Happy 1st Birthday, Aiden!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Aiden's first birthday with a Toy Story pool party. Thanks to some wonderful friends we were able to use their beautiful pool and backyard for the party! It was a lot of fun, and everyone enjoyed themselves. There were lots of laughter and kids splashing like crazy in the pool. Aiden, of course, loved to be in the pool the whole time.


Dustin wanted to make Aiden's birthday cake, and when he sets his mind to something he is determined. I am so glad that the cake turned out the way he wanted!









He didn't really dig in like Dustin and I both thought he would. Oh well, maybe next year!











Thank you to everyone who was able to share in Aiden's special day! We had a great time with great company!

The big ONE!

Today our sweet baby boy turns ONE! I can't believe how much he has grown and learned over the past year. I can remember the day he arrived into our family so clearly and can't help but get a little choked up about it all. We took him last weekend for his ONE YEAR PICTURES....here are a few of our favorites.









Aiden:
*stands all by himself
*walks a few steps at a time
*points to show us things or to things he wants
*eats just about everything we eat (and likes it...except peas)
*babbles and babbles
*wakes up in the morning and plays in his crib for at least a half hour before he is ready to get out
*loves to play with his toys, and can play independently
*has little fits when he does not get what he wants
*has four teeth poking through
*in a size 4 diaper (a little big but nothing leaks out)
*loves to play with his daddy
*plays golf---he can use his clubs to whack the ball all over the house
*is now facing forward in his car seat
*plays peek a boo with just about anything that can go over his face

Hotels, Whales, and the ER

A couple of weekends ago, we took our first family vacation (just the three of us). We planned for Sea World on Saturday and the beach Sunday before coming home. Sea World was great, but we didn't make it to the beach due to a trip to the ER.
We left on Friday at about 4pm, and with a stop in Barstow we finally made it to our hotel about 10pm. Aiden is a wonderful traveler and pretty much slept the whole ride. When we got to the hotel he was so excited and full of smiles and laughter. He loved climbing all over the bed. We all went to bed about 11am, and slept soundly. We were so excited to take Aiden to Sea World to see all the animals.
This is Dustin's favorite picture from the day because Aiden just grabbed for the ray with both hands. Dustin loves marine life, so for him to show his son all the wonderful animals he had a perfect day!

Aiden loved his visit with Elmo!

Sea World has this new Sesame Street play area and Aiden loved to play on this blue mat with all the soft blocks. He was not afraid to crawl over to them away from us or go up to other children playing.



Watching the fish in the tanks, I think, was one of Aiden's favorites of the day. He lvoed to watch them move past him and he would point to the tank and smile.

Sunday, early morning, however was not such a fun time for us. In the middle of the night Dustin kept getting up and going into the bathroom. I finally asked him one time what was the matter, and he told me that he thinks he was passing a kidney stones. Oh no! He can usually manage with some Advil, but this time was the worst yet. We got up early and decided to head home, I would be the one driving because of the severe pain he was in. On the way to the freeway, he saw a sign for a hospital emergency room....he said I think I need to go there. I was a little panicked because he NEVER wants to go to the doctor. So a trip to the ER....three hours later he was discharged after given some pain medicine. He was not feeling any pain, so we continued to get on the road and get home. 45 mintues into the ride, he was getting very uncomfortable and told me I had to pull over...so we pulled off the freeway. He was again in severe pain and could not be in the car. We winded up staying another night in CA in a town called Temecula (spelling???). We got up Monday morning and tried heading home again...he was uncomfortable but we made it to Barstow, ate lunch, did some shopping....his pains were back. It was a rough ride home, but we finally got home about 6 hours later.

He is doing much better now, and has passed a few stones. He went to a specialist this past week, and they are going to be running a few test to be sure everything is okay. Good thing we got to enjoy Sea World!

4th of July

For the 4th of July we went to one of Dustin's friend's houses for a BBQ. There was so much great food....I think Dustin ate enough to last him a week! We didn't stay for the fireworks because it would have been too late by the time it got dark and Aiden was not happy about having to be held or in his stroller. There was no grass for me to be able to put him down in to crawl and move, so he was kind of limited. When we got back to my parent's house, some of the neighbors were lighting there fireworks, so we sat in the front yard and Aiden loved to watch the "lights" and he was not afraid of the loud noises (unlike the dogs who were terrified).

Red Rock

A couple of week ago, we decided to go up to Red Rock before it got too hot up there. We have not been to Red Rock since I was pregnant. We parked at the visitor center and trucked our way up to our favorite hiking spot. It was about 1.5 miles. We were so tired from walking up hill that we didn't do too much hiking once we got to our spot! It was a beautiful morning, and Aiden enjoyed being outside and looking at everything.