Christmas Parties

For us, Christmas started on the Saturday before. Grandma Angie came down with Great Grandma Addie, Don, Megan and Damian. We all had a party at Amber's house to eat yummy food and open presents. Aiden was mainly interested in the wrapping paper until a toy cellphone (Handy Manny) was unwrapped and then he held onto that for the rest of the night. We got a corn hole game and ladders and washer toss so we can party in the new year!

Monday night we had Christmas with Grandpa Doug and all the siblings and grandkids. From the grandparents we each got some money and mine got me a nice new camera! Finally I can take pictures again!!!! :)

Christmas Eve we invited Grandpa Doug and family over to our house for dinner. We had some pork tenderloin, salad and potatoes and I ate way too much! (Did I already mention that at each of the Christmas' I ate way too much??) I think I gained 10 lbs this holiday season and that is not exaggerating. After dinner we played some Wii and even chose Santa as one of the people.

Christmas morning we opened presents at our house and Aiden loved tearing the paper. Nikita got a new chew bone and some tuna fish in her stocking, which kept her entertained (the bone) all day.

Christmas afternoon we got to talk to Ryan's step-brother, Cory, who is on a mission in Mexico. He sounds so happy to be serving the Lord and it was a great feeling to talk to him on Christmas day. We ate some more, even though Ryan and I ate us out of our house for breakfast, and then we played some games. Overall, Christmas was a blast seeing all of Ryan's family and it was so neat having so many little kids now to really enjoy the Christmas season.

Huge Betrayal

What was I thinking?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Fatso's Eating Challenge

They went, they ate, they won (mostly).

Ryan, Chris and Jonny decided to try the Fatso's Burger contest. 2lbs worth of meat, plus the huge bun the size of a loaf of bread and a side of broccoli. Yikes. Well I am happy to say that 2 of the 3 did it. They didn't have to pay for it if they finished it, saving $25 each, and they got a t-shirt and their names on a plaque. I don't think any of them are planning on doing another contest for a while! :)

Ryan after he finished his.

Chris working on his last couple of bites.

All of them looking so happy having no idea what they are about to get themselves into. Well maybe an inkling... I mean look at the size of those burgers!!

Gorgeous Oregon - Can we move here?

My two week vacation included a trip to Oregon to visit my sisters. This meant that we had to make a 13 hour drive in a car with a 1 year old. Can you picture the bliss? Yip, imagine the worst and you probably covered it. The drive to Oregon wasn't actually too bad even though there were 2 one year olds. My sister, Lani, drove down to Utah from Idaho (where she lives) and picked me up. The first day we drove to Idaho, spent the night and then drove to Oregon the next day. I loved that I FINALLY got to see my sisters new house and the area that she lives in. I didn't know Idaho could be so beautiful! The drive back though was a straight shot from Oregon to Utah and Aiden cried for about 6 hours of it and nothing would make him happy. My mom, Kurt and I all were going insane and we were sooooooo relieved when we finally made it to the house.

Before Lani and I headed to Idaho, we stopped and had lunch with our step-sister Kirsten at Cafe Rio. Yum! Once in Idaho, we went for a walk with Lani's two very funny and semi-crazy dogs. (And yes, that is Aiden wearing a pink coat and wrapped in a pink flowery blanket.)

The first day we made it to Oregon we went on a hike to a waterfall. When we left Cami's house it was pretty warm outside and I thought I would most likely have to take my hoodie off once we got there because it would be too hot. UNFORTUNATELY when we arrived after the 45 minute drive it felt like we had arrived in the Arctic. It was FREEZING!!! I put my hood up and I had an extra pair of my socks with me which I put over my hands as gloves (I was still freezing and wishing for my winter coat). I layered Aiden in 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, 1 jacket with a hood and a beanie. I then also used a pair of his cousin Ashlyn's socks for his gloves. Then to top it off I wrapped him in a blanket in the carrier. The hike was for sure worth it though because it was so beautiful and it warmed up some once we got on the trail.

That Saturday was my nephew, Calder's, baptism. He was so excited to get baptized and his brothers sang for him at the baptism and did a great job.

