On Saturday, December 13th we decided to take advantage of the Law Enforcement days at Knotts Berry Farm and take the kids. What we did not realize is that it was also Toys for Tots weekend so anyone else who wanted to go just had to bring a toy and they got into Knotts for $10.00. It was PACKED!!! We did get to do a few fun things however. Alec was excited to meet Snoopy in person. He LOVES all the Peanuts gang from watching the holiday specials over at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Momma and her boys!
Alec and Daddy in Camp Snoopy.

Alec and Daddy sitting in a old train car.

After leaving Knotts we went and had dinner at Po Folks. Talk about yummy down home cooking! It was a nice day hanging out with the family.

First bath together

Aaron has finally gotten big enough to be able to enjoy sitting in the tub with his big brother. Alec thought it was pretty funny to have Aaron in the tub with him. Alec enjoyed pouring water over Aaron's feet and body and helping to wash his hair. He is such a great big brother!

Making a gingerbread house

I thought it would be lots of fun for us to make a gingerbread house this year to have as a holiday center piece. I thought about making the gingerbread myself and then decorating it but then I came to my senses. I went to Costco and bought a kit. The only problem was that I turned into psycho perfection mom while making it. Alec of course wanted to help make the house but he was not doing it the way I wanted so I was getting stressed out. I know, sad.

The gingerbread house turned out really nice but I think next year I will buy one for me to do and one for Alec to do so that he can actually do what he wants to it.

Here is Alec doing his part...tasting the icing. That icing had SO much sugar in it, I can't imagine it must have tasted very good! He did not seem to mind.

Aunt Allie came over and helped us make the house. We love her SO much!!

Aaron was looking adorable as always that night. I had to get a picture of him in his bear PJ's. SO cute!!

"Loser!!"

Aaron was having fun playing on his activity mat and Alec was near by playing with his puzzles and toys. All of the sudden Alec came over to me and said, "Look Mommy! Aaron has a puzzle piece!!" I looked over and Alec had placed this L on his forehead! Alec of course had no idea what the "L" meant but I thought it was TOO funny and had to get a picture of it!

Jumpin' Jamin'

The weather was pretty crummy for our regular friday play date at the park so Pauline and I decided to take the boys down to Jumpin' Jamin', an indoor play ground down in Mission Viejo. When we first arrived at the place the boys went into the ball room. I went in with them and thought it would be fun to shoot the balls in the air with the air powered machine in the middle. Unfortunately I did not know the VERY loud noise that went along with it! The boys freaked out with the loud sound and ran out of the room. We quickly found the toddler area after that and set up camp there. The boys enjoyed running around and playing with the big soft blocks.

Aaron also enjoyed looking at all the different color blocks and really liked this block shaped like a duck.

Alec somehow ended up in the corner near the blocks playing with some cute girls. He is such a ladies man!

Cormac and Aaron enjoyed chilling on the soft blocks with eachother. I bet they can't wait till they can run around like the big boys!!

Double trouble!! As always, we had a blast with our friends Pauline, Ian and Cormac. We are very blessed to have them in our lives!!

Picking out our Christmas tree!

Since Adam was going to be out on training for a good amount of days in December we decided to get our tree a little early. We went to Home Depot in Savi to search for our tree. We actually found our tree pretty quickly...good thing because it was a little chilly outside!! Alec was running around the lot like crazy and had a great time! It is fun to think that he may remember this Christmas some day. It makes doing things like this even more fun!

The Hawley Family!! A very nice person at the tree lot offered to take our picture for us.

Alec thought it was just the best thing to push his brother around in the cart!

Aaron had fun that night snuggling in his carseat.

After we got our tree we went up to Ho Toys and picked up some Chinese food for dinner (one of Alec's favorite foods). We got home, ate dinner, and got the kids to bed. Adam and I put up the tree and got the lights on. We saved decorating it till the next day when Alec could help us.

Getting ready for Christmas!

We wanted to go and see Santa before the lines got too long so we headed to the mall first thing on a monday morning to avoid the lines. Our plan worked as we only had to wait about 10 minutes to see the big guy. Here is a picture of Alec and Aaron next in line to see Santa.

My boys with Santa!! Alec was hesitant about sitting on his lap but I gave him a Thomas train to hold onto which helped. As soon as Santa saw the train he started talking to Alec about Thomas and that perked Alec up. Santa asked Alec what he wanted for Christmas and Alec answered, "Thomas slippers!!". I think Santa will come through on that one.

Pauline, Ian and Cormac also came to the mall with us although Ian decided that he did not want to see Santa that day. When we were done seeing Santa and looking at the puppies at the pet store we headed over to the food court for lunch. Alec and Ian have a great time whenever they are together! They are such good friends!

