Christmas & More

Christmas:

Christmas was so exciting this year. I thought Christmas was exciting when I was a kid, but I think I enjoy it 100 times more as a parent. I couldn't wait for Aubrey to wake up on Christmas morning! She was really into Santa Claus this year & asked everyday if Christmas was here yet so she could open presents. I finally had to wake Aubs up at 8:15am, I couldn't wait any longer! With the first present, she was still kind of out of it. It didn't take her long to get into the groove though! She was so cute! "What's in it?" she would ask as she was opening each present! She was very excited about all of her new things. Nana & Papa got her clothes, slippers, dvds, & went in half with us for her big Santa present. Aunt Lee Lee got her tons of Dora stuff, including Dora games, a Dora snuggie, & Dora tattoos. Uncle Kurt got her a Barbie car, which was a BIG hit! Me & Nathan got her clothes, some different toys & games (walking/barking puppy, toy toaster, Dora memory game, Candyland, Chutes N Ladders, easel, etc). Nathan's mom & stepdad got us some dvd players for the car. Her big Santa surprise was waiting outside :) Santa (aka Mommy/Daddy/Nana/Papa) brought her a brand new swingset!! She had the biggest smile on her face when she saw it! Now, whenever she wants to go play on it, she says "I go outside play on Santa surprise!" :) I was taking her outside to play on it Sunday & she said "I close my eyes again, Santa surprise!" hahaha I made her close her eyes when I took her out there on Christmas morning ;) So, all in all, Aubs is spoiled rotten, our house looks like Santa threw up, & we have one happy little girl :) We were very glad to be able to spend the day with my family!

More:

One of the scariest things ever happened this past week. Me, Nathan, & Aubs were goofing off & I had Aubrey on my back & I was on Nathan's back. Well, Aubs went to get down so I backed up to our bed so she could lower herself down. I was still holding onto her arm & she kinda pulled back & popped her wrist pretty hard. She started crying of course, so I was holding her & trying to calm her down. All of a sudden, she went totally limp, her head flopped back, & her eyes rolled into the back of her head. It was SOOOOOOO SCARY! I started freaking out!!! ALL nursing skills went out the window & Mommy freak out skills took their place!!! I tried shaking her & she wasn't coming to. By this point, I am bawling, scared to death!!! Nathan grabbed her from me & kind of shook her/hit her on her back & she came to. Oh my gosh, seriously, soooo scary. I'm not sure if it was some weird reaction to pain or what, but I hope I never have to see that again!!!

The same night as the passing out episode, I accidentally let Aubrey see her Barbie car from Uncle Kurt. Ooops! Nathan was putting it together in the living room. We had put Aubs to bed already. I heard Aubs on the monitor, so I went to check on her. She said she needed her medicine, that her mouth (throat) was hurting. I said okay, let's go... and let her walk right into the living room, the SAME living room where Nathan was putting the car together! I hurried her back to her bathroom & said "She didn't see anything!". Seconds later, Aubs said "That's MY pink car!!!" LOL. The next day she asked where her pink car was & I told her she was dreaming ;) LOL!!

I tried to take Aubrey's paci away on Christmas Eve, but that was a failed attempt, LOL. I was hoping that since it was Christmas Eve, I could bribe her to go to sleep without it "Santa won't come until you go to sleep!" Unfortunately, this did not work out in my favor. It all began earlier in the night when she noticed her paci had a "boo boo". Somehow it got a lil tear in it. I told her that she should throw it away. She carefully placed it on top of the trash can lol. When she wasn't looking, I took it. When she asked for it again, I told her she had thrown it away. I put her to bed at 7:15 & over two hours later, at 9:30, she was STILL awake. I finally gave in & gave it back to her. She was asleep within 5 minutes. It's crazy to me how fast just a lil piece of rubber makes her go to sleep! We had gotten bad about letting her have it all the time again when she was so sick. So, we have her back down to just naptime & bedtime. Hopefully we'll be able to kick those soon enough. It's HARD!! We tell her during the day when she asks for it that Swiper swiped her paci's. She thinks this is hilarious during the day. At night, if we try telling her this, she no longer finds it funny, at all. Sigh.....

So, last night, Aubs randomly started calling her baby doll "baby sister" hahaha! It's the funniest/cutest thing ever. She talks to her baby & says different things like "Come on sister, time for bed!" or "I want to take baby sister to school with me". She switches between saying her baby's name is "Baby sister" or "Balerie". lol! I'm really not sure where the baby sister business came from. Too bad that's the only baby sister she'll be getting for a while. I would love to have another baby in the next year or so but daycare is too expensive for two little ones & we have way too many bills for me to just stay at home. Boo. Maybe in another couple of years or so.

We're going to Texarkana this weekend & I can't wait. I'm ready to hang out with my BFFs!!! :) We always have a great time together! We will also be visiting with some of Nathan's family. Well, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

The Whole Family on Christmas :)

Aubs seeing her swingset for the first time!!

She LOVES her new car!

"Dreams" do come true!!! ;)

Opening presents!

A picture we took before Aubs popped her wrist & ended up passing out. UGHHH SCARY!!!

Good Day

Today was a very good day. Aubs is feeling a lot better, yay!! She is still running a low grade fever, staying right around 100.5-101.0, but at least she is acting like herself again! We had a great day as a family today! We spent lots of time watching Dora, as usual. She counted to 5 in Spanish today which is something I didn't realize she knew how to do, lol. Since she was feeling so much better, we decided to go eat Chinese & then go look at Christmas lights afterwards. Aubrey is in LOVE with Christmas lights this year! It's so cute to hear her gasp & oooohh & awww over all the different lights. :) She has been so cute & funny today. Sometimes I wish I could keep a constant video camera on her!

Some funny things she said today:

With a very pitiful face, she came into the living room & said "Mommy, Daddy told me nooooo".

