Since we open family presents at our house on Christmas Eve, you're cordially invited to share the morning with us (you can use the "HD" button and fullscreen modes to feel like you're really here):

Christmas Eve, 2009 from Trey Kazee on Vimeo.

the best neighbors!

we have so much fun living on our street and building relationships with our neighbors. some of our favorite people on the street live right next door; cody and randi are such great neighbors, and aubren loves them! they have a christmas countdown on their front porch, and aubren is in charge of changing the numbers. every morning she asks to go change the number - the other day there were some presents left next to the calendar. aubren was really excited to open them and loved the letter she received from rudolph! thanks cody and randi for being such wonderful neighbors and for making our girls feel special!!

this is the note she found:

dear aubren,
i was on my way back to the north pole to get ready for christmas next week and wanted to drop off an early present. i heard you've been a good girl and a great big sister! thank you for visiting santa and he got your letter! i hope you have a merry christmas! i'll be back to your house next week!

love, rudolph

A Christmas Program!

Aubren and her friend Ellie (in the green dress and cream sweater) sang in their first-ever school Christmas program last night, serenading us with renditions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Silent Night. Aubren was especially proud to wear her new Christmas dress - thanks, Papa and JJ!

santa's village

we visited santa's village this week. aubren was so excited to go through all the houses especially santa's house. she was also excited to introduce milia to him! she made sure to tell him that she wanted a toothbrush, a bath robe, and a new toy for christmas. milia was all smiles!

she enjoyed having a rudolph nose and getting reindeer food to set out on christmas eve. side note - my parents have reindeer in their front yard who move their heads up and down. aubren loves to gather leaves and sticks to feed them everytime we are there. she is so cute because she doesn't realize that they are plugged in so while she is feeding them my dad will go out and turn them on and she gets so excited that they are eating their food!

whispering to the wish fairy.

decorating the tree!

(the last half is just aubren dancing and playing)

"dreams come true"

Aubren's Ballet Recital, Nov 2009 from Trey Kazee on Vimeo.

truly thankful!

don't you wish you had a scooter, too?

downtown from Trey Kazee on Vimeo.

aubren + writing her name = proud parents

aubren is really interested in reading and writing right now. she loves to practice writing her letters and we are extremely excited about the progress she is making!


it's a proud moment in any parent's life: the first time your child writes their name without any assistance (she cut the paper by herself, too).

halloween!

milia the zebra

aubren the cowgirl fairy

after the girl's annual costume party we went trick or treating with our neighbors. aubren and her friend, avery, had so much fun together. they would go up to the doors by themselves, say trick or treat loudly and then run back and show us what kind of candy they got.

aubs and ave

sorting out her candy!

it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch!

tysen, logan, milia, ian, audrey, reagan, kenzie, zach, aubren

howdy neigbor, welcome to Silver Dollar City!

silver dollar city is a 1800's theme park i have been to many times in branson, missouri. i have very fond memories of visiting it as a child, and trey proposed to me in the park. this visit was especially exciting because i got to experience it with my girls for the first time. i was able to relive all of my memories through my children and it was a blast!


we pumped aubren up weeks prior to the visit and made her a countdown calendar. we told her all the things she would get to do. it was so fun to see her get excited and talk about it before she had even experienced it.

the first day we went it was rainy and cool. we wore raincoats all day. even milia wore a makeshift one! by the end of the day we were pretty much the only people at the park due to the weather. aubren enjoyed making candles, dolls, and finding special treats in the candy store.


i was a little worried about aubren on some of the rides, particularly fire in the hole. it has men known as "baldknobbers," wearing masks. i told trey i didn't think she was ready for it but he decided to take her, and of course she loved it. they also had a bunch of kid's rides that aubren can't stop talking about. i am so proud of our little adventurous one!

the second day at the park everyone stayed for the evening play. since it wouldn't end until after the girls bedtime we decided not to stay and instead went to dinner at granny's restaurant. we love vacationing with family but really do enjoy the time we get to spend with just the four of us.

on our last day we went to big cedar lodge and let aubren go horse back riding. the cost of the
ride included a cowgirl hat and a gun and holster set. she ran around pretending to shoot baldknobbers.

shooting baldknobbers

katie kate and milia

aubren and analiese exploring by the lake

a photograph from earlier today

aubs!

aubren's new ride!

we bought a scooter today and both trey and aubren are in love with it. they went together and bought helmets and i think aubren looks absolutely adorable wearing hers. every time trey would pull up to the house after a drive around the block she would ask to go around again, all the while screaming "wheeee" and "aahhh"!

swine flu

i was diagnosed with swine flu last thursday and have been in quarantine ever since. we are trying really hard not to expose the girls so i usually only come out to nurse milia. trey has been able to stay home and has been wonderful about taking care of all of us. he wakes up with the girls, puts them to bed, he makes all the meals (i get all my meals in bed), and he has kept the house clean. needless to say he is exhausted! thankfully, i feel much better and will be ready to resume my daily duties tomorrow when he goes back to work. however, i am contagious for 7 days so i still have to wear this silly mask!

