Conversation between a boy and his Dad!

Mike gave Aiden a haircut this morning. Aiden sat like a perfect customer in his underwear while Mike buzzed away. When they were finished Aiden's chest, back and legs were covered in hair so Mike decided to throw Aiden in the shower with him. Mike took off his shirt and Aiden looked up at Mike's chest and said, "Hey, your chest looks like mine. How did you get hair all over you?"

Traditions

I come from a family rich in holiday traditions . . . eating beef stew on Halloween (my mom was convinced it would keep up warm while Trick or Treating--and we HAD to eat the whole bowl), drinking orange juice and taking our vitamin before getting to see what Santa brought, cutting down our Christmas tree, making cheese crackers at Christmas, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, homemade Birthday cakes, coke floats with cherries with my grandmother, collards and kale at Thanksgiving, laughing until we are crying while playing games at Thanksgiving and cuddling up to watch all of the holiday TV specials as a family--especially Charlie Brown. These are just a few of the many traditions started when we were young. My brother has continued these traditions with his family and I have been lucky enough to marry a man who loves these traditions as much as I do. We continue to carry these on and make our own. Last night we continued one long tradition of watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I had tears in my eyes as I watched Aiden BELLY LAUGHING on the couch at the antics of Snoopy and the gang. Such simple pleasures . . . What are some of your favorite traditions?

Changing times!

Rebekah and I were reading a Curious George book this morning. There was a picture of a Jukebox in the book. Rebekah said, "what's that, Mommy?" I said, "It's called a jukebox, it's like a big box that plays music." She sat for a second looking at it and said, "Oh, like a giant Ipod."

My how times have changed.

First Camping Trip

I've been slacking on my blogging lately! And I've got so many wonderful fall shots to share. Our first big fall event was our first camping trip (way too many pictures--and I have to share them all). We went to Big Meadows on the Skyline Drive for the weekend. This is the same place where I camped my my family growing up. It was so neat to take the kids and have them experience the same things I did as a child. The weekend was WONDERFUL! The kids absolutely LOVED camping and were asking when we could go back before we even left. Aiden LOVED hiking and thinks he is a hiker extraordinaire. We wore them out both days, so much that they were asking to go to bed before we were ready to send them. The sky was so clear both nights and we hoped to keep Aiden up so he could see the star filled sky, but he was asleep before it really got dark. I call that a successful day! :-) We couldn't have asked for better weather--although Mike and I did freeze the first night. The kids loved eating scrambled eggs at a picnic table and were really surprised when Mickey and PopPop surprised us Saturday afternoon by showing up. We took them on a little hike and they stayed for chili and "smacos." The funnies moment of the trip was when Aiden told a stranger that he had to go rest in his tent because he was going to hike from Maine to Georgia. We're already planning a spring trip, anyone want to join us?

Fairy House

Legend has it (according to The Fairy House Series http://www.fairyhouses.com/home.html )that if you build a fairy home and leave it in your garden, you might attract a fairy into your domain. Aiden and Rebekah were given their first Fairy House book this week and were immediately excited about building their own fairy house in the woods. Aiden spent Friday afternoon building his first fairy house in a stump found in the woods behind our home. We've spent the remainder of the weekend looking for items to add to our first fairy home. We picked up berries at the bell tower across from Luray Caverns and leaves and acorns from the Monticello Grounds. Today we gathered more leaves from the apple trees at Carter Mountain. Aiden is excited about his next project, a Fairy Boat for the creek.

Girl Talk

Rebekah and I were shopping in Target yesterday and were standing next to the bras when we had a little "girl talk."

Rebekah: (picking up a bra from the rack) You wear one of these Mommy.
Me: Yes, I do Rebekah. That's called a bra.
R: Yes, you wear a bra.
M: Yep--I do (mumbling . . . unfortunately I have to).
R: You wear them because you have boobies.
M: Yes, I do (at this point I'm looking around to see who is listening).
R: I don't wear them because I don't have boobies, I have minnies.
M: Oh you do--you have minnies?
R: Yes, and when I'm a mommy I won't have minnies anymore, I'll have boobies just like you.
M: Yes you will.

Rebekah then looked up at me and gave me a great smile and moved on to another department.

Out of the Mouth of Babes . . .

Kids are so honest . . . too honest for me! Tonight (after a huge slice of pizza) I was laying on the floor while the kids were playing around me. My shirt had come up a little and Aiden came over and patted my tummy and said, "your tummy feels like pizza dough."

Tomorrow I'll be doing an extra stomach workout.

