weeks 37 & 38..

I'm
s l o w l y
finishing up my Project 365 from last year..
and my goal is to have it finished, printed,
and in my hands by my birthday in April!

5QF

1. Would you ever vacation alone? hmm.. I don't think so. I would have to have someone to talk to & enjoy the sights with.. plus, I am too shy to just make my own friends while on vacation.

2. Do you go the speed limit? ..if I'm not running late, then yes.. I am usually running late!

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs? I started following blogs when I was pregnant, and fell in love with it and wanted to start one of my own, but was unsure if anyone would read it. So, I made it about Aidan, and some family members kept up with it.. as they dwindled off from reading it, I found friends that blogged, and have made new 'friends' from reading other blogs.. it is so nice to be able to relate to so many wonderful women!

4. Where do you shop for yourself? If I ever have time to go shopping for myself, I tend to go to Kohl's or Old Navy.. heck, I have even picked up a few things at Walmart or Target too, because Aidan is always with me, and I don't think that he wants to watch Mommy try on clothes!

5. What was the song that you danced your first dance to with your spouse at your wedding.. or.. what song would you like your first dance to be to? Tony & I didn't have a first dance.. we were married in Vegas, and had a party to celebrate when we got home. I am not the type to have an "all eyes on you" moment.. so no first dance was fine with me! :)

slurp!

Having dinner with Aidan is definitely an experience!

First & foremost, we ALWAYS eat together as a family at the dinner table.. Aidan runs to Daddy, screaming "dinner's ready!" and he quickly scrambles to his seat.. we were blessed with a fantastic eater, he'll pretty much try anything & love it!

Tonight's menu was garlic chicken & noodles.. I was trying to get Aidan on camera stuffing his face.. but caught him slurping his noodles for the first time!

Oh yeah.. when he's done eating, he's DONE!

As you can see, Aidan is a pretty messy eater.. tonight was no exception, I later found noodles on the blinds & wall! :)

I love awards!

Thank you so much to Mari-Ann for this fun award! I love reading her blog & getting inspired by all of her wonderful learning activities! :)

For this award, I am to list 10 things that make me happy, and then pass it along to 5 others.. here we go!


1. my husband and son.
2. reading, and reading some more!
3. the sound of Aidan's laugh
4. crossword puzzles
5. iced coffee
6. my cat snuggling up next to me before I go to sleep.
7. having the same best friend for the past 27 years.
8. garage sales
9. warm, fuzzy socks.
10. answered prayers.

Listing these reminded me of an old scrapbook layout that I did about 4 years ago.. It was so much fun to come up with so many things that make me happy! :)


I am passing this award on to..

Gretchen
Laurie
Lindsay
Susan
Keri

reminiscing..

Inspired by Lindsay's recent blog post.. I wanted to share my new favorite picture of Aidan.. our munchkin is so fun-loving, and has grown into such a cute little guy!!


Here is Aidan last January.. I can't believe how big he is getting!


My favorite picture from January 2008.. I am almost in tears, my baby is growing up too fast!!!


Where is the world does the time go??
Yep.. it's time to have another one!!! :)

5QF!

1. What is better, growing old without money, or dying young & wealthy? Well.. you can't take the money with ya when you're gone, so what's the point? I strongly believe that money cannot buy happiness, so I would love to be an old, penniless woman with nothing to live on but her memories!

2. Who takes out the garbage at your house? Tony. Every single time I try to take it out, the stupid bag rips.

3. Have you ever had the same dream many times? Nope.

4. Can you play a musical instrument? Yep. I played the flute all through middle school in the band, ( I know.. geek!) and my mom made me take private weekly lessons as well.. which I hated! Sorry Mom.. they must have worked though, as I can still play! Nothing spectacular.. but more than I though I'd be able to!

5. If you owned your own store, what would you sell? I would love to own a scrapbooking store. I love all of the cute things that you can buy nowadays, and even though I do most of my stuff digitally, I still buy tons of cutesy embellishments, hoping to use them someday! I'd love to have a whole store full of that stuff, plus time to put all of it to use!

I know you want to join me for 5QF.. c'mon.. it's fun! :)

Tot School- Letter F

This week's Tot School was so much fun!
Here's a peek into our week! :)


Aidan putting feathers on his F for his alphabet book.


This was a first, Aidan had fun pasting these "F" words onto the paper with Grammie!
(you can find this here.. along with a TON of other ideas!)


