Black Friday

What a success! Call Josh the king of Black Friday. I don't know why I question every year whether or not I am going to continue in this wacky tradition. It's not that I need the bargains. I have 90% of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. It's that I enjoy this chaotic event. Some of my greatest holiday memories are of the loons out before sunrise on Black Friday.

So up at 4:30am, we were. Pull the poor baby out of bed. Oh what a bad mother am I? And off to Sears it was. People actually offered to let Josh butt in line because he had a baby. As the doors opened people were running crazily and I just stopped and laughed. We got amazing deals. As I waited in the ever so long, never moving electronic line, Josh found a little man in appliances near a register and he got me the TV I wanted before I had gone a foot and before they sold out. He also got some other amazing deals. Then it was off to Target. Again, Josh was the super hero. We split up and as I walked past the empty shelf where the pink Dyson vacuum I wanted used to be, I got very sad. Of course I didn't need it, but it was top on my list. I walked head hung to the front of the store and called Josh to see where he was. He had my vacuum and was already checked out. How does he do it?
Then to Shopko, the lines to check out, horrendous. I don't need anything that badly. Kmart next, nothing good left. Last stop, Smith's Market Place. I was impressed. They still had free donuts, which made the baby happy. I found a lot of things I wanted. Half off all socks, can't go wrong there. Then we took the baby and his daddy home for a nap.
Rach and I went out for some shoes. While at the shoe store, I won a DVD player in a drawing. Yipee! Walgreens, Walmart, and Costco. What a fabulous day!
I shall never doubt my Black Friday plans again.

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Vintage photographs - Genelogy

I sat anxiously at this website waiting for the results. You would have thought I was waiting for my lotto numbers to be called. Pick me Pick me. Crazy. Only by 3% ;( but at least he looks more like me. hehe

Happy BIrthday Josh.

My favorite picture of my favorite people (thanks Jamie)

So I have seen this on many blogs and I kind of thought it was dorky. Feel free to curse me. But my husband is out of town and so I must join in the trend.

Happy Birthday to a Wonderful Husband and a Fabulous Dad.

Oh and by the way, it's Josh's birthday today too. Happy Birthday Josh ;)

Last Years Birthday - Gosh honey, it only been a year and look how you've aged.

Even they fall asleep while reading the scriptures.

2006 Must have been a mystery birthday because I have no pictures.

2005
I am awesome. Surprise party at Boondocks. They said he was the oldest birthday boy they had had a party for. Ohhhhhhh.

2004
Oh Yeah! I took Josh to Disney Land for his birthday.
Celebrating at his house before his birthday,
did I mention he celebrated his birthday in Disney Land

And all the birthdays before that don't matter because I wasn't around. Nice how I make your birthday about me huh...? Well I couldn't make this birthday post all lovey dovey and sweet cuz that just ain't me ;)

Happy Birthday. We miss you and Love you! And we are getting a cake to eat and celebrate in your absence.

It's the Power to Win

Tonight while Josh and I were reading scriptures via video chat. (Josh is in Austin)
We read this one. It is one that I really needed to come across today.
Helaman 12:3
"And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him."

I have never been literally starving, but It is true. I forget the Lord when things are going well and it is through trials that I beg for his help. I wish it wasn't this way.

Count your blessings in this time of Thanksgiving. I know there are some of you out there who have it harder than I can even imagine. But we are truly blesses. Search hard and find even one small thing that you are thankful for. Remember the Lord gave you that.

Do you blog in your head throughout the day?

Maybe I'm crazy. OK I am but I wonder if I'm the only person who does this. Something funny, new, awful, etc. will happen during the day and I will go through the writings of a blog post in my head. They are usually very witty but hardly ever get written.
Take last night for example. My thoughts...
It is 9pm and I am barely getting a shower. I was still wearing the pajamas I slept in. Granted I usually only sleep in my G's (TMI) but got really cold and put some on. So I awoke, crawled out of bed, not changing and went about my ever so crazy day (yes I went out in public several times), when I arrived home around 9pm I HAD to shower. I write this because I know I am not alone. I just want others to know, they are not alone. "YOU are not alone!"
Don't feel like an inadequate mother or wife. It happens. For those of you saying, "ooh gross. It doesn't happen to me." Just wait until you have children.
Now my son is around here somewhere. Running around the house naked. Oh, you didn't think I got to shower alone, did you? This to very rarely happens unless it's during nap time and nap time is too valuable. Some people have children who behave while they shower. Mine, not a chance. Can't take my eyes off him for a minute. I of course am now to lazy to dress him and he sure loves the after shower run around nude time (while mommy gets dressed).

That is what went through my head last night.

And tonight while wrapping Christmas presents. Yes I am obsessively organized. I thought..
Wow previous years my gifts have been wrapped beautifully. Gorgeous paper, beautiful hand tied bows (the good ribbon), crafty little tags. So beautiful you don't want to open them. This year, your lucky if the wrapping paper isn't torn. It's definitely is crumpled because Aiden cannot stop dancing on it every time I pull out a new piece to wrap something on. He is grabby at the tape and once the present is wrapped, he likes to stand on it to make sure its not fragile. Why don't I wait until he is asleep, you ask? Because bed time like nap time is precious. It is mommy time, to blog, scrapbook, watch inappropriate shows (inappropriate for a one year old.) Oh and did I mention, I am writing the names right on the paper with a sharpie. No tags this year:)

And these are the blog posts that go through my head throughout the day. And many more that never get written, but I can assure you they were fabulous as I was thinking them up....

