And the verdict is...

Thanks to all of you who voted on our poll for Jeremy's goatee. For the record, I WON. Jeremy wanted to keep it and I wanted it to go away. But apparently your opinions don't count! Just kidding. I never really expected to get Jeremy to shave it just by a few votes. And actually after about a month or more, I'm starting to warm up to it a little.

I do have full authority to do whatever I want to do to my hair now... so we'll see. When Afton (my fabulous cousin & hairdresser) gets back to work (she just had an adorable baby boy) in a few weeks WATCH OUT. She and I have too much fun together. And its just all to convenient and fun to sit and chat while she makes me cute. Stay tuned...........

My Brag Blog

Becky inspired me (with her cute little 'brag blog' about Sadie) to write down some of the things that Aiden does and says and is that make life great. Sometimes I think that all I do is clean this house and take care of my boys. But somehow between the dishes and the laundry, Aiden (and Jeremy) make me as happy as I have ever been.

Things he does & says...

When he trips & falls he says "cash" (crash).

When I tell him to say "one" he says "two." I keep counting and he usually starts echoing me at about "six". When we get to "ten" he claps for himself.

He loves to play in Daddy's shoes (this was taken at the hospital when one of Aiden's 2nd cousins was born in July)

He always wants all the doors in the house shut. He doesn't say "shut" very well so when he starts shutting doors I just have to laugh.

Shirt: sounds about the same as shut.

Pants: Pass

Diaper: Di-po

Right AFTER he fills his pants: "poo poo, todet" (toilet) Although he has yet to actually do it on the toilet, at least he knows there is a connection!

And when I change the diaper: "tinky" and he rubs his scrunched up nose.

Chocolate: Taco or Choco (when he wants chocolate milk - which is pretty much all the time)

Yesterday I found Aiden sitting on the couch eating cupcake wrappers that Jeremy had left there earlier. No, that isn't an exageration! Check out this picture! There are BITES out of the wrapper!

Bug: Bug (when we were doing yard work, we put a rollie pollie on his hand and he shook it off in a big hurry. Then he came back asking for "bugs" again. He loves bugs but didn't like the crawly feeling on his hand.)

Monkey: Mugy (and then points to himself cause that is what I always call him)

Jay Jay: Day Day (as he is handing me the TV remote. Jay Jay is his new fav show - big surprise considering his early love for airplanes)

What a cow says: "Mmmmmooooooooooo"

What a sheep says: "BBAAAA"

What a pig says (this is my favorite!): "Unk"

What a horse says: "nee"

Truck: Tuck (thank goodness)

Fork: NOT so lucky with this one :)

Basket Ball: Bucket Ball

Baja: Baba, vroom vroom

He emptied almost this entire tissue box before I got to him. He did this once on the stand at church during choir practice. He found a spot where no one could see him. He had about 3 boxes worth of tissues on the ground when we finally started wondering where he was!

Dirt: Dut

Water: wawas (always plural)

When we play peek-a-boo he uncovers his face and says (with a gasp even) "Oop!"

Blanket: banket (with the T always very well enunciated)

His favorite phrase: "Wew dada?" (where's dada) complete with hands in the air, shoulders shrugged and appropriate voice inflection.

He loves the bath... but what kid this age doesn't!

Stuff he says & signs:

Cracker: caca

Please: peas

Thank you: (he only signs this one so far)

Airplane: (his first sign... still not saying it)

Milk: mik (although he doesn't sign it much anymore)

Apple: "a-a"

Candy (refering to Aunt Candy): Cadi

Yeah for Rain!

We got a good dose of rain this week. On Monday we decided it was time for some yard work. It had been blazing hot all day but the clouds were moving in and it was cooling off... down to about 95 degrees! So we headed outside. We'd been working for about 5 minutes when it started to sprinkle. No big deal. It was kinda nice actually. Then it got a little heavier and before long we were running for cover because it hurt to get pelted by the huge drops. We were LOVING it! We left our yard work alone for a while and played with Aiden. This is the first time he has played outside in a good rainstorm. He loved it. He even "mowed" the lawn in it!

Who are these people???

I have been wandering around online looking at people's blogs and I have a problem! About half of you only post pics of your beautiful kids. I love to see them but when I stumble on people's sites who don't have pics of themselves... how am I supposed to know who these beautiful children belong to??? Last names are quite often not enough. I'm only 25 but my memory sucks. I totally claim having a kid as my excuse for that. As you can see, I am practicing what I preach! I've even handed my camera over to someone else occasionally to get a pic of my little family. I know that you can all do the same and I also know that you are all just as adorable as your cute kids. So smile pretty and post pics of YOU!!! Can't wait to see them.

