Holiday Happenings...

I feel like I finally have time to write about what we have been up to in December.  Of course we've been as busy as usual....but with a holiday twist to everything this month.

I am referring to my calendar that I keep on my fridge that helps to keep me organized for the most part; as this month has flown....most days I could hardly remember if I was coming or going....

1.  We watched to the First Presidency's Christmas devotional.  We got it hooked up and were able to view it downstairs on our TV as opposed to having to squish around our computer monitor.  New technology is fabulous isn't it?  The messages were really enjoyable and the music wonderful.  This is always a great way to start our Christmas season.

2.  The first of the month included a field trip with Megan and her school choir.  They sang at Service Canada and then at City Hall.  It was a good time and they did really well considering that their pianist fell ill at the last moment and they had to sing acappella and karioke for all their songs.

They even got their picture taken and put up on the Edmonont Journal website...they were all wearing black pants/white shirts and santa hats. 

3.  I had our RS Christmas Party.  Appetizers and desserts with a short program about how sisters in our ward help to bring Christ into Christmas.  Then our Bishop spoke about how to live a more Christ Centered life.  It is always nice to get together and be able to chat with the sisters in our ward.  We get to visit and talk with each other in ways that we don't get to on Sundays.  It was a bit stressful getting everything organized, since my committee was mostly released then new ones called....that sort of thing always happens during a busy time.

4.  Spencer had his work party.  New clothes, good food, good visiting with others at our table, we won a prize, danced a little and got our picture taken. 

 5.  Spencer sang in his sisters ward christmas fireside along with his parents.  It was a nice evening but made for a long Sunday.  Aaron fell asleep on the ride over and remained asleep on the bench for pretty much the whole program.  Evan and Megan were starting to struggle by the end of the evening.  It sure is hard to keep children quite when they need to be after having to be reverent at church.  I wanted to bring them as part of this experience of seeing thier grandma and grandpa sing together along with their dad.  Hopefully we are building precious memories of thier family/extended family.

6.  I brought Aaron along to help out Evan's kindergarden class make gingerbread houses.  The parents donated the candy and the actually decorated empty clean milk cartons.  A perfect idea for young children to be able to do it by themselves mostly.  We had fun being with Evan.  I was feeling bad for Aaron since he had been coming with me on my various errands all month so I took him to Millenium place in Sherwood Park and we played at the indoor playground and he got McDonald's to eat for lunch.  He is such a trooper. 

7.  We visited the lights at the Legislature along with the choirs and some free hot chocolate.  The weather has been pretty nice to be able to go outside and enjoy that sort of thing. 

8.  We enjoyed our ward christmas party the following weekend.  A nice program with various musical talent from our ward.  Santa was there for the children to visit with desserts were served and a fun family dance followed.  A really wonderful christmas party. 

9.  Megan participated in her first piano recital.  It was a great experience.  She was nervous but had her song memorized.  She played a duet with her teacher,  so she wouldn't have to be alone at the piano.  It turned out really good.  She played Joy to the World. 

10.  We had the missionaries and a less active sister over for dinner.

11.  Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and to make a gingerbread house with the children.  Spencer joined in the fun.  He really enjoys decorating a gingerbread house it must be from his childhood and all the ones that he has done previously. We once again had a nice visit.  (I almost for got all the family dinners/get togethers that we've had since Grandma/pa are in town).  They are waiting for my signal so they can devour the gingerbread house.  That might not come as soon as they would like, since they are already filling up on sweets.  But I guess that is part of the joy of the season. 

12.  Megan and Evan's school Christmas concert.  Megan had a small speaking part this year that she enjoyed doing.  She did a good job with all the songs and her acting.  Evan was part of the "rock 'n roll snowman" song.  He was singing and strumming his guitar.  I went to the dress rehersal and then to the concert that night.  I was helping the Parent Advisory Council by sitting at the snack program donation table.  Megan was rudolf, she's on the left.

13.  Today was the last day of school!  They got to wear PJ's to school and have parties.  A pretty relaxed day.  I'm looking forward to relaxing at home, visiting with family, hanging out and not having to get Spencer and the children off to work and school each day.  Our schedules just cleared up.....until January 9, 2012 when the routine will start again.

Christmas Eve we'll be ice skating, watching a movie, reading the nativity, eating finger foods/appetizers, singing some carols, playing games and just hanging out.  Our pickle prize will also be awarded to the one who can find the pickle ornament on our tree.  The prize is for the whole family but part of the fun is finding the tricky pickle and being able to open a present before Christmas day.  They will also be sleeping in style in some new PJ's that they can open before bed. 

