Riley love continued!

Since daddy blogged last night, it is my turn to send our Riley some birthday love. If you look closely there are a few rollie pollies in Riley's hands that he caught while in the mountains. It is funny because despite all the legs on those things they move fairly slow. He loved how they crawled all over his arms.

Ok, so here is just a small list of things we just love about Riley :

1. He still rarely refers to his sister by her name...he just calls her "baby."

2. When we tell him we love him he usually responds with, "no, I love you more than you love me!"

3. The sound of his laugh is one of the best noises on earth.

4. He is so ticklish

5. He is just a dirt magnet (100% boy)!

6. He doesn't wear shin guards to play soccer he wears, "shin gardens."

7. By far he is one of the most affectionate kids alive. He usually greets even those he doesn't know very well with a hug and kiss.

8. He likes to match his clothes, and his definition of matching is wearing the same color from head to toe (it is so cute)!

9. His favorite singer is Chris Tomlin...I just love that!

10. And one of my favorites (and why my house is not all that tidy) he asks me to play all day long! It doesn't matter what we play with, he just wants to play. It is almost impossible to say no when he looks up at me holding his little race cars and says, "mommy, you want to play racing with me...you can have the green car, not the red car because the red car is my favorite, but you can have the green one." :)

I could go on and on. Happy Birthday little man...we love you!!

Riley turned 4

Wow, our son Riley has turned 4 years old today, September 10th. It seemed like overnight that he went from toddler to young boy as you can tell by the pictures. Sunday (the 9th) we had a party just with the fam. and it was great. Riley loved seeing everyone and of course he loved all the attention and gifts. It is exciting being a parent and watching your child grow up although we seem to like him just the way he is. As you can see Riley got spoiled. He rode his new bike all the way around the block by himself! He loved it but didn't realize how tiring it can be. It will work great to keep him in shape. The other picture is a 4 wheeler power wheel that goes 5 mph, which is actually pretty fast. He loves that as well, we've already made a track in the back yard. As you can see he graciously gave sis a ride. All in all Riley had a great birthday and I (dustin) was able to hang back and enjoy it with him today so it was good for me too. Next up for the 4 year old, t-ball, starting in a few weeks. He can't wait. c/ya

we are back!

A long overdue update is here...yea! Here is pic of us trying to pack for our vacation to Tennessee. Although they are by the far the most important things we take on the trip, the two of them would not stay out of the suitcases! And for those of you wondering if I in some way altered Callie Joy's hairstyle the answer would be, NO! All those curls are special thanks to Daddy. We had such a wonderful time on vacation and really got to enjoy some time away in the great (hot) outdoors. We did plenty of rock hopping in cold creeks, some hiking, shopping and exploring while in Tennessee. The kids had a blast once they realized fun could be had outside of the suitcases.

Starfish

They graduated!! Swim lessons are done and they both did exceptionally well. As you can see from the picture Callie Joy finally decided to give in and learn how to swim and float (her teacher isn't holding her...she floated like that by herself forever)!

We at the Aagaard house have had a lot going on. I will try to get more pictures up soon. I am determined to be good at the blogging thing...just need to remember to post stuff!

Friends and Cake!!

We had a wonderful day of Hailey, Allison and CAKE! Hailey and Allison are dear friends from Redeemer and we love them to pieces. We experimented with cake and much to my suprise (my kitchen experiments usually go terribly wrong) it was so good!! Thanks for visiting Deltona ladies...can't wait until our next reunion!

Shamu!!

We finally got an opportunity to take the kids to Sea World! What fun! They had a blast and just loved seeing all the animals. Riley's favorite were the sharks and Shamu. He informed us yesterday that he wanted to ride on a whale when he "growed up." I just had to post this picture because they are wearing their new Sea World shirts and clutching their Shamu dolls after a full day of fun. It felt like 150 degrees outside and they did not even notice. It is just so exciting to watch your own children discover new things. I didn't think Shamu was that cool until Saturday and now I have a whole respect for that whale. He actually is pretty talented. Thank you for an awesome day Me-Ma and Scott!

