live - laugh - love

2 years

2011-07-05T12:44:00.002-04:00

2 years..

2 years ago, I held a crying newborn for the very first time.

{I can't believe I'm sharing this photo, and having it as the first picture of a post, for that matter. This is what you look like after 20 hours of labor & a c-section!}

2 years ago, we changed our first poopy diapers

2 years ago, we welcomed the newest addition to our family into our home

2 years ago, this little ray of sunshine changed my life in more ways than I could ever imagine

2 years ago, I had no idea what the next 2 years would bring. Joy when she was happy, heartache when she was crying and nothing I did would make her feel better, unconditional love whenever I see her face.

I'm so proud of the little girl my baby is turning out to be. I couldn't have asked for a better child and I thank God every day for her. She's such a blessing and really turned my life around.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, perfect, sweet, wonderful little lady. I wouldn't trade these last 2 years for anything.

Happy Birthday, Sweetpea!

Goodbye, Hello

2011-06-29T09:38:00.004-04:00

Inspired by Little Miss Momma's Hello Summer post.

Goodbye, Spring.

Goodbye, jackets on the train

Goodbye, pool cover.

Goodbye, rain (although, we're still holding onto our rain boots and wearing them every day, just because)

{I am so embarrassed at the lack of Spring pictures I have. I had lost my camera so therefore couldn't take pictures. Oops}

Hello, Summer!

Hello, first ice cream cone!

Hello, reading books with the AC on blast (this is our favorite book - My Little Girl by Tim McGraw & Faith Hill)

Hello, summer love!

Hello, relaxation in the sand

Hello, bumble bee!

Hello, secret hideout at the park!

Hello, pool!

Hello, water baby!

Our Summer To-Do List:
1. Take a family trip to the New England Aquarium
2. Go to a baseball game
3. Make homemade ice cream
4. Compile a list of recipes to make before summer is over
5. Go to the farmer's market
6. Make s'mores
7. Build sandcastles and play on the beach until sunset
8. Go bug catching
9. Go to a fair or festival.
10. Have a picnic with a friend.
11. Host a small family get together
12. Go for a walk on the boulevard after the sun goes down
13. Play with sidewalk chalk
14. Make water balloons
15. Go to a museum

Father's Day

2011-06-19T23:46:00.003-04:00

Today is a day where we take some time to appreciate the Fathers in our lives.

Ever since I was 13, this holiday has been kinda tough for me. The first year, it was unbearable.
I cried. A lot.
"It's not fair" "I wasn't ready to say goodbye" "Why did he have to die?"

I was sad. I was angry. These feelings stayed for a long time.

11 years later, the pain is still there. The wound isn't as fresh, but it still hurts.
I feel like my father is missing out on so much. Every milestone Aubrey reaches, I feel a little sting because he isn't here to witness it. I know he'd be so proud.

He'd spoil her. Love her. Pull her out of school on random days to go play video games. Say yes when we say no. All the things he used to do to me to make me feel extra special.

I feel sorry for Aubrey. Sorry that she never got the chance to meet him.

But at the same time, her daddy reminds me so much of my dad that I feel like, sometimes, he's still here with us.

So even though he drives me crazy
can never be serious
turns everything into a joke
chews too loud

steals the blankets
watches boring movies
doesn't like coffee
and is the pickiest eater I know..

..I realize how blessed Aubrey & I are to have him in our lives and I wouldn't change anything.

Happy Fathers Day, babycakes.
So happy that you're ours :)

She said "Baby, it's 3am.. I must be lonely"

2011-06-12T03:09:00.002-04:00

What a weekend.

I won't go into a ton of crazy detail but I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon at the hospital because I had this constant chest pain. I finally got released at around 5:30 after the doctor chalked it up to a bad chest sprain (what!? leave it to me to sprain my chest). I had Keith drop me off/pick me up because I was in too much pain to drive, so when he & Aubrey got to the hospital we went to Target to get a prescription filled but of course the pharmacy was closed already. Sigh.

We decided to have a relaxing night in since I'm out of work til Monday and I never have the weekend off (of course, when we drove by my work on the way to Target it was packed so I probably would have made some pretty decent money. Double sigh). We threw a pizza in the oven and watched Extreme Couponing. I got Keith hooked on this show and now when it's on he tells Aubrey "watch this, Aubrey.. this is what mama is going to do".. if you say so! I would so love to get into doing this but I wouldn't be able to go as um, extreme as these ladies.. but we did save $10 on a $40 purchase when we went to the store yesterday morning and I barely even tried so it's definitely something I want to get into!

But anyway, I realized that I never made a post about our trip to a local theme park. It was Aubrey's first time going and of course, I couldn't find my camera so I actually made Keith go to Walmart before we made the drive and I got a couple disposable cameras (yeah, I went there). Once I get them developed I'll have to scan them in. I did manage to get a couple on my phone..

Keith absolutely despises the headbands that I put on her but I just can't resist!

We road on the Canobie Express, a train that takes you on a ride through the whole park.

Aubrey had a ton of fun going on all of the kiddie rides and we can't wait to take her back this summer!

I'll leave you with a picture of my adorable little cheerleader:

"Goooo Red Sox!"

As the years go by, our friendship will never die ♥

2011-06-08T23:47:00.008-04:00

This past weekend I attended a baby shower.. but not just any old baby shower.. but one to honor my best friend of 22 years!

When we were kids, Laura & I always talked about how cool it would be to grow up and have babies together so they could be best friends just like us. Our kids would grow up to be inseparable and play truth or dare. Maybe Aubrey will dare Callie to run outside in a blizzard with no shoes and a sports bra, or maybe Callie will break the arm off of one of Aubrey's expensive dolls.
Perhaps they'll
stay up all night eating nothing but party mix and popsicles.
get the cops called on them multiple times for loud music.
fall asleep in class
eat Chinese food for free every weekend
walk 2 hours to the nearest Wendys for green ketchup
make Tuna Helper because they heard it was their crush's favorite food
(not that we did any of those things!)

Even though Aubrey will be 2 years old when Laura's little girl is born, I know they're going to be best friends just like us.. before I know it we'll be taking turns hosting sleepovers and going to the park and eventually they'll be old enough to tie up the phone lines for hours at a time talking about the boys they like and planning their next big adventures.. just like their mommas did when they were kids.

I'm so thrilled for Laura and I can't wait to meet Baby Callie!

Blast from the past..

New home

2011-05-19T12:02:00.002-04:00

I've been MIA for a while, but for good reason. To make a long story short, we found out that our old place was infested with mold.. starting in the bathroom and spreading all the way into Aubrey's room which could explain why she was getting so sick all winter. I immediately called and spoke to our building manager and after a couple weeks of being tossed around and ignored, Mama Bear showed her claws. I wanted no part of living there and demanded they either put us in a hotel while they fixed the problem or they move us.

Last weekend, we moved into our new home and we couldn't be happier. I still have unpacking and decorating to do, and I also have to find my camera cord.. but I promise to share pictures as soon as I can :)

In other news, Aubrey has been a little chatty Kathy lately, saying words such as "sneaky", "baby", "Aubrey" and even "dinosaur" (?!?!). She has also started going to a toddler group once a week and she loves it. I can't believe she's going to be 1.5 months. We decided on a date for her party and we even have a super special day planned out for her actual birthday. :)

I need to go catch up on everyone's lives :)

Easter

2011-04-28T11:57:00.001-04:00

Growing up, Easter was always kind of like a second Christmas for me. The Easter bunny loaded up my basket with CDs, movies, toys... and when I was 13 I got the best surprise ever at the bottom of my basket: tickets to see the Backstreet Boys in Boston.

While Aubrey definitely did not get tickets to see the Backstreet Boys (which, at this point in time would really be "NKOTBSB"), the Easter bunny was pretty good to her!

Easter pedicure!

Striking a pose in her dress

She has been taking her baby with her EVERYWHERE lately. Her big gift for her birthday this year will be a huge hit (but that's for another day)

Opening her eggs!

We ran out of wine glasses, so Keith embraced his inner white trash and drank his wine out of a Solo cup ♥

We had a wonderful Easter dinner with my side of the family.. complete with a delicious ham with my mom's famous ham sauce (Easter isn't complete without it!), brocolli & cheese, veggies, mashed potatoes, and of course.. the biscuits.

