A Rainbow and a Shake

We aren't ones to really celebrate St. Patrick's Day, like I don't decorate for it or anything, but I do like to make sure we wear our green (I actually love to wear green b/c I have hazel eyes that change depending on what I'm wearing, and when I wear green my eyes look more green :)).  Today Aiden and I also made a rainbow craft, and this evening we made a St. Patty's Day shake, like we've done the last few years :)

Aiden's rainbow :)

I had pinned the craft on my Pinterest - here's the link.

It was fun to make!  Aiden really wanted to help me cut the strips of paper, which was a little tricky since you have to be pretty precise about making each color an inch shorter than the next.  Luckily he was content to help glue on the cotton balls :)

Shoving his rainbow into his bus ;)

I can't help it, he'll always be my beauty boy ;)

In our green :)  Mine almost looks light blue next to Aiden!

Angled a little more to show off baby sister.  I'll be 33 weeks on Wednesday!

Blowing bubbles when Daddy got home :)

Trent surprised me with these tulips when he got home!  We went on our first date 7 years ago today!

For our FHE treat we made our traditional St. Patty's Day shake, although this year we tried a new recipe (you can find it HERE). This one is supposed to be like the McDonald's shamrock shake.

We all enjoyed it ;)

I was trying to get a picture of my shake and Aiden kept jumping in..haha.

Hope you had all had a fun day!  Oh and here's my St. Patty's post from last year.  It's crazy to see how Aiden changes over a year!

Aiden-stein

At 17 months, Aiden has officially had his first Urgent Care experience :(

Let me just quickly start from the beginning.  Last week I won a baker's dozen cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy (I was so excited!).  They are way up in Scottsdale though so Trent and I decided to make a whole date out of picking them up (including lunch and shopping).  We finished up family pictures at the temple with the Knuckles' Saturday morning, and had them take Aiden home with them, and then we were off.  It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect.  We found a great parking spot and we were feeling good!  It was only 11 so we decided we'd do our shopping first, then have lunch, pick up our cupcakes, and head home after that.  First stop, H&M.  

Not half an hour later we got a call from Tanis saying Aiden had cut his head pretty bad and we probably needed to meet them at Urgent Care.  I'm still not exactly sure what happened.  Something about Aiden was in Kent's car in the driveway playing with the steering wheel (he loves steering wheels!) and a neighbor kid came to join him. I guess Aiden was trying to make room in the driver's seat and was climbing onto the middle part (median?) and slipped and fell down.  I'm still trying to figure out what is so sharp in the car that it cut him on the way down.   

Anyway, so we each had a pile of clothes we were planning to try on (in fact, I was already in the dressing room trying on!) and we had to just ditch them and go.  We were so bummed!  We were more bummed about our date being ruined than worried about Aiden..haha.  (We knew he was in good hands.)  We decided we were at least going to get our cupcakes since we were right there.  Luckily no one else was in there so it took all of about 3 minutes.  And we basically got one of each - so fun!

I totally forgot to get a picture of all of our cupcakes before we dug in, but here are most of them :)

The whole drive to Urgent Care we were thinking it couldn't be too bad, but we were also thinking, "Aww, his perfect little face...".  We weren't really sure where the cut was and Trent was pretty worried Aiden would have this nasty scar right across the front of his forehead.  Lucky for us, it's right under his hairline so you can hardly see it.

Right before we got there I was feeling very nervous about seeing Aiden.  I have a hard time with blood and was having to tell myself to breathe..haha.  I had to cover my eyes when we first saw him and it still makes me cringe.  But he was his happy, normal self (only b/c he hadn't been taken back yet).  I didn't think to get a picture of the before, but it was pretty gnarly and there was blood all over his shirt.

Originally the doctor was saying they'd just glue the cut shut.  I made Trent go back with Aiden to get him prepped.  I knew I'd cry if I did.  They cleaned it up and put some numbing cream on.  They came back out while the cream kicked in - about 20 minutes.

I couldn't resist getting a shot with his head wrapped up.  Such a cutie.

They had also given him some Tylenol or something which made him drowsy.

He was out, but not for long :/

Then came the hard part.  Apparently Aiden was screaming.  He did not like being held down :(  Trent said he even got a little teary-eyed b/c he felt awful.  Turns out they decided to do stitches b/c they were worried about it reopening.  So our little guy got 5 stitches.  

And then we were finally able to head home after a very unexpected morning/afternoon.

Aiden is such a little champ and was back to normal when we got home.  Busy playing around the house :)

Band-aid over the stitches 

You can hardly see them, huh?!  Right side.

I do feel like Aiden kind of looks like Frankenstein with his little stitches..ha.  I have to take him in on Wednesday to have the stitches removed - definitely dreading it :(  I know Aiden will be screaming and I will just be trying keep him down, while looking away and trying to keep from crying myself.  Wish me luck!

To Tanis and Kent - Strike one ;)  But really, we still completely trust you and love you!  And I hope I didn't embarrass you too much with this post ;)

Scrabble Love

I made a Valentine's decoration last night around 8:30 p.m.  Yes, I do realize yesterday was Valentine's Day..haha.  I had been meaning to make this for a while, but we've been sick around here for the second time in like a month (I don't know how we keep seeming to catch things), so I was finally able to get out this week to get a frame.

