Dad's 60th Birthday Party

About three weeks ago Aiden and I headed down to NLR for a very quick trip to celebrate my dad's 6oth birthday.  Jonathan wasn't able to go because we left around noon on Friday and he couldn't get off work.  We went to dinner at Shorty Smalls in NLR.  Lots of family and friends were there to celebrate dad's birthday.  We had a great evening.  Mom had reserved one of the rooms there so it was nice because Aiden and Carter could run around and not get in the way.  

Mom and Dad out at dinner

Me, Jill, Aiden, Kristy and Carter

Aiden cruising around the tables

My sister Jill and Aiden

My sister Kristy and Aiden

The Birthday Boy!!!

Papa John and his two grandsons...notice Carter trying to dig into the icing!

Uncle Paul entertaining Aiden with the balloons

Still more to come.......

Playing catch up....

So, I know it's been too long since I last posted.  We have been VERY busy these days.  I'm going to try and do several post today in between taking care of a sick baby.  He's sleeping a lot so I thought now would be a good time.  Poor guy, if you think about it please say a prayer for little Aiden.  He's been throwing up and just not eating much.  Hopefully it'll pass soon because we leave for Florida tomorrow.  8 hours in a car and a sick child just doesn't sound like fun to me.

Here's what we've been up to (Just pretend I posted this three weeks ago!!!).....

I was so excited when Aiden's car seat came in!  This is what Grammy and Granddaddy got him for his birthday.  

I was so excited I didn't even take it out of the box before I tried to put Aiden in it!!!!

"This is how it goes Mom!"  Thank goodness I had Aiden there to tell me I'm suppose to take it out of the box before I put him in.  

Aiden was loving life after he started facing forward...

Hey, you'd fall asleep too if you were riding down the street in your lazy boy!  

Guess who's....

....turning 1 in two weeks

This guy

"Oh, there's no way.  You're pulling my leg, right?"

"Oh, you're serious!!!"

"Well come on MOM!  We've got a lot to do before the party!!!"  

I can't believe Aiden will be 1 in two weeks.  Here are the invites:  

A BIG thank you to Dayle who helped me with the layout.  She is AWESOME!  I didn't really go with a theme, I just liked the colors.  It took me forever to decide what I wanted to do and if I  even wanted to do a theme, but when I saw these invites I loved the colors and just decided to go with it.  We have many more years for "themed" birthday parties. (oh and I had to white out our address.  I didn't want any unexpected guests at the party!!!)

On a side note:  I am not styling Aiden's hair like that these days.  He had just gotten done eating some mandarin oranges and decided to run his hands through his hair.  I guess it shows you how bad he needs a hair cut!  I thought it was pretty cute, though.  

Last week at the Carothers...

Aiden turned 11 months old.......

Yes, we are all pretty shocked that he is almost a year old!!!!

But don't worry, he's still pretty laid back about getting older.  It doesn't seem to faze him much.

Just as long as you give the boy some food he doesn't care what day of the week it is!!!

He has been having some crazy hair lately.   I'm hoping he makes it to his first birthday before we have to give him a haircut.  Jonathan just thinks we can do the "comb over" and I told him our son isn't 80 years old!  

We definitely need to do some baby proofing around here.  Aiden is into EVERYTHING!  

I can't believe Aiden will be 1 this month.  He has been doing some of the funniest things lately. He has us laughing constantly.  Here are some things he is doing (I have to write them down here so I'll remember since I'm not doing a good job keeping his baby book up!)....

1.  We've been giving him a lot of table food lately and he seems to like anything we give him.  (I know that's a big shock).  We still give him baby food, but we also try to give him whatever we are eating.

2.  Trying to get him off the bottle.........it's NOT easy though.  I guess it's like everything else, with time he will get used to it.  He has three bottles a day and his first two I have been giving him them in a sippy cup and he's doing better taking them, but at night I'm still giving him his formula in a bottle.  He'll drink water or juice out of a sippy cup all day long, it's the formula that's taking time getting used to.  

3.  As you saw in the earlier post, he's walking now.  He started this around 10 and a half months and has only gotten faster and braver since then.  He is all over the place.  It's crazy because he started walking at the exact same age Jonathan did.  Which brings me to...

4.  He's definitely a daddy's boy!  I've been trying to convince myself this whole time that he was a momma's boy, but I was only fooling myself.  He loves his daddy, which I love.  