On our way to dinner, "Mommy, my mouth doesn't hurt anymore. It's ALL BETTER!"

Me, "What's your name?" Aubrey, "Aubrey Williams Claire" hehehe... when I asked her again later she just said "Aubrey Williams" which is pretty much the cutest thing ever to hear her say :)

I know there was more, but that's all I can remember right now. This is why I wish I had a constant video camera on her ;) Hope everyone else had a good day! Here are some pictures from today!

I love her eyes!!

Cutie pie!

:)

Christmas Fairy ;)

Eating Chinese!

Catch Up

As usual, I've gotten behind in blogging =\ Ughhh!! I hate when that happens. Things have been crazy the past few months here. Like I said in my last post, Aubs had been super sick since October 25th. After my last post, Aubrey had 9 days where she was off of antibiotics & then she got strep throat. I called her ENT to tell him about Aubrey being on antibiotics almost non stop since October 25th & he said it was time to take out her tonsils & adenoids & reinsert tubes in her ears. So, that is what we had done this past Tuesday, on December 14th. It was quite an experience. We had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am.

Aubrey was happy as could be. Poor little thing had no idea what she was in for! (right before they took her back!)

Her surgery began around 7:10 & her doctor came to give us a report about 7:50. He said her tonsils were "rotten". Once they got her into recovery, they brought us back. It was heartbreaking!! I have never seen Aubrey look SOOO pitiful!! While in recovery, she started to desat (oxygen saturation dropped, normal is 95-100% & her's dropped to 85). That was a little scary to watch! The nurses rushed around & got oxygen on her asap. Thankfully it came back up pretty quickly. Since Aubs is only 2 & so little (she only weighs 23 lbs), she had to stay for at least 8 hours after the surgery. She was not drinking or eating anything, so we ended up having to stay overnight so she could keep getting IV fluids. As long as she had her pain meds, she did okay.
(high on pain meds!)

You could tell when the meds were starting to wear off though :( She would get so sad/fussy/mad! When she woke up on Wednesday, she drank some chocolate milk & ate a little bit of pancakes & scrambled eggs. This was enough to get us a discharge from the hospital! We got home around 8:45am Wednesday afternoon. She has done pretty well the past few days. She is slowly starting to eat & drink a little more. Her diet has mostly consisted of pudding, yogurt, ice cream, milkshakes, & popsicles. She started running fever (100.8) last night & it has continued to tonight. I called her doctor & they said to just make sure she was getting plenty of fluids. Hopefully, once she is completely healed from all of this, she will barely be sick anymore!!

Christmas is right around the corner & I can't believe it! Aubrey has a ton of gifts under our tree already. It's just so hard not to spoil her! I can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning :) She is really into Christmas this year. She LOVES Santa Claus. Sometimes she calls him Santa Claus, other times she will say "I sat on Christmas' lap" lol If you ask her what Santa says, she quickly replies, HO HO HO! If you ask her what presents she wants Santa to bring her, she either says "HO HO HO!", "Christmas tree", or "Christmas". lol!

(click to view bigger, crazy how much she grew/matured from last year to this year!)

I can't believe she is almost 2 & a half!!! WHERE IS TIME GOING! My baby is getting so big! She is so smart, it amazes me! I know all moms think their kids are smart, but she really is very advanced for her age. Makes this momma proud!!

Well, as usual, I'm really going to try to be a better blogger!! So until next time... :)


P.S. Please pray for Nathan's cousins baby girl. Reagan was born on November 21st & is at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Her heart valves are reversed & she has holes in her heart. They are doing heart surgery this week sometime. I can't imagine how scared/worried/stressed Nathan's cousin Ryan & his wife Ruth are. Any thoughts & prayers are very appreciated!!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Well, the cooler weather has hit & as usual, that brought on some sickness for Aubrey. It's been B-A-D. I hate that she gets SO sick!!! :(

It all started two weeks ago. I took her to the doctor on October 25th (Monday). She had an ear infection in her right ear & tonsillitis. She was put on antibiotics for 10 days. I took her to her ENT doctor the following Monday, November 1st. I wanted to talk to him about taking her adenoids & tonsils out. She constantly has sinus infections, throat problems, & she also sleeps with her mouth open & snores, which is a sign that adenoids are enlarged. He said he wants to wait until she is closer to 3 or 30 lbs. He also wants to see how her ears do over the fall/winter. He said her right tube is still working, but her left one is not working at all. So, that was pretty much a wasted visit. I was kind of aggravated that they had me come in & pay our $35 copay for something they could have told us over the phone (waiting until she was closer to 3/30 lbs). On Wednesday, November 3rd, Aubrey had finished her antibiotics, but was doing very, very bad. She had an asthma attack on Saturday, October 30th. Her asthma was out of control. She was coughing/wheezing almost non stop. She also woke up Wednesday with a gunky, swollen left eye. So, back to her pediatrician's office we went. He diagnosed her with a sinus infection, pink eye, & a severe asthma exacerbation. He put her on a Z pack for her sinus infection, some eye drops for her pink eye, & a round of steroids for her asthma. The eye drops cleared her pink eye up very fast. The Z pack seemed to help with her sinus infection some. She still had some congestion with greenish snot but not as bad as it was. The steroids helped her asthma slightly. She was still having very bad coughing episodes with wheezing. So, once again, yesterday (Monday, November 8th), we headed back to her pediatricians office. She finished her steroids/Z pack on Sunday & just wasn't doing well with her asthma. Well, she now has a VERY bad left ear infection. He said it was one of the worst he has seen & it looked like her ear drum was about to perforate. :( The bad thing is, she developed this awful ear infection while ON antibiotics. Not a good sign at all. She lost a little over a pound in 5 days. Her doctor said babies/kids her age should never lose weight. He thinks her asthma is so aggravated right now by ALL of these infections she's had over the past 2 weeks. So, Aubs got a rocephin (antibiotic) shot & is on yet another oral antibiotic, Augmentin for 10 days. She has to go back to see her pedi on Monday, November 22nd to see how her ears are & see how her asthma is doing & make sure she's gained weight back. Yesterday, she weighed less than she did at her 2 year appt in July :( She weighed 22 lbs 2 oz yesterday & weighed 23 lbs 6 oz last Wednesday. Her pedi said if she has even just one more ear infection this fall/winter, he will tell her ENT she needs tubes reinserted immediately. If we have to do this, her ENT will likely do her adenoids & tonsils at the same time. Honestly, I'm just ready to do it ALL & get it over with. I feel so bad for Aubrey that she has been so sick.

