That girl

Aubrey seriously LOVES to do artwork. She will literally spend hours a day coloring or painting. The other day I found her coloring like this:

I guess if you're gonna spend hours coloring, you gotta be comfy.

It totally reminded me of a teenager and how they lounge out while doing their thing.

That girl just keeps me smiling with her antics. (Maybe someday I'll write a series of children's books called "Aubrey's Antics.")

Way to go Aubrey

Gross motor skills have never been Aubrey's strong suit. So whenever she achieves a physical accomplishment I am so proud of her, because I know it doesn't come easy. We were all so excited for her when she learned to ride her tricycle yesterday!

My Darling Girls

Brookie just LOVES to clap these days. She claps all of the time and it's just so cute. I got a little video of her clapping and signing "milk". It's so much fun seeing her so excited to be able to communicate with us.

Brooke just loves to see other babies. Whenever Clayson is over, she just can't get enough of him. We can't leave them both on the ground or she'd be all over him. I got a little video of Brooke trying to play with Clayson. I think she was trying to get him out of the car seat so she could play with him.

Brooke also started pointing this week. It's cute to see her pointing out all of the things that interest her. She also is so cute when she wants me to pick her up. She'll hop over to me and then raise her hands straight in the air. How can I not pick her up when she looks so stinkin' cute?!

A few mornings ago we ran off to the park without making my bed. When we got home I went to put Brooke down for a nap. I hear Aubrey in my room saying, "Mommy we forgot to make your bed. I'll make it for you." When I finished with Brooke, I went in my room to see this,

And this. (She had to get on top of the bed to pull the comforter up all of the way.)



The next day she wanted to make my bed again. I'm all too thrilled to let her do it.





This is how the bed looked after she was done. I did not help her at all. She did a pretty great job I must say! I think making the beds will be her special chore now.

One rainy day last week I bundled Aubrey up and let her go out and play. She loved playing with her umbrella, especially because it has a whistle on the handle.

Walking the garden wall is one of her favorite backyard games.

As she was walking the garden wall she got to a certain spot where we saw a spider last year. She stopped and said, "Oh, this is where the spider lives." It was an entire year ago and she remembered. That girls memory just surprises me every day.

I mentioned before that Aubrey likes to tell stories. The other day this is the story she told, "Once upon a time there was a Mommy and a Daddy. They had to wait a long time for their sweetie pies to come. And they lived happily ever after. The end." Too sweet.

This past week every time Aubrey enters a room where we are she yells, "Ta Da." What a funny little thing she is. What darling girls I've been blessed with. I tell them every day that I'm the luckiest mom in the world to have such sweet girls. Whenever Aubrey does something naughty and I let Aubrey know I am upset, she responds with, "But you're happy that you have your girls?" She sure knows how to butter me up!

Movie Night

When I found out that the Disney Channel was going to show "Snow White" tonight, I decided that we'd have a little family Movie Night. We made homemade pizza and cookies for our little party.

Aubrey of course wanted to help make the pizza. She spread the sauce and put on the pepperoni all by herself. She is getting to be so capable of doing so many things.

She also kept sneaking off some of the cheese to sample.

When I was teaching her how to do the sauce I started singing a little song. Why you might ask? Well why would you merely speak directions when you could sing them. (That must be my motto, since I break out into song quite frequently.)

Anyway, the rest of the time we were making pizza, Aubrey sang the song the whole time. It was so darling - I had to take a little video.

When the pizza timer beeped Aubrey got so excited and exclaimed, "Mom the pizza's done, the pizza's done, it's time to put on the movie!"

Havin' fun watching the show and hangin' with our girls.

Aubrey really enjoyed Snow White. After all it has lots of animals, music, a witch and a "monster mirror." All of Aubrey's favorite things. While I was getting her ready for bed she was singing, "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go . . ." and she was talking about our next "Movie Night". She said, "I hope that the Disney Channel will put on this show (The Lion King) for our next Movie Night." It was fun just hanging out as a family. It's really nice when we have some down time to spend time together.

