Guess Who Turned 1?

We celebrated Garrett's birthday today with family and friends and had a great time! We enjoyed everyone's company and love in celebrating this day with us! I am not ready for this little man to be 1 but I will make the most of it as his loving momma. I am so lucky to be his mom and he brings us joy everyday! Happy Birthday Garrett!!! Garrett is walking ALL over the place! He loves to stack things, loves to play trains with his big brother, loves to cuddle mommy and wrestle with daddy! He loves EVERYTHING when it comes to food, loves milk and is meeting every developmental stage! He had his first year appointment and everything was perfect! Yeah!!! Favorites:

Christmas with Santa

Aaden was so cute when he walked up to Santa! He told him, "Santa I need 5 presents!" He couldn't name what he wanted but he knew the amount he wanted, haha! Too cute! Garrett did well having Aaden there, but he definitely was looking at momma like come and get me, PLEASE! Look at this little face! Priceless.

Our Family Photos

http://www.kintype.com/?p=646

Photos Resolution

This next year, I am going to be better! I need to be better! I despise looking at this past year and the photos, I feel like I look horrible, the boys are never in clothes long enough to get good photos. Garrett only has a handful to what Aaden had his first year. We never have anyone to take photos of all of us together. Its just the complaining of my mood tonight....but really. I want happy, friendly, funny, cute and adorable pictures. IF I could delete ALL the photos from this year and not feel guilty I would. Although, having a husband sleep during the day and work at night, you don't really get quality-equal photo op time! hehe.....

PICK UP THE CAMERA!!!!

Turning 1!

Garrett, I can't believe you are one my dear. This year has gone by so quick and it makes mommy sad :( I want to cuddle my baby again. You are so precious to me and mean so much to me, I am so glad you chose me to be your mom! You are so adorable, I love your blue eyes, I love your soft blonde hair, I love your smile and your laugh (even if we don't get it too often). I love how you play with your big brother and chase the dog, I love how you manage to bull doze anything in your way. You are fearless my boy and show me that everyday. I can't believe you are walking and trying to vocalize ALREADY! You have done everything WAY earlier then I expected!!! There are so many things I love and learn about you daily and am so grateful to have that opportunity. We love you so much Gar-bear!

-walking
-facing forward (even though they recommend 2 years now-no way for me)
-eating anything he can come in contact with, favorites are, chicken, corn, green beans, yogurt, any fruit and veggie really, puffs, eggs, toast....etc.
-bull doze, he will knock over or move anything in his way
-not sleeping through the night :( he has maybe once, depending on how long you call sleeping through the night, lol!

November and December (partially)

For Thanksgiving we took a trip to KC, to spend it with my sister and her family. I forgot to mention we welcomed their cutest new addition Drake to the family this past summer!! He is a doll and makes me want another baby.....

I am a horrible photographer and didn't get any photos, but we had a great time. We recently got family photos done as well, hopefully a post soon to follow of some of them! I am in love with them as well as each person in them :)

Halloween was in there too! We just did a quick costume change with the boys with what we had at home and with friends. We went to the mall, disappointing and just came home! Maybe we can venture out and have some excitement next year. But I have to say the boys were cute!

Aaden and daddy have been going to the Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics, Aaden loves it and its definitely a good one on one time for him! He needs those special moments to remember how important he is to us. He is a trooper for the love and attention Garrett needs frequently....lol! But really, if you only knew!

September and October

Besides taking a few quick trips to Wichita, we have spent the last few months really just at home; playing, working on abc's, numbers, learning the tricks of board games, which Aaden is a Rock Star with them. Enjoying company of friends, family and just trying to survive the school months, boo! SOOOO ready for break!

First haircut

In August, daddy decided to give BOTH the boys haircuts...

Aaden eating his blue eggs! He is a picky eater most of the time....

May-June

MOMS Club

We love being a part of MOMS Club. It is so great to have so many fun activities weekly to attend! We are looking forward to many more fun outings this summer! Aaden and the other kiddos play so well together and its so nice to have the support as well as the friendships with the other mom's as well. This past summer we took a trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead in KC. It was such a fun time. The best part, its FREE! Aaden had a so much fun feeding baby goats bottles, playing on the playground(s) throughout the park, RIDING a PONY for the first time! I will admit I was a little hesitant, especially when they kept asking me if he was 3. However, I let my mommy guard down and let him be a big boy and he did wonderful! The funny part was he was the only one that was of age at the time, but the only one asked. My little man! I grew up with the same experiences. LOVE HIM! Here are a few photos from the trip!

Milestones and some......

We had a great first summer with our little guy, Garrett......

We got a puppy......

Aaden got potty trained......

Garrett is walking......

Garrett was crawling.....

Garrett is eating table food and drinking milk (still nursing).....

Aaden is undressing and dressing himself.....

Aaden is so SMART, his vocabulary has grown tremendously!!! His little personality is just so lovable.....

