Head Start

    So we have wrapped presents under the tree and Aubrey is getting a head start on them. If we aren't paying attention, she'll go for a present and start tearing or grabbing at it. 

    To entertain her, we give her paper and things to tear and ball up. She now thinks that any paper on the floor is hers and she wants it :)

    But it is so funny when we wrapped our presents. I had to wrap the presents I got on the bed while she played on the floor. She would have jumped at the scissors and paper!

    We are so excited for our first Christmas together! We're going to put the presents we got each other under the tree on Christmas Eve and we are doing to do some fun things for food. 

    Christmas Eve will be snacks and appetizers, Christmas morning will be a yummy breakfast and Christmas dinner will be ham and other dinner-type things. 

    We've been going through most of our Christmas movies, either our own or on YouTube. We are a big fan of YouTube these days because they have movies we don't. Every now and then we find a movie on Netflix, but that doesn't happen all that often. 

    But here is a little Christmas happiness! Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa Claus!

    We went to see Santa Claus last night! And it was so funny!

    It's a classic Christmas photo to see babies sitting in Santa's lap crying. I have a few pictures like that and they are pretty funny. 

    A friend suggested the Santa inside Menchies at The Avenue on Upper Roswell. She said he was just inside the door and we could take our own pictures (rather than waiting in a huge line to see Santa at the mall and having to pay for a photo). 

    I anticipated Aubrey staring at Santa for a few seconds before crying. I know my daughter pretty well!

    This is how the trip went:

She looked at Santa, suspiciously...

Still hadn't decided how she felt about Santa yet...

She decided she felt like crying :)

    There was more looking back at Santa and crying, but these 3 photos capture the experience :)

She tolerated Santa when I held her next to him

    Of course, after we left Santa she was all cute in her stroller! Overall, I thought it was a great trip! I owe a huge Thank You to the friend who suggested this Santa to me! 

    Santa gave Aubrey a little candy cane. Within the hour she had broken it and somehow got through the plastic to suck on the actual candy. I guess she's ok with peppermint because she would have kept sucking on the candy if I hadn't taken it from her. 

Syncing

    Well, I finally did it. I put it off for a long time because I am selfish and don't want to change. 

    I finally synced up my iPod with the iTunes on our computer. 

    Probably not what everyone was thinking, I know :) My iPod is special to me! I have all my songs and playlists and music videos. Some of them didn't exactly belong to me (I might have taken some songs from friend's iTunes). 

    When our hard drive crashed, we lost a lot of our songs and our movies. We had digital copies of Batman and Inception and X-Men that have all been lost. Don't worry though, my Office Season 1 and Big Bang Theory episodes survived!

    Now I know though that whenever we get a digital copy of movies and put them on our iTunes, I'll immediately put them on my iPod. 

    Of course, now that I am syncing my iPod, I realize I don't really have a lot of stuff on it. I have my playlist for when I go walking and another playlists for when I'm not in the happiest moods. 

    I should probably make more playlists and I need to somehow find more songs. I may nor may not download songs from youtube and download them to our computer. It helps me find songs I had once owned and either lost the CD or lost the music when switching computers and having hard drives crash. 

P.S. If anyone has any digital copies of movies they don't use or want, I'd be more than happy to use the codes!!

Getting ready for Christmas!

    Right after Thanksgiving, Jared and I decorated our apartment with our Christmas things! We have the nutcrackers up and the tree and ornaments hanging on them. We have a little nativity set and just other little things around. 

    The best part though is taking our family Christmas photo! Last year, I was just pregnant with Aubrey, but now she is out and as cute as ever!

    So here is our family Christmas photo:

 I just love her straight face!

We gave her a candy cane to chew on so she would be good during our pictures :)

    She's been really good, considering there is a tree in our living room that she can easily pull over on top of herself! She played with the tree a few times, but it's a plastic tree, so the branches hurt her fingers and she's left it alone. But, the plastic didn't deter her away from the ornaments and candy cane!

(Does everyone else notice the ornament with Jesus looking down on her? Tee hee!)

    Whenever Aubrey is fussing, I bust out singing all the Christmas songs I can think of (or that I know most of the words to). Jared doesn't find my alterations to the songs very funny when I forget the words. But he can sing them his way, and I'll sing them mine!

It's a little early, but Merry Christmas!!!

She Used To Be So Little!

    I find myself thinking "she used to be so little" when Aubrey does the funniest, cutest, most terrifying things. She's growing up and I just can't believe it!