What would a day at the mall with two little boys without some bouncing!? Alec and Ian tried out the new benches in the food court at the Brea mall to check how bouncy they were.

Alec's girlfriend

Mya came over to spend some time with us as the guys went to lunch and the movies. We always love having Mya over since she is such a sweetie. Alec considers Mya his "Girlfriend".

Say cheese!!!

Aaron was also a very happy baby that day. Actually, he is a very happy baby pretty much every day!

Princess Mya!

Daddy time!

Aaron's favorite thing to do is to sit and watch his big brother. I am sure that Aaron is taking notes so that he can jump in and do everything that Alec is doing once he is mobile! Alec and Aaron were sharing some PJ brother time here in this picture.

It's tickle time!!! Alec must have had some monkeys in his pants!!!

Alec LOVES being a "helper helper" and here he is helping Daddy do the dishes.

Aaron at 13 weeks.
Daddy and Aaron hanging out together.

Alec's favorite things to say at 2 years, 4 months old...

- Please may I have a christmas cracker?! (saltine cracker)

- Mommy, I love you SO much!! I'm SO glad to see you!! (this usually proceeds him doing something bad)

- Teacup!! (usually said when throwing something while in a silly mood)

- I'm not ridiculous!!! (said while throwing a fit and stamping his feet)

- I'm nuddie boy!!! Obi, don't lick my butt!!!! (said while running around nuddie after his bath)

- Doe-doe (repeated after daddy while in playing)

- Mommy, put Aaron in his bouncy chair, I want to snuggle!! ( I LOVE this one!!)

-Alec tooted!! Excuse me!!

Alec's Favorites...

food - chicken stars, christmas crackers, nillas (good boys get nillas!!), ice cream

tv shows - Thomas, Bob the builder, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Aladin

Disneyland rides - Small World, Casey Jr., Pirates

Toys - Thomas trains, trucks, blocks

Songs - Anything sung by Miss Lori, the soundtrack to A Mighty Wind

Friends - Ian, Cole, Mya, Maddie

Thomas!

Grammie, Aunt Baba, Grandma, Grandpa, Aaron, Alec and myself all went to go and see 'A day with Thomas' at the Orange Empire Train Museum on Sunday. Adam was going to go but he unfortunately was sick at home with the flu. Alec could not wait to see Thomas!!

We got to meet Sir Topham Hatt! Alec was not all that excited about having his picture taken with him alone so I got in the picture also.

Grandpa and Alec on the back of one of the old cabose cars at the museum.

Grammie and Aaron

A Mommy and Alec self portrait while riding on the train being pulled by Thomas.

We all had such a blast at the museum but Alec was especially excited. He loved riding on "Bertie" the street car and eating his first snowcone. He was pretty quiet that day taking everything in but has not stopped talking about it since!!

more Thomas

Alec looking out the window of Bertie at Thomas going by.

Alec riding on Thomas with Grandma

It's Thomas!!

Alec and Aunt Baba riding on Bertie

Triple trouble!

Alecs best buddies, Cole and Ian, got together at the park for our regular Friday morning play date. Their favorite pastime at the park is chasing eachother up and down the big hill and taking big handfulls of wood chips and throwing them at eachother. We were able to get the boys to stop for a few minutes for a drink so I quickly took a picture. The boys have a blast at the play date, but the real reason we get together each week is so Chery, Pauline and myself can get together, swap mom war stories and hang out with eachother. It should be VERY interesting when the little boys (Cormac, Nate, and Aaron) are running around also!

Boys, boys, boys, boys

My two favorite little guys were enjoying snuggling together and I took advantage of the photo opportunity...ok, I posed them like this and it only lasted for about two seconds, but it still made for a cute picture!!

We decided to give underwear a go and see what happened. Alec LOVED his Thomas underwear but unfortunately they did not last on him very long. About two hours after I put them on him he decided that he had to pee-pee...unfortunately not in the toilet like we talked about. He decided to go in the laundry basket and on the floor. It's a start, right?

My little smiley boy!! Aaron at 10 weeks is a little tubber and is showing such personality!

I was feeding Aaron yesterday when Alec walked in with scissors in his hand and ink all over his hands. When I was finished and went to investigate the rest of the house I found this on the wall of the office. Alec was right behind me and exclaimed, "Look Mommy! I wrote my name!!" How could I get mad at him? We had a talk about drawing on paper instead of the walls or anything else. Hopefully he will remember this in the future! Thanks to the magic eraser everything came off the wall without a problem. I'm glad since I am not quite in the painting mood today!

