My strange children...

Yes, go figure, Adam and Amanda have produced strange children. Not a big shocker I know. It is so much fun watching the silly personalities develop with the kids and especially noticing the differences between Aaron and Alec's personalities.

Aaron has this thing where he likes to find socks, shoes, or baby wipes and stuff them into his mouth and crawl around. I have no idea where it comes from, except maybe from our dog Obi. He also loves to crawl into small spaces and hang out there. In this picture Aaron has found one of his socks and stuffed it into his mouth and then he crawled under the dining room chair and was hanging out there happy as a clam. uummm....ok?

This is a picture of a almost three year old boy asserting his dominance in the house over the toys. This toy was one of Alec's favorites when he was a baby but I put it away when he was about 18 months old because he lost interest in it. I pulled it back out again for Aaron when he started moving around and Alec fell in love with it again. So much that he refuses to let Aaron play with it. This picture shows Alec's possessive move where he finds a toy he wants to keep from Aaron and then he throws himself on it as to keep Aaron away from it. Nice.

Snapping any kind of belts and buckles together has always been high on Alec's "fun list". Whenever there is a carseat, stroller, or in this instance, Aaron's booster seat, in reach Alec is always there making sure that everything is snapped together. Aaron thinks that this is hilarious!! I especially love this picture because of the big-ol cheesy smile on Aaron's face. Too cute. Sadly, this smile will not last long because right after I took this picture Alec ripped the strap out of Aaron's hand and made Aaron start crying. Ahhhh...the drama!!

hangin' out

After the crazyness of the baptism was over Brian, Carrie and Kasey were able to come over and spend some time with us before they went back to San Diego. It is so much fun watching the kids interact with eachother!

Kasey, Aaron, and Alec. You have no idea how hard it was to even get this picture of all three of them sitting in the same spot. Forget trying to have them all look in the camera and smile! This is as good as it gets!

Aaron is keeping a close eye on that Kasey-girl!!

Kasey Day's Baptism

Adam and I were honored when Brian and Carrie asked us to be Kasey's Godparents. Her baptism was originally suppose to be in San Diego but was moved up here when Grammie unfortunately fell and hurt her hip. Things were quickly switched around and the baptism was held at St. Joseph's parish in Placentia. Despite cold weather and a bit of a crabby baby the baptism went off very well and everyone had a wonderful time at the Emards house afterwards.

Carrie, Kasey, and myself

Adam, Brian, Carrie, Kasey and me with Uncle (Fr.) Paul in the background.

Adam and I look forward to setting a christian example for Kasey as she grows into a beautiful young woman!

Maddie's Birthday Party

Maddie turned two on the 18th of May but her birthday party was held on Sunday the 21st. Although we had a busy day planned that day with Kasey's baptism being that afternoon we were able to make it to the party and have a great time! The party was at Scooters Jungle in Placentia. They have a huge room with bounce houses, slides, air hockey and more. Tons of fun stuff for kids and adults to have fun on. We had a BLAST!!

The birthday girl playing in the bouce house. Those blue eyes are SO amazing!!

Mommy and Aaron having a great time watching Daddy and Alec on the slide.

Daddy and Alec at the bottom of the slide. Alec was a bit apprehensive about going on the slide at first but then loved it once he got to go down with Daddy. Daddy makes ALL things better!!

Daddy teaching Alec how to play air hockey with Aaron supervising.

Personalities...

Thanks to Aunt Allie, one of Alec's favorite hair styles is a mohawk. Outside of Allie's birthday and a few other rare occasions, I can usually just do it this way in the tub, show it to Alec in the mirror, and satisfy Alec's mohawk craving. Let's hope this does not carry onto his teen years!!

Alec and Aaron's favorite past time together, watching Thomas. I think that this is the one Thomas item that Alec does not mind sharing. I guess it would be pretty hard for him to make Aaron NOT watch his show. I am sure if Alec could figure out a way to do that then he would!!

This picture pretty much sums up Aaron's personality to a "T". Adorable little boy, smiling pretty much all the time, but always getting into something!! This time it was only the cabinet of books but it has also been our CD's, our Videos, other book cases, etc. The really cute thing is that once he finishes emptying everything out of whatever cabinet he is working on, he crawls inside of it and hangs out. Too cute!

A morning with our friends...

I am lucky enough to have my good friend Pauline in my life with her two little boys, Ian and Cormac both being the same age as my boys. Pauline and I rely on each other not only as confidants, but also as back-up when we need middle of the day babysitting for each other. This day Pauline had a hair appointment so I had all four boys for a few hours. Alec and Ian had a blast playing together while Aaron and Cormac pretty much slept the entire time. Here are some cute pictures of our adventure...

Alec and Ian actually SHARING Alec's trains and train tracks. Wonders will never cease!!

This picture is truly amazing to me. All four boys sitting in one place and all looking into the camera at one time! Now if they were all smiling then I just might have had a heart attack!!

Cormac and Aaron sharing a toy together

Obsess much??

I went in to check on Alec about a hour after he went to bed and HAD to take a picture of him. Can you say OBSESSED with Thomas the Train???

Tunnel time

Grammie and Papa gave Alec a pop out tunnel last year for his birthday and it has been a favorite toy ever since. Once Aaron started crawling it quickly became one of his favorites also! The only problem was making Alec understand that he needs to SHARE his tunnel!!

What a handsome guy!

Aaron making his way through the tunnel towards Alec, laughing the entire time!

