A few weeks back

I've been busy having fun and working on projects, that I haven't had time to blog. So, I decided I needed to start and catch up, before it gets too overwhelming!

The girls are still having fun harvesting tomatoes. Here are some photos of Brooke picking away.

She has still not caught on that she is only supposed to pick the red ones! Lucky for us we have an overabundance, so I don't worry when she picks some green ones!



The following are pics from the beginning of the month when she started pushing herself to standing. She looks so big when she stands up! I didn't realize she's not really a baby anymore until I saw how big she was standing!



Because we always clap for her, she started clapping as soon as she would stand!



G & G Bagley came for a little visit to be here for my Bro-in-law, Bryan's Graduation. I had taken pictures with my mom's camera and planned on uploading them before she left. But, I forgot.

Here are a couple of pics while they were at the house.



Much to our surprise Brooke went right to Grandpa and Grandma without any fussing! I hope we are getting through this stranger/separation anxiety phase. Especially since she starts nursery in about a month.



That little monkey thought she was big enough to open the door and escape! She is one determined little thing so I am going to have to be really careful with her when she grows a few more inches. I have no doubt that she will be opening doors like a pro as soon as she can get her hand around them.



Brooke is still such a cute little mimicker. One day I was bathing the two girls. I pulled Brooke out and sat her on the floor. I went to get Aubrey out. When I turned back, Brooke had gotten herself to the toilet paper, pulled a piece off and was wiping her bum. It was too funny!

One day she found one of Aubrey's cups. She took it over to the refrigerator door and was holding it up as high as she could. She was trying to fill it up like she sees Aubrey do all of the time.

Brooke is still talking a lot and learning new words everyday. She LOVES to point out things and name them. Both in stories and things in whatever room we are in. She is loving animals right now. She was pretty much attacking Sophie (my sis in laws dog) last time we saw her, and anytime she sees a cat she starts meowing excitedly.

Her favorite word is still "baby". I should count how many times a day she says it. Anytime she sees a doll, wants a doll, sees a live baby or sees a baby in a story, she will say "baby" several times. It is so cute seeing how much she loves babies.

She is not a patient thing. In fact whenever I tell her "just a minute", no matter how nicely I say it, she throws a fit. I certainly hope this is a phase.

Brooke and Aubrey are playing so much better together these days. This is mainly because Aubrey is being so good at sharing with her. There have been a few times this week that they played for 20 or so minutes together without fighting or crying at all. Those times were a dream come true for me!

Here are some more garden harvesting photos.

Daddy was throwing potatoes out of the garden and both girls were putting them in the bucket. They both thought it was a mighty fun game!



My cute little tomato pickers!



And it's always important to squish a few tomatoes!



Aubrey is in such a cute and sweet phase right now. She has been really well behaved and such a good little helper. Most of the time when I ask her to do something she says, "OK Mommy" and jumps up and does it.

She is loving her doll right now and every night puts her baby to bed by singing her songs and reading her stories, giving her a bottle and tucking her in. It is so darling!







The following video is a Aubrey singing a lullaby to her baby that she made up herself.

Brookie wanted to play baby too!

A few cute things Aubrey has said over the last few weeks:

One night Jeff said to Aubrey, "Never grow up, stay this age forever." Aubrey looked at him with the saddest face and said, "But I want to be a Mommy."

"When I'm a little bit bigger I won't do naughty things so much."

She was playing with Brooke one day and said, "Heavenly Father sent us the cutest baby ever." And then a few days later at dinner time she repeated the sentiment.

Just tonight as I was putting her to bed she asked me, "Mommy will you watch me get married?" When I told her that I would she said, "But what Prince will I marry?" Hmm lots of girls and women have that very same question!

At church last Sunday someone asked Jeff when Aubrey's birthday was. He gave what he thought was Aubrey's birthday. Aubrey then said, "No it's not, it's . . ." Jeff then said no Aubrey and repeated the date he had originally said. Aubrey disagreed and told him her birthday. After church Jeff asked me when Aubrey's birthday was, and lo and behold Aubrey had it right! Jeff and to take a big old bite of humble pie!

The very next day Aubrey asked me to sing a song that Grandpa Bagley had sang to her. I started singing it to her and when I sang about the little rain cloud that cried she piped in and said, "No mommy it's the little white cloud that cries." I disagreed with her, but she said, "no mommy grandpa sings it the little white cloud." I finally called my dad and asked him what the correct lyrics were. Once again Aubrey had it right. Nothing gets past that little stinker. We are in big trouble now!

She is very excited to start her dance class next week and then preschool the following week! I am doing a little preschool coop with some neighbors and have had so much planning the activites!

Hurray Brooke!

I have some catching up to do - but no time to do it tonight.

But I had to quickly post our exciting happening for today.

Brooke at 16.5 months finally started walking today!

We were playing in Aubrey's room and Brooke wanted a toy to put in the play highchair. I found a stuffed animal and called for her to come and get it. She turned around and just walked across Aubrey's room. Apparently she wanted to make sure she had it all figured out before she even gave it a try.

So, I ran and got my camera and got some video's of her walking. So these are her 2nd, 3rd and 4th attempt at walking. (Well except for the times she's walked in the pool. But those times she had help with the balance water gives you and a life jacket to hold her up.)

Hurray Brooke we are all so proud of you!

My Little Princess

After church 2 Sundays ago Aubrey told Jeff and I, "Next Sunday I want to wear my Princess dress, have princess hair and have pink polish on my fingers and toes." So, when Sunday rolled around, I did my best to turn her into a church appropriate princess.

Here's my little princess on her way out to church.

I thought her hair turned out so cute, that I had to take a pic.


