Holy Pictures Batman!

My big present from Jason's parents this year was a new SLR camera and holy cow did I break it in during Christmas. We had 5 days in a row of Christmas celebrations and I maximized the picture taking..I think around 300 pictures were taken when all was said and done..BUT I LOVE my new camera and it takes such higher quality pictures than my point and shoot. I also was excited that over the weekend Amy and I found a great backpack case for it at a little shop in downtown Indianapolis. I figure the backpack will come in handy on our trip to Disney world and there's enough room in it for my point and shoot camera and our new flip video camera (also a Christmas gift)..SCORE!

I feel like this past week as been a whirlwind of activity. We hosted Jason's family Christmas eve, all 4 of us spent all day in our pj's on christmas, packed up and left for Indianapolis on the 26th, headed for Camden on the 27th, headed home on the 28th and had Christmas with my sister and parents. My parents left the 29th, and my sister left today (the 31st). Now we have a new years eve party this evening (which is a very rare occasion for us) so I will be dropping the kids off at Jason's parents for the evening (thanks Bob and Barb :))..whew...in a way it will be nice for the Christmas season to be over, in another way I'm sad to see it go..Oh well, I guess the next thing to look forward to is our trip to Disneyworld in Feb..let's cross our fingers for sick free children this time around!!!!

Here are A FEW of the pictures I took...

A bit behind on the blog..

Well, I meant to write a blog when Aubrey turned 15 months and obviously hadn't gotten around to it. It's been a whirlwind of activity around here. This is Jason's busy travel season so about every other week he is gone and in the mean time he was trying to finish up his landscaping buisness at the end of October. Halloween came and went and then we moved right into Christmas. We started getting out all the decorations the 1st weekend of November.. Why so early??you ask...well, if you've been to our house in recent years, you would know why we start so early. We have a TON of decorations and it takes us about a month to get everything up. It doesn't really take a month, but everything we do has to be done in small steps due to the little people following us around all day. :)

So, what I really wanted to write about was what Aubrey is doing at 15 months..

Aubrey's favorite words to say:

1. Yeah

2. Uh-oh

3. Minnie

4. Mo-mo ( more)

5. Bottle

6. Braden ( comes out closer to ban-nin)

7. mmmm...good

8. my milk (comes out like my mell)

9. Daddy

10. bubbles

11. na-na (no)- and shakes her head

That's about all I can think of at this point, I know there's more, but just can't think of them

Favorite activites:

1. Wrestling with her brother

2. Making messes in the pantry and cabinets

3. Walking up and down the stairs

4. Pretty much anything that Braden's doing she wants to be doing

5. Going outside and walking up and down the driveway

6. Doing a back flip off the couch with mom's help ( need to sign her up for gymnastics :))

7. going for car rides, as long as their short

General goofy things she does:

1. Loves to carry around Braden's underwear and loves to wear it on her head (clean underwear)

2. Pretending she's jumping off the ottoman, even though she's just falling

3. Spinning around in circles while trying to dance

It seems like she does something new almost every day..she's a lot more talkative than Braden ever was..she loves her baby dolls, jewelry, and really anything girly..she is definitely a GIRL!

School pictures

We got Braden's school pictures last week, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did. I wasn't sure what he was going to do since I couldn't be there to jump around to make him smile. Obviously the photgraphers must have known what they were doing. :)

1st Field Trip!

Braden's pre-school class took a field trip to a local pumpkin farm on Tuesday. He was very excited to ride a true school bus for the 1st time as well as pick out a pumpkin. I was really surprised at all the activities they had planned for the kids. 1st we got to go on a hay ride. Then all the kids got to pick out 1 pumpkin, 1 gourd, and 1 corn. Then we headed back on the hayride to where the barn was. The kids watched a presentation about gourds and pumpkins and got to pet a chicken. After that it was free play time. They had ponies, goats, and chickens for the kids to look at, a giant stack of hay, hay mazes, a hay tent to jump in, and wooden train which seemed to always be packed with kids.

