All Saints Eve...

Every year, we celebrate All Saints Eve at our church on October 31st. Simon talks about it constantly for about two months ahead. He loves dressing up and the CANDY!!!! This year we went as Daniel ( Simon), the Lion in the den ( Owen) and Aidan the angel that God sent to protect Daniel.

Aidan's All Saints debut...

He made his debut as an angel and even "flew" threw the air to make his part more authenic.

Simon's future wife, Claire...

They looked to stinking cute dressed up together that I couldn't resist taking this shot :)

Owen's glasses...

The exciting news this month for Owen is that he got glasses. He actually has to wear a patch all day long, too, but we took it off for the picture. He is doing pretty well overall and is a real trooper!

Maggie's best friend...

Aidan ADORES Maggie and literally crawls after her all day long. I honestly don't remember the other boys being so excited about her at this age. Unfortunately, he pulls on her hair and so I have to watch the two of them constantly while they are together.

Aidan... 8 months old....

Aidan is wearing the sweater that Aunt Barb knitted for him and looking so cute!!! ( Thanks Aunt Barb :) He looks SO much like Owen it is rather scary!

Aidan and Owen...

Over the past few months, I have noticed that Owen has started to enjoy Aidan's presence more. Before it was rather questionable at times :) He has become more of a protector and is constantly dragging him out of "harms way." :)

Sy and Aidan

Simon just loves Aidan. He loves to play with him and carry him around the house ( which I carefully monitor :) Aidan gets really excited when Simon comes near him. It is cute to see how much they like each other.

Aidan ..... our very active baby!!!!

Aidan does not stop moving all day long. He will NOT lay still for diaper changes unless he has a toy in his hand. Try and change his diaper WITHOUT a toy and you will not suceed :) However, it is difficult to stay mad at him long as he is a darling little guy.

A Day Out With Thomas....

In the middle of August, we went to "The Day Out with Thomas" at our railroad museum. We bought the tickets months in advance and boys couldn't wait to go. We had such a fun day. They got to ride on a real life sized Thomas train, play on carnival type rides, play mini golf and get tattoos. It was such a fun day that we literally had to drag them out of the place. I think we'll be saving up again to go next year as it was a total blast :)

Literary beginnings...

Aidan has already started his undying love of books. He was so proud that he had wiggled his way over the bookcase during a diaper change! :)

Summer Camp Fun!

Simon and Owen attended summer camp this year and LOVED it. They had a blast doing arts and crafts, swimming and playing outside. On the final day, they had a program. Owen won an award for the "best smile" and Simon won one for the "best helper." Here they are singing songs ( Owen third from the left and Simon the second from the right.)

Best part of the year....

One of the best parts of our year has been having John- Mark (my brother) and Sheena (his wife) move to be near us. We have loved being able to see them more often than once year like before.

Simon and Owen: Lumberjacks

After his bath...

Here is Aidan after his bath... he loves to suck on his fingers. He now rolls over all the time. When we put him to sleep in his crib, he immediately rolls over on to his stomach. He can actually MOVE... which is a scary thought. (Note: My camera is on the "blink" right now so these are some older pics and the other camera doesn't want to download photos anymore!) UGHHH!

The Five Boys....

I was able to capture this photo of the five cousins. Wyatt is 11 months old and Casey is 10 years old. Wyatt was actually born on our anniversary.... no excuse for me to forget his birthday, right? :)

Wrestling match...

Sy and Owen love their big cousin Casey and wrestling around with him!

Swimming fun...

We drove up on the 4th of July to see Jeff's family. The boys had a blast playing in the pool at his Dad's that afternoon. It was actually a little cold but once they got in they LOVED it!

The "Creation"

This totally amazed me the other day.... Simon decided that he wanted to make for his tiny stuffed dog a "johnny jump up." He created this out of paper and tape and it really looked like the bouncy swing. ( The picture does not do it justice.) He even made perfect little holes for the dog's legs!

Mr. Happy...

Aidan is getting to be more aware of his surroundings. If he drops a toy, he wiggles his hands and scoots to try and get it. I also noticed today that he gets bored of holding the same rattle over and over again. He gets so excited when I give him a new toy! He had the cutest expression on his face tonight when Jeff was reading the boys stories before bed. He just LOVES to be in the middle of all the "big boy" happenings and just grins from ear to ear!

Our strawberry picking day!

We took the boys to Indiana to pick strawberries several weekends ago. I love to go fruit picking ( probably because I never got to do it growing up) and hope that our boys will have many happy memories of our berry picking times when they grow up. (and not remember how hot and sticky it really is :)

Owen's bucket...

