Thundercats, Thundercats, Thundercats Ho!

We won, we won, we won! After many months of losses we FINALLY won a co-ed softball game! We are only 3 games into this season and we won with the final score at 14-8. Yipee! We celebrated a little TOO much on the field and I felt kind of bad for the other team.... BUT it was just too exciting to hold back.

Afterwards we went to Chic-fil-A to celebrate our hard won victory! Go Thundercats!

Cow Killer Ant

Today I decided to take Aiden out to the backyard to play and get some time in the sun. After about ten minutes I see this LARGE insect crawling on my deck. At first I think it is a cockroach which unfortunately is fairly common to see in Georgia. Then as I noticed Nikita was right by it and it wasn't running for cover AND it was out in the bright sunlight made me think this was something different. Aiden and I head over to investigate and we find the insect in this picture (which does not do it justice in showing how big it is). I freaked out! I was thinking in my head that I just saw one of those human baby eating ants I have heard stories about. I run Aiden inside and then come out with the 1st thing I grabbed, which I won't tell you and end up soaking the CREATURE with it. I am too much of a chicken to actually step on something so large, just the thought of hearing that crunch makes me want to vomit. I am hoping that the stuff I sprayed it with will kill it.

I then come inside and research what this huge MONSTROSITY is and find that it is a Velvet Ant or more commonly known as a Cow Killer Ant. WHAT??!!! As I read on I find that they don't literally kill cows but that their sting is so powerfully painful that it is said that it COULD kill a cow. This is the bug I have in MY backyard??!! I am now officially thinking it is time to fire our current pest control company and search for a new one! Aiden is also NOT going to be playing in our backyard when he is old enough to walk around unless I am RIGHT by his side. Maybe one day I will get over this and calm down again.... until then, I am sorry Aiden.

Ponies!!!

We celebrated Reagan's 3rd birthday last Saturday. Amber rented 2 ponies to come for all of the kids to ride and they LOVED them!

Here is the cute birthday girl in her cowgirl gear!

Aiden even took a turn on a pony. He had practice before on a stuffed animal pony and LOVED that but he was a little unsure on the real thing.

Damian wanted to help lead a pony so he was able to help when Reagan rode. Such a sweet picture of him and Reagan. Damian also LOVED his painted on tiger face and was so sad when it started to peel off.

Aiden got lots of lovin' from his grandparents all day long. He was a good baby even with only having a 30 minute nap!

For cake Amber had cute cowboy cupcakes and the kids DEVOURED them! The result was that they all had blue frosting covering their faces. So CUTE.
Thanks for the fun party Amber! I know Aiden's 3rd birthday will be here faster then I think!!

8 Months of Bliss

I never knew time could pass by at such an alarming rate until after I gave birth to Aiden. I now get to see my little peanut grow bigger every day. I'll see him do something new and wonder how he got big enough to be doing that already. He is such a sweet baby and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being his mommy. The joy of motherhood is something not understood until after hearing your baby cry for the first time and looking into his tiny face. Then to realize that every day your love can grow even deeper and your joy even fuller is amazing since your love for this tiny being started out with your whole heart. I know that as the years continue to come that my love will only continue to get stronger. I love you Aiden William Horsley!

Here are some 8 month milestones that Aiden has hit:

* sits up on his own
* can get to sitting position from laying on his stomach
* CRAWLING
* has started to wave goodbye (mimics mommy's motion)
* will look for a toy that he has dropped or we have taken away
* will let us know with a loud cry that he is VERY angry when said toy is taken away
* chases Nikita around the house all day long and steals her tennis balls away from her
* says "mama" over and over and has just a couple of times said "dada" but doesn't know what either word means (I don't think so anyway)
* has a VERY strong grip and will NOT let go of mommy's hair that he is soooo good at pulling
* makes very fast windmill movements with his arms when he gets really excited about something
* is now sleeping through the night (about 11 hours)
* pulls up to his knees holding onto furniture
* doesn't want any of his toys when there are so many other non-baby toys to play with (aka-dog or cell phone)
* gives the biggest smile to mommy and daddy anytime he sees them looking at him
* and one of the best things... he gives us great big wet kisses and hugs us around the neck!