Party Prep

I discovered last year how much I enjoy throwing birthday parties for my kids. Immediately after Aubrey's Pooh Party last year, I started thinking about her next party. Kinda crazy - I know. At first I thought we'd do a Dora party and put on a whole Dora adventure. Well, then she was invited to a Dora adventure party. It was darling, Ali did such a great job with it. So then I thought about doing a Tinkerbell party. Once again, Aubrey got an invite to a Tinkerbell party. It was so cute, Julie. When Aubrey fell in love with her Minnie Mouse doll that she got for Christmas, I finally decided on a Minnie Mouse party. Aubrey couldn't be more excited about it. After all, she really does love animal characters more then people! And it's still really girlie, so Mommy is happy about it too!

So, I've been really good friends with my sewing machine the last few weeks as I began preparing for her party. I had left over Red & White Polk-a-dot fabric from when I decorated Aubrey's ladybug room, so I used it to make Minnie Mouse outfits for my girls.

Aubrey has asked a few times as I was making them if she could wear them and be Minnie Mouse. I am thrilled, because she hasn't really gotten too much into dress up. I'm happy that she's excited to be Minnie Mouse for her party.

Here's a close up of the Minnie Mouse purses I made. I am very pleased with how they turned out!

Since I don't know how many little girls will be able to come, I had to make enough for the amount of girls we are planning to invite. I may end up with a lot of extra purses and mouse ears. (You can't see the mouse ears very well, since I took the pictures on a black surface.) Maybe I'll try and sell the extras.

Anyway, I am super excited about the progress I am making. All of my sewing is done, the front of the invitations are made. Now I'm on to the decorations and games.

And as I've been working on this party, I've already started planning out her next years party. I'm a nut, I know. Hopefully she is still loving My Little Ponies then because I have some super cute ideas!

Accessories

After I added on sleeves to the girls Easter dresses, I had extra sheer fabric left. Well, I couldn't let perfectly good fabric go to waste! So I used it to accessorize.

I found instructions online on making fabric roses. So I made some and turned them into headbands. Fabric roses are so easy and pretty.

What's a fancy dress without a matching purse? So, I had to make one for Aubrey. I actually cut out the fabric to make one for Brooke as well, but working with this fabric is difficult and took longer than expected - so I don't know if I'll actually make it.

I pretty much make a matching bracelet for all of their outfits, so I had to make one for these as well. I also decided that Aubrey was old enough for a necklace as well.

So, here is the whole ensemble. (Aubrey's dress came with a matching baby doll dress as well.)

So Happy

My Mom had me pick out some Easter dresses for the girls that would be from her and Dad. We looked at several stores and ALL of the fancy Easter dresses were sleeveless. So, Aubrey picked out her favorite and I was planning on having them wear cardigans with them. The only problem with cardigans is that it is too warm in the Summer to wear sweaters. So, I decided to try and make some sleeves. (BTW I like to play around with the sewing machine, but I am definitely NOT a seamstress!)

I couldn't believe it when I found the exact same sheer overlay fabric at Joanne's. It even came with a finished edge, so I didn't have to worry about how to make it look finished. Anyway, I was so pleased with how the sleeves turned out, that I had to share.

Before

After

I LOVE it when projects turn out even better than expected!

More about my Brookie Bug

My sweet little one is growing up so fast. On Wednesday we went to story time. After the story everybody clapped. Brooke looked right down at her hands and started clapping too. She looked so pleased to be able to do what the big kids were doing.

I think she is starting to say a few words. It's hard to tell at this stage if they are just babbling or actually speaking. But a few times this week her babbles seemed more intentional. One day she hopped right over to a ball, put her hand on it and said, "ba". I wouldn't be surprised if ball were her first word because she just LOVES balls. Also sometimes when she is fussing and wants to be picked up she looks right up at me and says, "Mom Mom".

I love Brooke's little mohawks after we take out ponytails. They'll last all day!

For church a few weeks back I wanted to "try" and do something with Brooke's little bit of hair. I was actually able to get 2 teeny tiny braids in it. Then with massive amounts of hairspray I was able to make it curly. I thought it turned out pretty cute. And with all of that hairspray in her hair the braids actually stayed in!

When I was trying to take pictures of it, she kept looking up at the camera. At the time I was frustrated, but now I'm glad cause I got a couple of really cute pics of her.





I know I have mentioned before how much Brooke LOVES to eat. Lately she only wants to eat what we are eating. One day we were eating pizza and I was trying to feed her baby food. She just kept fussing and fussing. We finally realized that it was because she wanted the pizza. When we finally gave her some, she was happy as could be!