    She will be 8-months-old on Dec 15 and I am in denial she will be 8 months. I look back at pictures of when she was just a couple days old, then a couple weeks, then a couple months. Back when she could fit on the couch and lay there with me, or she would play on her back with her toys, or sit peacefully in her bouncy/vibrating chair.

    Now, she is rolling all over, smiles with her bottom two teeth, crawls all over the place, pulling herself up on anything. She won't sit still and she loves making loud noises. She says the sound "da" a lot, which makes Jared happy because she'll most likely say "dada" first in reference to him. Which is fine, I suppose. Jared and I have a deal that if she says "da-da" first, recognizing it's him, her first sentence will be "Mama is awesome!"

    We had to get a play pen for her. She started climbing up on her Bumbo seat and on the couch and on our coffee table legs, and practically anything. For the first few days, she obviously fell...a lot. Poor Aubrey was getting bumps and bruises and scratches from her falling. But we found her a nice cage and she's been happy and getting better about keeping her balance. Every now and then she'll get super excited and fall, but we put some soft blankets and she has some padding for when she falls. We plan to hang a sign above the play pen saying "Don't feed the monkey," or "Beware of biting!"

    Oh, paper is not allowed on the floor anymore. She'll drool on, tear and eat paper. We have a few magazines and Sunday paper ads that prove she is destructive!

    Jared and I (mostly I) went through her dresser and closet today to pack away clothes Aubrey has outgrown. It made me so sad looking at all the outfits she can no longer wear! She is out of 3 months (obviously) but can still fit in 3-6 months, depending on the brand and the type of outfit. 

    Anyhow, it was so sad putting away some of her outfits! We remembered how cute she was wearing them, or some of them were too summery and wouldn't work well in the winter. She had a few sleeveless, loose dresses she couldn't wear until it was starting to get cold anyhow. 

    But now, it's time for cute pants and socks and jackets and long sleeve onesies and footy pajamas!

    I'm going to try super hard to keep actively blogging! I realized the other day it had been a month since my last blog post. I totally missed Thanksgiving. Sorry everyone!

Can't Look Away For A Second

    Sunday evening, Aubrey decided she was tired of scooting and rocking back on her hands and knees. The past couples weeks she would move one arm and a knee and then fall on her tummy. I was fine with that! 

    Now, she is up and crawling and exploring everything. Just this morning, I put her on the floor so we could get ready for church. By the time I was done, she crawled up and down the hallway a few feet, crawled into the closet and laid on our clothes for a few minutes, then she came and crawled in to the bathroom with me while I did my hair. She's a nut!

    When we're in our living room, she'll go all over the floor, finding new things. She'll come around the "coffee table" or whatever it is and play with the wires for our computer and internet. Or she'll go to the hard floor by the door where we keep our shoes. 

    When I'm in the kitchen I put her in the dining room and she comes into the kitchen to look at everything. 

    At church, she liked crawling to people's shoes and hitting/grabbing them. 

    Now we're thinking we need to invest in some baby fence things or a play pen to keep her in one spot :)

    For Halloween we carved some pumpkins. Of course she kept going for the plastic bags and the sharp carving knives. 

    We love that she is up and moving around! She's happier because she can go exploring and she is just so adorable! She'll go a few feet one way and then look back and smile at Jared and me. And we hear her happy noises when she gets to a toy she crawled to. 

    I love her so much! If I look away for a second, she'll be in another room! But she's just so cute that I can't ever look away longer than half a second :)

100th Post!

    This is my 100th post and I wanted to think of something totally awesome to say. 

    Turns out, I have nothing totally ground-breaking to say! How does that reflect on me?

    So much has happened since I first started this blog as a way to pass the time while I finished school through Independent Study and looked for a part-time job in Nashville, TN. Jared and I were in our first year of marriage and we were on our own for the first time since being sealed together for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple.

    Jared and I have celebrated two years of marriage and it's all been pretty good! 

    We have a cute little baby, who I talk about all the time! :) I love posting pictures about her and putting little updates on here! It's a fun way to document her growth! 

    For example, at 6 months, she is in the 90th percentile in height and 35th in weight. So pretty much, she's a tall skinny model baby :) She has her two bottom teeth in and will probably start working on her top two teeth in a few weeks (hopefully months)! While not exactly crawling yet, she is scooting ALL OVER the place! And she is VERY attracted to sharp corners, walls and table and chair legs. We've given her peas, carrots and green beans so far in baby food (other than rice cereal) and she's doing pretty well with those! Once we get through squash we'll start working on fruits, which I imagine won't be a problem. 

