FAMILY PICTURES

Grandpa taught Aiden how to throw rocks into the river and Aiden loved that he got Grandpa all to himself.
Many (food covered) faces of Aiden...

My Family Came!!

My parents came to visit me in the beginning of June. I love it when my family comes to see me because I usually only get to see them once or twice a year. I had planned on doing fun activities with them everyday but they had something completely different in mind! They planted us a food garden!! I was so excited because I have been wanting to plant one for the last 2 years but I just didn't know where to start. Now I am trying very hard to keep everything alive that we planted! My mom also helped me organize/clean my storage room - for those of you who have had the unfortunate experience of viewing this room you know this is a big deal.

We did get to do some fun things while they were here. We all went golfing one day at The Trophy Club at Apalachee. The course was beautiful but really hard because it had a lot of ravines you had to hit the ball over which is pretty much impossible for me to accomplish. I still loved it though and want to go golfing more so let me know you girls if you want to go with me and we can miss the balls together. :)
Another day my step-dad went golfing while my mom and I played at Stone Mountain with Aiden. The day was so hot we kept on seeking out shops with AC so we could cool off. We decided to go check out The Barn because one of the workers told us it had AC. When we got there the lady told us that Aiden was free but it would cost $9 each for my mom and me. WHAT??!!!! Let me tell you.... there was NOTHING in this place for an adult to do except WATCH their child play with colored balls and go down slides. Luckily for us, this lady was really cool and told us to not worry about paying and she let us in anyway. Thank goodness because we really wanted that AC.
My parents also feel that a breakfast outing to Waffle House is a must do while in Georgia so we went and had our feel of grease one morning. Other than that we played A LOT of cards, which I loved (maybe because Ryan and I kept on winning!) All in all it was a very fun and successful visit. Thanks mom and dad! Love you guys!

Had to throw these pictures in here. This is what Aiden looks like after feeding himself with a spoon. Normally these sessions end with me taking him directly to the bathtub to wash him from head to toe. He loves feeding himself though and will get really upset if I don't let him. This was yogurt. Yum.

Wisdom Teeth

Yesterday I had the wonderful experience of getting my wisdom teeth removed... all 4 of them. This picture is not my real x-ray but it pretty much could be with how the wisdom teeth are placed. My bottom ones were pretty much identical to this picture and the top right was as well, but the top left had already started to grow in. I needed to get them removed according to the dentist and the oral surgeon because food was getting in between the back molars and the wisdom teeth (because the teeth were touching) and eventually that would lead to tooth rot and I would lose my back molars along with my wisdom teeth (because you can't get in between the teeth to floss or brush). Also, I am already nearing 30 which after 30 the risks supposedly are much much higher.

Here is my face in the first 24 hours. I am hoping the swelling will stop and not get any bigger but the doctor said the swelling peaks at 2-3 days and it has just been 24 hrs. I am trying to keep ice on my jaw as much as possible through out the day and keep my upper body elevated to try to prevent more swelling. See the swollen lip and the sores around my mouth? My lips got split and so did the sides of my mouth from them having to open it so wide. Oh well, that is the least of my worries at this point! For the next week I am allowed to eat yogurt, pudding, Popsicles, jello, scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. I am hoping the one bright side of all of this is that I might be able to lose some weight on this diet!! :) Here is one more life experience to check off and I also now know that it is best to get your kids wisdom teeth out while they are teenagers. Sorry Aiden, but we already have it planned for you buddy!

ABC's

My little guy turned 18 months in May. I took him in for his check-up appointment with the pediatrician and ended up leaving the office feeling like the worst mom. Before I get into that story though, here are his stats:

Weight: 22 lbs 10 ounces (10th%)
Height: (don't remember inches) 50th%
Head: 95th%

Are we shocked that his head is still so big... no. My poor little guy is just really top heavy. :)
Okay, the rest of the story...
Because it was his 18 month check-up they had me fill out a 3 page questionnaire about things he can currently do. While I was filling it out I felt like my little Aiden was probably right on track for his age so I felt proud turning it in. Then the doctor started asking questions and it all went down hill from there...
Dr) How many words can Aiden say? Me) Um... I don't know, maybe 10?
Dr) Oh my that is bad. He should say at least 20, but 30-50 is more normal. Tell me every word you can think of that he can say and I will write it down and hope we get at least 20.

So I sat there with the doctor for who knows how long searching my brain for every little word I can remember that Aiden says. I got to 17. Fortunately, the doctor said that was okay because there were probably a couple I was forgetting. Phew, that dilemma over.

But then he asked me....
Dr) Does he know his ABC's? Me Thinking) What the freak???!!! My child is supposed to know the ABC's??? Me saying out loud) No. Dr) Can he even say A-B-C? Me) No.
Dr) Hmmmm.... well can he at least count? Me Thinking) I'm doomed. I am the worst mother. My child can't count, my child doesn't know his ABCs and he only knows 17 words.

By this point I am feeling truly awful and thinking that I have doomed my child to to be at the bottom of his class. But then the doctor asked me if Aiden could throw a ball overhand. FINALLY, a question I could say YES to!!!!! I was so happy that there was one question that I could answer in the affirmative (even if Aiden's throw is far from perfect- we are working on it).

