What Makes Aidan Act Like a Crazy Man???

Answer: Albuterol Breathing Treatments. At first they didn't seem to bother him, but here lately he has been acting like one wound for sound little boy after he has had one. I was working on school stuff last night in the living room and all of a sudden I here this really loud bang coming from our bedroom. I walk in and Aidan is taking a running start towards our door and banging into it with his hands. James said he was having such a good time that he didn't want to make him stop. Every time he would hit he would just cackle at himself. Oh, and yesterday he got upset with me over something and proceeded to hit, scratch, and kick at me. I'm not saying Aidan is an angel, but he has never acted like that before. Needless to say he got into big trouble. I know he needs the treatments to help his cough, but they are really starting to wear me out. It is like someone flips the light switch as soon as he takes one.




He is such a big boy and can hold it for himself. This is a big improvement over the first treatment we gave him.

Nothing better than being covered in Spaghettios and taking a breathing treatment.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Pictures from the wonderful ice storm of '09.

No big loss. It was already dead from the last ice storm.

Our house.

That is one sad looking OU flag.

Another tree in out back yard that is partially dead from the last ice storm.

Doesn't that just make you want to jump right in?

Looks like we have a lot of tree cleaning up to do. YUCK!

Choo! Choo!

On Sunday we went to Sallisaw to celebrate Bodie's 2nd birthday. His birthday was a train theme and everything looked so cute. I just love birthday parties. He had the cutest cake that the talented Brenda Dortch made. I think that woman could make anything look good. Aidan even got a birthday present on Bodie's birthday. Please tell me how that works? His Grandma Rosa bought him some books and a cute OU shirt. He's just a little bit spoiled. Aidan had lots of fun at the party as well as the other kids. Sunday evening James' Mom watched Aidan at our house. Bodie was with her because he was staying the night with them. They had a great time playing together. I wish we lived closer so they could see eachother more often. It is strange to think that they will be in the same grade in school and might even play football against each other someday. They are both such sweet little boys. Most of the time anyway!

Family Photo


Bodie the birthday boy!


Aidan playing with Bodie's train.


He loves birthday cake.


Bodie's cute little train cake!

Mom's Smothered Steak and the Miss America Pageant

Tonight we went to my parent's house to have a birthday dinner for my sister Sandra. My Mom fixed our favorite, smothered steak. As you know I haven't been feeling well and there is really nothing better than your Mom's cooking to make you feel better. There isn't much that my Mom fixes that I don't absolutely love. I just love my Mom so much. I can't really describe in words how special she is to me and my family. She is always doing nice things for us. Every once in awhile she will buy Aidan a king size chocolate bar just because she knows how much he loves chocolate. Sometimes on her way home from work she and my Dad will stop by just to see their baby eventhough they know they will get to see him in just a few hours while James and I clean the bank. They are absolutely crazy about him, and likewise he his crazy about them. I think he knows that he has them wrapped around his little finger. It's just the simple things that they do for us that mean the most. After we had dinner I went home and watched the 88th annual Miss America pageant. I am so silly and I hate to admit this, but I still love to watch this. When I was little it was the highlight of my year. We would even have Miss America pageants at our slumber parties. I have some great pictures of the swimsuit competition stuck away somewhere. I think my best friend Jill's parents might even have videos. Oh, the blackmail they have on us. I didn't tonight, but I have been know to write down my top 15. Pathetic, I know!!! Too bad Miss Oklahoma didn't win, but I really was pulling for the girl who won. She was very pretty, smart, and talented. Maybe next year Miss Oklahoma will bring home the crown for us. That pretty much sums up our Saturday night. I don't think it gets much better than smothered steak and the Miss America pageant.

Would Someone Please Call the Fumigator!!!

