Please vote!!

Every year, Cranial Technology has a DOC band baby calendar and this year Aiden is eligible to be entered into it. But I need your help!! Which picture should I enter? Please vote in the comments section, even you lurkers!! :)
A:
B:
C:

Are we there yet?

Yes, Ethan asks me daily if we are going to Michigan today. I have a calendar in our kitchen that he counts down the days on:

But I still get the question on a daily basis. Ethan's favortite channel on TV is Noggin, he loves Moose A. Moose and Zee, and Seth and I love all the songs they sing. Here is our current family favorite! :)

Be free Aiden!!

Aiden before his DOC bandAiden after! Look at that cute round head!!

We are so happy with Cranial Technologies, they were SOOO wonderful to work with! I am so glad that they made this experience so much better than it could have been, thanks so much for everything!

RIP Daisy

I just got an email this morning from Aunt Toni that they had to put Daisy to sleep yesterday. Daisy was the sweetest yellow lab that I have ever been around. Her and Ethan were instant friends and when we were there two weeks ago he bonded even more with her. In fact almost every day now he asks for a dog like Daisy. After getting the email I decided that I wouldn't say anything to Ethan until the next time we were going down there, no need to upset him. Wouldn't you know it, he started to ask about her today as we were getting ready for naptime. He asked me when we could get a dog like Daisy and how much he loved Daisy and could we go see Daisy tomorrow? I then asked him if he remembered that Daisy was really sick and old last time we saw her and he said yes, he remembered and that we just need to pray for her and she will get all better. Ahh, to have the faith of a three year old. I told him that yesterday she died, but she was in heaven now and didn't hurt anymore and was up playing all around like a little puppy again. He cried a little bit and then said "Mommy, I want to pray to God now, cause I know what toys Daisy likes and I need to tell him." Yeah, that made me bawl. I love this kid so much!!
RIP Daisy, we will miss you!!

*Fingers Crossed*

Ethan is potty trained! Even as I type this I feel like I need to go find some wood to knock on! The last two days he hasn't had any accidents and has worn big boy underwear all day, even at naptime. This morning he woke up dry from last night, so I decided to brave it. I sent him to school in underwear. I told his teacher he was in big boys and then I told her I packed back ups for him in his back pack. I know, it was a total cop out for his first day out of the house to have someone else deal with it, but I just wasn't ready!! :)
I was scared to pick him up, but when I got there he was in the same outfit I sent him in, SUCCESS!! We came home, he went right before naptime and then he woke up dry again. But tonight was the ultimate test, we went out to dinner. Seth had meetings tonight with a new potential couple (they booked!) and then a church meeting but had about an hour and a half inbetween them, not enough time to come home, so we went and met him. Ethan went potty once at dinner and then came home and pooped twice in the potty!! Did I mention that he went in there and pooped on his own? I was feeding Aiden and rocking him to sleep when I heard Ethan run to the bathroom and start yelling,*hurray*!!!
I am so proud of him!!

New pics

Aiden got some new, tougher stickers!

Aiden 6 months

Cloth? Am I crazy?

I know I know, before you say it just hear me out! I was one of the biggest naysayers about cloth diapers out there! My friends Dianthe & Kelly were raving about theirs, but I just could not get on board with it. Disposables are just so easy! But Aiden was having *bottom* issues, he was waking up bright cherry red every morning. So, I bit the bullet and borrowed a diaper from Kelly to try out on Aiden, wow I fell in love after one wearing. He woke up from his 3 hour nap without a red bottom, the first time ever!
From then on it was all downhill, Dianthe introduced me to Diaper Swappers and I was staying up all hours of the night, researching diapers and trying to buy some. I was able to get a lot of three diapers for $30, plus she was in town, so the next day when I got home they were sitting on my doorstep.
Then I found out that a local lady does a cloth diaper class the first Thursday of each month and she was local in Farmers Branch, so I headed over for it. I learned so much and she answered so many of my questions. I am heading over tomorrow to check out her inventory she just got in. I can't wait. Stop laughing at me!!
Right now I am slowly building my *stash* I have:
4 Mommy's touch pockets
1 Mommy's touch AIO
1 Pirate pocket
and I just ordered 2 BumGenius 3.0 from their seconds sale for only $12 each! I am so excited.

Aiden's 6 month checkup

Aiden had his 6 month checkup today and everything is great!
He is now:
18.7lbs(75%)
26.6 inches(50%)
Dr said he is doing well and we don't have to go back till 9 months and there are no shots then, yipee!! Poor baby got 3 today along with the oral vaccine. Now he is just chilling in his sweet peace, going in and out of sleep.
Oh, and he checked to see if any teeth were coming in at all, and nothing yet. But he did say he thought he might get some soon, the way Aiden was going to town on the tongue depressor and everything else he could get into his mouth. I told him I was in no hurry for teeth just yet!
I will upload his 6 month pictures later tonight once everyone goes to bed!