So I leave the doctor's office still feeling miserable because I have failed Aiden on so many levels. I call my sister, Cami, who is the mother of 4 children... all boys, to tell her about my woes. She started laughing when I told her about the check-up questions and tells me that those were the exact same questions she was asked at her child's 3 YEAR OLD check-up she had earlier that month. Huh?? She then pulled out her "What to expect the toddler years" book and read from it what to expect at 18 months. THANKFULLY, Aiden was doing everything he was supposed to according to the book. I felt so much better that my little Aiden was indeed right on track. She then read to me the part of what to expect for a 3 year old and yes, it was everything the doctor had asked me.

So, who knows... was the doctor reading the wrong checklist or was he truly expecting my child to be a child genius and do things a 3 year old can?? I will just assume it is the latter and pretend it is because he thinks Aiden is just sooooo smart and ahead of his age because of my child's huge noggin. :)

Celebrations

So I am about a month behind in my blogging so I am trying to catch up. We went to a birthday party for Jackson (turned 4) last month. Jackson is the big brother of one of Aiden's best friends, Drake. It was a great party!! They had a big water slide in their backyard, lots of pizza and lots of Transformer presents for the bday boy. Aiden was scared of the water slide (the water was a little cold) but he loved sitting on the little kid lawn chairs which unfortunately kept on tipping over on him but that didn't stop him from continually climbing on them.
For Memorial Day we went over to our friends house and all the boys went golfing. The girls (plus Aiden) went to the pool. Aiden LOVED the pool and I ended up chasing him around the 2 kid pools and the 1 adult pool. He was on the go the entire time and I was wishfully thinking it would have been nice to be able to sit and soak up the sun with Sarah and Sharon as they sat relaxed on their pool chairs. Oh well, my little guy is so much fun to play with I wouldn't change it for anything. I love my sweet little man.
He made a little friend at the pool and they LOVED splashing each other with the water. I think Aiden enjoyed it a little too much because the other kid got soaked by Aiden!

5 Year Anniversary Trip

Ryan and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary on May 21st. I decided to surprise Ryan with a short little get-a-way vacation to Columbia, SC. Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to watch Aiden for us.
We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Columbia, only a block away from the state capitol. It was a really neat older hotel. Our hotel room was awesome with dark wood floors and it was on a corner so we had lots of windows. Friday night we ate at Ruth'sChris Steak house and probably ate 3,000 calories each the food was so YUMMY! We even got a free dessert because it was our anniversary.
Saturday morning we went golfing at a really old golf course. I know for sure it was there in the 1970's because I saw an old drawing of it with that date but I'm pretty sure it has been around even longer than that.... maybe 1700's?? :) j/k Seriously though, Ryan and I couldn't stop laughing the entire time we played golf on this course. I have never seen a golf course in such rough, awful, funny shape.
1st of all.... does this look right to you? This was the first path we took in the golf cart thinking it led to our 1st hole. Ooops. A guy came chasing us down yelling that we had taken the wrong path and he had to lead us over to some grass that he claimed to be the cart path. hmmmm

Here is part of the cart path. This was very common. Sand dunes and broken pavement.

2nd... there are no words to describe their amazing signage for numbering the holes. A trash can with a spray painted 14 on it for the sign for hole #14?? Perfect. Who needs anything more?


3rd... the club house was just amazing. They were kind enough to make a walking path through the garbage so you could actually access the counter and the bathrooms. And did I mention that it smelled like cat pee and there was a mangy old dog wondering around?


4th... is the man who answers the phone supposed to be able to hear the person speaking on the other line? And then once you get to the club house is he supposed to be able to understand what you are saying to him?
This was actually the part I think I laughed the hardest over. 2 weeks before our trip I tried to book a tee time. When I called a REALLY old sounding man answered the phone and couldn't understand what I was saying. I just hung up and decided I would call another day to catch someone else working there who could understand me. I called a week later and unfortunately got the same old man. I decided to try and book a tee time anyway which took about 15 minutes of me yelling the same things over and over again on the phone. So we get to the clubhouse to play golf and yip... it is the old man working the counter. We tell him we have a tee time and he couldn't hear us. We literally had to yell at him for him to hear. We finally worked out with him what our last name was and he looked in his book. Then he looked at us and said sorry you don't have a tee time, was it me you booked with? I said yes and he said "No you didn't, I would have remembered!!!" I laughed so hard that this little 99 year old man was claiming he would have remembered if I had spoken to him about a tee time!
(The little old man and his faithful old mangy dog in the dirty, gross club house.)
The bathroom was almost as bad as the rest of the club house and it only had 1 stall which had this sign on it. I laughed so hard I had to take a picture. Get it? ONE stall and the sign says "THIS one works now!!"?? What would have been my other option??!!!
This was right next to the club house and hole #1. What a pretty sight... broken down lawn mowers and golf carts. Also, I didn't get a picture but there were 2 guys creating a burn pile off of one of the holes and yip, they were smoking a joint. Picture perfect, too bad I missed the shot.
Can you see the amazing quality of the grass in the pics below? Who mowed the grass??? There would be huge patches on the green or in the tee box that it looked like somebody just decided not to mow.
Also, isn't there supposed to be grass on the green and in the tee boxes?? Hmmm.... I guess you can count little patches of grass here and there and some weeds as good enough.

Anyway that was our amazing golfing adventure. After we had such a good laugh we headed over to the temple to meet up with our ward. We did some temple work to finish off a really fun trip.
After the temple we headed back home to Georgia to pick up our little peanut in time for his bedtime. It felt like a really long ride back for me probably because I was already missing my little baby and couldn't wait to see him again! We really did have a blast on our trip and I was really sad it had to end but I am definitely looking forward to our next get-a-way when ever that may be! I love you my wonderful hubby and thanks for 5 amazing years!!!