Thanksgiving.....short on pics, but this will have to do!

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Elaine, John, John's mom Debbie from Kansas, David, Aidan and myself celebrated together. I must admit, the turkey was OUTSTANDING! We did the Kidd Kraddick Brown Bag turkey recipe and it was totally wonderful! Would have been even better if we didn't accidentally take it out 45 min. early, then have to put back to finish cooking! Despite that, it was still one of the juiciest turkeys ever!! Go Elaine!! Then of course we over indulged in pumpkin pie, and more pumpkin pie! A relatively low key Thanksgiving,but I was still pooped after it was all over! Anyway, here are a few pictures!

What I'm thankful for this holiday season......

Prayer changes things!

My Charming Kids <----click!

Joy.

Halloween 2009

Carving pumpkins......my idea. David was reluctant, but we had a BLAST!!!!




Testing out the Jack-O-Lantern in the bathroom. It wasn't dark outside yet!!!


Hmmmm, right spot, Mommy??


Dad and Cindy. Dad is gonna kill me for this one! But I could NOT wait for Cindy to upload her shots before I could post this fun post!! WE LOVED having them here!! So fun!! They came in on Friday and we had dinner on Friday night with Elaine, John, Joe and us at Pappadeaux's!! Then they spent time today with Elaine and Joe then came back in time for dinner and Halloween!!





Yes, David the illegal alien. Sorry!!!


On our way to Trick-or Treat!


And the reward afterward!!!


Our neighborhood is just so wonderful! It was like a big party around the square!! Kids, candy, everything you can imagine!! We are so blessed to be in such a wonderful neighborhood with wonderful people. We trick or treated around the square then came home to spend the rest of the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Wagner!! What a great weekend!!

Pics from the birthday party!!

Our little man turned 3! The party was great! The weather cooperated, which was a miracle in itself!!! Here are some pics!!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Aidan!

Today is October 20th, and 3 years ago today, our sweet boy was born. We are so blessed and love him more each day. The big birthday party is Saturday, but Starr bought cupcakes to celebrate today and we had a mini-party today when I got home from work. Starr never misses a chance to celebrate a birthday! Daddy is working today, but we plan to really celebrate as a family on Saturday!






At 3 years old, here are my favorite things about you!

- You are so quiet and sweet. You are so sensitive and get frightened by wild kids who snatch your toys or get too much in your face. I actually already have heartache when other children grab things out of your hand or when older children try to exclude you. But I love your gentleness and caring nature. You are the sweetest angel child I have ever laid my eyes on! You are a blessing from God!

- You are a super duper sleeper. Mommy and daddy are very rested, as you go to bed at 8PM and wake at 7AM. You also still take a nap everyday, sometimes up to 3.5 hours. You are a developing boy!!!

- for an only child, you are wildly independent. You walk right into bible class without a tear, pre-school is the same way. You are sometimes shy at friends homes and birthday parties, but you typically warm up after a bit. How did you learn to be so strong and independent?

- Your best friends are Gabby and Jacob. You see them usually twice a week and you LOVE your weekly play dates. You pray for your friends every night, "Thank you God for Balella and Jakey," is a standard in our evening list of things we are thankful for! God loves the way you pray for your friends!

- You are a daddies boy, and enjoy spending many afternoons each week with daddy. You go to home depot, you play in the yard while daddy mows. Mommy is not nearly as fun and can't play as well, but she is the one you call for in the mornings when you wake up or when you are sick in the middle of the night. You now seem to love each of us equally in your own special way and prefer each of us for different reasons. Mommy loves this!

- You love to spend the night with Nana. You are so independent that you can go to her house and sleep in her guest bedroom. She lets you stay up past your bedtime and lets you take really long baths! You love staying at Nana's! Mommy and Daddy get date night when you stay at Nana's!

- You can do all of your ABC's and you can count almost to 20! You also do fun things like say, "there's Lowe's!" and "there's Chili's!" and "there's Walgreens!"

