Christmas Morning

More presents.

Aubrey was very neat when she opened presents. She would tear a piece of wrapping paper off and then hand it to us to throw away.

Breakfast anyone?

Aubrey standing by the tree on Christmas morning.

Aubrey did great on Christmas morning opening her presents!

Christmas Eve

Here we are in our Christmas PJs.

Here is Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus under the star of Bethlehem.

Here is the angel appearing to the shepherds...Aubrey and Paul were shepherds in this picture.

These are our shepherds. The teddy bear dressed in white especially for his role.

On Christmas Eve we reinacted the nativity. I give all credit for props and set up to Paul, he did a great job! Paul played multiple roles and Aubrey was Mary, I was the narrator. This is a picture of Mary riding her donkey.

Christmas Activities

Paul got a snow tube and he and Aubrey went sledding a few times. They both loved it!

Papa Justensen bought Aubrey a snowsuit and she loved going out and playing in the snow!

Paul headed up our Christmas craft this year. We made homemade Christmas ornaments that turned out great!

Aubrey is learning how to feed herself. Her favorite thing is to get food on her hands and then massage her head, getting food all over in her hair!

Santa's Lap

We had our ward Christmas party last night and it would not be complete without a visit from Santa. Surprisingly, Aubrey didn't cry. She pouted and started to whine, but she didn't cry! She also couldn't figure out what a candy cane was and why Santa was giving her one.

Teething Woes

I have been told by several parents that when a child is teething it is not a fun experience. I never discredited this information, but I also never took it to heart until this week. Last week we were in Indiana for Thanksgiving and Aubrey's cousin was teething and in pain. Apparently it was contagious because as soon as we returned Aubrey started to cut two of her molars. She has been pretty moody and sad lately and I have to remind myself of her pain and increase my patience. Poor girl! I do feel badly for her. At least with teeth she can start chewing harder things, right?!

Gingerbread Homes

To end our fabulous weekend in Indiana, we made gingerbread houses. As you can see, Paul made sure to cloth our gingerbread people so they were modest. We put the house on the seat right next to Aubrey's carseat for the drive home. About an hour away from Iowa City I noticed something white in Aubrey's hand and she quickly shoved her hand into her mouth. Upon further examination I noticed that all the icycles from half of the front roof had been eaten off!

Christmas Tree Hunting

While in Indiana for Thanksgiving, we went to a tree farm and cut down a Christmas tree for my brother. We found one just Aubrey's size. (We also discovered, after my brother's tree was decorated, that Aubrey enjoys pulling two glass balls from the tree and banging them together. You can imagine how quickly they break!)

Thanksgiving Feast

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Indiana with my brother this year. Instead of cooking turkey the traditional way in the oven, we fried ours. It turned out to be one of the best turkeys I've ever had! You deep fry the turkey for about 30 minutes. The outside becomes black and hard, but the oil seals all the juices inside so the meat is very moist and delicious. It may not look appetizing, but it really was delicious! Because the oil seals the turkey meat inside, it is not greasy at all and is suppose to be just as healthy as cooking the turkey in the oven. The final picture is the scrumptious spread of food. I take no credit. My brother and sister-in-law did all the cooking and I was merely there for conversation. Talk about a great Thanksgiving!!!

Bubble Bath

When Aubrey was sick we gave her a vaporizing bubble bath that was suppose to clear her congestion. She LOVED the bubbles and we became the favorite parents in a hurry!

A Fantastic Husband and Green Buggars

Aubrey has had a bad cough and Paul has been getting sick so Paul stayed home with Aubrey while I went to church yesterday. Before I left, I wrote down Aubrey's morning schedule. When I got home from church the house was spotless. It was cleaner than I ever clean it on my cleaning days! The toys were picked up, the dishes were done, the table was cleared off with our lovely fall centerpiece in the middle, my stacks of stuff were organized and moved to a central location, Paul cleaned his stack of stuff that was on the dresser, and the house simply glowed of warmth and cleanliness. I was stunned to say the least and felt like I should shower and clean myself up before entering. I thanked him and told him how wonderful everything looked and he simply shrugged it off as if making the house spotless was no big deal! What an amazing husband I have! Later that night Paul decided to go to the broadcast of the rededication of the Mexico City Temple. As he was leaving, he turned to look at the apartment that was spotless only a few hours before. It now looked like a tornado had run through it. Aubrey's toys were scattered everywhere, we had papers all over the desk from working on a computer project, the kitchen was a disaster from making dinner, and the once clean table and dresser top were, well...no longer clean! I apologized and said it must be me and I couldn't blame the mess on Aubrey. He had Aubrey in the morning and managed to clean the house. His response was simply that the mess was made as I was serving my family. I know, I know, he is the most amazing man in the world!!!
This morning I woke up to a lot of green buggars, which I am thrilled about! I am a very very paranoid person when it comes to illness. We try to keep ourselves pretty healthy, so the slightest hint of sickness means that we stay in the house and take our vitamin C and we disinfect everything until we are healthy again! I have a pretty hard time when Aubrey gets sick because I can't do anything for her. She has had a cough the last few days and it has been getting worse and wors, but today she has green buggars. I never thought I would be so grateful for green buggars in all my life, but I feel like she is moving some of the flem from her chest up and out her nose. Thank heavens for green buggars! Perhaps we are on the mend!!!

This picture was taken at our ward Halloween party. Aubrey was a bumble bee and I was a flower. We had so much fun dressing up and enjoying good company

We went to a Halloween party at our friend's house and all the kids sat down for a picture.

Pumpkin Carving

Didn't Paul do a great job carving our pumpkin?! It is in the shape of a Hawkeye, our mascot.