Both boys are just in awe of each other, they are definitely boys, wrestling, yelling, throwing things, punching and hitting! I don't know what has happened to my sweet little boys.....but I have to say its fun to see they are like all the other boys we hang out with :) lets just hope its a phase!

Better late then NEVER!

I can't believe I let it go this long. I really wanted to follow up regularly and be good at this. However, life happens! Let me see, since May there has been a lot of changes. We have experienced both good and bad, but that is all expected in the life of a young family. School started back up for the both of us as well as taking on an internship at SRS. It has been amazing! I love everything about it as well as everyone I work and come in contact with, within the office of course. I have grown tremendously in my professional role as well as many other roles within me personally. I am so blessed to have a loving husband and kiddos support me through this. My dream is becoming a reality. We have had some ups and downs and really just searching for our place here and our support system here. We have been in Topeka for about 6 years now (or 7) and I am getting to the point where its like, "How did I get here?" I miss my family, I miss my family for my boys as well. I am ready to move back home......homesick :(

A FIRST but many will follow

Garrett is just moving right along in the developmental stage, things he is doing as of now:

-Rolling Over (Back to Stomach and Stomach to Back)
-Rolling (Multiple times to get to something)
-Army Crawling
-Eating Cereal (w/ Banana added is his FAVORITE)
-Cooing
-Reaching and Grabbing Toys
-Laughing (He is very ticklish too!)
-Sitting up with support

Garrett is not a happy baby all the time, but when he is its so fun! He loves to be sang to and talked to. He loves to be smiled at and gives you a huge one back. He loves to wrestle with his big brother and thinks he is the coolest person in the world. He loves baths and loves to cuddle (ALL THE TIME).

Easter

As the boys get older I know I will become more hesitant to actually go on trips during every holiday. I would love to have some kind of stability for them on certain occasions as well as traditions. It seems that we are down in Wichita for each one of these and when we are home-bound we have no idea what to do. I am getting to the point that I would rather choose to be here and call this my home or move back and be able to experience traditions at home and still make it to the family gatherings. Thinking within the next few years this will all come together, whichever we decide to do. However, we did make it down for Easter and continued the tradition for us to stay with the Fair's (Richards Grandparents) the night before Easter so the boys could get up, enjoy their baskets and celebrate the day with the family. I think Aaden had the most fun out of all of us, the kiddos always do!

A Royal Wedding

I was able to take a trip to Wichita this past weekend and had an amazing time! More posts to come! I went down Thursday night so I could wake up in the early morning hours and watch the Royal Wedding with my wonderful sister-n-law. Not that I am up a million times throughout the night anyway, haha! It was no big deal to get up and enjoy a fairytale. There are certain things that will take place in our lifetime, they will include a mixture of great and awful events. A few things our kids will learn and hear about throughout their lives. Being able to experience some of them, in order to share it with them someday is pretty cool to think about. Plus, I am a romantic at heart and I love to watch and hear about love stories, even those about a Prince and Princess and know they do exist.

Crossed a few photos today! Old and New!

Sometimes words don't even need to be said for how cute our little one's are to us!

Taking on one more!

What was I thinking???!!!! We had some family move to town, Rich's sister and her family moved just blocks away. We love having them close and I am learning to "ask for help" as much as I allow myself too. I am hoping this will get easier as the time goes by. They are always calling and asking if we need anything, I love that! Makes me feel loved with the hectic schedule we are on. With them moving to town, we have taken on watching their little one, Rogan, she is 4 years old and is a great gal to have around. Her and Aaden play very nicely together and they both adore Garrett. Some days are rough, but we are making it work for the best! I am coming to terms that I think 2 is plenty for us! But we will see :)

Cousins come to town....

For Spring Break, we were able hang out with the Bingham Kids! Aaden loves these kiddos and talks about them all the time! I wish we lived closer so we could play like this more often! We were able to have a full week of visits and play time. We sure miss them!

Aaden, 28 lbs and growing.

I can't believe Aaden is 3 years old! I also can't believe that his little brother is just pounds away from catching up to him. Things about Aaden I love: His independence, his caring heart, his helpfulness, his ability to read emotions and want to fix them if they are unpleasant, his love of his family. Aaden is definitely all boy, its so funny to watch him play and see how much he has grown as a little boy since last summer. He wants to climb high, fall, play rough and not come in from sun up to sun down. I am hoping the weather continues to get nicer and we can have more days like this. He loves to sing and can memorize songs so well. He loves to count, color and play school as often as he can. Aaden has recently took on many of the prayers in our home. There is only a few times that he asks for help, I think he is doing a great job and no matter what he might say in them, my heart just melts for the joy I feel when I hear him say, "Our dear heavenly father....." I can only pray and ask heavenly father to continue to bless and be apart of his life, so that he always has the desire to pray. I just love this little boy so much and love being his mommy! He makes me so happy :)