Life Down South

Kiddos Playing

2012-02-04T23:10:00.001-05:00

Aubrey has so much fun when Aidan (or A-D as she calls him) comes over. They both instantly start acting insanely goofy and always are making us laugh. Aidan also has a nickname for Aubrey and will supposedly stand at their front door and say Baubrey, Baubrey. They are truly best friends and it's so neat to see them interact together.

They often get out Aubrey's car she got from her Great Grandma and they will ride around the living room running into things. Aubrey always insists on putting on her helmet.....safety first. She's also wearing a new adorable dress from our friends Sheila and Kai, the girl loves clothes.

Pictures don't do their sillyness justice, so here are a few videos of A-D and Baubrey at their finest.

In this first one Aubrey is acting like a pirate and kept saying arrrr, arrr.

Then they got a little crazy in the kitchen singing the AB's and spinning in circles, yep only the AB's because those are the only letters Aubrey knows so nope we don't sing the ABC's in our house we sing the AB's.

Her secret play spot

2012-01-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is one of Aubrey's favorite spot to play. She'll try and move the chairs and then come say help peease, oh yeah it's pretty darn cute. So here's Aubrey playing with Tata (what she calls Kyle) under the table. They were playing with one of my best deals I've ever gotten from McKays used book store a .99 strawberry shortcake play house/book it's gotten us through a flight to Dallas and even Christmas Eve church service.

Back story on McKays (one of my favorite places in Knoxville).....when I was in labor with Aubrey we kept having to walk and walk and walk some more and then going back to the dr checking to see if I had progressed any. One of our last big walks took place at McKays, I walked laps upstairs of that place and walked every aisle downstairs. It's a GINORMOUS used book store that is always packed whether it's 3 in the afternoon on a weekday or 9 pm on a Saturday, we love that place and only wish it was closer so we could go more often. Maybe this is where Aubrey gets her love for books.

Snow Day

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we got our first snow that Aubrey could appreciate. First Kyle brought some in a cup for her to play with and of course taste. She was so cute playing with the snow so afterwards I bundled her all up and we went out and played. Like true Tennesseeans that we are we didn't have a sled so we used a plastic storage box and what do you know it worked! We looked so hick but Aubrey had fun. Aubrey was so excited about the snow and was even going next door to the neighbors and yelling excitedly NOOOOOO she called snow nooo with this weird sound she added to it and every time she yelled it. We tried catching it on tape but she was too focused on eating her snow to actually say snow, so maybe next time it nooooo's we'll catch it on tape. Here's all we got when we tried.

Tasting her snow.

The snow kept falling and hitting her in the face but she kept on doing it.

This was the cold face that always followed Aubrey eating the ice.

Toddler Races

2012-01-22T16:59:00.001-05:00

Aubrey and Aidan have so much fun together. This is what they were doing this afternoon all by themselves they started this up.

It's Potty Time

2012-01-22T15:17:00.001-05:00

So since about Christmas we've been relax potty training??? Is that even a concept or theory. I don't know but it's what works for us. Aubrey started saying potty and wanting to sit on the potty so we thought why not start trying. We have a little potty chair and if we sit her on it, 9/10 she'll go for us. Now we haven't figured out the #2 on the potty except a few times but she will easily sit down say potty get up and she's done her business. I don't think we're ready for full blown on potty training she's 19 months so we're just taking it slow and she has some great days where she's in big girl undies (usually no pants- easier to do then) and goes most of the time on the potty only a couple accidents a day. Then there are days full of laundry, cooking, and cleaning where I can't focus on potty training so we throw a good 'ol cloth diaper on her and we try to go as many times as we can on the potty. I'm trying not to make it stressful what-so-ever for Aubrey's and for our sake. Here are some pictures I caught during our day of Dora big girl undies (although she has no idea who Dora is-nope we aren't big Dora fans- she got them as a hand me down never worn before from her cousin Josalyn). Now I think if we got her some Mickey undies the girl would only go on the potty in fear of getting Mickey wet (she looooves her some Mickey- but calls him Minnie).

And just an FYI, this potty training plan we're doing is called.....wait for it....winging it. That's our main source for most of our parenting tactics. We just try what feels what's right and if it doesn't work, whelp then we switch it up. I don't read many parenting books or blogs we just figure a trial and error parenting is our style. Might not be anyone elses style but it's what's worked for us.

The other day Aubrey got her play computer out and said hi Mimi, she was pretend skyping my mom. I thought it was so funny because she pretends to talk on the phone all the time but this is a new one.

Her pee pee potty dance, her and Kyle really enjoy the dancing part after using the potty.

Reading a Elmo potty book we got from Grandma TT.

I wanted to share what happens when I get my camera out to take a picture, usually 30-40 pictures are snapped just trying to get one good shot. I still have a crappy point and shoot (working with what I've got here) so it takes some time to get a good one. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't, but this is always what my memory card looks like when I plug it into my computer.

Movie day

2012-01-17T16:00:00.001-05:00

It's a rainy day and Kyle has the afternoon off so I see every reason to make popcorn, get out our comfy blankets and watch rio(Aubrey's favorite movie). I'll try to catch a video of her dancing to the songs because she gets really excited.

Painting in the bath tub

2012-01-10T15:37:00.001-05:00

Yep, you heard that right we painted in the bath tub...with colored shaving cream that is. Aubrey had a blast with it, she was a little hesitant at first and then once we started putting the shaving cream on her she realized she could paint herself. She started rubbing it all over her and saying her name. She's asked before when coloring and she'll say Aubrey, aubrey? and at first I didn't know what she meant but then she started coloring her shirt. So this was one time that yes Aubrey could color herself and that she did. We'll definitely be doing this again.

Puppies

2012-01-08T21:46:00.000-05:00

We are definitely taking advantage of this awesome weather and we've gotten to play outside the past couple of days. Aubrey loves to watch the dogs run around outside and she is so cute when she runs down to our neighbor Krislyn's house to play with "puppies" she has a little dog named Aspen but Aubrey calls her puppies. It's nice that Aubrey can now run around outside but I'm still nervous to death she's going to go barrelling down the steep hill we have outside. Oh it will be nice to have a flat yard someday, oh someday.

Here's a video of her running after the dogs. Kyle starts a new rotation in Endocrinology and he'll only have 4 more "first days" in his rotations!! That means in May he will be D-O-N-E with med school, whoop whoop! We're just kind of excited around here about that.

Christmas x 3

2012-01-04T22:21:00.001-05:00

Well we had our very last Christmas for 2011 this past weekend ith my parents and also rang in the new year. Aubrey's Mimi and Papa came in on Friday and Saturday morning we were able to wake up and have another Christmas. Aubrey loved getting a chance to open presents again and of course loved the toys themselves inside. We had a relaxing weekend really doing much of nothing. We somehow made it up until midnight on New Years Eve and Aubrey shocked us all by staying asleep while we were loudly playing catch phrase right out in the living room. We even went outside and banged pots and pans, yep I'm one of those people. It's always so hard to say goodbye to my mom and dad when they're here but I'm at least grateful that they can take the time off to come visit. It's deifnitely neat now that Aubrey knows who people and and she was very excited every morning she woke up and Mimi and Papa were in her living room. She ran out every morning saying, "Hi, Hi, Hi". Here are a few pictures from our fun weekend.

Aubrey always asks Mimi to do butterfly kisses on her toes. Wonder for how long my mom will be willing to do this to her.

Aubrey kept saying her name and then saying eyes, she was trying to do butterfly kisses on her own toes.

Snuggling with Mimi and Papa happened every morning they were here.

It was so cute to watch how excited she was to go out into the living room to wake up Mimi and Papa in the morning. Waiting in her chair for Papa or Hoho to bring in his bag of presents.

Playing with her new castle from Mimi and Papa.

Under the table is Aubrey's new favorite place to play, she had all of her dolls under there the other day. She always grabs your hand and asks people to get under with her.

Here is proof that Aubrey usually likes playing with the boxes just as much as the toy that comes in them.

Playing soccer with Papa.

Papa always makes Aubrey laugh.

Aubrey's first New Year's Eve date.

We had so much fuh playing games, eating as much fried food as possible, and having some great drinks.

I'll miss my drinking buddy next New Year's Eve.

Ringing in the New Year!

Saying hello to 2012 makes us wonder what great things this year will bring. Kyle will finish med school and will be a DOCTOR! He'll start residency, where we don't know yet (we'll find out Feb. 13th). We'll make our 4th move in the 4 years we've been married. Aubrey will turn the big 2. So much more I think is in store for us and we look forward to this exciting new year.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-28T12:33:00.001-05:00

We had a great Christmas, although we did miss our families it was nice to just be our little family and have no schedules or places to be. Christmas Eve we just hung out and watched Christmas movies and baked cookies. We had a big Christmas Eve dinner and I made a ham so we had our neighbor Aunt Krislyn over and she had dinner with us. We then got all ready and went to Christmas Eve service, it was beautiful and Aubrey made it for most of it. She hung out in the nursery for a little bit and then we went and got her for the candlelight part at the end and she kept trying to blow out everybody's candles. Kyle then suggested we get some hot chocolate and go look at Christmas lights so we did exactly that. We went to this place called Hidden Holloway that my mom and I had tried going to before but when we went it looked like a scene straight out of Deliverence so we didn't get out and high tailed it out of there. When we went on Christmas Eve thought it was the exact opposite, it was all lit up with lights and Santa was even there. So we got out of the car and walked around for a little while and checked out the ducks in the lake, the petting zoo, and finally Santa who got nothing more than a scared glance from Aubrey. Her face was priceless as he (yes Santa) took Our picture. I need to download it from Kyle's phone because it's a really good picture and Aubrey's face is priceless.

We then came home and did one present and Aubrey got Minnie Mouse socks she wore to bed, I got new pjs, and Kyle got a running armband for his phone. Christmas Eve was ended with some last minute wrapping and a phone call to South Africa to talk to my sister and her family as they were just waking up for their Christmas. Christmas day was absolutely perfect. We woke up and just hung out in our pajamas most of the day. Aubrey took her time playing with each present as she opened them. She was so excited that HO ho ho had come and left presents and some pretty awesome goodies in our stocking. She woke up and had popcorn, chocolate, and lifesaver gummies for breakfast (really healthy, huh). We opened presents for a while and then made our traditional breakfast of ham and eggs and overnight cinnamon rolls. It was a perfect day of playing and relaxing. We are truly blessed to have such an amazing little girl in our lives, she's perfect in every way. Here's a video with all of our pics and videos from this Christmas. Warning it's about 9 min because it's all of our pictures and video from Christmas.

Just Relaxing

2011-12-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

It's soooo nice to be back in our own house. As much as we love visiting family, living out of suitcases for so long was starting to get old. We are enjoying just relaxing, playing, and enjoying not having to go anywhere, pack, or unpack. We will definitely miss being around family this weekend but we have a weekend full of family time, including cookies, going to look at lights, a big ham for a small family (lots of leftovers), opening presents, and so much more.

Here are some pictures from our weekend up at Kyle's sisters house. We had a lot of fun playing with Baby Caden.

Uncle Jeff playing Elmo videos for Aubrey and Caden. Youtube videos are the way to Aubrey's heart, haha.

Aubrey loved playing with Daden (as she called him).

Uncle Jeff took her outside to play in her pjs and she had a blast.

Bath time with Daden was fun too, even though she didn't need a bath I knew she'd be trying to get in so I just threw her in there with him.

He was like her little baby doll, she loved feeding him.

Aunt Shelby (or Aunt Shelbert- as Kyle calls her) came over to play.

We can't wait for Tata (Aubrey has been calling Kyle Tata instead of Dada recently) to do more fun things like making gingerbread houses.

Of course with some eating while making.

By both parties.

Christmas Week and a 18th Month Birthday

2011-12-20T10:16:00.002-05:00

Well yesterday was Aubrey Lynne's 18 month birthday and off to the doctor we went just for a check up. We took care of all the shots a couple months ago so we weren't doing shots right before Christmas. I'm not good about keeping stats on the blog but I wish I would have been better so I could look back in one place and be able to see how she grew. But here is Aubrey in a nut shell at 18 months.