I got the idea from a PIN I pinned several months back.  I thought it was a tutorial, but found out it was actually up for sale in the United Kingdom. I thought to myself, well that can't be too hard to make!

Here's how mine turned out :) 

I had to take the picture at a bit of an angle to not get my reflection in it.

It's pretty self-explanatory.  You have to get a frame where the glass is pushed out front of the matting so that the Scrabble pieces will fit under. I got mine from Hobby Lobby with my handy gift card from Amber for Christmas.  I used some leftover magenta cardstock from my WREATH a few years back.  Just cut it to fit the frame.  I traced the little square opening to make sure I was gluing the Scrabble pieces on straight.  Then assemble and wa-la!  So easy!  This literally took me 15 minutes tops!

In other news, we had a low-key Valentine's Day.  I surprised Trent with this new recipe for a Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake from Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss when he got home. It was yummy!  I may just make it a little tradition for every Valentine's Day :)  If only I had a cute heart-shaped pie pan like Julie :) 

We ate a quick dinner (thanks to Bertolli!) and hurried off to Aiden's swim lesson.  I got a LivingSocial deal for four swim lessons and this was Aiden's second.  The first time Trent got in with him, but his nose was still really running so I got in last night.  Aiden likes it pretty well except floating on his back..haha.

Sometimes Aiden tries to drink the water :/  He does this in his bath too..haha.

Peeking over at Daddy :)

Oh..we sent a Valentine's shout-out to all of the aunts. I got this picture before we headed off to Aiden's swim lesson.  Notice Aiden's crabby flip flops.  Aiden and I did a little shopping yesterday and picked them up. Aiden doesn't know what to think of something being wedged between his little toes..haha.

We headed home after the lesson and Aunt Jen stopped by with Valentines.  She brought mini m&m's for Aiden since he's "mini."

We got Aiden new jammies yesterday too, as pictured.  I don't know why, but I love two-piece jammies!  I think Aiden looks so darling in them :)

We haven't exchanged gifts yet, so we'll do that tonight and go out and celebrate :)

Aiden's 1st Birthday Party

Our sweet Aiden turned 1 today!!  He has brought us indescribable joy and such laughter.  It's been a great year and we love him so much!  He is the love of our lives :)

We had a little family party for Aiden this afternoon.  The theme was Colors, not to be confused with Rainbow - Trent was really against the whole rainbow idea..haha. 

My inspiration for the party was this toy:

In the last year this has consistently been Aiden's favorite toy. Anytime we stack the rings up, Aiden quickly comes over and unstacks them again..haha.  He especially loves the red ball on top.  Side note: We actually lost the original red ball in Virginia (it was really dumb of me to bring it), so I had to get a whole new toy.  Luckily it was just 8 bucks, but now we have two of these rainbow stackers and one is just missing the ball on top..ha.

I was very happy with how everything turned out!  I got my ideas for the yarn balloons, fruit kebabs, and rainbow, whoops!, colorful cupcakes from Pinterest (HERE).  

Thank you to my mom and sisters and friend Christie for helping with the balloons!  They turned out so great!

Aiden liked them too :)

I did a trial run with the cupcakes last week, but didn't care for the recipe listed, so we just used a white cake mix this time around.  I did use her frosting recipe though :)  Thanks to my mom for helping me make the cupcakes.  It would have taken me a while longer (it was tedious since you have to layer each color) b/c I'm such a perfectionist ;)

Tanis brought a yummy salad and my mom prepared chicken salad croissants.  It was all so tasty :)

Aiden had a fruit kebab :)

I love the little smirk on his face.

We finished up lunch and were on to the presents!  Aiden sure got spoiled, but does that surprise anyone?!  He's the only grandchild on both sides!

Aiden could honestly care less about opening his gifts..haha.

One of Aiden's gifts from us was this adorable bow tie that I got from a friend that makes them and just started selling them (check out her website HERE).  He also got 3 ties so he is all set to go in that department..haha.

We moved to the kitchen for singing and cupcakes.

Keeping Aiden from touching the flame ;)

Aiden was unsure about the cupcake.  Maybe all of the colors were throwing him.  Or maybe he didn't want to get messy..haha.

He kept grabbing a handful and trying to pass it off to all of us.  He was sharing :)

You could see the colors a lot better on the inside of the cupcakes!

Sharing a bite with Grandpa Knuckles :)

And checking on Grandma Knuckles.

Grandma Christensen cleaning up the birthday boy ;)

I just had to get this picture as I reminisced on how tiny Aiden was at this time last year..tear tear ;)

Winding down.

And we couldn't forget Aiden's card from his "favorite Aunty" ;)  We love Sista Christensen!

I'd say Aiden's birthday was a wild success!  We are so grateful for all of our family and their love for Aiden.  And Aiden wants to give them a big shout-out for all of his new gifts.  He's been playing with them since the par-tay :)