We LOVE the Swim Park

I have been hesitant about taking both my infant and toddler swimming. I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle both. My sister, Cindy, told me that she saw a Mom wearing her baby in a wrap and was able to chase after her toddler. That sounded doable. So, when Rachel said that she and Zoe were going to the Swim Park today - I thought I would give it a try. I knew with Rachel there she would also give me a hand if I needed it.

We had a blast! Aubrey just loved it. Most of the time she was content to just walk around the pool and repeat, "Aubrey swimming." It was really cute. The water is just deep enough for her to feel like she is covered in water, but shallow enough to walk around with ease. Brooke was perfectly happy in the wrap for most of the time. She slept in it, even though we were constantly getting sprayed with water! It was nice having two moms for the slides. Rachel would take Aubrey and Zoe up to the slide and I would stay below to catch. The girls did the slide many many times and I loved to see their big smiles and giggles at the bottom.

I kept Aubrey in a swim vest in case she went under and I couldn't get there quickly. It made me feel much more comfortable.

Rachel and her Sis. in law Heather were nice enough to tend Brooke so that Aubrey and I could go down the big water slides a couple of times together. Aubrey LOVED it! While we were going down the first time, I wasn't sure what she thought of it. One of the big dips I felt her tense up. But, as soon as we landed she said, "That was fun! Mommy and Aubrey go down big slide together again?" I was glad she loved it - cause I like water slides too!

While we were going down the slide Rachel & Heather gave Brooke a little dip in the pool and they said that she really enjoyed it. I am glad my girls like water - cause it is certainly one of my favorite places to be!

I am so glad that I braved taking my two girls to the pool! Thanks Rachel for all of your help. It would not have been anywhere near as fun without you!

Brooke getting ready to go swimming for the first time. Doesn't she look adorable in her swim suit?!

Lately, every time we go to the car to go somewhere, Aubrey has to run and get her baby car seat, put a stuffed animal in it and carry it out to the car with us. So off we go with both of us carrying a car seat out the door. It's pretty cute! In the picture below, she had to bring a sippy cup for her and one for her lamb. What a little mommy.

Aubrey loves to fill up her doll stroller with as many of her toys as possible and then try to stroll it around the house. She's not too happy when she can't fit in as many as she wants. The other day when I went into the garage, Aubrey ran in after me and strolled in the umbrella stroller. She proceeded to fill it to the brim. I think she was so happy that she could fill it up with so many more things than her baby stroller. She not only filled up the seat, but the bag in the back and both handles had bags of things hanging from them. It was too funny. It was not fun to clean up afterward however. She had collected things from all over the house.

Aubrey is still enjoying "Making a Party" as she says. Her parties consist of making a huge pile of her things somewhere and then singing "Happy Birthday to you, Aubrey's animals".

In just the time it took for me to bathe, Aubrey had managed to completely fill up the floor in my bedroom! What a messy phase we are in! Although I am glad that she will play on her own now!

The other day Aubrey sat by Brooke's bouncy chair and said, "Mommy take a picture of Aubrey and Brookey bug." (Brookey bug is one of our nicknames for Brooke. The other one is Brookie Cookie. It's cute to hear Aubrey calling Brooke by her nicknames. She does still call her Baby Brooke and Aubrey's baby sissy sometimes.)

Aubrey still loves to hold Brooke any opportunity she has. And don't worry, Aubrey was not strangling Brooke although it appears that way from Brooke's expression!

Brooke has been a little angel these days. She still loves her bouncy chair and will sit contentedly in it most of the time. Whenever any of us walk by and talk to her - she will just light all up with smiles. She is starting to coo just a little bit. I love baby babble - so I hope it will start increasing soon. She also has found her hands and will suck on them quite a bit.

If Brooke is hungry she will suck on Jeff's face. It's pretty funny - we pretend she is giving him kisses!

There's Nothing Sweeter Than a Baby's Smile

Brooke has been smiling so much lately - and I finally got some pictures! She has a little tickle spot under her chin - that you can almost always get a smile from her if you tickle it. I love to see her budding personality coming through her smile.

Pleasant smile

Shy smile

Exuberant smile!

