9/18 - Eli turns 2!

On Saturday afternoon, we had a small party for Eli. He chose a Mickey Mouse theme. Since our house isn't that big, we can't invite too many people over. We the Snead family (Sarah) and the Payne family (Stephanie) and our neighbors made it over as well.

I made cute little name tags for some of the food. I believe we had 8 kids under the age of 6. It was kinda crazy but fun.

Eli had no idea what to do when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

He was actually able to blow out his candle. Aiden tried to help him.

This picture of Eli with his cupcake is too cute. The cupcakes had 2 little oreos for Mickey ears and crumbled oreo for the outline circle of Mickey's face.

We bought this little table with the 4 chairs at the consignment sale a few weeks ago for $10. It was perfect.

Aiden is a champ at eating cupackes now but gets so dirty. Eli had no idea what he was doing and ate the top part off and then left the rest.

Here is my picture with the boys. As you can see, I'm wearing my bright orange Florida shirt. They played Tenn and thankfully beat them. Go Gators.

Jen and Ryan came over from next door to say and brought Eli a present of soft balls (football, soccer ball, baseball and a basketball).

All the kids were running around playing and Eli eventually got stuck in my Step. He somehow climbed in the risers and then couldn't get out. It was too funny although he was crying and I don't think he thought it was funny.

For Aiden's birthday, the Payne family gave him a Lightening McQueen sleeping bag which you can see in lots of the pictures I've previously posted. Well, now Eli has his own sleeping bag too. I was shocked that he knew 'Buzz' and said the name (it's a Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag).

Aiden and Kyleigh (one of Stephanie's daughters) are so cute. She is so sweet and found some necklaces and shared them with Aiden.

OK. These next two group pictures are too funny. WE took the first one and the kids did well (despite the two big boys sticking their butt on the couch - Harold Payne and Brad). I then realized Eli had his paci in and wanted a picture without it.

It's hard to see in this smaller picture but Eli is crying in the next picture since we took his paci away. I took a few more pictures after this one but each time there were less and less kids.

 Here is a picture of Stephanie and I. I'm so fortunate God has put such an amazing person in my life.

Stephanie's youngest, Blaise, decided he would try and have a green marker as a lollipop. It was too funny. He had green all over his face. You don't see his right arm in this picture which is in a cast. Wild child here!

We tried to get a Hoyt family picture and this is as good as we got. Aiden wanted down to go play and Eli was just getting tired. Maybe next time we'll get one with at least 1 child smiling.

Eli had a fun little party. It's so amazing that 2 yrs ago today, almost at this time, Eli was born. After weeks on medication every 4 hours for 6 weeks, I stopped by medication on a Thursday morning and was in labor by Thursday night. I was trying to wait until 7am the next morning to go to the hospital so we could drop off Aiden at daycare but Eli wanted to come earlier than that. At 2am I woke up Brad and he drove the 30 min to the hospital. My contractions were 2 min apart which is way too close the dr said since I'm supposed to have a c-section. They gave me some drugs to try and slow things down so I took a rest for a while. At 7am, the dr broke my water and I dilated very quickly. Unfortunately, all the L&D operating rooms were taken. I had to wait, a really long time too, to get into an OR room. Finally, they had to take me to the regular part of the hospital to do the surgery at 2:00pm. It was over 4 hrs before I could finally see little Eli because of me trying to recover from the spinal block they used. Happy Birthday Eli. Even though my pregnancy with you was horrible and you were born at 36 weeks, you still managed to get severe RSV at 3 months old and you had colic for about 6-7 months. Since you been about 1, you have been so much fun. Thanks for usually putting a smile on my face.

6/1 - Almost 1

The picture below was taken at the mall on Friday when we went to the Apple Store. The store didn't open until 10:30 so we played on the playground for a bit. Aiden was by far the youngest but had lots of fun watching the big kids play. 

I can't believe this time last year I was in the hospital trying to get one last night of sleep before Aiden joined us. At 2am my doctor came in and broke my water and then things took off. In some aspects it seems like it hasn't been a year. In others, it seems Aiden should be 5!! Things really did go by fast. The first three months were slow and horrible but after that, things seem to just be a blur. I went to the hospital today to visit a friend who had a baby this morning (a scheduled c-section with my doctor ... that should be SO much easier and less stressful). The newborn diapers were sitting on the baby cart and I couldn't believe how small they were. It was even crazier to think those diapers were falling off Aiden who was so tiny (5lbs 12oz by the time we left the hospital). Aiden had fun today. The picture below is Aiden trying to crawl into the baby cart at the hospital. We are preparing for a little birthday

 party for Aiden and Arin on Saturday. I am going to bake Aiden his own cake!!

When we came home from the hospital, Aiden played in his box while I got dinner ready. 

After dinner, Aiden got his bath and then he played in his room while I got his stuff ready for daycare tomorrow. He really likes daycare and I think we are going to try and keep him it for a bit after the new baby is born even though I won't be working. It's great socialization for him and he has fun. Michel is great with him and hopefully he'll stay a good 'baby' as he turns into a toddler.

The video below is from tonight. Aiden got 2 birthday packages today but I didn't want to open anything until tomorrow. Even then, I only want him to open one or two presents and wait for the rest until Brad is home with us. I did finally open the boxes and he played with the presents inside for a bit. He'll have fun opening 2 tomorrow. Saturday should be lots of fun for him. 

After Aiden went to bed I went downstairs and turned his seat around in the van!! I'm so excited. I hope he likes facing forward and it makes car riding more enjoyable for him. I'll keep you updated on that.