The Irishman's Now Officially American

Because we were leaving for Huntington Beach the same day Trev was "Citizenized" we did not have a party for him at home. He worked late the night before so I brought a cake into his classroom.

Wednesday Morning, 7:45am. Trevor lined up with the rest of the "huddled masses" while Aidan and I went in to get a seat in the theater (and get warm).

This old theater is right downtown Sacramento, and the site of the ceremony. They even had popcorn available to the visitors.

Aidan (not feeling too hot) waits somewhat patiently for his Daddy to be an American like him!

The new American! After 5 years from his first citizenship paperwork being filed it is finally done. Trevor feels relieved that its all done, different that he is no longer recognized as Irish by the American Government, and glad that the hard work is complete. If you've ever had to deal with the INS you would know that it takes some major determination and you would be as proud as I am of my Hubby.
P.S. Don't worry all you Micks, Trevor still is able to keep dual citizenship. He will travel TO Ireland with the Irish passport, and come back to the US with his American passport.

A Movin' and A Shakin'

Aidan is VERY mobil now. He climbs in, on top of, and over most everything. He can stand on his own if we stand him up, but no walking just yet. I can tell though that he is getting more and more frustrated with crawling. We now babyproof EVERYTHING because as you can imagine with such an active little one it is hard to watch what he's getting into all the time. Aidan's biggest party trick is going down the slide. We have one of those "Little Tykes" slides that have about 3 steps to get up. Well, just about 2 weeks I watched him climb up the steps on his own and slide down head first into the grass. It was scary but hilarious! Boy are we gonna have our hands full when he can run!

In the kitchen drawer...

in his toybox...

pulling out ALL the cooking utensils...

and finally passing out on Daddy for a little nap.

Our Wild Irish Boy

Notice the Jammies and Cowboy boots!

We got a live tree this year. We wanted to plant a tree for Aidan's first Christmas. We also need some trees on our land so "we kill 2 birds with 1 stone." Aidan mostly leaves it alone, but we wanted some pics with him next to it so he became interested. Notice we have it raised. He likes to take dirt out of pots and throw it on the floor, so we didn't want to take any risks.

The Chickens Next Door

Our Neighbors next door (Walt and Carol) have 2 chickens and 1 pidgeon. When the gate is open, all 3 of the birds come over and eat the bugs in our garden. They love to scratch the wood chips and make big holes in the yard looking for bugs. If Aidan didn't love them SO much I might have a problem with the mess, but seeing how much he loves to look at them I can deal with the little bit of cleanup. Henrietta, the black one, started laying eggs about a month ago and Walt was so kind of him to bring us some fresh eggs. They are GREAT!


Clarence (the Rhode Island Red), Henrietta and Peepers the Pidgeon. Peepers was raised by Walt and Carol from just a baby and now that he has been with the chickens so long he thinks he is one. It is so funny!

Gotta get those chickens!

Thanksgiving

Since this is the first Thanksgiving in our new home, Trevor and I had the whole family to our house for Thanksgiving Dinner. The whole Family included, Mom, Dad, Grandma Lois, Grandma Flink, Uncle Don, Mary Owens, and the rest of the Traxler Clan. Dinner was wonderful, and everyone had fun playing with all the kids.

There will be more pictures to come. So many were on other people's cameras so I have to wait for them to be sent.



Cooking with Gma.

Trevor makes Trifle every year. He loved it as a kid on special holiday's so we decided to carry on the tradition.

Believe it or not, this is before Dinner was even served.

Daddy's 35th Birthday

For Daddy's birthday on the 18th, we went to Indian Grinding Rock State Park. It is where the Natives have made holes in the Limestone while grinding the acorn. We saw the Miwok Indian houses and the huge Roundhouse that is used today fore the local indian ceremonies. We took a little hike with Aidan in the backpack. He LOVED it! We had a great day that ended with Nathan, Kristi and the kids coming over for French Fries, Onion Rings and Chocolate Cake.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Our little outdoorsman.

