life lately...

This has been a week of getting things done around the house and hanging out with my boys, but now that Aedan's sleeping and I have a little downtime before bed, I thought I'd do a little writing about what we've been up to over the last few weeks.

We spent the last few days of 2011 and the first few days of 2012 at Landon's brother's house for "Zelda weekend 2011".  The guys have a tradition of beating the game whenever a new one comes out and Elizabeth and I had fun hanging out with the kids for a few days.

This picture kinda encapsulates the weekend, ha.

Aedan loves his Uncle Logan. :)

And he loved getting a sink bath--but really I think the huge smile was for Abagael!

There is pretty much nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

It was gorgeous weather and one afternoon we took the kids down to a little playground.  Aedan had fun trying out his Aunt Eli's new bike.

Cutest, most talented niece ever. 

And, she was SUCH a sweet helper with Aedan all weekend.  I love this picture of her pushing him in the stroller--they both look very happy with the arrangement!

We also took them to the Children's museum one day--it was a lot of fun and good to get out of the house. :)  And, when we got back, the guys were (kinda) close to beating the game!

 

Aedan had fun playing in the blocks with his Aunt Eli.  He likes knocking things over but doesn't quite see the humor and fun in it just yet.  I think it's more that he's trying to grab it and it falls over.

 And he LOVED looking at the bubbles in the water.  He had the biggest smile on his face and was just looking and looking at it all.

We weighed him in the produce scale, ha.  It was a little off though--it said he weighed about 20 pounds!

Then his Aunt Eli put him in Abagael's basket as she was checking out.  Her face here cracks me up.  "How'd this baby get in my basket??"

On New Year's eve the guys took a break for their game and we went to hang out with Blake and Morgan, like we always do.  It's funny how our New Year's plans have gone from going to New Orleans a few years ago to our plans this year--an early dinner, a little Praise Baby and playtime, put the kids to sleep, watched Captain America and then celebrated the start of 2012 by watching the ball drop in New York.  Not quite as exciting as years past, but so fun to have little ones to celebrate the new year with.  Next year though, we decided we're just cooking something at the house rather than braving a restaurant, ha.  That was about as chaotic as you would imagine it would be with an 8 month old and a 6 month old.  It was fun, as always, just to hang out with them though.  We love ringing in the new year with you guys!!

We all piled into Blake and Morgan's car and headed to Blue Mesa for an early-ish dinner with the kids.  The last time we put them in the car together like this they screamed the whole way to dinner, but this time was a lot better.  Pretty much no crying, and even a little sleeping!

Sweet babies, playing a little before bedtime.

Morgan, you look like a natural with two kids. :)

January 2nd, we headed back to Houston, stopping for dinner with my family, before picking up our dogs and heading home.  It was a fun trip and Aedan did well traveling, but it was good to be home!

Since we've been home, we've been trying to get back into the groove of regular, day to day life (and get caught up on laundry and put the Christmas decorations away!).  And, we've spent a lot of time playing with this little one and all of his new Christmas toys!  I could sit and play with this sweet boy with this sweet smile all day long. 

We've also spent some time playing with some of Aedan's little friends and their mommas.  Here are some of the 9 kids that were at our playgroup last Friday.  So fun--and just a little bit crazy!! (Thanks, Kellianne, for the pictures!)

Since we've been home, we've tried a few more foods--and I tried out making some that I actually had to cook.  My first try was carrots and I managed to totally mess them up (I didn't even know that was possible--there's like 2 steps!) but the carrots and pears last week were a lot more successful!  He's still not a huge fan of anything we've tried so far though.  I'm loving the website www.wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com as I start making his food and trying out new things for him!

Right now though, we're taking a little break from food as we add some milk and soy back into my diet to test out his allergy, just so we can know for sure what he's having a reaction to, if anything.  He had a little reaction to dairy last week, but not as bad as it seemed in the beginning, and we're trying out soy next week.  I'm still praying that he outgrows it all totally so it's not something we/he have to deal with when he's eating regular food later down the road.

Last weekend our small group threw a "diapers and gift cards" shower for Rachel, one of our sweet friends.  We just met at Chili's and ate and hung out and blessed and prayed over their soon to be family of four.  It was a fun few hours!  And, Aedan stayed with Landon for some daddy time, so it was a nice little break for me too.

Rachel's mother in law and daughter, Miranda, joined us too.  Miranda was so excited about all the things for her new baby brother.  So precious.

Sweet friends, Lauren and Kaleena.  Before we know it, it'll be Lauren's shower we're throwing! :)

Tracey gave Rachel and little Brennan a blessing and I said a prayer over them before we opened presents.  Rachel, we can't wait to meet little Brennan!!

 

Yesterday, we started P90X2.  We've been debating for a while what we wanted to do--run, train for a triathlon, P90X--but we knew we wanted to start something around the new year.  We were both just starting to feel a little antsy and really out of shape!  So far, so good.  It's been hard but we've made it--2 days down, 88 to go!  And Aedan's at a good age for it because he can play in the room with us by himself some while we do it if need be.  Today, while he was awake, he was in his bouncer as we were working out.  Some of the time he was watching us and sometimes he was just playing and bouncing and looking at the dogs.  At one point though, we were doing this thing where we had to run in place really quickly and then periodically throw our hands up and jump in the air.  As we're doing this, we hear this little giggle and look over and he's smiling and laughing at us as we did it. It was too cute!

 

And, we've spent a lot of time cheering on our Texans lately!  Last weekend we had the Strothers over to watch the first playoff game, which was so exciting!  And sweet Brooklyn and Aedan had fun playing too.

We were so sad to see them lose today, but so proud of how they've played this year and how they've overcome to many challenges to make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs!  See you on August 11th, Texans!