Aiden and Ashlyn played together ALL WEEK LONG. If I could suddenly have another baby around Aiden's age, I know he would be in heaven. He loves to play with other kids and he smothers them with hugs (we may have to work on that when he's older). Overall, the trip was fantastic and I was so happy I was able to spend so much time with family.

Utah - Friends and Family

Aiden and I left daddy behind and went to spend time with my family and friends over Thanksgiving. I was really worried about traveling with a 1 yr old by myself with a layover in Denver but Aiden ended up doing pretty well. Our first flight had issues (the nationwide system went down so we were stuck on the plane on the runway while they had to manually write up our flight plan) so we missed our connecting flight in Denver. Luckily the flight attendants were wonderful to Aiden so it made the flights really nice. The first day in Utah we just rested at my mom's house recouping from traveling. The second day (Friday) we headed down to spend the day with Grandpa and Grandma Harrington.

At Grandpa's house we petted the horses, which Aiden was not so sure he wanted to do, and played with the dogs. We also went on a four-wheeler ride in the cold and saw the beautiful mountains up close. I REALLY miss the mountains. There was snow on the ground farther up the mountain so I am a mean mama and wanted to see what Aiden thought of the snow and I put him down in it. He was fine until he put his hand in the snow and then he got really angry that I sat him down in this cold stuff! Sad that he doesn't have snow experience, but I'm glad he can play in the snow every couple of years when we go to grandpa's house.

Saturday my cousin Julia and her husband came to visit and brought their parents new puppy to show us as well. The puppy is so so cute and Aiden absolutely LOVED him. We actually had to rescue the puppy away from Aiden a couple of times because he got a little carried away trying to hug the dog.

Sunday we had a get together with my aunts and uncles and some cousins and also gave Aiden another birthday cake. He was NOT interested in the cake but Grandpa Lindorff had fun smearing the cake on Aiden's face.

The Monday after Thanksgiving I traveled down the Ephraim with my cousin Rebecca to visit our grandmother. I had so much fun spending all that time with Rebecca and grandma telling old stories and remembering grandpa. My cousin Jared's little kids loved Aiden and played with him most of the time. Grandma fixed us a yummy lunch and we enjoyed her homemade peach jam - yum yum. Aiden got to sit in the ANCIENT high chair with no straps to hold him in so we had to wrap a blanket around him and the chair to secure him enough so he wouldn't fall out. Thanks grandma - we love you!

Aiden got some presents for his birthday from grandparents while we were there and he definitely enjoyed tearing the paper off and playing with them. Grandma Lindorff's gift of books was really enjoyed once opened because he thought the books were perfect for hiding his face behind to play peek-a-boo.

The last day I was in Utah I was able to have lunch with my girlfriends at Los Hermanos in Provo. It was SOOO good to see them! I haven't seen some of them for 3 years so I had so much fun catching up for a couple of hours. I am so glad you all could make it! Love you all!

I will be posting pics from my Oregon part of the trip over Thanksgiving later. Adios!

Aiden's 1st Birthday Party

This last Saturday, November 14th, we had Aiden's 1st birthday party (he will be officially 1 on Nov. 18th). We invited a bunch of friends and family over and celebrated with yummy food (chili and Angie's homemade bread), games, presents and cake! I attempted to decorate a cake for the first time and ended up making the frosting too thick so instead of squeezing it through the impossibly small hole of the decorating tip, I ended up forming the icing like it was play dough. It worked great - a lot simpler for a first timer! :) You might not be able to tell in the picture but on the big cake it is a giraffe and on Aiden's small cake it is a lion. When we sang the Birthday song to Aiden, he smiled the whole time and thought it was so fun to hear us all singing. I wonder if that means we all sounded awful or wonderful?? :)

Okay, one thing about my choice of cake is that it has a cool whip chocolate frosting that has to be refrigerated. We pulled it out of the fridge in time for the ritual smashing of the cake by the little one and lo and behold.... the frosting was too hard for Aiden to break through to get to the cake! Ooops!!! He even tried smashing the cake with both hands and nothing happened. We were all laughing pretty hard. We ended up having to turn the cake upside down so he could get to the part with no frosting. AND THEN.... after all of that... all he wanted to do was feed it to the dog.Grandma Angie gave Aiden a quick wash down in the kitchen sink after cake since he was such a mess!