Merry Christmas!

Super Saturday

Yes our ward had a super saturday....according to our interpretation of what the handbook says, this totally fits along with the homemaking skills that help us beautify our homes and it is usually a pretty good turn out in our ward. 

That being said we didn't have quite the numbers that we were expecting so we altered it a bit.  We started at 9am and went until noon.  We listened to christmas music and had hot chocolate and apple cider and cookies to munch on.  Some people even came just to visit and others to work on projects that they have been meaning to finish.  It turned out really nice.  Here are some of the projects that I completed.

 Here is some christmas Sub-way art.  I found this sparkly red paper at Michaels.  I love it!  It really gives it a christmasy feel. 

Here are some hymn titles on tile.  This will go in a nice stand/holder on the floor by our piano.

Finally I added another letter "O" to my collection.  I mod-podged some pretty paper on to a wooden letter that I painted.  I think that I need to collect some more "O's" and do a collage on my wall.  That would be fun. 

I enjoy doing crafts, but I never usually have the time to sit and plan them  and do them.  So having this activity was a good way for me to get in craft gear and do a little something.

My Little Minions

So if anyone uses a calendar like me you may have noticed that last Sunday was Child's Day....although I told my kids that in this country everyday is Child's Day...since their lives are pretty good.  They didn't quite go for that.....

So a while back I found this cute recipe on another blog and have just been waiting for the appropriate time to use it.  That and I'll find any excuse to celebrate something....so Child's Day it was....

Look at the cute cupcakes.  The kids had fun helping to make them and they especially enjoyed eating them.  

I'm so grateful for my little minions.  They keep me hopping and keep my refereeing, doctoring, cooking, cleaning, book reading, listening, playing, and hugging skills current. 

Christmas Tree light up 2011

Megan told us that she would like to go see them light up the city tree this year.  Since we missed last year we went this year.  Unfortunately I forgot the camera so we didn't capture any photos of us freezing outside. 

There was a little stage set up with singers, Santa was also there and some other media people.  It actually took us awhile to notice where the tree was set up.  I kept asking Spencer where is the tree?  At first I thought that they might be going more "green" and not chopping down a tree but finally it caught my eye.  It actually looked kinda spindly but it is 70 feet tall with over 10,000 lights.  So once they flipped the switch it looked really nice.  Then immediately afterwards there were fireworks that we enjoyed and then we promptly walked into city centre mall to warm up and start to head to the van. 

Did I mention that it was -27 degrees out! Ya, we might be a little nuts.  But this is the official start to our Christmas celebrations....

Cowboy Day

This is as good as it gets in our house when the children are celebrating the Canadian Finals Rodeo.  They got to dress up in western wear for the last part of the school day on Wednesday a couple of weeks ago. 

YeeHaw!

Old Country Fair

This past weekend was going to be a whirlwind of activity and excitement, unfortunately sickness reared its ugly head and I was out for the count of about 24 hours.  Thanks for Spencer for taking some time off work to help with childcare as someone forgot to tell the sick monster that MOMs DON'T GET SICK!  So I was in bed for much of Friday and we had to cancel our date night and hang out at home. 
Well by Saturday I was feeling much better and so tired of doing nothing and I needed to stretch my legs....so after our chores were done we headed out to Churchill square to the Old Time Country Fair.  Now the weather wasn't too bad.  We did get a light dusting of snow, but with boots and coats and some toques (winter hats) and mitts we were fine, remember we do live in Canada these items of clothing are a must.

 

Here is Spencer, Evan and Megan standing beside an old time fire truck.

 Here is Megan putting in some muscle to make the bell ring.  You really had to give it quite a whack.

Here is Evan knocking down the monsters. 

Here is Aaron playing with some animals that were walking around the square. 

The downtown farmer's market was also set up there in some warm tents.  There was free face painting and balloon animals (the balloon line was too long) but we all got our faces painted more like air brushed, it was fast and fun.  Aaron and Evan got Tigers,  Megan a dragon, Spencer got a spider and web and I chose a butterfly. 

They also had a wagon ride that we enjoyed and they had some fires going to warm up by and they provided some marshmellows to roast.  In order to fully enjoy our time we had to get some mini doughnuts to enjoy and warm us up.

Our Night of Ghost and Ghoblins....

We had a wonderful Halloween this year.  I think that the nice weather really helped and that our children can now go a bit longer trick or treating.

