Walking around

Here's a clip of Aubrey walking, she is doing really well. She still crawls part time but I think the transition to full time walking will happen as soon as she speeds up the old lady walk a bit.

13 1/2 months old

Happy New Year

I wasn't able to keep up on my blog once the holiday season hit. I was prepared for Christmas but was kept very busy with sick kids and then a trip to Utah and then normalizing back to life in Florida. We had a fun Christmas spent with my side of the family in Utah and we (except for Charlie) spent New Year's in Utah as well.
Some of the highlights: Being with family, playing games, bowling, lazer tag, watching movies, trip to Temple Square, and Hailey's favorite: Sledding. We even celebrated a few holidays like an unbirthday and Easter since we aren't in Utah during those times. Hailey really enjoyed the snow, I enjoyed it but really love my warm Florida winters. Here are some of our snow pictures.

Aubrey's 1st Birthday

My baby turned one today(Monday Nov. 24th). Hailey asked me if I was going to have a baby boy now that her sister wasn't a baby anymore because she turned one, kids say the darnedest things. I would have to say that Aubrey's 3 loves are eating, being outside and animals so we incorporated all of those things throughout the day. We started the festivities off with a picnic in the front yard.

Then we went to the zoo, we go there quite often because we have a year pass and the kids love it. The weather was perfect and we saw most of the animals in the exhibits (some days they are hiding)


We saw the giraffes first, it's always so fun to see them up close. Hailey fed them but Aubrey was too afraid but who can blame her, they are huge.

I love how Aubrey points at everything. She already talks using her hands.

It's hard getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time, I thought it was cute how they were all looking in different directions. I suppose the birds flying around were a bit distracting.

After all that fun Aubrey took a nap while the rest of us got the house ready for her birthday dinner.

Charlie made a fabulous dinner including steak, pork tenderloin and shrimp but what Aubrey really wanted was the cake.

Here's daddy helping her cut the first piece which is tradition for the birthday person to cut the first piece in Charlie's family.

We let Aubrey have her own cake to dive in to, we all loved watching her stuff her face. I think she could have ate the whole cake if we would have let her, as it was she ate about half.

Happy as can be!

Afterwards we did the present opening. She knew right what to do and started ripping the paper off and playing with whatever was inside. Here she is opening one of the presents Hailey got for her. I didn't know what Hailey had wrapped up but this one happened to be a sippy cup of milk so as soon as it was opened Aubrey started drinking it, ha ha. Hailey promised that it was wrapped up that day.

The other present Hailey gave her was a drawing she drew and it was so cute because even though Aubrey had opened other toys she took the time to appreciate every gift even the drawing.

Here she is with her other presents.

It was a fun day and we loved celebrating Aubrey's 1st birthday as a family.

Aubrey Girl

Once again here are some more "trouble" pictures of Aubrey. Like I've mentioned before Hailey didn't get into things like Aubrey does so I am not even aware of some of the dangers like this next scenario.
When Hailey takes showers Aubrey likes to hang out with her. She usually hangs out holding on to the tub watching her. Well this particular morning I heard the door shut so I went in to check on them and I found Aubrey standing up at the sink. I was so surprised!!! She doesn't even walk yet so although it was very cute it was also very dangerous because her favorite thing to do is dive when she wants to get down from a high point.

The other pictures speak for themselves. I know all mom's have pictures like these and know that they can be so cute while causing so much trouble.

Here is my first attempt at adding video to my blog. It was actually the first time I tried using the video option on my camera, the quality isn't the greatest so I never thought of using it before; therefore, the girls didn't even know I was recording. I loved how Aubrey was sucking the lollipop and was just trying to record her but Hailey threw in a jig for your enjoyment as well.

Halloween 2008

I know Halloween is way over but I just don't get around to posting as much as I would like so here it is anyway.
Here is our pumpkin carving night. I decided to go simple this year with only one pumpkin and a face instead of an intricate pattern because it always takes all night and this went much faster.

They loved playing with the guts.

We decided to let Hailey try carving this year. I don't know how much she actually carved because this is what she looked like when I left to put Aubrey's p.j.'s on and when I got back the pumpkin was done.

On Halloween Hailey's preschool had a fall festival that we went to in the morning.

She went on a hayride (kind of, it was in a truck)

She went to a little pumpkin patch

And she got to ride her first pony

Halloween night we just did the trick or treat around the neighborhood to stock our house up with candy

Cinderella

Aubreybee

Trick-or-treating

My Birthday

Another year has come and gone and I am spending my last year in my twenties. I have decided to make it a really good year since I will be referring to the age of 29 for the rest of my life as most people do. Every year my family tries to remember what age I am turning... you know you are getting old when your parents have a hard time getting it right. This year Dad got it right and mom didn't but last year it was the other way around, ha ha. I thought I was too old to get all the candles on my cake but I guess not :)

I didn't do a good job documenting all the events with photos but I have a few to post. Friday was my birthday and Hailey doesn't have school that day. After giving Charlie a very hard time for going to work and not staying home for my birthday she set out in the kitchen to try and find something special for me for breakfast since her Dad wasn't helping out as she thought he should. She ended up with hot chocolate, mugs and marshmallows on the counter so I made us some hot chocolate, toast and bananas. Afterward Hailey gave me a pedicure and a manicure.

Then we went to a friends house for lunch and when we got home Charlie was home from work early. We opened a few presents and then went out to Carrabba's for dinner. The dinner wasn't as enjoyable with kids around but we had a nice time eating outside.

About to open my big gift...new running shoes

Here I am opening my present from Hailey. She gave me 3 pictures she drew and a cabbage patch doll that I have had since I was 8 years old :)

The next day was Saturday and that's when Charlie pulled all the surprises out of his hat. He surprised me with a pedicure at a salon and then his mom and brother came over to babysit so we could go on a date. Much to my surprise it was an overnight date at a hotel on the beach. At first I was unsure about leaving Aubrey overnight because she had 4 teeth coming in and had been waking up at night but I decided not to worry about it and have a good time. Every time I worry about something it always ends up turning out fine and that is how it turned out, she didn't even wake up that night. It turned out to be a really fun birthday weekend!

I got another singing balloon this year, seems to be a tradition Hailey has instituted.

Aubrey LOVED the singing balloon she gets so excited when she sees it and bounces up and down.

We didn't get a good shot from our photographer this time around but here is the man that treats me like a princess.

Randomness

Not much is going on so here are a few pictures so I don't disappoint those who have been waiting for an update :)

Hailey wanted her to have pigtails, so we ambushed her while she was watching crane's out the window.

Apparently Dad and Hailey were playing a hat game with Aubrey by making hats out of play dough and placing them on her head, looks like fun sorry I missed it.

This is to show what a responsible parent I am, it probably took me 10 minutes after it had happened before I realized she had drawn all over her face, hands and P.J's.

Two weekends ago we went to the Kennedy Space Center. Don't be jealous it wasn't that much fun.