I am so happy I have many more years of bliss raising my sweet baby Aiden!
(I have decidedly ignored in this post the many nights of no sleep, the rivers of puke and poop, because that is just part of the whole and for me the whole is bliss!) ;)

Final Family Reunion Post

We went to Capitol Reef the last three days of the family reunion and stayed in some cowboy cabins. We did 2 hikes while we were there and ate lots of hamburgers! The country down there is soooo beautiful! I love all of the red rock and canyons.

The first place we went to see was Chimney Rock.

Then we hiked to Hickman's Bridge and it was gorgeous and worth the hike even in the hot weather.

Our last hike was to Calf Creek Falls. The hike was really long but not too hard since it was fairly flat the whole way. The fall was beautiful and the kids and men played in the FREEZING water. I was a little too chicken to get in past my ankles. Almost all of us ran out of water before the hike ended but it was okay since we were really close to the finish. But then we saw a group of young kids just starting the hike and all they had for water were little water bottles. NOT enough to make it all the way through the hike so I hope everyone made it out okay!

I can't wait until the next family reunion in 2011 at our house! YAY!

Family Reunion Part 2

Ok, let me just start this post with saying that I LOVE Picasa!! Wow, what a difference it makes in blogging. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the pictures I took over the reunion and Picasa just simplified it and made loading pictures so EASY! Thank you Cami and Kristina for introducing me to Picasa!

Now on to the reunion! Wednesday night after Cami's family arrived, they headed out to Antelope Island with my parents to watch the sun set. I knew it would be a late night so Ryan and I stayed at the house so Aiden could have a normal bedtime. What a fortunate choice I made! When they came back home they said the trip to the island had been MISERABLE! There were so many BUGS out that they had been attacked the whole time they were there. YUCK! I have to say that the pictures of the sunset were very beautiful so I was glad they went.

On Friday we all went on a short hike to Donut Falls. I was not prepared for how COLD it was! The sky was overcast and it was in the morning so I was very grateful my mom had the foresight to bring me a jacket. I was also glad I had some warm clothes for Aiden in the diaper bag. The young boys all loved throwing rocks into the water for the whole hike so near the end we stopped and let them get their fill of throwing things into the water.

On Saturday, we went on a LONG and HARD hike up Adam's Canyon. I felt bad for the men having to carry babies up the mountain on the backs or shoulders or on the front. The little boys were troopers though, especially Kaelan - the 2 yr old, who ran circles around the rest of us. Ryan was the only brave soul who stood under the freezing waterfall. I wanted a picture so mom tried to take one but her camera didn't work, then Cami tried and her batteries went dead so I finally grabbed out mine and snapped some shots. I made poor Ryan get back in the cold water 3 times just for a picture! What a sweetie for not complaining!


Sunday evening we headed to my Aunt Nancee's new 8,000 sq foot home to have dessert with all of my relatives. Her house was amazing and big, big, big. After she told me it takes her 3 1/2 hours to clean all of the bathrooms the envy on my part pretty much disappeared. WOW. It was so great to see so many of my cousins and it was a mad house with so many little kids running around, but it was a lot of fun. Sweet baby Aiden was so tired by the end that he fell asleep on the car ride home in the middle of me feeding him some prunes. We laughed so hard everytime he took a bite because his eyes would start rolling back into his head before he could finish swallowing. I love my cute baby! I really look forward to these get togethers since they happen only every couple of years. Until next time my family!

Happy 4th of July!

For the 4th we went to our ward's breakfast and then headed to Amber's house for the day. We went to the pool, ate lots of yummy food, jumped on the trampoline, ate more yummy food and watched fireworks. Here are some pictures from the day-

We Have a Crawler!

Family Reunion Part 1 - Skydiving & Golf

What a way to kick off a family reunion! Ryan and I had such a blast skydiving! I was so sad that it was over so fast that I wanted to jump in the plane again and go right back up. Unfortunately, it's a little too expensive for me so I will have to be satisfied with looking at the pictures. For all of you who have NOT been skydiving you need to get up there! Here are some pics - I posted more on facebook.

Ryan landed just after me so my photographer was great and snapped a couple of his landing.

We went golfing a couple of times while we were there. The first time it was just my parents and us and the second time I didn't take pictures but it was the whole clan. Talk about a crazy golf game. We spent 3 hours on 9 holes because we had 6 adults and 4 kids and 1 baby. Yikes! Luckily for us, the golf course was empty so we didn't disturb anybody else! Then it started to rain really hard and we all got soaked so I left at the 7th hole with Aiden.