French toast for breakfast!


Aidan's special treat this week was french fries from McDonald's!


Practicing with his new flash cards! I was surprised that he actually liked sorting colors.. we started with blue & red.. he did so well!
Aidan hates flash cards, but I found these over here and thought they were so cute, I had to try them! Thank you Aunt Sarah, for printing & laminating these for us.. I can't wait to get a laminator!


Making flowers for Grammie..
(I got this idea here)



..aren't they beautiful?? :)


Fingerpaints!


this activity lasted for about 5 minutes, as Aidan doesn't like his hands to be dirty!


..and a FABULOUS picture of me, taken by my hubby.. very funny, honey :)


To wrap things up, we played with funnels in the tub, they were a hit!


For more Tot School activities, check out Carisa's blog!

choo choo!

Aidan has been VERY excited to play with his new trains this week.. he spends most of the day making tracks, and carefully pushing his trains around them!


I love that he is so "into" this right now, it is fun to play with him & see his excitement..


Daddy even gets in on the fun! :)

On a different note..
I can't believe how expensive Thomas the Train stuff is ..it's just wood!

It is a great quality toy though, and I am definitely going to keep my eyes open for sales since Aidan loves them so much!

5QF!

Yay for 5 Question Friday!
Check out Mama M's blog for more!

1. Worst trouble you ever got into as a teenager? This question is hard! Seriously, I really can't remember getting into that much trouble as a teenager.. maybe making my mom upset by talking on the phone to a boyfriend all night? I don't think the real trouble started until I went to college.. and was introduced to the lovely art of drinking & frat parties.. to think back about it now, I have no idea what I was thinking partying that much! So, I guess my troubled years were my college days!

2. Are you a morning person or a night person? I am definitely a night person. It is not unusual for me to be up til 1 or 2 am every night.. and I have just recently started to discipline myself to go to bed by 11.. Aidan wakes me up too early to stay up late anymore! It is SO easy to stay up all night for me though, I get so much "free" time to myself!

3. Are you a one-handed or a two-handed Texter? Texter? What is that??? Seriously, I have NO time to text, and have never used that feature on my cell phone. I have no idea how people can text so much, and so fast! I have seen people texting & talking at the same time.. my brain can't move that fast :)

4. Democrat, Republican, or Independent..or maybe even Green Party (whatever that is). I have never been into politics. I normally only follow the presidential elections, where I listen to the debates of each candidate & make my own decisions from there.
I know I should be more aware of politics, and care more about these issues.. but when a conversation turns to political parties, my brain shuts down, and wanders to more entertaining subjects!

5. Are you a pet person? You know.. I used to be! We used to have 5 cats! (I know, I know.. that is bordering on crazy cat lady!) We had to put one of our cats to sleep after Aidan was born, and I hate to say it.. but less is more! I dearly love our feline companions, but after becoming a mom, I just don't have the time to devote to them anymore.
I do have one cat that I adore, and she is still taking the birth of our son very hard. Baby, my cat, hides from Aidan all day, and I cherish the time I get to spend with her at night while Aidan is asleep :)

'lil helper!

While I was catching up on my dishes tonight & thinking that I am the only woman in America left without a dishwasher.. this cute little guy was pushing up a chair behind me to help his Mommy!
Aidan was so happy to help me, and he even washed some of his toy cars too! :)

Tot School- A thru E review!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post our Tot School progress.. we've had some setbacks the past couple of weeks ..due to a certain toddler having a horribly erratic sleep schedule!
As I type this, Aidan is asleep.. in his OWN bed, and things seem to be getting back to normal.

So.. here we go! Last week was a review week for us.. Aidan was very excited to revisit some of the activities that we spent time on in the past weeks, and we did some new things too!


Apple sequencing for letter A..


and, taking a break to play with his new train set he got for Christmas..


Bowling for letter B!


I got this idea from Lindsay's blog.. we had some good, cold fun for letter C..


..snow in the sink! ..boy, was this a huge hit! :)

Then, Mommy completely forgot to take pictures for the rest of our Tot School week.. oops!

We wrapped up the week by playing dress up for letter D, and Aidan & I pretended to be elephants for letter E!

For more Tot School, head on over to Carisa's blog!

5 Question Friday!

Yay! It's time for 5QF.. if you want to join in with me, here's the details!