I've left out a lot of details but this is all just off the top of my head right now. I'll try to post again soon about Halloween (she missed out on trick or treating due to being sick but was able to go to a fall festival & trick or treat at the mall on the 29th) & other random things. Please just keep Aubs in your prayers if you can! Hoping for good news & better health at our next appt!!

Big Girl

This week was a big week for Aubrey! It seems like she went from being my baby to a big girl very quickly this week! Here's some new things she learned & did for the first time!

• Learned how to pedal her tricycle by herself
• Converted her crib to a toddler/daybed
  
• Started telling me she had to go pee in the potty... and actually went!
• Went down the big slide at the park all by herself (she used to be terrified!)

It's amazing to me how fast Aubs is growing up. I barely even remember when she was a little baby anymore. It's sad & exciting all at the same time. I love watching her grow.. she is so smart & cute! :) Here are some pictures of her new exciting adventures from this week!

Manners

I love when children use manners & are so polite. I am very proud of Aubrey because she has been doing AWESOME with using her manners lately! She almost always says please when asking for something. It's very rare that she doesn't say thank you after getting what she asked for. She also says excuse me if you are in her way. She says Bless You if you sneeze (sometimes she even says this if you cough, lol). We are now working on Yes & No Ma'am/Sir. She sounds so cute while saying it! Two of my favorite "manner" stories of Aubrey this week:

1. One day this week, we were out back playing. Aubrey went down her slide & Parker was standing at the end of it. She almost hit Parker while sliding down & she said "Excuse me, Parker!"

2. Last night, she sat down to eat dinner. I already had her bowl of food on the table & she looked at me and so sweetly said "Thank you for the food, Mommy!" and I said "You're welcome, Aubrey!" & she said "Thank you thank you!" again. hahaha :) That's more appreciation than I even get from Nathan when it comes to dinner! ;)

We've had a great weekend together. Aubrey had a blast on Friday spending the day with her Nana! Nana brought lots of presents from her & Papa. Aubs loved all of them! Great weekend!

Sassy!

I can't believe, at the age of 2, my daughter already has smart mouth answers, lol! It really is quite funny. Today, on our way home from work/daycare, I asked her what she had for lunch. She looks at me like I am sooo stupid & in a very sassy tone says, "Food, Mommy!". hahaha!

Another funny Aubrey quote from this weekend:

Nathan was in the bathroom & Aubrey ran to the door & said "KNOCK KNOCK!" Nathan said "Who is it??" & Aubrey instantly replied "AUBREY, DADDY!" hehehe.. Nathan asked "What are you doing?" and she said "Watching Dora & Boots!!". Nathan said "You can't be watching Dora if you're in here..." & she said "OH!" and took off running back to the living room to finish watching Dora. :)

Aubrey is sooooo Dora obsessed lately. She is constantly saying "I wanna watch Dora and Boots!" We only have one Dora dvd right now. She has watched it probably 50 times, in the past month. lol She has seen it so many times, that she says what is going to happen, before it even happens! We just signed up for Netflix, so she'll be getting her own Dora deliveries soon. Last week, while driving to daycare, Aubs was eating some fruit snacks. She put one in her mouth & said "Yum, yum, delicioso!" Then, last night at dinner, she pushed her bowl away from her and said "Empuje" which sounds like am-boo-hey & it means push in Spanish. Sooooo funny!

More Aubrey quotes to come later this week I'm sure... she never fails to make me smile with the crazy things she says! :)

Phone Calls

Aubrey loves calling her Nana & Papa on the phone. She will just blabber away to them. One day this week, she called her Nana on the way home from daycare. She said "Hi Nana! Hi Papa! Hi Tirt!" (Tirt= Uncle Kurt). Nana told Aubrey that Kurt wasn't there, that he went bye-bye. Aubrey asked "Where Tirt go??". We told her he went to the Army. She sat there for a minute processing this, saying "Tirt go to Army?"... then she said "Where Army??" lol It was so cute.

Last night, she wanted to call Papa. They had a nice little conversation & then I was talking to Papa. Aubrey was being bad & I said "Do you want Papa to hear you get a spanking?" to which she IMMEDIATELY replied "Yeah!!!" hahaha She is so rotten!

LOVE!!

My heart is so full of love & happiness. There is absolutely no greater feeling than being a mom! I love this little girl SOOOOOOOOOOO very much!!!! I am so thankful that God blessed me with a *wonderful* husband & then He blessed us with our precious little girl!! We may not be rich, famous, etc, but I can honestly say as long as I have Aubrey & Nathan in my life, I am completely & totally happy!! <3 <3 <3

Laundry Lover

Aubrey has always loved helping with the laundry. She loves for me to hand her things to put into the dryer. Well, this week, she has upped her laundry loving as she learned how to fold! ;) She is making her momma proud! Hopefully she will continue her love for laundry, as her momma HATES it!!!