- you have yet to poop in the potty. But you will ask for a diaper just so you can poop in it. Mommy is wondering when this will end!! You have also pooped on the floor. But again, not in the potty!

- You do prayers each night and have prayed for things such as the stars, the playroom, the animals, and school. You never cease to amaze me with the random things you remember and the random things you pray for! God loves the way you pray!!

- Your daddy is strict parent and mommy is laid back. Daddy would NEVER forget your vegetables. Mommy sometimes excludes them on purpose. But we balance each other, which means you are one well rounded kiddo!!!

- you love to hug, hug, hug. This is mommies favorite thing EVER!

We love you so much sweet Aidan. We can't even remember what life was like without you! You are a blessing and we thank the Lord each day that we get to celebrate life with you!

Love Mommy and Daddy!

New Mexico

We went to New Mexico for a work trip! It is an annual trip we take each year and they invite our spouses to attend! My first year it was in Florida, then Colorado the following year, and then New Mexico this year. It was wonderful. Aidan stayed with Nana and David and I almost had a mini-vacation, if it weren't for work meetings sprinkled in between our vacation time! No really, it is a great work event that I look forward to every year. Next year, Aidan will be old enough to tag along, so we have that to look forward to! New Mexico is beautiful this time of year (well, ANY time of the year really) and the balloon festival started on Saturday. It was blistery cold in the mornings so we didn't make it at 4:00AM, but I did snap a few decent pics of the balloons while on our way to the airport!

Wow, things have been crazy

Aidan lost a tooth. He face planted off his scooter while playing outside with daddy. I was home when this event occurred, but LITERALLY on my way out the door to catch a flight to Birmingham. When I left, I thought it was a tooth chip. Aidan was doing fine, feeling better. But daddy, being the cautious dad that he is, decided a trip to the dentist was in order, just to make sure. And wouldn't you GUESS that the tooth was cracked all the way up in the back. And yes, it would require an extraction. And not only was an extraction necessary, David would send me the text to tell me this news AS I AM BOARDING A PLANE to Birmingham. Ugh! So it was a pretty traumatic experience for Aidan and daddy. VERY traumatic for mommy, as I was hundreds of miles away at a corporate meeting. Sigh. Anyway, it ended well. Aidan is better. But wow, I was one very anxious woman all day Thursday. I had a dinner at the Birmingham Museum of Art and I was totally distracted with Aidan's boo boo and texting daddy the whole time. Hated that I wasn't there. But he is better. Just looks a little funny. I am not sure yet if I am used to this new mouth! Yikes. Just in time for 3 year pics and holiday family portraits! Oh well. We will laugh about this someday, right? More photos to come soon.




Here are some more random photos to catch you up on life!!

Daddy and Mommy out with friends. We SO needed time out to relax after Aidan had been sick for so long and not sleeping well. Yes, we usually try to wait until he is sleeping through the night again before we drop him off at Nana's for an slumber partyt! ;) We met two couple friends out that night. We had dinner and did karokee! One of our friends, Jon, is seriously like a professional signer. He is AWESOME! I did a few songs. Goodbye Earl, by the Dixie Chicks and Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. I dedicated them both to my redneck friend, Sheila. *snort* Kidding Sheila! You are not really a redneck!


Aidan riding his dump truck. Really. Cracking us up! This is not a toy that you ride!


Below, two cute photos from Hayden Bowyer's 3 year birthday party. Man our boys are growing so fast! They were born about 6 weeks apart. Aidan Charles and Hayden Charles. Hilarious how those names almost matched! Love our Keen friends!

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Haircut before his first day of school.


One of 4 visits the doctor in the last 4 weeks. Seriously exhausting.


Visit to the fire station!


Riding the lawnmowers, together. Precious.


More updates later! David is turning out lights and I guess that means it is time to turn in! Catch you later!