This is Brooke eating spaghetti for the first time. She was in love!

I love watching her concentration when she tries to pick up little tiny pieces of food.

I've mentioned before that Aubrey is not real interested in dolls, she prefers stuffed animals. I of course prefer dolls and keep hoping she'll get into them soon. Brooke on the other hand is starting to really like dolls. I love it. She looks so cute holding little baby dolls!

I have a little snack bowl with a top that the baby has to reach in to get the snacks. It's supposed to keep the snacks from spilling. I decided to try it out on Brooke. She figured it out right away. The problem was when she started hopping around and shaking the bowl, out tumbled the snacks.

Brookie just loves to play peek a boo with blankets & towels lately. It is too cute. She'll get one up over her head and just laugh and giggle. Then she'll pull it off and smile from ear to ear. She's such a cutie!

I mentioned in my last post about Brooke, that she started scooting forward this week! I remembered that I got a video of it that day. She has to work so hard, but she's doing it.



Because I'm hoping that the crawling is coming soon, I wanted to capture Brooke's bum hops one last time. I was trying to get footage of how quick she is getting. Of course, as soon as the camera came out, she was more interested in it than hopping. But, I thought the video was cute anyway!

If you see her from behind, you'll see why we call it bum hopping.

I just love watching Brooke's personality come more and more to life every day! She's just my little darling doll!

What would we do without our Aubrey

My Aubrey sure adds spice and flavor to our lives. That girl can make me laugh and smile more than anyone, but can also push my buttons faster than anyone. She is funny, cute, sweet, smart and creative, but is also stubborn, particular, naughty and fussy. Life would sure not be the same without that little energetic monkey!

I put some of her funnies on facebook, but I want them here too so that when I finally do a blogbook, they'll be in it. So here are her most recent funnies.

She was supposed to be taking a nap one day, but wasn't. It didn't help that I was in the room across the hall with Uncle Elliot. Finally at 4:30 she still hadn't gone to sleep and I knew it was too late to nap. So, I went into her room and told her it was too late to nap and she could come out. She got so excited and said, "So I can play!" (Like she hadn't been already.) Then she wrapped her arms around me and said, "You're the best mom ever!" I just chuckled hearing that from my 2 year old. The other day when she wanted her bib untied she said to Jeff, "You can untie my bib because you're the best dad ever." He said something like, "It sounds like you love me a lot." Aubrey replied, "Yes I do. I love you to pieces and pieces and pieces!" It's funny how happy that makes you feel even though you know she's just kissing up!

Lately when I ask her to do things, as she goes off to do them she says, "I have a mission to do!"

One day I saw Aubrey passing the remote control aggressively between her hands. As she was doing this she was saying, "It's mine, no it's mine." She saw me watching and said to me, "My hands aren't sharing!"

A couple weeks back she was being naughty, when I started scolding her she said, "Sometimes I do things that I'm not supposed to do, but you can be happy anyway."

She loves the story of Goldilocks & the 3 bears. One day she got out of the tub and was fussing because she was too cold. I said to her, "You're Coldilocks." She thought that was hilarious and laughed and laughed and started calling herself Coldilocks. I got her jammies on her and she said with a big smile, "Now I'm Warmilocks!" She now does this on a regular basis after her tub. It makes me smile every time!

Aubrey loves to make up songs and stories. She even remembers the songs she has made up and sings them all of the time. She made up the "Number Song" with a cute little tune that goes, "1,2,3,6,7,8,9,10 do do do do do do do." Yes I know the 4 & 5 are missing - I can't figure out where they have gone either! Her stories are cute because they are something like this, "Once upon a time there was a little girl named Aubrey. She had a mommy and a daddy and a little sissy pie. One day they played house and ate lunch and then went to bed when it was dark. The end." We are still missing a plot and climax - but we are on our way to story writing! I think it's especially fun because when I was a little older then her I LOVED to write stories and wanted to be an author some day. Like mother like daughter.

Oh how she makes me laugh and can just brighten my day!

This is how I found Aubrey the other day. Shirt, underpants and mommies shoes. I thought she looked too cute!

Both girls have been loving the shower lately. Aubrey asks me to put it on just about every time they take a bath. Brooke just smiles and laughs and tries to catch the water.

One day after the shower Aubrey said to me, "I wish it was raining and we could take the tubby outside and it would be like it's a shower everywhere!"