1. What's your "comfort food"? Oreo cookies & a big glass of cold milk! Sadly, I cannot keep Oreos in the house.. I have absolutely NO willpower, and would eat the whole package!

2. Do you send Thank You's (handwritten or email)? of course! BUT, I have gotten quite lazy since becoming a mom, and a verbal thank you is all I've got to give lately!

3. If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would you choose? I would LOVE to be trapped in the Walkers home on Brothers & Sisters.. I am an only child, so to have a huge family with that much drama & chaos everyday would be so much fun to me!

4. What is your favorite online recipe site? I really like Simply Recipes. I have tried a bunch of the recipes there, and Tony hasn't complained once!

5. If you had to choose: "Friends" or "Seinfeld"? Friends. As much as I love Kramer, the cast of Seinfeld really irritates me... all of them constantly complaining isn't my idea of comedy.
I had never watched Friends until I met Tony, and I really enjoy that show.. I would love to be friends with Monica, so she could pass on some of her organizational skills to me!

read with me!

It's not like I need an excuse to read more books.. but I LOVE non-fiction, and I absolutely LOVE SimpleMom.. therefore, I shall join in on her book club!
(Plus, I love her picks for this year too!)

Heck, it's only 4 books for the whole year.. if I can't find time to read only 4 books.. I have a problem! :)

cheese!

While playing in the living room tonight, Aidan suddenly started flashing a HUGE smile & yelling "cheese!".. I guess that was my cue to grab the camera??

After taking his picture, he immediately had to see the result.. he then began
clapping & saying "yay".. I think it's a keeper!

..can't believe our munchkin is getting so big!

yay.. a blog award!

I just read through my comments, and found out that Susan from Chasing Marcus passed along
the Lemonade Stand Award to me! This blog award is presented to a blogger who shows
great attitude and gratitude.
(aw, thanks!)


It is amazing to me that since I have started Tot School with our son, I have found a TON of mothers out there that are just like me, and I LOVE to read about your adventures!

Now, here's the fun part.. I get to pass this award on to other people! Here are the blogs that I LOVE to read, and the women that I think are amazing & inspiring to me!
In no particular order:

The Adventures of Bear
Counting Coconuts
Bytes of Memory
My Little Life
A Mommy Talks
5 Minutes For Mom
The Devisser Family
The Jastifer Family
Mama Jenn

Tot School- Letter E

Finally getting back into the groove of things after our Christmas break!
For week E, Mommy was very unorganized.. she plans to be better prepared for
week F!

Aidan putting googly eyes on the E's for his Alphabet Book!



We made handprint elephants..


..played where's the elf.. I hid a Christmas elf all around the house, and Aidan had fun trying to find it!


LOVED making a homemade Elmo! Here Aidan is smiling at his finished masterpiece!


We also spent time last week playing with some other toys.. learning to stack & sort his animal train (although Aidan liked it better all unsorted!)


..and trying out his new lacing cards with Daddy!

Check out Carisa's blog for more Tot School!

Five Question Friday

I have been following Mama M's blog for awhile now, and love reading her posts from her Five Question Fridays, SO..I decided that since it's a new year,
I'd join in on it too!

1. If you could bring one character to life from your favorite book, who would it be? Anne Shirley. I loved reading all of the Anne of Green Gables books as a kid. Anne's imaginative spirit & quirky personality would make her the very best friend, and she would certainly be cool to me!

2. Where did you get your very first kiss? Yikes.. it was actually planned out by my 6th grade "boyfriend" J.P... I was to meet him outside after the school bell & we were to kiss goodbye for the day, before we got on our separate school buses.. I was SO nervous, that I hid in the bathroom, and almost missed my bus home!
Fortunately, I got another chance the next day.. and I have no idea what I was so nervous about!

3. How did you welcome in the New Year? Tony & I met some friends for drinks, and had a pretty good time.. I am to the point in my life where going out to a bar isn't too much fun anymore, and I would rather stay home!
It was good to have some alone time with my hubby though :)

(don't you just love my tiara?? ..and what about my hubby's dorky smile!)

4. What is your favorite Beatles song? I have never really been a huge fan of the Beatles.. but it I had to choose, it would be Here Comes The Sun.

5. Donuts, overrated, underrated, or 'bout right? Gotta love donuts! My favorite is chocolate glazed.. yummmmm. :)