"Don't want it"

Aubrey has learned the phrase "don't want it/to/etc" and uses it excessively these days. Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's funny, & other times it's downright frustrating. lol Tonight was a frustrating night. She was refusing to eat her chicken n dumplings. She kept pushing her bowl away saying "I don't want it." We made her sit there for a while to see if she would eat. She kept refusing & saying over & over "I don't want it." I told her she had to take 3 more bites & she refused. So, I told her she could get down but she wasn't getting anything else to eat tonight & if she was hungry she would have to eat her 3 bites of chicken n dumplings first. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she said "I want crackers!" Ummmm, no Miss Aubrey! You aren't playing me! Then she wanted a "snack" aka fruit snack. Nope, no fruit snacks for her either. She was not a happy camper but each time she asked for something else, I offered her 3 bites of chicken n dumplings so she could have what she was asking for. She refused each time.


Ahhh.... gotta love the stubbornness of a two year old. Unfortunately for her, she has two equally as stubborn parents!!

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

We all know how funny kids can be once they learn how to talk. They say things that just make you laugh & wonder where that came from. Well, we've had a LOT of that going on with Aubrey lately. I've decided that I definitely need to start writing these stories down so that I can look back on them one day. I was going to get a notebook to write them down in, but I decided to just do it here, on my virtual notebook :) I am going to try to record at least one funny story of her's a day, because there is usually always at least one!

So, my first story to record is from last night, 9-22-10. Aubrey took off her diaper & said she was poopy. However, there was no poop in the diaper, so I decided to put her on her potty. I told her to push her poo poo out. She sat there & pushed real hard & farted. She said "I farted!!" hehehe.. I laughed & said good job, but now push really hard & push that poo poo out! So, she scrunches up her face & grunts, pushes reallllly hard, & then says "AHH! IT'S *STUCK*"!!!! hahaha It was soooo funny!!! I couldn't stop laughing.

I know she will dislike me one day for making a point to remember these funny stories, especially when they are bathroom related, but it's all about the memories! ;)

So stayed tuned for more funny Aubrey stories :) She is a mess!!!!


And for the record, she never poo'ed in the potty..... she definitely got an A for effort though LOL

3 Day Weekend!

The doctor I work for had a family emergency this week, so we are closed today. Aubrey's daycare is also closed today for a teacher's work day, so we're spending the day together! So far we've had a great day! We played outside some this morning & then went over to Cassidi's house. Cass was babysitting her 6 week old niece. I thought it would be interesting to see how Aubs was around a little baby. She just stared at her for the most part. She did get a little jealous when I was holding her. She kept pulling on my shirt for me to hold her. lol Good thing it will still be a few years before she has to play the role of Big Sister!

Tomorrow we are going to Brady's 5th birthday party. They are having a big inflatable water slide, so I know Aubs will have a blast! Brady is the sweet little boy of one of our patients at work. I have become close with a lot of our patients & their kiddos :)

Sunday, we are probably going to go to the water park in Arkadelphia. I have 2 "free" passes left from Aubs birthday party, so we need to use them up before the summer is over! Aubrey always loves to swimming aka "put her feet in water!"

When Aubrey wakes up from her nap, we are going shopping! :) She is a girly girl & usually loves to shop with me. She will look things over & say "That's cute!" haha :)

We're looking forward to another 3 day weekend next weekend for Labor Day! We will be heading to my parents house for a going away party for my brother. He leaves Sept 8th to go to Georgia for basic training. We will miss him bunches!

Guess I should finish cleaning.. more later :)

Life These Days...

Well, Aubrey went to bed at 6:15 tonight so I figured no better time to blog than now! Nathan had to leave early for work this morning (6:30) & she heard him & woke up SUPER early for her, so she was WORN out tonight! First, I'm going to play a little bit of catch up.

Aubs is doing great! She is sooooooo vocal these days omg. Why we paid hundreds of dollars to get tubes in her ears, I'll never know??? Just kidding, of course to help her with the millions of ear infections she had... but seriously it is quite humorous to think back to how worried I was that she wasn't talking because she NEVER stops talking now!! She is loving her new daycare. She has 2 best friends that she talks about often. "Ne Ne" aka Sydney & Tucker :) I am glad she is loving it!! She is moving up to the next class on Monday. Her teachers tell me often that she is very smart! Sometimes she is too smart for her own good! She constantly spells her name now. She can also count to 10 but often skips 5 for some reason. She knows most of her colors but her favorite is definitely "yellow". Even when she knows something is NOT yellow, she'll say "That yellow Mommy?". :) Healthwise, she is doing pretty good right now. She is on Pulmicort breathing treatments once a day right now for her asthma. We may have to increase her back to twice a day in the fall/winter, which is her worst time of the year, but maybe we'll be able to get by with just once a day! We also recently started her on Singulair, which is a chewable tablet that will help with her asthma AND allergies! She calls it her "night night medicine candy" ;) We are hoping that between her breathing treatments & the Singulair, she will have a MUCH better fall/winter this year! Fingers crossed!!

As for me & Nathan, we're doing great as well. We are loving our new house! Nathan is in the LONG application process at Benton Police Department right now. He first applied in April. Since then, he has done a written test, physical, home interview, & oral board interview. We are now waiting for a letter saying what rank he is for the next available position. We are just praying about everything & we know God will lead us in the right direction.

Well, now that I'm all caught up, I will try to post daily about what we did & of course include pictures of Miss Aubs!!

Have a good night, everyone!

Better Blogger...

Yep, I've said it before & I'm saying it again.. I'm going to try to be a better blogger!! I hate when I get out of writing on here. It is really so much fun to look back & read what was going on in our lives in the past. So here's to being a better blogger, AGAIN!!

This is going to be super short. My sweet girl is asleep & my hubby is passed out on the couch. I'm thinking they have the right idea & I'm about to head off to dream land too!

Tomorrow I'll post pics of Miss Aubs & everything she is up to these days. So check back soon!!! :)

Goodnight!

