Charlie and Chatham’s Wedding

On Saturday, Charlie proved that it was time for him to hang up his hat as a bachelor and he got hitched. (Now both our boys, i.e. Charlie and Crazy Dave, are all grown up!!)  Chatham is an amazing girl who always soaks up every bit of joy from the present moment and always find the best in people.  She has changed Charlie’s life for the better no doubt!  Congratulations to The Ripples!!

The happy couple.  You can’t see it in the photo but Chatham’s dress is actually blue.  So cool!

Charlie and Chatham honored us and asked Scott and I both to be in the wedding party and for Aiden to be the ring bearer.  It was a crazy weekend of organizing babysitters for Court and for Aiden at times as well, driving back and forth to Winston, and staying in the hotel with both boys for the first time. But we had an absolute blast!!!  The rehearsal/rehearsal dinner was good and Aiden was mostly well-behaved except for a minor incident involving vomit at the dinner table (but that wasn’t his fault really).  One funny event at the rehearsal:  Aiden practiced walking down the aisle with his pillow and rings.  He got all the way to the end, we all started to applaud him and Charlie’s brother, Brian, said, “Touchdown.” So naturally, Aiden spiked the pillow like a football.  I was a bit worried that he would do that on the real walk down the aisle too!  But he didn’t.  He was perfect! He hesitated just before time to walk down during the real wedding because he really wanted to carry flowers like the bridesmaids.  So, I stuck a bright orange flower in his pillow just under the rings.  He smiled and walked all the way down the aisle by himself. He broke into a little jog at the end but it was great.  I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of him 🙂  Way to go little man!!!

Chatham chose orange and pink for the wedding colors. When Aiden found out his bow tie was orange, he was sold!! And he loved clunking around in his fancy shoes too.

We clean up pretty well sometimes

The rest of the wedding was just beautiful – The Ripple and The Kiersted families put on one heck of a weekend!  Cloverly (Chatham’s parent’s estate) is magnificent and even more impressive covered in beautiful wedding flowers and a dance floor!  It was wonderful to spend some time with all of our great friends, The Secrests, The Fredericks, The Kennedys, and of course The Ripples!  Scott favorite part of the evening was the doughnuts, sliders, and chips at midnight.  Like I said, it was a big time wedding!

The Kennedys

Scott’s not much for the lovey dovey parts of weddings…but he’s HUGE on doughnuts!

Thanks for the photos Brad and Jocelyn!!

Huge thanks to Dave, Jenn, Ms. Elizabeth, Aunt Kimmie, and Lindsay Powell for all the babysitting help this weekend!  You’re all lifesavers!!!

In other news, huge congrats to my best friend Jessica Luke and her husband Jimmy on the arrival of the newest Luke man!  Alexander Anthony Luke.  And huge congrats to my cousin Allison who also got married on Saturday!  Welcome to the family Eric!!!

A weekend in the mountains

This past weekend, we headed up to Asheville to enjoy the last bit of summer in the mountains.  We stayed with Granny and Granddaddy on the farm and the boys had the times of their lives.  Granny cooked us good food from their garden and Granddaddy educated Aiden and Court on all the farm equipment.  They have such beautiful property; it truly makes me slow down.  I find myself stopping to smell the flowers (literally) more there than any other place in the world.  Bub and Pop were around for a bit as they happened to be in town with their golfing buddies.  Grandma and Grandpa came to visit and even took us to the John Deere dealership near their house where Aiden and Court tried out all the equipment.  It was a marvelous weekend with amazing hosts – thanks to you all!!!

The boys on the farm (Court was helping to take the photo)

Heading into the pasture

Bruno loved it too!

 

Aiden’s most favorite thing in the world these days…Granddaddy’s BIG orange tractor!

Aiden even got to drive it!

Bedtime stories with Granny

Aiden honestly is in the market for one of these. He said, “Do I have enough money in my piggie?” (Construction hat provided by Grandpa Wolford)

“Can I ride in here?”