Weighs 28 lbs (95%)
34 inches tall (99%) Holy moly is she going to be a tall girl
Favorite Foods: ba ba (chicken-she makes the sound of a chicken), little oranges, edamames, green beans, goldfish, and veggie chips
Cute words- Tata (dada she says it funny now for some reason), Ernie, Elmo and Abbey, Minnie, baby, Dadan (is Caden and Aidan's names), hair (and then will play with my hair, it's always been her comfort thing), puppy, Pe (is penguin), vava (is car her version of vroom),
Animals she knows: sheep, cow, fish, giraffe (she's made up her own sound), lion, elephant, snake, horse
Favorite shows- Sesame Street (mostly Elmo's world), Chuggington, Barney(she sings well kind of sings the I Love You song) and Mickey Mouse Playhouse (her hot dog dance is ridiculously cute), she's mostly out of the yo gabba phase and she gets really excited when Clifford comes on and starts yelling puppy puppy, but then quickly loses interest

She is so much fun and we love seeing her little personality shine. She makes us laugh alll the time and we're just loving our little toddler (definitely no longer a baby).

Yay blogger app

2011-12-07T21:09:00.001-05:00

Life just got easier on the road! There is now a blogger for the I phone well not my phone but kyles you know its all the same. Kyle just got in from a day and a half at the hospital in Tennessee and now we're headed out again tomorrow for 2 interviews and Christmas in Columbia. Our visit back has been ummm how do we say it... Exciting to say the least. We had the present that kept on giving. Aubrey and I both got the flu and it's been the most sick I ever remember being. Thankfully my mom was around to help(and had already had gotten sick) so Kyle could focus and get some sleep for interviews. Let's just say me and the hotel in springfield, il bathroom floor and toilet and I saw a lot of each other. But everybody is back to normal again and ready for another road trip. Aubrey is definitely happy tata( her version of dada) is back! They love them some you tube videos, Elmo, chuggington, and Mickey mouse clubhouse are the favorites right now.

On the road again

2011-11-30T10:13:00.001-05:00

I feel like we should always be singing that song. We head out tomorrow for a 10 day tour of interviews, we'll be all over the place and we'll get to see my family and then Kyle's sisters and nephew in Missouri for a weekend. Aubrey has seen a lot of this in the past couple of months...

but thankfully we have a great traveler. I think she has be trained well since we travel a ridiculous amount. We have a great time whenever we go, staying in hotels, swimming in pools, hanging with the cousins. It's definitely more exciting when we're taking road trips. We'll even get to do Christmas with our families while we're there.

But it does feel good to just be home and relax like this.

So little to say I probably won't be posting anything for a while so although I said I'm going to get back on it, I'll take a small break while we're all over the place again.

Oh Life Got Busy

2011-11-27T23:59:00.001-05:00

Well when we weren't traveling from Dallas, to Indianapolis, to St.Louis, back to Indy for all sorts of stuff mostly interviews and visiting with family we were basically just living life. I realized I missed out on Halloween and trust me I'll get a few pics and really cute videos so I can always remember Aubrey's first Halloween that she understood, hey if I knock on this door and say something that remotely sounds like trick or treat they will give me FREE CANDY! We are almost done with the interview season for Kyle to find a residency that fits him and that he fits with as well. He's planning on doing family medicine residency and I couldn't be happier, he's going to make a great family med doc and in only 6 more months he will be a "REAL DOCTOR"!!! Well after residency and all but still he will be a DR! So for now I'll just post a couple pics of the cute kid because she is getting bigger by the second and oh soooo much a toddler. With the cute antics, always making us smiling, and always giving us a run for a money when it comes to the whole parenting thing. Glad to be back to the blog so I can remember all these great memories that we make!

Dallas State Fair

2011-10-09T17:28:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we spent Saturday hanging out at Cecilia's soccer game and then we hopped into the car and headed to the Dallas State Fair. I didn't know what to expect but when we got there I was definitely not thinking it would be as huge as it was. I'm used to small town carnivals and fairs and this was HUUUUGE!!! They had a football game going on at the Cotton Bowl stadium which was on the fairgrounds too. I'm kind of a dork and thought it was the actual cotton bowl huge game and was texting everybody saying where I was, little to find out that's not until January. Ooops. Here are some pictures from our great, awesome, exciting Saturday with the Toti fam. Oh and our day didn't end until 10:30, the little girl was exhausted!

Swinging at the soccer park.

This girl and a ball is just too natural, (oh wow, I sound like one of this bragging moms, Oh wait, I am). She had so much fun running around after the ball, ball, ball.

Hanging out on the bench with CeeCee (what Aubrey calls Cecilia).

Walking into the fair! They had some pretty crazy fried foods there and I didn't take a picture, ooops. We tried the fried lemonade (delicious!), fried pizza, fried bubblegum (yuck!), fried pie. They also had fried beer, fried margaritas, fried chicken pancake things, you name it and they fried it.

We had fun with these cut out things.

Riding on the ferris wheel, such an amazing view.

Seriously awesome ferris wheel.

Riding the carousel with Grandma TT, she loved the horses.

Ok, so gross story I added just because we couldn't stop laughing in the car. So if you don't want to hear something gross stop here. So we were driving downtown and Aubrey started making a face like she was well umm adding something to her diaper. All of a sudden the girls and Cole started yelling saying, grooooosssss you can see it. Yep, as we were driving Aubrey was literally pooping her pants. So while stuck in traffic Kyle and I held her legs apart so the mess didn't get any worse. It was quite funny, disgusting but funny.

Oklahoma Visit

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

So 2 days after we got into Dallas we packed up the car again to head 3 hrs. to Oklahoma City for a residency interview Kyle had. Kyle's mom came with us and played babysitter while we went to dinner with residents and stayed at a paid for bed and breakfast, yep free the best kind :)

So I got home and edited pictures and realized I didn't take any of Kyle and I during time there but I did get a bunch of pictures with Aubrey and Grandma TT during our great day while Kyle was interviewing. We hung around downtown Oklahoma City, bricktown and had a great day feeding ducks, wine tasting with a sleeping baby in a stroller (yep you read it right), and eating some great mexican food.

Water Day

2011-10-05T21:09:00.000-04:00

Our second day here (last Wednesday) we had a water day. We went up to this awesome outdoor shopping mall that we always go to when we're here and I can not tell you how awesome this place is, seriously. It has some great shops (Old Navy, Children's Place ok my two fave kids clothes places besides garage sales, haha), they also have the most amazing gelato and popcorn. All kinds of popcorn like melt in your mouth good popcorn. They have the cutest shoe store and really cheap cute jewerly store. Now to add to it we got to play in the fountains today and we also enjoyed a wetzel pretzel, it was a great day! Aubrey loved running through the water she thought it was the best thing ever. Little to say we've already have been back and she's in a ridiculous cute tutu swimsuit this time, picture at the bottom. This mall also has free strollers, free towels, free umbrellas, and if it's raining they give you a $10 gift card to come back. I would so be hitting it up every day rain was in the forecast for that. Here are some pictures and video from our fun water day.

Aubrey loved going down the slide with Kyle. I didn't know how she would do at first but after the first time she went down she immediately pointed to the slide and said...pease, pease, pease (her version of please) and pointed to the slide. She's definitely a water baby or I guess toddler now.

Playing with a ball, ball, ball with Cecilia. Aubrey never says the word ball once she has to repeat it and repeat it, it's kinda cute.

Park and Grandpa B-day

2011-10-04T17:06:00.002-04:00

So I wanted to recap what we did while we're down here for Kyle's Dallas rotation. The day we got in was Kyle's dads birthday so I brought him the best present of all......AUBREY! It was gorgeous weather and has been every day since we've been here. Crazy to be all ready for fall back in Tennessee and then step off a plane and bam back to summer. One strange thing I have noticed here is although I'm wearing all my summer clothes- tank tops, shorts, skirts, sandals. The rest of Texas is wearing fall clothes like sweaters, jeans, jackets, it's just crazy!!! It's 90 degrees and people have on long sleeved sweaters. I totally look like I don't fit in down here. Kyle's mom explained to me that 90 is colder than they're usual 109 so people feel like it's colder when they're used to insane heat.

Anyway, enough of my clothes rant and more pictures of the kids playing at the park. Aubrey has had so much fun going to play at the park in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. She is in love with Cecilia and Jasmine and has spent every minute just walking around and playing with the girls. Her new favorite is to play barbies in their ginormious doll house.

This is where they hang out a lot. They are always around the piano, Aubrey pounds on the piano and then dances, it's pretty darn cute.

Aubrey was so happy to see Bailey. They both were pretty cute actually when she first got out of the car and realized Bailey was here she started running after her and Bailey was bouncing all over the play out of excitement. Aubrey loves this room at Grandmas because it's full of a whole bunch of different animals. It's basically like going to the zoo without all the walking, oh and the real animal part. Aubrey has decided a giraffe says (she clicks her tongue) so you know what I have no idea what a giraffe says, so it sounds good to me.

Grandpa on his birthday with his girls.

Playing at the park with Grandma TT.

We're having a great time so far, more pictures to come!

Mom's Visit

2011-10-02T22:52:00.002-04:00

So while Kyle was working in Austin, my mom came to visit and take Aubrey and I to the airport to meet up with him. We had so much fun just doing girl stuff and basically doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. It's nice every once in a while to be just girls (although we did miss Kyle like crazy).

Here are some pictures from our great week...

We played with lots and lots of dolls. Thanks Mimi for Aubrey's new baby (Aubrey says baby the cutest ever, I'll post a video of it soon.)

We looked for monkeys and lions in our woods. We really don't have monkeys and lions, Mimi just has a great imaginiation.

We went to the library.

We belly blowed.

We Chick-Fil-Aed (if that's a word) Aubrey loves baaugh bauugh (the sound of a chicken) and she couldn't get enough of this video when we got home. She kept pointing to my mom's camera and wanting to watch this video.

We snuggled.

We watched the Tech band and danced.

We tailgated and slid down some awesome bounce house slides.

We watched cheerleaders and played with some Mimi hair (it's Aubrey's comfort thing, it's so cute.)

We ring a round the rossie'ed.

We played at the park.

Then we had to go to the airport to head to Dallas. It was bittersweet because we were so excited to see Kyle but sad to be leaving my mom.

Watching rrrr's (the best way I can type the sound Aubrey makes for plane).

Walking to our gate with Aubrey's new suitcase from Mimi. Thanks for a great trip Mom and I can't wait to see you again. I love you more than the frozen rolos I'm eating right now.

I couldn't get a good picture of Aubrey on the plane but it was a great trip. She was so good on the plane and slept until Birmingham and then we had more people come on and Aubrey entertained the two guys sitting next to us the rest of the way to Dallas. We're having a great time here in Dallas so far and I will definitely be adding more pictures of our trip so far this week.

First Cookie Baking Experience

2011-09-20T14:29:00.000-04:00

So Aubrey and I (ok really just me) decided to make cookies for Kyle to take on his road trip down to Austin. I had some leftover sugar cookie mixes so I gave Aubrey a little spatula and she helped stir up some cookies. Then I put her in the highchair and she helped me roll out dough and use cookie cutters. She was doing great cutting the cookies and leaving the dough alone until she decided hmmm I wonder if this stuff tastes good and then out the door went the helping and in with the eating. As soon as I would get a flat sheet of rolled dough, Aubrey would start peeling away the dough and eating it. It was a losing battle so I just ate some with her and finished cutting the cookies by myself. Then started the icing part, again she did great sticking her little play kitchen knife in and icing the cookie until she got one taste of that heavenly goodness (water+powdered sugar, yummm). Then it got a little messy from there and by a little I mean a lot!! We had fun and Dad and Aubrey loved eating the cookies, I'd say our first baking experience was a success.

