Easter Weekend

We had a great weekend with family this year...in our own house!

I think in all the years that Ry and I have lived away from home, we have ALWAYS gone home to NY for Easter.

This year we decided to open up the invitation to our families to come visit us instead, and figured we would love it if anyone could come, but of course we understood not everyone's schedule would allow for the trip.

Mom and Joe were able to come visit Fri night on their way back to NY from D.C.(where they flew in and out of to spend a week sunning themselves in Sarasota)

We all went to breakfast with the Easter Bunny Saturday morning, and then they had to get back home.

That afternoon my Dad arrived to stay for the night, and we got lucky when the rain finally stopped in the late afternoon and we were able to get outside for some playtime!

That night we managed to squeeze in some time for coloring easter eggs too!

Then the big morning came!!

I put Aidan's basket out on his play table in the living room so he would see it first thing, and Ry and I filled some plastic eggs with M&M's and hid them out in plain sight for him to find. With a little guidance he found them all and got all his "cannies" out of the eggs and into a bowl to munch on.

The highlight of his gifts/baskket was a diecast set of Cars from Disney's Cars. He immediately grabbed the box and ran over to Ry with it saying "open it!!" "open it!"

Since the weather turned out to be simply amazing on Sunday we were able to eat our breakfast out on the deck, and hang out there for a while to play too!

Visiting the Easter Bunny at the Mall

All excited and ready to head out to see the Easter Bunny!

Mom, stop taking pictures.

Well, it's official. Aidan loved the Easter Bunny!

We went to see the bunny today at the mall with Austen, Zack, and Kailyn, and had a great time!

Aidan walked right up to the bunny and even put his arms up for the bunny to pick him up! Sadly we couldn't get him to smile for his picture because he just kept talking about how he was on his lap.

They all got paper bunny ears afterward and wore them proudly!

My newest LOVE

I have always wanted a real camera. Always. They're just so damn expensive!

Ryan may be the only person who really knows how out of control I am with pictures. He knows that I take about a billion pictures in a sitting, but of course I usually only subject you poor readers to about 5% of them. I go through memory cards like they're going out of style.

Ryan has once told me that there are more pictures of Aidan than hours that he's been alive.

He may be right.

So a few weeks ago Ryan surprised me by telling me that he wanted to get me a new camera for an early birthday present. I couldn't have been ANY more excited!!!

We researched and decided on the Nikon D5000, which came with great reviews from Jess, who also has a Nikon.

I am in love. Absolute love. I am so excited to be able to take pictures with the amazing quality I have been wanting. I'm still working on getting through the manual in order to make sure I know all the tricks, setting, and options that I have, but so far I'm having a blast with it!!

Here are a few of my latest experimental pics: (Aidan has no problem being my model)

Aidan now likes to climb up on his potty (which is actually a footstool when the lid is closed...according to the box) and drive his cars around Mommy's lotion

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Welcome Home Daddy!

Ryan was in Las Vegas from last Sunday until this past Thursday for a Trauma Conference. We sure did miss him!

 Even with a 3 hour time difference, he managed to call while Aidan was awake and had a chance to chat with him. Aidan insisted on holding the phone himself and made himself quite comfy while doing so:

We finally got to pick Daddy up in Philly on Thursday night, and we headed straight to our new favorite spot, The Sunset Grille for dinner. While there Aidan started chatting up the couple at the table next to ours, telling them everything from what he was eating, to the fact that Ryan had been on an airplane, and that Mommy was drinking soda. Even though I kept trying to get him to leave them alone, they were more than happy to keep chatting with him, and told us they have a Grandson who is just a few months older than he is.

They left shortly after that, and it wasn't until some time after they left that our waiter came over and told us that they had picked up our tab before they left. What!!?

We have certainly never had strangers buy our dinner secretly before, and we were blown away by the generosity of the 2 random strangers our kid had just made friends with! Maybe having a pointless conversation with our 2 yr old made their day, who knows?  

From now on I guess I better let Aidan charm whoever he wants, haha!

The things that Aidan has been saaying and doing lately have certainly been making us laugh. Even little advances like saying certain sentences better, such as "I want cheese" instead of "Aidan have it!".

Today we were all in the car and we heard a little voice announce from the back: "I tooted!".

Then we were sitting at a red light and as soon as it turned green he yelled "Go, Go, Daddy!".

Then tonight Ryan told Aidan to come sit with him so that they could read a story together and since he was busy rifling through his books and couldn't be bothered, he told Ryan to wait "a minute".

Unfortunately with Aidan almost being 2 now, he's definitely hitting the terrible twos...and BAD. I can ask him to do something and he will look right at me (or keep doing what he's doing) and say "No". Multiple times. Awesome.....and so it begins......

Pink or Blue??????

OK, OK, we've kept you all in the dark long enough.

 With all family members finally notified of the gender of the new baby, and me being in a sharing/nesting kind of mood...here it is.

Can you guess what we're having??

(you can click on the pic for a larger view)

Ta-Da!!!!!

I had forgotten how many clothes Aidan actually had as a newborn...and had also forgotten how tiny they are!!

Well, now I can sit back and relax for the next 2 1/2 months knowing that this kid will have clean clothes to wear once he's here.

*sigh*

Time for muscle shirts: photo diary!

When you hang out with cool older kids like Wells and Maddox, you either wear a "muscle shirt" or no shirt  at all on a hot day. Although when I saw Maddox earlier today he had on jammies, mittens and snow boots (one size too small of course). He always makes me laugh!!

Anyway the cool guys all got together and played outside for a bit, and Aidan even got to share his new bubble blowing gun that Nani and Poppy got him for Easter. It was a hit! He also squealed and giggled when he got squirted with the water guns...he was a good sport!!

"come on, Mama"

"Hi Baby Aidan, we're coming right down!"

"how do I work this thing?"

Oh I need to dip it in the bubbles first!

hahah love their faces in this one!

"do you like it?"

"put em up!"

Laundry Basket

Apparently our laundry basket is the best toy ever!

Everyone in!!

I heard giggling, looked over and both of them were sitting in the basket together. Priceless!!!