Mommy Brag

All of you who are moms know how it is. Your perfect angel does something special and you just want to shout about it & tell the whole world! ;) Well, I'm having one of those Mommy Brag moments right now! As of July 17th, Aubrey officially knows how to spell her name all by herself! I am so excited & proud!! Here is a video of my sweet girl showing off her new skills! ;) Like I said in my 2 year birthday update, she has been saying "A-B-Y, AUBREY!" for quite a while now. On Saturday, while eating breakfast, she just randomly started spelling it the right way! I couldn't believe it! :) Watch for yourself! I'm so proud of you, Aubrey!! <3

Happy 2nd Birthday, Aubrey Claire!!

Aubrey, I can NOT believe you are two years old today. When I was pregnant with you, everyone told me to enjoy every second because time would fly right by. Now I find myself telling other new moms that too. It is crazy how quickly you are growing up! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your dad. You bring so much joy & love to our lives.

(Birthday Party at Daycare!)

You are such a smart and beautiful little girl. We get compliments from people about you all the time. Even though you are starting to throw some serious fits these days, you are still a very well behaved little girl. You are entering your "terrible two's" afterall, so the fits are to be expected. You have grown & matured so much in the past year. You now weigh 22 lbs 4 oz & are 33 inches tall. At 12 months, you weighed 17 lbs 9 oz & were 28 inches tall. It's hard to believe that you were just learning how to walk this time last year & now you run around full speed 24-7!

(Enjoying your cupcake at your birthday party at school!)

Your vocabulary is soaring; I barely even remember the days of being concerned that you weren't saying anything. You talk NON stop now!! You love to sing your ABC's. My favorite part is when you get to L-M-N-O-P. You sing this by moving your tongue real fast becuase that's what it sounds like to you. Your favorite part of your ABC's is Q R S. You sing that part SO loudly! You are already learning how to spell your name. If we spell your name out, you say AUBREY! when we are done. When we ask you to spell your name, you say A B Y, Aubrey! You're just missing a few letters in there! ;) You have the sweetest little voice. Some of the words you say in your own way are the cutest things. Some of our favorites are: Where NAR you? (Where are you?), That's so money! (That's so funny!), Parper (Parker), Nolk (Milk), Howside (Outside), Mow Mower (Lawn Mower), & many, many more. A phrase we are hearing VERY often these days is "I do it!" You are little Miss Independent! You also keep saying "I want pink mo-no-ike-el (motorcycle)" anytime someone says it's your birthday! Good thing Nana & Papa are getting you one! (You call lots of things mo-no-ike-els: motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles (which is what Nana & Papa are getting you!),4 wheelers, etc.).

(Special Birthday Hat from your teachers! :) )

You absolutely love to eat. Some of your favorites right now are chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, crackers, cereal, & cookies. You also LOVE animals. Some of your favorites are puppies, birds, kitty cats, monkeys, cows, & pigs. You know all the sounds for all of these animals. I also ask what sound an indian makes & you put your hand to your mouth and say ah ah ah ah ah! You also love for me to ask what sound a monster makes; you do a very good monster growl! I personally love to ask you what does mommy say? You reply with I loveeeee youuu!!! (which is soooo very true!)

(Birthday Girl before school!)

You are a little mermaid and love to be in the water. You go to bed & wake up saying "I put feet in water!". You even said this in your sleep a few nights ago! Speaking of bed, you still absolutely love your sleep. You still go to bed at 7, usually 7:30 at the latest. I always have to wake you up in the morning for school. You get at least 12 hours of sleep a night. On the weekends, you often sleep around 15 hours, sometimes even longer. You still take one nap a day. At daycare, it's usually 1-1.5 hours. At home on the weekends, its usually 2-3 hours. I hope you are always such a great sleeper!


I could go on and on, but this pretty much summarizes your life right now. Like I said, you are the VERY best thing that has ever happened to us & we love you more than ANYTHING!!!! We look forward to watching you grow another year! Happy Birthday, Aubrey Claire!! You will always be mommy's baby girl!

Two Year Video

I've been a horrible, horrible, horrible blogger :( Life has been crazy busy lately. I'll try to do a huge update soon... but for now, here is the video I made of Aubrey from 12-24 months. :( I can not believe my baby girl will be 2 on Wednesday!!! She is such a blessing in our lives!!! We love her more than ANYTHING!!

Weekend Fun

Another great weekend has gone by way too fast! This weekend, me, my mom, Colleen, & Aubrey went to Little Rock. I wanted to go to The Children's Place to get a dress for Aubrey for our family pictures coming up on June 6th. I also decided to have her pictures done at JC Penney's while we were there. They turned out pretty cute :) I was very mad to find out that the mall we were at did NOT have a The Children's Place!! What the heck! It was a big mall so I guess I just expected it to be there! We have to go back in 2 weeks anyway to pick Aubrey's pictures up, so we'll just go to where TCP is at then (different location!).

This week is Aubrey's last week at her daycare! I am so, so, so sad :( I know it's probably going to be worse on me than it is her (which I'm thankful for), but still... ugh. I just feel like Aubrey will essentially be losing one of her "2nd moms". She goes to daycare M-F 8-5... add up the hours, that's a lot of time spent at daycare. Sister Julie has been with her since she started there at 7 weeks old. It just makes me really sad that they won't be able to see each other anymore. :( Sister Julie said she wants to give me her email so I can send her pictures of Aubrey. HAHA, that shouldn't be a problem!! Aubrey will start her new daycare when we get back from New York. We were going to have her start June 21st, but go figure, that's the one week in the summer the new daycare is closed. So, she will start the next week, June 28th. My mom is going to watch her the days we both work the June 21st week. Yay for Nana! I'm really hoping Aubrey being out of daycare for over a month doesn't have a negative effect on her. Her life is so structured right now, so that's why I worry. I think she will be fine though.

The house is coming along great! They said it should be finished in 3 weeks! YAY! We should close right when we get back from New York. I am so excited & can't wait to move in!! The deck is finished, they are mudding the walls now, & laying sod outside.