Neighbor Cutiepies

2011-09-19T22:05:00.001-04:00

All the kiddos were playing outside on Sunday, even baby Jack was hanging with the toddlers. It was such a beautiful fall day and I'm looooving the weather right now and I hope it sticks around for a little while. I know we won't be sticking around and be heading to hot 109 degree weather in Texas but I definitely think true fall weather will be waiting for us when we get back from Texas (boots and all, yay boot weather!!! I could happy squell over wearing some good pair of boots). So while the kids were outside I decided to take a few pictures, especially since Aidan and Aubrey both backed up against the brick wall (gotta love me some brick background) and they actually both stayed there until I ran inside, got my camera and came back out. I keep taking these pictures and editing them trying to make them look like I'm taking them with a better camera. Some day, some day I will own a fancy schmancy camera (probably 15 years from now after loans are all paid off, HA who am I kidding 15 seems more like it will be 50). So enough rambling here are the cute kids I promised. Seriously cuteness!!
Baby Jack smiles are too stinkin cute!

Yay, it was cold enough to wear cardigans to church :) The simple things in life that make me happy, ha.

So Aubrey was having a picnic outside and decided she didn't want to eat anything until Alarie brought out Aidan's plate and then she ate about every carrot off his plate. This is the kid that never wants carrots when they're on her plate but oh somebody else has them, yes please. So in most of these pictures she's chewing up a massive mouthful of carrots.

The Aidan tongue that he has out oh so often, love it.

Ok, so Aubrey was in this picture but the way she had her face she looked drunk (no she doesn't drink, don't worry), so I photo shopped my own kid out to catch this cutie, look at those eyes! Aubrey loves her bf Aidan.

Now, here's my cutie pa-tootie.

Afternoon Park Date

2011-09-18T23:10:00.000-04:00

We often go to the park to play and we always bring some old bread to feed to the ducks. On this particular day Aubrey and I were all ready to go and then Kyle pulled up the driveway so he was able to go with us for our afternoon park date. He also treated us to frozen yogurt at our favorite place 32 degrees. We love our park, just wish it was a little closer (it's only 10 min or so but it's the only place to go for a walk).

Ok, my favorite picture to take is of these two. Something about the way she looks at her daddy, holds her daddy, it just melts my heart.

Kyle is in Austin right now for a couple of weeks and we'll be joining him down in Texas at the end of the month. We miss you so much Kyle and we love you, we can't wait to see you!

Cardigan Love

2011-09-14T15:25:00.000-04:00

I can't wait for Aubrey to wear these little cardigans this fall. Since our week of chilly weather last week I decided to go shopping in her closet for her fall clothes and boy do I love getting out new clothes. I told Kyle look I went shopping and it cost nothing! He said yeah, but how much did you spend putting it all there. I'm happy to say that her clothes are either Josalyn's hand me downs, garage sale or thrift store finds, or clearance rack, so really not much $s have been spent. Too bad fall just played a trick on us and lasted for about 4 days and now we're back up in the 80s and 90s. Don't think she'll be getting much use out of these either in the 109 crazy temp in Texas. Oh well, maybe in a month or two....

Gotta Love Skype

2011-09-14T13:39:00.000-04:00

I don't know what we would do without technology and living far away from family. We love sending picture texts and video messages of Aubs to our family so they can still see her. Aubrey also likes to talk on the phone and she especially likes to skype. What we would do without skype, I don't know. We often times have skype dates with my mom and baby Zach in the mornings. We just skyped Grandma TT and the girls the other day too. Aubrey always thinks she's calling Papa when she's skyping but I think it's because it's her favorite name to say right now. She was giggling when Kyle and I were asking her what our names were and she would laugh and say Papa. But of course when we pointed to Bailey and asked what her name was she instantly said Baiwee. Kimberly even had us skype the other day to practice for her first patient encounter and all I can say is Kyle is the FUNNIEST patient model. Oh, the med students are so lucky he never took that gig. So we love our skype and are so thankful it keeps us closer and it has allowed Aubrey to know her Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, and Uncles.

Here's a picture from our morning skype date with Mimi the other day. Aubrey had finished a bowl of cereal (we usually share a bowl of mini-wheats in the morning). She was trying to feed my mom, no there wasn't any milk or cereal left in there. She has a great imagination and can pretend play at the drop of the hat. If you look too, you'll notice her beautiful bed head.

Say, Ahhhhh Mimi!

Funfest

2011-09-13T13:29:00.001-04:00

The past two weekends have been a blast, we've had so much fun spending time outside and at fairs or in this case an annual funfest. The funfest was PBS kids themed and each tent had a theme whether it was Dinosaur Train, Super Why, they had everything. Aubrey loves seeing people, listening to music and dancing, walking around, and just being outside. The most exciting part of this funfest was Aubrey got to meet ELMO!! Yep, THE ELMO!! I think I was more excited than she was, but surprisingly she ran right up to him. She didn't want to sit on his lap but still was very excited to see Elmo in person instead of just on tv.

They had a cute little kids bags set up so we started her early and tried teaching her how to play bags.

They had a Bob the Builder set up where they were building little play houses so of course Aubrey went in to play.

They had a mist tent which the kid loves getting any water sprayed on her. Last night I was even just sitting outside with the hose spraying Aidan and Aubrey with the hose, it was on the mist setting. I'm not that mean.

She did some major dancing and wanted to get as close to the band as possible, so Kyle and I kept pulling her back to save her ears. Little to say I think this girl is bound to be a band groupie one day.

They had a cute gymnastics stand set up and they were showing the kids how to do sumersaults, Aubrey loved this part. This was also after we had been there for about 3 hours, the kid didn't stop moving the whole day.

Did some dunking with Dad.

Didn't get a great picture of the 3 of us, but we had a blast. A good last weekend here before Kyle heads to Texas for a rotation in Austin and then we'll be heading down to Dallas in 2 weeks to meet up with him.

Labor Day Fair

2011-09-08T13:36:00.001-04:00

Papa came to visit for Labor Day weekend and we had a great time visiting and playing. Aubrey now says Papa and it's so cute it's almost in a whisper. She'll say his name and then point to his picture in our living room so when she woke up Saturday morning and her Papa was in her living room it was a pretty big surprise. We had a blast and was able to go to a labor day fair and enjoy some small town Tennessee fun, including a greased pig contest where kids tried to catch a greased up pig and with greased up hands. The firefighters also hooked up a huge sprinkler basically and Aubrey had so much fun running through it and cooling off. We ended the fair with listening to some good 'ol bluegrass music and Aubrey did a little dancing for everybody. We had a great time with my dad and we were sad to see him go. We're so blessed to have visitors and are thankful for the time they're here. Until next time....

Playing in the jail, better be the only time she's in jail!

I can hear her saying vrooom, vrooom in this picture.

All cooled off from the sprinkler.

Fell asleep on Papa on the way back to the car, one tired little girl.

This is how Aubrey looked when Kyle and I got back from church. Papa stayed home and watched Aubrey so we could go to church childless. You could say he wore her out.

Watching Bailey outside.

Surprises from Papa's lunchbox, which he brought down just so he could to this tradition. I used to always look in his lunchbox when he got home from work as a kid and he'd have some kind of surprise or snack in there. Aubrey got a snack pack and some crackers.

Reading books, her favorite.

Ok, sorry about the crazy amount of videos but I couldn't pick just one.
Aubrey playing in the sprinkler.

Bluegrass music dancing.

Oh, the pig race.

Papa and Aubrey playing.

Ok, last one I promise. Aubrey just started to try and jump, so here is her and her baby jumping.

Ta-Da

2011-09-07T23:53:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Amanda and I have an addiction with spray paint and thrift store items.
I was sick of the red in my kitchen , although a lot of my decorations were wedding items and I may use them again but I was just done and they needed a new home (i.e. the closet). So I decided the gray and yellow blog re-do wasn't enough I wanted some gray and yellow in my house so I decided why not my kitchen. I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg re-doing our rental we'll be moving out in 8 months anyway (I know, I know, moving again!) So I decided to do it on the cheap, use what I already have and only buy things from my new fave thrift store or goodwill. So here's my breakdown.

Yellow Cereal and snack bins- Target, $1 each. Total $2
3 No. tin cans- Thrift store, .10 each!!!. Total 30 whopping cents!!!
Glass bunny- Thrift store, $1
Glass tea kettle- Thrift store, $1
Soap container- Thrift store, .75
Vintage coffee jar- Thrift store, $1
Banana holder- Thrift store, .50
Cloth napkins- Goodwill, .25 each. Total for 16- $4
Star, candle sticks, glass vases, cake stand, fram, knife block, cookie jar, soap dish, colander, silver tray, beautiful silver frames- already had them
Total: $10.55 oh yeah!!!

I like my kitchen so much better now and I've realized the more I like my house the more I like to keep it clean. Seriously the house has looked pretty darn clean these days just because I love looking at what we've done (which really isn't much, a few new decorations and A LOT of organizing). I even organized the inside of the cabinets and the freezer but I'm not going to show you pictures of that because come on I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy. Because I love some good before and afters, here you have it, my new kitchen!

Ok so these amzing tins, seriously can't get over how much I love, love, loooove them. Just spray painted them and nope I didn't even prime them. I'm kind of that impatient. Then online I found the new easiest way to stencil. I printed off my stencil on Microsoft Word. Then I rubbed chalk on the back of the stencil, put it on the tins and did the same on my "T" tray. Then I took a mechanical pencil (anything with a point) and trace the stencil. Then you'll have your stencil show up on whatever your painting and then I free handed it with a toddler pulling at me wanting me to be done already, pretty impressive I must say.

The final part of my kitchen makeover and maybe a close second favorite to the No. tins is..........

Aubrey's new kitchen!!! I grabbed this bad boy up for $7 at Goodwill, you heard right $7! It worked out perfectly since it matched with my aqua, yellow kitchen them I had going on. It didn't quite look like this when I picked it up, let's just say there were some bugs cooking in the overn and phone holder....literally bugs, yucko! a 2 hour nap + a lot of soft scrub and scrubbing later. Wa-laaaa. Aubrey loves playing with it while I'm cooking too! I also scored some play kitchen utensils all for under $2 total.

So everybody is happy with our new kitchen, Aubrey, me, and well as long as good food is coming out of it Kyle is pretty happy too.

I linked this up to Just A Girl, The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday and Primp Your Stuff Wednesday.

Nashville Zoo

2011-09-07T16:13:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Kyle had a day off so we decided to head to the Nashville zoo, and Aubrey looooved it. We had a great time seeing the animals and at first this was pretty much Aubrey's face looking at all the animals. She was in total awe that the animals that she sees in her books were now in front of her.

Her two favorite animals right now seem to be elephants and fish. She can spot an elephant in any book we read. She makes a elephant sound and puts her hand as a trunk. We were reading Goodnight Moon and she spotted a tiny elephant on a shelf, she's obsessed with elephants and was so excited to actually see one in person even if they were ridiculously far away. Not as impressed with the Nashville zoo as I am with St. Louis's zoo.

Aubrey and Kyle then climbed into a tunnel and was able to see the meerkats up close.

Her second favorite animal seems to be fish. She makes a fish sound (which sounds like a kissing sound) any time she sees fish. Loves to feed our neighbors fish, and again can point out a fish in any book. She instantly ran up to the huge tank and yep ran right up to the pirahnas. Her Daddy is quite proud that she likes fish considering fshing is his favorite thing to do.

Here's a video of her running through the fish tank tunnel.

The last spot was the petting zoo part and Aubrey surprisingly wasn't afraid to pet the goats. She thought they were so funny.

All in all it was a great day at the zoo.

Singing Aubrey

2011-09-01T08:29:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to sit down and upload a bunch of pictures from our recent zoo trip but haven't done it yet. So for now here's a quick video we just did with our web cam. Aubrey has been going to music class on Wednesdays and she loves it. We got a take home kit with a little shaker, a book, and cd. She'll get the take home kit and open the music book and start singing. Poor Aunt Kimmy got to listen to her for a good 10-15 min last night, her speakers were even saying "very loud noise coming from speakers" i.e.-Aubrey's "singing" or really loud talking. I love that she pretends she's reading from the book. And I will get zoo pictures up soon, because they are pretty cute.