Brooke has also found her tongue lately and is always sticking it out and playing with it.

She also has such strong leg muscles and can stand for really long periods of time. (Maybe it won't take her until 16 months to walk like Aubrey!)

She is also making such good eye contact now. She loves to just look at faces. It is so sweet when I am holding her to look down and see her just staring up at me. This week she has started turning her head to sounds. I feel like she has really started to come alive these last few weeks. We are still waiting on the cooing - but think it will be coming soon.

Jeff has a picture of Aubrey in this BYU onsie in his office - so I had to get one for him of Brooke too! I love how her eyes look in the above pic. It looks like she is going to have beautiful blue eyes like Aubrey and Daddy! I Love it!

Aunt Summer read the posts about Aubrey wanting "her people" to come over - so she came over just to see Aubrey. What a good Aunt. And as you can see from the pics. - Aubrey was really glad to see her!

The weather has finally warmed up this week! So tonight we cleaned out the pool and got it ready to go swimming again. Aubrey was so happy and had to help with the cleaning and filling up of the pool.

You may not be able to tell from the picture - but Aubrey is soaking wet! Luckily it was quite warm and she was having a blast.

After she got bored of the pool - she thought she should get even a little more wet in the sprinklers.

Thanks to my friend Kim who posted about playing with sidewalk chalk - we got some and Aubrey has been having a blast with it. She says, "Aubrey drawing family." And then goes through everybody's names as she draws.

Aubrey is becoming so conversational these days. The other day Jeff was working on a little project and Aubrey came over and said, "What doing Daddy?" It was real cute to see her starting a conversation. Then today I told her we were going on a little walk. She responded with, "Where we going Mommy?" I think it is sooo much fun to watch her language expand and grow. Lately, whenever we ask her questions she'll respond with, "yeah sure" or "oh sure" The tone of her voice is so adult like - it just cracks me up. She is also so cute when she talks to Brooke - because it is always in the high pitched tone that adults use when talking to babies. It's so darling. It's also quite helpful - because it helps me know when she is around Brooke and I can keep a closer eye on her.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Jeff! You are a fabulous father and husband. I know that Aubrey loves you so much. You are so much fun with her - but also know how to teach and discipline. I know that Brooke will adore you too! We are so grateful for all that you do and for having you in our family!

Ever since valentine's Jeff has asked a few times for me to make sugar cookies. Since, they are a much more time consuming (and mess making) cookie, I put that off until it was a special occasion. Aubrey loved making them last time so I figured we would make them for Daddy for Father's day.

As soon as Jeff left for work on Saturday we started making the cookies. We had to get them made, frosted, decorated, cleaned up and hidden before Jeff got home from work in the afternoon or we'd spoil the surprise. Luckily we made it in time!

Aubrey loved mixing the dough. She kept saying, "Aubrey mixing" the whole time.

The cookie cutting was a big hit also.

After awhile of cookie cutting, Aubrey took a break and went and played with Brooke. She brought her toys and was talking and hugging her. I love this picture of Brooke just looking at her big sis.

Aubrey's favorite part is putting on the sprinkles.

Then she remembered how tasty they are and had to try a few!

I love that expression with sprinkles hanging from her mouth!

Some of her finished creations. I don't have any masculine cookie cutters -so we had to go with masculine colors to try to disguise the fact that they are flowers, butterflies, teddy bears, etc.

Aubrey also made a painting for daddy and colored a card.

Brooke was a little angel the whole time and was pretty much sitting contentedly in her bouncy chair all morning!

We also made a garden stone for daddy. It has Aubrey's hand print and Brooke's 2 little feet. Aubrey had a blast making it!

This morning Aubrey was excited to take daddy his presents. She even remembered that we had hid the stone in the garage and went right to the garage to help get it for daddy.

Daddy and his two girls.

While mommy made breakfast - Aubrey and daddy played piggy back rides.

We had Jeff's favs of biscuits and gravy, hash browns and bacon for breakfast.

Aubrey has been sick for the past few days, so we didn't want to take her to church. Jeff thought it would be fun to get to spend some one on one time with her while Brooke and I went to church. While we were gone they made a tent in the front room. Aubrey just loved it!

