Georgia Christmas and New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas break! Brad got our of school on the 17th so that weekend we had our own little family Christmas so we wouldn't have to bring ALL of Aiden's toys to my mom's house in Georgia and risk losing track of them there. So, he had tons of fun opening his little wooden train and his little people sets and lots of other cool gifts from us and from Gigi and Poppi. Then on Monday (20th) we headed down to Georgia and Aiden did so well in the car. He is such a good traveler for which I am so grateful :) He has been that way since he was little and it definitely makes holiday trips more enjoyable.

While we were in Georgia some of our activities included hiking, going to a family game/arcade place, sledding in snow (yes, we amazingly had a white Christmas in Georgia this year),we went to see Tangled (which Aiden amazingly sat through), pudding finger painting, playing scum, making sugar cookies, and shooting off fireworks. It was so much fun to see everyone. I got to see two of my brothers, Sam and Tim, and their families that I hadn't seen in a while and my two younger siblings as well. I hadn't been home at my mom's house for Christmas in a long time either so it was so nice to be there with everyone. Here are some pics of all our fun :)

Opening his train at home on our Christmas Eve

Aiden so happy with all of his loot especially his cool Geotrax set.

Pudding Finger Painting! He was just eating it all :)

Is there a way to lick it off my chin?

Messier and messier by the second, but so much fun :)

He decided he wanted to share. haha.

Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma's house.

Christmas Morning! Opening up the stocking. In this pic he is saying a sign language please cuz he was seeing all of the candy haha.

SOO happy with his Lightning McQueen Geotrax car.

Getting ready to go play out in the snow.

His huge snow gloves that were impossible to get his thumbs into. He just walked around holding his hands up, not touching anything. "What do I do with my hands?"

My two handsome boys :)

Me sledding down the hill.

My mom sledding down the hill :)

He was so happy to be outside in the snow. He cried and cried when we had to take him inside :(

Sledding with Daddy.

Literally running on the trail. He was so excited to be outside and running around.

Playing in the leaves.

Such a little adventurous boy. He kept wanting to go off into the woods and not stay on the trail.

With his Aunt Amy, so excited to go outside and see fireworks.

Fun with sparklers.

Happy New Year!

A Thanksgiving Visit

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Alan and Sandy came and a new little baby was born all in one holiday! Aiden had so much fun seeing his Gigi and Poppi...I think he remembers them or at least can feel trust and love around them from the year he spent with them as a baby because he would walk right up to them and let them hold him. And he got right into playing with Poppi again :)

We are so happy for Brent and Meagan and their new baby girl, Leilah. Congrats you guys! She is so cute and it was fun to get to go to the hospital and see her right before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a week of food, shopping, and playing. And of course, getting to see Brad much more :) I have to say that I am so proud of us...we already have all of our Christmas shopping done! Now I am just trying to finish my online class before the holidays so I can relax and Brad is busy taking his tests for school too before Christmas gets here. We are going to my mom's house in Georgia for Christmas and two of my brothers and their families are going to be there too. I am so excited :)

I am so glad that we have family close to us here in Kentucky and that Alan and Sandy were able to come out for Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving break and some pictures of Aiden playing in the snow storm we just had. It has been freezing cold! Today we have a high of 25 degrees...brrr.

Having lunch with Gigi at Red Robin.

Playing cards as a family.

Aiden playing with Poppi.

Aiden with his cousins in their new pajamas from Gigi.

What is all that white stuff?

Oh, it is icy and cold stuff...

But I like it!

A Week of Fun

Brad finished his finals and got an A and a B in his classes in his first block of medical school!! Way to go love! You are amazing and I am so proud of you. He had anatomy and it was A LOT of material, but he did so well. And since he finished his first block he had a little break this last week in between classes and it was so nice to have him home and not have to worry about studying or any more tests for a few days.