Getting her sillies out with her Auntie:

We ended the day at my father-in-law's

We had a second dinner while we were there and by the time dessert came around we were all stuffed! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter (or if you don't celebrate, I hope it was just a wonderful weekend in general!)

Beach Baby

2011-04-14T11:55:00.001-04:00

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the beach. I could find any reason to go there at any time of year..

Summer? The obvious reasons - to walk the strip, eat funnel cake, lay in the sand and tan, and when I was feeling really adventurous and have my sister-in-law (who also doubles as one of my bffs) in tow, we take boogey boards and brave the freezing cold Atlantic ocean.

Fall/Winter? Even though pretty much nothing is open, I have been known to take a road trip with a friend or two just to get the pizza that Hampton Beach is famous for - Cristy's Pizza. And of course, to do the occasional cartwheel in the sand..

Spring? Well.. after a long winter, sometimes New England weather gets kinda crazy and we get a random day in April where the temperature gets up to 80 and Christina & I just can't wait any longer for a day at the beach.. Well, Monday was one of those days..

I wasn't too sure what to expect this time around, since she wanted nothing to do with the water last year. Even if I was holding her she would cry whenever the tide came over my toes. But now, I barely have enough time to apply a gallon of sunscreen on her before she goes off and running toward the water. I definitely have my work cut out for me this year!

I mean really, who goes to the beach to relax, anyway? Everyone knows that's what the ride home is for:

Boston Children's Museum

2011-03-22T22:27:00.002-04:00

Last week, I took Aubrey to the Boston Children's Museum and we had a blast. Goldie tagged along and made it that much more fun. :)

I was really skeptical of the train ride. Aubrey is NOT a fan of sitting in a parked stroller and I couldn't exactly let her run up & down the aisles.. but she did pretty well.

See? She isn't amused.

She loved the bubble room!

Climbing is what Aubreys do best!

The museum had a whole room dedicated to Arthur (you know, the little aardvark from when we were kiddos?).. though I think we enjoyed it more than she did.

Splashing in the water <3

Aubrey channeling her inner Isa.. (this is her favorite Dora episode)

Speaking of Dora, she managed to spot the only Dora toy in the museum gift shop.. a huge bubble wand! After seeing how excited she got seeing all of the bubbles in the bubble room, I couldn't say no to her excited face.

We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to take her back once the weather gets a little bit warmer.. because, as you can see, it was a bit chilly this time around!

10 steps

2011-03-03T23:08:00.003-05:00

All mommas have been there. You get your kiddo a cute outfit, or want to remember a special day by taking a picture. You have an image in your head of how everything will turn out.. so you fight with your wee one to get the shirt over their head.. then trying to get the first leg into a pair of pants while the other is kicking. Then it's time for hair, especially for mommas with little girls. You get it just perfect in a little bow and sit them down. Then it starts... the 10 steps to taking a successful picture. In this case, I'd like to bring you... Valentine's Day.

Step 1: "Oh crap, wasn't expecting that!"

Step 2: "Maybe if I don't look, she'll stop"

Step 3: "Seriously mom, stop"

Step 4: "Ha-ha-ha HA ha! You can't get my picture!"

Step 5: "Will you just GIVE UP ALREADY?"

Step 6: "I don't care how cute you say I look. I won't do it!"

Step 7: "Oh look, a bow!"

Step 8: "Hahaha! You'll never get it back!"

Step 9: "Okay, okay.. I guess I'll put it back in"

Step 10: "Alright, mom, ONE picture if it means this is over!"

Busy bee

2011-02-13T00:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Let's recap!

Went to a toga party with Amanda.. gave smooches to Baby Peter ♥

Aubrey smooches too! What can I say, babies make good smooch targets ;)

Sometimes, I think Keith & I have more fun with Aubrey's bath crayons than she does. We like to write each other messages when we take showers. Clearly Keith didn't say I eat pancakes for breakfast, but you get the picture. We really do love each other, I promise.

What better way to start February than by coloring a new page on the calendar?

Gone are the days when she would actually SIT STILL for a picture.. :)

♥ Pigtails!

Is it Spring yet?

"But I'm.... not... slee....py..zzzzz"

Starbucks!

Waiting for Daddy to get out of work with Dora & Boots!

Aubrey's new POTTY! (Don't worry, I won't be one of THOSE moms that takes pictures of their childs first potty trip) She was actually really cranky when we finally got home and tried to get her to sit on it. Little did I know what was right around the corner...

Doctor's visit? Boooo

Super delish football cupcakes I made for Superbowl Sunday!

We ended up leaving the party we were at early because Aubrey was absolutely miserable.

Today marks 2 years since Keith & I got married!! He took the day off (as well as tomorrow), though we weren't quite expecting to spend it with our sick baby at the doctor's office.. they did a couple tests to test for RSV and the flu, and while we waited for the results to come in, we had to get x-rays done of her chest. Turns out, she has the flu AND bronchitis. FUN!

This is what over $80 in prescriptions look like! But I can't put a price on my baby's well being. If it will help her get better, I'd pay thousands for it.

♥

It's amazing what medicine can do. We went to Crackerbarrel for breakfast and Aubrey ate every last bite of her breakfast, which NEVER happens! She must've been starving after refusing food for 3 days!

Okay, no lie. My kid is a GENIUS. Alright.. but do you see how perfectly she wrote this A? The only thing I did in this picture was the circles to show her how to do it. We were at the bank. I walked over to the teller to take some money out and came back over to this. I nearly fell over.

While we waited for my check, Aubrey had fun looking in the mirror

Aubrey LOVES the escalators!

We even went to Build-a-Bear before her Doctor's appointment! After the rough week she had, she deserved a new pal. This is Mel!

I have been waiting FOREVER to get my hair done.. and it has finally happened. I LOVE it! There are a lot more highlights in it.. just can't see them in the picture.

Keith also got me a new camera! YAY! No more crappy cell phone pictures!!

We finished the evening at Carrabba's. I lovelovelove their Blackberry Sangria and grilled chicken!

Pictures are worth a thousand words

2011-01-27T09:23:00.004-05:00

Brrrr.

2011-01-22T15:23:00.004-05:00

Winter & I always used to have a hate/hate relationship. I was never a huge fan of going to play in the snow as a kid. Sure, I did it once in a while. But I never had that URGE.. the kind of urge that I get when I wake up on a sticky summer morning and think, "I need to go stick my toes in the ocean today". If I could spend every day of my life on the beach, I would be happy as a clam. But alas, I live in New England and that just doesn't happen.

Now, I know that I had Aubrey relatively young - I was 21 when I peed on a stick and two pink lines appeared. But I did have a couple friends who had babies before me and I never ever understood why they would be excited for a cold, snowy (or rainy!) day. Then, Aubrey's first Fall came around and it suddenly clicked one day when it was cold and rainy. It was the first time in months that I had to shut all the windows and grab a blanket. I took my little 3 month old bundle of joy and snuggled up on the couch and watched movies all day. That's when I fully understood. Cold weather = awesome baby snuggles.

Now here we are again, a year later. I now have an 18 month old who happens to love playing in the snow. I bundle her up and we play outside til her heart is content. We come inside, I heat up a nice, warm bottle of milk for her and we have snuggle & nap time (which is always extra-long after spending time outside!). She is no longer the 3 month old that was SO easy to entertain. I have to keep her busy at all times, otherwise I'm subjected to her favorite DVD - Dora's Pirate Adventure. There's only so much you can do inside with a 1.5 year old, so I decided to break out the finger paints..

Why hadn't I done this before? Santa brought her them for Christmas and I guess I've been kind of afraid to use them. Afraid that her beautiful blonde hair would be a mess of blues and reds. But something I had said to Keith just 24 hours prior crept into my head. "She's a toddler. She needs to make messes and explore her surroundings. Let her be little.", when he nearly had an aneurysm because she was pulling all the tupperware out of the cabinet. They're only little for a short time. Before I know it, she'll be too cool to hang out with her mommy. So until then, I'll be happy to give her multiple baths a day when she gets finger paint (or whatever she's eating, for that matter) in her hair.

Birthday: Part 2!

