I wished I had my camera...

Aden & I went to the library today after running a bunch of errands. My intention was to quick run in to pick up some books I have on hold and get home to put Aden down for a nap. He had a different agenda though. He immediately went to the children's section, picked up a book and sat at a table. He started going through books and making up stories as he went along. At one point, I looked back to where Aden was sitting at and he looked like such a big boy, sitting so well on the little kid chair with the book propped on the table. It was such a perfect moment and he looked so happy just being around all these books. Too bad I didn't have my camera. Hopefully that moment will forever be in my memory bank. It gave me such mixed emotions on how big my little boy is getting and at the same time, great joy that he's enjoying the same things that gives his mom pleasure.

Boys will be boys...

Aden & I had a lunch date with my good friend, Beth & her son, Zach at P.B. & Ellie's. The boys enjoyed playing with the toys in the restaurant, but they definitely enjoyed climbing up the tree on our way out to the car a lot better.

Trouble & Trouble

I was starting to get convinced that Aden might take after me and be a little more cautious, but now I know that he'll take after dad and be a daredevil too.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a great year ahead, full of wonderful happy moments!

What a difference a year makes...

This picture was taken exactly one year ago.

Now he can hold on to the stump on his own!

Another beautiful day at the beach

We took advantage of the great day over the weekend and spent most of the time hanging out on the beach and climbed the dune one more time.

And, Aden's new favorite thing to do is to slide down the dune. It was great watching him be a daredevil and try to launch off the edge...

Hiking the dune

The weather was pretty trippy today. It's nice and sunny for a while, then hail for about 5 minutes. It did this on and off during the day. During one of the sunny spells, we all went on a dune hike and let the kids run around. We had a fun time even though it was quite nippy.

One happy kid

We're spending New Year's at the beach with friends, which has been a yearly tradition for us. Aden is very happy to be back at the beach house, he has been asking to go for the past week. We have to drag him out of the house whenever we have to go anywhere, all he wants to do is hang out at the house. Our friend Matt and his daughter Aaliyah is also staying with us. Aaliyah and Aden has been having a lot of fun together, they play so well together even though they are 2 years apart. We told Matt that the 2-year gap wouldn't matter that much when they're older; Aden loves them older girls :)

This is George...

Aden LOVES Curious George, so he was very happy when he opened his presents from grandpa & grandma A and he saw his favorite monkey. He didn't want to part with George, he even asked to have George sit next to him to help him open his presents. It was so adorable, we were glad that we were able to capture the moment.

Fun Christmas

It's been a fun long weekend for us. We saw lots of friends and family. Christmas day started out pretty rough for Aden. We kept him up VERY late on Christmas eve, hanging out with friends. We didn't get home until almost 1am and Aden didn't fall asleep until we got home. He was up at 8:30 am xmas morning and didn't appreciate our cheerful xmas greeting. He told us that it's not Christmas and he was quite cranky. I blame it on the 7.5 hours of sleep. After breakfast, he felt a lot better and back to his old self.

As soon as we started opening presents, Aden liked Christmas a lot more! We had fun just seeing how happy and excited he got with each present that he opened. After we got done playing with Aden's new toys, we headed over to my family's xmas gathering and we didn't get home until after 9pm. It was a fun day!

Pre-Christmas dinner with friends

Our friends Denise & Brent came over with their baby, Jace (who is only 6 weeks old) last Sunday. Aden enjoyed having them over and even let Jace borrow his Bumbo. Aden tried hard not to be too rough around him, but couldn't resist patting him on the head a few times. I don't know if that's his way to show him that he's the alpha dog, or letting him know that he'll show him how to get into trouble!

Fun grown-ups

We had our good friends, Craig & Jenn over for dinner last night and Aden was all over them. They are definitely one of Aden's favorite grown-ups. And of course, Craig had to show Aden a new fun trick, they were both giggling so much, we had to take some shots of the two of them...

Wind Storm

We drove to the beach Tuesday after the big storm (2 weeks ago), after they opened the roads to get to the beach. We checked on our house to make sure it is still there and to check for any damages. We lost 2 trees, one in the front and one in the back. We were very lucky, both trees barely missed our house and our neighbor's house. We did lose a bunch of shingles, Darin had to get up on the roof and do some repair work. I think we're up for a roofing party soon.

We also got a few shots of The Pelican, they took on some sand, that's for sure!

Christmas Tree

Aden had fun seeing all the Christmas trees, he did tell his dad to take the BIG tree home.

Mr. Muscles

Aden enjoyed reading all his birthday cards, this one was a fun one, thanks baby Jace!

Another birthday bash

Two days after his actual birthday, we had another birthday party for Aden, this time we had his friends over. He had such a fun time playing with his friends, he's getting used to all this partying! He also had his first dose of sugar, I think he didn't know what to do with that cupcake.

Aden's 2!!!

I can't believe how fast 2 years went by. It seems like just yesterday when we brought the little guy home. Now he's talking in full sentences, singing songs, memorizes his books and is becoming more independent as each day passes by. Pretty soon, he'll be off to college...we better not blink!

Two days after we got back from Fiji, Aden celebrated his birthday with our family. I made him a semi-healthy cake (aka not a lot of sugar in it) and Darin & I decorated it with trains since he loves trains. Aden never had cake before, and we were a little concerned about giving him a cake with chocolate icing. But after he blew out the candles, he forgot all about the cake and moved on to presents. He had so much fun tearing the wrapping paper that we couldn't even coax him to have some cake.

Goodbye Fiji

We were sad to leave, we had such a fun time. Fiji is such an awesome place and Aden proved to be such a great traveller. We don't know if we'll be back there again anytime soon, there's too many other places we want to travel to. But it's definitely such a special place for us. Aden & I caught a cold the last day in Fiji, so it wasn't the funnest time on the plane. But Aden still loved being in the plane and seeing the other airplanes upclose. He even showed the airplanes to his friend, Monkey.

The perfect ending to a fun trip

Our flight out of Fiji was not until 10:30pm, so after check-out, we spent the day at the resort. Darin, Matt, Aden & I went sailing one more time. After 10 minutes on the hobie, Aden was out. So I ended up hanging out with him on a lounge chair by the pool, and watched Darin & Matt sailed some more. When they got back, they joined us for a little more R&R by the pool, which was a perfect end to our trip.