10 Month Check Up

On November 10 Aidan is going to be 10 months. He can do all sorts of amazing things. He BITES everything with his 6 (very sharp) teeth, he says Mama and Dada and all sorts of other things. Grandma taught him to clap his hands and do Patty Cake, which he loves to do. He LOVES outside. Chasing chickens and picking up sticks and rocks to sharpen his teeth on are his vary favorite. He loves holding things in his hands. His hammer is one of his favorites but most anything long and skinny will do. He drinks out of a cup and can use a straw. He can also pick food up with his fingers and feed himself. Some of his favorite foods are cheese, pears, roast beef (don't ask me why) and bunny cereal (like cheerios, but organic) and really anything Daddy has. We have stopped giving him food from a jar at home. I have a little blender and he just eats whatever we do. Aidan sleeps well through the night, from 7pm to sometime between 6:15 and 7:15am. Right now we are working on getting him to like his high chair and eat what Mommy has on the spoon. He is still VERY difficult to feed and if he is tired, just forget about it and give him the bottle.
His 10 month check up went well. We are now with Kaiser and so far we really like it. EVERYTHING is available online. I like that. Aidan's Dr. is a young guy with a young family. He just moved out here from Tennessee and is new to Kaiser too. Aidan liked him a lot, and was very interested in him. He sat in the Dr's lap and looked at the stethescope and watched him type in the computer. The Doc is a very nice guy, someone we would probably be friends with. Anyway, Aidan weighs 22lbs, 4oz and is 32" inches long (2'8"). That puts him in the 69% for weight and the 99% for height. He is also in the 94% for head circumfrance! There's got to be room for all those brains, right? The Dr. said everything is great and we don't need to see him till after Aidan turns 1.

P.S. If you want to get a good look at those chompers zoom in on the picture above. Then ask Grandma how sharp those little teeth are, she knows. Well, at least her arms know, he's bitten her more times than I can count. :-)

Fab Fall Fest at Church

And still more pictures

Still carving pumpkins together after all these years.


All the kids!

Grandma came to stay when Trev went into the hospital. She helped out around the house, but I think she forgot the basics of childcare. This is not how we dry the baby!

The Pictures I Promised

During Trevor's Fall Break (Oct. 15-19) we drove up to Ashland Oregon to stay with some friends in their B&B and visit the McMurray's in Grants Pass. We had a wonderful time visiting with old friends. The colors in the park were beautiful!


Living out in the country we get to go to an honest to goodness pumkin farm to get our pumpkins. We went with the Traxler's and picked out some great Pumpkins.

Kristi and I walk every other morning with the kids. They love it, we get a workout, a win-win for everyone.

OK, STOP YELLING!

Call me all the names you want, there is no excuse for my laziness.
Here is the new blog you have all been waiting in anticipation for.

Updates:

Trevor: Thank you all for praying, he is just fine. If you do not know Trevor had an incident at school the other day, he fainted on the field during an activity with the kids. The ambulance came and encouraged him to go to the hospital. The symptoms he was exhibiting were sweating, couldn't catch his breath, tightness in his chest, and tingling in his arms. So, he went to the hospital and after all his tests came back normal the Dr. still wanted to admit him to run some other tests. So... they did, and all the next day they did one EKG after another, and stress tests and blood tests, you name it. All came back perfectly fine. No one could give us a reason for his fainting. What we think happened, is what happened to Marie Osmond on Dancing with the stars. We think his asthma is worse than we thought and he fainted because he couldn't catch his breath. We have an appointment with a regular Dr. at Kaiser for some asthma testing. We'll find out more then. Other than all that drama, Trev is doing great. He started teaching a class on Thursday nights for adults (18-92!) who want to learn basic computer skills. He loves teaching the class and they love him as a teacher. And, if you don't know Trev that well, he is AWESOME at teaching "mature" students. At the Fall Festival at church he did balloon animals for almost 4 hours straight. The kids loved it and Trev had a great time.

Aidan: He is wonderful. Besides a cold he is just perfect. He loves to talk, and can now say "mama" (usually while whining), "dada", "whsat?" (we think it is what's that? because it usually comes with a quizitive look at something), "baba" and a smattering of other consonance liked with other syllables. He also loves the chickens (and the pigeon that thinks he's a chicken) that live next door. He LOVES playing outside. Going down the slide, pulling weeds with mama, taking the wood chips out of the planter, eating leaves, you know all the things a baby loves to do.

And as for me: Everything's dandy. Really no new news. I sang with the church Praise Band for the first time at the Fall Festival, and am learning lines for a small part in the Children's Christmas musical.

Enjoy the pics!
*OK, so I tried to upload the pics but Blogger is not letting me, so you'll get them tomorrow. Goodnight!