Ride 'Em Cowgirl

2011-08-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

A couple things Aubrey is loving right now is her horse Aunt Kathy got for her for Christmas. She climbs on that thing, rides it, puts her dolls on it to ride, seriously looooves the thing. Obviously you can tell. Ignore the Pebbles ponytail we do that at home to keep her hair out of her eyes. Her hair is sooooo long, speaking of which so is mine. I'm tossing around the idea of cutting but I don't want to yet, hmmmm, decisions, decisions.

Another thing she is loving right now is a silly show we found a DVD for at the library called Yo Gabba Gabba. It's such a weird show but for some reason she is fascinated by it, it has a lot of dancing in it I think that may be it. Aubrey now knows how to turn on the tv and she'll turn the tv on and then point to the Wii remote so we can put Yo Gabba Gabba on through our Netflix. This is what she does during the theme song and this is even calmed down usually she's spinning all over the living room. It's pretty stinkin cute.

Cloth Diapers, Part 2

2011-08-18T14:52:00.001-04:00

So if you want more info. on cloth diapers click this first video and I show off our diaper routine, way fun...not. Aubrey is pretty cute at the end though I'm not going to lie.

If you'd rather watch crazy cuteness and lots of Aubrey shrieking laughter click this video. Kyle and Bailey are a little nuts and yes this is how crazy our house gets sometimes. Enjoy....

Cloth Diapering, Part 1

2011-08-16T23:09:00.000-04:00

Well we're doing it we're a cloth diapering family. I'm late in the game of cloth diapers and to getting an update on the blog because we've been doing it for about 2 months now. I've especially LOOOOVED not having to buy diapers anymore. We do the occasional disposable when we're on vacation, out, or just don't have any cloth ones ready to go, but only once in a blue moon does she have to wear a disposable. After a lot of research I finally asked Kyle how do you feel about using cloth diapers and he said yuck, are my cloths going to smell like poop? No our clothes don't smell like poop. I watched a video on Omyfamily and then read a lot of blog posts on which diaper to go with because it has come a long way since the white diapers and pins. They are super cute now and way easy to put on.

So I decided on Gdiapers and I got them from Babies R Us with the last of our baby shower gift cards. I thought I was going to love them, welll wrooooonnnnggg. They are good but not great. They are a hybrid diaper which means they can also be disposable with these disposable inserts. They are a pain because of a few reasons. 1. They have 3 pieces you have to put together. 2. The insert is directly on Aubrey's tush and she sometimes gets a diaper rash. 3. There are 3 different sizes and even the large is kind of small on Aubrey. 4. They are way expensive, and cost about $20 for 2 diapers and don't even come with inserts. The good thing about them is you only need a fewer amount of diapers just more inserts. You can use one diaper for most of the day and just change out the inserts. I guess that leads me too the price of cloth diapers is definitely more than disposables when you get started but in the long run you wind up saving a TON of money. We've already gotten our moneys worth just after using them for 2 months.

Ok, the second ones we have are bum genius from my wonderful friend Jessica! Thanks Jessica it's helped so much to have more diapers. We like these, they only have 2 parts the diaper and the insert that goes inside. The have great coverage and always use them at night but they are a little more bulky. The only downside to them is they have velcro on them that get worn out kind of easily.

The last diaper we got I absolutely LOOOOVEEEE! It is a knock off of Fuzzi Bunz which run about $15 a diaper, but the ones we got come from AlvaBaby are only $4.79 yep and they come in the CUTEST colors. It is a company out of China so they shipping takes a couple of weeks but they are great for several reasons. 1. They are one size fits all with a ton of snaps to make them smaller or bigger. 2. They are only 2 parts so you just throw the whole diaper in the wet bag when it's dirty and don't have to mess with unsnapping like the Gdiapers. 3. They are super cheap. 4. They don't leak and can hold a lot of toddler pee. 5. They have super cute colors. They also sell wet bags on there for way cheaper than a lot of other places so I've gotten 3 from there. I've ordered a total of 10 diapers from AlvaBaby and for the next baby (no time soon don't worry) we'll definitely get a few more of these to add to our stock pile.

The last thing I have to add is the whole washing thing I'll explain on part 2 but I've gotta have some RockinGreen detergent. I tried All Free and Clear because dyes and fragrances really funk up diapers so it actually worked for a couple of weeks and then the diapers started to smell like pee even after washing and drying. One time washing them with Rockin Green smell is gone and it works perfectly. It seems a little expensive at about $14 for 40-90 loads but you only use 2 tablespoons of this stuff so it goes a long way. We're still on our first thing of it.

Our diapers include 4 Gdiapers, 4 BumGenius, and 10 AlvaBaby pure diapers.

Our diaper bin that I'll explain on the next post.

Well that's all I've got for tonight, sorry it's such a long post but for my momma friends that are curious about cloth diapering here you have it. I'll explain how we do our diapers tomorrow but I just wanted to get how we started out there and we've definitely figured out what worked best for us.

Aubrey helping stuff diapers and put them away. She likes picking out a diaper when we go to change her diaper now.

A little blog redecorating

2011-08-15T00:08:00.003-04:00

Well I hung new pictures on the wall at our house so I figured why not put new pictures on my blog too. I'm loving this new gray and yellow whole design and I don't have the motivation to redecorate our rental so here's a creative outlet that I can change and not have to worry about painting or anything. I like a little change every once in a while.

Style File

2011-08-15T00:00:00.002-04:00

Ok so many of the other blogs I follow show their ridiculously cute outfits and I love checking out what they're wearing. I love Dear Baby's maternity ladies room fashion shows, GeorgieGirlNYC used to have some awesome outfits she showed, and now recently I've loved following AdoredAustin and JenLovesKev. So I've decided although I don't have ridiculously cute outfits, Aubrey sure does so every once in a while we're going to do a mommy/daughter style file. I promise I will take better pictures next time too. I think it will be neat to look back and see what I wore when I was a new mom (and no there will be no '"mom jeans".

So this is what Aubrey and I were wearing at church today.

Cardigan- Papaya
Tank- Old Navy Clearance rack
Skirt- Crazy old skirt from high school I think
Belt- Ross
Shoes- Walmart Clearance last year I have them in like 5 colors
Bracelets- Forever 21

Hair I tried this awesome hair trick I learned from GeorgieGirl and DearBaby uses it too. Really long video but worth watching and giving it a try, super cute no heat curls that take hardly no time.

And Miss Aubrey
Dress- Garage Sale but it's a Target dress only $1 people
Sandals- Children's Place
Bow- Target
Necklace- Osh kosh b gosh (she loooooves playing with necklaces)
Beautiful Baby Blue Eyes- All from her Dad!

Wonderful World of Oreos

2011-08-13T15:23:00.000-04:00

So I was a bad mom and on our way back from Kroger today I needed to keep Aubrey happy and awake so I introduced her to the wonderful world of oreos. I gave her an oreo on the way home from Kroger and she kind of loved it. And here's the aftermath.....
One happy, chocolatey little girl!

My SD card is ALiVE!

2011-08-12T22:34:00.001-04:00

So I hadn't posted pictures in a while because I was waiting for my SD card to get fixed on my computer. It wasn't allowing me to upload pictures and what's a blog post with no cute pictures of Aubrey. Kyle has been busy doing ER this month and has had to work some nightshifts, he finished his last one yesterday! Yay!! We now have him home for a couple of days. I even got to sleep in this morning which was A-MA-ZING! Since Kyle has been working nights he's been on a crazy sleep schedule and so that he's been able to sleep in the morning Aubrey and I have found things around Cookeville to do in the mornings. Aubrey now goes to music class on Wednesdays and we've been going to the library for story time on Tuesdays or on Thursdays. At story time we even met a new friend a little boy a month older than Aubrey named Ryker and her mom Leena. We went to the park last week to hang out with Aubrey's new friend and we had a great time. Well here are a few pictures from some fun stuff we've been doing with our days out.

Gotta love our pool with the splash park, don't know how many days left we'll have here. August makes me sad because it means summer is almost over, as a teacher I used to have a love/hate relationship with August. Loved starting a new school year, hated summer being over.

Ok not that cutest face at all, but I was trying to show the pure relaxtion she was having here. She had her leg propped up on a pillow and laid back into the couch, which she can now climb on an off by herself I might add. Toddler=climbing on everything in sight!

Climbed on the couch again but this time to read her bible. This was the neatest thing to see as my little girl climbed up by herself and started looking at her bible all by herself. Her favorite is the story of Noah and the ark with pictures of elephants and the story of baby Moses and Baby Jesus, of course anything with a baby in it.

I know this picture looks absolutely disgusting but we've been doing a lot of painting and coloring so we decided to paint with pudding well it was going to take too long to make and for it to set up so instead we improvised with what we had and used strawberry yogurt. Yes it was ridiculously messy but it was delicious I bet. She was happy, dirty and messy, but happy.

Licking it off of course. Wouldn't you?

Another painting activity. I was spray painting something outside, don't worry I'll finally update with pictures of all my spray painted pretties. Aubrey grabbed the paint brushes and started playing with them instead of telling her no and taking them away, the teacher in me came out and decided to let her paint outside with water. It worked great because she loved getting water all over the porch and it helped clean up the chalk we've been playing lately.

She then tried to sit in our paint I mean water, oooops.

Kyle then had a much needed day off so we headed to a beach about 20 minutes away and spent the day playing at the beach. Aubrey had so much fun playing in the very shallow, and rocky sand and loved floating out in the water. Best swim/float thing ever it's this like a floaties/ring float thing. It's US coast guard approved and it keeps her afloat by herself and the added bonus she loves it. She hated the other life jackets I had bought and tested out because it went around her head. I sweat by this thing, I absolutely LOVE it. If you're looking for something for the pool/lake this is it.

And I'll end with a picture of something that is very rare. I'm relaxing out in the lake all by myself :) It only last about 5 minutes but they were 5 whole glorious mommy minutes which were much needed. Thanks Kyle for manning the sand castle building so I could have my moment. So that's what we've been doing, more to come later.

Silly Girl

2011-07-28T09:00:00.008-04:00

Aubrey was being silly with her Dr. Dada before he headed off to a midnight shift in the ER. This month will be full of crazy schedules for him and just hopefully he can get through it and then it will be on to a couple month of electives one even planned for Dallas. Aubrey definitely loves her Dada (which is what she usually calls him with the occasional full out Daddy)

Bedroom Re-decoration

2011-07-27T15:20:00.000-04:00

When Kyle was gone last week to Philly I got an itch to spruce up our bedroom. I blame watching too much HGTV seriously it's all I watch right now and I don't know why. It started with these pillow cases and the blue pillow I already had.

I had a boring brown comforter on so I switched it out with on my grandma's quilts and then I took this jewelry stand and wicker stand and went spray paint crazy. I was spray painting after Aubrey went to bed and after it cooled off. So if Kyle was here he would have called me crazy for spray painting outside so late but I finished up at about midnight, yep you read that right midnight. Here is my projects ready to be sprayed with a beautiful can of spray paint. I also got this new tool, soooo awesome! It looks like a little gun and it's only $2 back by the spray paint. It makes spray painitng soooo easy, all you have to do is click it onto your can and then you save your finger from the pain of holding the thing down and from getting paint all over your finger. I also bought this duel spray paint so I didn't have to prime the jewlery organizer first and it worked great.

So after I spray painted it, I took some scrap book paper and mod podged onto the drawers and top just like I mod podged our coffee table last year. I love how it gives a pop of color and if you spray it with a clear spray paint it makes it pretty durable. Aubrey bangs stuff on our table and it hasn't scratched yet. I also spray painted and mod podged a little trinket box I had already had.

And ta-da it looks like this in our room....

I even spray painted the knobs purple, it's so much fun now!

Like the new frame that was a boring 'ol black, a little fun blue later and a black and white picture and I loooooove it! and there's my mod podged box.