    Anyhow, enough of that. 

    I figure I should end my 100th post saying something that means a lot to me. Ever since being called as a Sunday School teacher for the 14-16 year olds, I've been opening up more about my testimony. I tell Jared bits of it every now and then, but I rarely get up in front of the congregation at church and share it (except for VERY few occasions). 

    But I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I know President Thomas S. Monson is the prophet and receives revelation daily from our Father in Heaven. I know Jesus Christ died for us and he was resurrected so that we all may live again in heaven. I know because Jared and I were sealed in the temple that we will be married forever. Because we were sealed, Aubrey will also be with us in heaven and we can be a family for always. I love this church and the person it has made me. I know reading the scriptures helps me learn more about this true gospel and everything that was written can apply to my life. I love my family so much and I am so happy I found Jared to spend my life with. I love Aubrey and the sweet baby she is. Every day, she teaches me something new and I love the Spirit she brings into this home. If anything, every day I learn a new lesson in patience as I figure out why she is crying :) There are so many aspects of this gospel and church that I love so much and just can't find the words to express it. While there are things I need to work on, I am willing to do so because I have faith I will gain a full testimony, whether in this life or the next. I am not perfect, but through Christ and his sacrifice and teachings, I know I will be someday. 

    And thus concludes my 100th post :)

    Thanks everyone for reading my silly posts!!! As long as someone is reading my blog, I will continue posting things!

Getting Ready For Halloween!

    Jared and I love this time of year. We had our first date right around this time and it's just so much fun to play!

    About a month ago I went and found all of our Halloween stuff and stashed them away in an easy place to find. 

    Last night we put our decorations up! And we already have some halloween candy :)

    October first is the day to decorate, just like how the day after Thanksgiving, it's time to bust out the Christmas stuff!

    Here is what we've done with our little decorations: 

 Put our little skeleton where you can see it right when you walk in the door.

We have this hanging up above our entertainment center, which you will see in a few pictures!

 Our cute little witch's brew bowl and top.

 The witch's brew bowl with candy in it!

 Our entertainment center! Starting from the left, we have a little pumpkin, a picture frame, a much bigger Witch's Brew bowl for the trick or treat candy, some pumpkin candle holders and some skeleton candle holders. The skeleton candle holders are cute because the guy is proposing to the girl on the right :)

 We have two more picture frames. That makes the pumpkin frame on top, a scarecrow and witch on the bottom.

And we have some dish towels in the kitchen :)

    To also celebrate and get ready for Halloween, Jared got his Mom's recipe for some applesauce cookies. I don't have a picture of them because my half (without raisins) are pretty much gone...:)

    Hope everyone has fun decorating and getting ready for Halloween!

Some News

    So it won't become official until the doctor says so, but I'm pretty sure Aubrey is teething. I've been going crazy the past little bit because Aubrey is not sleeping, she cries a bit more for no apparent reason and she hasn't really cared for nursing during the day. 

    But today, she finally calmed down while sucking on my thumb...HARD. It wasn't until she lifted her tongue that I felt her bottom gums. There was something sharp and I just thought she had something in her mouth. Once I got her calm and was singing to her, I checked her mouth for whatever it was that was sharp. 

    Upon a deep inspection, I found the sharp spot on her bottom gum where her teeth will start coming in! I played with her mouth for a little bit (she thought it was funny) and I've decided it's a tooth coming in. 

    Of course, being the new parent I am, I texted my Mom, texted my friend Rachel who has two older kids and a baby almost two weeks older than Aubrey, and looked on babycenter.com for more information. 

    Aubrey has the "symptoms" of teething (drooling more, chewing on EVERYTHING, irritability, not sleeping, and not caring much for nursing) and I might be fooling myself, but I think I can figure out where the tooth is coming in. 

    We have teething rings, beanie babies, cold wet rags (idea stolen from Rachel) and links for Aubrey to chew on. I gave her a tiny bit of pain reliever and I rubbed it on her gums. 

    Tonight I may play with her tiny toothbrush and see if that will help her a little bit. 

    We have a doctor's appointment in a couple weeks and hopefully by then Aubrey will be a little better. 

