Trick Or Treat - Our Halloween 2009

A RECENT TRIP TO DISNEY!

Hot Diggety Dog!

Balance, tolerance, compromise, LOVE

Had to write a few things down about life today; not necessarily what is going on, but my thoughts of lessons and realizations I have about life in general and what I hope to gain, accomplish, and learn.

One is Balance. Learn to balance everyday chores, juggling schedules, caring, playing, and loving (my)children, giving and spending time with my husband, giving and spending time with extended family members is not an easy task. Everyone has to learn how to do this. Now that I will be opening the daycare again, the art of balancing all these things will be an even harder task. I hope I do it with patience and grace.

Second, is tolerance. It has been brought to my attention that I am a very determined and demanding person. That I have an expectation of how I accomplish tasks in my life, and expect others to accept my way of things. I am trying my hardest to learn to be tolerant of other people's ideas and thoughts about things that are important to me in my life.

Compromise, kind of goes with the idea of tolerance. Learning to compromise and deviate from what I think it right is not an easy task for me. I guess you would cal this stubbornness. But, I want to be a person whose is able to compromise with an open heart, yet not compromise so much that I am compromising who I am! Again, it is a unique balance I think!

LOVE! I am doing my best just to love and accept everyone in my life; Love everyone for who they are and what they have to share with me and my family. Learning to count my blessings in ALL circumstances is a lesson I am still learning.

Harvest Festival

Silly Boys!
Yeah! WE MADE IT!

TOO PRECIOUS!
COW + TRAINS = HAPPY BOY!
The pumpkin gatherer. He actually tried to pick up the really big ones, but after several attempts went happily back to the smaller pumpkin. Actually he was in awe of the huge tractor behind the pumpkins you don't see.
BELIEVE OR NOT BUT THEY DIDN'T SPILL THE BEANS!
HALF WAY THROUGH THE CORN MAZE
ahhhhhh, cute!
Drive that tractor! too cute, it matched his shirt!


This last weekend, October 3rd, we went to a Harvest Festival in Moorpark with the boys and Nina and Brian. We had a great time. It was such a beautiful fall day. The Underwood Family farms is such a great place to go. They have all kinds of animals and games and music. So much fun! We actually went there one year ago, lots has changed since then.

We listened to a group called the Hollow trees, then visited some animals, played on the wooden train, watched the piglet races, walked through the corn maze (we made it through the whole maze this year, but we followed an employee to get to the haystack center), let the boys play in bean box, let the ALL the boys take a cow train ride, then took a horse drawn wagon ride around the farm. A wonderfully beautiful day.

It didn't end there. We went back to Nina and Brian's place for some relaxation, good conversation and pizza, YUM!

Happy 2nd Birthday Aedyn!

Messy boy, chomping down on his Birthday cake.
Aedyn in his new playhouse
Riding in the wagon, one of his favorite things to do outside
Trying to get the kazoo to work
Birthday Blowout, haha
This was Aedyn this morning when we woke him up by singing Happy birthday to him. So cute, he was cuddling Tigger.
The Blue cake I made, turned out great I thought!
Aedyn checking out one of his new gifts!
It was definitely a Blue's Clues birthday.
A rare moment where Mommy was in front of the camera instead of behind. But Aedyn was happy because he was coloring!


Aedyn had a wonderful birthday! Can't believe it has been 2 years!
We celebrated over 2 days with 2 parties. The first was in the mountains at Dad and Helen's; all who were there Grandma and Grandpa Young, Aunt Soone, and Angela, Aunt Kat and Uncle Jon, Aunt Jen, Janie and Sean, Uncle Doug, Aunt Debbie, and Sean, and Josh, Catie, and Daniel joined our party too! I loved that we had a handful of kids to celebrate with us. I really tried to focus on events that would make Aedyn happy. We had sandwiches and chips and spaghetti salad (thanks Soone), and fruit. We first ate lunch, then did some coloring of Blues Clues characters (Blue, Slippery, Steve, Mailbox all showed up), then we watched a Blues Clues video. It was wonderful watching all the kids sit in silence for 30 minutes.

Then Aedyn's favorite part of the party, we did a Blue's Clues style scavenger hunt and all the kids had their Handy Dandy notebook. It was the cutest thing after searching for the clues, he would open his notebook scribble down the clue, close his notebook and put his crayon back in the spiral part and get ready to find the next clue. He knew exactly what to do, so smart our boy! Well, the next event was the pinata, of which Aedyn would not participate( I know he loves to hit at a pinata, he has done so at other parties), but he would not let go of his notebook to pick up the bat, so he tried to hit it with his crayon which didn't work. He didn't even want to pick up the goodies after they fell out because it would require putting down the notebook. Silly Boy!

Then it was time for presents and cake. He still wouldn't put down the notebook so he didn't open his gifts really, Mommy and Daddy had to do that. He made out with some really cool things. He loves his vaccum!!!! Cake time, of course he sat down to eat his cupake, he loves cake. But here's the kicker, he still didn't put down his book, instead Grandma fed it to him, oh my how messy! Overall, it was a great day. He loved spending time with family and playing!

Sunday we ceelbrated with family too! Grammy Bev, Grandma and Grandpa Moore, Cuz Aunt Nina and Cuz Uncle Brian, Aunt Jen, Uncle Jason, Kaitlyn and Brayden. This birthday celebration was a little more low key, which I think was for the best. He actually slept until 3 pm,one hour longer than normal. We had pizza which was yummy! He still got to play with his cousin Brayden which he loved. They sat at Aedyn's new Elmo table and chairs and colored together and play with balloons. He was all wound up and still wouldn't sit down to open his gifts, so Mommy and Daddy had to do the job again. I must say though he took an especially keen interest in Kaitlyn's gift to him, Firetruck and tractor books with wheels! Two of his favorite things together, books and trucks!!!!! He also loved his playhouse that we got him, played in it as soon as we brought it in! It has a doorbell, a mailslot, a phone, opening doors and windows. He loves to play house. We then ate the Blues Cake I made (it turned out great). A happy yet quieter day!