Carving our pumpkin was a family project!

Aubrey really did not like the feel of pumpkin guts! It was hilarious to see her reaction!

We went to a pumpkin carving party at our friend's house and had so much fun! Aubrey enjoyed playing with the kids while we adults worked hard on our pumpkins. Ashley's job was to gut out the pumpkin and while Paul's job was to carve it.

Aubrey has read so many books and is getting tired of the ABCs and 123s. She has recently started learning Calculus and is so excited about it!

I went into Aubrey's room and discovered her new trick!

Aubrey loves to take her clothes out of her drawer and spread them around the house. She also takes her books and piles them on the couch for more comfortable reading.

Birthday Bash!

We celebrated my 25th birthday today and had so much fun! I had birthday breakfast and dinner today and Paul fed Aubrey so I could enjoy my meals. He also made the coolest cake ever!

Paul made and decorated the cake himself. Didn't it turn out great?!

This is our birthday extravaganza! Paul decorated the house for me and it was such a fun day! I felt like a queen and it was really nice to have a break as Paul took over some of the daily tasks for me.

There were so many candles on the cake but I was able to manage blowing them all out in one breath!

The Gender of Our Baby is a........

nother girl!!! We recently found out the gender of our cute little baby and it is another girl. We are thrilled! We really wanted a girl so Aubrey would have a play mate to dress up and play dolls with. Of course we would have been happy with either gender, as long as the baby was healthy, but we are pretty excited about this news. Hooray for girls!!!

Pumpkin Patch

The other day for family home evening we took Aubrey to a pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, because of all the moisture and rain, the pumpkins were planted late and there wasn't much in the patch to choose from. They did have a selection of pumpkins in their hay bail area and Aubrey enjoyed playing in the pumpkin area!

Things I learned from cutting a toddler's hair

1.) Always put them in a high chair. Do not think that, because they are well behaved children, they will sit still for a haircut.
2.) Cut the hair longer than you really want it. You will be going back and trimming a lot! In the end, it will be the length you want or even shorter!
3.) Use sharp hair cutting scissors. This offers preciseness in the cutting process.
4.) Give the child a very interesting toy or yummy treat to keep them occupied.
5.) Cut their hair right before a bath, if possible, and cut their hair when they are bare chested. If you keep their shirt on, their fine baby hair will stick to their shirt like glue.
6.) Understand that mothers are natural hair stylists. Children's hair will come out in all different lengths, but we are just styling and layering!(Keep this in mind if your purpose of the hair cut is to straighten and cut the ends even...it ain't happening!)
7.) Realize that your children won't care what their hair looks like and they are cute regardless of how straight or short their hair is!!!

I have learned all these things through mistakes of Aubrey's first hair cut. I have given her trims before, but never a cut. (This was suppose to be a trim as well, until I cut at least an inch off of the back. I would say that is a cut!)

First trip to the zoo

We finished the day with a train ride around the zoo.

The giraffes came up really close to us and the kids were able to feed them.

One of the emu's got out of it's cage and was walking around with us. We were a little nervous that it might bite and so left the area quickly.

We went into an enclosed area where we could feed the birds. They were landing all over us and one of them took a bite at Aubrey. I think it hurt her and scared her because she started crying and we quickly left the enclosed bird area.

Aubrey and I as well as our good friends Heidi and her son Alex went to the zoo together. It was Aubrey's first trip to the zoo and I think she had fun. She didn't quite take everything in, but she did get pretty excited to see some of the animals. We went to the petting zoo first and played with the goats. Aubrey would stick out her hand. When the goat licked it she would be so surprized that she would pull away.

Top ten things I love about Aubrey

These aren't listed in any particular order...

1. She gives great hugs and kisses. Whenever she hugs me she says "ahhhh".
2. She climbs on the couch and looks out the window at Paul or I whenever we go outside. When looking in at her, all we can see are her eyes, nose and her hand waving at us!
3. She loves dressing up and putting on necklaces and shoes.
4. She gets BEYOND excited when we are leaving the house. It doesn't matter where we go, she loves to get out and see the world.
5. She talks my ear off, even though she isn't really saying anything coherent.
6. She brings books into the kitchen while I am cooking dinner and "reads" them to me.
7. She knows what she can and can't play with. When she is playing with something she shouldn't be and I confront her, she immediately drops whatever it is she is playing with and looks at me with innocent eyes, as if she hasn't done anything wrong.
8. She LOVES pillows and blankets and playing on our bed. She loves us to throw pillows on her and she snuggles up to anything soft. She will take her stuffed animals and bury her face in them.
9. She loves playing with other kids and is incredibly social with children...not so much with adults.
10. I love love love her hair. Aubrey is pretty good about sitting still while I do her hair in the morning and she has always had a lot of hair. It is so fun to have a little girl with hair that I can fix and put cute bows in.

Growing Up

I usually keep the door of the bathroom closed. One day I left it open and Aubrey found the toilet paper. Since then, life is never the same. Whenever I open the bathroom door she tries to get in because she knows there are so many fun things to play with!

Aubrey loves to dress up. She puts on her necklaces almost everyday and wears them all day. She asks me to put on her shoes and shirt so she can dress up and look so pretty! If I ever whistle at her and tell her she looks so pretty in something, she will want to wear it all day.

We bought Aubrey a doll stroller to help her learn to walk. The stroller is unstable so, rather than leaning on it to push it, she has to really walk while pushing it. However, she has learned that she can push it while crawling. What a gal! She is going to be two years old before she decides that walking is not such a bad thing! But I love her smile! Whenever I pull out the camera and tell her to smile this is the face I get. Pretty cute, huh?!