Tis the Season to be Jolly

I am finally able to update the blog! Our laptop computer screen has been broken and we finally were able to hook our computer up to a new screen!(So sorry this is long there are pictures at the end I promise!) We have had a wonderful holiday season. Brad had two weeks off in the middle of his surgery rotations which was awesome! When Brad had to go back to school yesterday Aiden was bawling. I think all of us (Brad included) had gotten use to having him home. It was a hard day back to reality for all of us yesterday.

But for Christmas we headed down to my mom's house in Georgia for our Christmas break and got to see about half my family. There were 4 out of the 8 siblings there. My brothers Joe and Tim came from out of town and Amy and James were there as well. It was so fun to be with everyone and to just relax. We played lots of games, watched lots of movies, and ate a lot of food :) And we hardly saw Aiden while we there because he was having so much fun playing with his cousins.

Christmas morning Aiden was so excited to see what he got from Santa. He ran to where his stocking was on the couch and started oooing and ahhing over what he got, but then he turned to me and said, "Santa didn't bring me transformers." Of course they were wrapped up right next to his stocking and he was just so distracted by the rest of his loot he hadn't opened them yet :) But when he opened them it was so cute, he was so happy and shouted, "My transformers!" And while Ryder is still clueless about Santa he knew what wrapped things meant and was a pro at opening all his gifts and LOVED all his new toys. My mom made Brad and I a wonderful recipe book that has all the German recipes passed down from her side of the family. And each recipe has a family story with it. I can't wait to start using it and I love gifts like that that you know you will cherish your whole life and that your children will cherish. Thanks mom we love you!

After all the present opening and breakfast we were able to go see Les Miserables (thanks again mom for watching the boys while we went!) It was a beautiful movie and of course had me in tears quite a bit of the time. It really was an inspiring and beautiful movie. Brad and I agreed afterward that it is a movie with a message that the world really needs to hear right now. The beautiful closing message was that "To love is to see the face of God."

We were sad to say bye to everyone especially knowing we will not see them for a while. This was the last Christmas with my little brother James before he leaves on his mission so I am so glad we were able to be there and we can't wait to see where he is called to serve! We are so proud of you James. My mom gave the boys the perfect parting gift of snow discs because the day after we got home it snowed! Sadly Aiden also got a little sick that day, but we managed to go out for a little bit and sled down some hills. Aiden had so much fun! And Ryder was not quite sure about the snow...he just kinda stood around in it :)

It was a wonderful holiday season with lots of good memories and I am sad to see it end. But we are looking forward to 2013. It is going to be a big year most likely with another little one coming at some point :) and also Brad's schooling starting to come to an end. Things are already starting to change with Aiden going into the primary class at church and Ryder going into the nursery class. I can't believe we will have a 4 year old and 2 year old this year. We are so blessed and I love our family so much and can't wait to have some more adventures this year.

 Our Christmas elf had lots of fun this year :)

 Little doctors in the making :)

 Cuddling at Grandma's house.

 Nothing like playing the ipad with a friend by the fire.

 ooo Grandma has a massage chair :)

 So much fun with Grandma!

 Aiden first discovering the transformers!

 So happy to be together. Love you.

Pre-School and Some Brotherly Love

There is a small group of ladies at church that put together a small pre-school group that meets once a week so Aiden and I decided to join in the fun! He was so excited to go and I am glad that he gets to have fun with friends and learn new things. He loved his first week and was just reminding us today that on Mondays he has pre-school :) Here are some cute pics of him with his backpack on his way out the door to pre-school:

 Ryder trying to get in on the action :)

Aiden with his sweet monkey backpack :)

And here are just some other cute pics of the boys having fun and showing brotherly love:

The boys eatin' bananas on the new table bench that Brad built! Yes we are getting a new table! Pics will be coming soon.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