Today at preschool they have their Halloween party and all the kids come dressed up. Afterwards they have a Halloween parade where parents can come and take pictures. :) I am just so glad I signed Braden up for Friendship Station! What fun!

I have more pictures, but this is just taking way too long...

Fall fun?? Or maybe not...

The past 2 weekends we've been doing a few 'fall' activities that we thought would be fun for the kids..for the most part we were right..However we could not have predicted Braden getting his 2nd cold since September ( thanks preschool!) last saturday and Aubrey coming down with symptoms on Wednesday....So last weekend Braden jumped in the leaves with a drippy nose and was not all that cooperative with pictures and this weekend poor Aubrey was so stuffed up with snot that she woke up VERY prematurely from her naps because she couldn't breathe..We had planned on going to the pumpkin patch since today was literally the ONLY day we could do it. Between Jason traveling and end of the year mowing, he hasn't been home that often and there is NO WAY I would attempt a task such as picking out pumpkins by myself. So, Aubrey, not all that excited, just seemed like she was in a daze the entire time. Braden liked it, but didn't like that we wouldn't let him go in all those bouncy houses they had..

I know this paragraph is 1 giant run-on sentence, but at this point I don't really care about grammer..sorry :)

JUMP!

I'm not sure, but I think we forgot something....

Video

Ok, Jason had to make it a windows media file, so the quality isn't as good..but you get the idea

It's about time!

Aubrey is FINALLY walking!! We thought she was going to be our early walker, but instead she's even later than Braden was..oh well..
Yesterday she was obsessed with walking all around the house all day with her shoes on and holding onto mom's hand. Today, while I was grocery shopping (of course), Jason tells me that he has gotten her to start walking. Luckily he took some video and she also took some steps once I got home.
I have no idea how to download the video onto our computer, so hopefully Jason can figure it out later. For now, a few pictures..Enjoy!

So many names, so many faces..

Aubrey is a hilarious child..many may not realize it since she is more quiet and shy around those she doesn't know, but trust me, she makes us laugh..
Aubrey's names include silly nicknames, like aub-ba-daubs, daubie-doo, roo..etc..then there are things like silly girl and goofball..but the one's that are maybe not so common with a little girl are things like 'the destroyer' and 'the mess-maker'..
Aubrey destroys anything within her path. You might think I would have been used to this having a boy first...wrong. Braden did some of this, but she is to the extreme. Anything that she shouldn't be touching like electrical cords or toilet water, she does. Anything she shouldn't be eatting, like paperclips or styrofoam, goes right into her mouth. You really can't takeyour eyes off of her, she is our stinker of the family.
Here are some examples of her true destroyer/mess-making nature..

Oh the faces that come from her..I wish I always had my camera on me and could catch them all... her personality truely shines through those facial expressions.

   

                         

Our little roo..

Potty Training, Preschool, & Pictures

Thanks to some encouragement ( Jenny and Brenda :)),I have finally given in and started a blog..I figure it's a good way for a lot of people to stay up to date with all of things that are going on in our lives.

First, if you don't know..Braden is fully potty trained! I used this 3 day method that one of my neighbors emailed to me and it totally works! Just in time for preschool...
Braden started preschool last week and LOVES it!!! We went for the orientation to meet his teacher and see which classroom he was in ( they have 3 classrooms) before the school week started. Of course with the start of school the start of the germs quickly followed..Braden started showing the cold symptoms on Saturday and as my neighbor says , Aubrey and I were innocent bystanders, and have also caught his cold.. So, he had to miss school on Tuesday. Oh well..
I tried to take some pictures during orientation as well as during his 1st day, neither of which he felt like posing and smiling, but I did the best I could.

I was also happy to receive the kids 1 and 3 year pictures today. For those that ordered, you will be receiving them in the mail soon!

I hope to keep up with this blog,so check back occasionally to see what we've been up to!