Life in all it's random beauty...

I just love this one. My two favorite people in the world. Aubrey loves her daddy, and daddy loves when she is calm enough to snuggle (which is rare -- she's a mover and shaker)!

I went to get Aubrey out of bed the other morning and this is what I found. She had tried to take her pajamas off, but somehow only manaed to get her head free. She then proceeded to take off her pants. I guess she hates the confining nature of clothes. We'll just hope it's a phase, and a quick passing one at that :)!

Thanks Heavenly Father for those eyes...they make us smile everyday!

Aubrey expereienced her first oreo during saturday morning session of conference. Needless to say, she LOVED it. She made this huge mess with only one oreo. Now that's talent!

I don't know what to say, other than...no, I just don't know what to say. She's so entertaining!

Popsicles and a high school play

I have tried for the past two days to upload the video I took of Charlie in his play, but to no avail. I have given up and will post the pictures that I do have. Before the play my mom and dad came over for a quick BBQ...and what good is a cookout without popsicles. Aubrey LOVED her first popsicle, but couldn't quite grasp the idea of holding onto the stick. She just held onto the popsicle while her hands froze, but she didn't care. Then we went to Charlie's play, "Dinner and a Murder" and thoroughly enjoyed it. Charlie seems to excel in whatever he does (he is the goalie on the Varsity soccer team and punted the ball across the field and scored...yes scored from one end of the field all the way to the other). We're so proud of Charlie, his athleticism, acting talent, dance talent (he joined Aubrey for a dance party the other night), and his academic abilities (the kid is a genius). Anyway, we love you Charlie and thought we would take this time to tell you how proud we are of you and how much we love living near you (especially Aubrey)!

Charlie played the manager at a restaurant who hosts a murder night. One of the guests will really die, and an investigator is brought in to solve the murder and take the murderer to jail. It was very entertaining and Charlie was so much fun to watch!

Cherry Blossom Bliss!

We have decided that we live too close to too many wonderful things, and that we need to take advantage of all the opportunities around us. Fortunately, Ryan's job allows him to take time off to make things like our trip to Washington D.C. possible. Every year in March/April there is a Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. where there are thousands of Cherry Blossom trees in bloom. Not only is it gorgeous, it is a lot of fun with various activities and such. Unfortuntately, with two 1 year olds (Aubrey brought her friend Alexys with her), there is only so much time. Here is what we managed in half a day in the nation's capital.

We had to make a visit to the Museum of Natural History. There were lots of exibits, but we only made it to two of them. Here is the mammal exhibit. Aubrey and Alexys were amazed by all the animals in the room!

This one is my favorite. We went into the skeleton exhibit and here are the girls in front of a big fish skeleton making their very own fish faces (they love making fish faces)!
In the insect exhibit there was a tunnel to crawl through and all kinds of live insects. They even brought out live cockroaches and other creepy crawly things for the kids to hold. Needless to say the girls weren't intersted (or maybe it was mommy who wasn't interested, but they didn't know the difference :). They had fun just running around.
They loved looking in all the cases and seeing the different bugs and such. This is the neatest place for kids!
By the end of the day, they were both so tired that they fell asleep on the walk back to the car. There were a few moments, but overall, they were both angels the entire day!

The Jefferson Monument in all it's blossomed glory!
Break time on the mall. This was probably what the girls loved most -- getting to be outside at the mall running around. We had a picnic lunch and just had fun!



We parked and took the free shuttle into the city. It dropped us off at the Jefferson Monument which had this huge blossom tree out front. The girls just playing in all the petals on the ground until we took them away to see some sights. It was absolutely gorgeous everywhere!

Climbing the steps at the Jefferson Monument. That was a hike in and of itself but Aubrey was up for the task.
Our growing family. Aubrey was more interested in the rotunda of the Jeffeson Monument than the camera, but I suppose that's expected from a 1 year old!
We had a GREAT time and highly reccomend it to anyone in town during the season!

Who needs a car wash when you have a husband and a 1 year old?!

We had such wonderful weather last weekend that Ryan ventured outside to go and wash our micro machine of a car. I should have known that wherever daddy goes, Aubrey must also go. So we joined him outside and it wasn't long before Aubrey was in on the action. She loved helping daddy and felt like such a big girl!

She did take a break to go and play with the ipod on the deck. She loves Michael Buble and at one point started conducting the music. Then she danced, but you can see that in a video later on in the post!
Car washing buddies
Aubrey dancing to Michael Buble. She loves music, and will dance anytime, and everytime, she hears any. She manages to take a break and give daddy a kiss, but only a brief break.


Here is Aubrey getting her hands wet. We can't wait for it to really warm up so she can go out and run in the sprinkler!