Christmas 2013

Christmas was good to us this year, mainly because of two sweet little boys that make everything in life a little sweeter.  We decided it'd be a really great idea to get them up at 6:00 so that we could do our own little family Christmas before all of the other festivities.  Needless to say, they weren't very thrilled about that.  

 Patrick quickly forgave us once he saw that Santa brought him lots and lots of Cars.

 Aiden didn't know what was going on but he's always quick to forgive.

 Both boys dressed after presents and ready to go see family.

 The cousins had fun playing at the Blackburn home

 Patrick had fun playing with his toys at the Clifford home.  He loves playing with cousins but he also likes when he doesn't have to share toys.  The grownups decided to play a little Settlers of Catan.

 Aiden got a walker from Santa and he loves it.  I can't say how cute it is to watch his little bum from behind.

As always, a great day spent with those we love most.  I love how these sweet spirits start to bring the magic back into everything.

Holiday Festivities

To get in the spirit of Christmas this year, we've done a few festivities such as: watching Christmas shows, decorated gingerbread houses, baking lots of goodies, and even making our own ornaments for the tree; which, by the way, is really dumb with a 2 year old and a 9 month old.  "Hey Patrick, why don't you take these scissors and make a snowflake..." or "Hey Aiden, want to color this piece of paper?  Oh, you just want to chew on it?  Ok."  I think I need to wait a few more years before I do that again.

This last Sunday, I decided to put the boys in their Christmas outfits and I thought they were pretty darn cute.

He loves the homemade snowflakes

 Patrick is in this phase where he just wants to give awkward faces to the camera.  Maybe he'll grow out of it, someday.

 This was the same Sunday that we decorated our gingerbread houses

My house

Jon's house

 Patrick was a lot better at decorating the house then I thought.  Mostly he wanted to eat the candy but you can see the look of concentration on his face.

Aiden loved decorating my mom's tree.

For Christmas Eve, the Blackburn cousins put on a little nativity.  It was pretty cute to see Aiden as baby Jesus and Patrick as a shepherd.  My pictures are horrible because my camera was being weird, but you can kind of get the idea.

And then we had a dinner at my mom's house.  Patrick and Aiden were excited to get their Christmas jammies from Grandma Clifford

Our Christmas tree is all ready for the boys tomorrow and I'm pretty darn excited to see their looks of excitement.

Merry Christmas, from the Blackburns!

The faces of Aiden

Our little cheeseball

Take a moment for pooping...

And we're back.

Winter

   I was looking through my phone and realized I'd forgotten to include some things on the blog.

First: Patrick and Aiden went to their cousin's(Keaton) birthday party at Blast Off.  Saying Patrick had a good time would be an understatement.

 Jon and Mike climbed right into the ball pit and showed the boys how it's done.  Patrick thought it was the greatest thing ever to have his dad join in the fun. 

Second:  here's my mom's old kitchen

And then we did this to it

Mostly the kids and I stood around doing this:

This was on Thanksgiving day and we decided to take a hit at it before the construction workers did the next day.  Not going to lie, it was hard.  There are a lot of memories in this kitchen.  A lot of memories.  However, there's something therapeutic about swinging a sledgehammer as hard as you can and I think it was good for all of us. I'm excited to post pictures of the finished product soon.  It looks really great.

Lastly:  Snow!  I'm coming to really love snow.  What has happened to me!?  

Oh, that's right-I had kids.  And I discovered boots.  Who would have thought?

Also, Jon finished his last final today.  Can we all say hallelujah?  But, that subject is for another post.  It deserves one all to itself. ;)

Aiden at 9 months

Yesterday, Aiden turned 9 months.  To celebrate we decided to take him to Frozen(not really, it just happened to fall on the same day).  At first I was a little worried to take him because he's so young, but he did really well.  Patrick, of course, loved the movie.  He sat there the whole time(the only time he'll sit still), and just wanted to cuddle on our laps.  I only had to stand on the side with Aiden, once, because he was gassy and wanted to pass a little something, if you know what I mean.  Other than that, he was happy to check out and smile at everyone behind us, eat his food(we took his dinner with us) and cuddle or bounce on everyone's laps.  I loved going with all of our family.  Definitely on our list to do again sometime...until Aiden starts walking.  I'm pretty sure all activities that would force him to be confined to one spot will be out of the question.