View from the top of the excavator

Grandma even joined in the fun!

Thanks for the great idea and a great time, Grandma and Grandpa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mama Said Knock You Out

This post may seem a little random to some of you, but I hate cancer.  There is too much of it in our world, too many people battling such a terrible and overwhelming disease.  Aiden personifies my feelings towards cancer exactly in this video.

 

 

Walking

Court is now officially a toddler!

It was only a matter of time

I went to work on Saturday leaving Scott in charge of the boys for the day.  I come to home this scene already in progress:

I should have known. But honestly, I didn’t even see it coming!

My sweet baby boy’s first haircut…into a mohawk. While Scott was butchering his hair, I tried to pick up several little locks to put in a ziploc bag for the scrapbook. We really are two very different people at times.

All spiked up and ready to rock and roll

The side view

Court was surprisingly cool about the whole thing. It didn’t really phase him, much to his mama’s dismay.

Playdates

We are lucky enough to have some of our good friends, Jeana and Brian, live a few miles away from us in Charlotte.  I cheered with Jeana at UNC so we have been friends for a long time.  Jeana and Kieran meet us for a playdate about once a week.  Here are some photos of Aiden and Kieran.  We love them both as well as their dog, Maddie (a Yorkie like Bruno) who often joins us.  Court loves them all as well, especially Jeana who is amazing with him.  Court tries his best to keep up with Aiden and Kieran too!

 

 

Here is Aiden in one of his classic huge hugs, which frankly seems to frighten Kieran.

DNC

The Democratic National Convention is in Charlotte this week.  Since our baby camp is in the heart of uptown, just like the DNC, it is closed all week.  I have been working on the weekends in order to get some days off during the week to care for the boys.  So, Big One had them all to himself on the weekend.  The good news is that he hasn’t gone completely gray yet.  He only took one photos this past weekend, but is was a good one!

Two and a half

Since Court has been having all of his milestones on this blog, I wanted to also post some of Aiden’s.  If you ask Aiden how old he is, he says “two and a half.” He is absolutely caught between wanting to be an independent big kid and still wanting to a little coddled (much to his father’s dismay!)  He is the sweetest older brother (most of the time) and likes to come into Court’s room when he first wakes up and talk babytalk to Court in this high pitched little voice with his shoulders raised up to his ears just like a grown up would talk to a baby.  He goes down the stairs one foot at a time without holding onto anything.  He also now sleeps in a regular bed.  It might seem like overkill to put a toddler in a double bed but that’s all we had, so there you go.  He wants to wear nothing except his UNC basketball Jersey or his “muscle shirts” (i.e. sleevless t-shirts like the ones in which Scott work out).  He is our little rockstar and although he drives us crazy at times with his stubborn little will, he keeps us laughing the rest of the time so it all comes out perfect.

Some recent Aidenisms:

“Thank you for my bicycle, God…and for all the bulldozers. Amen.”

“Am I a little boy or a big boy? Court is a little boy. Big One is a big boy.  I think I am a little big boy.  And when I grow up, I am going to drink chocolate milk.”

“No, Mama. Let me show you how to do this.”

To anyone he doesn’t know, “Hi. My name is Aiden. What is your name?”

“Are you frustrated with me, Mama?”

“Court, stop spitting.  I am not playing with you!”

When a pretty girl walks by, Scott has taught him to say “Hey Baby.”  Usually this backfires since Aiden will say it to a girl one time and a man the next.  Serves Scott right.

Aiden: “Court, I am going to beat you like a drum.”  Me:  “Aiden, you CANNOT say that.  That is NOT nice!”  Aiden:  “But, Big One says that to Bruno everyday.”

(These last two are compliments of Scott as you might have guessed)

Very excited about his big boy bed

Watching the garbage truck pick our trash

What?

Folding Curious George’s hands into prayer before bed. Very sweet.