Snow Days

Bundled up outside watching her first snowflakes fall to the gound
Exploring the icy spots
No, that's not dandruff, they're real snowflakes in Austin, Texas! Icesicles hanging off of the back of our house, they finally all melted yesterday 

First taste of jello -- she loves pickles, lemons & grapefruit, but for some reason the cherry jello got this reaction.
About to slide at Sophie's 3rd birthday. It turned out to be a very rainy day so Aubrey was glad to be able to run around inside at Inflatable Wonderland. 

Ultrasound Update

I had another ultrasound this morning at my 24 week appointment. Everything looked good and Dr. Love saw the outflows of the heart clearly (which is what he didn't see last time). We are thankful that the baby looked healthy and is continuing to grow on track! We were hoping to confirm the baby's gender as well but our little one, once again, was a little shy. Since the baby wouldn't open it's legs we couldn't get an obvious picture, but the doctor said he was pretty sure it's a boy (just not 100% sure). We'll be excited either way when the baby arrives in late April. We're going to go ahead and make the nursery more gender neutral and pick out a boy name, but we might have a girl name in mind, just in case. I guess that's all the news for now!

2 year check-up

Aubrey set up this picnic all by herself.

We went to the doctor today for Aubrey's 2 year well check. She did a lot better than at previous appointments where she cried from the moment we walked in the door. We'd been playing with her doctor kit for a while to prepare her and thankfully, she was done with her immunizzations at 18 months, so she didn't need any shots this visit! She got to stand on the big scale and stand up to be measured this time, which she liked a lot better than sitting on the baby scale and laying down to be measured. She is up to 25 lbs. even and 35 inches even! She jumped up to 25% in weight and she's still 75-90% in height. Other than that, she is developing well and we are very thankful for her health and growth. Her favorite things to do lately are build towers with blocks, jump off anything she can find, line toys or other objects in rows, have picnics & tea parties, read her favorite Bible stories and sing. Her favorite songs lately are "Do a deer", "The doxology" and "Holy, holy, holy". She is also very affectionate to the baby in mommy's tummy. She loves to come up and kiss my belly and tell me about what toys and books she is going to show the baby. She's going to be a great big sister!

Aubrey has been asking for cookies every day since Christmas when she discovered the Christmas tree sugar cookies at Grnadma's house. I'll ask her what she wants for breakfast and she'll say, "A really big cookie". Or I'll say, "Would you like a banana?' and she'll say, "or a cookie?". I only give in to her requests after she eats a good meal and she usually only gets a bite or two of a cookie.
My two sweeties watching the Jonah movie from Aunt Susan
Aubrey loves her new playhouse from the Barfields. Their youngest daughter outgrew it so they passed it along to us. She especially likes opening and closing the door and window and "cooking some lunch" in the kitchen. 

Christmas in Dallas

Looking at her stocking that her great-grandmother made
Sitting in great-grandpa's big blue chair
Pointing to her new cozy coupe car
Sitting in her car and brushing her cabbage patch kid's hair


We had a great Christmas with my family in Dallas. We got to visit with lots of family, eat lots of good food and watch Aubrey run around non-stop for the whole visit. She is definitely not a laid back, calm child. She has tons of energy and never stops running, jumping, playing, performing or singing for the group around her. She really remembers all of her family members now and enjoys all the time she gets to spend with them. Robert and I enjoyed seeing everyone, as well!

Merry Christmas!

We didn't get our Christmas cards out this year for the first time since we've been married. We hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas and enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior!

Aubrey's 2!!!

We celebrated Aubrey's birthday last Saturday and had a record tying temperature of 80!
Last year Aubrey tasted one bite of her birthday cake and was all done. This year was a different story. She wanted to taste all of them. She ate a few bites of one and then grabbed another one and tasted it. She did this a couple more times to end up with 4 or 5 cupcakes on her plate.
What a big girl! 

Happy 2nd Birthday to Aubrey!

Our new baby girl!
A year ago today on her first birthday!

Today at 2:38 pm, Aubrey will officially be 2 years old, which I can't believe! These past couple years have flown by, but are filled with so many wonderful memories. Aubrey has been an absolute joy and blessing to our family and we love her so much!

It's a ...

BOY... we think! We had our 20 week ultrasound today and got to see our cute little baby kicking and moving around. The baby's legs were together and folded, so our Dr. couldn't get a great view, but he said he was pretty sure we are having a boy! I am going to have another ultrasound in 4 weeks anyway, so they will confirm the gender then. I'm not going to rush out right away to start buying everything in blue, but I think we will go ahead and start brainstorming boy names. Any ideas? Anyway, we are thankful that the baby looked healthy and on track and thrilled to add a boy to our family this spring!

Here are a couple pictures of Aubrey playing dress up in her Christmas dress this afternoon. Her hair has gotten so long, we may get her first haircut next week right before her 2nd birthday! We are staying busy Christmas shopping, getting ready for Aubrey's birthday and vacuuming up pine needles at least twice a day! Aubrey is really enjoying the tree and all the Christmas decorations around the neighborhood and we have had lots of cold weather and freezing temps at night, so it actually feels like Christmas! The only other news is that we have our 20 week ultrsound on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll know the baby's gender in just a few days! 

A year ago...

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Aubrey. It was taken exactly a year ago, which I can't believe!!! We used it as her "1 year old" picture and in our Christmas cards. She looks so different now -- bigger, taller, lots more hair & teeth and not like a baby! 

When Aubrey tried on her new coat she kept saying, "Aubrey's a lion!"
Even though the weather wasn't that cold, we made our first fire in our fireplace
Rocking away 

A Happy Birthday

Aubrey liked helping me blow out my birthday candles & practicing for her turn next month
We had a combined birthday party for me, Susan, Isaac & Aubrey the night before Thanksgiving.
Aubrey decorated the cake with sprinkles, strawberries and lots of candles.
 

As you can see, Aubrey is very entertained with turning her lamp off and on! As soon as I took the second picture, I had to run and catch the lamp before it fell on Aubrey and the fun was over. 

Tea Time

Aubrey and I thuroughly enjoyed her first tea party this evening! We were playing with a box of toys that were mine when I was little (My Little Ponies & Strawberry Shortcakes) and we came across this little tea set. We drank "tea" (water) out of these tiny cups and Aubrey had about 10 refills! We also had some yummy cookies on our little plates. It's so fun to interact with Aubrey in so many new ways now that she's a big girl! 

 

Pretty Ballerina

Aubrey enjoyed her first Trick or Treat outing last night as a ballerina. She wore her tiara around the house all afternoon and liked twirling around in her tutu. Robert had actually given me the tutu to ask me on one of our first dates in 2000. The tutu was around a vase of flowers with tickets to the Houston Nutcracker. Neither of us knew at the time that our future child would be wearing it on Halloween! Anyway, Aubrey rode around in the wagon with our neighbor, Ryan, and they both enjoyed running up to the doors, ringing the doorbells and saying, "trick-or-treat".