This must be our year to be sick. I feel like we have caught about everything that has been going around. Aidan started coughing on Monday and just continued to get worse. We took him to the doctor on Wednesday and they checked his blood count, which was normal. He didn't do to well with the whole finger stick process. Once they stuck him, they then had to milk his finger to get enough blood for the test. Needless to say it took James and I both to hold him so the nurse could do the test and he still managed to get a hand free to hit at her. I was so embarrassed. I think he even tried to kick her a couple of times. Like I've said before he has his daddy's ornery ways. Since the blood test was normal they thought it was just "viral." I have grown to hate that word. Yes, I know hate is a strong word, but it is so aggravating when everything is viral. I just want them to fix him, and fast. They sent us home with breathing treatments to give him every four hours. He hated it at first, but is getting better. I will try and post some pictures later. It is the worst thing to watch your baby when they are sick. Then to top it off I woke up Thursday morning very nauseous and achy. Really no other symptoms besides a low grade fever. Just basically felt terrible. Aidan and I snuggled in bed the last two days and watched cartoons and slept. It was great to spend the day with him just being lazy. They also ended up calling him in an antibiotic because he was still running a high fever this morning. So hopefully he will be better soon. I just keep telling myself, this too shall pass.

Prayer for Harper

Aidan climbing on his kitchen. He is such a little monkey, but a healthy monkey.



Aidan on the way home from the hospital. One of the happiest days of my life.



Aidan as James would say suntanning. This is a photo of Aidan in the NICU. He had already improved so much in this picture!


I was reading blogs yesterday and stumbled upon a blog called Kelley's Korner. Not really sure of their whole situation, but I do know that there newborn baby girl is in the NICU at St. Francis and is in stable but critical condition. I guess she developed some sort of infection in her lungs. If you want to know her full story you can check out her blog. Her story touched my heart and I find myself checking her blog often to see if there is any updated information on Baby Harper. I so feel for her family because we went through some of the same things with Aidan. I found some old pictures and videos of Aidan while he was in the NICU. I still can't watch the video nor will I ever be able to without crying a little. Aidan was very sick, and as a mother it was just so hard for me to take. I hate to see him hurt. Sometimes James and I will just look at each other when Aidan is playing and discuss how far he has come from that little baby in the hospital. We are so blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful, child. God is so good. Please remember Baby Harper in your prayers and all of the other babies that are in the NICU. Pray for their parents to have strength, courage, and peace. Most of all remember to thank God for the healthy children in your life.



Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Psalm 127: 3,5

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Aidan!

After a cupcake and ravioli it was straight to the bathtub. He touched several things on the way, and thought it was hilarious.


Yum! Yum!


He loves icing!

So Aidan turned 18 months old on Tuesday and we decided to celebrate this big milestone in his life. Actually, I got the idea of celebrating "1/2 birthdays" from reading someone else's blog and thought it was really neat. James and I went to Tulsa for date night and I picked him up a cupcake for his big celebration. We also got him an Elmo balloon. Too bad he bit it and all of the helium went out of it. He was not very happy about it, but maybe next time he won't do that. We let him have his cupcake after lunch and we sang "Happy 1/2 Birthday to Aidan." Yes, I know we are completely ridiculous and I'm sure some of you are thinking that we so need to have another child. We just love him so much, and enjoy doing fun things for him. I think this is a tradition that we will try and do every year. It wasn't much, but it was a lot of fun. Aidan really enjoyed his cupcake and all of the attention. Maybe even James and I can start celebrating ours.

Sports Night

Aidan's first certificate!


I'm not sure what he is so interested in.


Teeter tottering by himself!


He liked to carry the bowling ball around and throw it more than he did actually bowling with it.

On Tuesday we had a sports night at the school for parents as teachers. All of the kids dressed up to support their favorite team. James wanted Aidan to wear his Derek Jeter jersey even though we know his favorite team is the Sooners. We had lots of fun activities set up for the kids to do. Just a few of the favorites were ice skating, bowling, soccer, football toss, basketball, and tee ball. I bet you are wondering how we pulled ice skating off. We put waxed paper using rubber bands to their feet which made everything pretty slick. I tried that with Aidan, but he didn't really like it. I actually think his favorite thing was being chased by Emerson and Kayci. He also liked bowling and riding on the teeter totter that is in the room. Everyone got a certificate for participating in sports night. It was so much fun and I think all of the kids had a great time.

FYI- Our next group meeting for Parents as Teachers is February 2nd at 6:30. We will be having a messy art night. We are planning lots of fun and messy art projects for the kids to do. I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

"B-I-B-I"

One night when we picked Aidan up from my parent's house they said that Aidan had been singing the B-I-B-L-E. I was a little skeptical about it because we had never sang that song to him before. We sing lots of songs, but never that one. So I started thinking that he had probably heard it in his church class. When we got home that night he kept singing it, and every book he picked up he was the "B-i-b-i." I didn't really want to blog about it until I was sure that was what he was doing. Since we hadn't been able to go to church because we were all sickly I couldn't ask his teachers if they had been singing it in class. Finally, we all got well enough to go again, and I had a chance to ask his teacher. She said that they had been singing it. I was so excited. I guess I should have given him more credit.