Decluttering

I read this blog on a daily basis and I have been inspired to *Declutter* my life. I HATE how much little stuff we have just to have it. Since the kitchen is our enemy at the moment, I decided to start there. I started with my cabinets. I had 30 Ikea plain white plates. When Ikea first opened they had them for .50$ each, a steal! I bought enough so when we had big dinner parties, I wouldn't have to buy a ton of paper plates and I can fit all of them in the dishwasher at the same time. Well, all they do is take up a ton of room in my limited cabinet space and I never get to use my pretty Crate & Barrel plates, so those all came out and are boxed up for when I need them. Along with those went 4 of my 8 bowls, 4 of the HUGE soup bowls that I only use in the winter, 8 pasta bowls and a large serving bowl that I use maybe once a year and the two sets of 4 dessert plates that I use occasionally. Now I am keeping these, but they are boxed up in a small plastic storage tub and going in the closet under the stairs.
Next I started on the drawers, jeesh what a bunch of junk. I had an old can opener, three wine openers, an old spatula, 4 slotted spoons, 4 turners, 5 whisks, 2 ladles, 2 tongs, 2 pastry brushes, 5 serving spoons, an old egg slicer, apple cutter, citrus something or another, potato scrubber, plastic smasher, an old hand whisk, pastry cutter, and an egg separator.
That is a lot!
I ended up keeping: my new black plastic whisk, one slotted turner, one solid turner, two serving spoons, one slotted spoon and one ladle. My utensil container is now nice and no longer overflowing with a bunch of junk!
Now it was time for the glassware cabinet. I am at a loss for this one. I have 12 wine glasses that match my china and as soon as I get a china cabinet they can go in there. I also have 12 everyday wine glasses, 8 painted wine glasses, 8 ice tea crystal glasses, 4 margarita glasses, 6 beer mugs and 4 champagne glasses. Can you tell what I got a lot of for our wedding? I have no idea how to par this all down! HELP!

I will post pictures later on with all the stuff I am donating to either my mom or CCA.

Dinner @ The Gristmill

	Mmmmm, ribs!

We are OUTTA here!!!

In about an hour I will be taking the boys over to my parents house and hugging and kissing them up before I leave to go pick up Seth. Once I pick him, we are off to go get Amie and Scott, then its on to Gruene!!
We plan on lots of river time on Saturday, Gristmill on Saturday night, and Gruene Market Days on Sunday before we all head back home.
I am soooo looking forward to just getting on our tubes on Saturday and just floating, not having a care in the world...ahhhhhhh
I will update with pictures on Sunday night or Monday during the boys nap time!
Bye!!

Its coming off!!!

Yep, next Tuesday is Aiden's last fit appointment on his band and then the following Mon, July 28 he will have his exit exam with pictures and he will be FREE!!! We are so excited!! He will have worn it for exactly 6 weeks, just like they thought! I really can't complain about anything though. Everyone at Cranial Tech has been wonderful to work with. They are sweet to us everytime we are there and when I have to bring Ethan with me, they make sure to bring the big ride on boat into the room cause they know he loves it. I was so hesitant at first to even go to the first appointment, but I am so glad we did now. If you or someone you know is thinking about getting their child checked out for this, PLEASE go to CT, they will treat you right!!

San Antonio weekend!

We (the boys and I) just got back in town last night from a long and wonderful weekend in San Antonio with Aunt Toni, JoeGee and BaBecca. We got there late Friday night after dealing with horrendous traffic, thankfully all three boys, Whitney and Logan went with us, did awesome on the way there!
We got there, and Aunt Toni had dinner waiting for us, it was wonderful! But then we got the bad news, JoeGee's boat was sinking, so he would be leaving bright and early to go out to the lake lot and see whats wrong and start cleaning it. He left early Saturday morning and got home late Sunday night.
On Saturday we hung out around the house, and once the boys went to bed, the girls headed out to Target to shop a little and grab stuff for dinner. Came home, found out Ethan did NOT nap, but instead keptAiden up by TRASHING the game room, yeah that was fun to clean up. I had to have him clean it all up, all while he sobbed and then I laid down with him and we both took a nap. After dinner we all got in the pool and relaxed. Once the boys went to bed for the night, we brought out the box o sangria and heated up the hot tub,ahhhhh.
Of course both nights we said we were going to bed early, both nights we went to bed around 1am, yikes!
Monday we decided we needed to be out of the house by 10:00am so we could shop at the outlet malls and still be on the road at a decent time. We actually walked out of the door at 9:58am! SCORE!
We were able to hit up all the outlet stores we wanted to and still got on the road only a half hour later than we had planned on.
We had such a wonderful time, just like we always do at their house, thanks for having us Aunt Toni!! We love you!
Here are a few pictures!

Ethan's new goggles

Happy Aiden in the tub with Aunt Toni

Making sundae's with JoGee

Logan *kissing* Ethan goodnight

Ethan and Aiden shopping at the Pottery Barn outlet, we wore Aiden out!