Thirty, Flirty & Thriving

There has been a ton that has gone on since my last post.

1. Last week I celebrated my 30th birthday. It was a great day. Aaron was supposed to work a 13 hour work day and so I set up lunch with my girlfriends at Artic Circle (where the kids can play) to help me celebrate. Aaron came home for lunch and told me that the school gave him the rest of the day off so he could celebrate with me. He took the kids to the store where they picked out my present. I got a radio for my kitchen. Complete with a CD and MP3 player. I love it. We mounted to to the wall and I have been listening to the last Harry Potter book while I do dishes and make meals. It ended up being a great day. My sister sent me flowers (which I always love) and last night we played games with a few friends at our house. (Have you ever heard of the game Snorta? Our friends brought it and I laughed my guts out!)

2. Cole keeps getting bigger. He turns two months old this week and is getting more and more fun. He is starting to cry less and sleep better. He slept completely through the night last night all on his own. (Hooray!!) He also started smiling this week.
3. We decorated our tree. We pulled it out Saturday. We are not pulling out a whole lot this year. We have managed to stuff our little apartment full of all sorts of things and we decided that we really didn't have room for all the Christmas stuff. But our little tree is beautiful and we love to sit in the living room with only the tree lights on.

4. Yesterday, we delivered most of our goodie plates. On Saturday, I made ginger snap cookies, no bake peanut butter cookies, pumpkin bars and candy popcorn. Yesterday we took them around and sang a few carrols. Mostly Jingle Bells which is the song the kids know best.

5. Last week was our ward Christmas party. We ate good food and the kids got to see Santa who looked strangely like Bishop Sparks in a santa suit.
6. We helped Grandma and Grandpa Heward put up their Christmas stuff. The kids really, really enjoyed it and all Todd can talk about is Christmas and when he gets to open his presents.
7. Spending Thanksgiving break at Grandmas with all the cousins. The kids had a lot of fun playing together- this particular day they played alot with play dough.

8. Playing together. Aaron took this picture upside down- not exactly sure why. Aren't they cute??!!

9. THANKSGIVING DAY!!! Aaron has a huge family and they get the church where we eat and have some skits (this is Brooklyn singing the ABC's), then we play basketball and dance the Hokey Pokey and the Virginia Reel and have TONS of fun.





10. We blessed Cole (I can't believe I took no pictures). We blessed him in our ward here and then went to IF and had the meal at my Grandpa's house.

A few other events:

11. Todd cut Brooklyn's hair- and her ear. I didn't know ears could bleed so much. Does a cut to the ear count as a head wound? I know head wounds bleed a ton and now I know ears do too.

12. Aaron was offered a part time job at the school through next semester. We are excited that he has been given that opportunity. His internship has given him really good experience managing. He has been helping with the Manwaring Center and the BYUI center. He even gave a tour of the BYUI center to Elder Bednar a few weeks ago.

13. Brooklyn has been taking offer her diapers and the going potty where ever she is. That includes the couch and her booster chair at the table. I have to keep a really good eye on her to make sure she doesn't take off her diaper. Many times she will hide and go poops and then take off her diaper and put it in the toilet and then come and find me. She is ready to be potty trained but I am not yet ready to potty train her. I am waiting for Aaron to be at home a little more so he can help and I am waiting until Cole doesn't need to be nursed quite as often. Who knows though. It might be better if we just do it.

14. I ventured out on black Friday with Aaron's sisters. This is tradition. I love it. I save all year and do most of my Christmas shopping this day. This year, though, Walmart opened at 12am and so we never went to bed. It was Walmart at 12, JC Penny at 4 (where I got a really pretty new coat for 75% off- Happy Graduation to me :) back to Walmart at 5am- they wouldn't sell the electronics until then- Cal Ranch after that, then Ace Hardware. We usually go to bed and get up at 3am. Not this year, thanks to Walmart. No sleep at all and then when we got home, we had to watch our kids. It was too much and we decided that we will probably not hit Walmart right when hit opens anymore.

15. Aaron applied for graduation. Hooray!!! He will walk in April and then we are DONE! I am supposed to walk on Saturday but I am in the process of seeing if they will let me walk in April instead. It would be more fun if Aaron and I could walk together and easier for our families.