Aidan's Newest Party Trick

We are so proud of "Bubba". He is growing by leaps and bounds and makes us laugh all the time. I am getting used to being a stay at home mom, and thank God every day that I am there to watch him make these little changes. It does get boring at times, and in those moments of "I can't handle it any more", we walk over to Auntie Kristi's and let Chloe entertain him for a while. How blessed we are to live in this beautiful place.

Trevor is enjoying his job. He works at 2 different schools. In the morning he is at a continuation High School teaching computers and tutoring a little. He also does the tech work for the school. In the afternoon he travels to Jackson Jr High and teaches 2 classes of 7th grade math. The kids are great, but it seems as if the elementary teachers were a little lax on organization and getting work done properly. He finds himself being a little more strict than normal, but the kids need it. He is a wonderful teacher, and I know these schools are blessed to have him. He is also going to be teaching some night classes soon. They are computer courses for adults, and one of them is actually an introductory course for Senior Citizens. What a great provider he is!

We have started getting a little more involved in church. I attended a Women's Bible Study on Thursday morning, but Aidan cries non stop when I put him in the nursery. Please pray for us with that. We can't leave him on Sunday Morning, and I would love to keep doing this study. I know it will pass, but it is important to us that Trevor and I attend church together.

All in all, life in the country is wonderful and although we miss our friends and family back in the OC, we wouldn't change a thing about our life right now. God is so GOOD!

Doyles and Traxlers go to the Zoo

Last Saturday the 7 of us headed out in "Great White" (the Suburban) to the zoo! Chloe was so excited to see the monkeys, and we I excited to get out and see the world beyond the front door. Here are some pictures of that day. We had a great time. I think my favorite thing to see were the chimps. I think Aidan liked them too. He just sat and stared at them. They were very noisy and Aidan loves noise and activity. All the kids did well and had a great time. We did too! On days like these I feel so blessed to be ale to live so close to Nathan and Kristi.

Aidan and Chloe are starting to play together more and more. Aidan chases Chloe around the house and she tries to keep her toys up high away from him. It is really fun to watch. I think that little girl is going to have these boys under her thumb.





Click on this one to see it up close. It is hilarious!

Passed out in the car after a fun day at the zoo.

One Happy Boy

Aidan is still cutting teeth. His top middle aren't coming in, but the "fangs" as we call them are. He has those two on the bottom, so he is really getting good at eating.

We went to the Amador County Rennaisance Faire last weekend with our friend Randy, the director from Camp Augusta. We saw some real jousting, and ate some good food. We enjoyed looking at all the shops, and came home with a sword for Aidan.

Enjoy the new Video!

VIDEO!!!

Get used to seeing lots of videos. It is best to see this crazy kid in action. Here he is taking a relaxing bath before bedtime. Boy, are we crazy in love with this kid!

Our Beautiful Boy

Mom came for a visit and snapped this picture of us before Trev headed off for work. This is the first picture we have of just us and our new home. Boy am I thankful to God for the blessings of this wonderful family and beautiful home. We are so happy here.

Playing at his little table Gma and Gpa bought for the kids when we visit. Aidan and I went down to S. Cal on a plane for the weekend to attend Giselle's (my cousin's) baby shower. The shower was so fun, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to see my family and friends. We are expecting little Ava Rudesill in a few days now. We are praying for the health of this little one (she's coming early) and her mom and dad (Matthew and Giselle).

Mary took this video with her phone when we were down for the visit. This shows you a little of Aidan's exuberant personality.

A Day in the Life

Trev loves mowing his big lawn!
Aidan wakes up from his nap, stands in his crib and yells Dadadadada!

It is so cute.
Playing in the pool. When your this small a rubbermaid bucket works just fine.
Reading with Daddy. He likes to turn the pages of his board books. What a smart boy!
Lemme outa here! Aidan loves outside.

The Whole Fam

We had the whole family together for Labour Day, and spent the day at our new home talking abnd having a great time. It is so much fun when we all get together. Now that we live next door to Nathan and Kristi and the kids I have a feeling we will be able to do this more often. Our God is so good to allow us to have such an amazing family!

Aidan Loves His New Home

No, that's not a funny looking pacifier, it's a rubber ducky!

Checkin' himself out.

And here's the money shot.

Yeah, I stand up now. No big deal.

Here's our goofy little boy after his bath.