Aubrey is becoming more and more opinionated about what she wears and how she wants her hair done. I'm kind of sad about this, because I have always enjoyed dolling up my little Aubrey. Or as my Father-in-law calls it, "playing baby." Anyway, I'm glad I have Brooke to "play baby" with, but she just needs to get some more hair!

Family Fun Night

A few Monday nights ago we decided to take Daddy to the Family Fun Center for Family Home Evening. Aubrey was so excited to show daddy all the fun things we did there.

It started raining as soon as we got there, but I didn't let that stop us from having fun. So, we were pretty much soaking wet the whole time.

Aubrey was thrilled to ride the airplane ride, "All by myself."

Daddy giving Brookie a ride.


After the airplane ride and bumper boats, the rain started coming down pretty hard, so we went inside for a bit.

Aubrey decided she was brave enough to do the Frog Hopper.


I wondered if she would get scared, because it gets really high, but she was smiling every time it dropped.


Then Aubrey wanted to try out the inside playground. I've never let her play inside those tunnel type playgrounds before. I've never liked the idea that I can't see her, or get to her quickly. Plus who knows who is up inside those things. Anyway, since there was nobody there, we let her go for it. She really wanted to go down the slide, but kept getting lost. Here she is coming down the slide once she FINALLY found it. (Jeff actually had to climb up and show her the way!)



Brooke was completely content climbing up and down the bottom of the slide.




Then the rain let up so we went back outside. Aubrey loved doing the go karts with Daddy.


And of course had to do the airplane again.


Both girls loved the carousel.




Brookie waving at mommy.


Aww look at my cute little crew.


Then on our way out, Aubrey reminded Daddy that she wanted to golf. So, we stayed a little longer to do a little mini golf.


As we were going home I asked Aubrey if that was a fun Family Home Evening. She replied, "Yeah that was fun, but Mommy I want a lesson." Funny kid. I'm glad she likes our FHE lessons so much!

The Cutest Cake

My sister in law, Katie, made the cutest cake for her cake decorating class.

It's a cake of her dog, Sophie.

She brought it over for us tonight, because she knew the girls would love it.

I just had to share the cuteness!

Updates

I've been too busy playing this Summer that I haven't been blogging as much. The fact that Summer is almost over, is really a sad thing for me. I love shorts and sandals and swimming and playing outside. I don't want it to end :(.

Anyway, we have spent the bulk of the summer going swimming and to the outdoor story time/picnic & Crafts they have at the library. It's been lots of fun. But, I never bring my camera, so I don't have pictures to show for it. (Although I did buy a disposable camera that we took to the waterpark a few weeks back - so I am anxious to get the pictures back from being developed.)

Anyway, I thought I'd update on what my girls have been up to. Aubrey has been such a good helper lately. She has always loved helping me with the dishes. So, I discovered that a really good chore for her was to put away the utensils. It's great because it is actually helpful and she enjoys finding all the right spots for the utensils. It's like a game for her. She also clears her dishes after every meal. She likes that she has her special jobs to do.

She has also been really good at sharing with Brooke. Which has been fabulous. Brooke will come up wanting something Aubrey has and Aubrey will say, "OK Brooke you can have a turn." It's great - except Brooke hasn't quite caught on to letting Aubrey have a turn again!

The girls absolutely love playing in the backyard. The days we are actually at home they will both stand at the back door begging me to take them outside. Brooke will point and say, "Ou si, Ou si." And if I ever open any door Brooke & Aubrey will come as fast as they can to get outside with me. Funny girls.

One of Aubrey's favorite things again this year is picking the tomatoes. And this year she doesn't squish them and she knows to only pick the red ones. So, it's been quite helpful. Brooke has joined in the fun a few times too.



I just had to take a picture of our corn, it's looking and tasting so good.


Brookie is just getting more and more capable everyday. One day Aubrey was water painting and Brooke was playing with toys. I ran to the back for a few minutes and when I returned, Brooke had taken over the painting. She must have been watching Aubrey, because she was doing it perfectly.

First you dip it in the water,


then you dip it in the paints,


and then you paint the picture.

It was so cute to watch her do such a big girl thing so well. She just watches Aubrey and catches on so quickly.

She is still talking a lot - new words everyday. Some of my favorites are, "I'm stuck" - which sounds like "I tuk" and "itsy bitsy spider" which sounds like "Iii pie". She puts her cute little fingers together like the climbing spider and says "ii pie" when she wants us to sing her the song. She'll also, put both hands on her head and say, "head" when she wants us to sing "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes." And she claps her hands and says "pat" when she wants us to sing "Pat a cake". It's really fun watching her pick up on so many things.

She is making some progress with walking. She now will push herself to standing and then let go for a few moments. Her favorite places to do that though is in the swimming pool, or tub, or on a bed - all of the most dangerous places of course! She did take her first step the other day. It was completely accidental and she sat down immediately upon noticing what she did.

She will walk with her walker sometimes or will push chairs around like a walker. So, I don't know how soon the walking will happen, but I feel like progress has been made.




We had our 11th year anniversary on July 23rd. We had such a fun day. We both decided it was our favorite anniversary so far. First thing in the morning we let off our ladybugs (see a few posts back). Then Aubrey wanted to ride bikes together. So we played around with the bikes for a bit. Then after naps we went to the water park. It is so much fun to have Jeff there too. Aubrey gets so excited to show off all of the big girl things she does there. Then we came home and got ready for a date. We went to dinner and a movie. I know that's not very creative, but since we rarely get out, it was heavenly. It just was so nice to get to spend the day all together as a family and then get some alone time that night. It was the perfect day!

Awesome video on Motherhood

Elder Holland's thoughts on being a MOM.