We started our Halloween off by decorating a spooky house, then later in the week we made some finger puppets with a Halloween theme of course. 

(Sorry for the sideways picture but here is the finished product)

Our tradition is to always carve our pumpkins for FHE before Halloween.  Which is what we did.  I bought our pumpkins earlier in the week and made Spencer proud when I found the biggest and best ones I could.  In our family we each get to carve a pumpkin....it just cuts down on the arguements and we love to have a nice selection to show off come Halloween night.   I am a master carver and helped Evan carve his pumpkin in no time.  We left Megan to go-it-alone and she had a lot to do by herself so she actually just got the top cut off and decided on a design that night.  I helped her by scooping out the insides and tracing her pattern on the pumpkin.  The next day she carved most of the pumpkin by herself.  Spencer helped Aaron...it took awhile but the results were worth the wait.  I actually didn't carve our (adult) pumpkin until Sunday of the following week.  Just too busy. But it only took about 1/2 an hour start to finish.  I love the smell of a lit pumpkin.  Megan suggested that I add cinnamon to the pumpkin and it will smell like a pumpkin pie with the candle going....yummy...next year we'll give that one a try. 

Our carving results...

A mummy, two different faces, and a cat.
Here are our costumes....

Here is my Megan dressed as her ipod nano standing beside Hermonie from Harry Potter (her school friend).  I even sprayed her hair purple, what you can't see is the play/menu button behind her bag and on the back the apple symbol with the word iPod.  She loved it.

Here is Evan as a firefighter minus the hat (it kinda gets annoying he says) we used this costume last year too.   Next year I'm pretty sure that he'll be harder to please.  When I saw costumes come on sale at costco I asked him if he wanted to be one of those ones this year.  But in the middle of August who is thinking about halloween.  Not him.  Aaron of all things....we miss placed his costume when it came time to trick or treat.  I couldn't find his tigger outfit anywhere?...how do you lose a halloween costume?  So I was ready to go out while the sun was still up and so were the boys, so thank goodness we had this pumpkin hat and an orange coat and a bag with a pumpkin face on it.  So that worked out ok.  In the end he didn't care what he was he just wanted to go trick or treating.

Our ward held a trunk or treat at the church.  There were lots of fun games and activities then the trunk or treating.  This year we handed out bags of chips.  The kids got a nice little haul...enough to get started with anyways. 

Megan went out trick or treating with a school friend and had a good time.  She got quite the haul and five bucks to boot!

I went out with Evan and Aaron around 5:45pm just around our complex.  It takes so long for Aaron to walk to each house....he was so excited to use his flashing lights bag and he loves to see what kind of candy was given.  With just the three of us going around to houses we had to say "trick-or-treat" a few times and loudly so people could hear us.  We went back to our house with the boys bags full.  Then Spencer took them out again to some houses that are close by.  By this time Evan was being pushed in our stroller and Aaron was the trooper and walked the whole way.  He is definately our big boy.

This is Evan's candy.  Imagine Aaron's added to this.  Yikes!  We let our kids enjoy some of their candy that night, then we let them select about 10 pieces that they can eat and the rest goes into our movie night bucket.  As our children love not only popcorn but a little candy as well when they watch a movie. 

Thanksgiving and Birthday Celebrations!

We had a wonderful and full thanksgiving.  My parents came up to share in our festivities along with my sister and her little brood and my brother and his family from the city joined in as well.   We loved having everyone over and are glad that they all put up with our small space. 

I cooked a turkey and ham and some veggies and everyone else brought the rest to fill out our thanksgiving dinner. 

The weather was so nice that after our dinner we decided to go for a walk around gold park park.  Then we came home and enjoyed some yummy pumpkin muffins and some slightly undercooked apple pie. 


On Sunday we celebrated my birthday.  I turned the big 33 this year.

My sister made a surprise cake....yup, she made me a rainbow cake!  I've seen this done before and I've wanted to make one, I will someday.  My sister put alot of time and prep into this cake and it turned out great and tasted fantastic.  One thing to note...Duncan Hines is the preferred icing over Betty crocker. 

I received some great gifts.  Megan did this drawing for me.  Later I asked her to color it which she did and it really makes it stand out even more.  I think she looks like me don't you?  Maybe it's me in Japanimation....

My mother gave me a white blanket that the kids have prompted taken over.  I once called them polar bears when they were wearing it.  So now it will be known as "polar bear, polar bear" blanket.