For dinner I made Jeff Balsamic Glazed Pork chops, corn on the cob, stuffing and salad. I didn't make any dessert since we have a house full of sugar cookies!

I hope that you had a great Father's Day Jeff. We LOVE YOU!

To My Daddy

I also wanted to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day. My dad is such a great father. He loves his children and always wants to know everything going on with us. He loves that we all have blogs so that he can keep track of what we are doing! If we are talking to my mom on the phone and he is there, he will sit next to her and listen to her end of the conversation so he won't miss any juicy details of our lives! He has always been a teacher, friend and spiritual leader in our home. I am grateful for all of the day trips he helped plan while we were young and all of the long car trips he now takes to visit us. He is willing to drive out to see us for pretty much any occasion you can think of! He is pretty much tied with Jeff as the best dad on the planet! I love you Dad - Happy Father's Day!

To My Father-in-law

Happy Father's Day to Jeff's dad also! I have always enjoyed being around my father in law. He has a really fun sense of humor and a very contagious laugh! I enjoy going to Canada and watching Westerns every night into the wee hours of the morning. I also love that he too wants to hear everything about our girls. Whenever he's on the phone he always asks to hear all of the funny Aubrey stories. I also love that he taught Jeff how to be so handy! He can fix up anything with a little creativity and he has taught Jeff to be the same! Happy Father's Day and we can't wait to see you next month!

Aubrey the Explorer

On Wednesday Aubrey was invited to go to her friend Katelyn's Dora birthday party. She had been excited for it from the minute she got the invitation. Aubrey opened the envelope and inside was the invitation shaped like Dora's backpack. When she saw it Aubrey gasped and exclaimed "BACKPACK!" She carried that invitation around for the whole week and half before the party and would talk about going to Katelyn's Dora party. The invitation said that the girls should wear pink and orange like Dora.

Tuesday afternoon I told Aubrey that after she woke up from her nap the next day it would be time to go to the Dora party. She said, "Aubrey wear pink shirt, orange shorts." Then she proceeded to put on several pair of her shorts. She then ran up to me and said, "Aubrey ready for Dora party." I reiterated that the party was when she woke up tommorrow. She ran off, got her hair bag and did her hair and then repeated, "Aubrey ready for Dora party." I told her once again that it wasn't until tomorrow, but asked her if she would like to help wrap the present for the party. We wrapped the present and put it on the counter. The rest of the evening whenever she saw the present she said, "Aubrey hold present in Aubrey's hand for Dora party morrow."

The next morning Jeff heard some little feet in the kitchen. He went in to see that Aubrey had went in and got her present - as soon as she saw me she said, "Aubrey wake up - go to Dora party." I couldn't believe how excited she was.

Anyway, above is Aubrey's Dora outfit.

And of course, I had to make a Dora bracelet to complete the outfit!

Aubrey wanted me to take a picture of her Dora hairband!

The party was sooooo cute. Ali did a fabulous job. When the girls arrived she had "the map" for each girl to color. Then they were all given Dora backpacks (that she made), Dora wigs (she made those also), a spy scope and necklace.

She had set up a whole Dora adventure for them to go on. She explained that Boots (Dora's pet monkey) was missing from the party because he couldn't find his red boots. So they had to go through the orange tunnel and into the forest. In the forest they had to use their spy scopes to find a pair of red boots. Then they went through the TP to find boots. She had a large pic of boots on the fridge. Then they played pin the boots on boots once they all got there. It was seriously so cute to see all of these pint sized Dora's going through the adventure. She also, had hand drawn a Dora on the cake. It was amazing. Aubrey had such a fun time.

When we got home I started making dinner. Aubrey was making a pile of her animals on the floor next to me. She then said, "Mommy take a picture - Aubrey made a party." She is such a funny, imaginative little creature. She had made a birthday party for all of her animals.

The next morning she made an even larger birthday party with most of her toys - right in the entry way to our bedroom. It was really fun trying to navigate in and out of my room. Then I heard Aubrey's cute little voice singing Happy Birthday to her animals. What a little cutie. I got a short video clip of it below.