2011-01-17T11:16:00.001-05:00

Today was day 2 of my birthday celebration! Since Keith was at the playoff game with his buddy, he made it up to me today by cooking dinner and baking me a cake! He made kielbasa & pierogi (Polish food! Yum!). This was also his first attempt at baking a cake and he did AWESOME.

Isn't it the cutest?

Aubrey enjoying cake in her new Dora jammies! This was right after she was trying to feed her Nana cake.

:)

2011-01-16T23:03:00.002-05:00

Happy 24th Birthday to me!

It was a nice day. Aubrey went to hang out with her auntie for a while, Keith went to the Patriots game. I spent the morning lounging around and playing Animal Crossing: City Folk. Even my animated neighbors acknowledged my special day :)

I had plans to have lunch with one of my best friends, so I hopped in the shower and lathered up using the special birthday gift I got from Sephora (if you aren't a member of their beauty insiders club, I highly suggest it!) I scored this "Happy Birthday, Beautiful!" cake-scented body wash for free!

Laura wasn't due to get here til around 1, so I had a light breakfast..

We celebrated by going to TGIFridays, where our server's name was "Juice". Then we went and walked around the mall for a bit. I got some sweet pea scented hand sanitizer at Bath & Body Works (LOVE that stuff!)

I spent the rest of the night cuddling with my sweetpea. It was a really nice, low-key birthday and I enjoyed every minute of it.

2011-01-15T22:33:00.004-05:00

I really apologize for the cell phone pictures! I've been looking all over the place for my camera and I can't find it anywhere. :(

Today we spent all morning/afternoon switching our bedroom with Aubrey's. We set up her new bed and she LOVES IT.

Big girl bed

2011-01-14T19:38:00.006-05:00

Today was a big day! We got up, ate breakfast, then went off on a little trip to find Aubrey the perfect bed set to help with the transition to a big girl bed! You see, Aubrey has had the master bedroom since she was 2 months old. Her crib wouldn't fit through the door frame, so Keith & I ended up taking the smaller bedroom. We've been talking lately and decided it's time to get our room back. In order to do this, we're going to have to take her crib apart. It's one of those 4-in-1 ones, so we figured "why not just convert it now?". We were going to do it for her 2nd birthday anyway.

So anyway, Aubrey & I go off to the mall and go into any store that would have bedding. We had no luck finding ANY toddler bedding at all, so we decided to go down to another local Target and lo & behold, a whole display of toddler bed sets awaited us. As soon as she saw this one, she wouldn't stop pointing at it. It has the alphabet written all over it with animals/objects associated with each letter. She insisted on holding it instead of me putting it in the basket part of the carriage and she kept pointing at "K" for Kitty. She cried when I gave it to the cashier. This new bedding is serious business, you know.

Original plans were to switch bedrooms today when Keith got out of work, but he ended up staying home and getting sick all day instead. Hopefully we'll find some time in the very near future because Aubrey is head over heels IN LOVE with her new bedding! She cuddled with it as soon as I took it out of the dryer.

PS: If you were my camera, where would you be? These cell phone pictures are getting old. :(

Why?

2011-01-12T22:54:00.002-05:00

So I've been thinking the past couple of days. Why did I make two totally new blogs to fulfill two of my goals for my 101 in 1,001? Why do I need a separate blog for my 365 project, and a new one for the new recipes I try? Why do I feel that I can only post -related things here? This is MY blog. I'm not just a mommy. I'm not just a wife. I'm a best friend, a sister, a daughter.. I'm my own person. I need to break out of my shell and start blogging about everything that runs through my head.

I changed the name of my blog. This Love We Share is now Nifty Momma. As soon as I get the posts from my 365 blog exported over to here, it will be deleted. I'm excited for this change! :)

Tea (or coffee) party!

2011-01-12T17:34:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Today was spent inside cuddling, watching movies (and Dora, of course!) & having tea parties while a nor'easter took it's course outside (it still is, as a matter of fact). I got this fabulous new kind of coffee yesterday and was extremely excited to try it. With hints of butterscotch, caramel & hazelnut, it did NOT disappoint! Pair that with my favorite coffee mug and a red velvet whoopie pie and I enjoyed my 7 minutes in heaven.

Mommy & Me

2011-01-11T23:13:00.002-05:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE coupons? The last time Aubrey & I saw Goldie, we got coupons for a free picture collage at Sears. I made an appointment and we went today! I didn't want to do super formal ones.. and I got another coupon today for the same thing so Aubrey & Keith can get some done. I chose the one of me kissing her as the main picture, then the one of her snuggled all up to me and the one of her looking away with the smile are in the left corner and it's adorable. Then I got ANOTHER coupon a couple weeks ago for a free 10x13 and we're going to get one of the three of us. Then we're going to put them in our bedroom with the two collages on either side of the family photo. Or maybe we'll replace the family photos in the living room and move those into our bedroom. We'll see :)

Things have been busy lately. Things are finally starting to slow down from the busy Holiday season, though Aubrey was sick a couple days ago so that wasn't fun. She has also developed a new obsession..

Wahhhh. Of all things for her to obsess over, the top 2 things I was praying NOT to happen were Dora & Barney. She stands at the tv and cries if it isn't on. We've probably watched the Dora Pirate Adventure DVD Santa brought her for Christmas about 20 times over the past few days.. but seeing her face light up every time is worth the constant yelling that watching a Dora episodes brings.. and I won't lie.. it's a nice distraction for her when I'm trying to get something done or just need a minute to myself!

Work has slowed down a bit but every time I go in, I see another new piece from the Spring collection that I *have* to have for Aubrey and I have slowly started filling her closet with her new-season wardrobe. So far it's mostly shirts, both short & long sleeved, but I've also scored a couple skirts and some skinny jeans for her. I wish I could see why I don't mind spending money on HER wardrobe when I know she'll outgrow it in a few months, yet I always hesitate spending money on myself. I guess shopping for her is my guilty pleasure.. though the past couple days, I HAVE gotten myself a few things with the money Keith gave me for my birthday and it has felt REALLY good to get something for myself for the first time in forever.

Hope you all are having a lovely week <3

Pictures

2011-01-11T17:24:00.001-05:00

(Don't mind the Santa bib, it's what I had in her diaper bag haha)

Today, we met up with Goldie & did some shopping. We had lunch at Pizza Hut and Aubrey discovered her love of dipping breadsticks in marinara sauce. We also got our pictures taken for free. I love coupons.

Sick babies are no fun :(

2011-01-10T17:22:00.001-05:00

The day started off great. Aubrey slept til about 8. We got up, had some breakfast, and put on Dora. She's happy as a clam.. then before I knew it, she's getting sick all over my couch. Then all over the rug. Then all over the kitchen floor. Yikes. She spent a majority of the afternoon sleeping in our bed. Thankfully, when she woke up, she was back to her old self. I hate when my little sweetpea is sick :(

Brunch!

2011-01-09T17:19:00.001-05:00

I woke up this morning to Keith crawling into bed and putting his arm around me :) With Aubrey still at Grampy's, we decided to go out for brunch. I decided on an omelette, fresh fruit, homefries & a mimosa. Delicious.

A year and a half? Seriously?

2011-01-07T17:06:00.002-05:00

Today was Aubrey's 18 month check-up. We went out for breakfast before her appointment and had fun coloring while waiting for our food. Her stats from her check-up are 24.3 pounds and 31" long. I can't believe how much my 7.11 pound, 20.5" long baby has grown! <3

:)

2011-01-06T16:58:00.001-05:00

Today we went to the Mall of New Hampshire. Aubrey looked gorgeous with her hair done & pearls around her neck :)

Hello, I love you

2011-01-05T16:51:00.001-05:00

Does this really need words?

Ruh roh

2011-01-04T14:03:00.001-05:00

Today, when I was in another room for seriously just 2 minutes, Aubrey discovered that her legs fit between the back of the couch & the wall. We need to keep a small amount of space between the two since there is an electrical outlet that we use. It took her a minute to realize that she was stuck and was yelling for help. I, of course, had to take pictures before helping her. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't?!

Crackerbarrel & tea parties

2011-01-03T13:54:00.001-05:00

We are huge Crackerbarrel fans in this house (well, besides Keith), so needless to say I was very excited when we got a gift card for Christmas. Keith told me to take my mother since she really likes it too, so we did just that.

