Christmas Tree hunting

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We went to Lowes to pick out our Christmas tree this year. It may not have been a real forest, but Aiden loved following after daddy through the "woods". We ended up with the most fabulous tree that we've ever had. Aiden loved playing in the animated toys section while we waited for them to bundle our tree. It was only the beginning of December, but the other shelves were all wiped out. Lowes had 50% off all their Christmas stuff. I couldn't believe it!

Thanksgiving Weekend

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we (Grandma, Mom, me, and Aiden) went to our cousin Donna's house for a family gathering. Aiden discovered the joy of riding a scooter. Earlier that day, he had discovered how to apply his grandma's mascara. He did not enjoy the mascara removal process.

Some photos from Thanksgiving Eve

I was uploading photos of my room when I discovered that I hadn't posted any pics since Thanksgiving. So here are a few from Thanksgiving Eve at my Dad's house. My brother Ryan was in town. My favorite photo isn't posted here. Simply put, it's way out of focus. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's SNOWING in Texas!! I just can't believe it! I'm looking out my back window at snow on the ground. I even woke Aiden up from his nap to go look at it. I mean, this is a rare opportunity. Where else would he get to see real live SNOW!!!!? Aiden was just amazed, but then I think we all were!!

A while ago I saw a toy designed for toddlers called Dance Cam. I thought of buying it for Aiden for Christmas, but I wasn't sure if he would really like it. One day Aiden was watching tv and bounced up and started dancing. Lo and behold, it was a commercial for Dance Cam. I'll let you watch the videos and judge for yourself whether it should be on his Christmas list.

November Family Day

Olen took off on Monday last week so we could have a family day. He needed to stop by one of his plants out in Cypress, Tx. This particular plant is in the middle of a horse pasture, complete with horses. I let Aiden out to play while Olen worked. He went towards the horse stalls and one of the horses came out to play. Aiden saw that big horse coming toward him and started backing up really fast! Eventually, he got brave enough to go pet the horses. Of course, having daddy hold him helped!

Several funny stories

A few days ago, my mom bought Aiden some clothes. Amongst all these clothes was a pair of jeans that had a guitar on them. We knew that since he loved guitars that he would love to have one on his pants. So, the day came when she brought them over to him. She held them up and he slowly got this big grin that showed from behind his pacifier as he realized that there was a guitar on those pants! He even did a little toddler happy dance. He happily showed total strangers his guitar all day long. He was in a good mood all day long.
On Sunday, we managed to make it to church. He was playing in the sanctuary close by. Olen saw him go by the bottle of annointing oil that they keep on the stage. It's a pretty large bottle and Aiden leaned over to smell it. Apparently, some got on his nose. He kept wiping at it, but he could still smell it. He went over to the Kleenex box, got himself a tissue, and wiped his nose. What makes this story so great...Olen says that after Aiden wiped his nose with the tissue, he put the tissue back in the box! LOL!! How can you fuss at him for cleaning up after himself?!
I've been in the process of switching Aiden from formula to milk. I've been slowly increasing his bottles to being all milk. Well, the time came to start the switch to cups from bottles for his morning milk. We gave him chocolate milk on Sunday to ease the transition. He handled that well, so I thought that we had it done. This morning I put his milk in a cup with a straw since he loves drinking with a straw. He came back a few minutes later and pulled me into the kitchen. I wasn't sure what he was wanting. He was pointing where his sippy cups were. So I lifted him up there to show me what he was wanting and he pulled one of his bottles out. So I switched his milk into his bottle and handed it to him. Then...he did a happy dance. I just couldn't help but laugh!

Testing a blog feed

Hi, all! This is a test. A test of the emergency broadcast....well, not really. I'm just testing to see if a blog-reader feed on Facebook is actually going to acknowledge this site or not. You see, it likes my Myspace blogs. It's just not sure if it likes blogspot. Now, blogspot is the blog where I write about the family. Ok, it's supposed to be about the family. It's mostly about Aiden. When you're a stay-at-home mom, a lot of life revolves around your kid(s). Which works nicely for the grandparents who are wishing that I would blog about Aiden a little more often because they love seeing photos of him. Anyway, since it's getting late, I should stop rambling and get on with my life...i.e. go to sleep. So, here's hoping this works...here's looking at you kid!