Now THERE is a happy boy!!

Warning...nudity below!!

What could close out the blog entry's for the month of April better than a cute picture of my Atra Patra's butt??!? THE END! (ba-dum-bum)

Fun at Disneyland

After the kids were up from their naps we went with Allie, Jason and Tatum to Disneyland. Cole, Nate, Cheryl and Jon met us there also. We had a blast going on rides and hanging out together.

Alec and Cole waiting in line to go on Casey Jr., one of Alec's favorite rides. Yes, he is obsessed with anything having to do with trains. I specifically LOVE Cole's face in this picture...could it be any goofier!?!?
Alec chickened out (as I am sure I would have at his age) and would not go on the haunted mansion so we waited out front while everyone else went on. What better to do with some extra time then some self portraits??

Alec and Aunt Baba waiting in line to see Aladin and the Genie.

Me and my buddy...

Aaron and and his buddy Cormac hangin' at the park. Cormac has been giving Aaron lessons on how to chew and eat solid food and Aaron has been giving lessons to Cormac on how to crawl. We all have our strengths in life that we have to share with other people, right?

Atra Patra...

When Alec had just turned two he was so funny on how he would pronounce some words. He could say the names Alec, Patrick, and Hawley very well when separate, but as soon as he tried to say his entire name together it came out as, "Atra Patra Hawee"...hence the nick name Atra Patra. It is amazing how quickly my Atra Patra has grown up and become such a big boy! I was able to catch some true Atra Patra smiles in these pics...

Being tickled on the ground. He begs for you to stop but then as soon as you do he screams, "MORE TICKLE!!!"
Atra eating his corn dog for lunch while wearing his cool dude sunglasses.

What a sweetie pie!!!!

My Box Boy

One thing I forgot to mention in my Easter posts is that Aaron started crawling on Easter!! He had been close for a little while, getting up on all fours and moving forward with either his hands or knees, but had not been able to put the two together. Thanks to the encouragement of our entire family Aaron took his first crawls forward on Easter morning. He was quite tentative at first but got the hang of it within a few days. Now he is a mad-man!!!

One baby, ready for delivery!!!
Mmmmm....boxes are tasty!!!

The final Easter installment...

After having brunch with the Youngs we headed over to the Hawley's house for dinner. Jeannie's sister Jo, her husband Harry, and their two boys Murell and Julian were out and spent the day with us. We were so happy that they were able to meet Aaron for the first time!

Great Aunt Jo feeding Aaron

The Weimer family and Aaron
Alec on yet another easter egg hunt. He had a BLAST following Murell and Julian around and trying to do everything that they did!

Easter Family picture

Nope, not in Hawaii...we wish! We are in the beautiful back yard of the Young home!

Easter at the Youngs

Easter morning we all met at St. Juliana's in Fullerton to attend mass as a family. Afterwards we went over to the Youngs house for a wonderful Easter brunch.

The Young sisters

Grammie and her favorite little boy

The Hawley boys in their matching outfits sent by Oma for easter.

Happy Easter!!!

The Easter bunny made a stop at Mammoth Circle this year hiding plastic eggs inside and real eggs in the back yard. Alec had a blast going around and finding all of them!

Alec picked out his own easter basket this year. He fell in LOVE with this Shrek basket that we found at Kohls. He also picked out Aaron's basket for him. It was in the shape of a baseball.

Aaron did not care much for hunting for easter egggs but he sure did enjoy trying to chew on them!

Alec was SO surprised on Easter morning to find the basket full of Thomas gear that was left for him! How the heck did the easter bunny know??

Coloring Easter Eggs

The night before Easter Adam, Alec and I sat down to color the easter eggs for the Easter bunny to hide the next day. Alec had practiced at Grandma's house the day before so he was ready to go!!

Adam and Alec making a green egg...(I know, thank you captain obvious!!)

Mommy and her BIG boy!!!

Alec had some fun with the stickers...ok, Adam and I stuck them all over his face, but he was laughing hysterically when we did it. He then removed them one by one and put them all over the eggs. What a wonderful family night!

My Hubby....

Can you make a guess as to what these pictures are?

Hmmm....looks like some kind of light pattern in the dark....

It seems to be moving around pretty fast....can you guess??

If you guessed Adam playing outside in the dark with his new light saber, then you were right!!!

We were at costco at they had official Star Wars light sabers there and adam could not resist buying one. He had just been looking at them online so he was excited to see them somewhere in person and for such a good price. He has a BLAST with it! I guess we all have a little geek in us...and here is Adam's!!

shhhhhh....we are sleeping!!

I can't resist sleeping pictures of my boys. I sneak in on a regular basis and just sit and watch the boys sleeping. They are just SO sweet!!

Alec is a classic back sleeper and moves a lot in his sleep. He is pretty hard to wake up and will sleep through almost anything at night. The only problem is that he is a early riser. Adam and I are NOT morning people so it does not go over very big when Alec gets up at 6:30 a.m. and comes into our room to play. He has learned to go and "snap" his train tracks together by himself for an hour before we get up. I think he enjoys the peace and quiet.

Aaron is what I call a stink bug sleeper. He sleeps on his tummy, with his legs tucked under him and his butt up in the air. For quite a while he was a very light sleeper and the smallest sound would wake him up. Thankfully he has become more like his brother and will now sleep through almost anything....as long as he has his binky. I have a feeling that it is going to be harder to take away from him then it was from Alec.