Here's the jewlery organizer in all it's glory, with a blue $1 elephant from Goodwill that isn't Kyle's favorite he said but Aubrey always points to it and does her elephant sound. I also painted a $2 lamp and added a burlap shade again all from Goodwill. I also sprayed a shelf that hasn't gotten around to being hung and a picture frame with black and whites of all of the places we've lived. There's even a picture of the tunnel on it, so many days of driving through the tunnel in a weird way it's a special memory.

With new/old (they were in the closet) curtains hung.

Our bedroom looks like this now....

It's my new favorite place to hang out, which is what I was going for since our crazy light sleeper we can't even hang out in our living room after she's in bed so now we have a retreat to hang out while the 'lil Miss is sleeping.

Speaking of 'lil Miss, here's a picture from playing outside in water today, I was too lazy to fill up the whole pool so instead we improvised with a tupperware container. Hey it works, she was happy.

And now she's napping in her "It's not my diaper that stinks, it's the Cubs" shirt, getting ready for the Cards/Cubs game coming up.

And more to come on what she's wearing on her behind, oh yeah those are G diapers if you know what they are we're a cloth diapering fam now.

Ooops

2011-07-26T22:18:00.000-04:00

So like a week ago I said I was going to update and then a week, a very busy week at that, went by and here I am again on a summer night trying to squeeze in some time for the blog. I have a feeling once summer is over, yuck don't want to think about that, and more time inside will lead to more time for blogging. We have been very, very, very busy enjoying Kyle's vacation month that sadly ended yesterday. Kyle took the comlex boards test in Nashville and Aubrey and I headed up to my sister's house to visit with her and the kids since we hadn't seen them in such a long time. It was great to see Aubrey play with Noah and Josalyn and it was so good to see my sister after such a long time

.We also took a last minute trip with my family to the Lake of the Ozarks the most wonderful place in the world, even though the lake is mostly beer and urine it still is a great place to be, haha. We have been going there since I was little so for me to be able to take Aubrey was great. She was a little swimming machine too, I'm so impressed with how much she loves the water and how comfortable she is. Maybe my lifeguard skills rubbed off on her.

Then Kyle packed up 2 weeks later and headed to Philly with Chuck and Michael. Oh what a trip that must have been. He said there were plenty of stories but most of them were just silly Chuck, Michael, Kyle stories that only those 3 find hilarious. He did great and now we're just patiently waiting for his scores.

When Kyle got back I had a whole 3 day vacation planned for just us three to go to Gatlinburg and just have some family time before he started back with a rotation in ER (which has already had one midnight shift, not so much fun). We had an awesome time. We went to an indoor waterpark. We had a hotel right by downtown so we were able to walk to dinner the first night we were there. The next night we had a fancy dinner of pizza in bed and I fell asleep before Aubrey did, ooops. We were all so tired but so glad we got some time for just us and it was a blast.

Playing at an indoor waterpark in Gatlinburg, Aubrey had a blast. She even went down a waterslide all by herself. Kyle would put her down and I would catch her at the bottom, she loved it.

Aubrey getting a ride up to Clingman's dome the highest point in Tennessee.

She kept wanting down to walk but it would have taken us a week to get up there if she walked, it was really steep.

Kyle needed a break, so I got a turn carrying the 25 lber toddler.

Doesn't look to happy, I think she's looking at some guy behind the lady taking our picture.

Looking out over Tennessee.

Playing in puddles outside of the Apple Barn, the best restaurant in Gatlinburg, we go every time we're there.

Our fancy pizza on the bed dinner. Aubrey is cheersing her pizza with Kyle's pizza. Aunt Kimmy taught her how to cheers cups and now she tries to cheers everything.

Some new things Aubrey is doing:
-Wanting to read allllll the time. She brings a book up to you and then turns around to sit on your lap, it's precious. As a former first grade teacher I'm so glad she loves books.
-She is saying bcchhrrr however to spell that, it's a gun/bomb sound and she does it all the time. When we're reading books, when she falls down (usually on purpose), when we sit down in church (oh yes, very loudly she did a bomb sound in church). I blame her cousin Caden for this new development but really it's probably mine or Kyle's fault.
-The first thing in the morning Aubrey says is Bailey and then immediately starts to look for her. Not Momma or Dada but Bailey, she loves her dog.
-She likes to put glasses on and LOOOVES necklaces and plays with them putting them on and off.
-Kyle has taught her how to spin and that it makes you dizzy so now she likes to spin herself and then try to walk and laugh about it.
-She gives belly blows now too thanks to Kyle's belly blowing tutorials.
-She is starting school tomorrow!!! Well music class at our church, I'm excited to see how she likes it.
-She's a full blown toddler now and we're loving every day and every day is something new and usually exhausting so therefore that's where the lack of blogging has come from. I hope the next update and pictures aren't this far apart next time.

For now...

2011-07-15T15:46:00.000-04:00

Summer has kept us insanely busy and I promise I will be back on with lots of catch up. Like soon, like probably tonight if I get a minute to myself. Last night I did get a minute but a certain hot bath, margarita, and good music got my attention instead. I know most women drink wine while taking a hot bath, oh no not me, my guilty pleasure is a margarita. But for now, enjoy this cutie with a dress for a shirt because this is 18 month dress is too short, oh my long legged little girl.
Oh and Kyle is working hard on his residency application in the background.

Splashing in Puddles

2011-06-21T08:40:00.000-04:00

The other day Chuck power washed our front porch and afterwards there were a bunch of fun puddles for the kids to splash in. It was also cute as Chuck was setting up the power washer Aubrey was outside helping. She now knows that water comes from the faucets outside since sometimes we just fill up a bucket and let her splash in it. So when Chuck was setting up the washer Aubrey was bent down by the faucet and it almost looked like she was going to say, "Ok, Chuck just let me know when you're ready". I wish I would have gotten that picture but at least I got this.

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

2011-06-20T16:12:00.001-04:00

Our baby girl is 1!!! I can't believe it at all, my how the year has flown by. We can't imagine life without her, she truly is amazing! We had a wonderful weekend hanging out with Kyle's family that came in, celebrating Jack's (Colleen and Chuck's little boy) baptism, and celebrating father's day. Last year was Kyle's first father's day since we had Aubrey the day before, but now he got to run around and play with her this year. Aubrey has changed soooo much over the past year and until I can get pictures uploaded from this weekend, which include a ridiculously messy birthday cake face I wanted to share pictures I had hanging on a banner at our house and at my mom's house for her pre-birthday party. Happy Birthday little girl, we love you sooooo much!!

And now my 1 year old little girl!!! Thanks to Katie McCaw Photography.

My Beautiful 'Lil Sis

2011-06-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

Kimberly graduated from college while we were back in Bethalto and I am so incredibly proud of how hard she has worked since well kindergarten. The girl has had straight A's her entire life, ENTIRE LIFE!! Yeah, my dad promised her a car for her high school graduation if she would get straight a's all throughout high school and she definitely held him to that promise, now she printed off her transcripts of straight a's in college hoping to get something else now too. I didn't have too high hopes for my college graduation, my dad promised me a keg instead.

Kimberly with her brand new car, that still pretty much looks the same today as it did 4 years ago. She's kind of crazy about her car.

Our joint graduation party, her high school, me college.

My handsome husband, brand new boyfriend at the time. Holy moly we look young.

Now 4 years later and we're at her college graduation party and Aubrey's pre-birthday party.

And Kimberly even had Aubrey washing her car.

And driving it, ok just kidding but Aubrey does think honking the horn was pretty funny.

Sorry neighbors.

Now straight a's are accomplishment enough but to add on top of that she got into Loyola med school and starts in a month. She is going to do great in med school and I wouldn't be surprised if she keeps up those straight a's still. She's such a hard worker and incredibly dedicated. I'm so proud of you sis, you are beautiful on the inside and out. I love you and miss you like crazy! Oh and I know, I know, brick background AGAIN! Gotta find something new.

Braden and his mommy and daddy

2011-06-13T17:44:00.000-04:00

So since my friend Lauran let me borrow her camera, I figured we should at least go outside at my parent's house and take some pictures before Aubrey's party started. So here's what we got that day and another day when they came over for a play date. Braden is too stinkin cute, he's in line to date Aubrey when she gets old enough (old enough being like 30). What a smile this little boy has and the deep giggle is adorable too! Oh and one tip I've already told myself, find another background other than brick!! But I sooo love brick, especially exposed brick. We took our Christmas pictures around exposed brick and my mom and Kyle were like why are we taking pictures in an ally and I said just you wait, trust me, and wall-laa

Does this look familiar? Again, gotta love the exposed brick, ok you don't have to but I do!

Now here's the cutie pie Braden and his beautiful mommy and daddy!

Gotta love some Braden toes!

Boyfriend and girlfriend. Seriously aren't they absolutely adorable!!

New Lover

2011-06-12T21:00:00.001-04:00

So I have a new lover and it's this guy...

I have a new found hobby and that is photography. This is my plea to my hubby that one day when we have enough money, I soooo want one of these bad boys. Ever since Aubrey I've really enjoyed taking pictures. At Aubrey's pre-birthday party my awesome friend Lauran let me borrow her fancy schmancy camera and we did a quick 15 minute photo shoot and the pictures just turned out sooooo much better than my $30 clearance camera. Now I'm not saying I'm any where near professional status, I want to take classes somewhere down the line, study up online, or just take tips from good friend photographers Katie McCaw and Heather Scott...oh to be as good as the girls, they are great!

So I have decided to go through my pictures and post them on here to share my new hobby. Over the next week I'm going to post pictures that I've taken and man how I've progressed from when Aubrey was a tiny baby. I like to think I've gotten better. But to start it all off is Aubrey's pre-birthday party pics, I can't thank you enough Lauran for letting me hold your camera hostage (granted this was a brand new camera, I used it the first day she got it and was kind of a camera hog...sorry). So here's our little Miss Aubrey, 11 months old. She's going to be 1 in a week, ahh, crazy! Oh and I whipped up Aubrey's onesie and hair clip the night before her party(I'm the world's worst procrastinator), she had a zebra and hot pink b-day party so she had to have a matching outfit (that's what she told me she wanted, yeah right).

My two loves!!!

And to end it with a little Aubrey tush.

Tired Baby

2011-06-12T13:26:00.000-04:00

Church wore Aubrey out this morning.

Giggling Baby

2011-06-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

Aubrey gets really slap happy every once in a while and thinks it hilarious to chase after you, throw her head back, and fall down. It usually has us laughing just as hard as she is. Here's a little example, but this doesn't even come close to some of the times she's done it she laughs so hard she has to stop to breathe. It's pretty stinking funny.

Never Again

2011-06-10T11:19:00.000-04:00

I'm disappointed in the fact that I haven't been a good blogger lately. We got back from St. Louis and were trying to get our house organized from being gone for a whole month. When I finaly felt like I got back in the groove of things Aubrey got sick last weekend and has been sick all week with a viral infection that turned into a rash and so she's been running around without her shirt on to keep her cool. This morning it finally started to look better and it's just a faint rash now. So I've realized that this is Aubrey's baby book basically so I want to keep blogging and documenting the things she does, because to look back throughout her first year it's so neat to see. Some people journal, I blog. I was making a monthly banner for her birthday party and I couldn't remember at all what we were doing in January and I decided to get on my blog and then realized we had done a lot but just had forgotten about it.

So here's a few pictures and a couple of videos from the past 2 weeks. Since we've been back we've done A LOT of bbqing and baby pool lounging with the neighbors. At one point it was all 3 mommies (Alarie, Colleen, and myself) in the baby pool enjoying some drinks while the guys were inside in the air conditioning watching babies and studying (don't know how well the studying was going) and anyway our landlord pulled up to check on something. So here are 3 grown mommies all crammed in the baby pool, but did we get out, noooo we didn't care. We kept enjoying our cheap pool for the day.

Aubrey is looving the water right now so I took her to a swimming pool nearby that has a splash park. She loved the water fountains spraying up. I got some water shoes for her that worked out perfect so she didn't stub her toe or have to deal with the hot concrete. She was following around some older boys 3rd or 4th grade and it was so cute. They would make sure not to run into her and if she fell down they would help her up. Look at her already going for older men, uh oh.

