Random

-Green up your mailbox
A friend emailed me this website where you can unsubscribe to unwanted catalogs/junkmail. It takes a couple minutes to sign up, but it is free and I think it is worth it. I'm even unsubscribing to catalogs I like to look at (like Pottery Barn , Land of Nod, etc.) since everything is online and I hate to waste so much paper. One of my resolutions this year is to declutter, simplify & organize my house and eliminating my perpetual mail pile would be a great start for me!

- I got this book for Aubrey for Christmas and it by far the best children's Bible story book we've read. It is written by Sally Lloyd Jones and I love what she says about it: "You see, the best thing about this story is--it's true. It takes the whole Bible to tell this story. And at the center of the story there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle--the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture." I would highly recommend this book for your family!

More playtime with Nana

Super baby!

Aubrey got Peter Pan for her b-day from her great-grandparents and she LOVES it. She requests it everyday and loves to act it out -- here she is "flying"!

More super baby

Will had lots of fun playing peek-a-boo with Nana while she was in town last week. He's started initiating the game and loves to hide behind placemats, curtains, etc. He's also been doing other interactive things lately like clapping, waving, playing "so big" and signing "more". I can't belive how big he is!

Aubrey-in-the-box

Rocking with a lego box on her head!

Looking super cute in the baby swing

Birthday Party

We finally celebrated Aubrey's birthday with her friends today (almost a month late!). We had the party at a gymnastics place and the kids had fun jumping on all the trampolines, swinging from a rope into a big foam pit, and playing on all the other equipment. Then we had pizza & cake and came home and opened a few presents with the family. Aubrey had a great time and I think all her friends did, too!

Aubrey had a blast at her friend, Sophie's, Princess party on Saturday. She was very serious about making her princess wand.

The girls had a lovely lunch on china and Aubrey loved drinking her pink lemonade from a plastic wine glass!

All the pretty princesses! The birthday girl is in the middle on the bottom row.

Aubrey & Leah playing with wands that light up & spin!

The classic unrolling the toilet paper roll shot

"How big is Will?"

"So big!"

Check out the Barbie leg protruding from the push toy

November Family Picture Session

Once again, my friend, Andi, took some pictures of us back in November. I haven't posted them until now becasue I wasn't sure which ones I was going to use for our Christmas cards. Here are some more of my favorites.

8 months!

Trying on his new hat

"Walking" around the house

Smiling with Daddy

Christmas with Gigi

We had a great time visiting with Gigi when we got home from Dallas. She got to stay for 2 nights so we had lots of time to play!

Aubrey has already gotten pretty good with the mouse on her new Leap Frog computer

Teaching Will how to open presents

Playing with his new alphabet animal train from Gigi.

more Chrsitmas

Will loves to push his new truck from Nana around the house!

Opening presents in Dallas

Chewing on a coaster and covered up with a blanket knitted by his great-grandmother

Drawing circles on her new "glow board" from Nana

Some Christmas pics

Reaching for her stocking on Christmas Eve morning at home

Silliness while opening a Christmas story book

Will with great-grandpa

and great-grandma in Dallas for Christmas. We had a great visit with everyone even though it was short -- we were only in town for one night

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aubrey!!!

Today Aubrey is 3! These 3 years have passed so quickly & I have treasured each day with her. She seems so grown up to me and continues makes me laugh everyday by the things she says and does. Just yesterday, we were making some Christmas cookies and I had left them on a plate on the counter. She broke off a bite of one and I asked her what she was eating. She said, "It's a cookie, but God glued my tummy on so you can't see it inside." She hasn't had the most exciting week or even birthday today, since Robert is still sick, but we celebrated a little today with presents and birthday cake and are planning on a fun outing when she is done with her rest time. Thankfully, Aubrey, Will and I still seem healthy and Robert is starting to feel better, so maybe we'll do some more celebrating this weekend. Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you more than you can imagine!

The flu, oh no!

Poor Robert has the flu! He started feeling weak & tired on Friday night and then it came on strong Saturday afternoon. He thought he'd feel better the next day, but no luck. So, today we went to the doctor's office and he confirmed our suspicion that it's the yucky influenza virus. Thankfully, Aubrey & Will had their flu shots, so I pray that they will not get sick! I, on the other hand, did not get the flu shot yet ( I have been meaning to get it for a while now and just hadn't gotten around to it), so you can pray that my immune system is strong enough to fight it off. We are planning on traveling for Christmas next week and Aubrey's b-day is this Thursday, so it would be nice to be over it. In the 7 years I've known Robert, he's never missed a day of work for being sick, but I think he'll be out several days this week. We'd appreciate your prayers-- that Robert gets well quickly ( I can tell he's pretty miserable) and that the rest of us stay healthy... Getting the flu is not on my Christmas list!

Playing together in the kitchen.

This time Aubrey gave her water toys a bath in the sink with my permission. She was bored and it kept her occupied for at least 30 minutes.

After going potty, Aubrey came out of the bathroom with her hand wrapped in toilet paper & with one of my hair velcro rollers on. She called it her "hand cast"

We had our neighborhood Christmas party on Sunday afternoon with Santa, a moon jump, cookies, hot chocolate and candy canes. Aubrey was scared of Santa because "he's a little bit big", bur thuroughly enjoyed the cookie and candy cane.