It was only a matter of time...

My wonderful son had been really trying the last month. I am struggling about as much as I was when we first had him, maybe a little less because my fabulous family helps out now.
Last weekend he had too much fun climbing the ladder to the fort. If you recall this was the fort I found him on when I had gone into the storage room to get decorations and came out to find him all alone up there.

He climbed up the ladder on the swing set and went down the slide about a million times. Isn't he too yound to be doing this?


Then Yesterday he figured out how to climb up on the chairs to get to the table. Our chairs are taller and he's a little guy.
Which leads us to today. I was on the phone with my grandma and he was playing the piano. Isabella yells, "come see YOUR baby." "I'm on the phone." She says, "he's stuck." He isn't crying so I figure it can't be that bad. I thought maybe he had put himself in the dog kennel or gotten stuck crawling under the piano bench. Then I hear her say, "Parker come look at Aiden, hurry you don't want to miss it." So now I'm curious and head in that direction while still on the phone. I round the corner and this is what I found....

In this super blurry photo, Notice the dog treats he decided to spill everywhere as well.

Monkey for sale. Sorry he is untrainable.

First Snow

I hear there was another snow but we were out of town. So this was our first snow. Aiden headed straight out into it the first chance he got.
Then when Daddy came home they put on his snow suit and headed out for some real fun.
Daddy forgot to take the tags off his new snow suit.He had so much fun sledding.

Neato

Click here for something flippin awesome
Totally stole it from Mindy.

Camera 1

Like I said earlier I have been super lazy about posting things that involve pictures. So I am finding each camera (yes we are freaks and have too many cameras) and downloading pictures and blogging about what I find.
SOOOOOOOOO here comes the super long post with thousands of pictures....

PETCO
Checking the date on the camera, On Oct. 20th.
Toby, I'm sure, got caught chewing on yet another thing he shouldn't. So even though Aiden was in his house pants, we decided to go to Petco and get some bones.
Good Idea: Getting bones for dogs so they stop chewing on your beloved items.
Bad Idea: Taking 3 dogs and a toddler to Petco at 8:45pm.

Aiden liked these treats

One of the few times Aiden was actually with us instead of wandering the store looking for new pets. He wanted the birds, turtles, fish and rodents. None of which he got.

Aiden wearing a cute doggie collar thing.

Toby as "Pippy Longstocking"

Josh finally found a way to keep them all entertained. The Ferret Cage. Notice Zeke sitting on a shelf of the cat climbing wall in the background.

Maybe Aiden should be a Dragon?
Trying to decide what Aiden should be for Halloween we tried on a dragon costume. Too cute!

"Where'd my feet go"

I'm just going to pretend you can't see how messy my house is. There are clean times, after Aiden goes to bed or before he wakes up.

Afterwards....
When we got home from the hospital. Aiden was back to his usual hyper self. It made me super nervous because he was still wobbly from the drugs.

We were painting right before it happened so he looks like a homeless man.
After we cleaned him up. Look how swollen his nose is.

Draper Fall Festivities
For Family night on the 27th we went to Draper City's fall activities.

Getting his face painted

Having their fortune told by a crystal ball.
Playing Twister.
Aiden: I am only poking her with one finger so I can't get in trouble. If you recall we do have a one finger rule in our house.

Pumpkin Patch and Carving Pumpkins


Aiden loved squishing around the pumpkins guts. He thought he should be carving. He like climbing on the pumpkins. He was a crazy man. I thought we might have another trip to the ER because he was running around so much and slipping on pumpkin guts.

Halloween
Isabella had a beautiful cape for Halloween. Mommy and Daddy had awesome capes, so of course Aiden wanted one. And as we all know, What Aiden Wants.....
Grandma made him one. He loved running around in it so much I couldn't get a face on shot. I am guessing the rest of Halloween is on another camera.

You can see I have been much to busy to post but, WOW!

To be Continued....

Happy Halloween

I have been lazy about posting the things that have pictures. We had another great Halloween. My most favoritist holiday. It is my Christmas. I got my great Witch costume from Salem, MA. Which made it even better. Aiden got the hang of trick-or-treating pretty quickly.
Aiden: I stick my hand out and these strange people put candy in it. Why doesn't this always happen?
He was so great about wearing his costume. A few days before we were trying on a few choices and he loved parading around in them.
Halloween night we went to ebay and then the neighborhood. Then we went to great-grandmas and ate dinner and then more trick-or-treating.
Here are the cutest pictures ever....

Josh is a wizard, I'm a witch and Aiden my black cat. If you couldn't tell....

P.S. Josh had way too much fun with his wizards staff.

The Wee Hours of the Night

Do you remember when you were a teenager and you would stay up WAY too late? Everything became funny. You were a little crazier...
Aiden totally does that. I know I should put him to bed but he is so entertaining when he is beyond tired. Josh and I were both sitting on opposite couches just staring at him tonight. He is crazy. He runs around climbing and jumping on things. Making all sorts of wild animal noises. I love it. He is happy so I don't want to put him to bed. The kid just makes me laugh all the time. Plus he is a little unstable that late. It's like watching a super happy drunk person, only two feet tall.
Last night, again when he should have been in bed, he was playing a biting came. Not good, I know. But he was trying so hard to get my toe with his mouth (gross) and bite it. It was fun for both of us. Josh didn't want anything to do with that game.