Happy Birthdays!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Nephew Ethan!

and Happy 21st Birthday to my sweet sister, Ashley!

I'm glad we were able to celebrate with you guys this year. :)

Christmas in Fast Forward

Aaron and I had a wonderful Christmas with our family and friends. It's not worth pretending that I'll post about each event, so here's our Christmas in fast forward snapshots.

We started our celebrating with our family picture in front of the tree then date night for Aaron and I. Dinner at Longhorns and a movie on the couch. We treat our last night at home before Christmas as our Christmas eve.

Our Christmas morning (but not really Christmas) started with letting Newton out of the room to go find his presents. He loved his bone.

Aaron always gets me glass bottle cokes for Christmas. One in the stocking, the rest in the fridge. Lucky for him, I share.

I got some beautiful gold Toms for Christmas.

Aaron got a Nook.

Then we went to my parents house... and played Candy Land. (and other games) (PS. There was no one under the age or 23 playing Candy Land... )

Got this really awesome bowl from my sister (Ashley). Handmade. I'm impressed.

Sisters!


Our Howell family on Christmas day

Ate lots of yummy food.

Got to see this sweet boy. He was a bit distracted by his Barney DVD we got him.

Dirty Santa with part of Aaron's family. Always lots of laughs.

Cousins!

and had dinner with some dear friends.

Even with all that, we still have one more (belated) Christmas gathering. Can't wait to see more family!
We sure were busy, but it was great. Surprisingly with all the busyness, we still got plenty of sleep, lots of food, games, and down time in. Ready for 2011!

Cutie!

Isn't he just a cutie??
I got to take a few pictures of my precious nephew and his parents over Thanksgiving. Even though the little photo session didn't go as planned, I still think we got some great shots. :)

Speaking of...

Speaking of this little guy....

Can you believe he started Mother's Day out already? Yesterday was his first day and he'll be going every Tuesday and Thursday. His mother tells me that he walked right on in the classroom barely saying bye to her or Andrew. He's growing up so fast!

We really enjoyed getting to spend some time with him this past weekend.. he was a little less clingy (to all others except us) than he was last time we saw him.. which made him more fun! He loved playing with Newton.. there were even some kisses exchanged. Ethan also loved going in our sunroom and closing the french doors and making faces at us from the other side. Gotta love him!

PS. he LOOOVES Funnel Cake Fries. :)

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Well it's been one whole year since this picture was taken.. and you better believe we whipped that hat right back out.
He still hates it.




and here's his birthday present that he was oh-so-excited about...

It's already half-way destroyed....

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Newt!

On a side note.. Aaron and I and my friend Lauren are heading to Memphis tomorrow after work. Lauren and I will be photographing a wedding this weekend. Should be fun. :)
In the meantime, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew will be coming from Memphis to Atlanta for the Nascar race on Sunday. We'll be heading back on Sunday in hopes to spend a little bit of time with them and love on that precious boy.

Love...

Love. Just about everyone celebrated love this weekend, including Aaron and I. However, we probably celebrated a bit differently than others. We didn't have date night at a fancy restaurant or get fancy gifts for each other. Instead we ate homemade pot roast and purchased cards with unicorns and stickers, onesies, and brightly colored shirts. We celebrated the love of family.

After work on Friday, Aaron and I left our winter wonderland in Atlanta and made the trek to Memphis to see the whole Howell clan. We were all together in December, all except for the newest addition, Katie Joy. It was a special time for the whole family to all be together. On Saturday morning we went and had our first ever family portraits. They turned out so great! On Sunday we all went to church together. For a short while, Ellie sat next to me holding my arm and smiling up at me and singing along. It sure did warm my heart. Abby worked on a crossword next to me. I'm so impressed by her intelligence. Many times over the weekend, I got many “AUUUUNNT EEEERIN!!!”s and attacking hugs and kisses. Sunday afternoon, Aaron and I said our goodbyes. It was the last time we will see them for a couple of years. (hopefully 2012). It's really not that long... but it seems like a long time when I realize that Abby will be 8/9 and Ellie will be 6 and sweet newborn Katie will be 2 and a half. That makes it hard. My goal was to say our goodbyes without crying. I basically succeeded. Holding Katie one last time and giving her sweet goodbye kisses was a bit hard. I may have slightly teared, but I held it together. I made it all the way outside, then Aaron's mom gave me a final goodbye hug.

I blame her.

She was crying first.

It was such a special weekend to share love with our family, especially our nieces and nephew. Being an aunt is one of the best blessings.

Loving on Katie Joy. Katie is short for Katherine. Katherine means pure. She's Pure Joy. I love it. I love her.

Jeanette, the MIL, aka Nettie, had some Valentines games for the girls to play. They guessed how many heart candies were in the jar. Ellie insisted on 10, even though we counted more than 10 together. They also played pin the snowman on... the snowman. Luckily they had Grandma Ruth's silk sleep mask to use.

It was like Christmas all over again for the kids. Abby and Ellie decorated their own bags and helped with Ethan and Katie's. The bags were filled with all kinds of goodies such as candy, games, and clothes.

Ethan has the cutest laughing fits. We're not sure if he really thinks it's that funny... or if he is just deliriously tired. Either way, it's hilarious.

I got some major aunt points for sharing my red velvet cake and ice cream with Ethan. He loved it. Only for cute nephews (and nieces) would I not mind sharing. :)

Uncle Aaron and Aunt Erin with the nieces. (hindsight we should have had Ethan in the picture as well...

Howell Love Album

What's Shaking?

Busy season is shaking.... that's what. I noticed that I never even blogged about Christmas... and it's already February! So here are a few collages to document our holiday season. No promises on consistent blogging for awhile, but I'll do what I can. :) Cheers!

Holidays at the Grays. Rachel got some Toms from us. Aaron started reading Harry Potter and made it through book 6 over school break. We saw pretty birds and did lots of hanging out.

Holidays with the extended Howell family. This year we did dirty santa using M. As in, M is for Merry Christmas. I got a movie night gift (blockbuster gift card, popcorn, and Mike's Ike). Aaron got a McDonalds gift card. We did pretty awesome. :)

And some pictures of Ethan being cute.. as always. We got him the crawling/drums thing.

Next was Christmas with my mom's side of the family in Florida. Of course it included shooting marshmallow guns at each other in the cul-de-sac. Doesn't every family holiday have that? Newton was along for the entire ride... he even got a few marshmallows caught in his fur.

And what's Florida without the beach? It was freezing cold, but we ventured out to the jetty. Rachel and I had fun taking pictures with pretty much every random thing we found along the way. (see random cement blocks and goggles) Aaron has learned to deal with our photo shoots... :)

And a few snapshots of our home during the holidays. Check out the awesome glass coke bottles that I got as stocking stuffers from the hubby. There is also a random picture of me and 2 of my favorite girls from M'town, Aubrie and Tara. This was not at my home.. but I wanted to include it somewhere.

Holiday picture collection