Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

It has been a while since I have had time to blog. It really has been so chaotic with all of the holiday things going on. Well, to start, we had a great Thanksgiving. When we do holidays, we end up always eating two meals. It is so hard. We literally went to Anne's house at noon, ate at 2:15 and had to be at my grandma's by 4. It was lots of fun but too much food. What is nice, we get to pick what we like at each house and eat it. So really I get the best foods out of Thanksgiving. We have been so blessed this year and we had to much to be thankful for. Asher is now 7 months and he has been so much fun to have in our home. Aaron was promoted at work and we are just blessed to be a family.
We got a chance to put our tree up and Aydan really enjoyed putting ornaments up and helping. It was so fun to see his excitement. He asks every day if it will be Christmas and then proceeds to tell me why each day should be Christmas. He thought you only put up the tree for Christmas, he thought if it snowed it mean it was Christmas, and if we don't go to school for a few days it must be Christmas. I hope this Christmas lives up to his big expectations. We aren't really into talking about Santa, so all he knows about santa he learns from TV. There are so many fun Christmas programs going on with church and I just love to participate in music. I went to my mom's enrichment last week and it was wonderful. A few women shared favorite stories and then my sister sang, I played the piano, and Jeanie sang and played guiter. It was so fun, and a great start to the Christmas season.

I for some reason get a little down at the holidays. I think sometimes it is because I miss Lilia so much and I think of what she would be doing if she was here. I find myself lost in thought some days, thinking about the "what might have beens". I just miss her and the holidays remind me of how thankful I am for her, but they also bring up the feelings of loss and sadness of not having her with me. This season I have decided I am just going to try to do as much service as possible to get myself lost in the season. I am doing a secret santa, gifting Christmas so those in need, and you may find me doing the twelve days of Christmas. I just love secret acts of service.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and we will let you know how ours goes. Merry Christmas!

HELP... I'm too BUSY!

So this week I met with a nutrionist as a free part of my gym membership, yep I joined a gym. I have decided and am motivated to get down to my pre-babies weight. I was pregnant for about two years straight so this the first fall I have not been pregnant since 2005. Crazy! So my nutrionist asked what my goal was and sadly enough I said, "I want to lose the weight by June, before I get pregnant again." I know it isn't the typical answer, "to fit in a swimsuit," but I want to be healthy for my next pregnancy. This was very puzzling to her at first. Why would someone want to lose weight just to get pregnant and gain weight shortly after?!? Well, I am going to get in shape and eat right and work out. This is where the TOO BUSY comes in.

I have all of these goals and motivation but how do I create more hours in the day to make it to the gym and eat right. I realized this week that I am a pretty busy person with church, work, kids, and teaching piano lessons. How do people do it? DO they have a magic potion to create more hours in the day to make healthy meals and clean the house and get to the gym? Do they have a magic potion to just make you instantly thin and looking great? I need the secret. I got to my breaking point last night when I realized I was not going to make it to the gym last night or tonight. TWO DAYS IN A ROW... this isn't looking good. HELP!! I need help... How do women do it all?

Shafenberg Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Old photos - Making a family tree

Shafenberg Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Aydan's Halloween Parade, Halloween day and Breckenridge

Ok, so be prepared for a long post. I have had no time to blog so I have a lot to blog about. Aydan was in his first Halloween parade at school. All four of the 3 year old classes sang songs and paraded. Peyton was a Bear, Aydan a dog, and Max was Batman.


Aydan is right next to his "girlfriend" Megan. She was a pretty cute witch.

Peyton Paraded as Bear, he was so cute.

Max was a tough Batman.
Aydan's Class picture!

Amy's Birthday Lunch
On Halloween we celebrated Amy's Birthday with lunch and some playing at the Orchard. Amy turned the big 3-0!!! Here are some cute pictures of the kids playing before our fun night of trick or treating.

Mya and Aydan sitting in an apple!

Aunt Jen and Baby Asher!

Mya and Jaxon posing on a giant apple.
We had a great time and Amy had a pretty great Birthday.

Halloween
For Halloween we went to my mom's house for some games and then went trick or treating around the neighborhood. The kids were pretty good for the first four houses but then they all wanted to be carried. This didn't mean they were done, but that they just wanted to be carried from house to house.

Mya and Aydan bobbing for apples.