My sister (and brother in law) is so good to me as she listened carefully to things that we often talk about on the phone.  I told her about a cookbook that I was interested in at Costco and she got it for me.  It is the Quinoa cookbook;  She also got me a package of Quinoa to go with it.  I was thinking that I would become like that movie "Julie & Julia" and try every recipe.  If I do that I will post my results and updates.

My hubby is also very good to me.  I told him that I was thinking about cancelling my gym membership and just staying home to exercise since we already have a treadmill.  The gym lifestyle just doesn't fit my lifestyle anymore.  But in order for me to do this I was thinking about getting a small tv for just in front of the treadmill that I would be able to watch effortlessly.  I really enjoy it.(I now run for my 30 minutes without feeling much pain.)   So he jumped right on it and we also ended up getting a new tv for the family as well.  Welcome to the 21st Century!  Now we are living a little higher life.  Spencer enjoys the tv for all the neat things that they can do now.  I just enjoy being able to watch a tv without having to whack it to get the picture back.  It's a much more enjoyable experience. 

Lots of love and celebration this thanksgiving weekend!

Loose tooth...

I don't know why it bugs me so much when my child is about to lose a tooth.   Maybe it is because of this....

She did lose this tooth that she had been wiggling all week.  It is now no big deal when a tooth comes out, thank goodness.  The tooth fairy did eventually find her.  Can I just say that with inflation the tooth fairy might need some other financial backing to continue to do her job for all the other little boys coming up.  

Saint or Sinner....

Don't judge us...

 On Sunday our kids were feeling sick, so I stayed home with them.  It was such a beautiful day that we did need to get out.....can I help it that the city of Edmonton wanted to thank all those who use and enjoy the city recreation facilities/venues.  So we decided to go the the Muttart Conservatory.  It is a nice place to visit.  It was just recently re-done and what they added makes it a nice place to sit and enjoy.  We visited each of the four pyramids and enjoyed each "zone": tropical, moderate, temperate and a show pyramid that was filled with all shades of pink flowers in honor of breast cancer awareness.
 

Here we are in the tropical zone. 

There were a few nice little water features, this one was a little water fall behind us. They had some fish ponds as well. 

In the atrium there was an art display and the calligraphy group from the city that was printing names.  So the kids each had their names done fancy. 

Afterwards we headed outside and the kids loved running up and down the hills and finding the apples that they had on the trees outside.  There were a few more wonderful flower beds outside that I wandered around to enjoy. 

We enjoyed ourselves and all of Heavenly Fathers creations that we don't usually get to see most of all we enjoyed being together as a family...sick or not.

Celebrating 11 years....

That's right 11 years has come and gone since I married my sweetheart.  I always like to look back at all the things that have happened to us from whence we started up until now...we have experienced a lot and we keep going...
Our anniversary falls on a long weekend and it is right around school, so we usually stay close to home.  I was preparing a wonderful evening of enjoying the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra under the Sky concert, when Spencer told me to hold on...he might have other plans for us.  Sure enough he did.  We went to the Josh Groban concert instead.  It was a really good time.  We have actually never gone to a concert like this together before.  Josh puts on a good show.  Spencer bought me 12 roses: 11 red and one white (for good luck).  I love having fresh flowers.  I cooked a steak dinner with baked potatoes and salad and a vegetable along with some sparkling apple juice and a few candles lit.  We shared this fabulous dinner with our little bumpkins.  Then cleaned up and picked up the babysitter and were off. 

Here I am at the entrance of Rexall Place.  This is actually the first time that I've been here.  

Here is Josh singing on a mini stage in the middle of the floor, so we got a really good view of him from this point.  So did all those who have floor seats they were all turned around and out of their seats for this part. 

We checked out some of the souvenirs, but I couldn't bring  myself to spend that kind of money and I don't think that I would actually wear a shirt with a huge picture of Josh Groban on it.  I'll just stick to listening to his music.  I did however buy a book about this tour that is just filled with pictures; this will go in  my memory box along with the newspaper clipping about his concert and our ticket stubs. 

These are the flowers that I got and my keepsake book of this experience. 

Thanks Spencer for a wonderful anniversary celebration and for 11 wonderful years of marriage. 

Back to School

We survived our back to school....(notice how we are wearing sweaters and rain boots in these pictures...yes, it was cool)

Megan started on the first of September.  Here she is all decked out and ready to go.  She started grade 4 this year.  This will be a good and challenging school year for her I hope.  Something to keep her busy and occupied and to stretch her mind.  She is starting to learn French this year. 

