Happy Birthday Aubree

I cannot believe my little Aubree is 4 years old. I don't know where the past year has gone. She is growing up so quickly.

At the end of the day yesterday (Nov. 17th, 2008), I was extremely exhausted, had a cold and was just ready to go to bed even though it was 8:30pm. The phone rang and it was BreeAnn. She was calling to wish Aubree a happy birthday. As I talked with her for a few minutes it gave me time to reflect on the precious gift I have been given to be Aubree's Mom.

Rarely do I think about Aubree being adopted. My feelings toward her are no different than my feelings toward Sydney. Once in awhile though, I am reminded that very easily things could have been different. I can't imagine my life without my Aubree girl. She means so much to me. She is such a sweet girl and has brought so much happiness to Scott and I. She filled a void in my life when I ached to be a mom. She also brought new challenges but I wouldn't trade any of them to go back in time when I wanted her so bad.

I'm going to try and give a recap of Aubree's past year while adding some of the things that make Aubree who she is.

This picture was taken at the beginning of the year. I think Aubree is beautiful. She is becoming such a sensitive girl. We are worried about the teenage years because already she has a hard time making through a movie without crying. Recently she was tearing up at High School Musical when they Zack and Gabriella broke up for a little bit. She can't see someone else crying and not want to cry with them. We may have an emotional wreck on our hands just like her mom.

Aubree has loved holidays this year and just couldn't get enough of the festivities.

Playing outside has brought new meaning this year. It seems all we did all summer was go outside or to the park and play. She loves riding her "Pony Bike", jumping on trampolines going to the park (especially the Splash Pad) and playing with Sydney.

Aubree loves when I give her a job to do. She can swiffer-vac the floor, pick up her toys, make her bed, get dressed, put on her shoes, wipe up messes and many more things. She also loves to help out in the kitchen. One of her favorite things is pulling a chair up to the kitchen sink and rinsing dishes then loading them in the dishwasher.

She also like to help make dinner and treats. She loves when we make bread dough and she get to roll her own dough out and make into anything she wants.

When it comes time to eat she loves Macaroni and Cheese, breadsticks, apples, grapes, yogurt, McDonald's kids meals with chicken nuggets, apple dippers, chocolate milk and a toy. She likes steak and usually chicken. Her beverage of choice is chocolate milk. When it comes time to say a blessing on the food we have a fight on our hands. First of all, we always have at least 2 prayers on every meal and Aubree HAS to be first followed by Sydney who usually blesses all her toys and forgets to bless the food. Aubree never forgets to ask Heavenly Father for a new baby and a pet. (I sure hope a new baby gets her before a pet does.)

Aubree loves playing with her cousins. Aub and Ty act more like brother and sister than they do cousins. That's probably because they see each other and spend a lot of time together at least once a week. She really looks up to Abby and Kendall. Someday she wants to be just like them.


Aubree has started dance and preschool this year. I still can't believe she's old enough for either of these things. She loves letters and numbers and is always asking me what things say and finding different letters she is familiar with. She also loves going to the library and getting new books. It's great when Scott gets home and takes the time to read stories to Aub and Syd. Aubree will then do pretty good at remembering the story and "reading" it again later.

Aubree doesn't always like the spotlight and she gets a little shy but recently she'll ask me to say "Attention, Attention Everyone, Introducing Aubree doing _____" Then she'll run out and perform her little talent. It's pretty funny to watch her perform.

Aub thinks she can pull some pretty funny/scary faces. She'll do some face and then ask me if it's scary or not. It' always makes me laugh. This picture is her most famous scary face and Sydney is trying to copy everything her older sister does.

As cute as she can be, she can also be a stinker some times. This is her pouting/I'm not getting my way face. I've even heard her say...."If you don't do this then I won't play with you." Then she'll fold her arms and wait for you to do what she says. What a STINKER! Hopefully this is just a phase.

Poor Aubree has to put up with me taking her picture every chance I get. She gets really sick of the camera but will occasionally put up with me usually followed by her having a turn to take a few pictures. Luckily we have digital cameras now and we can delete most pictures.

One funny thing she did this past summer when I gave her my old digital camera was hold the picture and snap a shot of herself looking down at the camera. When we were looking through the pictures she came across a few of that particular angle and her nostrils were the most prominent thing in the picture and she asked in a very serious way, "Mom, am I a pig?" She didn't think it was funny that I laughed because she was a bit worried. I had to explain we all have nostrils and that's what they look like when you're looking up at them.

I wasn't planning on doing a "friend" party until Aubree announced on Friday (her b-day was Monday) that she really wanted her friends to come over for her birthday. I don't know what I was thinking but I quickly threw something together. Aubree loved delivering the invitations. For most of the houses I would just pull in the driveway and she jumped out of the car and delivered the invitations. She thought it was so much fun.