Here are the kiddos! Aiden loved having all of his buddies at his party to play with! I love how quickly little kids make friends!

The adults! Thank you to everyone for coming!

The birthday boy opening his presents! He got a cute little red fire truck he can ride on from Aunt Amber and he loves it! He got a big red wagon from Grandma Angie that he smiles the whole time he is on a ride in it. He got a bunch of clothes and toys and other great stuff! The funny thing is though, is while opening the presents the gift he LOVED most that made him giggle and smile for was... the birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa Horsley! (Which very shortly made its way into the trashcan after he had done a great job of ripping it apart.) Thank you everybody for the great gifts you gave to Aiden and we are so glad you could all make it to his little party!

And of course, who did Aiden play the most with during his party??? His BFF, Drake. Those two always seem to find each other no matter how many other kiddos are around. I think it is so cute.

Shout Out

This is just a little shout out to my husband who came home the other day after a long day of work, saw the house was a mess and started cleaning. DID NOT say a single word to me about what an awful wife I was to have not cleaned all day. He picked up the whole house and I think he even started a load of laundry while I fed Aiden dinner. What a better example could I get?? NONE. What an example my husband is to me on how to show love and support! I have learned that from now on I need to leave the little things alone and NOT nag. If something is bothering me that I think he's supposedly failing to do I need to be the one to do it happily and NOT say a word. I love my husband and I am soooo grateful to Heavenly Father for blessing my life with him! Thanks Ryan!

Halloween Festivities

We spent Halloween Weekend at Grandma Angie's house in North Carolina. Aunts Megan and Amber were there too and so were cousins Reagan, Brody and Damian. Grandma rented a blow up castle that all the kids had a blast jumping in and even Aiden loved crawling around in there. I think we were eating 24 hours each day as Angie kept on cooking up yummy food for us to munch on. And yes, when I checked the scale when we got home I had gained 6 lbs in 3 days!!!! I will be on the liquid diet for a couple days to try to get rid of this food baby.


Saturday afternoon we hung out as a family (Ryan, me and Aiden) in the backyard.


We then carved pumpkins. Aiden liked helping grandma with the pumpkin goo and watching Aunt Amber as she carved her pumpkin.

Later that day we got ready for trick or treating. Ryan and I weren't planning on dressing up to carry Aiden around to a couple of houses but we decided to at the last second. Amber and Grandma hurried to find some items that could be our costumes. Thus.... I ended up as Peter Pan (Reagan's costume maybe?) and Ryan ended up as a soldier (Damian's hat and gun). :) We had a lot of fun taking the kids around to the neighbors. As soon as we got on our way though it started to rain which called the night short for the two babies. Aiden got 4 things of candy as his trick or treating loot and luckily one of the items ended up being fruit snacks so Aiden was actually able to eat some of his Halloween candy!




Thanks Grandma Angie for a wonderful weekend! We love you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

For Aiden's 1st Halloween he is going to be a LION. We thought it was appropriate since he makes really good growling/cat sounds. Since this is his first Halloween I decided to get professional pictures done and I thought they turned out so cute.

RANDY'S PUMPKIN PATCH

Aiden and I went with the Cerseys to a local pumpkin patch and snapped a lot of pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, I was using a semi-broken camera that I usually don't use. This turned into me thinking the flash was too bright and ruining the pictures. I turned off the flash and the pictures looked great on the little camera screen. Well.... ACTUALLY on the computer the ones with the flash turned out to be fine and the ones WITHOUT the flash turned out blurry. Maybe 1 of 6 pictures turned out. So try to look past the blurriness of some of these pictures please!

Pumpkin Photo Shoot

Aiden and Drake- Best Friends Forever (Aren't these soooo cute?) Drake and Aiden would talk gibberish back and forth through the evening. Aiden LOVED having his friend there!

Bunny Time with Jackson

I really wanted Aiden to pet the bunnies so I was glad when Kristina convinced Justin to let Jackson pet the bunnies too. At first Aiden was not sure what to do with this thing that moved in front of him. I decided he LOVES dogs so maybe we could pretend the bunnies were doggies. I told Aiden it was a "doggy" and with that he reached out his hand and petted the bunny. YAY! After that, there was NO stopping him. He chased those bunnies around and almost mauled one to death. DEFINITELY worth the $2!

