Happy 5th Birthday Aiden

The many faces of Aiden.....how true this picture is. You can be sweet and affectionate, you can be silly and funny, you can be a wild man, you can be mischievous and rotten, and sometimes you can just 'be'. Funny how your 5th birthday is hitting me the hardest. Is it because you and your brothers are growing up so fast? Is it because seems so old compared to 4? I see a lot of changes in you this past year. You are definitely growing up.


Looking back at baby pictures of you, I came across so many that made me smile, laugh, and even cry.

This was one of the ones that made me cry. This was taken at Children's Hospital in St Louis after you spent 4 days there when you were barely 2 weeks old. While you were there, I saw you go through some horrible procedures and tests that made you cry out in pain. You had tubes going into every orifice of your body. The hardest part was that the one thing that would give you comfort, couldn't give you. Since they weren't sure if you would need emergency surgery or not, you were kept on IV's and I couldn't breastfeed you. It was killing me. Your story had a happy ending....you didn't end up having the disease that was first suspected. This picture was taken moments after all of your tubes and IV's were removed and I could cuddle you like I wanted and nurse you finally. Little did we know you would end up needing surgery a few years later but for something totally different....your first, and hopefully your last, hernia!

Your first trip to the pumpkin patch. I'm not sure you were awake for a lot of it!

Your brothers were so enamored with you when you were born. They came home from school everyday and couldn't wait to hold you and talk to you.

Drew and Aiden

Noah and Aiden
You were so lucky to have your cousin born just 4 days after you. You have been best buds ever since. It is so fun to watch you two play and talk. It's like you are in a world all your own sometimes.

It looks like you guys were trying to kiss here. :)

You were my little follically challenged little boy. Your brother's had haircuts by their first birthday but your hair took its sweet time. It was busy growing those gorgeous dark blonde curls that you sport now.It was worth the wait!

Aiden 10 months old
Aiden 2 years old

Your second Halloween you dressed up like a lion. This was taken at the Halloween party at your brothers' school. You didn't even go to school there yet but you won the costume contest anyway. Who could resist the cutest lion ever?

My sweet Aiden, what a journey we have been on together. 5 years that would never have been the same without you. You definitely complete our family and add a lot of spark to it. You are inquisitive, determined, spirited, affectionate, funny, smart, and all ours! Some days you challenge me to the point where I want to rip my hair out and other days you call me your "pretty princess" and give me more love, hugs, and kisses than I ever thought I could have. I love you Aiden Sunshine. Happy 5th Birthday to you. I look forward to MANY MANY more with you.
I asked you this morning if you felt any different now that you were five and you said "yes, cause now I'm a little bigger." Yes baby, you are.

15 Years and Counting.......

This picture has a lot of meaning to me. I didn't know it at the time, but on New Years Eve 1992, I first laid eyes on the guy that would be my future husband. I honestly have to say, it was his hair that first caught my eye. He had Tommy Page hair, and I was a huge Tommy Page fan. ;) And come on, getting squished between 3 cute guys for a picture is pretty awesome too. (Beastie Boys, Tom? Really? lol) I saw him again a couple of weeks later when he and some friends came to a party at Tapped Out (the name us girls gave to our house in college). His friend Brad was dating my friend Erica and she told me that Todd wanted to ask me out.

On January 24th, 1993 he called me and asked me out on our first date. That first date was on January 26th, 1993. It started with pizza at The Tower and ended with a kiss during a dance to an Air Supply song. Cheesy, yes, but oh so awesome.

This picture was taken in April 1993, it was shortly after this that I realized I had fallen in love with him. It was scary and exhilarating at the same time.

We continued dating through college and had our share of ups and downs. Todd proposed to me in January 1995 and we planned on a fall wedding as well as trying to finish up our last semester of college.

This picture was taken on the day of our college graduation. The world seemed wide open to possibilities that day--we were 22 year old engaged college graduates. We bought our first house, we started new jobs and planned for our wedding day on September 23, 1995.

We had our college senior pictures taken at the same time so we could have our engagement pictures taken also. This wasn't the one used in the paper, we used a little bit more formal of one. This was my favorite one though. (we both were workin' the awesome hair back then, weren't we?)

This was taken at a Halloween party the month after we got married. I was crazy about cats even back then and I was in love with a vampire long before vampires were hot!

This story has continued through 15 wonderful years of marriage. No doubt the best parts of those years were the addition of Drew, Noah, and Aiden to our little family. Todd, you have given me more than I have ever deserved and all I ever wanted. You let me be me, you support me in whatever I do, and you make me strive to be a better person. I love you, babe. I look forward to the rest of our journey together.

Happy 15th Anniversary Todd!!

Here's a link to my post on our 13th anniverary. It has one of our wedding photos on it.

Five years ago today we celebrated our 10th anniversary. Shortly after our wonderful dinner out, I went into labor with Aiden. That story will continue tomorrow when we celebrate our baby's 5th birthday.