When we got home, we decided to have a tea party with Aubrey's new Olivia tea set. We served crackers & "tea" (water) and she was LOVING it.

My little tomboy (for today, anyway)

2011-01-02T13:43:00.001-05:00

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

Aubrey had some Christmas money, so after I got out of work, I picked Aubrey up and we went to Toys R Us. We spent a while going down all the aisles with the dolls, the play kitchen things, the dress-up clothes.. then we wandered into the little boy area and that's when she saw it.. the bulldozer. She ran over to it and pressed the button. It started to rumble and make noise, and then the back wheels started moving. This was it. We brought it up to the register (along with an Olivia coloring book) and when we got home, it came right out of the package and she has been chasing it around ever since. It's hilarious to see it move across the floor, terrorizing the dog. So it might be a change from her normal girly-girl attitude, but if it makes her happy, I'm happy :)

Happy New Year ♥

2011-01-01T13:37:00.001-05:00

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Happy New Year! Today we went to Keith's aunt's house for a late Christmas party. Aubrey looked adorable in her purple dress & pearls! It was so nice to see that side of the family, since we don't get to very often. It was a greay way to bring in 2011 :)

Goodbye, 2010!

2010-12-31T08:17:00.009-05:00

Wow, it seems like just yesterday we were at my father-in-law's bringing in Aubrey's first New Year and making comments on Dick Clark's countdown. You must all remember, right? "16, 15, 14, 12, 10, err, 11.." Not trying to poke fun, just thinking that the man should know when to pass the torch.

Anyway, I made this photo post in my Livejournal last night and decided to copy it to here. It's basically just a picture dump from the last year. I also need to do a recap of any progress I've made in my list (I don't even remember if I have.. I'll have to skim over it to see!). If so, I'll make a separate post for it. This deserves its own!

If you missed any of these events, I provided links back to the posts that I wrote about them. :)

Happy New Year 2010!

January 6th - first time meeting Aubrey's little cousin!

6 month portraits (note her lack of hair!)

February 14th - First Valentine's Day

February 23rd - The day I became a Great-Auntie to my niece's baby, Owen!

First bath in a big girl tub!

First bikini!

Saint Patrick's Day

Easter Bunny

First Easter!

Meeting Baby Owen for the first time (Carina, Mike & Owen live in Virginia, so we don't get to see them a whole lot)!

First trip to the aquarium!

9 Month Portraits <3

Beach day!

Pool <3

June 26th - 1st Birthday party!

July 2nd - Lady Gaga in concert!

First 4th of July, swimming in her Little Miss America bathing suit! (she missed it last year by just ONE day!)

July 5th - Aubrey's Very 1st Birthday!!

Birthday fireworks

July 9th - Her first steps!

July 12th - Happy Birthday, Daddy! (and Auntie Christina & Auntie Michelle!)

The Butterfly Place

Family portraits :)

The newest addition to our family, Phoebe the cat

September 3rd, 2010 - Aubrey's First Red Sox game!

September 20th - Aubrey's first vacation! Destination: Georgia!

October 2nd-5th.. first hospital stay :(

October 31st - Aubrey's first Trick-or-treat experience

Thanksgiving

Aubrey's motherly instinct kicks in!

Seeing Santa

Playdate with Rachel & Mackenzie

Ugly sweater party

Meeting Erin, Mina & Paige

Christmas

Santa outfit <3

I HAD to throw in one of her Olivia presents because Olivia is her first "obsession" haha

First time playing in the snow

And I know getting professional pictures done with your friends is really cheesy, but a couple weeks ago when Goldie & I were at the mall, Sears had this little event going on and you got to spin a wheel and whatever you landed on was what you got. Well, we both landed on a free 10x13 premium portrait so we decided to get pictures of the 3 of us done. I'm going to use my coupon to get a new family portrait of me, Keith & Aubrey. I also signed up for their portrait club and any time I decide to go in and get her pictures taken, I can get a free 8x10 and not even have to buy anything else. Isn't that amazing? I could go in every single day for the next YEAR and get a free 8x10. So of course, the possibilities are endless. If Keith thinks our house is a "shrine to Aubrey" now, he hasn't seen ANYTHING yet! ;) I also want to get pictures of just me & Aubrey (wearing her 'Mommy Loves Me' shirt, obviously!) and just Keith & Aubrey (in what else but her 'My Daddy Is My Prince' shirt!)

But anyway, these are the pictures we decided on:

This was the 8x10 I chose

This was the 10x13 Goldie got.

But enough about that, I hope you all have a wonderful, SAFE New Years Eve! I will see you in 2011! :)

PS: If you haven't signed up to "follow" my Project: 365 blog (clickable), please do so! It all starts tomorrow!

Also.. just because I feel like spamming you all with my sister blogs.. Darby's Dishes will have a post very soon.. the debut recipe.. Cake Balls!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T09:16:00.002-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Santa did NOT disappoint this year.

We went to her Auntie Jeannie's on Christmas eve for dinner and gifts, then went to her Grampy's for some more gift-exchanging and a Yankee Swap. I got a box of Edible Arrangements and I was happy :) Her Nana spent the night so she could be with us Christmas morning, so Santa even brought her a stocking and some gifts!

Aubrey woke up around 8 to a living room full of presents. She opened her stocking, with contents ranging from bubble bath to socks to pretty little bracelets.

Our tree <3

Loves of my life <3

Aubrey being a good mommy :)

Table & chairs set!

Hmmm, what is it!? A Disney Princess rocking chair!

My little Aubrey Clause :)

Aubrey's Diner, open for business!

Wonder Pets play set

I think Aubrey's dolls got just as many toys as she did!

Shhh, the baby is sleeping ;)

Santa brought Aubrey a ton of clothes, some pretty awesome toys, and some fabulous accessories that she can't get enough of! She loves her bath crayons (though I hope she doesn't get the wrong idea and start drawing on ALL of the walls!). Santa was pretty good to me, too! He brought me a digital picture frame (maybe he overheard Keith saying that our house was an "Aubrey shrine" and decided to help him out a bit hehe). I also got a digital picture frame keychain so I can show my kiddo off everywhere I go!

Among other gifts were Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii (LOVE!), The Wiz (because Santa KNOWS I love me some Michael Jackson!), Keith Urban's newest album, and a kit to teach me how to knit.

He brought Keith some clothes, a new hat & wallet, a little machine to separate all of his coins (because clearly, he was the only one listening when I told Keith multiple times to stop leaving his change around the house for little hands to grab & put in mouths! :D)

Nana's gifts included a photo calendar chock-full of Aubrey pictures, a photo plate with a picture of her & Aubrey dressed in her butterfly costume (because we all know Nana LOVES butterflies!), and some Fig & Rose hand lotion.

What did Santa bring to your house this year?

19. Physically meet one of the girls I met through whattoexpect.com

2010-12-21T12:21:00.004-05:00

This is one goal I was EXTREMELY excited to accomplish. For those that haven't been pregnant, whattoexpect.com has a ton of message boards, including one for each month of each year so that women who are due around the same time can chat. I met some of my best girlfriends on there and still talk to them daily. The six of us live in separate parts of the country, with the exception of two who live in the same state, just different sides of it (and one of them living in Canada!). I was SO jealous when they met up and was sad that nobody lived near me.

Then one day, one of the girls, Erin, tells me that she's coming home for the holidays. Home to her = Massachusetts. I just about died. We talked about how we were going to go to Boston and wreak havoc with the babies and her other daughter Paige, who is 6. That idea was shot down when we realized that hey, we're meeting in December and it's COLD. The hotel she stayed at is about 10 minutes away from one of the local malls so we decided to meet there, have lunch, and do some shopping. I counted down the days for 2 weeks and finally, yesterday, it happened! When we got out of the car, it was just like hanging out with your best friend and going shopping. There were no awkward moments or any of that. I'm sure it helps that all of us Skype a few times a week. But anyway, on with the pictures!

Me with Mina & Aubrey!

Paige

At Precious Plasters painting some last minute Christmas gifts!

We all had a blast and I can't wait for her to be up this way again! On my way home, I realized Erin & I didn't get ANY pictures together and I was so bummed. Next time, for sure!