Aiden's 10 Month Pictures

We couldn't get him to hold still long enough for her to get a shot so mom ended up in a lot of the pictures with Aiden.

Monumental Day

So for the last week Aiden has hardly eaten anything. I would get maybe 4 bites of something in him and then he would REFUSE to eat anything more. Then we realized he was sick and he got a fever that lasted about 4 days. I have been stressing that my little peanut would get even smaller because he wasn't eating but the doctor told me not to worry about it. Well finally yesterday, Aiden got his appetite back! I was sooooo relieved that he was eating again. He isn't up to what he was eating before he got sick but it is a lot more than it was last week. Then as if to prove to mama that he was just fine he decided to feed himself! I was so shocked! And what was the food that was so DESIRABLE that he couldn't wait for mama to feed him more of??....

Looks like this will now be another staple of the Horsley household. Good job Aiden on hitting another milestone! We love you baby!

MY LOVE...

Yes, I consume these daily. Could anything be better? They are amazing with cheese, with salsa, with... chocolate?? Yum!

They Grow So Fast...

Aiden is 10 months old today and officially wearing size 6-9 months. I decided I wanted to get out a sleeper from every size he has worn since birth to compare them and see how much he has grown. When he was born we took some preemie outfits and newborn outfits to the hospital and the newborn outfits were HUGE on him. Now when I see the PREEMIE sleeper next to the 6-9 MONTH sleeper I can't believe Aiden was ever so tiny.

Preemie & 6-9 Months

(Preemie, Newborn, 0-3 Months, 3-6 Months & 6-9 Months)

Things that he currently does:

* Waves back to you.
* Claps his hands.
* Claps his hand on your hand.
* Plays chase with Nikita and Nikita actually plays back now.
* Will use his pointer finger to touch your nose as you say "nose". (It's a game for him.)
* He eats most every type of food but loves cheese the most. (Plain bread the least.)
* Sleeps 8pm-8am
* Likes to bite things with his 4 teeth. (Including mom and dad.)
* Will push ANYTHING that will slide across the carpet through the kitchen onto the rug and around again until he gets distracted (usually by Nikita). This includes pushing one object with another object - the more the merrier!
* Uses the walker to push around the house either by walking or crawling with it.
* And MY FAVORITE..... says "mama"!!! (OK so he might call mom & dad & Nikita that, but still it's my name so I'll take it!) =)

Gwinnett Braves

For Labor Day we went to a Gwinnett Braves game with some friends. Before we arrived at the stadium we decided to go to Chic-Fil-A and hit up some free chicken sandwiches for lunch. Yum! They were having a promotion that day, so if you wore a team sport shirt into the restaurant then you got a free sandwich. So Ryan, I and Aiden all wore our shirts and got free food! Unfortunately, before we even made it to the free food, Ryan and I got rear-ended driving there. Luckily, there was no damage done. The ironic thing is that it was the EXACT SAME car as ours. Nice.

Once we got to the stadium we set up our blankets on the grass and got ready to wait for the game to start (we were an hour early). As that hour passed we attempted a game of Hearts and then decided it was just too miserably hot to do anything else (it was 1pm in the afternoon). So we sat and sat and then tried to find some shade (which didn't really do much with the 70% humidity). By the time the game started we were all dripping sweat and ready to leave the park and go swimming.

Aiden was done with the game after the 1st inning. I took him to the shade and tried to let him cool down a little but he was having NONE of it. The only time he quit crying was when a little boy let Aiden smack him on the head over and over again. The little boy thought it was funny- thank heavens! At the end of the 4th inning we were done and decided to leave to go swimming at the Cersey's pool. At that point we were ahead 5-1 I believe, but by the end of the 5th inning the score was 5-4. No worries, the Gwinnett Braves pulled ahead and won the game with a 7-4 victory. Go Braves!

The Cerseys

The Woods

Us

Aiden now has a walker that he LOVES! I just think it is the cutest thing to watch his little body pushing this big walker! He just makes me smile!


I finally can document with pictures Aiden's favorite past-time; which is pushing around Nikita's dog food dishes. Oh my, what am I to do when he is just so cute?