    I feel a little foolish for not noticing earlier. Jared and I thought she was just being cranky and high-maintenance. She IS high maintenance and demands attention, but now that I'm thinking she's teething, I kinda have idea how to help her!

    We'll wait for the final confirmation from the doctor in a couple weeks, but I'm pretty sure Aubrey is teething. Hooray!

Aubrey's 4 Month Pictures

    We had some pictures taken of Aubrey when she was 4-months-old. We finally got the finished cd of them, so here are my favorites! They are a little late, but still so adorable!

Successful Apple Pie

    I've attempted to make apple pie a few times from scratch because I never wanted to buy a crust at the store. The pies I made over the past two years never turned out very well. Jared was nice and would eat parts of it, but it was near torture for him!

    During our grocery trip this past week, Jared saw a big bag of apples, so we got it to put in his lunches and for me to eat during the day. 

    Because of all the apples, I got the idea to try and make apple pie again! The only dilemma was I didn't have much flour to make a crust...

    But, don't worry! When we made homemade chicken pot pie, we learned we could use Bisquick for the crust if we mixed it in with the other stuff. It worked pretty great!

    I looked up a pie crust recipe online that would use Bisquick. We had everything for that recipe, so it was pretty easy making it. Jared helped core and peel the apples (he did most of it) so it was a great team effort!

Jared and his apples

My Bisquick and bottom pie crust

    After I got the bottom crust done, I started working on the top crust. Of course, every time I bake and try something different, I get upset because I don't do it the correct way. Poor Jared has to put up with me getting myself frustrated and threatening to give up. 

    Good news though! I kept on with the recipe I was pretty much committed to. At least it smelled good with the apples and cinnamon! :) The top crust wasn't perfect, but I didn't really care on perfect at that point. I just wanted the pie to turn out OK. 

    I put it in the oven and just hoped for the best. 

    I think it turned out pretty well, don't you!?

    We were so happy it turned out so well! The crust is delicious, the filling was yummy. The edges wren't burned and the pieces come out of the pan pretty easily!

Enjoying my slice of pie

This was last night...this morning the pie is half gone already

    So the pie was a success! I feel confident making it again so maybe I'll make it as a contribution to my family's Thanksgiving this year! Or I might attempt to make Jared's Grandma Call's apple crisp. That might be a little too risky though...

    And just for fun, here is a super cute picture of Aubrey :)

Gotta love the pink!!!

Love and Hate Nap Time

    I never thought I would say this, but I have a love-hate relationship with Aubrey's naps. I love them so much when she's cranky and really needs one. But while she's napping, I can't do the things I would like. 

    Usually she is good during the day. Today I got to make cupcakes while she played on the floor and rolled around. I make sure to move everything harmful in the room and I put padding around our little table's legs (she tends to roll into the table legs) so she could go all over. 

    But I didn't plan the cupcake making too well. I heated the oven up and got them all in their cupcake paper things. Then Aubrey showed her signs of getting tired and needing a nap. The beeping of the oven when the cupcakes were done were not what Aubrey wanted. 

    Luckily, it didn't last too long. The cupcakes are all baked now and are sitting on the stove. Aubrey is happily asleep in her crib, all sprawled out, the way she likes it. Sadly though, my cupcakes are missing something. 

    My cupcakes aren't frosted yet! Using a spoon to mix the frosting takes too long and makes my poor, weak, un-muscled arms ache. But I can't use my electric mixer to make the frosting because Aubrey is asleep and that sudden burst of noise will wake her up. 

    While she also naps I have to turn the volume down on Netflix. I can still watch shows and relax, but I have to be really close. 

    Now, I don't keep the apartment totally silent. I walk around and I do things like clean and put things away. I watch my shows and get food from the kitchen. But I have to be careful when I do things that require sudden bursts of noise. 

    I love Aubrey's nap time when I'm able to fully relax and do things I need to, but I hate how limited I am in what I can do. I want to make the frosting for my cupcakes! I want to organize her clothes in her dresser and closet!

    Oh well. I should be thankful that Aubrey takes good naps. She needs them as much as I need a little break. There is a limit to how many times I am willing to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar, "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly," and sing songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and "Old McDonald Had A Farm."

    Here is a cute picture though of Aubrey sleeping. 

She likes to sleep in the middle of the crib, with the blankets kicked or pushed all over the place. One hand is by her face, ready to pull her pacifier out and the other is hidden under the blanket. I love her so much!