Classically Chocolate

Last night I had the girls over for a Classically Chocolate event. We all brought chocolate and then we watched chocolate-titled movies. We had three different kinds of brownies, fudge, chocolate cake, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate parfaits, and a white chocolate strawberry cheesecake cheese ball. We had more chocolate than we could consume. We watched Hercule Poriot's The Chocolate Box and Like Water for Chocolate. All in all, it was a very wonderful evening. But then...how could you go wrong with good friends and chocolate.

Family Day

Once a month, Olen takes off from work and we try to have a family day. I usually forget to take any pictures. This time I actually remembered my camera. Whoo-hoo! Miller Outdoor Theater usually has a program aimed at kids on Wednesday mornings. This particular morning we went to see Danceology 101. It showcased dances from each of the decades starting with the 1920's. Aiden enjoys dancing, so I knew that he would enjoy watching it in person. It was a very entertaining program. It did have a little too much talking portions to keep Aiden's undivided attention, but he did enjoy the day. There weren't that many people out watching the program. It was an absolutely gorgeous day though. I wanted to stay and play at Hermann Park. Unfortunately, we had been running late that morning and hadn't eaten breakfast, so Olen and Aiden were starving. So, we headed to Cracker Barrel for a wonderful lunch. Overall, we had a very nice family day and hope to repeat it soon.

Black Beans

Aiden just loves black beans. I decided to make black beans and tortillas for lunch today. He kept wanting more and more and more. It's a wonder that his little tummy could hold that many beans! Now, he looks kinda like those Halloween costumes where the kids dress up like tramps. But he's very happy! The last photo looks like a celebrity trying to avoid the paparazzi. In actuality, he wanted to play with the camera.

Cupcakes and Fire Ants

We've been going for walks lately. Olen, Aiden, Izzy (the dog), and I have been walking two miles every other day. It's been good for us. The other night we were setting out for our walk. Olen had Izzy on her leash and I was getting the stroller out of the back of the truck. Aiden was in the yard and suddenly dashed over to me crying. I looked down at him and his feet were covered by fire ants!! Poor baby!! I hurriedly dashed them off of him and ran to get some cortizone cream. His little feet actually don't look that bad in this photo. He's been handling it pretty well. Every once in a while he'll come to me and hold up his foot for me to put some more cream on it for him.



Friday was my mom's birthday. So we made some cupcakes. She also got a big hug from Aiden.

Aiden at Micky D's

This is just a quick video of Aiden at the playground at McDonald's, one of Aiden's favorite activities.

The talents of a two year old

We were out at Chili's one day and Aiden wanted something to drink. He couldn't seem to decide between daddy's diet coke and grandma's iced tea. So, he just had some of both! I'd forgotten how silly toddlers can be!

At one point while we were in San Antonio, Aiden started running back and forth between his grandmas giving them big hugs. It was such a sweet moment. Of course, Mama doesn't get a hug at all during this love feast. Oh well! Smile.

Aiden and G-ma sleeping

After the hurricane, Aiden was so tired. We went with my mom to San Antonio. When we're there, my grandma sleeps on the couch. One night, Aiden decided to crawl up beside her for a minute. He pulled up the quilt and promptly fell asleep. He's so sweet when he's asleep!!

G-ma dressing Aiden

Aiden likes to help get himself dressed. Unfortunately, his great-grandma doesn't know his eccentricities. So, they got a little stuck!! Just a quick cute video.

Messy Toddler

This video was shot in San Antonio. Mom, Aiden, and I decided to evacuate from the hurricane's aftermath. Apparently, Aiden was a little stressed. We went to Babies R Us to buy him some extra pacifiers and he spent the rest of the week walking around with a pacifier in each hand. Poor baby!

My son the ham

I was taking pictures the other day of something that I was going to sell on Ebay. My son, seeing the camera out, dashed over. Apparently, if the camera is out, it's meant to be taking pictures of him! So, I obliged. Here are a few photos of our impromptu photo shoot.

Hurricane Ike pics

The first electric company vehicle that I saw on the roads after the storm. We were so excited! Then we had to wait almost two weeks before our house had power.


This is a station near Old Town Spring.


This was going into Old Town Spring.

This was a street off of Aldine Westfield.


