Twas the Night Before Christmas- By my Grandpa Denney

Aden making his Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas Reindeer cards

I do it all for the presents!

Aden's shirt was given to him by his Aunt Chris. It says "I do it all for the presents!" He is so cute. He has been climbing in his toy box all the time but then wines because he doesn't know how to get out.

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite things to do is decorate for Christmas. Well I am an interior designer/decorator and Christmas is my favorite holiday. If I ever go into the field to work I would like to be a commercial Christmas decorator in malls and for individual window displays. I think that would be so much fun!

Eric and I have been studying Christmas Tree decorating and this is my tree before...

And after.... I decided to do a more professional look then homemade look with family ornaments this year. I hung my ornaments around the house in other places to enjoy them. All the presents under the tree are for Aden.... ;) We didn't put in the bottom insert of the tree and placed it on the Armoire so Aden couldn't reach it.

I want to make Aden a stocking to match these. If anyone knows where I can get the best priced corduroy please let me know because it is hard to find.

MERRY CHRISTMAS- May we all feel and give our Saviors love a little more this month ;)

Thanksgiving

We had the stomach flu the week of Thanskgiving. Gratefully we were well enough to eat on Thanksgiving day but we were probably still contagious and didn't want to share the terrible flu with our Grandparents, nieces and nephews that were more prone to getting it. So we had our first Thanksgiving at home, just the three of us.

Eric baked our first bone-in ham and it was delicious and gone within in a couple days.

Aden loves spaghetti so he feasted on that and was full and content. :)
After naps we had a fun family game of basketball. Papa and Aden against Mama. Let's just say Aden made most the baskets and they won by a landslide. Later we played bowling with Aden's plastic pins and Mom beat the boys at that.
Aden was running back and forth laughing so hard. He would go throw the ball in and then clap and give high fives. It was awesome. For being sick we made the few moments of energy totally worth it and still had a great Thanksgiving. I'm glad my family had a great Thanksgiving even though we weren't able to come too.

Halloween

For Halloween Aden was Winnie the Pooh in a Honey pot and Eric and I were bumble bees. Since Eric didn't want to go full out this year I had shirts made that said Bee Costume...Eric forgot to wear his for the picture....oh well ;)
I carved Tiger for our pumpkin carving contest. Eric carved a pirate and a Tetris game.
We invited Aden's Cousins over for a little Halloween play group. Tayven, Kyla and Aden
Aden was afraid of the pumpkin guts. It was kind of funny but sad. He started crying when I tried to put his hand in the pumpkin.
Aden helped me decorate our front yard (so to speak)

Life has been so fun around the Kowallis home lately. Aden is just such a bundle of joy. He has recently learned how to climb. He climbs on his zebra toy he got for his birthday and the couch. He says "Mom Mom" all the time and it just melts my heart. His Dad has one on one with him every night and chases him around our little apartment barking and Aden runs into his little fort laughing smiling.

We had a fun Halloween with a ward party, pumpkin carving, trick or treating and the Symphony Halloween concert at BYU-Idaho. We feel so lucky!

Aden turned 13 months on OCT 23rd

More fun family pics

A few of these were edited by Miriam and the rest were by me. She took all the pics and did a great job;)

Family Pictures by Miriam Lusk

Life has been good and crazy at the Kowallis' this month. We had a really fun Halloween and will post those pictures later. Aden went trick or treating and then found his candy and discovered that there was something yummy inside. He started eating a tootsie roll with the raper and later ate a sucker and took the wrapper off himself. I was eating his candy bar and he came over and asked for some. I gave him a tinny piece and he ate it then grabbed the rest of the candy bar and shoved it in his mouth. He could barley chew but loved every bite. ;)

Here is a sneak peek at our family pics. The computer is loading really slow tonight so I will add more later .

Eric's Happy Birthday!~

Eric had his best birthday yet October 2nd. That means I must be doing a good job as a wife. Thank you to all of you who called or facebooked or e-mailed letting him know you thought of him. That is also what made his day so great.

I surprised him by taking him blindfolded to the Harry Potter -The Half Blood Prince. We read it two years ago together and really enjoyed it. The movie was really fun. We were a little disappointed the ending didn't match the book but overall had an awesome time and enjoyed going to the expensive theater for once :)

Sunday Walks at the Nature Park

The Winter is coming and we are trying enjoy our last warm walks. It was 98 degrees Sunday night at the nature park in the sun. Crazy compared to this week huh? We have a lot of fun family memories at the nature park and wanted to share some pictures with you.

Aden is running around all over the place. He is good at catching himself when he falls so it's not so painful. He is a bundle of fun and always laughing and ready to have a good time. We are so grateful for beautiful nature and for each other. :)

Lost in thought..... ;) What a hunk!

Eric Turns 27 this Friday! This is him modeling his new Holister sweater. I gave him one of his presents early so he could wear it to school all week since this week has been a cold one. ;)

Our Teddy Wally and Aden 12 months old!

Aden's Birthday Party

Our little snuggas turned 1 yesterday and we all had a blast! I decorated the house after he went to bed the night before so when he woke up he came out and it was all beautiful and fun with balloons all over the floor. He went over to his presents and used the sign for please. It was so adorable. I let him open one of his gifts and we played with it. Aden got more gifts that we don't have here and more people came that we didn't get pictures of. So know that we still love you but I think I already put too many pictures. Being a parents is awesome!

P.S. The Birthday Cake was so yummy. I am surpised at how well it turned out. I spent 1 day and 1 night working on it coming to a total of around 12 hours. It weighed 10 pounds not including the lid. It evened out to 1 pound of cake for every hour I spent making it. ;) It was totally worth it and I enjoyed learning a new skill.
Here is Aden's Smash Cake! That is really what he did. He didn't really want to eat it, he just wanted to feel what it was like between his fingers.

We played a fun game of Water Balloon VB outside our apartment. Grandma and Amiee played with the little ones so us big kids could have fun. ;)

Funny story....Courtney (in front) asked for the bee off the cake. I told her yes and let her take it home. I assumed she just wanted to look at it. She popped it in her mouth as soon as she went out the door. Good thing is is just made of marshmellows and powdered sugar. Her little brother Kyler wanted one too. Since there was one left I gave it to him and he too ate the bee whole. Hope they don't have stomach aches today, that's a lot of sugar. :)

Above is my brother Kenne and his new girlfriend Jen.

This is Aden and his Grandma Denney and his cousin Tayven.

We would like to start regular scripture study with Aden so we decided to get him this children's My First Book of Mormon. We want him to know real hero's that trusted the Lord.

It was no easy task getting this book because they don't make them anymore. I had to special order it from a store that had 3 left. Gratefully I was on top of things this year and got all his presents early ;)

I have been so excited to give Aden this toy since we bought it earlier this summer. It is a bounce and spin Zebra and it sings and neighs. He really loves dancing and playing with it. He still needs to grow a little more for his feet to touch the ground.

This is a pretty intense face...;) Aden was trying to soak in all the new things going on it is a lot to take in your first time!~This cute little basketball is from my brother Hyrum and his family.

My younger sister and her boyfriend Rizzo we so nice to get Aden some fun blocks.

This fun toy is from Aden's Grandma and Grandpa Denney. They were kind enough to take it out and get it ready for him to play.