Playing catch up

I have been known to be somewhat of a slacker (this is the part where NO ONE mentions my senior paper :), but there is a reason I havn't updated the blog in over a month. My computer broke. Well, it didn't break so much as I got a nasty virus on April 1. Anyways...our computer situation is still funny, but I now have the means to update our blog. This will be done in spurts, no doubt, as this past month has been a fun one.

We'll start with Easter. I will not post the pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses now, but I will put them up later. Here are some pictures from an easter egg hunt they went to at a friend's house. Thanks Sam, for letting us invade...you really know how to throw a "party" :).

This is Aubrey with her friend McKenzie searcing for eggs. Kenzie was a great "older" guide to Aubrey and pointed out where every egg could be found :)


Not only can Sam throw an awesome party, but she is a killer cake maker. Check out her skills with this easter cake she made. And is tasted YUMMY!


Here is daddy with Eva and some friends from the ward. Nothing melts my heart like seeing daddy's with their babies.




I LOVE this last picture of Aubrey. I wish I could take the credit, but I have to thank Becca for taking, and sending me, this darling picture of my sweet little girl. Thanks Becca!


We had a few nice days before a week of rain, and we took advantage of it by playing in the backyard. Aubrey picked flower after flower (all of which turned out to be dandelions) and made us all smell them. We're excited for the nice weather to come and stay!



Aubrey had to let Eva smell the "flower"...


but Eva had another idea. We think she has a promising career as a taste tester.


Our sweet little Evalyn


Our vivacious Aubrey


Check back soon...more to follow (and I know you're just dying to see more :)

The faces of Wachovia Securities

The month of February was an exciting one for Ryan at work. They had the AG Edwards/Wachovia Securities conversion going on (I don't pretend to know anything about it -- it is way over my sleepy head), which means longer hours for Ryan. It also meant a beard growing contest with some of the other guys in the office. Ryan has only grown a beard once before since we've been together, and there's a good reason for that (I don't like it :). Well, they took these pictures the last day (after they all shaved it into something...shall we say...interesting). I will admit, with no offense intended (as I know there are a few of them occasionally visit the blog), that some of them look kinda creepy -- for lack of a better word. Ryan probably most of all :). Without further ado, I present to you the faces of Wachovia Securites!






And of coarse I'll save the best for last...


These are all very nice guys, and Ryan loves working with them. I guess it's nice that they can do things like these together and laugh about it, but I'll be the first to say...I'M GLAD TO HAVE MY CLEAN SHAVEN HUSBAND BACK!!! Oh, and just for kicks and giggles, which one do you think should win the award for best facial hair do?

One year older, and wiser too...

Well, it's offical. Yesterday, without even knowing it, Aubrey turned 2 years old. We had quite the day with Grandma in town. Grandma watched the girls (even gave them a bath :) while I ran some errands. It's amazing how much quicker errnads can be run when it's just you. Anyway, we had a great day. We went to Monkey Joe's (the best place in the world for kids to play), McDonald's for dinner (Monday night is family night and her birthday happened to fall on a monday), and then home for cake, ice cream, and presents. All in all, a pretty exciting day. It was even more fun because Aubrey's friend Jonathan shares her birthday and also turned 2 yesterday so they joined us in the festivities.


I'm amazed at how quickly the past two years have gone by, and how much Aubrey has learned, and grown, in such a short time. We are so proud of her, and blessed to have her as part of our family. I just want to share a few things that make our little Aubrey so special, and easy to love.

1. Her smile is to die for. Thank heaven for dimples!
2. The way she grabs both cheeks when giving us kisses.
3. The way she loves her little sister, and Eva in turn adores her big sis.
4. Aubrey loves to dance. But what I really love is that she loves to dance with mommy and daddy.
5. Aubrey is such a nurterer. She will make a much better mother than me someday.
6. That hair! I had a lady at the store guess she was 4. She has as much hair as a 4 year old, and I think it is just gorgeous (I LOVE those little curls).
7. I love her independent spirit (most of the time). She will make a great missionary some day :)
8. Aubrey is so social and can make anyone smile. Anyone.
9. I appreciate, and enjoy, music. Aubrey LOVES music.
10. I love (and am a bit jelous of) how Aubrey loves her daddy. No one can take his place...not even mommy. And that little girl knows she carries her daddy's heart in her tiny hands.
11. I love the way she looks at me when lying in bed and says "I love you mommy" (she does the same thing with Ryan too).

I could go on and on, but this has gotten long enough. We love you Aubrey, and couldn't think of a better way to spend forever, than with you! And just in case anyone was wondering, her 2 year stats are: 35 1/4 in (90%) 27 1/2 lb (50-75%) We'll see how long she can stay in the 90% for her height -- I'm guessing not too long :)

2 going on 16

She did it! Our little girl is growing up more each day. She is now "potty trained" at home (I'm not brave enough to try in public yet), and hasn't had an accident for at least a couple of days. I now rarely have to remind her. It's the funniest thing to watch her drop her "big girls" around her knees in the living room and try to run to the potty. She has even gone poopoo TWICE in the potty, which is huge for us! I can't believe our baby girl will be 2 on monday...where has the time gone?

On another note, Aubrey is such our little girl. Her obsessions have transferred from Blue's Clue's and The Little Mermaid, to dresses and shoes. I go get her in the morning to discover she has gotten into her closet and picked out a pair of shoes and put them on her feet. I walked into my room the other day to find 7 pairs of my shoes all around the floor. She lovingly tried each pair on until she found the ones she wanted to wear. She wears dresses nearly everyday, and the worst punishment we give her is taking her dress away. Talk about motivation. We love our little diva!