Yeah, I know, everyone else has posted their pics a long time ago. But some of those people got power before I did and don't have an active toddler!

Continuing of blogging from Sept

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Here are a few more pics from Aiden's birthday. The first one was of his car cake. I was attempting to make it look like Lightning McQueen from the Cars movie. As you can see, it turned out....interesting. The good news is that I got the colors right. My mom helped me decorate the cake, and as they say, she is not to blame for any inaccuracies! In the end, Aiden's favorite part, as always, was the ice cream.

So behind....

The storm did it.....that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I am almost a month behind on blogging. So, I'll go back to the first week of September and start again. These pics are from Aiden's birthday. The top one is from his birthday dinner. The second was his present from his grandma, a little ride in firetruck. He loved his presents. He even loved having a gift bag to put toys in so he could carry them around with him! I have more birthday pics, but I figured that I would keep each post short and sweet. So, you'll see those on the next post.

Safety News

Just posting a note quickly to let everyone know that we are all safe. Olen had to go on a call to Wharton County right before the storm hit, but came back safely before the storm really hit our side of town. Thank God. It was scary waking up to the winds howling like a tornado outside our windows. We had no damage to the house or our vehicle. Our fence got blown done some. Some trees fell in the neighborhood. But God has blessed us with the most awesome neighbors in the whole world. Abiel and Rosie have a generator and asked if we'd like to plug our fridge into it, so we only lost a half gallon of ice cream. Abiel also made sure that our fence got fixed so that we could let the dog outside without worrying since Olen was having to work constantly. He also ran a mower over our front lawn to knock the debris off. Plus, a huge tree portion (I'd say limb, but that doesn't quite cover it) from another neighbor's tree that was in the street in front of our house "mysteriously" disappeared. So if you feel like praying some massive blessings into someone's life, send them Abiel and Rosie's life.
In general, everyone that I've been able to hear from has survived the storm. I did have one friend who, as she puts it, has a new skylight in her bedroom. My cousin Alicia has power down in Pasadena and so do a few people that my mom works with, but most still don't have any power. We were lucky and still have running water. My mom wasn't as lucky in that area, so we (Aiden, mom, and I) have come over to San Antonio for a few days.
When Abiel and another neighbor stopped a Centerpoint worker in our area, he told them that it would be a minimum of 4 days or a maximum of 4 weeks before we got power back. That was on Monday. As of this morning, when I talked to Olen, our neighbors behind us had gotten power, but we hadn't yet. So, at least we have hope that they are working in the area! I hope that the rest of you that I haven't heard from are okay. To the rest of the world....Enjoy having lights!!

Aiden's F150

One of Aiden's birthday presents from his grandma was a Ford F150. It's so cute! He had a blast riding it around the back yard. We finally got the yard all cleaned up so he could drive it around and now Hurricane Ike is about to hit. So, Aiden gets one day to ride it around outside before the 100% chance of rain hits. He rode it 'til his battery wore down. Just like any other Texas boy!! Now, I just need to figure out how to re-charge it!

Day before Ike

This is just a small video of Aiden taking advantage of the beautiful weather before Hurricane Ike hits the coast. The whole city is planning on shutting down tomorrow. The libraries, the schools, and even my mom's office building. So, I have water, my books, and hopefully electricity to face down the storm. Good luck to all...

Birthday Lunch

Today was Aiden's 2nd birthday. So, we figured that we'd take him to Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse for his birthday. They had cute girl waitresses and he loves girls. They sing happy birthday and burst into dancing occasionally. Well, that's what happened the last time we had gone. This time was different. We had a guy waiter, not a girl. Ok. We can live with that. But then we realized they don't dance anymore. Sad face. Ok. Well, we're here. So, now comes birthday time....They put Aiden up on a saddle. He's ok with that. Then they announce his name and age and ask everyone to yell "YeeHaw!" The good news is that Aiden was too stunned to cry! :-) Bad news is that he looked like he was trying to figure out why he was in trouble when he hadn't done anything. Hehe. More bad news....two camcorders going and one camera and we got ZIP. Yup, you read right. We got nothing. Us two camcorder handlers didn't get the buttons pushed correctly, so no footage. yup. simple camcorder, not so simple operators. hmm....well, we did take some pictures of him while he was sitting at the table. I'll have to post those when I don't have a toddler hanging on me!