The Cinders Slide Show

I have a love-hate feeling about slide shows. I'm way to impatient and so I HATE to sit here and watch the pics change, but I also LOVE the ability to post all of my pics and not take up tons of space on my page. So the winner is... do the slide show. I guess those of you who feel like seeing all the pics can, and for those of you who don't care (I usually fall into this category) I've posted some of the highlights below. Enjoy!

Flagstaff Report

Well we ended up taking a bunch of pics while we were camping this last week. Still not enough to fill my 2 gig card but still a bunch. We had a great time. Jeremy's mom was perfectly prepared for all of our eating, sleeping and living needs and all the boys did a great job keeping the vehicles running and ready to go at (almost) any time.

Our nephew, Brendon (12 yrs old), managed to find a lone tree in the middle of a clearing while learning to drive their baja. It took all the guys about a day to fix, but it was up and running the rest of the week. Brendon was front and center helping with all the repairs. Todd & Candy were pretty cool about it. My dad would have FLIPPED!

Carri bought some snow sleds for the kids to slide down the hills with. The rocks were thick and hard to ride on top of but we finally found a hill that did the job. The big kids got a kick out of that too. Unfortunately I never got a pic of them doing it. Just a pic of the hill they used. It was crazy steep and scared me to death the first time we went down it in the baja.

We spent just about a whole morning taking family pics. We did some right next to our camp site and some on top of a hill with a great look out. Carri bought all of us American/4th of July shirts to wear for our pics. I think they turned out really great.

We also went into town one day and went to the Lowell Space Observatory (the observatory where Pluto was discovered). We took a tour and we all had a great time seeing everything. It was overcast, so we didn't get to see any "live" shots of space, but the exhibits were neat.

Another day we went to the Arizona Snow Bowl ski resort. We were going to go to the top of the ski lift but it was raining and all the thunder & lightning had forced them to shut down the ski lift until the storm let up. We let the kids run up and down the hill next to the lift and enjoyed some hot chocolate, then headed back to camp.

We got rained on really hard one day at camp and it sprinkled on us a little every other day. It was so nice to escape the heat and enjoy some overcast, cool days.

Thanks to all the family for making it a great family vacation.

We love you!

Off to Flagstaff

Well, the last week has been crazy busy. Jeremy and his brother, Logan, have been outside in the 100 degree (after dark) weather every night but Sunday working on the baja's. They finished just in time for us to head to Flagstaff. Finishing touches were done last night. We are going to hit the road here in about an hour. Logan's wife, Jennie Raye, and I have spent a lot of time together while our guys worked. Its been nice to have them both around. We will be in Flag for the rest of the week and hope to take LOTS of pics. We have a 2 gig card in our camera and Jeremy is concerned about using all the space!!! I promise not to post all of it :)
Blog to ya later!

A Busy Week!

This past week & a half have been so much fun for all of us, but especially for Aiden. We have been surrounded by friends & family and it has been a blast.

Friday the 29th Jeremy & some friends in the ward went off roading in the baja and some quads another guy has. Some of the wives and kids came to my house to play while the dads were out. Aiden has not stopped talking about his "new" friend, Gage, yet. Gage is about 2 and a half and German is a month younger than Aiden. The kids all went to bed here and we watched a movie until the guys got home around 11:30. We all exchanged stories of the evening and chatted for a little while. Everyone went home around midnight. It was a late night, but we had a good time. Yes, 12am is now "late" to me.

The next day we went to the lake with one of the same couples (Kimber & Brandon...gage's family). Aiden is doing better with the water. Of course, it was much warmer this time than it was in the end of May. He got in with Jeremy & I and stayed in for a while. When we got back in the boat to head into the docks, Aiden fell asleep. And so did all the other kids. It was a sight to see. They were all so cute and soooo exhausted. I don't have any pics cause I forgot my camera that day.

For the 4th of July we went to the cabin again. Jeremy got off work early on Tuesday and we made a 24 hour trip. We love to go on rides in the Kawasaki Mule that Grandpa Benson has. Aiden does too... and again, he fell asleep on our ride.

Jeremy's Aunt Rachel and her family were here this weekend from Oklahoma. Her son, Tanner, is about 18 months older than Aiden. They played for a little while at our house and had a great time together.

This is a pic of the two of them eating goldfish. And another one of them playing in the baja. Tanner loved the baja. We had to bribe him to get him to come back inside.

It is fun to have cousins around. We were able to spend Saturday & Sunday afternoons with ALL the cousins. Aiden has so much fun with lots of other kids around. Jeremy & I also enjoyed the time we spent getting to know his mom's family more.

We have really had a crazy week or so. I didn't really even think so until I started looking at all the pics and putting this post together! No wonder we slept in today!