Happy 4th of July! (2012)

AJ and I started the morning off with homemade whole wheat berry muffins- YUM!

Just before the parade we tried to take some cute pictures...

And some silly pictures too!

Love this guy!

At the Castle Rock parade- he had fun :)

Love!

In case you were wondering what this amazing little guy looked like 4 years ago today :)

AJ's New Song

He's such a boy :)

Happy Happy 4th Birthday AJ!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He rolled out of bed a FOUR YEAR OLD!

Happy 4th Birthday AJ!

On our way to school :) He was super excited to bring Bomb Pop Popicles for his class!

Daddy came over for dinner to celebrate with AJ! And brought him a whole adventure gear set. Binoculars, a vest, a canteen and lantern. He gets to use it when they camp this weekend. He was so excited!

Here's a song on his new guitar :)

Dear AJ

Dear AJ,

It’s the day before your 4th birthday and I’m sitting here wondering where the time went. How is it that you are already 4 years old? It truly feels like just yesterday that Daddy and I brought you home from the hospital. It actually feels like it wasn’t that long ago that Daddy & I found out you were growing in my belly. We were both so thrilled!

Today I woke up and thought about this day 4 years ago. It was the day you were knocking on my belly asking to come out to the world. Daddy & I called the doctor and he said it was time to come into the hospital. We packed the car, and drove the hospital. The whole way there we talked about how excited we were and how our lives were about to change forever. We were excited, anxious, scared but most of all we could not wait to meet you.

AJ you have taught me so many things over the past 4 years. You’ve showed me that I can love harder than I have known. People often say you don’t know real love until you have a child, and it’s true. I had no idea I could love someone this much. You have made me want to be the best person I can be. You have taught me to laugh at the silliest things. You taught me to try again when things don’t work out and to be brave. You are so brave and I just love that about you.

I am incredibly proud to be your mom. You are so kind, so polite, funny, smart, adorable, witty and stubborn. You get the last part from me! At times your stubbornness can be a challenge, but I think it is a great quality to have. It means you don’t give up and I love that! You have so many good friends and I love how you’re thoughtful and kind to the people who love you. I have had so many people tell me great things about you. Your teachers tell me you’re so nice to be around, that they all talk about how they want to take you home, and one teacher told me that if she has anymore children, she wants a son just like you. You’re such a wonderful boy!

I hope you always know that Mommy & Daddy love you more than anything in this world. Despite our differences, you are our main priority and we always have you in mind when we make decisions. We are both so thankful that we get along so well and we talk about you every single day. We talk about how you're doing that day, what you're up to, how long your slept, your mood, and tell stories about the funny and smart things you do.

I love you so much AJ. Happy 4th birthday!

Love, Mommy

We have a 4 year old. How did this happen? That’s just crazy! And that’s another blog post…

This weekend, we celebrated AJ turning 4! What a crazy fun time we had.

Thursday night AJ and I picked up Grandma and Papa from the airport as they came in for the weekend to celebrate with us. We were super excited to see them! After we got them, we went out to a quick dinner and AJ started talking about his “family”. He wanted to give a family hug and take family pictures. Here’s a few silly pics we took:

Family Picture :)

Being silly!

Making silly faces!

On Friday, I went to work and the three of them got to hang out like old times. They helped prepare for the party and then went to the pool. That night we just hung around and BBQ’d. It was a good, relaxing family night.

Saturday was the BIG DAY. We invited about 55 people (kids and adults) to AJ’s Star Wars themed party. We had it at a Bison Park and while there were a ton of people, I did my best to keep it somewhat simple. We had pizzas delivered, fruit, chips and drinks. Jason, once again, made a fantastic cake. Here’s a picture of R2D2 (this is a combination of 6 large sheet cakes!)

Jason MADE this!

He's got a great daddy!

Goofin' around

My mom took it upon herself to do a candy bar for the kids. She went to LA to get all the candy and bought a bunch of acrylic cylinders to put the candy in. This was the little party gift for each kid and they all had a great time filling their bags! Not to mention it was adorable.

Most of AJ’s best friends were able to come to his party; Dax & Skylar, Maddy & Riley, Sam & Joe, Abby & Jack, Zane & Paris, Todd & Katelyn, Austin & Trevor and about 6 or 7 of his school friends came too! 3 of his teachers came with their kids and it was awesome to spend some time with them on a personal level and get to know them a little bit. The kids played at the park for a while, then we had lunch, they played some more and then we had a super fun water balloon toss. Next year, we’re doing the water balloons again, but tripling the number of balloons! It was nearly 100 degrees and it cooled us off and the kids had a wonderful time with it. After that, we sang Happy Birthday to AJ and did presents. AJ got some really neat things. A lot of Star Wars and super hero toys, lots of Legos, books and a Yoda alarm clock to name a few.

