The big P-A-R-T-Y....

We had Aiden's birthday party at our house and just had some close friends and family over.  Jonathan grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we all had a wonderful time.

The birthday cake, which was a cupcake cake.  It matched the invites.  I thought it turned out so cute.

Aiden making his rounds saying hi to everyone (with Papa John's help).

The family!

My Uncle Bill and Aunt Judy

My cousins Mark and Andy 

Reed

Of course Aiden's girlfriend Madelyn was there

Granddaddy Ron with Aiden

Mimi, Grammy, and Papa John

Some of our friends from small group at church

My sister-Kristy, My sister-in-law-Nekayeh, and Margie

Nekayeh, Margie, and me

Me and Kristy

Now it's cake time!  He didn't dig into it like I thought he would.  I was trying to show him what to do...

He kept wondering why everyone was looking at him while he was trying to eat!

Present time....

Of course he was more interested in the box that the gift came in rather then the actual gift!  

This book was so cute!  

Aiden received so many wonderful gifts, books, clothes and toys.  We are truly so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

But I do think one of his favorites was this piano...

"Is this thing on???"

"I'd like to give a shout out to everyone that came today!"

Mimi and Grammy with Aiden

Granddaddy Ron and Papa John with Aiden

Stay tuned for "OMG my baby is 1" and "The Carothers take over Destin 2008"......I'm too tired to post anymore tonight.  It's way past my bed time.  

Get ready......

because I have a LOT of catching up to do.  I'm sure you've all been wondering where we've been these last fews weeks and why we weren't blogging!   Let me catch you up on what we've been doing and then I'll show you pictures (I know the pictures are way more exciting).  Well since I last posted Aiden got the stomach bug and was throwing up for about 4-5 days (it was so sad), then we went to the beach with Jonathan's family (lots of pics from that), then we got back from the beach last weekend and this week Aiden got sick again!  This time with a virus that caused him to have a really high temperature and sores in his mouth and tongue that looked like cold sores.  So he wasn't eating again because of that.  Why does Aiden keep getting sick you ask....well I started him at Mother's Day Out at our church 2 days a week.  I guess it's just going to take some time for him to get used to being around a lot of kids again.  Hopefully (I'm praying) that this is just building up his immune system!!!  So I'm picking up from where I left off the last time I blogged.  I'll take you back to the last week of August......(just play along with me so I don't feel so bad about being 3 weeks behind on blogging)....

That week we celebrated my birthday by going out to eat at Chili's.   Jonathan's parents were in town for Aiden's big b-day party that weekend.  Ron was taking the picture so that's why he wasn't in it.  

The next day was AIDEN'S big day.  Since his birthday fell on a Thursday this year we just did something small on his actual birthday and saved the big party for the weekend.  He looks a little confused in this picture.

We gave him a cupcake for his birthday since we were saving the big cake for the party

Birthday guy!!!

Tearing into the cupcake

This is good....

So I decided it was time for a much needed haircut for Aiden and his first b-day was the perfect time to do it.

It had gotten so long

So off to get his haircut when went.  He was so excited when we got there....

 And then the fun begun......."You're doing what????"

"I don't think so!!!!"

Everything is always better in daddy's lap or with a comb in your mouth!

Such a big boy getting his first hair cut

The result......so handsome!  And made me realize he's not a little boy anymore!

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...