Keeping up with the Darlings

To catch everyone up since I haven't been on in a while...

In between reading about our boring lives I have at least put in some cute pictures! :-)

Aidan - "Seriously? Are you kidding me with this crap right now?"

A Halloween unhappy pic.

We tried to put him in it again, but it is already too small!

Shawn:

Currently hitting a wall with the master's program. I was mislead when I went into my adviser's office last spring and was told that I could transfer in my last two education courses- WRONG! I have now been told otherwise so I am scrambling trying to get directed studies organized through Cameron so I can at least graduate in June.

Just started club volleyball practice and am excited but also a little uneasy about the time that I have committed. I am already being pulled in ten different directions and complain that I don't see Zach and Aidan enough- so why did I sign up for this??? But it is going to be a lot of fun, and if it is too time consuming this season, then I won't do it next year. BUT at least I can say I tried it. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I think, and I will be able to do it in the future too.

Loving life and everything in it right now. I have been so stressed in the past weeks trying to finish my classes for the semester, trying to get ready for exams in the middle of December for Heritage classes, and trying to balance it all- but our family is having so much fun right now. We are constantly doing something- visiting family, playing games, going out to dinner/parks/museums. It has been a great October and November and I am loving every minute of it.

Can't wait for Christmas to get here- and yes it has already exploded in my house- and yes I will put pictures up soon. (especially since I don't think I have put up any at all of the apartment)

A little happier in the bat outfit.

Zach:

Basketball has been going well for him. Right now he is 1-0 with his JV team. They beat Tucker a few weekends ago in an awesome overtime win! It was a very exciting game! Afterwards, he told me his legs were sore from standing and tensing them up the whole game. haha. The Dunwoody Varsity team is off to a slower start- they are 1-3 right now, but they are really young and have played some pretty good teams. They are going to be an amazing team next year and the year after that.

He just started a new section of his masters and is taking three classes right now-which is a lot for the program he is in. He got 2 A's in the past two classes and couldn't be happier! He said those might have been his first A's in real classes since high school. He is working so hard on it right now!

He finally gave in and let me have a REAL Christmas tree this year and even helped me put ornaments on it (well, he put hooks on the ornaments so that I could put them up- but close enough....)

Aidan sleeping on his tummy.

He never sleeps like this so it was picture-worthy!

Aidan:

Eating everything in site right now- even the high chair and water bottles!!! He is eating two small jars of baby food, a little rice cereal, and a little bottle at each meal. In between bites he likes to lean forward and suck on the high chair tray.... really??

We have entered the phase of not being able to eat with our plates right in front of us. He will sit in our lap and reach for everything on the table and anything that goes to our mouths (including our water glasses/bottles- he will suck on the side of them)

He is having some problems sleeping lately- I believe we are entering the teething era so Baby Orajel here we come!

He is rolling all over the place to get where he wants to go, sitting up (sometimes with a little help) and is pushing up onto his knees. I am afraid we are soon to see some crawling- but hopefully not until Christmas break so I can for sure be there for it.

He was 18 lbs 4 oz at 5 months so we are also about ready to get into a new car-seat. I am sooo not ready for that one- I still need to buy a cover for the next car seat that we already have.

SOOO- there you go! That seems to be it in a nutshell- for now!

Confused Baby

We have a confused baby on our hands. One moment he is in a Memphis t-shirt, then in a Tennessee t-shirt, then in an Illinois t-shirt, then in a Georgia Tech t-shirt, etc., etc. We are teaching him right though- don't worry. He will love his Tigers and his Illini -even though the Illini didn't pull it off last night :-(

Cell Phone Pics!

Every time I take a picture with my cell phone the flash light goes on and he makes this face. Seriously, every time.

All this confusion wears a baby out :-)

Halloween Festivities

We took Aidan to the pumpkin patch at Berry Patch Farms in the middle of October- sorry for he lateness!

Pumpkin Carving with Aidan in the Bumbo and a cheat-sheet from the internet!

Not happy about it.

I had to do the dirty work while Zach was the artist.

