Day 6

I was just thinking that I hadn't taken any pictures today, when Aiden called me back to his room.

Geoff and Jeanette got him a huge fire truck floor puzzle for birthday- he loves it! His teacher even mentioned how good he is at puzzles. For Christmas, all he talked about was getting more puzzles. We got him a few and so did my parents and Rae. Our puzzle master!

I did the one Rachel got him with him on Christmas night, it was tricky! I had to keep looking at the picture. It's all the Cars characters and they're hard to matchup. It was the one and only time he's done.

He was calling me back to his room because he had the whole middle done! (That's the hard part.) Then I watched him do the edge, he's so cute to watch while he's doing them.

(I realized my daily posts have pretty much been about all Aiden, he's a busy guy lately! He goes back to school tomorrow. Time for extra quality time with my girl.)

Day 5

Aiden had his very first soccer game at 9am! I didn't know til we were about to get in the car that Steven was able to switch schedules with someone so he could make it! And of course, all four grandparents came.

They need 5 players to play, there were 7 at practice and 6 at the game. Aiden sat out the first quarter. When he was put in, he walked right up to the ball and just stared at it before walking back to where his was supposed to be. We were all laughing. If you know Aiden, you know he analyzes every little thing, he has to know how everything works. It was like he was inspecting the ball. The whistle blew and they were off! It was so cute! I kept giggling. A goal was made and Aiden instantly crossed his arms! (I think because he didn't get a chance to kick the ball) and it went downhill from there! The ball went out of bounds and the coach was trying to get him to throw it in, he held it up like he was about to throw it then back down. He didn't want to be in anymore so he sat out. They put him back in for the last quarter but he just walked behind everybody, pouting with his arms crossed. What a butt head! Everybody's told me stories about their kids first year of soccer, how they acted the first few games. I really hope he warms up to it and starts to enjoy himself.

We spent the rest of the day being lazy. I have a bunch of "Giuliana and Bill" episodes on my dvr but I always put them off because I know I'll just cry the whole time. I watched a few of them yesterday. I love them! They've been my new Tori and Dean for the last few years, I still love them too though! :)

Steven brought pizza and wings home for dinner and we had a movie night in. We watched the latest Batman movie and the kids watched Home Alone 3.

Day 4

Since Aiden's been on Winter Break, I've been planning on having his friends come over to play. We ended up being busier than expected. Before I knew it, the three weeks was coming to an end and he hadn't gotten to play with them! So they came over today on the very last day of break.

Three crazy boys! Rian was outnumbered and the butt of many jokes, haha my poor baby. But she was a good sport about it. Boys are fun, noisy, but fun. Definitely way less drama and in many ways, easier than girls.

They played with every single toy, ran around like crazy outside, watched Spider-Man, ate snacks, made funny faces, did lots and lots of laughing, jumping, running and screaming, had cheeseburgers, fries, applesauce and tomatoes for dinner and ice cream for dessert. Then more outside play til it was time for them to go home.

I'm glad Aiden got to have his friends over, plus Rian had fun too. It kept my two from fighting and bothering each other all day. :)

Yelling "ice cream!":

Day 3

A few weeks after we signed Aiden up for soccer, I got a call saying "I see you checked the volunteer box on his sign-up sheet, his team needs a coach, would you be interested?" Ummm what?! When I checked that box, I pictured orange slices and water bottles, Coach, no way! He said at this age, they just need to learn to not touch the ball and try to make goals. But still, a picture of angry parents yelling at me as I cried flashed in my mind. I told him I'd think about it, but never called him back.

Weeks later, Steven came home and told me one of his coworkers told him practice was starting that week. I sent a email and got an automated response that there's either not a coach or there is and they're waiting to be certified. If there wasn't a coach, we'd be reimbursed. I was pretty bummed. But later that night, I got an email from a real person and they gave me the coach's name and number. She called me back a few days later and said we'd start practice January 3rd.

January 3rd finally came! Seven kids showed up and it was... interesting. It didn't seem organized at all. Practice was 45 minutes, they kicked back and forth, practiced dribbling and shooting goals. We also learned that our first game would be in two days. TWO days after ONE short practice, all the while the other teams had been practicing for weeks. Eek! The good thing is, at this age, there's no score during games. I've been trying to explain to Aiden how things will be on Saturday, I have a feeling it'll be a huge mess, probably pretty entertaining! We're not super competitive people anyway. Poor Steven is so bummed about missing his first game. He'll miss most of them because he goes straight from one job to the other on Saturdays and works til closing, but he really wanted to be at the first one.

He got his uniform last night, so cute. I can't wait to see him with all of his gear on. I'm officially a Soccer Mom! :)

Day 2

For Christmas my parents got Aiden a HUGE set of Legos. He kept asking me to help him but I had no desire to. On the box it says "Ages 5 and up"- I somehow convinced him to put them away til he turned 5. Haha poor guy.

On the 1st, my Dad pulled out my old Legos while we were there and Aiden played with them the whole time, we're talking about hours! Nothing has ever held his attention for that long, it was pretty amazing. So when we got home that night, we took some of his out.

