Happy 7th Birthday Aubrey!

Seven. We still remember your delivery and the excitement that came with being new parents. Now seven years later, you have grown into quite the young lady.
 

You love school and learning. You are quite the book worm and you read through books one after another. We just can't believe how you can read through those chapter books so quickly. It is one of our favorite things to hear you reading to Lucy. Your favorite books right now are Junie B. Jones and Amelia Bedelia. Your love for learning about anything and everything is contagious (and makes your teacher mom pretty happy). You take initiative in finding out how things work and you are always willing to work hard to learn about something and do it right.

 

 

 

 

 

Your memorization amazes us!

 

You are growing more and more confident in your own skin every day. 

 

You have your own very clear likes and dislikes, but you're always willing to try new things.

 

You are always willing to help out around the house when it's needed and you are so responsible.

Ballet has been one of your strengths this year, and with your flexibility you are quite the poised ballerina.

You are creative.  We have your little drawings, sculptures, and other masterpieces all over our house.
 

You are one strong, athletic girl! You handle those monkey bars effortlessly and your core strength is incredible. You still tend to fall and get hurt a lot, but you're pretty good about recovering quickly from it. You can hula hoop like nobody's business.

 

 

You've built some deeper friendships this year of which we are so thankful for!  You're learning how to be a good friend to others. You love your close friends and family so very much.  You and your sister are best friends.  Your relationship with each other seems to grow stronger everyday and your sense of humor together and what makes you both laugh warms our hearts.

Your laughter is contagious. Although you're too cool for school sometimes, your belly laugh is amazing.

 

Your energy never seems to decrease even as the day goes on.  You are ALWAYS moving!!  Even when we are reading or watching a movie, you always have to be moving somehow.  One would think that your energy would be gone by the end of the day, but most days you are still going strong even until bedtime. In the morning, you take absolutely no time to wake up and start running and moving!  We wish we could bottle up that energy for ourselves some days :).

 

In the past year you have lost five teeth and outgrown two shoe sizes.  You're growing faster than we can keep up with your clothes and shoes lately!



You are strong.  You are smart.  You are beautiful.

 

Seven looks good on you Aubrey girl!  We are so very proud to be parents to you and we're humbled every day by it. 

 

Happy birthday Aubrey! We love you to the moon and back!

 

Love,

Daddy and Mommy



October Tidbits

This month was the first month Brandon was out in Oklahoma. I have been doing the single working mom thing and taking care of our sweet girls. It all just made me realize once again just how fast time goes! This month I worked a lot less of which I was SO thankful for! I worked a lot up to this point and my teaching partner and I worked it out in a way that I would work less when Brandon was gone. Seriously, she is the best and supports me in so many ways!!
 

On some of those days off I got to just be mom :). I got to go on both of the girls' field trips to Bishops Pumpkin Farm. They were fun filled days with cider drinking, train riding, hay riding, pumpkin picking fun! I'm so thankful I got the opportunity to share those days with them. You can see more from those field trips here.
 

 

I got to see my best friend from childhood and her husband one morning. They had one day in Sacramento and they chose to include me in it!! It's always so wonderful to see them and catch up. It's always like they never left and conversation is always so easy and fun.

 

I got to see my newest niece!! I flew out on my own for two nights to Utah. It was a super quick trip (made even shorter by a two hour delay on my layover flight), but I made it and finally got to meet Miss Kate. Friends threw her a little shower and I was so blessed to be a part of it.

 

 

During that weekend we also celebrated Krystal's birthday a little. I got to bake some cupcakes with my nieces (and I never get to spend one on one time with them like that!).  It was one of my favorite moments from the trip!

 

 

The girls didn't miss daddy or mommy the weekend I was gone! They got to take a trip in the motorhome and camp out for a couple nights in Jackson.

We're pretty fortunate to live in a great neighborhood with a great school that we get to walk to almost every single day. October 4 was national walk to school day and we walked with some school friends and principal that morning!

 

 

We had Aubrey's school fall festival one Friday this month and it was a huge success!

 

 

 

The night of the fall festival we got a surprise visit from daddy!!  We went to go pick him up late Friday night and had to drop him back off at the airport Sunday morning, but we got a whole 37 hours with him that weekend!!

 

 



Aubrey's 7th Birthday Celebrations

 

Since we were going to Oklahoma on Aubrey's birthday, we decided that we wouldn't have a big birthday party for Aubrey's birthday this year.  Seeing Daddy was present enough for her and mommy wasn't about to take one more thing on her plate, so we were thankful this little girl was content with what we had planned.

 

During Brandon's time away, our good friends the Purintons had us over for dinner almost every Monday night.  The Monday before Aubrey's birthday, they set up a little celebration in her honor!  It was the perfect celebration to make this little seven year old feel so special!

 

 

The evening was complete with pizza, sundaes and presents!  We are so thankful for the friends we have in our lives that have supported us so much during this crazy time in our lives!  Thanks for making our girl feel so special!