Our Boy! What a funny little man!

Hanging with Uncle Jon on his birthday!
Don't I look cool?!!
Mr. Messy after eating spaghetti!
My favorite, this one shows his true personality. Can you tell he's camera shy, NOT!
Cheerio Chin

More photos of Aedyn's 1st birthday!

Aedyn's First Birthday

Today we celebrated the anniversary of a miraculous event; today one year ago our beautiful son was born. Thanks to two beautiful people (Amber and Hugh) we were given the gift of being Aedyn James's parents!

This last last year has been nothing short of an unexpected wonderful journey as we witnessed each triumph and accomplishment Aedyn has mastered! He has been the epitome of every parents dream child! From his first cry to his first laugh to his first word, from the first time he sat up, to the first time he rolled over, to the time he took his first (assisted) step he has kept us enthralled with life as a family of 3! His smiles, his cries, his laughter tickles our hearts and souls!

Today we celebrated Aedyn by having a Winnie the Pooh party at our home. We had lots of food, lots of cake, and lots of fun! We were surrounded with love by family (near and far) and a few friends, people who have made a tremendous impact on Aedyn's life!

Aedyn was a perfect boy today. He smiled, laughed, and played. He even participated in opening everyone of his gifts, quite a feat for a one year old to stay focused that long! When it came time to have his cake and eat it too, he cautiously felt the cake then once he had a bite he ripped into the funfetti/chocolate cake with yellow frosting like there was no tomorrow!

What a wonderful day!
Mommy and Daddy wish you the best and happiest 1st birthday in the world!!!

(There will be more pictures to come)

Wow! A Surprise party!

I just got home from what I thought earlier in the day was going to be a potluck lunch at Shane's work, but what really ended up being was a surprise baby shower for Shane and I. Wow! I cried, not for long, but the tears were there.They have family lunches often at Shane's work so I thought nothing of it, I even baked a cake to bring. Shane knew about it, and did a very good job at keeping it a secret. I was very surprised! Just imagine people at my husband's work (remember I used to work there for one summer and visit the office often with Aedyn) making a surprise for me. Jimmyene was the one to organize the whole thing, with Erica's help. They had decorations, balloons, a mickey mouse cake(Connor's room is Mickey themed), and even bought a special lunch of Arby's for me, oh and Shane too. What a wonderful bunch of great people! Some people bought individual gifts and some donated to the whole for gift cards (much needed). I am just so tickled and so grateful for beautiful moments like this in our lives. So if any of you at the office read our blog, THANK YOU! What a great day!

News about the hearing!

Well, our court hearing, which was already delayed twice now, will be delayed and pushed back once again due to the Tribe's side wanting to do a DNA test. Why they didn't ask for this information sooner I don't know, but it takes time to get results, and they have yet to say when and where they actual want this done. It will be on their dime,because they are doing the requesting. Our lawyer says it is ok for us to cooperate because we know the results will come back as we suspect that he has indian blood heritage, what we have stated from the beginning; and the longer Aedyn is with us before the court hearing the better it is for the bonding portion of our case.
But, with only Fridays available for court hearings on adoption in Ventura County and there are conflicts with everyone's schedule most likely we won't be going until December.
So our journey continues!

Exhausted, but happy!

So last few weeks I have been getting ready for Aedyn's birthday party, trying to organize myself, buy decor, food, presents, etc. Who knew that throwing a one year old's birthday party could be so exhausting and time-consuming, although I must admit, I have probably gone overboard. I tried my hardest to stay within a limit, and have done my very best, but I (we) have been waiting so long to be able to throw our child a birthday that I want everything to be perfect.

So I am done shopping, now for the cleaning and cooking. I am making Aedyn's special beehive cake and am attempting to make a cupcake cake for everyone else, we'll see how they both turn out!This is a picture of the beehive cake, but I am making a miniature one.

I am very excited, we haven't thrown an actual party, with streamers and balloons, in I can't remember how long! For those coming on Sunday, can't wait to see you in the Hundred Acre Woods!

Aedyn walking

Sorry it's sideways!

Connor's Room

So, Labor Day weekend we spent getting Connor's room ready. Well, Shane, and Nina and Brian painted the room blue. The week before Shane put together all the furniture by himself. My job both times, watch Aedyn. The room ended up nice. I have spent several days trying to get the room ready by putting away clothes and transferring all of Aedyn's clothes that don't fit into the new nursery.OMG! That kid had a lot of clothes.

So here ya go, (Jen this one is for you!)

Smells like Christmas!

Last night our home was filled with the beautiful aroma of Christmas. Everyone may think cinnamon, pine tree, or turkey, but that is not the smell that filled our entire home. It was fragrant smells of meat, onion, tomato, garlic, oregano, thyme, and little red wine in a sauce simmering away on the stovetop. You see, in the Moore family a traditional Christmas dinner consists of some sort of Italian, whether it be ravioli, spaghetti, manicotti, or my personal favorite LASAGNA!!!

We are celebrating Nina's birthday this Saturday and I sort of volunteered Shane to make Lasagna. He really enjoys the whole process of making the sauce and putting together the layers of the lasagna. I offered to help cut the onion, parsley, and garlic but he insisted he do it himself. There is nothing sexier than a man cooking and taking pride in his creation. So kudos to you honey, for bringing Christmas, or at least the smells, a little early this year.

The bad part: I have to wait until Saturday to eat it!

Tater Salad

First Word!

Believe it or not Aedyn said his first intentional word on Saturday night!
Daddy was giving him a bath and Aedyn said the word BUBBLE!

We read him two bathtime books every night during bathtime, and one of his books has a page about bubbles; Shane was not reading the book at the time, Aedyn was just sitting, turning the pages and looking at the pictures. He turned to the page with the bubbles on it, pointed to the bubbles and clearly said BUBBLE!

I luckily was sitting waiting to get Aedyn out of the tub and heard the whole thing. Then he repeated it a couple of times. It was so exciting! We were almost crying!

Aedyn then proceeded the next night to do the same thing with the word ball, which was in his other bathtime book!
We are so proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our 12th Anniversary!

Today was our 12th Anniversary. It came and went without a lot of fanfare, but with a lot of retrospect on our marriage and how far we have come, as people, as spouses, and as parents. We celebrated each other with cards and words of love,that of course we cried over, (oh, and Hobo Hash for Shane). Now that we are parents celebrating our marriage and anniversary somehow has a different meaning and purpose, we find our relationship even closer and deeper than before. We also were able to take a few hours just for us to relax and enjoy a movie (in a real theatre, with other people, and yummy popcorn) thanks to Nina and Brian donating their time to care for Aedyn. (They also donated their muscles and helped Shane paint the new baby's room the day before.)

We couldn't help ourselves as we sipped our Starbucks drink after the movie (yes, I had a decaf sugar-free iced coffee) talking about Aedyn, we missed him!

Shane and I each dreamed of being married to the person of our dreams, and now we have we have the life we dreamed of; and with our son and one on the way we can build bigger and better dreams together as a family!