Ugly Sweaters!

2010-12-21T12:06:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, Keith took Aubrey up to Maine to visit his mother. Since I had to work Saturday morning, I stayed home. I was talking to Goldie and she invited me to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party she & Dan were going to Saturday night. I finished up my dinner (chinese takeout is always the best when you're home along on a Friday night!), threw on some clothes & headed out to Saver's to find a sweater. I didn't find what I had in mind, though I did find one that I definitely wouldn't be caught dead in any other day. So, after work on Saturday, my mother & I went to the cemetery to visit my father, I stopped at the liquor store, and then was on my way to Goldie's house about an hour away. We had a blast and I ended up spending the night, which was fun.

Christmas card worthy!

The "ugliest sweater contest" winners!

We got up early and walked around the Mall of New Hampshire for a few hours and then I headed back home to do some cleaning. I also took Madden to PetCo to get his nails trimmed which was an adventure in itself.

Trying on hats at Baby Gap:

Have you ever been to an ugly sweater party? Feel free to share pictures!
<3

52. Reconnect with a friend I haven't seen in a while

2010-12-21T11:49:00.002-05:00

Rachel & I met in the fifth grade when we were both in our school's drama club. We instantly clicked and became inseparable. We hung out all the time and got ourselves into a ton of trouble. In October 2008, she got married and a week later, I found out I was pregnant. There was a whole lot going on in our lives and sometimes, change brings a lot of stress. We had a falling out and didn't speak for quite a few months. A few months after I found out I was expecting, Rachel discovered she was also pregnant. We reconnected on a Livejournal community that dealt all the fun things that go along with pregnancy. Since then, we have kept in contact and had a few playdates after our daughters were born, but we haven't reached the level of friendship we had earlier in our lives.

I had recently heard about an indoor playground about 20 minutes north of us. I'm constantly looking for new things to do with Aubrey, and she loves the indoor playground at the mall down the street from us so I knew she would have a blast at Bobo's Indoor Playground. I sent Rachel a message on Facebook asking if she would want to take Mackenzie with us sometime soon.. and on Friday, we went and had a blast.

Although we may never be as close as we used to be, I'm glad that we can still get together so our daughters can play and have fun :)

Progress!

2010-12-16T15:18:00.003-05:00

One day in, and I can already strike one off my list :)

98. Start a cooking/baking blog -> Darby's Dishes
Okay, so I haven't posted anything yet.. but it's there ;)

Giveaway

2010-12-16T12:21:00.001-05:00

My friend Kate at Here We Are Together is hosting a giveaway for an alphabet book! Go check it out :)

101 Goals in 1,001 Days

2010-12-15T14:40:00.008-05:00

I originally started this "project" right around this time last year. I made up my list of 101 things I wanted to accomplish in 1,001 days and even made a sister blog to this one solely for writing about my goals and what I had accomplished. After a few days, I thought it was stupid and I was just setting myself up for failure, so I just stopped doing it.

Looking back on the past year, I wish I had kept up with it. It would have motivated me to do so much more with my time. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the days I spend playing with Aubrey and reading her Green Eggs and Ham 10 times in a row for anything.. but I want more. So, starting tomorrow, Thursday, December 16th, 2010.. and ending Thursday, September 12, 2013, I am starting over.. I made a couple tickers on my sidebar to help with tracking my progress.

101 Things in 1,001 Days

1. Make 101 new recipes (follow the blog!) [0/101]
2. Make blankets to donate to 10 children with cancer [0/10]
3. Do 50 We Are What We Do Actions [0/50]
4. Have a "me" day.
5. Read 10 books I've never read before [0/10]
6. Get caught up with Grey's Anatomy
7. Hold a fundraiser
8. Host a game night
9. Go ice skating, because I've never been
10. Make something for Keith
11. Do a project-365, starting January 1st, 2011 and ending January 1st, 2012 (follow the blog!)
12. Go on Weight Watchers
13. Go camping
14. Donate 10 items to Freecycle
15. Go to a restaurant I've never been to
16. Make a family heirloom book for Aubrey
17. Dedicate a song to somebody on the radio
18. Donate 1,000,000 grains of rice to Free Rice
~~19. Physically meet one of the girls I met through whattoexpect.com~~
20. Get a tattoo in honor of Aubrey
21. Learn how to make bows for Aubrey's hair
22. Have a tea party
23. Make Golabkis (stuffed cabbage) using my mother's recipe
24. Take Aubrey to the Children's Museum in Boston
25. Buy something for myself online
26. Shop at a farmer's market
27. Crochet a blanket for a newborn
28. Buy a new purse that I absolutely love
29. Go to a bar I've never been to, and try a drink I've never had
30. Make bread in my bread machine
31. Lose enough weigh to like how I look
32. Get a pedicure
33. Make a diaper cake
34. Support a friend's business by buying something from them
35. Declutter our home.
36. Participate in A Day In My Life
37. Donate blood
38. Teach Aubrey the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" motions
39. Have a $1,000 Lia Sophia show
40. Recruit somebody to be a Lia Sophia advisor
41. Get 1,000 fans on my Lia Sophia Facebook page
42. Visit my mom's parents' graves
43. Bake cookies for a new neighbor
44. Go to a music festival
45. Start "couponing"
46. Learn to knit
47. Knit something for Aubrey once #46 is accomplished
48. Fully understand football
49. Get a new computer
50. Donate hair to Locks of Love
51. Make homemade cards for a major holiday to send out to family
~~52. Reconnect with a friend I haven't seen in a while~~
53. Donate 200,000 cups of water on Free Poverty
54. Go on a date with Keith to a theme park
55. Create a family photo album
56. Try 10 new dishes when dining out [0/10]
57. Walk the Freedom Trail in Boston
58. Cut out any soda that isn't diet
59. Find a weekly show to watch with Keith
60. Host a giveaway on my blog
61. Take pictures in a photobooth
62. Go to York Beach in Maine
63. Make cupcakes from scratch, frosting included
64. Go to a drive-in movie
65. Participate in an Angel Tree
66. Hold another blood drive for children with cancer
67. Physically meet someone I met through LJ/Blogspot
68. Go to Bingo with my mother
69. Get rid of clothes I don't wear.
70. Exchange a mix CD with someone
71. Go out for brunch with Keith
72. Send 5 "just because" cards to 5 different people. [0/5]
73. Make a gingerbread house from scratch
74. Open up a bank account for Aubrey
75. Help organize/throw a shower
76. Cook dinner for my in-laws
77. Sew something for Aubrey's doll
78. Buy new lingerie once I lose weight
79. Get new family photos done
80. Make Aubrey blanket/pillowcase when she is transitioned to a toddler bed
81. Go to a movie by myself
82. Get every song Michael Jackson song on my iPod
83. Sell 10 things on Etsy [0/10]
84. Try something new at Starbucks
85. Go to a Lowell Spinners baseball game
86. Watch the sunset on a beach
87. Submit a secret to PostSecret
88. Make a quilt for Aubrey
89. Take Aubrey on a Swan Boat ride in Boston
90. Go on a double-date
91. Build a snowman
92. Use up all my lotions/perfumes before buying myself any more.
93. Stop biting my nails
94. Get a manicure once #93 is accomplished
95. Make a cheesecake from scratch
96. Have a party that I put together featured on a party blog
97. Carve a pumpkin
~~98. Start a cooking/baking blog~~
99. Go out dancing
100. Work out a filing system with our important papers
101. Rent a beach house

Wish me luck! I'm excited to share this journey with all of you :)

Thankful Friday

2010-12-10T13:15:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've done of these but..

This week (like every other week, but especially this week!) I am thankful for spending another year with my mother. Today is her 64th birthday :)

Mom with her daughters & sons-in-law at my wedding.
Dave, Dawn, Mom, Keith, Me, Jeannie & Rob

Happy Birthday Mom! Here's to many more <3

Aubrey's Daddy

2010-11-26T23:40:00.003-05:00

As Aubrey gets older, it's always fun (or not) to see her relationships with different people change. For example, one day she wants nothing to do with her Grampy and the next, she won't let him out of her sight when we go spend time with him. But, by far, the one I enjoy seeing the most is the relationship between Aubrey & her Daddy blossom. Don't get me wrong, Keith has always been a good father to her and would do anything for her, but ever since she started talking more and is running around and is old enough to really play with, they're inseparable when he gets home from work.