Just a few more weeks until we leave for New York & I can't wait! We are in need of a vacation! It will be so nice to spend an entire week together as a family! Nathan may be getting a M-F job at the prison sometime soon... we are keeping our fingers crossed & praying a lot about that. Hopefully it will work out because that would be a great blessing to our family! I'm also praying my dad gets the job he applied for in Bryant. It's only about 30 minutes away from us & that would be SO SO SO amazing to have my parents so close!!!!

Well, here's a few pictures from Aubrey's photo shoot yesterday at JCP. Hope everyone had a great weekend!!






and just for fun...

She is really growing up way too fast! <3 I love you, Aubrey Claire!!!! <3

Words

Aubrey is talking SOOOO much now. It's impossible to try to do a "word" count on how many words she can say now, like I've done in the past. Some of her words crack me up though! Here are a few of my favorite "Aubrey" words & what they stand for :)

do do ike el= motorcycle
die= fly
see al= cereal
jew= juice
pane= plane
yee yee= lee lee (aunt lee lee)
ya ya= kayannah (her best friend at school)
you eee= julie (for sister julie, her lil personal nun at school lol)
how side= outside
hide= slide

Those are just a few of my favorites that I can think of right now. It is so cute hearing her talk ALL THE TIME now. Sometimes I try to tell her "Let's play the quiet game". She always loses ;)

Last night, Aubrey had a dream I guess about her best friend (Kayannah). It was so cute... she mumbled something on the monitor & then said YAYA! & then mumbled some more! hahaha! Today when I picked Aubs up at daycare, she had on this cute little apron. Sister Julie said it was for Aubrey to keep. I'm not sure if Sister Julie made it for her or not, but it's just the perfect size for Aubrey. It's too cute & funny!

Hope everyone had a great day! I'm ready for the weekend already!

Shame on Me

Okay, I've reallllly been sucking as a blogger lately. I've missed way too much these past few weeks! It would take FOREVER to go back & reblog about it all... so now my goal is to catch up from this weekend & BE A BETTER BLOGGER! lol

Saturday, we went to Texarkana. We stopped by St. Michael's & visited Nathan's great grandma who is in the hospital. After that, we had some lunch at On The Border. Then we headed to Fouke & went to a yard sale. I got a lot of cute things for Aubrey for cheap! :) Aubrey had the nastiest explosive diaper ever at the yard sale. WOW. I'm glad I found a cute summer outfit while we were there so I could change her. Nasty! After that, we went & visted Nathan's Aunt Gloria Jo. I love her so much!! She reminds me so much of my grandma who died in 2005. Then we headed back to Texarkana for a get together with my BFFs. We had a great time!! We ate some yummy finger foods & then sat outside & watched the kids play (including some of the big kids, me included haha!). I left my camera at home (shocking, I know!), so I didn't get any pics :( You can check out my BFFs page for pics from the night though (www.carlasclan.blogspot.com) We got home late Saturday night.

Mother's Day was a great day. My one gift request was to sleep in. I did just that & slept til 9:30! Aubrey & Nathan were lazy & slept until 10:45! Aubrey ate breakfast & played for a little bit & then was ready for a nap at 12:00. I decided to take a nap too around 2:00. When I woke up at 3:30, that little stinker was STILL asleep! She finally woke up around 4:00! We went & looked at the house after she ate some lunch. It's coming a long great!! I can't wait to move in! They have all of the sheetrock done. They have started on the back deck & doing the dirtwork for the yard & driveway! When we got home, I spent FOREVER hanging up all of Aubrey's clothes. Wow, that kid has way too many!! It's so much fun shopping for her though :) While I was in her room, she came running in & said HERE MOMMY! She had colored a homemade Happy Mother's Day card for me. :) It was sooo cute & she was so proud of it! She had the biggest smile on her face! She also made me a cute little plant at school. Tonight it actually has two little "stems" instead of just one, like in this picture lol.


Little Miss Lazy Pants was back in bed at 7:00.. guess she had a hard day on Saturday & was trying to catch up on her sleep! I have never felt sooooooooo happy as I do being a mommy to Aubrey. She just makes my whole world PERFECT!! I love her SOOOOOOOOOO much!!!




Today was a good day.. just the same ole same ole. Aubrey is ADDICTED to cereal. She ate 3 bowls of it for breakfast on Saturday & Sunday. I left the box out on the table & it's what she insisted on having for dinner. I fixed her some cavatini at first & she pushed it to the side & kept saying "see-al" "see-al"! So, see-al is what she got. lol At least it's somewhat healthy! She had 3 bowls tonight too! Oinker!!


I'm already ready for the weekend lol. I'm taking my mom to lunch for her Mother's Day present & as usual, we'll have a great weekend together while Nathan works. Okay, that gets me caught up for the past weekend, hopefully I can stay caught up again! :)

House!

I have lots of random stuff to post about, but the most exciting gets the title of this post :) We are soooo thrilled & excited because in June, we will be 1st time home owners!! It has happened VERY fast but we are feeling SOOOO blessed!!! I found a new neighborhood that is being built & I casually mentioned it to Nathan (to keep in mind for the next 1-2 years when we thought we would start looking to buy a house). Well, Nathan was bored on his day off, so he decided to call a realtor & go take a look (the neighborhood is gated, so he couldn't just drive in by himself). Well, the next thing we know, we're getting approved for a mortgage & signing a contract on our new house!! :) It will be a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage house! It's the perfect size for us!! I am not trying to brag by any means, but I do have to say that I am just very proud of me & Nathan. Not many 23 year olds are in the same place as us. I just feel so incredibly BLESSED to have the husband of my dreams, the most adorable little daughter, & now a house! It feels like my life can't get ANY better! Here is a picture of what will soon be our house!


