happen ALL the time and the kid eats his vegetables well! =)

Nice mommies....

Nice mommies (and very GENEROUS ones I might add) let their kids share the privilege of licking up the leftover cake batter with them.....

Florida trip

Okay, lots of pictures on this one - Aaron and I got to spend the past week in Fort Myers, Florida. Lee's parents graciously offered to fly us down there to visit them while Lee was taking the college group to Belize on a missions trip. Lee's parents as well as Lee's sister, Heidi, and her husband, Spencer, have only recently moved to Florida so we had never visited there before. It was a great time and I am so glad we were able to go - I had some anxiety about how Aaron would handle being on a plane for so long, esp. going by myself with him. We've all seen and heard the kids that scream the whole time on a plane and are total wrecks, and I definitely did not want Aaron to be "that kid." But God was good and Aaron was a super traveler, especially as Mommy had lots of snacks, little toys, and some Benadryl... =)

So of course, visiting grandparents and an aunt and uncle that Aaron doesn't see regularly leads to lots of spoiling.... I think he had ice cream almost everyday, if not twice a day.
And of course, every spoiled kid gets presents....
"See what I got everyone??? My first remote control car!"Helping Aunt Heidi and Uncle Spencer make some dessert, which of course, included more ice cream.

Of course, we went to the beach and it was super fun - Aaron had never been to a beach before and I had never seen the Gulf.
Aaron loved the water and wasn't scared at all, both when we held him and put him down near the edge....
He always seemed to get a little flustered by the sand sticking to his hands and feet though =)
The weather sure is crazy over there, especially for a desert rat like me. I reasoned that there was no point in showering in the morning since as soon as you went outside, it felt like you were wet all over again. Everyone kept insisting you get used to it, but I think I'm partial to my dry Arizona heat. But it was pretty cool - like clock-work, there was a thunderstorm every afternoon and that brought some relief....So all in all, we had a great time! Now we are looking forward to having Lee home tomorrow night - I will try to make him do a post with pictures also of his trip....

Twins

Tonight, Lee and I took care of my niece Brynn while Brad and Tanya went out on a date. I will say that I really don't know how people manage to keep a semi-clean house with the whole twin thing, but we did have lots of fun with them....It is so funny and interesting to me to watch them interact and really take notice of each other, as well as notice the major differences between boys and girls. For example, Brynn was in love with all of Aaron's stuffed animals and carried them around everywhere with her - they were all over our house....
She especially liked Aaron's big tiger, though she was a little uncertain of it at first - and she kept saying "dog" when she would get close to it.... Ha ha!


I think I spent half the night trying to get a decent picture of the two of them at least both looking at me. I didn't realize how impossible that would be. I finally stuck both of them in the crib to see if that would help and it was still hard....

I think this was one of the better ones I got.... Sheesh. Anyway, it was the first time we had had both kids together on our own, and it was very fun - and I really do think they enjoyed being together too.