Getting Crafty for Christmas

Here's a little craft I did to hang our Christmas cards on. It became kind of a family project :). Brandon spray painted the clothespins, he cut the wire, and Aubrey and I strung the beads and clothespins on. Kind of a fun way to display our Christmas cards this year :).

Santa Cookie Tradition Continues

Since Brandon was little, he and his family have had a tradition of making Santa cookies every Christmas. Brandon and his brother were in charge or doing the rosy cheeks and sprinkles, their dad was in charge of doing Santa's eyes, and their mom did all the piping.

Now that I have joined the family I have been assigned to help with the piping and help continue this tradition. These are a lot of work but it is all definitely worth it! We hope to continue our own type of cookie like these as our family grows and gets older. So fun to do things as a family like this!

First Time Finger Painting

So today we decided to do some finger painting.  She was given a Crayola set for her birthday in which you can only use certain paper with a particular fingerpaint.  Genius!  The paint only showed up on the paper (in some interesting designs that Aubrey loved) and it was VERY easy cleanup.  We'll do this again sometime very soon.

She made three pictures.  She said one was for baby sister, one for daddy, and one for mommy.

 

Today made me miss the days that I had with Aubrey before I started work this year.  I am so blessed to have this time with our little one before baby arrives.  I am seriously treasuring every sweet moment :)

First Gingerbread House

This year while mommy and daddy were at work, Aubrey and her grandma decorated a gingerbread house.  While she licked every piece before she actually put it on the house, she did a pretty good job at spreading the icing and putting the candies in a fun order.

The house was barely hanging on for this picture :)

 

 

She still couldn't keep from eating those candies!

 

 

 

 

 

Last day...take two

So today was my last day of work once again before this new addition to our family is born. I wasn't exactly expecting to be out on leave so early but it is definitely needed. My legs are not looking so great nor are they feeling ok at all, so it's time.

This last work assignment has been a really big blessing and I didn't really notice how supported I really was until this week. When I went to go talk to my principal about the leave and what my doctor intended for me she simply said,"Why are you still here?" All the anxiety that I had going in to the meeting quickly faded as I realized my own principal had a bigger picture in mind. The staff in turn was so encouraging and they were all for me taking the time off to take care of myself and this baby.

So as I leave my little corner of the world at work I am realizing I am richly blessed to be with my family even more before this little lady arrives. It's been difficult at times but I'm excited for this new chapter and journey in our lives to start :).

2nd Birthday Celebrations

So we started celebrating Aubrey's 2nd year with having Aunt Krystal, Uncle Jon, and Norah up for the weekend of November 3rd.  Since they were here we had just had to have a celebration with them!!  The one thing Aubrey has been asking for were cupcakes.  Every time I asked her what she wanted for her birthday it was always 'cupcakes.' So hey, if that's what my little one wanted I could totally do that!

 

We had a small celebration on Sunday evening November 4 with my side of the family.  My mom and I made some appetizers and we of course had cupcakes!  Duncan Hines makes mixes that are dairy free so that's what this little lady got for her celebration.

 

Poor Aubrey.  While Mom and her aunt were trying to take some pictures, she got so desperate for her cupcakes that she began to stutter and say, "No more picture! Put camera down!  Aubrey wants cupcakes!"  We had a good laugh and then we gladly handed her a cupcake :)

 

The morning of her birthday I made some almond milk pancakes with sprinkles and Aubrey got to open her presents that daddy and mommy got for her.

 

 

Aubrey LOVES any Corduroy book so we looked everywhere to find her a little Corduroy bear.  It was surprisingly hard to find one that actually looked like the one in the book!  But we found one at last...

 

Brandon had the day off so we spent the morning as a family and playing with her new things and got some things ready for her family celebration in the evening.

 

 

It was nothing really big but we had both sets of grandparents, her great-grandparents, and Uncle Tyler and Aunt Jessica over.  Brandon smoked and BBQ some DELICIOUS pork ribs and I made some cupcakes in a jar thanks to the idea from my friend Lyndsay from  Educated...Not So Domesticated. I think they turned out pretty cute :).

 

We ate the delicious dinner and then Aubrey opened her presents.  This girl is definitely loved!!

 

 

After presents Aubrey got to devour yet another cupcake :).

 

 

She ate it pretty carefully and she made sure to lick every bit of frosting off of her fingers between bites :).

 

As the evening went on the sugar kicked in and this girl had even more energy than she normally has.  There were some sweet moments of her playing with her Uncle Tyler and Aunt Jessica (and she's normally pretty scared of her uncle's beard so this was a milestone!).  Aubrey even gave him a high five at the end of the night!

 

 

Overall it was a great, quiet evening celebrating this little bundle of joy.

 



2 Years Old!!

We seriously can't believe this little lady is two!!

 

 

The first year went by fast, but this year really flew by!!

 

 

We are just amazed at how much she is learning and how much she is taking in from her world.  She is still one VERY busy girl and doesn't sit down for more than 5 minutes at a time.  She loves play dough, but even that doesn't hold her attention for very long before she wants to open yet another color or move on to something else altogether! 

 

She loves to play mommy with her dolls and stuffed animals.

 

She loves to pretend she is cooking and loves to give us everything she makes.  She loves to watch us cook in the kitchen and we can never be in the kitchen without her being right by our side. 

 

She still loves bubbles and loves to be outside.

 

 

She is definitely a little gymnast and does headstands frequently in her crib.  It's pretty funny in the morning when you go to get her from her crib you find her standing on her head once again.  She just plainly states, "Hi mommy/daddy" while standing on her her head.

 

 

 

She is still one high energy kid who speaks, repeats what we say on a daily basis, and laughs and giggles more than ever.  The things she says and does just makes us laugh every single day.

 

 

 

 

We love you sweet girl!!  We can't wait what this next year brings.  Happy Birthday!!