My baby's getting big

Last week, we decided to try giving Aiden some oatmeal.  Every time I eat he tries to grab my spoon and pull it to his mouth so I figured he was ready to try.

"Mom, what is this!?"

"Dad, do I really have to eat this stuff?"

It kind of reminded me of Patrick's reaction to food.  

Overall, he didn't love the oatmeal, if you can't tell by his facial expressions in the picture.  We gave him homemade, sugar free applesauce a few days later and he loved it.  Completely loved it.  I couldn't believe how much he ate of it but since then, he's wanted my food even more.  I'm just on the slow lane with giving him solids for every meal because it means my baby is just that much older.

Besides eating solid foods, Aiden has decided it's a lot more fun to stand than just sit with me.  He's done this for a little while but recently he's seemed to have gotten a lot stronger.  Again, where did my baby go?

P.S. Can I just say I love having Jon work from home!?  How great is it that I can call Jon from his office so that he can experience every milestone our kids have?  I try not to disturb him very often but I know we both feel blessed that he can be around and take his "breaks" to come see some of the things that he would otherwise miss.  He might long for co-worker interaction instead of kid interaction but I wouldn't know because he never tells me that. :)

Rush Triathlon and a Chukars game

Can I just say I'm going to be sad when all of this nice, warm hot weather leaves us and we start freezing our little buns off?  I didn't know how this summer was going to go.  2 summers ago I was uncomfortably pregnant with Patrick and last summer was the hardest adjustment period of my life.  Summers haven't been good to us.  I didn't know how I would feel this summer but to deal with my emotions, I've tried to stay busy.  So far we've run in a couple fun runs, gone to the park a lot of times, been to the lake weekly, run a lot, trained a lot, birthday parties, taken little trips, etc.  Most recently, we went to a Chukars game.  I went once before and to be honest I thought it was kinda boring.  We left early and my thought was that if I never went again I would be fine.  But, Karolyn got free tickets through work, we went and it was actually a ton of fun.  We left early again but only because we have kids that have an earlier bedtime than 11:00(usually) but I was actually kind of sad to leave.  I liked eating their greasy fries, and cheering for home-runs, and watching drunk people try to stay with the music while we sang "Take Me Out to the Ball-game."  I get why people say it's fun to go to the games. :)  It helps that Patrick loved running back and forth between a fun aunt and uncle, played with an inflatable bat and was in junk food heaven.  It's always fun to see your kids enjoying new things.

I think Patrick has decided he's never going to look at the camera again.

Also, all of our training led up to the Rush Triathlon that was this weekend.  I think it's safe to say we pushed ourselves as far as we were physically able to right now and we did well.  1st place female sprint team overall isn't too bad. :)  Can I just say, Karolyn is seriously the best teammate you could ask for in a race.  She trains hard, and then pushes hard.  And when I say hard, I mean hard.  Karolyn, if you read this, have you ever thought about trying out for the Olympics?  Just sayin' :) She kept up with the men and swam 5 minutes faster than her previous fastest time.  Biking is her favorite part, though so she gave us a great time and I just had to maintain our place during the running portion.  It was nice because I was running right behind the girl who got the individual first place spot but that pace pretty much killed me at the end.  I didn't finish as strongly as I would have liked but it was still almost 2 minutes faster than my previous fastest time.  So, overall, we were tired and happy with the results and I'm already planning my strategy for next year since we're going to do all the events by ourselves next time.  Without mentioning it to the other, both of us had dedicated this race to our dad and I hope he was watching.  I felt his strength in helping us do something that I never thought we would do.

Heading out bright and early

Don't feel bad if you can't pick her out in all of those matching hats

Coming into the transition

Done!

All of this running right after having Aiden caused a little stress fracture in my foot along with achilles tendonosis/tendonitis so no more races for me in the next couple months. :(  So, now is the time I learn to swim which means more trips to the lake while we still have nice weather.  I'm pretty sure Patrick will be ok with that. :)

Movie Time!

Patrick loves his Uncle Derek.  It's cute to see them play together and when Derek mentioned that he wanted to take Patrick to the movies I thought it was a great idea(as long as Derek was willing to chase him through the isles ;)).  Turbo had just come out and since it has cars in it, we thought it would be one he would enjoy.  Derek and I didn't think it was the greatest movie ever made but Patrick loved it.  I couldn't believe how well he did.  As long as I kept stuffing his face with candy, he was the happiest boy around.  What could be better than watching fast cars and eating candy?  Added bonus: we were the only ones in the theater.

That weekend the movie, "Planes," was also coming out.  Patrick has been obsessed with watching the preview to that show.  He's probably watched the same 2 minute trailer a hundred times with his Uncle Derek.  My cousin, Aaron, is staying at my mom's house and Patrick has gotten him to turn it on for him as well.  So, once again, Derek had the great idea to take Patrick to the drive-in.  Patrick was in "Planes" heaven.  A real plane even flew over us during the show and Patrick was soooo excited.  

