Aubrey's birthday

This weekend we celebrated Aubrey's 2nd birthday. I can't believe she's 2 already! Between Aaron going to school, job loss, new jobs, and me babysitting for income it seems like the last two years have just flown by. Wow...

Happy Birthday little girl. Hopefully the years to come will be even more fun. Just please don't grow up too fast. :)

Fun Tidbits about Aubrey:
-She can use sign language to sign 20+ words: please, thank you, sorry, milk, juice, drink, cheese, cereal, dog, cat, bird, fish, bear, blanket, done, more, eat, sleep/tired, swing, car, ball, and shoes. This is especially helpful when I'm trying to decipher between bear and blankie, which come out "bah."
-She calls monkeys (especially Curious George) "ooh, ooh, hah, hah," which makes me think of Finding Nemo, "Shark bait, ooh, hah, hah!"
-She LOVES shoes and tries to wear everyone else's shoes all the time, but she is very picky about which of her own shoes she'll wear, more specifically only her boots.

(so sad, she doesn't fit these anymore.)

-She is the only female toddler I know of that can recognize, name, AND requests Ironman, Spiderman, Super Mario, and Beyblade. (I blame that on her brothers.)
-She LOVES toothpaste. I'm talking about the addicted eats-it-from-the-tube-have-to-keep-it-hidden kind of love. Oh, and it doesn't matter whose toothbrush it is she will use it and leave it somewhere in the house. It makes for "great" bedtime treasure hunts every night.

(yes, that's toothpaste on her face.)

-Whenever she asks for more chips, she says, "Chip me!"

-Every time she puts on sunglasses, she has to point her fingers and say, "Hey Baby!"  (Yeah, I taught her that one.)

-She LOVES tomatoes. See this post...
-She is a scratcher and a screamer, which has resulted in an informal suspension from the Kid's Club at the gym. See this post...
-She is a definite Daddy's Girl. She screams "Daddy!" and goes running to the door when she hears him come home at the end of the day. I know Aaron, of course, LOVES this. :)

-Her favorite movies are Curious George, Ponyo, and any of the Baby Signing Time videos.
-The first thing she asks for when she wakes up in the morning is to watch Curious George. In fact, she gets upset if someone else is watching TV when she wakes up in the morning because it means she has to wait for her turn.
-She is NOT a morning person. This is probably why see wants to watch Curious George every morning. She needs a good half hour to get in a good mood and be ready to eat breakfast, a definite opposite of her oldest brother who wakes up at 5:30am nearly every day.

-She LOVES green smoothies and frozen Go-gurts. I have a hard time keeping our freezer stocked solely because of this girl.

-Whenever, I put her down for a nap the following conversation occurs...

Me: Night, night Aubrey.

Her: Mom!

Me: What?

Her: I love you.

Me: I love you too.

Her: Mom!

Me: What?

Her: I love you.

Me: I love you too.

Her: Mom!

Me: What?
Her: I love you.
Me: I love you too.
(and this goes on at least 5 times. I love it!)

-Although I initially tried to avoid it, Aubrey is inherently girly. She just naturally loves shoes, necklaces, purses, the color purple, fairies, dolls, and all stuffed animals. I often catch her trying to put on my make-up.

-She is such a goofball. She is always doing silly things to make us laugh. When that girl is old enough to tell a joke or drop a punchline, she will be HILARIOUS!

Happy Birthday, Bee!

-

The Deck is Built!

I know this is a little late as far as news goes, but I wanted to get these pictures out before I started sharing all the fun we are having with our new deck.

Awhile back, Aaron decided that we needed a deck in our back yard. So. of course, he gets' on Craigslist and finds a guy getting rid off a deck. For $100, Aaron could dismantle the guy’s 18’ octagon-shaped deck, haul it away, and rebuild it in our yard. Did we want an octagon-shaped deck? No. Would an 18’ octagon even fit in our yard? Absolutely no. But Aaron couldn’t pass up a deal that not only provided cheap deck lumber but the opportunity to figure out how a deck is built (by dismantling it, of course).

So after multiple weekends of dismantling and hauling off the deck practically by himself (thanks though to our home teachers and a couple of guys from church that helped one Saturday), we were left with a backyard full of piles of wood and the grass and weeds grew up around it.  Then, after graduation of course, he finally had time to really get into it. We had to dig up over 100 bricks from our old patio, declare war on a massive fire ant colony, and dig holes for posts. Then, piece by piece it started to come together. After multiple Saturdays, a drill that wouldn’t drill more than 3 screws at a time, having to buy a few longer pieces of lumber, lots of cutting and measuring, just under 1,000 screws, and a few bumps, cuts, and bruises, it was finally built. A lovely Tetris-shaped deck level with our back door, built mostly from reclaimed lumber, now resides in our backyard, and we love every inch of it.

We still need to sand and stain it, but we already  love being able to use it. BBQ’s, birthday parties, and late night talks are so much better on the deck in the cool evening breeze. Love it! So, enough picture of the deck, now for some cute pictures of the family.  Aaron was finishing up the last of the deck and Aubrey wanted to help. I came out to see this…

What’s that in her mouth, you ask? That would be her imitating Aaron by holding screws in her mouth. Cute, right?

Okay, one more for pure cuteness…