Anyway, at 9 months Aiden likes to:

-Play with his brother

-Play with his brother

-Play with mommy

-Play with his brother

-Play with daddy

He loves Patrick. :)  Whatever Patrick plays with, he wants to play with.  This kind of puts us in a hard spot.  It gives us a good amount of time to teach Patrick to share, but at the same time I feel bad because Patrick really loves certain toys and I feel bad making him give Aiden his toys.  If they're playing with cars, for example, usually I end up telling Patrick to pick which cars he wants Aiden to play with.  He'll pick his least favorite, Aiden doesn't know the difference, and everyone's happy.  

I also love to hear the two of them in the morning.  They started sharing the bedroom a little while ago and in the morning, I'll start to hear one waking up, then the other is woken up by the noise and pretty soon they're both laughing and "talking" and making all sorts of messes in the bedroom.  I'm looking at the monitor right now(they just woke up) and Aiden is standing in his crib laughing at Patrick, who's making weird sounds with his mouth.  Patrick is laughing back and thinking he's pretty funny.  I let them do this for a few minutes everyday because I love hearing the two of them together...and I get to sleep in just a little longer. ;)

Aiden doesn't have the stranger danger thing going on yet but he is still a momma's boy.  He's completely fine with other people until I walk in the room and then he immediately tries grabbing for me.  Little kids know how to help your self-esteem along.

-He's started giving big, wet, slobbery kisses complete with sound effects.  Apparently I'm a noisy kisser and he picked up on that...

-He loves to cuddle throughout the day but not at bedtime.  Forget wrapping him up in a blanket to help him fall asleep.  We might as well be torturing or suffocating him.  He prefers to bounce around in the crib while we do our bedtime routine and as soon as we leave he lays down and falls asleep himself.
-Aiden just started handing things over.  If we give him cereal to eat, he'll pick up the cheerio, hand it to me and then wants me to hand it back again.  At first I thought he was just sharing but if you don't give the item back, he gets a little...upset.
-He still constantly jabbers away.  He's copied us when we say dada but he hasn't exactly said it like he's calling Jon.  He's getting clearer when he says it, though.

Aiden's laugh is one of my favorite things about him. Really, I'm not that funny, but he thinks I am.  He finds joy in everything(except when he's hungry.  Don't mess with him when he's hungry) and I love watching his excitement over everything.  He just loves life.  He loves to laugh.

Food at 9 months:

This requires it's own section.  Where do I start with food?  Aiden enjoys his food.  Milk has become an appetizer or a bedtime snack but that's not what Aiden wants to fill up on.  That's nice for me since I lost most of my milk last time I was sick, but holy cow, I can't believe how much this kid eats!  You'd think I could pull out one little jar of baby food and be good.  Heck no.  He wants the whole jar of homemade applesauce with a side of fresh peaches, some oatmeal and then his little jar of green beans...which came after his appetizer of milk.  We went out to eat a couple days ago, I didn't have baby food and he was starving, so I bought him a bowl of vegetable soup.  My grandpa bought the same thing.  Aiden finished his.  And it was adult size.  And the whole time he made this mmm sound like it was the greatest thing on the planet.  He enjoys his food.  I haven't found anything he doesn't like; broccoli, peas, beans, peaches, bananas, potatoes, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, pickles, oranges, peppers, oatmeal, rice, lemons, tomatoes, olives, anything off of our plate, etc.  I'm sure as his taste buds develop more he might start to dislike certain foods but right now I can put anything in his mouth and he'll act like it's the best thing he's ever had.  If I had to pick a favorite food I would say he favors sweet potatoes?  Or fruit...or pickles.  It's hard to tell since he makes satisfied noises every time he eats.  Right now it's adorable but he might have to tone it down a little when he starts taking girls out.

