Brady's Welcoming Party

In the middle of cousins weekend we made a quick road trip to Roswell to visit our friends Tom and Amanda Varnell so that we could meet their new baby, Brady. He is just precious-- check out all that hair! and we had a great lunch with the Varnells, the Grotes and the Warrens. Andy, Tom, Brian and Brent all went to UGA together and normally only see each other during football season so it was nice to get together away from Athens.

Aiden loves playing with older kids so he was thrilled to get to play with Jackson and Sara Hays Grote as well as Brian and Hannah's 2 kids. Sara Hays enjoyed playing with Aiden once Christy explained to her that he was Alexander's cousin.

Sara Hays and Aiden playing with the bubbles.

Doesn't this look like a children's clothing ad? Maybe if I submit it I can get some work for the little models....

The boys playing together outside.

Amanda introducing Brady to Aiden.

Aiden checking out Sara Hays's toy.

After she found out Aiden was Alexander's cousin she moved over and patted the seat for Aiden to sit next to her. Who knew Alexander Rice was such a hook-up?

The boys and their boys: Andy and Aiden, Tom and Brady, Brent and Jackson.
(Unfortunately we didn't think to take this until the Warren's had already left.)

Cousins Weekend at Lake Wedowee

I was very fortunate as I was growing up to be part of a very close extended family. We ate dinner at my mother's parent's (Maw Maw and Ga Ga) house every Tuesday and Saturday night. Mom is the middle of 3 girls and each girl has 2 children so there are 6 cousins total- 4 girls (me, Chris, Jessie and Katherine) and 2 boys (Matt and Will). In addition to our weekly get togethers that consisted of excellent food, Family Feud and He-Haw we also went on the Saggus Family Vacation every summer to Jekyll Island. Those weeks meant riding the waves as the tide was coming in, playing putt-putt with Chris somehow making a 2 on every hole, watching the Cardens chase a kite down the beach and fireworks (because we always went for the 4th of July). We still try to make it to the beach together-- or as many of us as possible. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Rice family we are able to have a cousin's weekend at their lake house!

I'm sure you can understand how "the cousins" as we call ourselves grew up to be close. Now that we are older and 5 of us are married that means we have 5 "extra" cousins. At each wedding we had to take a cousin picture. There are 3 Matts so we call them all something different to tell them apart. My cousin, Matt Carden is Matty C. My brother-in-law Matt Downes is Lars because his first name is Lawrence and my cousin-in-law Matt Rice is, well, Matt Rice. All of us have unique relationships with each other. For example, I met my husband through Chris and Matt Rice. Matty C went with me when I moved to Sarasota and met his wonderful wife Aubrey there. Matty C, Katherine and I all got married within 6 months of each other in 2005 and we all turn to each other in times of crisis. Almost 3 years ago Will, the baby, was in a horrible car accident and there was a lot of cousin bonding in the waiting room at Grady. Thankfully Will has almost fully recovered, but was unable to join us for the weekend. We were also missing Katherine's husband Nathan Eisner. He's a Techie, but we love him anyway.

We had a great weekend with lots of water sports-- a pontoon boat, 2 ski boats, a jet ski, wake boarding, tubing and skiing, good food-- including lots of Luna bread (Lar's company), and of course lots of cousin bonding and laughing. It was a lot of fun to watch the 2 littlest cousins (Alexander and Aiden) play together. The next generation will be adding a new member in March when Chris and Matt's second baby is due to arrive. Aiden loves Alexander as you will see from the pictures! Unfortunately we forgot to take a group shot, but I think I got at least of one everybody.

Alexander sharing his train and Sesame Street legos with Aiden.

Aiden checking out the boat with Daddy.

A view of the house from the dock.

A view of the dock from the house.

A view of the house from the lake.

Aiden's first boat ride. Not too sure at first...

...getting more comfortable.

Swimming with Daddy.

Now he's really driving!

Jessie, Matt and Chris relaxing before dinner.

Matt and Jessie Downes and Matt and Chris Rice

Aiden checking out the kid sized table and chairs.

Alexander must have been saying something very interesting.

This kid loves to sit down and put his feet up.

The girl cousins: Jessie, Mandy, Chris and Katherine

Aiden playing with Alexander's train.

Lars, Chris and Aubrey preparing dinner Saturday night.

Daddy and Aiden with their shades on.

Katherine enjoying the Sunday morning boat ride.

Relaxing on the boat Sunday morning.

Alexander and Aiden letting their hair blow.

Aiden and Mommy checking out the waves at the front of the boat.

Chris told me this was a romantic shot....

My hot husband.

Aiden fell asleep on the way home.

Aubrey and Matt Carden getting sunscreened up on the dock.

Me and Aiden playing on the tube. Aiden has been really into waving since this trip. Alexander would stand on the deck of the house and wave to Aiden down on the dock and Aiden would wave and wave.

The Zimmerman family hanging out on the tube.

Aiden and Alexander laughing together.
Notice Aiden has the train and Alexander has Elmo. That was the way it was all weekend.

This section begins the action shots:

Aiden driving the pontoon boat.

Matt Rice on the jet ski.

Lars after wakeboarding.

Jessie getting ready to ski.

Andy getting ready to tube.

Lars driving the jet ski.

Me skiing for the first time in a hundred years.

Matty C and Matt Rice tubing.

Katherine, Chris and Aubrey tubing.

Odds and Ends From the Last Couple of Weeks

Aiden has been going to camp for the last 2 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday at First Baptist Newnan. His teachers are a mother and daughter that go to the same church we go to in LaGrange (and are in our Sunday School class) so that is very neat. Their daughter/granddaughter is a few weeks older than Aiden and always hollers out "Aiden" when he gets to camp or to the nursery at church. He isn't saying Annabelle yet, but he has Spongebob down! Unfortunately having just turned 19 months, separation anxiety has hit its peek and it is very difficult to peel an almost 33 pound, 3 foot tall kid off of you when he REALLY doesn't want you to leave. I know he loves playing with the other kids though so I suck it up and run for the door. They have been doing a different color each week. Tomorrow starts blue week so he'll have plenty to choose from to wear. Next week is orange week though and it will be hard to find any orange to wear in our house.

New firetruck shirt.

New under the sea shirt to go with his Bailey Boys boxer shorts.

Aiden fed himself an entire thing of spaghettios with his spoon. He is getting better about not turning it upside down. As you can see we still have a little fine tuning to do before we can eat something like that clothed....

He does like to help clean up his mess though.

He loves to make his little dog sing. He is starting to get the hand movements to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", but right now all he does is eyes and ears.

This is his new "gameday" shirt that Granma and Aunt Jessie found on sale.
He wore it for red week of course.

Taking a break from block building with Dada to say cheese.

Aiden and I went to Goodwill Friday and found this football field/ball pit.
(Don't worry it lives in the bonus room!)

He had to help blow it up of course.
He had his first McDonalds cheeseburger that day too and loved it.

Granma found him this cute little shirt. The pocket says, "I'm the Boss."

Aiden found his birthday hat tonight and decided it would be fun to wear it after he got out of the tub. He didn't take it off until it was time to go to bed.