Last week we also celebrated Kyle's birthday! Aubrey loved helping unwrap presents, since we had her birthday party back in Bethalto she thinks tearing paper is a lot of fun. I imagine she'll have fun tearing into some of her own presents next week.
Does Aubrey not look like a mini Kyle here or what.

Hapy Birthday babe, you're the best!

We went to a lake last Saturday for a picnic and a swim, but that's when the whole sicky baby thing started. We noticed she was warm and awfully snuggly for being around water and when we got back sure enough she had a fever. We still had fun though.

Well that's enough catch up for right now. Now that we're finally back to a routine so I'm going to make time for blogging because one day it will be like her scrapbook.

Busy Rotation Month

2011-05-19T01:35:00.000-04:00

Well the month of May is already flying by and Aubrey is going to be 11 months tomorrow!!! Here are a couple pictures to explain why we have been so busy. We've been trying to cram in "field trips" around St. Louis and Bethalto- including shopping at West County, dinner date with Kyle, Grant's farm, playing at the park, going for walks, going swimming and working out, play dates with my friends' kids, and just tonight we made it to a baseball game with Kyle, my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend. On the days we aren't taking trips we're watching my nephews Caden and Zachary. Who are so much fun and Aubrey absolutely adores Caden. She gets so excited when she sees him and she's definitely taken an interest in Zachary too and tries to swing him in his swing and rock his bouncer.

Hanging out in Papa's truck when he gets off of work is how our afternoons sometimes wind up.

Zachary hanging out with us too!

Taking a drive around the driveway.

Ok, so this is usually what our days look like, Aubrey all over the place and Caden being very creative. He and Papa set up a rabbit trap and then would raise the stuffed animal rabbit up to a tree limb, he's pretty darn funny.

Then my beautiful, smart, summa cum laude lil sis graduated from college so we went up to Springfield and stayed the night in a hotel with the whole fam (minus Christy) and had a blast swimming and playing.

Seriously, she's gorgeous. I'm so proud of you future Dr. Kimberly. She's decided to go to Loyola med school in the fall and there's no doubt in my mind that she will do fabulous in med school. There's something to say about someone who's never got a B in her whole life, let's see if med school will break you of that.

Aubrey loved playing with Aunt Kimmy's graduation tassle.

Aubrey's favorite thing to do, swimming at the hotel.

Learning how to blow bubbles.

Daddy and daughter matching shirts!

Probably the most relaxing time I've had in 10 months, even though there were kids yelling and screaming all around us, but to be in the hot tub with just us girls....heaven!

Back to Aubrey growing insanely fast!! I can't believe how fast this first year of her life has flown by. I'm working on throwing a b-day party for her at my parent's house and was looking at pictures to print and I can't get over how much she has changed. She is so much fun, this is definitely a fun but also exhausting stage. She is all over the place and into everything. She is officially WALKING, ahhh I can't believe it. My baby is walking. I will post a video soon of it so you have proof.

Before I ended this post I wanted to add some things that Aubrey's doing now so that I will remember because I really think she's changed and grown up a lot this month.

-You love to walk everywhere and even while you are holding stuff in your hand- like big things of blocks and bigger baby toys.
-Mimi has helped teacher you more with sign language and you do it sometimes for food but you were doing it like crazy at Grant's Farm when we were flicking water at you, you wanted more water.
-You know the word light and can turn the light switch on and off if we ask you.
-You can crawl up stairs no problem, down sometimes but you usually get too excited and want to turn around.
-You can climb on a play set that Aunt Kathy brought over and the first time you played on it you did it exactly how you were supposed to like you had been doing it your whole life.
-You know the word kick and like to kick a ball around Mimi and Papa's house.
-You LOOOOOVE to dance, you were dancing to music at the baseball game tonight, you go into the kitchen and want to dance. You also know where the stereo is in Papa's room and walk to it and start dancing to have us turn it on.
-You like going for walks in Mimi's old stroller but not so much in our fancy new stroller.
-You loove kids and people wherever we go you are always smiling and making people smile. You also like to wave and usually do a princess parade wave.
-You call about every animal Bailey and every man Dadda (even Osama bin Laden on a magazine,oooops), and every little boy Daden (Caden).

I love you little girl and I can't believe that you are doing all these new things. Every day is a new adventure and I look forward to what each day brings. I love you more than chocolate fudge pop tarts!

My Little Dancer

2011-05-10T22:33:00.000-04:00

Aubrey's new thing to do is dance and boy is she adorable when she does. Whenever music comes on she sits up and shakes her hands and then she'll move from side to side. It's too stinkin cute. Even when we're eating my dad will turn on the music and she'll start smiling really big and dancing. At my sister's church on Sunday she loved the music and she was shaking her hands any time the music would start up. She even would stop during the slow parts and then start back up during the fast part. It was adorable and the people around us told us after church how much they liked watching her (oooops, a little bit of a distraction, but at least a good distraction). Here's a video my mom sneaked during church sorry it's sideways and you have to kind of tilt your head. She made my mother's day, it was so wonderful just to hang out with my little family and my bigger family. Aubrey thank you for the best mother's day!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-05-10T00:24:00.000-04:00

Well we made it to my parent's house for Kyle's rotation in family medicine in Cedar Hill. We have been so busy since Easter trying to get Aubrey feeling all better and now that we've been at my parent's house trying to get her on a good sleep schedule (she didn't transition quite as easy as she did in Oklahoma). After a week of not wanting to sleep by herself and just lots of snuggling and even some crying it out in the crib we figured out she had allergies. Since we've been up here we've all had horrible allergy problems, sinuses, headaches, itchy eyes, the whole nine yards. I called her pediatrician and they told us to try Zyrtec, holy moly!!! Different kid, I would totally be one of those spokesperson for a commercial on zyrtec because thankfully we now have our happy Aubrey back and we're feling better I might add too.

Kyle is staying at his grandma's house during the weeks so his missing his little girl. It's a long drive so he decided it would be best just to stay over there. So here are some pictures of our trip so far. We are having a blast watching Caden and Zachary. We've also had the chance to go meet our other new nephew Caden and see Kyle's sisters, brother-in-law, and Grandpa.

Playing at Mimi and Papa's house.

Swimming!!!! Aubrey's favorite!

Here's a video of Aubrey swimming at the gym my mom has a membership to. Aubrey loooooves to go swimming and we can't wait for this weekend when we'll stay at a hotel for Kimberly's graduation and Aubrey will get to go swimming with everybody.

Visiting Grandma Nell and playing with ElleWe. 've done a lot of visiting with family and it's been great, we've gone for walks down to see my aunt and uncle. We've gone out to my grandma's for my first mother's day. We've visited Kyle's grandma and saw his cousins. It's been great, but definitely busy is an understatement.

Picnic and playing at Ballwin park, right next to my old apartment, brought back a lot of memories.

A wonderful first mother's day.

My girl.

Thank you for my first mother's day Aubrey Lynne, I can't imagine this world before you. I love you soooo much.

Happy Easter

2011-04-26T11:51:00.000-04:00

Well Aubrey's first Easter wasn't exactly how we planned, but we did have a fabulous Saturday. Saturday we bbqed, hung out in the sun, Aubrey took a dip in the baby pool, and Kyle and I even got to play a game of washers while Aubrey napped. Sunday was a completely different story.

Aubrey woke up feeling fine at 4:00 and we were planning on going to sunrise service but it looked like a storm was coming so we went back to bed and planned on going to 8:30 but our plans quickly changed when at 6:00 she woke up with a fever and just looking miserable. So no Easter church service, no cute Easter dress, but we did get a lot of snuggle time in with my little girl. She is feeling 100% better now, thankfully because we are packing up again and taking off for a month in St. Louis.

10 Month Eater

2011-04-20T10:32:00.001-04:00

On one of the blogs I read, Classic Ivory did a post on what her baby is eating. Now that Aubrey is 10 months old (yikes!) and has almost 6 teeth she has started to eat a lot of table food. Here are some of the foods that she eats oh and shares with Bailey, who now sits patiently right under Aubrey's high chair waiting for any dropped pieces of food.

-Pasta (here she's eating whole wheat rigatoni noodles in spaghetti sauce)
-Mac and Cheese
-Cheese
-Fruit cut into small pieces- Banana, grapes, apples, oranges, pineapple, peaches
-Green Beans
-Carrots
-Peas
-Plain rice cakes
-Craisins
-Homemade tortillas- she loooves these
-Veggie sticks from Sams also a big favorite
-Ground and Deli Turkey
-Chicken
-Just recently introduced during a Walmart trip with a cranky baby- Raisins and Animal Crackers
-Cheerios- one of Bailey's favorites, haha
-Goldfish- introduced in the nursery on Sunday

So that's what Aubrey's been eating, a lot different flavors and textures than boring 'ol baby food. She still does some baby food, she has her days when she wants it and days she wants nothing to do with it. Hope you liked the messy spaghetti pictures up top, it resulted in an immediate bath. My mom said next time we should just let her eat the spaghetti in the bath tub to make life easier. We'll see about that one.

A Glimpse into our Sick Baby World

2011-04-20T09:50:00.002-04:00

Well for the past 3 days we've been dealing with a sick baby. Aubrey went to nursery for the first time Sunday, yay!!! Aubrey then was sick the next day, not yay :( You can also kind of see her bruises in this picture, she bonked her cheek last night in the bath tub, she's a little reckless when she's sick. She has a cold or allergies and then added to that she has 4 teeth on top 2 mostly through but 2 that are pushing their way through (those poor gums). So why when I was in college could I party and get hardly any sleep and be up for 8:00 classes the next morning, like in this picture from the night I kissed Kyle for the first time, yep you heard that right I made the first move, haha. I thought you guys might find that pic funny, it was Cinco de Mayo 4 years ago.

But when I pull an all nighter with a sick baby I feel like I've been run over by a Mack truck. OH yeah I'm much older, as my friend Sandy so nicely commented on facebook, haha. I show the good, the bad, and the ugly here so this is how I look after getting hardly any sleep the past 2 nights and what's that thing I'm holding in my hand you may ask. It's the most AMAZING tool to have with a sick, congested baby. It's a battery operated nasal aspirator or as my nephew Caden likes to call it a bateroperated booger sucker. It works wonders!

Last night we were also supposed to get a big storm come through so we set the bathroom all up in case we needed to go in there, luckily we didn't have to. Our sink full of flashlights, the charger for our lantern because of course it wasn't charged, our bath mat in the sink (you'll see in a minute), and then can you see the abundance of baby meds on the counter.

Hence the bath mat drying in the sink, we made a bed in the bath tub because last tornado warning I was holding Aubrey on the cold bathroom floor for 20 minutes. We were definitely prepared this time.

So sorry I don't have some ridiculously cute picture of Aubrey up but this has been our life for the past few days and that's what this blog is here for to share our lives so welcome to sick baby world.

Testing the Waters

2011-04-18T14:05:00.000-04:00

Well Aubrey has been testing the waters but letting go after she pulls up on stuff. It makes me so sad that our baby is going to turn into a toddler, ahh!! Kyle said what did you expect for her not to grow up and well yeah that's exactly what I expected. She's getting pretty good at it and after about 50 video attempts with her plopping down on her butt as soon as I turn on the video we finally got a good shot of the standing on her own. My baby isn't a baby anymore :( ok that's never going to happen but still she seems so much bigger now that she can do this new trick.

Blue Bonnets

2011-04-05T00:22:00.000-04:00

We took some pictures last weekend while we were in Dallas visiting Kyle's parents in the blue bonnets. Seriously the background was so beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures. I know there are a ton but seriously Aubrey is so stinking cute (not biased or anything). These were Aubrey's 9 month pictures!!! Enjoy...