We even took Mater to the drive-in :)

We left after the first show because Aiden was getting a little tired of the whole thing but Patrick could have stayed up the whole night.  Right after the first show ended, Patrick held up his finger and said, "one mowr?"(one more), "again!"

And one last picture because movies have kind of been the theme as of lately: 

  Sometimes you gotta break the rules, keep kids up past their bedtime, pop some popcorn, drink out of a sippy cup, and have a family movie night.

I promise we don't just watch movies all day. ;)

Aiden @ 5 months

My baby is 5 months!

By the time Patrick was this age I was already baby hungry again but I'm happy to say that's not the case this time around. ;)  

Aiden has been busy this month.  He's mastered rolling from stomach to back and can almost roll from back to stomach.  He can now sit up by himself, although he's not very sturdy yet.  He's grabbing things like a pro and wants to bring everything to his mouth.  Patrick never went through this phase so it's unusual having Aiden actually chew and play with all of the little baby toys.  Patrick would be interested in little chew toys for a whole 5 seconds and then move on to the next thing.  Aiden is much more into analyzing every little detail on toys and watching people and things that are going on around him.  He loves his toes and would probably suck on them if his belly wasn't in the way. :)

He's still sleeping pretty well, although since his growth spurt we haven't gotten a straight 12 hour night with him.  Dang it. ;)  He now sleeps about 7 1/2 hrs., eats, and then sleeps another 5 ish hours.  So really, I still can't complain. 

We still continues to entertain us with his happy personality and we really can't get enough of his smiling and giggling.  We love you, little man! 

Aiden's Blessing

On August 3rd, we finally blessed Aiden.  Jon really wanted to wait until his brother, Mike, came home from Afghanistan so as soon as we found out the dates of his arrival, we made the plans.  At first I was a little worried because normally you bless babies when they're a newborn and Aiden was 4 1/2 months old but honestly, it didn't even matter.  We also blessed him on a Saturday right after his cousin's baptism(Cannon) so we just broke all traditions.  And it worked out perfectly.  It was nice to have loved ones there and Jon gave a perfect, love-filled blessing.

Cannon's baptism

Pictures at the church

Patrick was picking his nose...I have a younger picture picking my nose...don't ask. :)

I finally got smart and said, "Oh hey, lighting is better outside"

Gotta be honest, although this was a good day and it was great being around family, there was a big hole.  I can't say how much I wished this man could have been there.

Every birthday party, holiday, blessing, and the days in between I think about how much I want my dad to be there.  Every "first" brings the emotion to the surface again but the sadness never leaves. I can't say how deeply I wanted my dad to be in that circle last Saturday, or how deeply I wanted him to put on a fun magic show for Patrick's birthday, or how deeply I want my kids to feel his influence in their life.  I hope I can be as kind hearted and loving as he was and I'm grateful for the influences that are still in my life and my family's lives.  The greatest blessing of this gospel is the knowledge of eternal families.  

Summer Activities

I know I've been updating this summer, but sometimes I look back through my phone and camera and realize I've forgotten to add some things on here.  Mostly they're just pictures of our everyday activities but I think my boys are pretty darn cute so I want to get as many pictures of them on here as I can. :)

A few weeks ago, we all went to the Blackburn house to celebrate Shiloh's birthday.  I didn't get pictures of everyone there but I did get picture of Ada giving Aiden some love.  She is going to be the best little mommy someday.

Aiden's smile...makes my heart happy.
                                                       

We've been training a lot for this triathlon which means a lot of trips to Rigby Lake.  Patrick is not a lover of cold water.  I'm not a lover of cold water.  Which equals a whole lot of crying as we try to get used to the water temperature.  On both our parts. :)  Aiden acts like nothing phases him and could swim in cold water all day if I made him.

 All of our crying means we sit on the edge for awhile and watch Karolyn do all the hard work.  Patrick has found that throwing rocks in and making a splash is more his style.  Side note: Patrick thinks you're supposed to smile with your mouth open.  I just realized the other day that the reason for that is because I always pull a goofy open mouthed expression when I'm trying to get him to smile.  He's just doing it by example. :)

And sometimes our family members want to come with us...and I get involuntarily thrown into the water...and I realize the cold water isn't so bad...and swimming is actually really fun...and I kind of want to learn how to do more than doggy paddle and stay afloat.

Can I get a little hooray!?  I couldn't  find the swimsuit I normally wear and found my swimsuit from when I was a sophmore in college.  And it fit.

I couldn't let him freeze in the water the whole time...

In case we don't get enough water at the lake, we go to the splash park as well.

And this is just one big ol' random post but that's just how we do it sometimes.

The other day I gave Patrick a bath, put him in his new bath towel and then told him to smile.  This is the face he gave me.

 Then he laughed and said, "I funny!"  Definitely our little ham.

Aiden and daddy always have a good time together.

We also just blessed Aiden this last weekend, so I'll add more pictures later but that deserves a post all on it's own. :)