Anyway, I have a lot more to write about but I'll have to do that at another time! Time to cook dinner now! :)

Bad Blogger

I am guilty of being a bad, bad blogger lately. I have just been SOOO busy & haven't had the time to sit down & blog. It's been a good while, so I'm not sure I can catch up on EVERYTHING, but I will do my best :) Right now I am waiting on my mom to get here & for Aubrey to wake up, so I have a little bit of time!

Since my last update, we took Aubrey to Little Rock. She had so much fun! We took her to the zoo & to The Wonder Place, which is an indoor activity place for toddlers. It was so funny. We were at the zoo & Nathan was pointing out the gorilla's to Aubs, & Aubs got sooooooooo excited.... about a BIRD flying by. LOL She can see birds all the time & that was what she was most excited about? Silly girl!!

We had a wonderful Easter. My mom came down on Thursday before Easter & kept Aubrey for us on Good Friday. Aubrey's daycare was closed & me & Nathan both had to work. Nana & Aubs had a great day together! Saturday we dyed Easter eggs for the first time which was a lot of fun. Aubs did great at it! There were only 2 minor spillage accidents, where Super Nana was quick to clean up the mess! lol Super Momma was behind the camera lens of course ;) Easter Sunday we went to Fouke. We went to church & then to Nathan's grandma's & then to his other grandma's house. It was a good day spent with family.

Last weekend, we went to Fouke again for one of my best friend's from high school's wedding. Amanda looked so beautiful & I'm so happy for her! Aubrey had SOOOO much fun. OMG it was hilarious. She tore the dance floor UPPPPP! I didn't even know she had some of the moves in her that she showed us that night LOL She is so full of personality! I am really loving this age right now!!

This week proved to be interesting, when I took Aubrey to the doctor on Monday. I was taking her due to her asthma. I have been giving her Pulmicort breathing treatments but I was out of samples so I needed to take her to her doctor. She was officially diagnosed with asthma, but we saw that coming a long time ago. Kinda hard to avoid when you've had RSV twice & a STRONG family history. The good news is we have her on the right treatment now that is really helping her. She does so good with her treatments now too. She holds them in place & waits for her tootsie roll reward at the end :) Anyway, while we were at the doctor, her doctor went to check her ears, as he usually does. Well guess what? Aubrey had an earring back lodged INSIDE her ear!!!! I was in shock. She did lose an earring, but it was well over a month ago. We have been to the night clinic since then & they never said anything about having an earring back in her ear! UGH! Her pediatrician tried to get it out but he said it was lodged too deep. So, we had to go see an ENT on Tuesday to get it out! That was AWFUL!!! They papoosed her which means they laid her on this board & velcroed her arms & legs down. There was this lady who I guess was in training or something & she tried to get it out & tried & tried & couldn't do it. Poor Aubrey was crying sooooo hard "MOMMMY NOOOOOOO OWWWW NOOOO MOMMMYYY" :( It was so heartbreaking!!! Finally the lady gave up & the dr reached right in & got it. It really aggravated me that the doctor didn't do it from the get go. I understand that the other girl needs to train, but please, train on adults, not my sweet one year old!! So anyway, we are glad that freak accident is over & done with!!

That's about all the exciting news I have for now. I will try to be a better blogger again ;) I'll post again later this weekend with some pictures. :)

Surprise Surprise

Shocking, I know, but guess who had to go to the doctor again on Monday? SIGH. I truly hope that one day I can look back on this blog and think "Wow, those were some bad times when Aubrey was sick all the time. I'm so glad she's ALWAYS healthy now!". Yes, that is my dream!! Now, I know I am blessed with an overall healthy little girl. It could be much, much worse & that is something I pray I never have to deal with. However, it is getting very frustrating having to take Aubrey to the doctor every 2 weeks!! We have seriously been at the doctor's office every 2 weeks since December. Anyway, I took her on Monday because she's had a really bad cough that gets super bad at nighttime. I thought maybe she needed a different inhaler or something, because the albuterol just wasn't touching it. The doctor checked her over & noted her throat was a little red. I mentioned that she just had RSV & Strep throat 2 weeks ago. He decided to do a strep test on her. Guess what the results were? POSITIVE. I was so disgusted, lol. I mean really!! She JUST had it!! So, he put her on amoxicillin for 10 days & we're to continue her breathing treatments for her cough. She's been on the antibiotic since Monday & treatments since then as well & her cough really still isn't much better. I'm going to give her a breathing treatment of Pulmicort tonight & see if that helps her. I'm thinking her cough is definitely asthma related, because a cough doesn't go with strep usually. One good thing is that Aubrey actually does her treatments by herself now (with us sitting there with her of course)! Just a few months ago she would fight them, so this is great progress! So anyway, there's our 2384039284093 sick update of this year.

Even when she's sick, she still acts happy 99% of the time, which is a blessing. Poor thing, I think she is just used to being sick that it really doesn't phase her. She seems to be doing fine with the exception of the cough during the night. We are taking her to Little Rock this weekend to go to the zoo & to The Wonder Place ( www.thewonderplace.com ). We are looking forward to it! I think she will have a blast!

I'll post another update after we go! Have a great week/weekend!

Lots to talk about!