The party was full on dancing, balloons, playdough, ice-cream and games. I can't even remember but there were 12 or 13 three and four year olds. What was I thinking. They had a fun time and Aubree liked it. I guess that's what matters.

Aubree's cake this year was a princess castle cake. She loved it and couldn't wait for the princesses to come out.....too bad it was just cake on the inside. This morning as she woke up she was laying next to me then she sprang up and said I want to play with my presents. She had a fun day going from one new thing to the next. She's already talking about what she wants for her next birthday.

I love my Aubree girl so much and look forward to the next year to see what new things she discovers and learns.

Randomness

I don't even know if randomness is a word but this is a random post. My girls were playing the other day and I had to stop and take some pictures.

I remember a few years ago when I was watching a couple of my nieces for a few days. I realized how much they looked out for each other and were helping each other even though they were only 1 and 3 years old. Aubree was also 1 and I really wanted her to have a sister to play with.

I love it when they play and laugh together. There isn't anybody like a sister.

Don't the sweats look sooo comfy. You gotta love the $3.33 sale at Target.

And last but not least this picture cracks me up for a couple of reasons. First of all, they're both in a box. It amazes me how much kids like boxes. They can get hours of fun out of a box. Secondly, Sydney is wearing the little headlamp Scott used to use for reading but my girls think it is a camera. They carry it around, pretend to take pictures and then show me the pictures. They're funny little creatures and I sure love 'em!

Halloween Week

So, it's taken me awhile to get to this post mostly because Scott has been gone all week and that makes it a difficult week. By the end of the day I am not "loving" my kids quite as much as usual so it's hard to write about how cute they are. Scott is great to give me a break when he gets home from work. I miss that sooooo much. I don't know how single moms make it.

The other thing about Halloween is, it's not my favorite holiday. I guess I'm kinda a stick-in-the-mud type when it comes to dressing up. I always disliked it as a child because I always felt my costumes were dumb and I wasn't very creative. Consequently I'm still not very creative when it comes to dressing up.

And the last reason I have why this has taken me so long to get to is it seems like the festivities lasted a whole week long and that takes a few minutes to blog. Trying to put all reasons aside I'll now post a few pictures and call it good.

My mom found a Jo-Jo the Clown costume at a garage sale this summer. So, I didn't have to spend a thing on Aubree's costume. She actually got to choose between a BYU cheerleader and the clown costume. I have to admit that I hadn't actually ever heard of Jo-Jo before this costume. Scott finally found the show on tv and dvr'd it for Aubree after she already wore the costume.

Sydney was the bunny that Aubree was when she was one. It was a little big for Aubree but it fit Syd perfectly at 2 years old. She absolutely loved wearing the costume and is still telling anyone that will listen that she was a bunny. She even loved the little hat thing and didn't take it off once. I thought Syd looked adorable. I guess I'll toot my own horn and say that I actually made the bunny costume myself. It hasn't even fallen apart yet.This picture makes me laugh because Sydney has changed from the saddest tear stained face to laughing hysterically at Aubree. It amazes me how kids can go from one emotion to the next in a matter of seconds.

Those pictures were all taken before our ward trunk-or-treat, which was the Saturday before Halloween.

On Tuesday we had a little preschool field trip to a Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch. The kids had some fun activities. The big whiteboard slide was the biggest hit with the kids though. Aubree just couldn't get enough of it.

Syd's got a fake finger on from one of the activities. She was pretty proud of herself for figuring out that's what it was.

Aubree was trying her best to stand away from the game but she couldn't help leaning just a bit.

Here's Syd trying to hide in the cornstalks.

Here's the preschool gang. They all really had a great time. I hope to go again next year.

We also carved our pumpkins on Tuesday night. Aubree actually helped this year. She was pretty good at poking the little holes in the stencil. Scott got about half of his carved and decided he was done. It was actually Syd's pumpkin and she didn't really mind but I tried to fix it up a bit so a candle would at least burn in it.

I guess you'll notice neither of the girls have any clothes on. It's just easier to clean them up that way.

We participated in the city's trunk-or-treat on Wednesday. Scott bribed Aubree to be the BYU cheerleader for that night. He told her she could wear make-up if she wore the cheerleader costume and people would give her more candy than if she was a clown. She was pumped about wearing all that make-up. We didn't get any pictures that night.

On Friday, which was actually Halloween we went to Ann's house and had dinner together and then took the kids out trick-or-treating. Aubree was actually sick so she didn't really enjoy it that much. She had a fever and was very lethargic. We even saw Santa out while we were trick-or-treating. That kids thought that was pretty cool.

My mom even dressed up for the occasion in her clown costume. She was proud because some guy told her she got the best mom costume.....She wasn't proud because her costume was great but because he called her the mom and she's the grandma.

Last picture of my Aubree girl. She was trying to be excited as the fever burned inside.

So, there are the festivities for the week. Overall it was fun and we have way too much candy. I'm just happy I don't have to worry about costumes for another year.