Big Blessings come in Small Packages

Today Aubrey and I were eating lunch at the table across from each other. Brooke was on my lap and they were facing one another. Aubrey would say "Hi Brookie Cookie" (Brootie Tootie - is how she pronounces it.) and Brooke would laugh every time. I decided to give it a try, but she did not laugh. I tried it a few more times - with no response from Brooke. Aubrey then said, "Brookie doesn't laugh when you say it, only when I say it." Too funny.

As I was sitting there with my girls I suddenly got a wonderful warm feeling inside. I felt so blessed to have my sweet little girls - and realized how great my life and family really are. It was such a nice moment. I have been feeling kind of anxious and just not myself the past several months. I've been praying that I'd be able to get out of this funk soon. It was like Heavenly Father lifted the fog that was hanging over me and let me feel how blessed I am.

Pre Pre School

Since school has started, I thought I'd have a little school for Aubrey at home. We are starting with upper case letters. I am just doing it real simple. Everyday is a new letter. I print off two color sheets. One with the letter of the day several times and one with pictures of things that start with that letter.

I also found some sticky notes in the shape of each letter. Aubrey loves to stick them all over her notebook.

Aubrey has had lots of fun working on her letters. It has been nice too because while she works on her letters I am able to exercise. Brooke is quite entertained watching me and Aubrey in her exersaucer. Sometimes Aubrey comes and joins me while I am exercising.

She especially likes it when I am on the stability ball. She grabs her ball, sits on it and exercises with me. It's too cute! (The really ugly shirt is Aubrey's painting shirt. I discovered that water paints are not washable!)

Jeff made a bike rack for his bike so that he has a place to store things while he rides his bike. He took Esther for a ride on his rack. She didn't know that she was his guinea pig to see how much weight it would hold! Real nice Jeff!

Aubrey joining along on the bike ride with Uncle Bryan helping her.

I am trying to make much more of an effort with tummy time these days. Brooke gets some pretty much every day now. I figure she may learn to crawl faster this way!

Brooke hasn't been feeling well this week. I think it may finally be her 2 front lower teeth coming in. I hope they pop through soon because she is pretty miserable. She did however sleep 12 hours straight last night! I am so hoping that this is something she'll keep on doing. I really have been missing my sleep!

Monday morning Aubrey hopped in to bed with me when she woke up. She cuddled with me for a few minutes and then said, "Mommy, I had a dream last night." So I asked her what she dreamed about. She responded with, "The ZOO." Then she asked, "Mommy did you have any dreams?" So sweet. She has been talking about the zoo a ton all week. Later that day Brooke was babbling. I asked Aubrey, "What do you think Brooke is talking about." Aubrey said, "She's talking about the Zoo." Also, Aubrey has told both Grandma's and Grandpa Bagley all about the Zoo over the phone. It's the longest phone conversations she has ever had. I am glad that she had such a memorable time.

Yesterday I asked Aubrey to hand me the ringing phone. She said, "No Mommy, I'm too busy right now." It sure is stressful being 2.

Aubrey's new pretend play is to play Family Home Evening. I love it. She actually reminded me that I needed to plan a lesson on Monday for FHE.

Video from our Camping Trip

I am not so good at remembering to upload our videos from our Video camera. I finally did and found this cute video from our camping trip. I love Aubrey's cute little voice in this video.

Halloween Scare 2009

Jeff and his friend Phil are at it again. They got their friend/co-worker Kerry again this year!

If the above video doesn't work for you, here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgPNq1956Co

Daddy's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow

Actually he took us today - but that's one of Aubrey's favorite songs and we've been singing it all week as we looked forward to going to the Zoo today!

When Aubrey woke up this morning, Daddy asked her where we were going today. She thought for just a second and then got really excited and yelled, "THE ZOO!" She was so excited. She kept telling us all morning that she was all ready to go. The whole ride there she said, "We're almost to the Zoo Mommy." I love to see her that excited!

First we rode the train.

I think Aubrey's face looks like a Porcelain Doll's face in this picture. I've always thought someone should make a baby doll out of her. Probably every mommy thinks that though!

This monkey was just a talking away. I had no idea that monkey's made a sound like that. Jeff asked Aubrey what the monkey was saying and she said, "He's saying there's too many people here." Too funny - cause it was probably true!

