oh, and i gotfor to tell you: mommy and daddy is silly

my mommy is the best mommy ever

kit has a cough and a tummy ache

dress up with daddy

this is what happens when i go out and leave trey and aubs at home!

the chef and his ballerina assistant

supergirl

beautiful bride

aubs loves peanuts!

a while back we decided to not let aubren have peanuts until she was around three years old. there is not a peanut allergy in our immediate family, but my brother in law has a severe one, her cousins have other food allergies, and aubs has at least one little friend with them as well. so, we decided to wait. she is always so understanding when we tell her she can't have something if it has nuts. she just says "okay," and moves on to the next thing.

well, we were eating at Rockfish the other day and had a bucket of peanuts at our table. we decided to let her try one - she was so excited to eat it. as it turns out, she LOVES peanuts! we told her not to eat any more (wanting to watch her to make sure she didn't have a reaction) but continued to let her crack them for us. after a bit, trey looked over at her and she had turned her face away from us. he realized she had a peanut in her mouth, but didn't want to get caught chewing it up. i guess she was just savoring the taste! she flashed a shy grin when he asked what was in her mouth, then smiled when he told her she could eat it. later that night we gave her some peanut m&m's - she now has a new favorite candy!

"i'm not beautiful"

i was dressing aubren for bed the other night and her shirt got tucked into her pants. it looked so cute, because her pants were high waisted and her "little" belly popped out. i told her that it looked really funny and she should go tell daddy that she looked like urkle from "family matters." she told me "no," so between laughs, i called trey to come and look at her. when he got into the room she started crying from embarrassment.

i felt horrible because i had hurt her feelings. as trey was calming her down, telling her how beautiful she was, she responded while crying; "no, daddy, i'm not beautiful. my shirt was in my pants." my heart sank and the experience reminded me again just how much aubren looks up to us. she listens carefully to the words we say and how we say them, and she sometimes misinterprets their meaning.

needless to say, i won't be telling her how funny she looks anytime soon!!

christmas 2008

aubren anticipates opening her presents!

before we left to spend time with family on christmas eve, we celebrated christmas at home. aubren loved her gifts, especially her snow white dress and her "little people" airplane. she immediately started dancing when she put the dress on and, of course, had to watch her favorite episode of "dancing with the stars" so she could break in the new gown! one of my favorite gifts was my citrus juicer from trey. it makes really yummy juice!

we spent the day with trey's family and, like always, aubs had a blast with all her cousins - until ian unintentionally scared her with his soldier mask and zach got her with a light saber (we need to toughen her up)! we went over to my parents that night and and celebrated the same way we have for as long as i can remember: we eat a smorgasbord of snacks! my sister and i also started a new tradition this year; actually, it isn't so new, since my grandma did it every year we were growing up. when we would arrive at her house for the holidays, she had a table set up of homemade goodies like carmel popcorn, chex mix, yogurt pretzels, and peanut brittle. amy had all the recipes, so we decided to pick up where she left off. my dad brought out the table that grandma always used for the treats and we set everything up. it brought back some sweet memories - and to keep the tradition going, my sis bought me a popcorn maker, since i had no idea how to pop corn the old fashioned way!

christmas morning was fun! santa jingled his bells and the girls heard him yelling ho, ho, ho and the reindeer on the roof. of course, aubs slept right through it and trey had to wake her up. she was thrilled to see her angel cake doll in her stocking!

aubren's favorite gift: her very own laptop

we then went back over to celebrate with trey's family. aubren loved her gifts - especially the one aunt kris found for her: a supergirl costume.

the day was wonderful, but then night fell, and everything went downhill from there! at about 10:30pm trey heard aubren making coughing /gagging noises upstairs. when he reached her he realized that she had thrown up all over herself. we threw her in the bath; unfortunately, it was the first of many. we were up every hour with her. it is the saddest thing to watch your child in that state, especially when everything has come up and you have to hold them while they just sit there and dry heave. she was a trooper, like always, though. the next few days we just snuggled on the couch with a bowl never out of site.

the worst part was that she could not eat, and a few days prior to her getting sick she had stopped eating and drinking much. so she got slightly dehydrated and we had to force her to drink. on saturday we made pizza and she begged and begged for it. when we tried to explain why she couldn't have any she threw the biggest tantrum we have ever seen. i didn't realize that my child had such powerful lungs! she was screaming louder than i can scream. she finally calmed down and fell asleep in my arms from exhaustion!

one of aubren's highlights in the midst of the stomach flu

"we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year"

i meant to send this out on christmas, so please accept this late wish:




aubs had so much fun recording this song with trey and lindsay. it was her first time recording in the studio. she thought she was pretty cool with the headphones and mic. she also followed instruction very well. trey would tell her to sing faster and she would pick up the speed immediately. every time she hears the song she gets a shy grin on her face and giggles.









behind the scenes footage:

santa's village

we went to santa's village again this year. aubren was very excited about seeing santa and mrs. claus! she loved the lights and she was genuinely excited to sit on santa's lap. she told him what she wanted, an angel cake doll (the only thing she has been asking about for months). however, she was confused as to why he did not say ho, ho, ho during their conversation.