Another Nephew

2011-04-04T11:08:00.001-04:00

While nursing Aubrey last night I hear Kyle's phone get a message don't think much of it. I put her down and when I look at his phone he has messages from his mom, his sister, and his brother in law. I woke Kyle up and said I think we have a new nephew! Sure enough there's a picture of Caden David!! Born at 2:35 am, weighing 4 lbs. 2.6 oz and is 16 and 3/4 in. long. This was a big surprise since Alisha was 34 weeks. I don't have a picture yet to share, they are on Kyle's phone but as soon as I get a picture of the cutie I will put it on. Aubrey now has 2 cousin Cadens!

Right now we're waiting the arrival of Colleen's baby, Jack. She was induced this morning and now Caden and Jack wil have the same birthday!!! Please pray for the health of both Caden and Jack and their mommies.

Caden David

Come on Jack!

2011-04-04T09:00:00.003-04:00

Baby Jack is coming to the world today. We can't wait to meet our tiny new neighbor. Here's a couple pictures we took yesterday of Colleen and Chuck. I was honored she asked me to try my hand at photography and I think they turned out pretty well. I have to say I used a ton of inspiration from Katie McCaw an amazing photographer if you're in the St. Louis area definitely check her out. Thanks Katie for letting me borrow some of your poses :) Chuck said, Amanda they don't suck so that's a huge compliment coming from him! Chuck and Colleen you're going to be wonderful mommy and daddy, Jack is one lucky boy!

I love this one, it's like he's saying come out and play Jack!!!

We can't wait to meet you baby Jack!!!

Priceless

2011-03-31T16:13:00.000-04:00

These pictures are priceless. Zachary Logan your Aunt Manda already loves you so much little boy and I can't wait to meet you!!

Aubrey's New Cousin!

2011-03-31T13:23:00.000-04:00

He's HERE!! Zachary Logan was born yesteday at 1:36 pm, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz, and 18 in. long. He's absolutely precious. I just got done meeting him for the first time via Skype. Congratulations Billy, Kathy, and Caden he's just perfect!!

Zachary, you have an awesome big brother!

Thunder

2011-03-30T09:00:00.002-04:00

Aubrey has now gone to her first two NBA basketball games all in one week. Kyle got tickets from the doctor he is working with last Wednesday and then Sunday we went again with my cousin. I didn't know how well she would do because of how loud it is but she had a great time and was clapping and dancing.

My three loves-Aubrey, Kyle, and a margarita, haha, before the game at a Mexican restaurant in downtown OKC.

Kyle was so excited to take Aubrey to her first NBA game.

Aubrey's second game with Sophie and Bella.

GO THUNDER! They won both games so I think Aubrey may have been their good luck charm. Now if only we can get her to her first Cardinals game.

Come on Zachary!!

2011-03-29T14:38:00.001-04:00

Well I'm going to have another nephew tomorrow. My sister is being induced in the morning, Zachary Logan you are being evicted (haha, that's what my sister is saying). I can't wait to see the handsome little man. Until I get a real picture of him I wanted to share the pictures I stole from Kathy's facebook because they are just too stinkin cute. Caden you are going to be one awesome big brother!

Tomorrow you guys will become a family of four!!! (Well five if you count Milky).

Hello Again

2011-03-29T13:16:00.000-04:00

Well I was doing great documenting our trip here in Oklahoma and then Kyle's computer died. We were watching Dexter and got a virus so we had to send his computer back to DCOM. My computer back home is really slow and we had been thinking about getting a new computer anyway so I'm back with a new computer. Yay!

We're having a great time hanging out with our cousins. Aubrey has really enjoyed having Bella and Sophie to play with.

The weather was beautiful last week, not so much this week so we had a lot of outdoor play time. I used their bike that had a baby seat on the back and Aubrey loved going for a ride around the neighborhood and to the park. I definitely want to get one of these when we get back.

I love the tongue in this picture, I can hear her squelling with laughter. 1 thing the girl loves to do is swing.

Here's a cute video of Aubrey swinging....

Playing with Picnik

2011-03-22T09:00:00.020-04:00

I don't have my computer here in Oklahoma instead we just brought Kyle's school computer. So I don't have my picasa to edit any of my pictures so instead of been playing with picnik to edit some pictures. I remember seeing this post at Dear Baby a while back and love how she edits her pictures.

I like to just mess around with pictures to see what I can do. Here is my shot at being a photographer taking some maternity pictures for Colleen last minute just outside of our apartment. I think they turned out pretty well.

Oh, Gus we miss you buddy!

We can't wait to meet you Jack, please wait until we get back.

And Jack will be a Buckeye fan.

Can't Wait to Meet You

2011-03-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Zachary don't cover your face, we want to see that cute little face. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Aubrey's cousin, my sister's little boy. Come on Zachary, the world wants to meet you!! She said she feels like she's going to give birth to a 1 year old. I told her to do some walking with the mall walkers, it's what finally put me into labor. Aubrey can't wait to meet you Zachary, some please come out and play.

Dallas Weekend Recap

2011-03-21T13:46:00.003-04:00

We had an awesome trip to Dallas this weekend besides the traffic it was great! Aubrey splashed her feet in the pool, had fun with everyone being in the same car and not being by herself in the backseat for once. We went to Billy Bob's country music hall and put her hand in Kenny Chesney's (because he grew up nearby where she was born). She watched a cattle drive down the street and even touched a bull's horn (maybe she'll like Around the Horn, like her daddy now)!

These are my two favorite people!! Love.....

Aubrey with Grandma TT outside of Billy Bob's.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of Aubrey. Playing on the dance floor at Billy Bob's.

Line dancing with Uncle Cole.

Playing with the girls.

I told Kyle he is in for it when I get a fancy camera (that's his graduation present to me next year for making it through med school with him). I see a spot and just want to take pictures. I think in a former life I would be a photographer, I know Katie and Heather I want some of your skills!!! If we move back to St Louis I'm definitely going to be asking for some photography lessons. I know it's not too late, maybe later on in life that's what hobby I'll take up. Oh, p.s. if any of my readers would like to get me a fancy camera I can easily send you my address where you can send that :) Sounds good, right??

Ok, back to cute baby and enough of Amanda rambling. Aubrey snoozing at an awesome mexican restaurant while Mama enjoys a Margarita :)

Oh no, already in jail. I better not have to come bail you out one day little girl.

A great way to end our Dallas trip, a lunch date with my old college roommate Ashley and her boyfriend Chris.

It was so good catching up with this girl, it has definitely been too long!

We were definitely busy while we were in Dallas, we like our mini vacations each week. Now we're enjoying a daughter/mommy day while Kyle is back to picking people's brains in Neurology. Thanks for a great visit!!

Oh I forgot, while we were there our little girl turned 9 months!!!!! Seriously, where has the time gone! I love you little girl!

Aubrey's First St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-21T13:27:00.000-04:00

This picture definitely shows Aubrey's little personality. She's really starting to show what kind of little person she's going to be. She's so happy and goofy. We went over to a friend's house here in Oklahoma that we went to college with. Of course, we were wearing our green so we didn't get pinched.

Aubrey watching her first game of washers and sadly enough she saw how awful her mom was. This is how I got Kyle though with my mad washers skills, ok really I was awful but I offered to be his washers partner and the rest is history.

We're sad that Uncle Burk is leaving us, our friend Matt moved to Ohio this weekend, but we have had a great last couple of weeks hanging out with him. Aubrey warmed up to him and by St. Patty's Day she was even willing to share her pacifier with him. We miss you already Matt!

Oh, Barney

2011-03-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Barney isn't exactly my favorite, but Aubrey seems to like it. We don't watch it that often but when she does well this happens. Her diaper looks like it's about to fall off too, we were in the middle of changing out of pjs.

Vacation

2011-03-17T13:09:00.000-04:00

Aubrey and I have really enjoyed the past two days. We have had awesome weather and spent the majority of our time hanging out outside.

First we went for a walk around Bryan's neighborhood.

Then we took a blanket and some toys outside and played until Kyle came home.

I love her!

Yesterday we had a lunch date outside and Aubrey played in her pop a tot. I'm looooving this beautiful spring weather.

Here is a video I took of reading one of Aubrey's favorite books. Excuse my silly singing but mainly listen to her ridiculously cute giggles. I wanted to remember this relaxing day.

Bath Time

2011-03-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

If there's one thing this girl loves, it's bath time. She is so happy in the bath tub. She can be a total crank butt, throwing fits (yes, we're to that stage, fun, fun) and get her in the bath and totally different kid. Last night she was mad that Kyle was using her car dvd player for something for his rotation and wouldn't let her play with it. That's mine daddy is what she was thinking and throwing fits, start running the water, throw her in (I mean gently place her, obviously I don't throw my kid) and instant happiness. Works like a charm every time!

Dirty girl

Clean girl!

Sight Seeing

2011-03-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

We got a chance to check out Oklahoma City last week. I took Kyle to work Thursday so I would have the car and then Aubrey and I started out our day of sight seeing at Target, oh how I love Target! Then we went and picked up our friend Matt that we went to college with and he was our tour guide for the city. We did a river walk in downtown and it was a gorgeous day outside to walk around with her in the stroller.

Here's a picture outside of the minor league baseball stadium.

Then we went to the Oklahoma City Memorial and it was very touching. We still want to go back and go through the actual museum, we just went to the outside memorial part.

Then Friday after Kyle got off work we got into the car and headed for Dallas to spend the weekend with Kyle's dad and brother. We got stuck in construction traffic and our 3 1/2 trip turned into a 5 hr. trip. At one point we were at a complete stop and somebody needed changed so we just went with the flow and changed her in the car. She thought it was pretty funny.

Saturday Grandpa wanted to take Aubrey to the zoo so we went Fort Worth for Aubrey's first trip to a zoo. She was kind of a in a daze when we first got there and wasn't so sure either about the amount of people there were or all of the animals.

After some yogurt melts and juice (i.e.SUGAR) she cheered up and was her smiley self. We had a great time and it couldn't have been a nicer day, not too hot and plenty of shade.

Thanks Grandpa for taking us to the zoo!

I love these baby blue eyes!

Aubrey loves her Uncle Cole!

This is much more like my happy baby.

Aubrey loved it when Kyle put her on his shoulders.

Sis's Trip

2011-03-09T18:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know I'm supposed to be sharing about our trip right now but I just have to share some awesome pictures of my sister and her family. They are all the way over in Dubai for a few months and they are getting to see and do some amazing things. Aubrey and I have enjoyed skyping them in the morning when they are just getting ready for bed.

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever!

This picture is amazing!

I wish it was nice enough to go swimming right now.

This is right outside a huge water show they can see from their balcony, I was able to see it on skype one night. It was really neat they did a show to Michael Jackson's Thriller. It puts the Bellagio's water show to shame.

Too cute!

Ok, seriously this should be a postcard or something. We miss you all so much, wish we were there with you guys. We love you!

Messy Good Morning From Oklahoma

2011-03-09T12:03:00.001-05:00

Oklahoma

2011-03-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

We made it!!! After 13 hrs to Dallas and driving through thunderstorms and then another 3 1/2 hrs to Oklahoma we're here safe and sound. Aubrey is already having a blast with her cousins Sophie and Bella. Sophie even fed her dinner tonight when we hung out with the girls. I think Aubrey is going to have a great time having some big kids to play with for the next month.

We met up with Kyle's buddies from college last night for dinner and Aubrey ate at her first bar, haha. We went to a bar/grill on a lake and the food was pretty good. The funny part was the guys kept on saying....Toti, you've got a kid, haha. We're looking forward to hanging out with these guys some more. I took a picture but Aubrey is flipping out, she was tired and wasn't the happiest baby so Kyle doesn't want me to put it up.

Kyle has found his study spot as he was handed a huge book today for his neurology rotation. I found my spot in the hot tub with a bud light, it was pretty much heaven. I just now got my camera out so I'll definitely be taking more pictures of our trip from now on.

Presenting Jack's Nursery

2011-03-03T19:13:00.000-05:00

Jack's nursery is ready for him to come, I just finished helping Colleen decorate Jack's room. We can't wait to meet him.

It all started with this bumper from ebay, she got a steal.....and then the ideas started.

