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.

Trouble

Aubrey is 10 months now and I like to call her "trouble". As you can see she is always getting into something but at least she is so cute while she is doing it. I didn't have to child proof much with Hailey so I'm learning the tricks.

She is an easy going baby; the two things that get her mad are when someone takes something away from her or eats in front of her without sharing, other than that she is all smiles.

Some of my favorite things:

-When she gets in yelling fights with Hailey (it is so funny)

-When she looks at me and laughs while she crawls away as fast as she can when she knows she is going somewhere she shouldn't

-When I sit her on a bed and she starts bouncing up and down

-When she hears music and stops what she is doing to throw both hands up in the air and bounce up and down

She is so much fun...I could just stare at her all day long.

Well, nothing exciting has been going on. We have been going through an adjustment period with preschool. Hailey went through a week of not wanting to go to school. She is so sweet and sensitive and I think it was hard for her to see the teachers not being the nicest when kids get out of line. Since then I think she has adjusted and she doesn't protest going but she does get excited for the weekend. She was also waking up groggy, thus the mornings were a little hectic trying to get her ready. But today both the girls woke up right at seven which is the time we are suppose to get up so hopefully their clocks have adjusted and we will have smoother sailing. I had to adjust myself because for the last 4 years I have had the leisure of taking mornings slow and not having to go anywhere so I think I have finally adjusted as well. The afternoons are hit or miss because she comes home tired and grumpy some days but overall I think we are finally getting the hang of this school thing.

Stay-cation

Two of my sisters, Laura and Corine, came to visit last week. We went ahead and did a Stay-cation while they were here. We had a lot of fun and are trying to get back into the swing of things. Here are some of the things we did.

Shopping: Grocery and clothes

Swimming and beach

Haircuts, massages and facials

Boating

Disneyworld

Hailey and Aubrey had a lot of fun playing with their Aunts, I had a lot of fun with my sisters and Charlie was a good sport putting up with all of us girls.

7 year Anniversary

Here we are the happy couple in our engagement picture. Much has changed in the last 7 years since that photo including our photographer. Our photographer for this anniversary tagged along the whole evening and when she took the picture she told us to put our heads together and say "cheese". She was very good especially since she was free.

Our Anniversary was on Sunday, August 24th. Charlie made us a yummy breakfast of orange rolls and fruit before church. The girls cooperated and we were all able to take naps at the same time after church which usually doesn't happen. Then for dinner Charlie made another yummy meal of steak, potatoes and green beans. If you couldn't guess, Hailey was our photographer and she also enjoyed the steak while Aubrey crawled around on the floor looking for crumbs. We enjoyed being together and remembering why we love each other so much. On Monday we dropped the kids off at a friends house and went to dinner at Carraba's. That was our first childless date in 10 months. Although we didn't do anything too extravagant we enjoyed our weekend together and will plan extravagance for another anniversary.

Tropical Storm Fay

Other than feeling couped up in the house all week we weathered the storm fine. However our city/county has had a rough time. We have had lots of flooding! We drove around on the second day of the storm and many of the streets were flooded, we had to try three different ways to get back home because roads were blocked off. Thankfully the drainage in our neighborhood is good and other than a leaky window in our bedroom we had no problems. I feel so bad for all the people that have had their homes flooded, it sure does a lot of damage to your possessions. Hailey only had one day of preschool before school was canceled. Hopefully she will start again on Monday, it will be like having a first day again. Hopefully the rest of Hurricane season is good to us, sometimes I think "What am I doing here" :)

First day of Preschool

So the first day of Preschool was on Monday. We all dropped Hailey off as a family. She was excited and looked a little nervous as we left the classroom but had no problems with us leaving. I was missing her and a little anxious to see how her first day went. I know once we get used to going we will get over the first week jitters. She's my first baby going off to school so it's a little hard for me to let go. She was excited to see me when I picked her up and said she had a good time. I didn't get a whole lot out of her on what they did but she said they talked about listening and not listening. She said she met one friend and that the bathrooms didn't have doors on them and one girl looked at her. I will have to check into that and see what that is all about, I think the room used to be used for 2 year olds who are potty training but I think they should have some privacy because they are at the age when we are trying to teach them about modesty.

So here she is as we are about to get in the car for school. It is a uniformed preschool.

After one day of school she has already been on a two day break because of tropical storm Fay. It has been raining for over 24 hours and a little windy but other than that it hasn't done any damage. They probably would have been fine to go to school but at least we are easing our way into the whole going to school thing. She will go tomorrow and then be done for the week.

Here she is doing her first homework assignment, doesn't that look fun? She is suppose to decorate a shoe box and put items in there that tell about herself for show and tell.