I'll be honest. When we found out we were having a baby, Keith had his heart set on having a boy and when I slipped and fell at work at 20 weeks pregnant and had to get an ultrasound, the technician offered her opinion as to what she thought we were having. We already had an appointment set up a week later to officially find out the sex, but the anticipation was KILLING me so I didn't even have to think about it. She said "My guess is a girl" and my eyes automatically shifted to Keith to see the expression on his face. I was expecting to see at least a little disappointment but his face was lit up like a child on Christmas morning.

So anyway, I guess the point of this post is to just look back on Aubrey & Keith's relationship through pictures.

I wish I could have somehow gotten a photo of the first time Keith held Aubrey. It was right after my c-section and they put me under anesthesia and when I came to, the first thing I saw when I looked over was my husband holding our baby. I will never forget the feeling I felt and that was one of the best moments of my life.

When Aubrey was a newborn, they would nap together all the time.

Pretty soon she was babbling away and telling her Daddy stories.

♥

She was about 3 months old the first time he gave her a bath (I think he was nervous)

Aubrey LOVED watching football when she was this age. She would just stare at the television in awe. It was definitely father/daughter bonding time ;)

This photo was exactly one year ago. Our first Thanksgiving as a family. :)

A pair a full house couldn't beat ♥

Aubrey's first snow storm!

"The Claw". She would never laugh as hard when I would do it. Clearly, I was doing it wrong.

Using her Daddy as a bed after a long night of dancing at a family member's Sweet 16.

Aubrey's first Red Sox game.

Snuggle time when she was in the hospital.

I can't wait to see the bond between the two of them strengthen as time goes on and Aubrey becomes more and more of her own little person. I can just see them having tea parties now...

Since the day they got married, he'd been praying for a little baby boy
Someone he could take fishing, throw the football and be his pride & joy..
He could already see him holding that trophy, taking his team to state
But when the nurse came in with a little pink blanket, all those big dreams changed..
And now he's wrapped around her finger, she's the center of his whole world
And his heart belongs to that sweet little beautiful, wonderful, perfect all-American girl ♥

Aubrey vs. Santa

2010-11-16T16:01:00.005-05:00

We woke up bright & early Saturday morning to take Aubrey to go meet Santa. Our local mall has an awesome children's program, where they do monthly activities and can have a meet & greet with Santa around Christmas and the Easter Bunny in April. We get to the mall around 8 and there was an assembly line of staff signing people in, assigning numbers to meet Santa (we were number 11!), passing out small bean bag animals with Santa hats, small stockings, snowman markers, muffins, and bottled water. They also had little stations to make reindeer food, Hello Kitty facepainting, letters to Santa, coloring pages, and Bertucci's was also there handing out dough to play with, coloring sheets with crayons, coupons & magnets. There were a couple places open in the food court, so Keith & I grabbed some breakfast and let Aubrey color while waiting for Santa to get there. We found out that Aubrey LOVES orange juice, so I'll definitely be buying some next time I go shopping.

Santa got there fairly early, so we weren't waiting long. Aubrey wanted NOTHING to do with him. Even after I sat down next to him and gave him a hug, showing her that "we love Santa!", she was still in hysterics. Keith snapped 3 pictures (even after I told him to just keep taking them.. oh, men), we told him what she wanted for Christmas, and went back to our table to finish breakfast. Someone from Build-a-bear came out in a big teddy bear suit and of course, Aubrey was fascinated by it. She kept going over and touching his leg and when I picked her up, she kept trying to take his hat off. I wish she would have been like that with Santa! Ah well. At least we didn't have to pay for it.

The dreaded Santa pic! Oh noes!

And here are some from the makeshift tunnel we made to crawl under :)

She enjoyed crawling under it a LOT, so I'm thinking of adding one of those play tunnels to her Christmas list. I started a Wishlist on toysrus.com but I still need to tweak it a bit and add a few more things. I recently learned that Toys R Us will be starting their Black Friday sale the night of Thanksgiving so that's probably what I'll be doing, since I have to work early Friday morning.

Are you going out for Black Friday? What are you going to be on the hunt for?

Let's catch up!

2010-11-11T14:55:00.002-05:00

Things have been busy lately. I recently started a new job at a popular children's clothing store that Aubrey & I shop at frequently. So far, I love it! It's a busy environment and my first check was spent before I even got it. Every day I go in, there is something new being put out that I want to buy for Aubrey. I already bought her Christmas outfit (minus the shoes), some PJs and some adorable outfits, including a "Santa Rocks!" shirt that she will be wearing Saturday morning when we head on over to our other local mall to meet Santa! He has been at the mall I work at for a little over a week, but there is a kids club that you can sign up for that allows them to meet Santa and parents can take pictures with their own cameras instead of paying ridiculous amounts of money for a couple professional 5x7s. Half the time, my photos come out better anyway. ;)

Halloween was a blast. I had to close the store that night, but since it was Sunday we got out early, at around 6:15. Trick-or-treating started at 6, so I called Keith as soon as I left and he waited to take Aubrey out until I got there which was great. I was pretty upset that I was going to miss her first trick-or-treating experience (although, the stores at our mall did do a trick-or-treating event that she went to, but it wasn't the same!)

We went up and down her Grampy's street, but it was too cold to keep going so we passed out candy for the rest of the night, then went to visit her Uncle Joe (who always goes all out for Halloween!)

Aubrey "trick-or-treating" at her Nana's! No tricks here, just a treat - a box of Aubrey's favorite banana cookies!

At the mall

I managed to snap a few pictures during the short time we were out!

Aubrey & her Grampy! She got another treat here - a touch & feel book "Biscuit's Pet & Play Halloween". Touch & feel books are her favorite! She loves the different textures with the turn of each page.

Some new things Aubrey has learned..
- When I ask for a kiss, she (sometimes, if she's in the mood!) smooshes my cheeks into her hands and plants a kiss on my lips. Adorable.
- When I ask her if she's all done her food, she'll either shake her head no or throw her hands up in the air, waiting for me to clean them.
- When I tell her to go grab a book to read, she goes and grabs one
- She has learned to be VERY sneaky! This afternoon, when she woke up from her nap, I had a half can of Coke sitting on the end table from my lunch. She wanted it and kept pointing at it, but I wouldn't let her have it. A few minutes later, she brings me her bottle for a milk refill. I go and fill the bottle up and come back to find her sitting on the floor drinking my soda. Little con artist!

Hope you're all having a nice week!

I Love Giveaways!

2010-11-04T23:39:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine has recently started a business making homemade bath & beauty products. She has offered to send me samples of her products to try, and in return, I will run her blog/Twitter and help admin her Facebook page. It's a win/win deal.

We have decided to host a giveaway to help jump-start the business and bring people to her page! Head on over to Buzzin' Balms & Body Essentials for a chance to win a basket full of homemade bath & body goodies! Please pass this along to your friends :)

I feel like I'm falling for Fall ♥

2010-10-15T11:22:00.002-04:00

The weather has gotten much cooler over the past week and we are thrilled!

Aubrey is a lot like her Daddy. She is always hot, and when she's hot, she's not a happy camper. That's why we didn't spend a huge amount of time outdside this summer, unless we were going swimming. But now.. the temperature is dipping into the 50s-60s, the leaves are turning gorgeous colors and falling to the ground, and we find ourselves playing and exploring outdoors almost daily.

This is the gorgeous view outside our living room window:

Sometimes, Keith's job requires him to work the weekends. When that happens, he gets a day off during the week. This past week, he worked Saturday and had Tuesday off. The weather was nice, so we decided to take Aubrey to the park..

Over the past few days, Aubrey has found a new obsession with sitting in a basket that was holding small toys in her room. Yesterday morning, as soon as she woke up, she walked out of the bedroom and went and sat in her basket. It was too funny!

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast. With the cooler weather comes more baking, and this morning I did just that. Aubrey gobbled her blueberry muffin right up!

I turned on the news to see the weather and the weatherman said that we would get rain later on this afternoon. We played for a little bit and then got ready to go outside. As soon as we got to the door we realized our plans were ruined. The rain started early.