Adult halloween fun!

On October 29th we attended Hallowonka at the Parker house out in Temecula. Adam and I went as Glenda the good witch and the Tin Man. The Rodriguez's went as the Wicked Witch of the West and the Lion and the Trent's went as Dorothy and the Scarecrow. Jason and Kelly (in the picture with us) went as Hugh Hefner and a Playboy Bunny. We had a wonderful time at the party and it was so nice to have some adult time with our friends! Now the question is, what will we dress up as for next year's party??

Imagination

It still amazes me how much of a little boy Alec has turned into. It seems like just yesterday that he was as small as Aaron and was so needy. He is still needy of course, just in a different way now...mostly attention! :)

Alec's imagination has just exploded lately! I was watching Emeril the other day and he was cooking with mushrooms. Alec saw them on the tv, ran over to the tv and pretended to pick one off and eat it. I of course laughed and he loved the reaction so he has been doing it ever since any time food is on the tv.

Last night Alec was sitting on the floor by his toys and I was on the couch feeding Aaron. Alec looked down at the ground, pretended to pick something up, and brought the object over to me. When he got to me he put out his hand and said, "I picked you a flower Mommy!" I just about died!! It was SO sweet!! I of course "took" the flower, pretended to smell it and put it behind my ear. He thought this was SO funny and continued to bring me "flowers" all night long.

It is times like this that make me remember how lucky I am to have my boys and what a blessing they are in my life.

Happy Halloween!!

Yesterday, October 25th was not only my 30th birthday, but also our Halloween party at Alec's preschool class. I made Alec a Peter Pan costume and Aaron a Bear costume. Alec of course did not want to put the costume on at first but by the end of the morning he did not want to take it off. Adam and I went to the Grand Californian from Sunday to Monday to celebrate our 5th anniversary and when we were at Disneyland we got Alec a official Peter Pan hat to go with his costume. Alec did not want to wear it at first because he thought that the feather was a spider (?) but as soon as he got used to the hat he would not take it off his head.

Alec has been a total crack up to live with lately. He comes up with new phrases almost daily that make Adam and I just laugh hysterically. Some recent ones are, "No thanks, I'm just fine.","I can't believe you!", "Please can I have that? I asked nicely!!" and "Momma, you are foxy!" Thank you Adam for that last one. He has also become very interested into proclaming who is a boy or a girl based on whether or not they have boy genetalia. Again, thank you Adam.

Yesterday was also Aaron's 2 month birthday. He is such a joy in our lives and it is very strange to think that he has only been with us for two months...seems like forever! He is doing about the same as far as sleeping through the night. I have moved him permanately to his crib instead of the bassanette in our room. He seems to be quite comfortable there as I can put him down to bed fully awake and he will put himself to sleep with just a bit of fussyness. Aaron is smiling more and more now and also is starting to coo. I love sitting there and having conversations with him. At his two month appointment today Aaron weighed 11 lbs 5 oz and was 23 1/2 inches long. He also recieved his first shots which he did NOT like!!

Aaron at 6 weeks

Aaron is 6 weeks old!!

I can't believe that it has been 6 weeks already! Aaron is starting to smile (as shown in the picture) and is showing more and more personality each day. He continues to do very well with his feedings and is gaining weight like crazy. I LOVE his chubby arms and legs. Every once in a while he will sleep for about 5 to 6 hours a night, but not every night.

Alec has been an incredible big brother and enjoys "helping" me change Aaron's diaper by handing me wipes and soothing Aaron when he is crying by patting his head and saying, "It's OK Aaron Michael!" He even takes his favorite toys over to Aaron and puts them in his lap to "share" them with him. I really could not ever have imagined what a good big brother Alec would turn out to be. I can't wait till Aaron is old enough to play with Alec!

I am actually doing better than I thought with two kids. I really thought it would be harder than it is. It is amazing what a different perspective you have the second time around. Yes, it is still hard to get up in the middle of the night for numerous feedings, but this time I have the knowledge that before I know it this part of Aaron's life will end and he will be sleeping through the night. I am really cherishing each moment I have with this little guy since I know how fast the time goes.

Allie and Jason's wedding

On October 8th, 2005 Allison and Jason tied the knot!!

I was a bridesmaid, Adam a usher, and Alec and Aaron were ring bearers in the Carson-Young wedding. The day started out as a little overcast, but soon the sun came through and shined on the day! Alec was carried down the aisle by Daddy and Aaron was pulled in a red wagon by the flower girl, Tatum. We all had a wonderful time at the reception and Alec especially enjoyed running around, playing with the other kids, and dancing dancing dancing!!! We are so happy to have Jason as part of our family!