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?!

Iowa State Fair

One of the coolest sights to see were the butter sculptures. This is a life size butter sculpture of Shawn Johnson.

Butter sculpture of a cow.

Behind us is a 3,000 pound cow! It was enormous and I don't know if it can stand.

This is a picture of a 1,200 pound pig. Pretty gross, huh?! It was laying there snoring the whole time we were watching it.

There was a fountain that kids could run through to cool off. Paul and Aubrey thought it was a lot of fun!

Iowa State Fair

Last weekend we went to the Iowa State Fair. We now understand why it is in the top 50 things every person should do in their lives! I have never seen such a remarkable, enormous fair. We had a lot of fun. They had a kids farm where kids could go and participate in farm activities.

Here Aubrey and Dad are planting a plastic seed.

Aubrey is picking an apple off the apple tree.

Here is our John Deere baby! She really loved riding the tractor.

Aubrey is milking the cow...with Dad's help of course.

Paul and Aubrey, enjoying their pork.

Anniversary Pictures

Front of Carthage Jail.

Paul and Aubrey looking over the Mississippi River at the end of the trail of tears.

Aubrey was worn out and slept on the way home.

Paul bought me two dozed beautiful roses for our anniversary! I love roses!!!

Anniversary Pictures

Paul and Aubrey swing dancing at the Nauvoo Pageant.

Aubrey visiting the small school house at the Nauvoo Pageant.

Joseph and Hyrum statue at Carthage Jail.

Aubrey looking out the window where Joseph fell out of in Carthage.

Bullet hole in door at Carthage.

Nauvoo Anniversary

Paul took a portion of the bar exam on Friday and then we headed down to Nauvoo to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We went to dinner at Hotel Nauvoo and then to the Nauvoo pageant. It was absolutely wonderful and Aubrey was so well behaved. She watched for a while and then fell asleep in Paul's arms. We stayed at Motel Nauvoo that night, (and for how much we payed, I would give this 4.5 stars! It wasn't the most amazing place, but it was pretty cheap and it was VERY clean and smelled good. It also had a quilt on the bed rather than one of those itchy comforters you usually find in hotels. I was quite impressed.) The next day we took turns going to the temple and watching Aubrey, then we headed to Carthage. We took a tour of Carthage Jail and saw the window Joseph Smith fell out of and the whole in the door where he was staying. (I believe the bullet that went through the door hit Hyrum.) It was a great experience and afterwards we went back to Nauvoo and Parley street to the trail of tears. Then we went to a musical show performed by the Young Nauvoo Performers. In all it was such a fun trip and a great anniversary!

Lots of throw up and a WONDERFUL husband!

I should preface this blog by stating, to all my family and friends, that I am pregnant. We are so excited and will be expecting our second child in February. I have been pretty sick with this pregnancy, a lot more so than I was with Aubrey. We had a fun experience the other day. Since we have been home from the reunion Aubrey has been eating very little and sleeping a lot. The other night I put her down for a nap around 5pm because so was soooo tired and would't eat dinner. She just cried and cried and cried. So I put her down for a nap and got her up a little bit later to eat and get ready for bed. I had just eaten dinner and was trying to get her to eat dinner when she threw up all of her lunch and afternoon snack. I did OK until I started to smell it and then I lost it. I ran to the bathroom and proceeded to throw up all of my dinner. Paul cleaned up all of Aubrey's mess and took her to her room and rocked her until I was done. When I got out of the bathroom Paul took Aubrey in and bathed her and helped put her to bed. He then went to a church meeting and came home immediately to do the dishes and clean the kitchen. Ahhh, what a wonderful husband I have!!!!!

San Diego Temple

We went to the San Diego temple after church on Sunday and it was so beautiful. We came home to a clean house and wonderful husband and dad that we missed very much. However, Aubrey is ready to go back and misses all her cousins.

Fun at the Carousel

We went to the carousel at Balboa Park and my sister-in-law, Nicolina, took Aubrey on a ride. My Dad also had a great time on the carousel. We went to the pool and Aubrey loved floating around! The next day we went to the beach and it was so much fun! Aubrey hated the sand and spent most of the time sitting on a towel or a chair. But I sure had fun in the waves!

San Diego

Aubrey and I went to San Diego for a family reunion. We missed Paul so much but we had a great time with family! My sister bought matching outfits for Aubrey and her cousin who are only 10 days apart. Then we went to Balboa Park and enjoyed dipping our feet in the fountain.

The Miracle of One Nap

I was talking to my mom the other day about Aubrey's nap schedule and she said it was probably time to get Aubrey on to one nap a day (mainly because she wasn't even sleeping during her morning nap, just sitting in her crib and talking.) I have been dreading switching to one nap because I love the time I have to clean the house and get things done during both of her naps. I decided it wasn't fair for her to go into her crib and just sit for an hour, so I have started putting her on one nap. What a difference a nap can make!!! She is exhausted by 12pm and takes a wonderful afternoon nap and then goes right to sleep at 7pm when we put her to bed. She seems happier and is doing great on the new schedule! The miracle of one nap a day!