Come one, come all...

Thanks to Jess for this great idea! I'm really at a loss for what on earth I'll make, but if you're daring enough to find out be one of the...um...lucky(?) 5!

The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year (hopefully sooner than later.)
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did will win a marvelous homemade gift by me!

Let the games begin!!

Snow days!

The past few days we've had a winter weather advisory. There has been snow and ice for two days. It took Ryan an hour and a half to get home the other day (but he did make it safe in one piece :). Eva has had a cold (yet another one), so I didn't want to take her out in it, but Aubrey kept begging. It just so happened that yesterday was gorgeous. The sun was out and the wind was NOT blowing, so while Eva slept, Aubrey and I braved the outdoors. Clarification: I braved the outdoors (I dont' do well in the cold), and Aubrey LOVED the snow. I couldn't find one of her mittens so we improvised and put on one of daddy's gloves -- which she also loved! She just about walked the entire perimeter of the yard and even played on our little climber/slide. She kept falling down in the snow like that kid from The Christmas Story, and had the hardest time getting back up! Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and the only thing that got her inside was the promise of hot chocolate -- which she loved just as much as the snow :). Anyway, we had a blast and figure if it's going to be cold it might as well be beautiful too! And it was. The only thing missing was daddy!

From this...

to this, in just 6 months!


Eva started crawling a week before she turned 6 months. Too soon. Way too soon. But it's cute, and she wants nothing more than to keep up with her big sis. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that she waits a little longer to try out those feet! At 6 months, our little smiley baby is 16 lb 15 oz and 25 inches long. She's growing so fast...I already miss my little baby girl! Eva, we love you and are so blessed that you have joined our family!

Who knew...

McDonalds was such a supporter FHE. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with FHE, our church recommends setting aside each monday night for a "Family Home Evening" (aka FHE) where the whole family gets together for a lesson and usually an activity. Basically, it's a time each week for the whole family to just be together...and I love it. We're terrible at being consistent with two little kids who won't sit still for longer than 5.2 seconds --on a good day-- but we try. Ryan had the day off on monday for MLK day so we decided to do something fun (and cheap). It had been way too long since I had taken the girls to the library, so off we went. We had a great time, but realized Aubrey had too much energy to burn so off we went to McDonalds. The one closest to our home has a fantastic playplace that Aubrey loves to play in. We got there only to discover that monday nights are Family Night at our local McD's. What does this mean you might ask? It means $1 off happy meals, free ice cream cones for the whole family (mom and dad included :), and a balloon artist who visits every table and makes the most amazing balloon figurines I've ever seen (have you ever seen a spiderman or Little Mermaid made out of balloons?). I won't tell you what he made the girls because I want to see if you can guess...but I have no doubts you'll find it as obvious as I think you will. Needless to say, we had a GREAT time together, and now I'm more motivated to actually try a little harder for FHE come monday nights -- wish me luck!

We need our papa!

Last year we were in GA for Christmas and were able to get our pictures taken with Santa -- mind you the Santa in the picture was Ryan's dad, aka Papa who is a professional Santa Claus. This year we won't be getting down to GA for Christmas :( so we had to settle for another Santa. I thought Aubrey would do just fine sitting on Santa's lap because she's used to Papa's white beard, but boy was I wrong (at least she didn't scream like the kid in front of us). I guess there's just no replacing the real thing...we love you Papa! Needless to say, Eva, our happy-go-lucky child, smiled the entire time! Aubrey is our little drama queen, but definitely keeps things interesting :)! We're excited for our trek out to BV (that's Buena Vista, VA folks), but will definitely miss getting to see Papa, GG, Aunt Kiki, and Uncle Bubba. We love you guys!


P.S. Thanks for the cute dresses GG, the girls looked adorable!

TIS THE SEASON...

FOR HOMEMADE COOKIES...
Aubrey sat on the counter and helped mommy make the dough every step of the way. I wish you could have seen her with the egg. She insisted on doing it all herself and then just squeezed the egg in her two hands until it broke. Mommy's job was to remove all the eggshells :)!


(I turned my back for 3 seconds, 3 SECONDS, and this is what I find -- teeth marks in our cookie dough. Those darn cookie dough fairies must be back ;). In case anyone was wondering, those holes were not picked out with fingers. Aubrey actually put her face up to the dough and took bites. What a goober! She gets it all from her daddy -- love you sweetie!




SPOONS ON NOSES...
Oh, come on, I know this is a Christmas tradition in most of your homes. Ok, so maybe not, and technically it isn't in our home either. However, we often worry as parents if we are teaching our kids what is important, and if they will grow up to be stalwart young men and women. It is times like these that I realize...yeah, I'm teaching them what they need to know ;). If nothing else, it was quality family time (Eva did have a little help, but Aubrey managed all on her own).





AND A CHRISTMAS TREE...
Disclaimer: The battery in our camera died as I went to take a picture of the tree up and decorated. Maybe we'll post one up later, but don't count on it the way my days have been the past week or so.

Daddy's job was to pick out the tree while mommy ran around after Aubrey through a maze of trees. Who knew there were so many different TYPES of Christmas trees! We finally settled on one (with a little help from the boy scouts selling them).


And of coarse we loaded it on top of our gas saving micro machine of a car...gotta love it! And we do, but I dream of the day when we get a bigger car!


In case we don't get the chance to post again before Christmas...MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! We hope you enjoy your holiday season with family and friends, and don't forget the reason behind all the celebrating and the greatest gift of all! We love you!