Here is my Kindergartener.  He was so ready and waiting to go to school.  There was a staggered entry, so half of his class went on the first and the other half including him went on the second.   I walked up to the doors with him, and waited until the bell rang.  Then helped him into his class room and hanging up his coat, getting his indoor shoes on and dropping off all the school supplies.
His class is rather large with approximately 30 kids, they have a teacher and a teacher's aid and have 2 classrooms to work in.  So I think that they often split the class to do various activities.  He loves recess and playing at the park. 

The first full week of classes I stood with Evan outside and Aaron actually started crying when Evan left.  He finally knew that Evan was going to be away for a while.  We have since adjusted more to the routine.  But I never have to walk Evan to the doors anymore.  Megan is a huge help in walking with Evan and then picking him up after school from his room and walking with him to the van.  Secretly I think that she likes having Evan attend her school.  She has been encouraging and helpful for him. 

Only one time last week did Evan cry after I picked him up.  I asked what was wrong and he said that he didn't want to leave cause he would miss his class.  I told him not to worry he would be back tomorrow.  He has been tired at the end of every day, often taking a short nap on the couch while watching some after school tv. 

Two down one to go...

The rest of our summer part 2

So one nice day I decided to take the kids to Jurassic Forest that just opened up a year or so ago just outside of Edmonton.  This was going to be a real fun outing, I packed some snacks and thought that I would buy some lunch there.  I kinda knew where it was but didn't really get directions, I figured that there would be some road signs that would guide me along the way.  I was almost there, but didn't want to be lost on the highways so I phoned Spencer to give  me directions.  Which he did.  In less than 5 minutes I found the place. 

It was fairly busy, which is a good sign. There they have a little indoor part with a few dinosaurs that you can see and learn about.  Then you go outside and go on a little hike.  In amongst the trees and plants you will come across some dinosaurs that are motion sensored and they move a little and make a noise.  It was alright.  I would have loved to see the updated Dinosaur part of the Calgary zoo, since Megan said it was very much like that.  So at Jurassic Forest you can go on two different not terribly long loops to see the dinosaurs, they have a few dinosaurs to play on in the middle of the complex and you can also play in the sand to uncover some dinosaur bones.  We did one loop and then decided to eat some lunch, so I went to the concession stand to order some hot dogs for $4 each (yikes) and it was cash only.  So I went to find a bank machine, but to my dismay the bank machine wasn't working, I was the girl at the cash register if I could use my bank card there and that was a no go and she said sorry the bank machine wasn't working.  I was a little bit miffed that I had no options for lunch.  Luckily I had packed some snacks that we sat down and ate.  Then off to discover the loop.  There were actually a lot of repeat dinosaurs and due the the lack of a real playground and my lunch mishap and poor road way signage and the cost of the experience I give it 2 thumbs down.  We did it once and that was enough. 

Here we are on one of the loops

This is the dinosaur dig part of the playground.  In the back you can see a little dinosaur slide. 

 Here is one of the dinosaurs up close. 

On a happier experience note we also made it to Calaway park this summer and to the zoo.  We made a weekend trip out of our trip down to see our new neices be blessed on Sunday in Calgary.  We love Calaway park.  There are a lot of good rides for all ages to go on.  The big one we made it to this year was the log ride.  We wound our way through the line.  The kids were so bored.  But we finally made it to the front of the line and the gal said that Aaron was too short.  Boy I was mad.  I waited in line holding him for the past 45 minutes.  What a waste of time.  So we left and went on a little boat ride while Spencer, Evan and Megan enjoyed the log ride. 

After that we ate our picnic lunch that we purchased at Safeway.  We was really good.  The food at Calaway park, is all the same, deep fried, hot dogs, hamburgers....and pricey.  This was a good suggestion that we got from my sister in law. 

The day before we visited the Calgary zoo with my brother and some of his kids.  That was fun. The kids enjoyed that and my brother was a good tour guide.  We stayed with my brother and sister in law.  They were great hostesses and our kids love to play with their cousins.  Not to mention being able to play with and walk their dog chip.  Evan was crying when we went to Calaway park because he was going to miss the dog.  He didn't realize that we were staying another night and would see the dog again. 

It was a full weekend that kept us busy and we en

The rest of our Summer Part 1

I've located our camera so now I can have a fun update on the rest of our summer....