Aedyn's actual Birth Day wa very low key. Grammy stayed the day with us we just stayed at home played with his new toys, let him nap, and let him play some more! We had thought about going to Disneyland but we were not up to it, everyone was too tired.

Aedyn had a great 2nd birthday!

More pics just for Fun!

Cheese!
Slobbery smiles, my favorite
Get him Connor! They love to play with each other.
Happy Boy!
Hello Mickey
future concert pianist
mommy and connor waiting for the train
doesn't he look so cute in his hat? first time he would wear a hat since he was just a couple of months old.
CuzUncle Brian putting Connor night night!

Hello Blog World

Aedyn having a blast at the Ball game!
It's my fireman knight!
Connor and Aedyn Gangin' up on Daddy!
Where is Aedyn?
The good part about moving, always a box to play in!
Waterpark with Grandpa
My two boys:)
Soaking wet
MMMMMM Ice cream!
Hats off to you!


Wow! I know it had been a while since I have updated my blog. About a month to be exact. So we have moved and life has been crazy; not just the moving aspect, but trying to keep up with all the events going on, and planning for Aedyn's birthday!

Let's start with moving. Finally, we have almost all the pictures on the walls. We just need to put up the pics and mementos in Aedyn's room, Shane's swords, a few other loose items here and there. It has been really hard to do anything. Trying to unpack with the boys is crazy, especially in their rooms, because as I was unpacking they had to play with everything. Boys will be boys.

We have had a lot of events happening lately, like cooking green chile in the mountains, a Mary Kay pampering Day for me, as well as seeing my Mom and Kat's play, Our Anniversary, our niece Jamie's birthday, Jon's birthday, Nina and Jen's birthday. Jamie's 16th birthday was really cool because we celebrated at a Dodgers game. Aedyn had a blast! Connor was a little frighted though because the crowd was loud.

Let's see, planning for Aedyn's birthday, has been fun, yet tedious. We decided to do 2 parties this year with smaller group because he has seemed to get overwhelmed with a lot of attention on him. Anyhow, we are celebrating in the mountains tomorrow and here at our house on Sunday. We decided to have Blues Clues party well because he loves Blues' Clues. We are going to do a scavenger hunt for clues, some coloring pages of Blue, a pinata, pin the paw on Blue, etc.
And I am making 2 cakes. One is cupcake cake in the shape of a pawprint, and the other is an actual Blue puppy cake. We should have fun. I can't wait to see his face when he sees all the blues clues everywhere.

So here are some pics form the last few months as well.

I didn't even post 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July. Will post more about our day and will post more pics later. Hopefully this will quench everyone's appetite for pictures. haha.

Over a month!

OMG! It has been over a month since I have posted anything on our blog. Well, so much has changed. Let's see, Shane has a new job, we have left Simi Valley and now live in a new city of Helendale, in a new house. I think the hardest thing is leaving that house that so much happened. Our children were born there, meaning they were born in Simi and that's where they came home, that's where all of Aedyn's firsts happened. That house holds so many wonderful memories for us, and Simi was such a wonderful city to live in. So many things for us to experience as a family, like the Kids Club, Baby n' me classes, the Farmers market, the outdoor mall with free summer concerts, the beautiful parks. Our life changed for the better in that house. Part of our hearts will always be there.

For the last month things have been so crazy, Shane getting the job offer, us deciding whether or not to take it and move. So Shane is the Director of IT at the Oro Grande school district in the high desert. It's a new opportunity with room to grow. Shane did like working at FM Global but there really wasn't an opportunity for him to advance any time soon. He is doing all kinds of new things, still dealing with computers, but new interesting stuff.

We spent the last four weekends driving back and forth between Simi and the desert trying to find a home, and once we found one, coming and signing the paperwork, etc. During the week we started packing and tried to get as much done as we could. Gosh, moving is so much work. It's not just the packing, it's the organizing, it's the calling for utilities, it's the tying up the loose ends, all while taking care of the two boys! I have been really tired. Shane has been really stressed, leaving a job that you have been at for 7 years can be scary.

So the boys have dealt really well with all the changes. Kids are quite resilent. But, I do believe it has pushed Aedyn into his terrible twos a couple of months early. He is getting very obstinate, and time outs are more often than they used to be. But, on the other hand his cooperation is better because of his receptive language and cognition. He loves to help and feels quite proud of himself when he accomplishes a task. He is talking so much, and using lots of two and tree word phrases like" Hi Daddy!" "Blues Clues, please" "read Noo Noo book". His memory is great too. He is able to remember people and places he has only seen a couple of times. He is a problem solver when he wants to be, but gets frustrated easily. Overall he is a very locing child, and I get kisses everyday.

Connor is great too. He is rolling everywhere to get places, not quite crawling. He will push up on his hands and lift his belly or he'll pull his legs up on knees, but he hasn't quite put the two together. But, he just sat up all by himself two days ago. he was laying on his back, ther was something by his feet he wanted so he did a sideways crunch(situp) and then pushed up with his hands. That was pretty impressive. He has a great sense of humor and a great laugh. He loves to babble (talk all day)! But he also has a very fast temper. He is a funny boy!

Better get back to unpacking! Will post pictures soon, although I haven't been taking a whole lot of those either! Soon! Adieu!