Brooke enjoyed the Zoo as well. She was happy as can be taking a long walk in the stroller and looking around at everything.

My favorite part was seeing the baby elephant. How cute she is. She followed her mother everywhere. It totally reminded me of Aubrey about a year ago.

I think Cougars are so pretty. (And that's not just because I'm a BYU alumni!)

The baby giraffe was also really cute!

The above is a mother tiger with her 3 tiger cubs. You can't see them very well. As soon as Jeff walked away with the camera - the mother and one of the cubs got up and walked around. I was really wishing I had the camera. But, I was glad that Aubrey and I got to see the cute tiger cub.

All this looking around just wears a little one out!

Aubrey totally lucked out. They accidentally charged us for 2 carousel rides and the line was too long to go back and return the one ticket. So, she got to ride twice. She sooo was not complaining about that. While she waited in line for me she said she wanted to ride the elephant. I was nervous cause there were lots of kids in front of us - but she lucked out and got her wish!

This is what Brooke was doing while Aubrey rode. Good thing too, cause I probably would have felt bad not giving Brooke a chance to ride.

Then while Aubrey was in line with Daddy, all she could talk about was riding the Zebra. Once again she lucked out and got her choice. What a lucky kid today!

My sweet angel woke up as Aubrey was finishing her ride.

We had such a fun time at the Zoo today. On the ride home we were asking Aubrey what animals we saw today. She listed off some animals and then said, "Those animals were REAL animals." I guess we've gone to the museum too many times that she wasn't expecting to see real animals today. I am glad that she was pleasantly surprised! Thanks Jeff for taking the day off to take us to the Zoo!

To top things off, Aubrey got to sit in her new booster seat at the table tonight. I figure since Brooke will be starting solids here soon, we ought to get Aubrey transferred over to the table so she doesn't get upset when Brooke takes over the highchair.

A much better week

Last week was one of those weeks you hope never to duplicate. Aubrey had a constant fever that started Saturday evening and went until Thursday morning. She was almost to 104 degrees one night. Even with rotating Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 4 hours - the lowest I could get her temperature was 99.8. When it would get really high, it would take hours to drop to lower than 100. Brooke also decided to start waking up every couple of hours all night long. (She had started it 2 weeks before - so I was already suffering from fatigue) I got very little sleep all week. Maybe about 3 hours of fragmented sleep every night. Plus my poor Aubrey had a terrible sore throat and was feeling and acting miserable. I pretty much got nothing done all week because I knew if I tried to do much of anything I would loose it - considering how tired I was and how moody Aubrey was. So, I was so happy when Friday rolled around and things were getting back to normal.

This week has been much better. Brooke still wants to wake up a couple of times at night, but I've gotten her down to 2 feedings. One around midnight and one around 5:30. She sometimes wakes up between those times, but just fuses for a few minutes and falls back asleep. Hopefully soon she'll stop waking up then so that I can get at least 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

This week Brooke started sitting up on her own. I still need to be close by because at any moment she could fall over - but she is getting pretty stable.

Look at my cute lil' sitter!

Both Aubrey & Brooke love to take baths together. For awhile I was just filling the tub up a few inches and Brooke would lay down. Which was nice for me because I could just sit and watch. The last few days however, when I lay Brooke down she immediately tries to sit up and see what Aubrey is doing. So, now I have to hold her up in the tub. Not as nice for my back - but cute to see them together. I do have a bath chair that I'll have to get out so she can sit on her own.

Yesterday Aubrey was dancing around and I was holding Brooke on my lap. Brooke saw Aubrey dancing and just started cracking up. It was so cute. Brooke has never laughed that hard and that long before. She just gets such a kick out of Aubrey. And Aubrey LOVES to make her laugh. At the grocery store today Aubrey was waving, smiling & talking to Brooke just to make her laugh. It sure makes the shopping go by faster when they are entertaining each other!

Aubrey was making a meal for me in her kitchen yesterday. She was so cute - I had to take some pictures. Above she is salt and peppering our food. Too cute!

I believe here she is singing "Happy Birthday" to one of her animals. Every day is someones birthday around here!

