Gardner Village 2010

Aiden and Mom LAST year at Gardner Village

Aiden and Mom THIS year at Gardner Village

In keeping with my tradition, we went to Gardner Village today.  All the sisters were scheduled to go, but all of them ditched except for Aunt Kari and her girls.  So we went without everyone else.  And had a blast (in spite of the missing ladies- not because the ladies were not there)

He is getting SO big.  I can't believe what a difference a year makes!

Kari found this sign.  Awesome.  Simply awesome.

Aiden working on his James Bond look.  I think he was getting ready to sneeze, actually.

Big "almost-walking" kiddo.

One of the fun witches around Gardner Village

Lunch with the girls at China Platter.  Tom Yom soup and Breanna's 127 orders of cream cheese wantons later, it was so great.

Tater finally got his much-needed nap.

Mom had to rush home to speak at the stake baptisms, I left Aiden with Smeds while I ran back home.  On my way back, my alternator went out... AGAIN!  Second time in 4 months.  Arggghhhh..

Manly Stu and Alec came and rescued me on the side of the road.  They are such manly men.  I rewarded them with tacos.  They rewarded me by passing gas.  

Manly men.

Aiden takes his first steps

Aiden took his first steps yesterday.  Two little steps that I was there for.  He collapsed in traumatic unsteadiness after those steps and then started crawling again.  

I was so afraid that I wouldn't be there for his first steps.  It was amazing.

Aiden has a little lion.  We got it for his birthday and he hasn't really liked it until just recently.  It is a walker, scooter combo.  When it is a walker, he walks EVERYWHERE.  When it is a scooter, he uses it to watch TV.  It is his own special recliner chair thing.  

Sometimes he just crouches over it and sits like this... and watches Thomas the Tank Engine.

Watching his favorite show.

Feeding Mom and helping with laundry

LDS General Conference was amazing.  Within the first twenty minutes, I was crying like a child and it touched my heart so much.  Elder Holland's talk about so many people doing so much to help in the world was the beginning of the tears.  Especially the part when he thanked the mothers for doing their best. 

And I realized that I, like so many other moms out there, am trying.   So, so hard.

I love my little helper.  He thinks feeding me pudding was AWESOME!!

Aiden fell asleep while helping me do laundry.  Then slept on the floor for FOUR hours.  FOUR!!!

Don't judge my messy house.  I was in the middle of laundry and he is such a light sleeper, I left everything alone until he woke up.  At least he was warm.

Handy Man

The belt on the vacuum broke.  

And Mister decided to help Mommy fix it.  

He is awesome! 

And left his project and tools for the alluring siren song of Thomas the Tank Engine.  

My pant-less super handy man.

Walk Star

Mister is not walking... yet.  He just does not realize that walking could be faster... and more destructive.  But he will learn soon enough.  The following video is my favorite.  Notice Mom's sunglasses having been swiped from Mom's purse. Notice the most obnoxious Lion that is obnoxious and cute at the same time. Notice the booty shaking.  Sweet.

A few bits

Weekends are busy now I am in the Primary Presidency and the rest of the presidency cannot do much due to kids and schedules.  Oy.  I long for the weeknights just to get a break.

But some fun things we did this weekend:

• Go to the park and slide down the slide.  Over.  and over.   and over again.
• Go to the park and play "throw sand at the Mama and watch her freak out..." and laugh hysterically and do it again...
• Watch three of the Smedley kids work all day to get their black belts (about 9 hours of intense, intense physical stuff)
• Diet 
• Go to the zoo with Uncle Chris were we lasted an hour tops and went home.  Tired and hot.
• Church.  Speaking in Church.  
• Read so many stories that Mom fell asleep with "That's not my Dragon" falling on her face.
• Waking up early so my mom can't sleep in.  
• Played with pots and pans.  REALLY loudly.

It was a great weekend.  Busy, but great as evidenced by the following:

Slide and the Shirt

Aiden's favorite activity in whole wide world is sliding.  And this skinny chicken-leg ball of fun has figured out that he can go down slides all by himself.

The little bitty slides.  The big whirly ones are a giant no-go.  Even with Uncle Chris helping.  

Mister would slide all day, all night, sun, moon, rain, earthquake... whatever.  

BUT I must explain about the Steelers shirt.  This is one of the funnier moments in our lives.  I was pulling into a kid store to look for new vests for Aiden's amazingly cute new church outfit (pictures to follow this weekend).  We were browsing the clothing racks when we heard, "Hey!"

I turned to find.... the Smedley's karate instructor, Jeff.  Now, we have been to barbecues and Smedleys with Jeff and his girlfriend, Katie.  Aiden knows him well because he goes to the karate studio every day.  Jeff is so stinking cute with Aiden.   

So Jeff saw us pulling into the store and followed us in.  He has no children of his own, but wanted to see what we were up to.  And he found this Steelers shirt and bought it for Mister.  

It was awesome because I am not a huge sports fan.  Jeff made me convert to Steelers. 

Must have the binkie before the sliding... A boy has his standards, you know...

Chicken-legs!

Aiden is tube-phobic.  All he would do is sit at the edge of the tube and scream.  

But the colors were pretty, so...