Owen throughly enjoyed picking the strawberries. However, he got more green and rotten ones than good ones. He was so excited and cute... I didn't have the heart to tell him the truth!

The fastest picker in Indiana...

Simon is a sweet, curious, and happy little guy. However, what few know about him is that he is a FAST berry picker :) I always feel guilty taking him berry picking because he does SUCH a good job that I feel like I should pay him for his manual labor :)

A visit from Aunt Kath...

My Aunt Kath came to visit my Mom for a few days at the beginning of June. She had never met Owen or Aidan before and it was wonderful to see her again!

Simon and Ms. Julie

Simon attended preschool several mornings a week at our park district. On their final day, they had a program for the parents. Ms. Julie is a great teacher and we are so thankful Simon had a such a fun year!

Aidan at 4 months....

Here is Aidan's 4 month photo. He is such a smiley and happy baby. He has the longest eye lashes and is very bald :)

Nighttime bath...

Aidan was SO tired the other night he could not even stay awake during his bath. I thought it was pretty funny!!!

A smug Cub's fan...

It has been 100 years since the Cubs won the World Series. Aidan proudly wears his Cub's shirt in hopes that the THIS WILL BE THE YEAR!

Owen's best buddy

Owen is always willing to have a photo op with Aidan.

Simon's "hot dog" hat

Simon made this hat out of root beer box. Who ever said kids need toys is crazy! :)

Saturday at Grandpa and Grandma's

We drove down first thing Saturday morning ( of Memorial Day weekend) to the St. Louis area to introduce Aidan to Jeff's side of the family. It was a long drive as we had so many stops to make... but we did eventually get there. We spent Saturday night at Grandpa and Grandma's house. It was a fun but very short visit.

An afternoon at Nanny's house...

We spent Sunday afternoon at Nanny's house. Casey and Owen had fun reading comics ....under the table!

Aidan snuggling with Grammie ( Jeff's Mom) for the first time.

Nanny and Aidan

Aidan is with Nanny ( Jeff's grandmother).

Bedtime stories....

Here is a picture of a nightly scene at our house! Aidan is becoming an avid reader ( ok, listener) from the start as almost every time he nurses, Mama is busy reading to the older two!

stinkin' cute.....

My Mama thinks that I look so cute in this photo... like such a big boy!

Aidan at 3 months.....

I started doing this when Simon was born..... I take a picture each month for the first year of their life. I put it into a picture frame at the end of the year. It is a fun way to document their growth!

Our smiling guy...

Aidan has developed quite the happy personality. He smiles ALL day long. He smiles when he gets up from his nap, during diaper changes, and when he sees pretty much anyone's face.

Aidan rolls over....

At 9 weeks, Aidan was laying on the floor having his "tummy time" when all of a sudden he rolled over. He has done it three times so far in his life. (Once at the doctor's office, once on the table at Target getting his professional photo taken and once at home.) I was able to catch it on camera as evidence....

Evidence....

Simon's 5th birthday party...

Simon's 5th birthday party was lots of fun. In true Simon fashion, he chose very colorful decorations and tacos for dinner. We made "crackers" filled with candy as party favors. (a fun tradition Mama learned overseas.) Simon, of course, was fascinated by the "science" of how they exploded! :)

Sy and Waldo...

Simon loves to read AND to search for hidden things in books. He is amazingly VERY good at it. Much better than Jeff or I will ever be. He was thrilled about his new "Where's Waldo" book, "Eye spy" books, and "Mr. Putter and Tabby" books he got for gifts. We now have to enforce a 10 minute reading in bed rule or else he would stay up all night reading :)

Sy's dragon cake...

Sy loves the show "Dragon Tales" on PBS. His eyes lit up when he saw the cake. It made all of our hard work worthwhile!

Aidan's bunny friend....

Aidan at seven weeks. Thanks, Grammie, for my cute outfit and bunny!

A doting brother..

Simon dotes on Aidan. He calls him his "chick cutie pie" and loves to entertain him with toys and conversation.

Storytime...

Aidan was thrilled when Owen took time out his busy "play" to read him a story.

My favorite way to sleep...

We learned early on that Aidan LOVES to sleep in his snowsuit. During his first few weeks, he would sleep for hours in it and be totally content. I'm sure people thought we were overheating him (and we probably were) but it seemed a shame to wake him up when he was SO happy!

First Bath

Although Aidan looks uncertain in the photo, he actually enjoyed his first bath. Now they have become one of his favorite parts of his day :)