Aaron's Nursery

Aaron's Photo Shoot

On Friday, Aaron had his first photo session. As you can see, Bita did a fabulous job! She was so patient with Aaron -- who peed and pooped on her props. You can see more of her work on www.brcphotography.com.

3 Weeks Old

Last week we had Aaron's two-week appointment. He was well above his birth weight at 9 pounds 4 ounces. (That's a 16 ounce gain!) He is obviously eating well.

We are enjoying every second with our beautiful little boy. He is very mellow -- rarely cries, mainly grunts to get our attention.

Since Aaron was one week old our family has been visiting. It has been so nice to see everyone and for everyone to get to spend some time with Aaron.

Our sweet boy resting so peacefully. 

Our first set of visitors, my Dad and Cindy

Jessica and Peyton visited us last week and it was so fun to have them here. Peyton was so good with Aaron.

Aaron and Peyton (11 months apart) -- Future Best Buddies!!!

Aaron woke up the other day with his eye all goopy. The nurse told us it was normal and called out and antibiotic ointment. But before we did the ointment we covered his eyes with a warm wash cloth. He loved it! It put him to sleep.

Carolyn (Nick's mom) comforting Aaron

Harry (Nick's dad) and Aaron taking a little snooze

Aaron trying to grow up too fast. This is one of the outfits we got for Aaron's pictures tomorrow. So handsome.

Aaron had a bath tonight. We couldn't submerge him because of his umbilical cord (which fell off about an hour after -- yay!) Aaron was very patient with us for awhile. . .

I mean very patient . . . 

Then he decided he had enough!

Resting in the comfort of daddy's arms (far away from the bath tub).

Sweet Baby

Baby Aaron

Sleeping Baby

Just Snuggling

Precious baby feet

Introducing . . . Aaron Nicholas Bender

Nick and I officially became parents last Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 6:18 PM. Aaron weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz and is 21 inches long. He has beautiful blue eyes and lots of dark hair.

Here are a few pictures from our hospital stay.

This is me having a contraction . . . before the wonderful epidural.

After pushing for two hours and no progress -- we decided to do a c-section. 

Nick in his scrubs

Our happy family

Aaron getting his hearing test . . . he passed!

Daddy and Aaron

Beautiful Aaron! (Look at his long eye lashes -- I love them!)

Tired Mommy and Aaron

Happy 28th Birthday Nick

Nick celebrated his 28th birthday last Saturday. It was kind of a low-key day. We had one of Nick's favorite breakfast dishes -- Swedish pancakes. Later that night we went to Louie's for dinner. It was delicious.

For his birthday cake I made Molten Chocolate Cake. It turned out really well and was pretty easy. Nick was surprised and he really enjoyed them.


The Cullimore's came over to help us celebrate. Kayla and Kynda helped Nick open his presents. 

North Carolina Visit

We spent our holidays in North Carolina with Nick's family. Everyone was able to be there -- and we had such a great time. We were able to spend a week and a half with them and we did some fun things. We spent our first few days getting ready for Christmas. Lot's of shopping and putting gifts together!

On Christmas day we shot some of Harry's guns. 

That was really fun and it was actually sunny that day.

Harry also set up a tour of an art museum -- that was really cool. The artist is Jon Kuhn and his work is really neat. He was very nice and even took us on a tour behind the scenes. 

The necklaces we are wearing were very pretty. They were pieces of glass art.

This sculpture rotated. It was my favorite.

We went to Mayberry (actually Mt. Airy). We ate at the famous "Snappy Lunch" restaurant. We all had the Pork Chop sandwich -- it was interesting.

Boys will be boys!

We went to Old Salem, NC. 

Nick had Matt do a photo shoot.

Just me.

Me and Nick

 Cute Boys!

Chris and Tenielle

We made gingerbread houses on New Years Eve. The boys were not keen on the idea, but once we started it was serious business. We had lots of fun and they turned out cute.

Carolyn and Tenielle threw me a baby shower while we were in North Carolina. They did such a great job! Tenielle made the cutest invitations. Carolyn made lots of delicious treats. It was great! The theme was boats, trucks and airplanes.

Nick and Matt cleaned a lot of their toys from when they were young. We used them as decorations.