Aiden and his guitar

Aiden's grandma recently bought him a guitar. Not a toy guitar. A real, full-toddler size guitar with strings. He loves it!! He just thinks that he's a little rock star. This video doesn't quite show his huge fascination with it, but everytime I get the camcorder out to record him, He stops and watches me instead. Oh, well! So for now, here you go...

Yipee

For those of you who've been talking to us, you know it's been rough lately. My Great-uncle Ernest passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was like a grandfather to me and a dad to my mom. During this time, our car broke down about three times, as in out of commission completely. My Great-aunt Billie was in the hospital during this time for colon surgery. She got out of the hospital and had to go back in. They ended up doing another surgery. Sigh. It was a lot to deal with at one time.
But I have good news to report! My aunt is doing much better now after the second surgery. I'm so grateful. It's nice to have something good to report finally.
Now, if only I had good news in the rest of our lives, I could relax. But I know that it's coming.

Uncle Ryan and baby Aiden

This is just a little video to show how uncles can make friends with tech happy babies!!!

New Yorker in Town

My brother Ryan was in town this weekend for a wedding. So, we actually had a chance to get together with him this past Friday night. We ditched the kid....I mean, we left Aiden to play with his Papa, Memaw, and Aunt Cindy, while us siblings plus one (Olen) went and hung out at Denny's. We had a blast just spending time together. It had been a very long time. I finally got the picture of the three of us together that I've wanted. So, I'm happy!

Morning Baby

Good morning, all!

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my baby from this morning. I was playing with my camera when he woke up, so I took some pictures of his bed head! Enjoy!

Mama, a baby's hero

Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed?
I have to have mine closed. Even Aiden has to have his closet doors closed. He was crying last night and not going to sleep . I went in and asked him what was wrong and he pointed at his open closet door. I closed it. He fell asleep. Mama saves the day or night rather!

NCIS Marathon

Yup, that's the most exciting thing happening for us today. We had lunch at our local antique mall. That was wonderful. Last night we had fun. We stopped and chatted with Matt for a while and picked up a pizza or two along the way. Then, we went to the park for our meal. Afterwards, Aiden got to play on the playground. Then we walked around the park to let him wear off some energy. Then, we went on to Dairy Queen to pick up dessert. Then it was off to the do-it-yourself car wash to give our car a most needed bath. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Part 3 of backyard fun

The weather has dried up some finally, but Aiden and I are both too tired to go play in the backyard. Maybe later....

Follow up video to backyard fun

This video is another part to Aiden's backyard fun. Unfortunately, with Hurricane Dolly throwing rain our way, there's no playing in the backyard right now. Poor Aiden really, really wants to play outside. He'll go put on his Cars shoes and bring me my shoes. Then, he'll drag me to the back door to let him out. He doesn't understand why he can't go out in the rain, especially when he ends up wet every time he goes out anyway!! Have you ever tried entertaining an active 2 year old little boy inside????? Yesterday he pulled down the shampoo holder in the bathroom. The big one that goes from the bathtub to the ceiling. Yup, that one. I heard a loud thud and then crying. Luckily, it just scared him and didn't hurt him. Here's hoping that the sun will come out tomorrow.....

Just one little video

This is just one little video of Aiden playing in the backyard. I have a couple more from that day that I'll post later.

I thought that I would post this little video of Aiden from the fourth of July. We went over to my dad's and after dinner walked over to the nearby park. Aiden had fun going down the slides. We also got to watch the neighbors pop fireworks for free. We had fun.

Day at the Beach

On Tuesday, Olen took off and we all headed down to Galveston for a family day. We headed down around 11 am and stopped at McDs for lunch on the way. We then met up with Susan, Shelbie, and Sarah at the Palm beach at Moody Gardens. It's like a small water park. Aiden had a blast playing at the water park.


He was trying to make friends with everyone at the park. Afterwards, Olen, Aiden, Shelbie and I went driving down the Sea wall. We sat a while and watched the pelicans diving into the water for their dinner. It was really cool to see the huge splashes they made in the distance. We then went out to the eastern side of the island and watched the birds fly around and the ships go in and out. Olen got some great shots of Shelbie. He claims he got a couple of good shots of me as well, but I haven't seen those. Aiden was napping throughout this time, so we didn't get any shots of him. Next, we met back up with Susan and Sarah who had gone to get Lloyd. We met at a restaurant called Shrimp and Stuff. They had the best poboys. Olen loved their gumbo. It was nice and relaxing to just hang out. Overall, it was a very successful vacation day. I think that we just might have to repeat the experience sometime soon.