The "Engine of the Potty"

For a while now, Aiden has had a fascination with the "potty." One night Mike lifted the lid on the back of the toilet and showed him how the "potty" worked. Mike explained that those parts were like the engine that made the toilet work (I'm not sure if Mike used the word toilet or potty). Ever since then Aiden has called it the "engine of the potty." Several times a week he wants to look at it. We even use it as bribery. "Get your jammies on and brush your teeth and you can see the engine of the potty." It works every time. I often wonder, do we have a future plumber on our hands or an engineer.

We were at my mom's house this weekend and Aiden asked Jim to show him the engine of the potty. Jim was sitting in the den at the time watching a football game. He had spent the day working in his yard and then the evening making a bonfire for the grand kids--he was ready for some "down-time." Without a moments hesitation, Jim got up and took Aiden into the bathroom and showed him the "engine." Just like Mike, he patiently explained all of the parts and even let Aiden touch and pull on them. Something as simple as that made Aiden's weekend. He was talking about it Sunday morning . . . how PopPop let him touch the engine of the potty.

Thank you Jim, for loving and teaching my kids like your own.

Camping Run Through . . .

We're taking the kids on their first camping trip in two weeks. I grew up camping--that's what my family did for vacations . . . we even camped at Disney World in the summer--WOW!! I have wonderful memories of camping as a child and I'm so excited to create those memories with Aiden and Rebekah. We are even taking them to the place in the Shenandoah Mountains where my family always camped. We decided today that we should do a run through with our tent. It's a brand new tent so we figured we should practice setting it up. We don't have a flat area in our yard that's big enough for our tent--so we set it up on a hill. I was impressed how easy it was to set up--but the thing that really got us was how BIG this tent it. We had a 4 person tent that we sold because we were afraid it would be a little to tight for us and our bags. This tent . . . lets just say that we can fit our family and all of the other families who read this blog in with us. Want to come camping?

The kids LOVED it--Aiden wanted to play school inside the tent so we spent the morning doing that. Rebekah was quite disappointed when Mike took it down--she thought she was sleeping in it tonight!

"Pre-Fall" Weekend

Anyone who knows Mike and I well, knows that Fall is our absolute favorite time of the year. If we had it our way, we'd keep Aiden out of school and Mike wouldn't work from the middle of September until the middle of November. But for now, we have to get our fall fixes on the weekend. Although this weekend is not officially fall, we've had the most gorgeous fall weather imaginable. Throw in some falling leaves and I might have cried! We started our weekend Friday night with our typical pizza night. This Friday, though, we invited our good friends to share in the fun. We ate pizza and sat around Mike's new fire pit (thanks to his wonderful wife--me--who backed into his old fire pit and smashed it into pieces) and roasted marshmallows. The person who invented s'mores is a genius! The kids were so excited to be out late enough to see the star and even laid down in the driveway and sang a few rounds of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Saturday morning started bright and early with Aiden's first flag football game. We're thinking the late Friday pizza night may have left him a little tired because we literally had to bribe him to get out on the football field. When the team moved, he stayed right in his spot. But he was a champ and went out there--we're proud of him for giving it a shot. Next Saturday we're going to give him the juice box before the game instead of after.

Saturday ended with an evening of awesome memory making. We took a drive to my mom and Jim's house and spent the evening roasting hot dogs, playing cousins and friends and eating even more s'mores. The kids vary in age from 2 to 10--and they play WONDERFULLY together! Aiden and Rebekah LOVE being with Lindsay, Lauren and Tyler (and so do I). Aiden was fascinated with the fire and was excited to help Jim keep it going all night. I was standing with Jim by the fire watching the kids and he said that watching the kids run and play are his best times, even though the kids won't remember these days. I assured him that they will remember these days more than any other toy they have . . . and so will I. We left at bedtime and the kids were asleep within 15 minutes of the drive home. Thanks FAMILY for great memory making!

It's Sunday morning and we still have a beautiful day ahead of us. Next on the agenda--setting up our tent before our upcoming camping trip in the mountains and making caramel apples. The first day of Fall is tomorrow and we've already created amazing memories--my heart is busting at the thought of what's to come!

Football

GOOOO Jets!

Stuck Inside

"Daaaad, you need to change the weather." This is how Rebekah greeted Mike this morning when he went in her room to get her up (the "Daaad" thing is new--I swear she sounds like she's 16). Unfortunately we couldn't change the weather, or the fact that Aiden ran a 102 fever all day long. We made the best of a rainy weekend though, with make your own pizza, tents, shaving cream fun, and stories to stuffed animal friends. The sun eventually came out, but Aiden's fever never went down, I guess it's our time for the kindergarten cooties. He got the star treatment though--even pretending that the couch was his hospital bed--which of course, he HAD to eat breakfast in.

Hopefully the sun will still be out tomorrow and Aiden's fever will be gone.