3 years and 3 months

we love, love, love our sweet little girls! and here are a few reasons why...


aubren elise: aka aubs, aubie, big sister
she loves, and is obsessed with, her little sister
she loves reading, doing puzzles, and making us dinner from her kitchen set
she is theatrical and loves to sing and dance
she loves her comfy blanket and has to have it when she sleeps
her favorite stuffed/toy animals are hippo (blue hippopotamus), cotton candy (little pink poodle), sparkle chain (shiny pink pony), rexy (toy T-Rex)
she usually ends up in a "leotart" every day
she is enjoying her gymnastics and ballet classes
my favorite sayings: "han-ga-ber", "lellow", "upside over", "it's impossible", "you have to do what i say", "my eyes won't close", and "i can't fall asleep unless you are snuggling with me"


milia mae: aka little bit
she loves her big sister
she tolerates aubs and smiles even when aubs is playing a little too hard
she soothes herself to sleep by smacking her upper lip or sucking her fist
she loves her swing, bouncer, and playmat
she is ticklish and has started laughing (mostly for trey)
she is very mild tempered and only cries when she is hungry, tired, or needs a diaper change
she is content to be put in her bed awake for naps and bedtime
she is an incredible sleeper - started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks
she still seems so tiny and is too small to wears aub's baby clothes
she has dimples above her upper lip
her left ear has a little indention on the earlobe

my lovable lamb!

aubren went to her first day of preschool last week. she is a lovable lamb this year and is excited about not taking naps and instead having spanish class. she was so excited the night before when we packed her new tinkerbell backpack and laid out her choice of clothes. she was so sweet to milia before she left for school. she kept hugging her and telling her, "i'll see you after school milia." you could tell she was proud to be a big girl! i of course enjoyed the day and some quiet one on one with little milia!

more saturday morning fun

Ariel meets Cinderella

aubren got to meet cinderella at her friend avery's birthday party. she was SUPER excited, and talks constantly of going to disney world someday to meet the rest of the princesses.

"sunder" sleepovers

we had very loud thunderstorm the other night, and i think it was the first time a storm has ever woken up aubren - the poor little thing woke up crying and shaking. after we laid with her for a few minutes, trey suggested that we would have more room in our bed. it was the first time for her to sleep with us and i think she enjoyed it; i am sure this is the beginning of many more storm sleepovers. i told her that when i was little, i used to sleep with jj and papa (my parents) during thunderstorms - and that even when i was old enough to not be scared i would still pretend so i could snuggle with them. it was fun to reminisce with aubs and to experience the same thing with her. she kept saying "i just like rain and a little bit of 'sunder', but not too much 'sunder'!"

my happy girl!

trey got up early with milia this morning while i slept in! they surprised me by doing a little photo shoot - i was really excited that he captured her sweet smile!

saturday morning surprise

aubs has just informed me that she and daddy will be surprising me with breakfast in bed this morning!

barbie.com

happy two months milia mae!

i can't believe milia is two months already. she is such a sweet and calm little girl! of course, for the first few weeks i wasn't too sure. she always seemed to be fussy when she was awake but now she only cries when she wants to eat, sleep, or needs a diaper change.

she loves and tolerates her big sister very well. i have tried to balance how much to tell aubs to back away or to be quiet. i figure though, if she is not crying then she is not irritated with the yelling in her ear, hair in her eyes or fingers in her hands! unfortunately, with all the touching comes germs. by the time milia was 5 weeks she was on her 2nd cold. i am so happy that aubren loves her sister but at times i must admit that it is overwhelming! milia also loves her daddy. she is very social with him, smiling and cooing at him more than anyone else.

she loves her swing (a great garage sale find), watching tv and being held outward. she is very flexible with our schedule and sleeps well in her carseat.

milia has been steadily gaining weight but is still much smaller than aubren at this point. aubs has always been in the 95% but milia is in the 50%. she still just seems so tiny! she won't take a bottle (although we are going to try again) or a pacifier but she loves to suck her hand and her lips.

she is a great sleeper, sleeping 7 hours at night. we tried using a sound machine but that actually would wake her up. she sleeps right through aubren running around and talking loud in the mornings. i have learned that aubren does not have a volume button! she also goes to sleep well when we put her down awake.

side note: aubren is such a great big sister. she is still going through a little bit of an emotional transition though. all at once she got a baby sister, got rid of her pacifier, and stopped taking naps. so, some days that leads to a very early bedtime!

bigs and littles

big sisters posing with the little sisters!
sydney/ava, anna & ellie/mary, aubs/milia

bumbo!

hide & seek

aubren loves to play hide and seek. it's really sweet because most of the time she makes sure to tell us where she will be hiding. today though, the game took a bad turn! we were in my parent's bathroom and she decided to run into their closet to hide from me. i was trying to get out the door to drive home and i was getting frustrated that she wasn't coming. i was calling to her and letting her know that she would not get her lollipop if she didn't come right away. when she did not obey i went to go get her only to hear her crying and calling for me. i ran to the closet and found her sitting on the floor in the dark, crying. it was pitch black and there are no handles from the inside so she was stuck and scared. i felt so bad for not hearing her sooner that she got to eat her special lollipop as soon as we got in the car!

two of her favorite hiding places...

so you think you can dance

aubren's favorite show right now is, "so you think you can dance". so today trey took photos of her trying out some of the new moves she has learned from the show.

my little sister is so cute!

i helped daddy take some pictures of milia yesterday. she is so cute! she doesn't like me to hold her yet, though.