Before Spencer started up again into his schooling for another intensive 8 weeks we thought we would take our final weekend to go camping.  So we picked a place that we had never been before and just went for the night.  We packed up our car and off we went to Elk Island National Park.  We loved it.  It is close and we all enjoyed camping.  Despite the name of the park we didn't actually see any Elk, but the park is home to a great herd of Buffalo that stopped us a few times on the road and we also saw some coyotes.  We did get a few showers but that didn't last long. 

Our campsite was smaller than we were use to but it had everything that we needed in close proximity.  We even did this while Aaron was learning to potty train.  You can pretty much go and do anything with pull ups!

Here we are enjoying our popcorn.  We didn't have a camp stove it died last year and since we were only going camping for one night we decided to just cook over a fire.  This was a little tricky....our fire building skills were a bit rusty and it took longer than we wanted to get going, then if we were really good campfire cooks, we would have waited until the fire died down.  But the kids were hungry so we had most of our meals with the campfire kiss to them. 

The kids loved chasing the dragon flies around since they were pleantiful due to the large number of misquitoes that we experienced this year.  The kids had fun just hang out and being outside.  We checked out the beach that was pretty close, but it was a bit cooler and windy and acutally more rocky.  You can't swim in the water there but they did have a park to play on, some hikes to go on,  some interpretive programs and a living boardwalk. 

 We hiked around the boardwalk that takes you around the shore of one of the lakes there and in the water you could see all sorts of little bugs and water critters.  Evan made me promise that the next day before we left that we would come back and bring our net and a container to scoop up some water life to enjoy.  So that is exactly what we did.  The kids loved being there and trying to scoop up everything that moved.  They learned about sharing and enjoyed watching all the bugs float and swim, just when they had a container full of things, Aaron would try their patience by dumping it all back into the lake....not to worry though they were more than happy to capture all the bugs again. 

There is a snail, tadpole and a leech along with some smaller insects that you can't really see in this picture. 

This was actually at the park, it is a ukrainian house from some of the first settlers in that area.  It is traditional in design.  We couldn't go inside this one, but after we packed up we drove to Ukrainian Heritage Village that was like 2 minutes away.  This is an interpretive site and it was really good and interesting to go to.  Megan actually studied about Ukraine in school this past year.  So she actually got to see houses, schools, farms, churches etc, from the Ukraine Stettlers in Alberta.  The guides and actors were really good.  You could go inside the various buildings and ask questions and they would answer like they were back in the day.  It is a fantistic place to visit. 

It is quite a bit of walking but Spencer happened to get us on a wagon ride that took us to some of the parts that were further away in the park.  So here are the kids in a school.  They loved sitting in the desks and using the chalk boards. 

Here we are in front of the grain elevator and a train. The early settlers worked hard to make a life for themselves and to be able to provide a better life for thier families.

Aaron's birthday

My little guy turned 2 at the end of July. It seems like this year has just flown by.

We just had a quiet family party for him after Spencer got home from work. Followed by cake and ice cream and the opening up of presents.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate our "little big guy" as we sometimes like to call him.

He started out his day in a favorite way....by having a sweet cereal. Froot Loops are his favorite and it sounds so cute when he says it.

He then helped me make his cupcakes. He always comes running over, dragging a chair behind him so he can stand on it and "help".

Here is he blowing out the candles on his "cake". Yep, cupcakes with different types of sports balls. He loves balls. He owns over 20 different ones himself. Often in church he'll get me to draw pictures of different balls. Basketball, soccer ball, baseball, football, tennis ball, marbles, gum ball, meat ball, snow ball, ball of yarn, eyeball, bowling ball; You name it, if I can draw it he is so pleased and it keeps him quiet and entertained. So how could we not celebrate this birthday without balls. He is good a throwing and working on the catching part.

Here is a huge balloon that Spencer bought for the party at the dollar store. I asked Spen to pick up one of those preinflated balloons at the dollar store...but he got this instead.

Here is some of the gift opening. He got a transformer, more Hot Wheels stuff, a lacing kit, a Diago DVD and a bubble blower. I love young children as they are usually easy to please. He loved and plays with his toys so well. Now he can add his toys to Evans and they usually have a good time.

Here's to Aaron:

• Hearty eater
• Potty trained
• Loves Thomas the Tank Engine
• Loves to play at the park
• Loves to read books
• Draws on my walls
• Can speak in short sentences (reminds me of Megan at this age)
• likes to wrestle
• Dancing machine

We love you Aaron and are glad that your a part of our family. Happy Birthday!