My Favorite Times of the Day

I don't know about you, but my favorite times of the day with my kids are at the very beginning and the very end.  I think it's because they are so sweet, sleepy and snuggly and I just love any opportunity to cuddle with them.  When we moved, I got them matching towels to go with their new star shower curtain.  I have to say that the first time I saw them all wrapped up in those towels, I realized it was money well spent.  Could they be any cuter?!

much love,

Gina

Soccer Party!

 When the soccer season was over, we had the team over to our house for a party.  The kids had so much fun eating pizza and jumping on my brother's bouncy house (thanks Uncle Mike!).  Scott had medals for all the players and it was really neat for him to be able to give them out to everyone.  Don't tell him I said so, but he's a big softy:)



Miss Avery:

We had so much fun playing soccer for the first time and we are really looking forward to doing it again.  Aiden really enjoyed it and I can tell already that we have a lot of years of sports ahead of us with him.

much love,

Gina

Best Friends For Life.....A Mother's Prayer

I have a few main goals with my boys:  make sure they grow up in church and love the Lord, make sure they know how to work hard in school, sports or a job, make sure they treat others with respect and kindness, make sure they have kind and loving hearts and make sure they are the best of friends who love and protect each other no matter what.  I have heard there is a book about how to raise siblings without the rivalry.  I will be checking it out soon.  I really think that the relationship they have a kids will be the relationship they will have as adults and it's important to me that they get off to a good start.  So far, they are enjoying a lot of the same things and Aiden is really sweet with his "baby Miller".  And Miller is watching him like a hawk.  He wants to be where Bubba is.  If I say "I love you Miller," his reply is almost always "I love Bubba." Dear Lord, Please guide me in how to keep it that way.

This was Miller's first time to eat spaghetti.  It was a hit!

much love,

Gina

Little Momma Can Dance--A Love Story

My son loves me.  But he LOVES his cousins.  We aren't talking about loving them in a normal way where he is happy to see them.  We are talking restraining order love.  I'm pretty sure he would move in with my brother and sister-in-law if they asked him.  Note to self: remind Michael and Carissa to never joke about him coming to live with them or he will have his bags packed in about 2 minutes flat and run out of my house before I can stop him.  He asks for them all the time--ALL THE TIME.  So, one day back in May when I told him Miss Emmy Grace was going to be performing in a dance recital and asked if he wanted to be my date, he was SUPER excited.  I had daddy take a few pictures of us before we left:

Grammy had the good fortune of sitting next to Easton during the recital.  So guess where Aiden wanted to sit?  In Easton's lap.  But he settled for Grammy's.

After the recital, he gave Little Momma flowers.  They hugged and he told her how beautiful she looked and how good she did.  It was such a precious moment.  I thank God every day that he gave me a son with such a kind and caring heart.

much love,

Gina

Batman's Last Day of School

It's hard to believe that another school year is about to start.  Aiden will be going to a new school next year.  I had planned to send him to Pre-K at Bixby North but somewhere along the way, my mother's intuition told me that it wasn't the best choice for him to be in a public school with twice as many kids in one class.  By the time I realized it, all the spots were full at our church where he has been going the past two years.  Everything happens for a reason, right?  There happened to be an opening still at Kirk of the Hills, which is a really good preschool.  So, we are starting there this coming Thursday.  My goal is to get all caught up on blogs by then so I can post his first day of school pictures soon after they are taken--and not three months later:)

So, back to the end of last year.  Does everyone remember their first crush?  Well, I do.  His name was Drew and he was a cute little blond boy in my Pre-K class.  Every time I would see him, I would try to hide behind my mom because I just KNEW he knew that I thought he was cute.  I am pretty sure Aiden had the same experience this year when he met Miss Avery.  She is the adorable daughter of a girl that I knew way back in elementary school (small world!).  They have been glued at the hip since the first day of school.  He has told me he loves her and when I asked him if he was still my sweetheart, his reply was "mom, I can't be your sweetheart anymore because I'm a boyfriend now."  Be still my heart.  So, I did what any psycho good mother of all boys would do, and I told him that he would always be my sweetheart, no matter what and even if he was a boyfriend.  I'm already planning what I'll do when the girls start calling the house.  I don't have it fully worked out yet, but I know that it will involve some sort of accent and saying "no Aiden here" in broken English before hanging up on them.  It's a good plan.

Ok, enough crazy talk and back to school......here are Aiden and Avery on their last day.

Aiden has worked really hard on learning to write his name this year.  He doesn't totally have it down yet, but he can definitely do it if you have him concentrate on one letter at a time.  I'm pretty proud of him for that, especially since he was bumped up last year with older kids and I don't think he would have even been working on writing his name in the class he should have been in.  Go Aiden!

His class with his teachers, Ms Pam and Ms. Sharon

We will miss STBC but are so grateful for all the special people who taught Aiden his first two years of preschool.

much love,

Gina

Mother's Day Tea

On May 4th, Aiden's class had a Mother's Day Tea.  As I sat there in his class, I started remembering back to the days when I wasn't sure if I would ever be a mother.  All the anxiety and the helpless feeling I had wondering if I would ever experience a day like this.  Remembering that time only makes times like this one that much sweeter.  I will always have a special place in my heart for anyone struggling with fertility.  It is a scary place to be.  People have asked me "if you knew you were going to have trouble getting pregnant the first time, would you have started trying sooner?".  The simple answer is "no".  I wouldn't change a thing.  If anything had happened any differently than it did, we wouldn't have Aiden.  And I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. 

Singing sweet songs about how much they love their mamas:

My thoughts and prayers are with anyone who is a mother.  It is the hardest and most rewarding job you'll ever have.

much love,

Gina

Easter Fun

Yes.....I am still in April.  But the good news is that after this post, I will be able to move on to May!  Between the move and these two crazy active boys, I just haven't been able to blog as much as I had hoped when I started this in January.  But at least I am still trying:)

Easter was a fun time for us.  I love the thought of getting Easter baskets put together for the boys, but the reality is that at this age it is a bit of a pain to find things to put in it that are something I want them to have (because let's face it, they already have WAY too many toys) and something that will fit into a tiny basket. When they are older, it will be easier because I can just fill it with money and candy, but for now, they don't need the money and I don't want to give them too much candy--or any at all:)  Aiden is seriously into Spider Man right now, so he got a Spider Man basket.  I thought they turned out pretty cute:

We also had an Easter egg hunt inside our house.  We have done that the past two years in a row because it has been raining and too icky to do it outside.  I have to say, it's a pretty good alternative for someone like me who will do anything I can to avoid getting up early to hide Easter eggs.

As usual, Miller wanted his mama and daddy and threw such a fit in child care that they paged us to come get him.  So, he spent the Easter church service right where he wanted to--in daddy's lap, eating crackers.

After church, we came back to our house and had Easter lunch with my mom, Uncle David, Aunt Shirley and my cousin Lori.  I can't believe I pulled that off one week before we moved, but I did!

After everyone left, what was left to do?  Put on a pirate costume and have a sword fight with Aiden's new sword, of course!

After dinner, we finally got around to dying the Easter eggs.  Better late than never, right?  It was Aiden's first time to do it with dye and he really loved it!

Bed time at last......it was a long day for all of us, but Miller was all smiles as always!

I hope everyone had a beautiful Easter, although I am sure you probably don't remember by now!

much love,

Gina