All of the kids laughing at Uncle Clay because he was blowing bubbles in the water.

Asher and Grandpa

Aydan at the first house of the night.

Aydan was a pretty cute puppy

Aaron missed most of the trick or treating, but I got this great picture of him and Asher. Asher was adorable as a lion.

This is just a comparison picture of Aydan when he was a lion for Halloween in 2005. They look pretty similar.
Halloween was so much fun this year. I love dressing the boys up. Aaron and I also dressed up for a Halloween party, but I hate to dress up.

Breckenridge
We have been so busy and needed a little break so we headed to Breckenridge for the weekend. We took the Matt and Mindy Carlson Family. The kids had a great time playing and we had a great competition of Dance Dance Revolution. Here are a few cute pictures from the river of Aydan and a really cute picture of the boys with Aaron.

1 Year Ago

Last year at this time I lost someone very dear to me.  My Grandma Lorraine was 80 years old and she was wonderful.  She lived in Idaho and I regret not seeing her more before she died.  I have been thinking about her lately and how much I wish she could see Asher.  She came to visit us for her 80th Birthday in March of last year and we had a great time celebrating with her.  At the time I was about 8 months pregnant with Lilia.  She was really excited to have another great granddaughter.  About a week after she came to visit we lost our sweet baby Lilia.  I remember grandma being so concerned for me and she called at least once a week that next month.  I became so close to her.  We just would talk and she was such a great support. Last year when I attended her funeral I was comforted to know she was now able to take care of Lilia.  

I wish you could have met my grandma.  She taught me some of the greatest things.  My favorite game growing up was a game called bug.  All you needed to play was dice, a pen and paper.  She knew how to make something out of anything.  When she would visit, she would always bring us crafts and we loved it.  She even helped me learn to make some of my favorite foods.  She made the best enchiladas and these amazing dipped marshmallows.  YUM!  I miss her a lot.  I wish my kids knew her the way I did.  I am so happy I got this great picture of Aydan and her when she was here last.  He knows her and loves her. 

Tears, Teething and Throwing Up

This week has been all about the 3 Ts of my life.

Asher has gone from the Happy, sleep through night baby to the crying, unhappy, won't sleep, TEETHING kind. He is having a rough week with his teeth as you can see in the picture above.

The boys were so cranky this week that I really needed a break. So, last night I decided to take Aydan to parent's night out at the preschool. Basically they babysit and you get go out on a date. Now because my husband works crazy hours I had to go on the date part by myself. When Aaron finally got off of work we met up and after just 15 short minutes I get a call from the preschool saying, "Aydan said he had a frog in his throat... he THREW UP, but don't worry you don't have to come get him." Yeah right!! Leave my kid to get others sick, I think not. Date Over!

TEETHING and THROWING UP have caused not only both of my boys to cry, but me too. If you didn't know, I am a crier. I cry when I am happy, mad, sad, any mood. Sometimes I just cry for no reason at all. Needless to say we have been crying all week. I can't wait to start a new week. Hopefully the TEETHING will get better, there will be no THROWING UP and I will shed less TEARS.

A New Blogger

I have been talked into doing a blog. My husband began blogging and has failed at updating our friends and family. I don't really like the idea of blogging, but I am going to try. I will say, I do love to read a good blog and you may call me a blog stalker.

I guess I will just start with a little update about what we are up to. Aydan is now 3 and began preschool in September. He loves it. He claims to have three girlfriends, Megan, Faith and Sophia. I kid you not, he is a major flirt. He says he is not friends with boys, just his cousins. He loves school, and his teacher says he is doing very well.

Asher is almost 6 months and time has just flown by. He is getting so big and has such a cute personality. He already has 2 teeth and just loves his older brother. I have never heard him laugh as hard as he does when he laughs at Aydan. It is so fun to see them interact and become friends.

Aaron is working for UPS. By work I mean, he puts in about 12-14 hour days at least 3 days a week and normal shifts the other 2 days. He FINALLY got promoted and is a full time driver-supervisor. We just had our 5 year Anniversary last week and I can't imagine my life without him.

I am staying busy working full time and being a full time mom or mama as Aydan calls me. Now you know why I am going crazy. This fall has made me love living in Colorado even more than I already do. See, I am a boring blogger, hopefully I will get better.