Aiden's new truck

Aiden's grandma decided that Aiden needed a new ride-on toy. Mind you, he has several already. But he needed a big one, so she said. So, we hit garage sales. Two days in a row. Early in the morning. Both days. Aiden and I were both exhausted. We didn't do very well the first morning. Or should I say that Mom and I didn't do well. Aiden did very well. Especially since he has no money. The first garage sale that we stopped at was another mom like me. Little room, lots and lots of toys. So, when Aiden decided that a toy jeep was his favorite, she gave it to him for free. Nice lady, lucky kid. Next stop, we found some stuff and Aiden found an old cell phone. When we asked the man how much for the phone, he told us that Aiden could have it. Score 2 for the boy. Saturday was the jackpot for him though. He saw this car at a garage sale and played with it for a moment and then moved on. But as we were leaving, he grabbed it and proceeded to drag it to the car. We guessed that meant that he wanted it after all! After we got home, he insisted on playing in it non-stop. If he was inside, he'd demand to go outside. Then, he'd go and just sit in it happily. Just like any guy with a new truck!!!

Funny Story

Olen stopped by earlier today and had lunch with us. While he was here, he changed Aiden's diaper, which is not an unusual event. After he left, I let our dog Izzy in. She loves to dig in the trash and drag out whatever she can find. Well, Aiden brought me a dirty diaper later that I figured Izzy had got out of the trash. Later, I looked at Aiden and the butt of his outfit looked wet. I thought it was probably just a shadow, but I went to look anyway. I felt it and discovered that not only was it wet, there was no diaper on underneath!! Now, mind you, his onesie outfit was still completely snapped, so I have no idea how he got it off. I guess he just felt like going commando! Needless to say, he got a new outfit and a new diaper!

Dinner with the Bells

We had a great time the other night. We had Susan, Lloyd, Shelbie, and Sarah over to our house. Aiden woke up from his nap to find them here and immediately started smiling. It was so much fun. Aiden was having so much fun that he didn't even stop playing when he got hurt!! Poor baby! It's definitely an experience that we're looking forward to repeating.

Cleaning Day

Today is cleaning day at our house. Well, it's supposed to be anyway. I haven't felt all that great today. And we're having company come over tonight. It's clean enough for company luckily, thanks to my husband. Aiden loves cleaning day. He really wants to help. His favorite things to help with are sweeping and dusting. Unfortunately, that means taking something with a long stick and swinging it around. Which creates for a little added stress of keeping things from getting knocked off and broken. Which would then create more to clean. I keep telling myself that this will be a wonderful trait when he's older. Uh-huh. I keep trying to convince myself of this. Maybe one day some young lady will reap the benefits of this, but I have a felling that I won't!!!!

Aiden's growing up

This morning, I heard scrapping sounds in the kitchen. I decided that I should probably check to see what my little son thought he was up to. I walk in to find that he has dragged in his little table and pulled it up close to the counter. He had climbed up on the table so that he could reach the counter. He pulled his baby formula tin over and was grabbing a baby bottle! Apparently, he figured that he'd seen mama make his bottles, so he could do it too!! Needless to say, I got a good laugh and then made him a bottle.

Aiden and the balloon lady

When we were in San Antonio about a month ago, we saw a lady making balloon figures at the restaurant at which we were eating. We couldn't get her to come over and make one for Aiden. She was too busy going to the tables that had more children then ours. We were disappointed, but didn't really think much about it after that.
So, today we went to IHOP for lunch. And lo and behold, there's another lady making balloon figures for the patrons. We managed to catch this lady and she made Aiden a cute little orange balloon tiger. She was young and pretty which Aiden loved! He loves pretty girls. He proceeded to watch her even as she moved away!!

Playing outside at G-ma's house

Back in May, we went on a trip to my Grandma's house in San Antonio. Aiden loved being able to go outside and play. He didn't want to come in even when it got dark outside. I tried to get him to stop long enough to let me take his picture, but as you can tell, he didn't want to stop for long!