The next day, I put them in their rooms for "Quiet Time"- because nobody naps anymore these days! When I let them out, he kept bugging me to go look in his room.

On his bed was his very first creation, a house! I was so impressed. I especially love that he took a truck or boat (or whatever) piece and made it a couch, so creative!

Day 1

I was thinking earlier about how I want to be better at blogging (I think this a lot.) Then I thought about when I was best at updating: back when I did my Project 365, a picture a day. I take pictures all day, every day. This year just started so its a perfect time to start! (A few days late.)

I was going to do the first three days in one post, but since I'm using the app, I'm going to do them separately. I can't stand how they place all of the pictures at the bottom, underneath the text. You can't put them where you want with captions, annoying! And you can't backdate from the app. I want my computer back to normal! :/

January 1st:

We had our annual Japanese dinner at my parents' house. My mom couldn't find wraps so we didn't get gyoza. :*( Of course her homemade sushi is delicious but we can have sushi whenever, at any restaurant, gyoza is once a year. Stinky!

I wrote about how on Christmas Eve, Steven took Aiden's training wheels off. On the 1st, he took off! He does soo awesome but randomly pushes his brakes and still doesn't get that he has to put his leg down to catch himself when he's not moving. He gets really grumpy about it and asks for the training wheels back on. Not happening!

Rian's birthday/Christmas

Our computer's messed up again. I pretty much only use it to upload pictures from my camera to Facebook and to update my blog but its still annoying! I don'tlike using the Blogger app.

Rian turned 3 last Saturday, THREE. It is so hard for me to believe, she's my baby. Three seems so old, but she's so different compared to Aiden. She's so independent and can do things he can't (like button her jeans and buckle herself into her carseat.) but at the same time, she's so much more like a baby to me than he was at three. She's still attached to me at the hip, she always wants me to hold her, she rarely sleeps through the night (waking me up for a kiss or trying to come in our bed which usually results in a full-blown fit at 2am- yay.) But they are two totally different little people so I shouldn't compare. She had a fun birthday, of course it was Pinkalicious! Aiden keeps calling her Rianlicious. :)

One morning last week (a few days before her birthday) the kids were outside with Steven, I heard her screaming and he burst through the door, I saw blood. Sooo much blood. She smashed her finger in his jeep door. It looked so gross (still does!) We were unsure what to do and I knew it'd be awhile til we got ahold of somebody at the pediatrician, so we drove there. Steven took her in and the nurse had us go to Urgent Care, which is the next building over. After waiting forever, the doctor said they needed to clean it to see if she needed stitches then do an X-ray to see if it was broken, augh! Thankfully, neither. :) Her nail is totally out and dead, we're waiting for it to fall off. I've always known my first trip there would be with her, our "problem child" in medical terms. She had problems before we were even discharged after her birth, they discovered things that needed to be looked into at her one month well-check, put on sensitive formula, horrible bowel problems, has had some pretty bad owies... And the list goes on. But she is healthy and happy, love that crazy girl!

Aiden is doing so well in school. They're always telling me what a good boy he is, how he always helps clean up and he's so smart! I know he's smart, but the other things?! Why can't he be like that at home? When he's naughty at home, we tell him we're going to tell one of his teachers and he gets so scared! He doesn't want them to know how he is here. My mom always says that means we're doing a good job.

We choose two kids from the Angel Tree this year, it was so awesome. Honestly, I was a little nervous about taking the kids to Toys R Us (we never go there, kid Heaven!) but we talked nonstop about why we were going and who we were shopping for. They did AMAZING. They were so happy to pick things out for kids they'll never meet. It was such a proud moment for me. :)

The day after Rian's birthday we all went to church, Aiden and I have been going a lot lately. Rebecca, Tim, Steven and I dedicated our kids with all of our parents and Steven and Rebecca's grandparents. It was scary to go up on stage but it wasn't so bad, it feels good knowing we have so many people who love and support us. It was pretty special too. :)

Our Christmas morning at home was easy and simple. We're not huge gift givers when it comes to the kids, but they don't mind. I kid you not, all they talk about from 2011's Christmas is that Santa brought them toothbrushes and tooth paste. Rian told me all month long she wanted him to bring her toothpaste. We forgot about stockings and did them last, at the very bottom was their brushes and paste, once again: they got HUGE reactions! Aiden gasped and said, "Oooh my goodness!" Haha. We had a busy day after that, spending it with both of our families. Next year, when my kitchen's done and pretty, I want to have Christmas dinner at our house, so everybody can be together. Speaking of my kitchen, I was tired of not liking any countertops and sooo over the piled up stuff. So Steven put in my new sink, faucet and garbage disposal. I LOVE it!! It's so pretty, I like washing now. :) And going from a disposal that hardly worked and made soo much racket, this new one is so quiet- it's amazing! We just need to make the wood plank top for the island then do the flooring. Excited! (Still.)

One last thing: on Christmas Eve, Steven took Aiden's training wheels off. He did soo awesome! He doesn't have it down perfectly yet but he'll get it quick, just haven't had time to practice. And his first soccer practice is next week! When did my kids get so big?!