5.  Remember the gate picture?  Well now Aiden thinks it's hilarious to put his toys under the gate and watch it them all fall down the stairs.  It's all fun and games until someone falls down the stairs because they slip on a ball.

We love you so much Aiden and feel so blessed that God gave us the privilege of being your parents.  You have the best little personality and we never knew we could love someone so much.  Thanks for bringing us so much joy.

Also, last Wednesday was Jonathan's birthday!  He celebrated the big 2-9!  His last year in the 20's.  Jonathan had to work, but Aiden and I met him at Panera Bread for lunch.  Then that night we had our bible study, but I brought his favorite cake (Baskin Robbins) to group so we could all celebrate.  We love you so much Jonathan and I thank God for you everyday.  I'm so glad that Aiden has a daddy like you to look up to.  I love how he loves you so much, it's an easy thing to do.  

This picture was taken last week.  I was surprised Aiden stayed still long enough for me to get it because he never stays still for a long time.  Let alone in anyones lap.  Like I said before, though, he loves his daddy.   

This was the only other picture I could find with Aiden in Jonathan's lap.  This was when Aiden was about 3 weeks old.  It doesn't even look like the same baby.   I just love my guys...

Aiden walking

Here's a better video of Aiden walking. It cracks me up because you can see Madelyn in the background walking and it looks like he goes right up to her and tries to knock her down. Typical boy!

Next stop....NLR!

I had to break the trip into two post because there were so many pictures.  So look at my post below and you'll see the Shreveport pictures.  After our trip to see Jonathan's family we came back to my parents house.  Jonathan left Aiden and I there for the week so we could visit friends and family.  BUT, of course, I left my charger for my camera battery in Jonathan's bag so towards the end of the week my camera died.  But I got some good pictures until then....

Erin had all our OBU friends over and we managed to get all the kids on the couch to get a picture: Karoline, Aiden, Sydney, Maddox and Addison

I love how Aiden and Sydney are clapping in this one.  So cute. 

Me, Aiden, Dayle and Karoline  (Aiden looks real excited in this picture.  I think he was tired of taking pictures by now)

Cute Sydney stylin' in her purple sunglasses

Me & Aiden

Aiden trying to figure out why nothing is coming out of this fake bottle.  Poor guy.

Do you think they got caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing?!?!

Aiden showing off his new walking skills.  While we were in Arkansas he really started walking more.  

Emily and Addison

Katie and Aiden

Laura, Amber and Karoline

Me, Aiden, Lauren and Sydney

Erin and Sydney (and Karoline in the background)

Aiden was obsessed with Emily that night.  He would not leave her alone.  I didn't know if I should laugh or be worried.

So innocent......yeah right!

The next day Aiden and I spent all day with my sister Jill and nephew Carter.  We had so much fun and of course we had to make a stop at Target.  

Aiden just thought Carter was the best thing since sliced bread.   He had so much fun with him.  He's trying to figure out where Carter has gone.  Carter's 4 1/2 and he doesn't stay in one place very long.  

Erin came by my parents to see Aiden again.  

I stole this off Erin's blog because I loved it so much.

 Aiden helping Papa John cook.

On Thursday Carter came over to spend some more time with us.  My mom was off this day so we had lots of fun together.  

Carter giving Aiden a hug......ahhh!

Good thing my parents dog, Baxter, likes kids.  Aiden kept trying to pull his collar off.  We don't put collars on our dogs so Aiden couldn't figure out what Baxter was wearing.  

That day we took Aiden and Carter to get their pictures made in matching outfits.  They were so cute. 

Lauren had some of our high school friends over so I stopped by for a little bit.  This is where my camera died :(  I did manage to get this one picture of John Austin.  He was a doll.

I got this picture off Corbin's blog.  

Aiden, JA, Carlee, Sydney, Greer, and Caroline

So that's all I got.  I know it's a lot, but I was sad my camera wasn't working at the end of the week.  Aiden and I got to see so many friends and family while we were there.  Then on Saturday my mom, Jill and Carter took us back to TN to my Aunt and Uncle's house and Jonathan picked us up there.  We stayed the night there and had a great time.  I wish I had pictures to prove it.  Lesson learned....always make  sure you have your charger!

Thanks for a great time in Arkansas.  Don't worry, we'll be back soon y'all!