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Picking daddy's nose. YUCK!!!

Checking daddy's teeth for cavities.


Lately we have been working with Aidan on learning his body parts. He has known where his nose is for a long time. He loves to stick his finger up it at the most inopportune times. He also doesn't mind picking ours either. Now he knows his eyes, belly, mouth, and head. He doesn't really know ear yet, but we're working on it. He always points to his eye when I say ear. When we ask him where his mouth is he will wiggle his tongue at us. It is too cute. We have to be careful when asking him where his eyes are because he likes to poke and push on them to the point that I'm afraid he will hurt himself. I just thought I would share his latest accomplishment. We were so proud of him. It seems like he is learning something new everyday.

Volleyball Match

I'm a little embarrassed to be writing this, but today while Aidan was napping in the guest bedroom James and I decided to play a game of volleyball in his room. You have to understand we are going a little stir crazy because Aidan was sick, then I was sick, now Aidan is running fever again. We haven't really been able to leave the house very much in the last two weeks. So James and I got the bright idea to play a game of volleyball. We used Aidan's Swiffer mop as the dividing line. We had the best time. James and I were both laughing so hard at ourselves and how ridiculous we looked. At one point James actually hurt his shoulder trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. It is so great being married to your best friend. We can make about anything fun. The bad part is we are both so competitive that we were actually arguing over the rules. James won 2 and I won 2, so we are going to have the tie breaker game later tonight. We got too tired to finish. It is pretty good exercise playing volleyball in your child's room. You should try it sometime. I also have another secret to confess. We Tivo Jeopardy every night and play it. The best part about that is that we actually keep score. I can say I have learned so much from playing that silly game. I will keep you posted on who wins the big volleyball championship match tonight. As if you really care. Oh well, you can at least humor us.

Daddy's Nose Picker

I was up cleaning house last night because I couldn't sleep, and I heard Aidan start crying. I went in and checked on him and he was standing up in his crib with his arms up. So I picked him up and went and put him in our bed so he would go back to sleep. We do this when he wakes up and then we go and put him back into his crib after he falls back asleep. I sometimes feel like we play musical beds. When I get to our bedroom James is sound asleep and has been since 11:30. I put Aidan in bed and lay down by him. He rolls over next to James and gets his face right next to James'. It gets really quiet for about 3 or 4 minutes, so I'm thinking that Aidan has gone back to sleep. All of a sudden I hear Aidan giggle. I thought he was just dreaming until I look over at him. He has his finger up James' nose and is laughing. He got me tickled and then I started laughing. I made him stop even though I didn't really want to. James just kind of pulled his head back and went right back to sleep. Aidan is so ornery. Some of his mannerisms remind me so much of James. He may look more like my side of the family, but he acts just like his daddy. I can't wait to tell James what he did tomorrow. I'm sure he won't even remember.

Happy New Year!

We were going to stay at home to ring in the new year because I have been sick most of the week with some weird tonsil infection. It wasn't strep throat, the test came back negative. I have had strep throat before, and this was much worse. My tonsils at one point looked as if they might explode, but I'm much better now! Antibiotics are a great thing! Since I started feeling better we went to my parent's house to celebrate. We had a great time with our family. I played Phase 10 with my niece, nephew, and my nephew's friend. I had a blast, and they were so hilarious. I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed like that in a long time. I forgot how much fun high school kids can be. Their energy and carefree spirit is such a blessing and a reminder to stop and enjoy the simple moments in life. I loved being able to act silly with them. Overall we had a great evening and it was fun bringing in the new year with our family. There is something about a new year that makes me so excited. I'm not sure if it is just a fresh start or because I know spring is not too far away. James and I reflected back over the last year, and there are a few things we wish we would have done differently. There were also a lot of good memories made. In a way I was a little sad to see it go because I know that it means my little guy will turn 2 this year. We are looking forward to 2009 and all of the great things it will bring. We hope you and your families have a wonderful new year.