On friday we went to a place in downtown Lexington called the Explorium. It is a kids science museum with lots of hands on stuff. It was so fun! Aiden was a little under the weather, but he didn't let that stop him :) I think his two favorite things were the little model town with dams that you could block and unblock and that had a little waterfall. It had a little wooden canoe that Aiden LOVED to push down the waterfall and splash in the water over and over. He loved it. And then he also loved the bubble room. Brad and I were having as much fun as he was in there! I could have played in there all day. They had huge bubble makers and Aiden had tons of fun chasing around the ginormous bubbles. He loved when they would pop on his face. So, he would run straight at them and tuck his arms in and close his eyes bracing for impact with every single one and then laugh when it popped on his face.

Aiden and Daddy playing with the train set.

I just love the huge smile on his face.

Flying a jet simulator with Daddy.

Pure joy on his face. haha.

This was Aiden after we got home that night- all tuckered out.

He just laid on the stairs for like 10 minutes without moving.

Also I cut Brad's hair all by myself for the first time a few weeks ago and it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Brad was all nervous, but I told him whenever I would cut my own bangs I would spend an hour making sure it was just right so I wasn't going to mess up on cutting ALL of someone else's hair. He was happy with the end product too :) Thank you to Sandy for showing me how to do it before we left :) Here are some pics of the end results.

Shadows

So Aiden discovered his shadow for the first time two days ago. It reminded me of the Disney Peter Pan movie where he loses his shadow and he is trying to get it to stay on his feet. The funniest thing about it was watching his little mind trying to process what he was seeing.

So we were walking through the parking lot in the front of our townhome to go get the mail together and the sun was hitting perfectly so you could see my shadow. Aiden all of a sudden stopped dead in his tracks and I looked back to see why he had stopped and he was just staring at my shadow and then he pointed at it and he made a noise. And I said, "Yes that is mommy's shadow," and I made my shadow wave at him, but then he got this really scared look on his face and backed away from it. I walked closer and closer to him making my shadow get closer and he kept backing up because he didn't want it to touch him and then he ran really fast around it to get away. It was so funny! I could just tell he was so confused and did not understand what my shadow was. Then when we were walking back home he saw his own shadow and he bent down and touched it and kept saying "ooooh." But then when he stood up and kept walking he noticed that his shadow kept following him and he started to walk faster and kept looking behind him and then he started to cry and run towards me to pick him up because he couldn't get away from it. At one point he also bent down and it was like he was trying disconnect his shadow from his feet. He was trying to pick the shadow off of his shoes. I was just cracking up watching him. He was so interested yet kinda freaked out by the shadows. After that he started to notice the shadows of trees and things and he liked those because they didn't move or wave at him. haha.

It is so amazing to watch little kids! I was just telling Brad today that watching little kids is just like when you have seen a really good movie, but your friends haven't and you decide to watch it together and it is really fun to watch it with them even though you have already seen it because you want to see their reactions to everything as the movie progresses. It is the same with kids, it is so fun to watch them react and interact with every little thing because to them everything is new! They have never experienced things before so it is so fun to see their faces and their reactions and what they do in different situations.

I also have to tell another quick story about Aiden in the car on the way home from our ward Trunk or Treat night. He was SO tired and he was in the back of the car in his car seat and he just started giggling and I looked back there and he was sticking his feet in his mouth. And then as I watched for a few seconds longer I realized he was sticking his feet in his mouth and tickling his toes with his teeth. It was so cute. He would stick his toes in his mouth, rub his toes on the bottoms of his teeth, and then start giggling. It was hilarious and it kept him entertained for a good amount of time on the way home too :)

Camping

Over Labor Day Weekend we were able to go camping with the Zastrows. We headed down to Mammoth Caves in South central Kentucky and stayed for two nights. It was a great time, and I think Aiden had more fun than any of us. He was so happy to be out in the dirt and grime, not having to always be wiped down and told not to put things in his mouth. Of course, that was pretty much only because there was no way we could ALWAYS keep him clean, and because he was constantly putting things in his mouth, so inevitably, some things slipped past our watchful eyes. BUT, he's not sick, so no harm, no foul. The Zastrows went ahead and took a good two hour long tour of the caves, but we didn't think Aiden could make it that long, so we ended up taking our own little hike around the area. We saw a lot of butterflies, and cool springs where underground rivers came to the surface, as well as some BYU fans, believe it or not! In all, we had a great weekend and really enjoyed the time with family and friends and away from school and all the business of Lexington.