Oh what do I do about Aubrey's parties. Ever since her 2 year old birthday party last year, Aubrey makes her own parties on an almost daily basis. Now her parties, concerts, picnics, circus', etc. consist of taking out every possible toy she can find in a room and either making a pile or a line with them. At first I thought it was cute and was glad that she could entertain herself with it so long. But after about a year of doing it I am so DONE with it. This is how my house looked the other day.

Here's the hallway


Here's her bedroom.


And here's the family room.

And if I, Jeff or Brooke touch anything in her party, she has a fit. It is not fun when Brooke wants to play and EVERYTHING is being occupied by Aubrey's party. Lately I have let Aubrey know that Brooke can play with the things in her party and when she's done then Aubrey can put them back. It's working better, but I still have to remind her most times. It's getting so old. I just don't know what to do about it. On one hand the fights and the mess are driving me nuts. But on the other hand I don't want to stifle her creativity and I love that it occupies her time, so I can get other stuff done. Anyway, I'll probably just have to live with the parties until they die down on their own!

For FHE this week we went over Emergency Preparedness. We did mock fire and earthquake drills that Aubrey LOVED! Then we went through our 72 hour kits to see what we needed to add. Jeff had Aubrey pick out some toys for her and Brooke to go in the kit. When we were talking about the food in them Aubrey really wanted to put some fruit snacks in it, so we did. After FHE I heard Aubrey saying to herself, "If the earth shakes cause it's and earthquake then we'll go away together to a far away land and eat fruit snacks!" She loves her fruit snacks so much I think she's hoping for a disaster so she can eat them!

Then on Tuesday she told me that it was an earthquake. She went and packed a little bag and told me that we needed to go somewhere to be safe. When daddy came home for lunch she said, "I'm going to turn my light off and get in bed like I'm sleeping. You make the beep beep sound. I'll yell 'fire fire' and crawl to you guys." Apparently our drills made quite an impression on her!

Then that evening this is the conversation we had:

Aubrey - "Next family home evening I want to do the lesson."
Me - "Oh really, what are you going to teach us."
Aubrey - "How to be safe and eat food so that we don't get too hungry."
Me - "That sounds like a good lesson."

I think we'll just have to let her do the lesson on Monday! She is just too funny and cute for words!

Oh how I ADORE that "little big girl." (That's her new nickname.)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

I was so excited when I saw that a local theater was putting on a play of, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." That was one of Aubrey's first favorite stories, and going to plays is one of my favorite things to do. The daytime showings were for school groups, but when I called they said I could get my own group together and go. A bunch of us neighbors got together and took our little ones to see it. I thought it was really cute. Both of my girls did very well. Brooke watched almost the entire thing (which was very surprising to me.)

When I told Aubrey we would be going, she said, "I have to bring my storybook with me." So, here are my girls with their mouse stories, ready to go to their first play.

They had a scene all set up for photos. Luckily my friend Jessica brought her camera and took a picture for me.

When we got home it was lunch time. All during lunch this is what Aubrey was saying, "If you give an Aubrey a taquito, she'll want some grapes to go with it, if you give her the grapes, she'll probably ask you for a sippy cup. Then she'll want some water to go with it . . . " It was way too cute!

It was a lot of fun going with our friends and neighbors! Thanks for coming all of you!

Brooke - 11 Months

My Little Angle turns 11 months today. We just love our sweetheart. She is just a delight to have around. She plays so well on her own. She is very curious and wants to touch everything. Even with limited mobility she finds a way to find the one thing she shouldn't touch! She finally scooted forward for the first time yesterday! That gave me hope that maybe she'll crawl before she turns one. She still bum hops and she can get all around the house that way. She likes to make funny sounds with her lips and mouth. And she wants to do and eat only what we are doing and eating. She's very cuddly and I love rocking her before naps and bedtime because she snuggles right up. We can't imagine life without our Brookie Bug, we just love her to pieces.

Gotta love those cheeks!

I finally got a picture of her up on all fours. She's not moving yet, but she's been getting up for about a month.

We keep a pacifier in her car seat, so we will have it handy when we leave the house. A few weeks ago, Brooke discovered it and now when she's in the family room, she'll hop over to the car seat, get it out and pop it into her mouth. It's too cute. I'm hoping we won't have too hard of a time telling the pacifier goodbye next month!