Splashing in Puddles

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!

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

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

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

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

Church wore Aubrey out this morning.

Giggling Baby

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

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.