Riley just being Riley. I love watching our little ones act their age. He is almost 4 and we can't believe it. It is just great how the silliest things crack them up. Riley is very into "knock, knock" jokes and he comes up with some creative ones. Today it went a little something like this:

Riley: knock knock

Me: who's there?

Riley: booger

Me (reluctantly): booger who

Riley: booger in my nose!

And no, to answer the question of whether or not we teach him this...he comes up with it himself!

Callie Joy in a basket that was full of very exciting toys, but the basket proved to me much more fun alone! The kids pushed each other around in it declaring it was Santa's sleigh. Merry Christmas (in July)!

A rare moment...they are both not only looking at the camera but also smiling. I just had to ignore the red eyes b/c the picture was perfect!

About 3 seconds later!

she didn't cry!

Well, she has kinda given in a little bit...Callie Joy that is. After a more peaceful swim lesson Friday she actually said she liked going to Ms. Becky's pool. I am hoping she has reached a turning point since we have a few more weeks to go. Things are good in the Aagaard house, just busy as usual but always fun. Riley went to bed tonight insisting we call him "Batman." This is really a big deal since Riley has NEVER let us call him anything other than Riley. When people even say, "aren't you a handsome boy" the response has always been, "I not! I Riley Dean Aagaard!" There is usually a bit of attitude that goes with that reply as well. Our dear Riley lives in a somewhat literal world, but for about 30 minutes tonight he just let himself go and was...BATMAN! (you see, he was wearing Batman pjs which included a cape...of course!)


Will post more pics soon!

they dressed themselves!

So, this is what happens when the preschool/toddler crowd dress themselves for church. I would like to go ahead and add that Sam (the tall one in the middle) at least has matching colors on. There is black appearing in both his shirt and pants...go Sam! If you could zoom in a bit on Riley you would see that his shirt has green and yellow stripes, his shorts are black, red and white plaid and the shoes...well they are of course, blue and white. I do give him credit for the number of colors he managed to wear in one outfit. And then there is Callie Joy. There is just isn't much to say besides that she has Nemo floaties on...that kinda says it all. If the three of them were competing in a fashion show they would win the following awards:

Riley: the rainbow award

Callie Joy: the "in case of flood" award

Sam: most floral award!

At least they all win at creativity!!

swim lessons

Summer is officially here and my little ones are just loving it! We have been outside so much enjoying the garden, the beach, and of course blizzard beach. Our latest big adventure has been the daily swim lessons at "Ms Becky's" pool. The kids are taking ISR (infant swim research) lessons which consist of lessons 5 days a week for 10 minutes a day. I have been amazed to see their progress over such a short period of time. Riley has literally loved every minute of it. When it is time for him to get out he begs Ms Becky to stay in and swim just "3 more times please." He is doing such a great job!! Baby girl (I mean "big girl"...she would correct me if she could read) is just a whole other story. She is just a mess at swim lessons! The whole time, and I mean that, the WHOLE time she cries to get out. Before she enters the water she informs us all that she is done and ready to get out now! I will say though she is learning the concepts and doing very good floating on her back. What a sassy little thing though...there is no doubt that all of Ms Becky's neighbors within about a half mile radius are also aware of Callie Joy's dislike for swim lessons. The screaming combined with going under water frequently have also amounted to Callie Joy drinking a fair amount of the pool. Bless poor Ms. Becky because she has her hands full. You will notice that I have posted pictures of Riley showing off his "starfish" but...there are no pictures of Callie Joy... yet. I hope that my previous explanation of her behavior at swim lessons answers the question of why. She requires quite a bit of attention!

Beware, we're new at this

That's right, we're learning and not sure what this page will look like next month. Heck, were not even sure if anyone will read this by next month. We just wanted to create something to share with all our friends and family to connect everyone to what is going on in the life of the Aagaards. Till next blog, c/ya