Okay, it has been two weeks since I've posted, so I have a lot of ground to cover. I'm going to make a list about each topic I want to talk about & then I'll dig in. lol

1. Aubrey's daycare closing
2. Trip to Nana & Papa's house
3. Tornado Warnings
   
4. 3 Day weekend
5. Trip to Fouke
6. Aubrey's 1st Haircut
   
7. Catelyn's birthday party
8. Carla's birthday
9. Day at the Park
   
10. Nathan's birthday
11. Spring Break

1. Aubrey's daycare is closing their infant & toddler classes on May 21st. I was SO VERY upset to find this out :( I cried!! I love Aubrey's daycare SOOOO much. It is so hard to have to leave her everyday, but I feel 110% comfortable with Aubrey's daycare, which makes it SOOO much easier to have to leave her. She has gone there since she was 7 weeks old! It just broke my heart to hear that they are closing. Aubrey loves her daycare so much. Everyday as we drive up to her daycare, she claps her hands together & says yay! She also has her own little personal attendant basically lol Sister Julie. Sister Julie is this sweet little (seriously, less than 5 feet tall lol) nun who has been Aubrey's teacher since she was a newborn. They are best friends. Sister Mary, who is the director of the daycare, said she has never seen Sister Julie have a favorite like Aubs before. lol! They are just so sweet. Both Sister Julie & Sister Mary came to visit Aubrey when she was in the hospital last year with RSV. That meant so much to me!!! Anyway, we looked at few different daycares & decided on a new one. I just PRAY that Aubrey & I love her new daycare as much as the one she goes to now. Her last day at her current daycare will be May 21st. She will start her new daycare June 21st. We're going on vacation June 9th-15th, so rather than starting her in a new place & having to pay for a week of daycare while on vacation, we decided to just keep her out until we get back. Nathan will keep her on his off days & my sister will keep her on the days we both have to work.

2. We went to Nana & Papa's house for the weekend & had a great time. We did what we usually do, shop shop shop! :) Aubrey had a lot of fun playing with my parent's dogs, Calvin & Anna. She especially loved Anna, who is actually our dog Parker's sister. lol She kept yelling Annnnna while playing outside with her. :) Too cute! Aubrey surprised me by staying awake the whole trip home from my parent's house (1.5 hours) when we came back after only taking a 20 minute nap that day! She regretted it the next day when she had to get up for daycare! She hadn't been in a week due to having strep throat & rsv & was used to sleeping in!


3. Last Wednesday night, Colleen was over & we had planned on going to get our eyebrows waxed & go to a consignment sale. My dad called us when we were on our way home from picking Aubrey up from daycare & said there were bad storms headed our way. We picked up some Wendy's & headed home. Not too long after that, we were in a tornado warning. Ugh! I hate bad storms like that! So off to Aubrey's closet we went! We sat in there for about 30-45 minutes. Aubrey did so good! I was so proud of her. I brought my laptop in the closet with us. I played her favorite song "Put a ring on it" by Beyonce LOL Aubs just danced her little heart out while hail was pounding our house! Thankfully, no tornado touched down around us & we eventually were able to come out of the closet!

4. I took off last Friday & was very glad to have a 3 day weekend! Me & Nathan took Aubrey to daycare (it was class picture day!) & then headed to Little Rock. We went to a consignment sale there & got Aubs some great stuff. Then we came back to Hot Springs & ate lunch at On the Border. Later that afternoon, I went & had my massage that Nathan got me for Valentine's Day. It was wonderful!! Then we picked Aubs up. We were going to take her to the park but it was too cold! :( All in all, it was a wonderful Friday off! :)



5. Last weekend we went to Fouke. First we went to Stylerz for haircuts. More on that next! Then we met up with Nathan's grandma & went to Lake Wright Patman to do some family pictures! It was SOOOO windy & pretty chilly, so I wasn't getting my hopes up too much about them. We did end up with a few very cute ones, in my opinion! :)

After that, we headed to Nathan's grandma's house to have a little get together with his grandparents & two aunts & their kids & his brothers. We had an early birthday party for Nathan :) After that we went to his dad's house & visited for a little bit & then to his mom's. Sunday, we went to church & to his grandma's for lunch. After that, we headed to Genoa for my BFF's daughter's birthday party! More on that soon too! It was a great weekend!

6. Aubrey had her First "Haircut" when we went to Texarkana. It was more like a trim, but hey, it still counts ;) lol She was so serious the whole time. I think she was worried! LOL! She did very good though! I'm hoping now her hair will grow faster & thicken up some!! She still has her little curls in the back, which I'm glad didn't go away with the cut!



7. Carla's little girl Catelyn turned 7 on March 10th & we went to her birthday party last Sunday. It was a "Fancy Nancy" themed party. All the little girls dressed in their fanciest attire. It was so cute!! We had a great time at the party! I can't believe Catie is 7. She was 4 when me & Carla became friends! Time flies!!




8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS, CARLA!!!! Her birthday was March 15th. Hope you had a great day!!!

9. Wednesday, we took Aubrey to the park & she had so much fun!! The slides are definitely her favorite now! She LOVED the swings last year. I put her in the swings on Wednesday & she was NOT a fan!! lol I was so suprised! She looked so scared/worried. She had a blast running around! After the park, we took her to eat at Chik Fil A. She got to play some more on the indoor playground there! It was a WONDERFUL day!!







10. Today (March 20th) is Nathan's birthday!! Happy Birthday to my VERY bestestestest friend!! We are going out to eat tonight after he gets off with his dad & his wife. Aubrey picked out her own present (well I did give her specific things to choose from lol) & card for Nathan! :) Hopefully he will like his gifts from us!

11. Spring break is next week & that means the doctor I work for will be gone all week! Since he is gone, I get to take off Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, & Friday! YAY! I'm so excited! We are going to take Aubrey to Memphis next Friday. We are going to go to the zoo there & also the Children's Museum. I've heard really awesome things about both! Hopefully she will have a great time, although I'm sure she will!! So I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing week!

Whew, I think I am officially caught up! lol Longest post ever! Today, me & Aubrey went to 2 yard sales. I got her 2 Old Navy dresses, 2 capri sets, a pair of jeans, 3 pairs of pjs, & a pair of Nike shoes for $13 total! YAY! :) Tomorrow we are going to Little Rock to go to our last consignment sale for the season lol Hopefully I'll find a few more good deals. Her spring/summer section in her closet is already jam packed! It's just too much fun shopping for a little girl!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend!!