STILL not happy about it

MR. ARTIST

Finished product

Halloween cupcakes on my cute cupcake tray that I painted at Wired and Fired in Virginia Highlands a few weeks ago on our date afternoon.

Sorry for no Aidan Halloween pics. We need to get him back in his outfit and relive the momet because we have no HAPPY pictures of him in his bat outfit from Target.

Pictures and Sleep News

Sorry for not sharing the wealth sooner!

Aidan news! We go back to the Dr. next week to get a regular check up. He is 5 months old tomorrow!!! What?!? He is now sleeping through the night. Last week he was getting up about every 3 hours like a newborn so Zach and I talked about it - and decided that we needed to let him cry it out. The first night we did he woke up at three, and we let him cry for a bit. He was back asleep by 3:10 and didn't wake up the rest of the night. The next night he slept from 7:30 pm to 8 am and has been sleeping 12 hours at a time from then on. I feel like I should be on a Staple's commercial.... "That was easy!" So we never really had to experience the "agony" of letting him cry it out. Thank goodness!

Excitement about our new toy!!

The family Bible being used in a different way....

Scarecrow arms! He won't put them down. No matter what he is doing he keeps them out just like that!

He's posing for the camera

I'm sorry- is that blonde hair?? Where did you come from?

Praying and NOT smiling. Every time we pull the camera out and he sees it, he stops doing whatever we want to take a picture of.

Already staring at the football

Not sure if eating the football is going to make him millions of dollars- but it's a start....

How precious is this?!?

Adorabe

Date Nights!

Zach and I have started to make an effort to devote one night a week to date night. We had lost our desire/time to keep this up once Aidan got here but we know that we need that time. So, as much as it kills me to be away from Aidan, our marriage is getting some recooperation time when we have "us" time.

A few weeks ago we went to Six Feet Under and then to the Fox to see Ron White perform

Six Feet Under = AMAZING! Get the shrimp and grits!

Aidan staying with Deanie for a few hours and is sooo happy about it!

The Fox

Ron White was hilarious- but the best thing might have been people watching. The clientele there was well.... interesting. Haha.

As of late we have also started doing a couples devotional every night before we go to bed and make sure to do some sort of activity together. We usually play a few games of rummy or maybe stratego. It is nice to carve out some time for each other. Before, we thought we never would have the time since we are so busy- but we do have the time- we just have to plan better.

Greek Columns

Earlier this year when we were learning about Greece and Rome in World History I stole an awesome idea from my Dad about creating Greek columns. I know that teachers love to steal ideas from as many people as they can- so I am putting this up to maybe help out some World History teachers out there. It was a great idea and they had SOOO much fun doing it.

You give each group of 2 students 4 sheets of computer paper and 4 pieces of tape and tell them to make Greek columns.

They will start making them really tall but will learn quickly that this won't work.

The best columns are the shortest and thickest.

I let them do their demonstrations on my desk.

This group thought about weight displacement which usually helps them stack more

This group had my second highest number of books. They got 44 World History books stacked

An even better picture of how high they go.

It will make a HUGE crashing sound when it falls so be careful that no one is standing where it is leaning!!

Family Diaries

Last Saturday Zach, Aidan and I went to Centennial Olympic Park and then to the Coke Museum on a whim. It was so much fun to get OUT of the house and do something different.

Again, I am a bad mom and forgot the camera so you have a couple bad quality cell phone pictures. Our goal as of last week is to completely change our lifestyle. We aim to turn OFF the tv, get out and about, and enjoy life. Now that volleyball is over (we lost last weekend in area to Rockdale and then Flowery Branch) I have lots of free time to spend with the fam!

Aidan and Zach. Aidan is already trying to get a drink of coke :-)

On the way to the Centennial Park. Aidan likes to use hands AND feet to hold books and read like a big boy! He's advanced!

At the park we tried to find me and Ally's bricks- no chance. We checked every brick in section 127- I think they lied to us!!!

Then we went to Chow Baby in Atlanta off of 11th st. - AMAZING!!! It was so good. If you haven't eaten there, you should!!