We came back inside, got back into some comfy clothes, and watched Wonder Pets: Adventures in Wonderland. I saw a preview for it yesterday and learned that Steven Tyler from Aerosmith provides the voice of the Mad Hatter so missing it was NOT an option. I've had a crush on Steven Tyler since I was a little girl (I don't want to hear it!).

Hope you are all staying dry on this rainy day!
♥

Georgia on my mind..

2010-10-11T07:52:00.004-04:00

This post has been LONG overdue, but between Aubrey being in the hospital and the time it took her to recover once we got discharged, I have barely had more than 10 minutes to myself.. I wish I had time to do this sooner because the days all seem blurred together now, and I can't remember when we did what but I'm using my Facebook status updates to help me remember haha.

Our flight left Boston at 6am on Monday, September 20th. I managed to cram all of our luggage into ONE suitcase (hooray for space bags!) to avoid the ridiculous baggage fees. We met Christina at Keith's dad's house and left at 4am to be at the airport for 5 to go through security. I'll admit that I was extremely nervous about Aubrey's first time being on a plane but she did wonderfully. The flight attendants made sure to give us some extra snacks (along with the ones we brought from home) and she was happy as a clam. We landed right around 9 and Ed (Keith's brother) picked us up. The drive to their house was a long one (almost 2 hours) but it was filled with good conversation.

We got settled in and went to a restaurant called Fuji for lunch. They serve their food Hibachi style, which up until then I had never experienced. We enjoyed their steak & chicken dish and the chef told jokes while he cooked.

Tuesday morning, Kyle (Ed's wife) & I got the girls up early to go to a My Gym class. We had a lot of fun playing with the girls and Aubrey had a ball exploring everything the gym had to offer. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for some chicken biscuits for everyone (and plain biscuits for Aubrey & Peyton) and went back to the house. We ended up going back out to do some shopping. We went to the Carter's store and I got Aubrey the same dress that Kyle got Peyton to wear for Thanksgiving since they are coming up to visit. I can't wait to see them both wearing them! We stopped by this place that Kyle goes to that does embroidery and I got the dress and Aubrey's diaper bag embroidered with her initials:

Late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Keith's dad, stepmother & aunt flew in, so on Wednesday, we went to Portrait Innovations to get some smash cake pictures done for Peyton's birthday. We even got Aubrey in on a few shots after Peyton did a good amount of smashing. While we were waiting for the photographer to upload the pictures to the computer to choose the ones to be printed, Keith was playing with Aubrey and she fell face first into the floor and split her lip wide open and her top gums were bleeding, too. It was really scary and I think I may have cried just as much as she did. Her shirt was soaked in blood. Thankfully, we were in the same plaza as Carter's, so we went in there and picked up a 5-pack of onesies and then went to Babies R Us so my father-in-law could pick up Peyton's birthday gift.

Thursday was Peyton's actual birthday. We had breakfast and got ready to go to Pine Mountain Wild Animal Park. We rented a zebra van and went through a safari. It was pretty neat! After the drive-thru part, we left the van and explored the park, which allowed us to see animals like bears, monkeys, and hyenas! We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and when we got home and I made Peyton a birthday cake and some of Kyle's family came over for dinner. We had burgers and then had sang Happy Birthday and had cake.

Friday was pretty low-key. We made cupcake-shaped sugar cookies and decorated them as favors for the party. We went to Party City for the last of the decorations.

Saturday was the day of Peyton's party. Around 11ish we went and picked up the birthday cake and went home to decorate. The party started at 3 and it was fun. That day also marked 4 years since Keith & I got together. :)

Sunday was another lazy day. We got Checker's for dinner and spent the rest of the night packing, since we had to leave the house by 10am on Monday morning. We went to bed pretty early and woke up around 8. Aubrey had a waffle for breakfast and we were on our way. We stopped at Starbucks for drinks for the car ride (I got a Toffee Mocha and I didn't care for it at all). When we got to the airport, we did some last-minute souvenir shopping and had a quick bite to eat. Then we boarded our plane back to Boston!

The rest of the pictures are on my Facebook. It would have taken me FOREVER to add them all.

Georgia Cutie vs. Boston Monstah!

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to get the girls together again for Thanksgiving!

Aubrey's first hospital stay. :(

2010-10-07T20:10:00.003-04:00

I posted our last update on Friday afternoon. We spent Friday night at home relaxing because Aubrey still wasn't acting herself. This continued into Saturday morning, and by noon I was really becoming concerned. She hadn't had a wet diaper or a drink since Friday night, and no food since Thursday. I also took her temperature and it was very low. We packed up the diaper bag and headed back to the hospital. We didn't even have to sit down in the waiting room. She was called very fast. We got our own little room off of the ER and they wasted no time in getting bloodwork and an IV administered. I layed with her in the hospital bed and went onto Youtube from my phone and was letting her watch cartoons.. but then a nurse came in with a portable tv and a bunch of cartoons so that was awesome. After a few hours of being hooked up to the IV and no wet diaper, the doctor made a phone call to the pediatric wing and admitted us.

We went up to our room and once we were settled, I went home and grabbed some things for the night. Around 10, the doctor came in and said there was blood in her stool. I was pretty upset because there are so many serious things that are linked to blood in stool. We spent the next couple of days sitting and waiting for the cultures to come back. Since it was the weekend, we had to wait until Monday to get the results back. There were a lot of tears from the both of us. I just wanted to trade places with her and take all of the pain away so badly. We passed the time by watching DVDs and reading stories. Every time a nurse came in, she would cry. They had to wear yellow robes because we were on a "precautions" list because they weren't sure if Aubrey was contagious. There was a fully stocked fridge down the hall that patients have access to, but we couldn't go and raid it whenever we wanted to. We had to call a nurse. Why? Because we were on "precautions". There was a tub room where kids could take a bath. Aubrey had to get a sponge bath and have her hair washed over the sink. Why? Because we were on precautions. There was a play room for the kids to play in. Aubrey wasn't allowed in. Why? Well, you get the idea. It SUCKED. Obviously I understand why we couldn't leave the room with her.. I just felt horrible that she was stuck in a 10x10 room for 4 days.

They wanted to discharge us on Monday but I refused. I just was NOT comfortable with going home. She still wasn't drinking anything and didn't have a wet diaper without being on the IV. They agreed to keep her longer. Tuesday she seemed to be on the road to recovery, so we got discharged around 11am.

We have been taking it pretty easy. She had a follow-up appointment with her doctor today and she has lost 2 pounds which is 10% of her body weight. She got 3 shots, including the first part of the flu shot. We have to go back in a month to get the other half and for a weight check-up since she lost so much. She hasn't really had much to drink but it's definitely progressing. I went to the store Tuesday night and got her a bunch of different drinks so she would have a variety to choose from. She has been eating like a champ. I guess it's just a matter of time til she's back to her normal self. :)

Violet kept her company

Poor babygirl :(

Toast, banana & Cheerios!

The Little Mermaid!

The day she got discharged. You can definitely tell she was starting to feel better!

I know I still have to make a post about our trip to Georgia, I will try to get that done ASAP!

October already!?

2010-10-01T22:43:00.003-04:00

I can't believe how fast this year is going by. It seems that, ever since I had Aubrey, our lives have been a blur. The past few days have been less than pleasant. Aubrey has had a very high temperature and we even took her to the hospital last night because she was up to 103º. They had to put a catheter in her for a urine sample and had Keith & I hold her legs down and let me tell you, that was, without a doubt, the single most hardest thing I have done thus far as a mother. To have to restrain my inconsolable toddler down and know she is in pain was just heartbreaking. It turns out that her urine was fine (of course!) and she has a minor ear infection. But I don't know, I feel like there is something else wrong, too. The last time she had an ear infection she didn't react NEARLY this bad.

It started yesterday afternoon. I took her to the mall around 3:30 because we were going to have her Halloween pictures done in her costume (she's going to be a bee!). We weren't scheduled til 5 so I let her lead the way around the mall and she had a blast riding in the rides and playing in the kids area. We had a late lunch/early dinner and then headed into the portrait studio and I got her dressed. Her costume consists of a long sleeve onesie, tights, and the actual costume (which is like a big pullover vest, hat & wings) and she started to feel really warm, and I figured it was because of the costume. She went from really upbeat to VERY upset in a matter of a few minutes. I took the vest off and tried giving her some juice and she wanted no part of it. I stripped her down and put her back in her short-sleeve onesie and had to carry her back to the car along with the diaper bag, a new pair of shoes I bought for her to go with her costume, AND her costume and let me tell you, I thought my arms were going to fall off! I grabbed some Tylenol at Target because ours is MIA and gave it to her when we got out to the car.