Aubrey just loves the moon. We have to go outside every evening to look for the Mr. Moon & the stars and tell them goodnight. The last few weeks we haven't been able to find the moon. (I don't know if it was rising really late or setting really early.) But this week Mr. Moon has been coming out in the evening and Aubrey has been so excited to see him! I had to take a picture of Aubrey with Mr. Moon!

Yup - I'm a fan too!

I finally did it. I read the Twilight series. And, Yes, I was completely hooked from the first paragraph and loved every minute of all 4 books!

Visit from some Tanner's

On Saturday we got to visit with and have dinner with Tammy, Kristin & Michelle. Tammy & Michelle were dropping off Jenny at school and Kristin is here doing student teaching. We had a fun visit. Aubrey was happy to get to play with her cousins.

Pics from last week.

Here piggy piggy.

Yummy bacon.

I love the look in Aubrey's eyes when she is looking at Brooke. She just loves her to pieces.

"Aubrey had a little sis . . . And everywhere that sissy went, Aubrey was sure to go."

Aubrey just came in and said that she wanted to type a story on the blog. She typed the keys and I asked her what her story was. She said, "I love you, Brooke." She also likes to talk about how "Brooke is getting bigger and bigger." Then she proceeds to tell me all of the things her and Brooke will do together when "Brooke is a Big Girl like me". So Sweet.

Last week Aubrey was playing outside with her ball. There was a dead wasp on our patio. She threw the ball at it and said, "I accidentally hit the bee with the ball, but it's OK, he no cry." What a funny little monkey!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun labor day weekend spending time with the family. My parents came out to visit so we spent the weekend with the Bagley family.

Saturday morning the girls spent some time with Grandma & Grandpa. The afternoon/evening we went to Cindy & John's for dinner.

JJ was all about Brooke when we came in. He must be getting ready to have his own baby sis.

Kisses from JJ

Brooke borrowed JJ's Jumparoo while we ate dinner. It just tuckered her right out!

The girls and kiddos hung out outside while the boys watched the BYU game.

Cindy has an empty lot next to her and it is full of rocks and a little hill. This of course is where Aubrey wanted to play. (We did not come prepared. She was in white pants and dressy sandals.) She was really wanting to climb up the hill. She has always been a little timid when it comes to the gross motor skills, so I am glad to see her risking and trying more lately. Anyway, she climbed about halfway and then asked for daddy to help her to the top. She was happy to get to the top, but then was determined to do it "all by myself."

So up she went again. (In JJ's borrowed pants.)

When she made it to the top she was sooooo excited! It must have felt like such a huge triumph in her life. Conquering her fears to get to the top! I was proud of her too!

Here's a close up of her excited face!

After climbing the hill several times, her and JJ started picking sunflowers. Now, whenever she sees sunflowers as we are driving she points them out excitedly. I think she's found a favorite flower.

I didn't notice the fistful of Katie's hair in Brooke's hand until now!

We did tubby and stories at their house so that we could stay a bit longer. So, here's a future embarrassing pic of Aubrey & JJ!

Esther getting Brooke ready for the tub.

There wasn't enough room with JJ & Aubrey, so Brooke got her own bath. Brooke usually takes a bath with Aubrey and mostly just watches her. Since, Aubrey wasn't in there to distract her she realized just how fun it is to splash in the water. It was really cute seeing her kick her legs so hard to make them splash.

The week after this bath, Brooke was in the bathroom with me while I bathed Aubrey. (Aubrey takes a bath everyday, but Brooke doesn't) She just was so fixated by the bath. I told Aubrey to hold up toys for her, cause she couldn't see up the rim all the way. Aubrey would hold up toys for her and she would giggle delightedly. It wasn't until the next time that she got a bath that I realized why she was so intent in looking in the tub. She wanted to get in herself! The minute I put her in the tub, she was all smiles and kicks. So, now she is getting a bath as part of her nightly bedtime routine.

Aubrey wanted to put Brooke's lotion on her.

Sunday, my parents went to church with us, and then the fam came to have dinner at our house.

Cuddles with Grandpa after dinner. I think he was telling her the story of the 3 Bears (or maybe it was the 3 pigs.)

Silly Grandpa. Aubrey got a kick out if this picture when she saw it!