Then our awesome friend Sheila made letters for Jack and they matched perfectly. We decided to add something around the letters and Colleen was thinking vinyl circles. Well couldn't find vinyl to match so better yet we found paint that matched the bedding and I was just looking for something to paint. I found it! Foam baseballs, they worked out perfect, should have taken a picture before.

Colleen had a lamp that we were going to cover a lamp with fabric but after making hippos with felt Colleen thought it would look perfect on the lamp and it does! I looove the lamp.

Remember the paint, well I kind of went crazy and kept thinking of things I could paint. I painted some frames and put some pictures in of her pregnant and of Jack's sonogram.

This might be one of my favorite things I made for Colleen. It is a mobile made out of felt and mirrors. It's pretty darn cute. It's hanging over the dresser Chuck refinished for his changing table.

Another Sheila creation!! An adorable pennant, too cute.

Colleen had this framed shelf and I was trying to figure out something I could help her put in it. Some cereal cardboard and paint later. I painted leaves on it to match her bumper.

The last of the painting was the light switch cover. I told Colleen I was thinking about painting a light switch cover and she said I could have painted mine and just switched her the next morning because I was painting at about 11 pm last Friday (we were also watching Dexter, so everybody was happy).

She got an adorable painted canvas from her school shower and a embroidered bag from her Ohio shower.

The crib skirt we made out of fabric. SUPER EASY!! Definitely doing this next time, all we did was sew under the skirt and then used velcro to velcro to the crib. It looks awesome. You like Gus's ear in this picture.

And here's the momma to be. I've been wanting to share this adorable room on this blog because seriously if I could be a thrifty baby room decorator (because everything was made with not perfect quality) I sooo would be. The last creation in this picture is a blanket that me and my mom made for Colleen, ok mostly my mom. We're excited for you baby Jack, we can't wait to meet you neighbor.

My Favorite New Decoration

2011-03-02T14:02:00.000-05:00

While waiting for Aubrey to wake up from her nap so we can go to the Dr. just make sure she's just got a cold. We want to be sure before we head to Oklahoma on Friday. I thought I would share my new favorite update to our house. For valentine's day I wanted to do something that Kyle and I would see every day, of course I got the candy that's already gone and donuts from Kyle's favorite donut shot. But I wanted something different we could always see. We had our wedding picture hanging up right next to our dining table so we are able to look at it while we're eating. Well a couple of months ago it fell down and broke and I haven't been able to fix it yet. Thank god Aubrey was not crawling yet and that it didn't fall on top of her. I had this other wedding frame but it was just too much in our small apartment with the other one up so I went ahead and put it on the wall. It was missing something, I realized we aren't just the 2 of us anymore we're the 3 of us. So I found a vinyl lettering at Hobby Lobby 50% off so it jumped in my cart and then I knew which black and white picture I would use, thank you Heather from Heather Scott Photography you're amazing!!! I have to say looking at this every day makes me smile. I don't think I'll ever change this picture out because it is my favorite newborn picture of Aubrey and I want to always remember her that tiny.

Here's a view of where it is hanging and you can see our house is a disaster since we're packing and getting ready to leave. I keep it real, I would have even taken a picture of my huge pile of laundry to be folded or packed if Kyle or Chuck wouldn't have made fun of me.

Well I'm off to wait outside for little Miss to wake up, it's absolutely GORGEOUS outside. We've been keeping our door open sometimes and Bailey is good and doesn't run out. I want to enjoy it before the mosquitos and nasty summer bugs start coming out.

Long Night

2011-03-01T11:27:00.002-05:00

But really how can you be mad at a face like this....

Even with the snot, drool, and something stuck to her cheek I still love her too much to get upset with her when you see this in the morning. I should actually say Kyle "aka-Super Dad" had a rough night. Not only did he have a sick baby he also had a sick wife that didn't want to do the rocking all night. I have a head cold or something and I hit my limit last night when after my head was pounding the only way to soothe Aubrey was to let her literally pull my hair. So after a while I couldn't take it anymore and I raised my white flag and let Kyle take over. He is such a great dad and so patient with Aubrey. We're crossing our fingers she starts feeling better before taking a 12 hour trip to Dallas on Friday. I'm taking her to the Dr. tomorrow if we have another night like last night. Thanks Kyle for being well.....amazing!

Crazy Busy

2011-02-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

So we have been super busy and I haven't gotten much time to blog lately. I have a ton of pictures I still need to put up. Let's see over the past 2 weeks, my mom came for a visit and we had a blast. Aubrey and I went with Colleen to Ohio for her baby showers. We've been packing and getting ready for Kyle's rotation that starts next Monday in Oklahoma City. Helping Colleen decorate an adorable nursery for Jack (pictures to come soon). Oh and our little Miss has learned how to pull up!! She is pulling up on everything and therefore falling over onto everything. I swear she needs a football helmet to keep from getting red marks all over her cute face. Here are just a few pictures for now...

Aubrey entertaining at Colleen's shower, she's always such a social little girl. She's also wearing a dress and bow my mom and I made for her while she was down. She now has enough hair to hold a bow in. A little trick though is hot glueing shelf liner onto the bow clip, works like a charm.

Talking on the phone to Mimi with the Cinderella phone Mimi got her.

The adorable momma to be! Jack please wait until we get back from Oklahoma to make your big debut....pretty pleeeeeease.

Swinging at the park when Mimi was here to visit us.

A camouflage tutu I made for my good friend Megan's little girl Nora.

Happy baby in my new favorite pj's from Josalyn.

A couch that was in desperate need of some attention and some fabric. It was also a huge baby hazard because Aubrey can pull out the stuffing and put it where else but her mouth.

Some adorable fabric and two staple guns later (the first one we broke) and Ta-Daaa! I love it!

Mimi doing her favorite thing, rocking Aubrey.

And now what you've been waiting for. Our 8 month old little girl standing up, is it bad that I want to pull her back down and not let her grow up. I caught her after the pull up part so I'll be sure to catch her doing it and put it online this week. She's getting big way too fast, but she's making us smile each and every day of that growing up.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T12:18:00.002-05:00

Aubrey hanging out with her hand me down pj's from cousin Josalyn that were perfect for Aubrey's first Valentine's day.

Here's a video of her opening some pj's for Valentine's day and playing with the paper. Daddy got her heart pajama's and pink camo pj's so trust me there will be pictures to come.

I also finally figured out how to make the pictures on our blog bigger. I just had to play with the widths for a little bit to figure it out. I kind of like big pictures of Aubrey, it means more cuteness so how can't that be good! Hope you have a great Valentine's day filled with lots and lots of LOVE.

Baby Deals!

2011-02-10T09:47:00.003-05:00

After seeing some baby websites on one of my favorite blogs Dear Baby, if you haven't checked this blog out, you should. I decided to share with you the baby deal websites she had on her blog. I had already heard of http://www.babysteals.com/ which has different steals every day. There is also an app for Baby Steals that I check on Kyle's phone when I forget to look online. The other websites are http://www.babyhalfoff.com/, http://www.totsy.com/, http://www.zulily.com/, and The Mini Social. You have to register with some of these, but registering is free and totally worth entering your e-mail address because they have some awesome deals. Right now you can even get a free 8x10 canvas from Canvas People on Totsy.com by clicking here and all you have to do is pay shipping and handling. Happy baby deals!

Peace Pipe

2011-02-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, so really nebulizer but that's what Kyle is calling it. This is the last day for Aubrey to do breathing treatments and she is doing 100 times better than she was last week. Here is a video from Kyle's phone of her smoking her "peace pipe"

Sippy Cup

2011-02-09T09:00:00.003-05:00

Guess who is using a sippy cup now!! She has finally figured out how to hold it herself and actually get some out. She usually has water with her food and since she's been sick we've started her on some juice. She's growing up wayyyyy tooooo fast!

Nap Time

2011-02-08T10:20:00.003-05:00

I looove these pajamas!! They didn't fit a month ago and now they fit like a glove. Aubrey loves her Eeyore doll. It has that hair on it and she just plays with hair when she's sleepy, it's like her comfort thing. She likes to play with my hair when she's falling asleep. She looks so darn cute when she sleeps.

Spring Dresses in Winter

2011-02-08T09:02:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday Aubrey and I wore some spring dresses to church all we had to do was throw some tights, a cardigan, and some boots and wah-lah(do you know what I'm trying to type there) it looked much more wintery. Yes, Aubrey has fake ugg boots, if you can see them. You can barely tell in this picture but they are my favorite accessory of hers by far. I love how Bailey is sitting perfectly by the window looking out, this is her permanent spot.

I actually made this dress with the help of my grandma and mom a couple years ago. I will always have that memory and I will always keep that dress :)

Decorative Baby Proofing

2011-02-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

Now that Aubrey is super mobile and crawling all over the place, she's been obsessed with our cable box which is on a shelf in our TV stand, here.

So a tension rod and some cute fabric later I came up with this. A cable box curtain. She watched me as I put it on and it was like she was thinking, you dummy mom I'm going to have that figured out in a second and I'll just pull it up and play with the cable box. Well she has only messed with it twice since I put it up and it's been up for a few days now. I used to have to constantly pull her away from it when I would put her down so this is a major improvement.

Since I had some leftover fabric, I decided to make some pillows with some felt flowers on them and I think they turned out pretty cute.

On a side note, I don't know if I ever mentioned my AMAZING deal I got on that TV stand. I got it the week before we had Aubrey and it was a floor model at Walmart. There was no price tag on it so after about an hour of waiting for all the workers to figure out how much it was a manager in the back that didn't see it told the workers just to see if I would pay $30 for it. I looked at the lady like she was crazy and said uhhh yeah I'll take it for 30. All the stock boys were mad and they wanted to pay that much for it. I was 9 months pregnant but still about to take it out to the truck myself before the manager came out and realized what a big mistake he made. Luckily the mad stock boys carried it out to my truck where I tied it down and took it down like a prize trophy. I was soooo excited to show Kyle when I got home and to top it all off we looked online and it was a $200 TV stand. So not every day do I get to stick it to Walmart, but that day I did!

Grandma TT Visit

2011-02-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Grandma TT came to visit us last weekend and we had a great time. Here are a few pictures form her trip.

Please ignore my goofy smile on this bath video.

Still Sick

2011-02-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

Well she's gotten worse and now has a bad cough. I feel like I'm going on a couple hours of sleep for the past few days because she wakes up about every hour. Sometime I nurse her to get her to fall asleep, sometime I just rock her, and sometime she just cries and cries. This definitely has been a more tiring week than when she was a newborn. Here's a picture of her sleeping in the swing. It helps if she sleeps upright so she can breathe better. She's sleeping in her car seat in our room right now. I'm hoping she starts getting better than getting worse. She is pretty funny after her breathing treatment because it makes her hyper and it's like she's bouncing off the walls afterwards.

Kyle has one more day of family medicine and then he's going to be starting radiology on Monday. He's really enjoyed family medicine and I think that has started to make his cut list now too. We're so proud of him and definitely looking forward to having him home for the weekend to be with his sick baby girl.

Sick Baby

2011-02-01T20:06:00.003-05:00

Well we made it almost 8 months with no real sickness for this little girl. Saturday night Aubrey had a fever and was super fussy and wouldn't hardly slept unless she was being rocked or laying on my chest. She was really congested and drooling a lot so I chalked it up to an ear infection or just teeth coming in.

She had an appointment on Wednesday for her flu booster shot anyway and still no sign of the congestion getting better. So I moved the appointment up to today. Well the nurse came in after taking a nose swab for RSV and said the test had only ran for a few minutes but was already coming up positive. So our baby girl has her first real sickness. We are just doing tylenol to keep the fever down and breathing treatments using a nebulizer. So after a very long day of getting prescriptions and the nebulizer we're home and snuggling.

On a funny note, this is where I spent a majority of the night last night. I used to do this in college when I wasn't feeling good, ok I mean having a hangover. Well Aubrey was so congested I thought the bouncer may work to keep her inclined to breathe better and then I turned on the shower for some steam. It actually worked out great, so if you ever have a congested baby and don't know what to do, try this one out.