Halloween Party

So much fun with our friends this morning!

Scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Family Pictures

Last weekend we had some professional pictures taken-it's been years since we've done so and wanted to have some new ones. Thought I'd share some-there was over a hundred taken.

5 Months Old!

Aaron will turn five months old in a few days! He's had some new developments over the last few weeks:

--loves eating his toes
--DOES enjoy being outside, now that we got a few days taste of fall weather!
--can roll over and is doing this new trick constantly in bed
--is starting to teethe :(
--eating oatmeal

We just took the boys for pictures this past weekend-we haven't done that since Nate was one and a half! I wanted to have some good pictures of us taken. Pretty happy overall.

So-hubby has been busy the last two weekends working on the boys' Christmas present-a giant playhouse! We just got approved by our HOA to do it. We hope to have it done in time for the holiday. It's coming along...

Let The Good Times Roll

In case you haven't had enough, more pictures of the boys! :) It's been another busy week.

Pizza and play at Great Play


I'm flying!


Bouncing fun-now Nate asks almost on a daily basis about going back




Aaron thought it was fun too :)


Finally-some mornings are starting to get nice for parktime! (until mid-morning anyway)



Playing in the kitchen at the Arizona Museum for Youth



Charlie Brown theme



Just chillin'...


Nate showing little brother how his saucer works






Cutie pie

Nate has one more week of school before he has a week off for Fall Break. Over that time we're looking forward to having friends over for an early Halloween party.

He's inching closer and closer to being fully potty trained-something I hope we can shut the book on by year's end :) Actually I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by the beginning of December it will be a done deal when we get to go on our longest vacation of the year to San Diego. We're starting to begin the countdown, can't wait!

Aaron is steadily thriving on his schedule. He still isn't sleeping through the night yet but I'm at least happy that we have a pretty smooth day-he takes three naps, two of which are pretty long (one is one and a half hours and the other is two-two and a half hours long). We're working hard on stabilizing daytime so that we can hopefully work out the kinks at nighttime. It has been so nice to have a friend of mine coach us along on what to do-it certainly helps take the stress off. I pretty much trust what she says and follow whatever advice and pointers she gives out :)

Again on top of all of my different jobs I'm *trying* to start training for the PF Changs Half Marathon here in January. It sure is harder this time around than it was the last time. Of course not only am I just busier this time around to find time (and childcare!) to run but having the energy to do so is the next hurdle. I'm lucky if I can just keep up with the kids,housework, etc etc on a daily basis let alone anything else added to my schedule :) I'm trying to make the effort, it's going to be a long road though I'm afraid.

Can't believe October is here already. I just wish I could see the changing fall colors...

Guess Who, Part 2!

Guess Who part 1 was with the same shirt, these pics are of the boys at the same age (4 mos).

Guess Who....?

It's kind of a question, I think you should be able to tell by the pictures who is who :) I just remembered having a picture of Nate in this shirt so I took one of Aaron and wanted to put the two beside each other to see how much they looked alike.

Greer

A little backwards, but here's some pictures from our recent trip up north!

Another digital scrapbooking design by Smilebox

It was so awesome to be in the cooler weather. The lodge we stayed at gave us access to fishing poles, kayaks and-Nate's favorite part-bikes! He rode a bike with training wheels for his first time and loved the bike mommy rode that hooked up to a trailer behind. We mostly hung out around the cabin walking around,fishing,feeding the ducks,biking and Josh took Nate on a hike close by. Just a little bummed we didn't see deer this time around, we usually do. There was a lot of preaching about Greer still being green-but boy you could tell that the wildfire there was VERY close. VERY. They lucked out.

Four Months

Aaron hit his four month birthday this week! Oh my. We saw the pediatrician yesterday and he's at the 60th percentile for about everything, higher than Nate was! At four months Aaron is...

-15 pds, 26.5 in long
-drooling a ton
-just started rice
-wearing 6 mo clothes
-loving to "eat" his blankets
-enjoying bathtime increasingly
-laughs at his big brother
-doesn't mind sitting in the booster seat in the kitchen

Those are a few things that stand out. It was also decided that Aaron will need to see a specialist for his head-the back is slightly flat so we are going to get it measured to see it it is severe enough to wear a helmet to help shape better. I'm suppose to get a call from the office on Monday and hopefully will have an appointment sometime next week. For now I'm on strict orders to have Aaron on his tummy whenever he is awake,whether he likes it or not!

Also just this week-Aaron and I have started sessions with a friend of mine who is a Sleep Coach-basically,someone who helps coach us on how to establish healthy eating/sleeping habits to have an end result of Aaron being able to sleep through the night (bottom line, through establishing a sleeping and eating schedule for Aaron it should help him sleep through the night!) We had our first session on Monday,so we've been trying to follow a set schedule. He's doing better in some ways but we still have some work to do. Kinda hard when Nate is also getting up during the night as well, I'm not feeling like I'm getting any additional rest yet. Aaron has been able to make it through the night longer without eating,but he still wakes up upset that his paci isn't in his mouth. I'm hoping to see more,even if small, changes in the next week.


Sitting with big brother-first visit to the zoo



Left the zoo with a little monkey




Circle time with new friends at Gymboree




Throughout the class he only had eyes for his new friend Emily. Oh my goodness.



Eating rice for the first time-not so crazy about it either.

Young Chef Academy

I got a great deal for a few cooking classes at a kids cooking school-today was Nate's first one! We both loved it (he loved doing it and I loved that he had a great time and it was such a cute place!) Thought we'd share some pictures from our time there!



Waiting patiently for class to begin


Stirring strawberries into his muffin mixture


Adding in a Hershey kiss


While Nate was in class, Aaron and I played out in the lobby-he loved his new Eric Carle teether!



Eating his creations


So happy we got copies of the recipes Nate made-he'll have to show mommy how to make them! ;)


Cool wall in the kitchen


A little blurry, but I LOVED the bright colors in the kitchen they were using!


Yum-"Sealed with a Kiss" muffin and a Chicken Crescent roll



Chef Nate is ready for his next class! :)