Abby & Lisa

AJ and his good school buddy Alec

AJ and Kellan- good friends!

Abby & Madolyn Merrill (her first and last name, but everyone seems to call her by both- haha) these girls are going to be trouble! So cute!

Water balloon toss!

So fun!

AJ & Daxie

I have to say that I am so pleased with how well we all worked together this year on the party. My mom, Dave, and Jason are so very helpful and I can count on them all to help with food, cake, keeping AJ busy while we set up, or anything else that needs to be done. We’re a great team and all doing it because we love AJ so much!

We LOVE this kid!

They LOVE him too! (the feeling is mutual)

Grandma, AJ and Mommy

My love..

Saturday night, after we cooled off and rested, we went out to 2 more parties for my mom’s friends. They loved seeing AJ and I enjoyed seeing them again. Sunday, we went back to the pool and hung out for a few hours. It was SO HOT this weekend, we needed it. It was a great weekend!

Here are a few more pictures:

Grandma & Papa got AJ this Star Wars suitcase for our trips to California

New Lego's!

From his friend at school, Will. This is General Grievous... I think? (And if I'm right, I'm pretty proud of myself- I wouldn't have known this 6 months ago!)

Surprise California Trip!

Last weekend, AJ and I made a surprise visit to California for my moms 60th birthday. Kristin and Matt threw her an surprise party with tons of her friends and neighbors. I hadn't seen most of them since my AJ was about 1.

We flew in Thursday night. Spent the day Friday helping Kristin with the party decorations and food and AJ was lucky enough to spend the entire day at their pool (spa). He was in heaven!

Saturday, my mom was out shopping all day with her friend and Kristin and I cleaned their house and decorated while Papa and AJ hung out together and went to the park. I know both AJ and Papa were happy to have some quality time together.

That night, my mom came home from shopping to 40 or so people yelling SURPRISE! She was in total shock. And she didn't realize AJ and I were there till about 30 second later. It was awesome!

The party was a hit- AJ was totally on. He did art with our neighbor Suzanne, helped people with their drinks, and helped fill up their candy bags (think, "One for you, two for me")

Sunday, Grandma, Papa and I AJ and I went to the park again- it was neat because it's the park that I grew up going to. We played there for 2 hours and AJ learned to do the Monkey Bars all by himself! I was impressed! Then later we went back to Matt and Kristins pool and hung out and had lunch.

It was truly a wonderful, fun and relaxing trip!

It's EARLY Friday morning and he is ready to go!

Look out below!

SURPRISE!

They were both SO happy to see each other!

AJ loves his Papa!

The dessert table - SO PRETTY!

The candy bar- AJ couldn't get enough

AJ and Mama!

We got to see Aunt Joan

At the end of the party, Matt & AJ were playing with phones. Laughing and giggling and having the best time being boys!

Pool time again!

Helping Matt BBQ

His bravery is so impressive!

Matt & AJ skateboarding

Here he is being super silly in the pool!

Food

I started doing this "real food" challenge back in May and it's been awesome! The goal is to eat very little, if any, processed food. I gave up diet coke, white flour and basically anything that isn't real. I wanted to see if I could do it, how I would feel and also try to teach AJ about how to eat healthy. Here's the link to my food blog if you care to follow.

Tonight I realized that as great as this experience has been, I really haven't involved AJ nearly as much as I wanted to. So, I posted something on Facebook asking for kid friendly recipes that were easy and tasty.

The first idea was homemade chicken nuggets. And why not make the whole process of making dinner a fun activity for AJ and I to do together?

First, we had to make the bread crumbs from some whole wheat bread I had.... He was pretty thrilled to be in charge of the food processor.

Then, I dipped the chicken pieces in egg and he covered them (and everything else in the kitchen) with the bread crumbs (mixed with Parmesan cheese, garlic salt and pepper). It was VERY messy, but totally worth the 3 minute clean up..

Then, I cooked them for about 5 minutes and they were so pretty!

And this was our dinner! I'm really focusing on us eating the same things. Too often he's eating noodles and I'm eating something else. I am going to stop this whole process of making 2 meals.  This was SUPER yummy too! We both gobbled it up!