A Trip to Asheville!

This is Ayden with his Great Grandma Betty who is 92! She now lives in the same state as us, so it is great to spend more time with her!
We were so excited to meet the newest little member of the family, Alexandria Faith! She is already 6 weeks old and this was her first car ride and trip out of the house! This is a photo of her with her Mommy, Elizabeth (Julio's cousin).
Here's Great Grandma with her first Great Grand Daughter! (She has two Grandson's!)
This is Pancho making faces at Alexandria. He sure got some cute responses from her!
Here's Ayden showing Alexandria a little stuffed bird. He showed a little bit of interest in his newest cousin, it will grow... :)

A Trip to the NC Zoo!

Two weekends ago, we went to the North Carolina Zoo, the third largest in the country! There were over 5 miles of walking trails and lots to see! This was a cute playground at the zoo that had bugs, vegetables and leaves to climb on! We had trouble dragging Ayden away to go see the animals!

We were lucky to see this Elk up close! They are such huge animals!
Does this photo look familiar? I believe Ayden posed in this same car (different location) two Summers ago when we were staying in Santa Monica and visiting the pier!
We had a great time and got lots of exercise while looking at all the animals. We will have to go back in the Summer when more exhibits are open, but it was a great trip!

Valentines Day!

On Valentine's Day each year, we don't pressure ourselves to have the romantic dinner out and all that with candy and flowers, we just had fun making Valentines for Ayden's class, which he had a lot of fun handing out to his classmates! They had a little party in class with healthy treats, imagine that! I was also inspired to make some heart shaped biscuits to go with our dinner that night (Pancho is holding one in the photo and Ayden is eating one!) These are the simple pleasures we enjoyed this year. :)

Potty training!!

For the last two weeks at preschool, Ayden has managed to stay dry all morning. On Wednesday of last week, he even stayed dry through his nap at preschool. Throughout this time, he did not want to go at home except for before getting in the shower for some reason. His teacher said at the end of last week that she thinks he is ready, he can do it - going consistently that is. We had two accidents that week outside of school, not bad at all! So, we went home on Monday of this week from preschool and didn't stop going potty until bed time when we put on a diaper. We haven't stopped yet and it is Wednesday! Until today, Ayden has refused to try going poo-poo on the potty, he would only go pee-pee. This morning before preschool, I somehow convinced him to go poo-poo on the potty and he was so excited that he did it that we took this photo! It was a big day for him!! We all got to go out to ice cream after dinner to celebrate!

Rough housing with Daddy

Pretending with My Favorite Animals...

One day this week, I got a brake from sword making, fighting with weapons and action figures when Ayden decided that his lastest favorite grouping of stuffed animals were going to play catch together, take a nap and play with their acrobat triangle toys! It was fun for both of us because this is my favorite type of play, the kind that doesn't involve any violence! :) Check it out, I finally realized that posting video is easy!

31 weeks and still counting!

Getting bigger and bigger and still have 2 months to go! I think I am starting to inflate at this point, I may not be able to wear this shirt for the photos much longer! :) Well, better than the last pregnancy anyway. We are currently taking a childbirth class that is informing us about all the different methods of laboring. We'll see if it convinces me to try this the "au natural" way. It is at least great for brushing up on things, it has been a few years!

Making Valentine's!

I thought I was clever when I came up with making stamps out of potatoes! I cut heart shapes, X's and O's and Ayden stamped them on the paper. It was a bit chilly out that day late this month (January) and so Ayden lost interest pretty quickly! Oh well, at least we have some fun paper to cut and make into Valentine's for his classmates at preschool!

Soccer Class!

In the last couple of months, we discovered when we took Ayden out on the grass to play soccer, that he could dribble the ball, kick pretty well and he had fun doing it! We heard about an indoor soccer place that gives classes for all ages. We signed him up for the "Cottontails" class that involves parent participation. He seems to love it so far. The class is on Saturday mornings, so Pancho can go!

A Snow Day!

In mid January, we had some cold enough weather for some snow to fall and acutally stick to the ground for a couple of days! It was so pretty to watch from inside where we were cozy and warm! There is something so nice about really wintery cold weather including a little snow!
The next day, Pancho and Ayden got all bundled up and took a bike ride outside to check out the snow!

A Friend's Birthday Party

The girl in the tiara is Ayden's friend Chloe. She had a fun 3rd birthday party at a comedy works place where they put on an interactive play for the kids, it was a riot!
Here is Ayden as "Prince Ayden" and of course Chloe was "Princess Chloe."
Ayden's job as Prince wasn't too eventful except for saying a few lines so he decided that he should play the part of the Dragon also since no one else had claimed it! He was a ham, it was pretty funny! He was a regular old actor!

Marbles Museum on Ayden's (actual) Birthday!

We had a fun day on January 1st, Ayden's actual birthday! We took him to Marbles Museum, the one pictured in the Thanksgiving post. We then had Frank and Sonja over for a birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese, fruit, salad and more brownie cake!

more birthday photos...

Make a wish! Three years old already!! We had a fun Curious George theme!
Cousins...identical cousins...they walk alike, they talk alike...they often get mistaken for twins when we are all together. :)

Ayden's Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Ayden's 3rd Birthday with the Lukacs', Grandma Gayle and Grandad Eric at Chuck E. Cheese before we left for home in late Decmeber. The kids had a great time, danced with Chuck E. Cheese himself, played all the games and ate yummy ice cream cake!

Christmas Day continues...

After cooking all day to prepare Christmas Dinner, we had an awesome meal thanks mostly to Marcie and Julius! Then we played some more including some tackling for the boys!

Playing with the new toys!

Santa Came on Christmas Day!!

First we found the gifts that Santa left in the stockings! Ayden had never done the whole stocking thing before, so this was fun! The weeks leading up to Christmas, we were telling him how Santa flies in his sleigh lead by raindeer and then he delivers the gifts by coming down the chimney. All the kids left some cookies and milk for santa and some carrots for the raindeer the night before. It was fun to start these traditions this year (now that Ayden can understand it!)

Then it was on to the gifts left under the tree!