So we have a family tradition of going to a pumpkin patch every year. There are quite a few to choose from here around Lexington so we have fun trying out different ones every year. They are at orchards that usually have hay rides, big play areas, petting zoos, and cider as well. So it is always a fun fall activity for us! This year we lost Aiden...yes, we lost our child. It was the first time it has ever happened and it totally freaked me out. We were in the play area and there is only one way into the fort and then there were a bunch of slides to choose from to go down and get out. Well, Brad told him he could go down the black slide one more time and so we watched him run over to where you climb up to get in....and then he never came down the slide. We were calling his name thinking that maybe he was somehow still playing in the fort, but we still were not finding him. I climbed in the fort trying to find him and he wasn't anywhere in there. That is when I really started panicking because it was crowded there that day and if he wasn't in the play area that meant he could be anywhere. Brad had already started looking in other areas for him. So, I went to go meet up with him and sure enough there he was by the entrance with Brad! I was on the verge of breaking down into tears as I hugged him. Apparently what happened was he decided he wanted some more apple cider and had gone up front by the entrance where they sell it. Some nice man saw him and bought him some cider and brought him to the front where they started announcing over the microphone that there was a lost child named Aiden and that's when Brad heard them and went up there and got him. I was just so happy he was ok. He is at the age right now where he thinks he is so big and can do anything by himself...so we have been heavily enforcing the idea that you have to stay with mom and dad and tell us before you want to go anywhere.

So anyways, besides that little incident it was a beautiful day and the boys had lots of fun. One of my favorite moments was when Aiden went down one of the HUGE slides. He went on this exact same slide last year, but was apparently a little too small for it because he ended up sliding kinda crazy and bumped his head a bit at the end. After that incident he was kind of scared of slides and it took him a little while to get over it. So, this year when he saw it he told us this year I am a big boy and I won't bump my head. I was so amazed first of all that he remembered it! But I was so proud that he was so brave about it. He climbed to the top all by himself and he still looked pretty scared coming down, but as he climbed off he gushed, "Mom I was so brave!" It was so cute and I was so proud of him. Here are some pics:

 The HUGE slide that Aiden was so brave on.

 Too much fun apparently :)

 Happy with his cider.

 Goin' on a hay ride.

 Love this pic..Aiden's making funny faces and Ryder...that's just his exhausted face :)

 Corn maze!

I love my family.

Random Fun Around the House

I just wanted to post these adorable pics of the boys and of my latest fun Halloween project. My sister Katie gave me the idea and it only cost me $3 total! I just bought the three plates at the dollar store and that was it. I used a permanent marker to draw on the pictures on the plates and you can make it permanent by putting them in the oven or I might just wash them off and draw new images after Halloween for Thanksgiving...not sure which I am going to do yet.

 I let Ryder feed himself yogurt because he always wants to do it by himself and I usually don't let him and you can see why...

 So worth it though...look at that happy face :)

 I made Aiden a super hero cape out of a pair of Brad's old pajama pants and he loves it :)

 I think he should be a model for Nike :)

And my Halloween plates! So fun and easy to make!

Happy Birthday Brad

So in addition to being a fabulous Labor Day weekend we also got to celebrate Brad's 28th birthday! And Brad just happened to get out early from classes all week long on his birthday week! So on his birthday when he got home we had a surprise birthday banner the kids and I had made for him and we sang him happy birthday then we all went out to lunch. In the evening we had a cake and also for his birthday he got Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and a rasberry cream pie :) So it was a fun and delicious week of birthday celebration. Oh and Brad also got to build a ladder shelf for his birthday. He had really been wanting to do some kind of project so we went to the store and got all the materials he needed. It looks beautiful! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband who works so hard, who is so brilliant, and who is the best husband and father. I love you!

 Such a fun Daddy :)

 Blowing out his make believe candles....long story but makes for a funny picture :)

 28!

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To the Zoo

For Labor Day weekend we went to the zoo and the kids loved it and miraculously we didn't get rained on although by the end I think we wouldn't have minded some to cool us off. It was REALLY humid, but we had a great time! I think my favorite thing was seeing the bonobo monkeys because there was a little baby one and he was shy at first and kept just peeking his head out and then we waved at him and he waved back! It was so cute. We also got to see some cougars really close up which was fun. He was right next to the glass and Aiden not realizing their was glass was walking up to him really hesitantly and was scared thinking that there was nothing between him and the cougar. The people standing next to us noticed and were giggling about his  seeing how scared he was to get close to the glass. Once we showed him the glass he went right up but it was pretty funny. Here are some pics from our trip:

Ryder kept wanting to try to go under the fence on the bridge to go see the ducks in the water :)

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