4 Months!

    Sometimes, I can't believe I'm a Mom. Then I hear Aubrey crying and I think, "Oh...I guess I should take care of the baby in the other room!"

    Aubrey is already 4 months! I still remember when we first brought her home and how tiny she was :) I was going through what pictures we have left after our hard drive dying and she was so itty bitty. 

    She was born 7lbs 5 oz and about 19 inches. Now she is a whopping 13 lbs 12 oz and 24 inches (23 and 3/4, but I round up). She now fits in to 3 month size outfits and the 3-6 range. 

    It was so sad putting away her newborn outfits and it was just as sad packing up the 0-3! But she has some pretty cute outfits. Some of them are still a little too big, but it just gives us something to look forward to!

    This weekend we are going down to see my parents (Nana and Papa to Aubrey) and we're going to get some pictures taken of her. I'll post a good one to show you how adorable she is!

    Updates on her crazy growth: 

• She can roll over both ways
• If we hold on to her hands, she'll pull herself up
• She can sit for a few seconds in her boppy pillow before getting distracted
• She can grab both of her feet and almost pull them to her mouth
• She puts EVERYTHING she can into her mouth
• She loves chewing on my knuckles. She's got some chompers in there, but no teething yet
• Her eyes are going more towards Jared's color with is greenish
• Her hair is also going more towards Jared's and is red
• She loves to make noises, even if they are just yells to make her presence known
• On good Sundays, she can make it through the first hour without making us take her out in the hallway...rarely happens
• We've gotten her to laugh, but she mostly just makes happy little yells, which I will also accept as laughter until we get her to laugh more. 
• She sleeps better on her tummy-I hear that's a no-no, but if she sleeps better, I'm going to keep doing it. She lifts her head super well so I think we'll be OK

    We're going to try rice cereal a few times this next month to see how she likes it. The first tiny bit was a relative success. It was more of an experiment. The next time will be the real first try and I'll post pictures of that!

    She's such a great baby, even though she can be such a terror sometimes! Her happy moments make it all worth it though. 

Recap of the Last 2 Years!

    So Monday, July 23 is Jared and my 2-year anniversary! We've had so much fun the past two years and it's only getting better :)

    I remember advice I got when we were engaged and we totally proved it wrong, at least in my mind we have. People would say the first year is the honeymoon year where things are just fun as you learn about your partner. The second year is where the hard stuff comes in, because that's usually when the stress of jobs and bills and all that pile up. 

    But I've think we've done pretty well! We survived being "homeless" the first few months of marriage while looking for internships. It was so nice having family that would let us stay with them :) After finally getting internships in Chicago, we stayed there for a few months until Jared got his first job in Nashville, TN!

    Even though we'd been married about 5 months by the time we got to Nashville, it felt like we were newlyweds again and starting all over. It was a great year in Nashville. We made some great friends and so many great memories. 

    We survived another move to Atlanta while I was 5 months pregnant, which was pretty amazing. Since being here, we've already made some life-long friends and we've had a beautiful baby! 

    Sure, we get stressed with work and trying to figure out how to raise our baby and common, every day irritants, but we know we love each other and we can work things out. 

    I've put a few pictures up, documenting our great marriage! I can't wait to see how it gets better!

Wedding day! First day of our married adventure! 

 Being silly in our hotel on our honeymoon in Mexico.

On a boat beginning our Outdoor Adventure in Mexico!

On one of our many road trips traveling or moving :)

A walk in Chicago next to the Chicago River!

In front of that bean thing in Chicago.

Spent some time in Evans, GA with my family while trying to get internships in Atlanta. 

Went to Jared's grandparents in Ohio for our first Thanksgiving together!

Our first Christmas together! Well, this is us using our present a few days later. We went downtown Chicago to see Wicked! This is just us getting on the train.

In Nashville, TN in front of the bridge on the Natchez Trace.

 Our first anniversary in Nashville, TN! We decided to take some pictures at the temple :)

In Marietta, GA next to the Chattahoochee River.

Hooray being pregnant! That was an adventure all on its own.

What a cute baby girl! So happy we had her.

Daddy and Aubrey hanging out, loving each other.

Went to our first BYU Rugby game! Actually, it was our first Rugby game and it was AWESOME!!!

 What a fun little family!

    We've had such a great two years together! We'll see what this next year will bring :)

    Thank you everyone for your love and support! Our friends have been amazing and our family has been wonderful!