And for the best part:

    Still toothless and bald.  Still my sweet, little baby.

We love you, Mr. Aiden!   

     

Blessed

I feel like I've been a slacker on this little blog of mine.  I would say it's because we've been busy, but really, no extra busy-ness has happened.  I quit my facebook account for a little while and I think I've just been enjoying the break from social media.  I am, by no means, anti-facebook.  I just felt like it was an extra stress in my life and I was putting too much priority in it, and it was time to simplify for a bit.  And most importantly, I don't want my children growing up, thinking their mom can't live without her phone.  I know they're young but it has to start somewhere.  I read an article that was talking about how hard it is for kids growing up now.  They go to school where they're bombarded with peer pressure and then they come home and they still don't get away from their peers because they hop on facebook,  instagram, or twitter or whatever else is out there. When my kids come home, I want them to have a conversation with me.  I want them to want to have a conversation with me.  If they're down, I want to be there to help pick them up.  I want them to know family is the most important thing.  Friends come and go and are great in your life, but social acceptance from everyone isn't everything in this life.  And they're not going to get that message if I'm not being a good example.

So, that was a random tangent, but this little break of mine has been good.  Life isn't perfect, never will be, but it's good.  And I am so lucky.  I guess this is my Thanksgiving post-this time of year is always a good time to take extra time reflecting on the blessings in our life.  I have a cute little family, that I adore.  My husband has a good job that fits our lifestyle perfectly.  We are surrounded by people we love and people who love us.  We are stable.  We are on the path to where we want to be in life.  But most importantly, I have a Savior who is completely aware of my life.  No matter what goes wrong in this chapter, someday, it will all be made right.  I love this time of year where we focus on the Savior's birth.  We can get side-tracked with all of the holiday festivities, but when it comes down to it, we're celebrating the birth and life of our Savior who made it possible for all of us to be eternally happy.  And that's a great gift.

Today was our first major snowfall of the Christmas season.  Patrick and Aiden had an unnatural amount of energy and I thought it was the perfect time to take them out in the snow.  I loved it.  I've admitted many times I'm not a snow person but how can you not love looking outside to see the world covered in fresh, white snow?  I actually got giddy at the thought of dressing the boys up in their warm clothes and seeing their excited faces.  I can't wait to take Patrick sledding because I know he will be in little boy heaven.  I've been watching my kids a lot lately and it's refreshing to see the world through their eyes.  Something so small can be so exciting to them and it's a blessing to be reminded of the little joys in life.

That sweet face...

You'd think I like posting pictures of myself when I'm not ready for the day.  Really I don't, but I post them anyway.  You're welcome.

 You know it's been a good day when you freeze your tails off, come inside to warm up, turn on some Christmas music, drink hot chocolate, and get a chocolate mustache.  I don't make it a habit of feeding my baby sugar, but I couldn't resist his pleas.  I had to. ;)  Maybe I was trying to make up for the fact that I didn't catch him falling off the step earlier and he face planted in the snow...

   
And while I'm on here, I think I'll add a couple pictures from this past week:

I'm obsessed with his little feet

And with watching my kids sleep

I never knew this Mater would become one of our favorite inside toys.  Is there room for it?  No.  Do we play with it every single day, anyway?  Yep.  Our kitchen floor has skid marks to prove it. 

I know little kids can be exhausting but some day I'm going to look back on these days and wish I could go back to when I was Patrick's best friend.  Hopefully that won't change for a long time.  I'll miss seeing the look of excitement on Aiden's face when I walk into a room.  I can kind of see why some people have a lot of kids. ;)

Life is good.