We got back home & she was passed out in the car so I put her in her crib, took her temp (102º) and she slept for an hour. Woke up and her temp was 103º. I called the doctor and gave her the symptoms and she was really concerned with the fact that Aubrey was just laying there being really lethargic. She suggested bringing her to the hospital, so we packed the diaper bag and off we went. We were seen very quickly which was nice because we're usually waiting at least an hour. As I said above, they administered a catheter. There was talk of bloodwork but it got nixed (but now I'm almost wishing they did some so we could rule it out). They gave her some Motrin and finally at a little past midnight we left. We went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for an antibiotic and got home and put her to bed. She slept til about 7 in her crib and then til about 10:30 in bed with us. Her temp got up to almost 104º earlier but we gave her some Motrin and it's back down to 101º but she has been refusing liquids so I won't be happy until she gets some in her. I'm praying we don't have to bring her back to the hospital because I have a feeling she will be admitted.

I have so much to tell you all about our vacation last week to Georgia but it'll have to wait til another day. Please keep us in your thoughts/prayers!

So good, so good, so good!

2010-09-08T13:09:00.004-04:00

Every summer that Keith & I have been together (with the exception of last year, because I was either 9 months pregnant & moody, or recovering from my c-section), we have traveled to Boston to go to Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox play. About a week before tickets went on sale, we decided that this year, Aubrey was going to go to her first game. We got standing room seats because they're just about the cheapest tickets in the park, and if we had to leave early for whatever reason, we wouldn't be out a lot of money. Since she is under 2, we didn't even have to buy her a ticket.

We weren't even going to go to the game. We were supposed to get hit by Hurricane Earl the night the game was going on. They ended up rescheduling the game for the next day so that worked out better for us (for the record, we BARELY got any rain!). We got into Boston at noon and took the T straight to Fenway for the 1:05 game.

Well, we were right. At the start of the 4th inning, Aubrey wanted nothing to do with the game. I tried letting her walk around when I took her to the bathroom, and even in between innings.. but she was tired of sitting so we packed everything up and left. I was kind of bummed because, at every Fenway game, in the 8th inning, Sweet Caroline is played and everyone gets really into it and it's my favorite part of the game.

I yanked this off of Youtube. It starts getting good at 0:30.

They lost 3-1 to the Chicago White Sox so we weren't too upset to miss the end of the game. Here are some pictures we got before she started to get too cranky:

On the train. Keith's dad got her the Cheerleader outfit for her birthday. Too cute.

This was right when we go to Fenway. She woke up as soon as the crowd went started cheering when the first pitch was thrown.

My new favorite picture of us!

Aubrey & her daddy!

Ridiculous Fenway prices.. I ended up paying almost $25 for 2 Italian sausages, fries, and 2 bottles of soda, which weren't even your typical 20 oz size.. they were only 12 oz and $3 a piece. I was blown away! We should have brought our own drinks. They didn't even check our diaper bag when we went in. Definitely keeping that in the back of my mind for next year.

In all, we had a good time and we can't wait to try again next year!!

Happy September!

2010-09-01T12:19:00.003-04:00

Can you believe it's already September? This summer was a whirlwind of parties, cookouts, and fun in the sun!

Parties...

Day outings:

Fun at the beach & swimming:

Trying new things, like Goldfish crackers and macaroni & cheese:

And a very special little girl's first birthday:

To celebrate the end of summer, I updated the blog's layout and I think it came out very cute. Here's to a wonderful Fall!

We got a "kee-kee"!

2010-08-31T12:22:00.000-04:00

For the past few months, Aubrey has shown a great deal of interest in kitties. My father-in-law's house is home to two cats that she absolutely adores.
Here's a picture of her with one of the cats, Taz:

When I was at Target with her last month, I was browsing through the children's department and looking through the Fall clothes they started to put out.. and that's when I saw it:

For $4, I couldn't say no!

But anyway, so Keith & I have been looking here and there for a feline addition to our family. I was going through Craigslist pet ads and found a woman that was looking to find a "forever home" for her 1 year old Calico. She was already fixed and she was adorable. I emailed right away and made plans to meet her/pick her up that night. Before heading over, we stopped at Target for all the cat necessities and we pondered potential names the whole ride there.

I would like to introduce the latest addition to our family, Phoebe!

She is a really calm and loveable cat and Aubrey has fun chasing her around. She runs around the house saying "kee-kee" (kitty).. even Madden likes her!:

Do you have any pets? <3

Maine! & a (failed) attempt at a family portait

2010-08-24T10:16:00.003-04:00

Every August, we go up to my mother in law's house for a family reunion. Last year, we couldn't really do much because Aubrey was just a month old, but this year was a lot more fun!
Warning: this post will be very picture heavy!

We started our journey at 11:30 Friday morning. We drove up with our friend, Katy, because our car is acting funny and we didn't want to take it on a 4 hour trip. We stopped at Dunk's for coffee before hopping on the highway.

The weather up there is a big difference from down in Massachusetts, so we had to pack a ton of warm clothes, which I LOVED seeing Aubrey run around in! Nothing warms my heart more than seeing her playing in her footie pajamas :)

We got there around 4 and everyone was playing the Wii. Aubrey wanted to join in on the fun!

I made spaghetti for dinner and it was a huge hit. I used 2 boxes of spaghetti and it was ALL gone within 20 minutes. I'd like to thank my mother for teaching me how to make the best spaghetti in the world ;)

The best thing about Maine is, we all just sit around and talk while playing card/board games all weekend. Serious family bonding! While we were playing a rowdy game of Spoons (a really fun card game! If you've never played, I highly suggest it!), Aubrey explored under the table and played with her Grandma

Loves of my life:

Saturday morning was a lazy one! We hung around, had cereal for breakfast, and napped

Late morning/early afternoon, we all headed outside and played a bunch of games similar to those on a popular game show, Minute To Win It. Basically, contestants need to perform stunts using household items within a 60 second timespan.

This particular game involved 5 paper grocery bags cut to different heights. The object is to move the bags from the ground to a table using only your teeth. Your knees/hands can not touch the ground. It's harder than it looks!

Aubrey had fun with the paper bags! (though, nobody told her she could only use her teeth!)

For this game, two pennies were dropped down the legs of a pair of (unused) pantyhose. To win, you have to stick your whole arms down the legs and get the pennies and then bring your arms back out of the pantyhose within one minute. You can't use any other part of your body to help shuffle your way out. I didn't try this one, but it seemed tricky!

Aubrey had a blast playing in the grass all day.

We had a horseshoe competition going on until dusk. I was paired up with Keith's stepfather. We were doing really well in the beginning. We ended up winning a couple games, but by the time the last game came around, he had a bit too much to drink so I had to carry our team and we ended up losing. Oh well, maybe next year :)

As the day went on, the weather got cooler. Aubrey's summer outfit quickly turned into a quarter sleeve shirt, jeans, and sneakers. She looked so darn cute in her Boston Celtics shirt!

She LOVES "talking" on my cell phone!

Aubrey spent a good part of the weekend playing with my mother in law's dog, Lucky. He definitely sensed that she was a lot smaller/more fragile than everyone else! While he jumped up and gave the rest of us kisses, he was very gentle towards her and even let her jump on him and pull his tail!

Sunday mornings up in Maine are usually pretty slow-paced. His mother cooks a big breakfast (though, I didn't really eat much of it this year. I'm trying to be good since there is only TWO weeks left in the weight loss competition I'm in and I'm in the lead!) and we spend the last morning together just talking and getting everything ready to leave (and, of course, Aubrey plays since she can't pack just yet ;))

After breakfast, we pack the cars up and say our goodbyes.. then we're off on another 4 hour car ride. We stopped at the first rest stop we saw to fill up on gas. This particular rest stop happened to have a Starbucks so I stopped and got a skinny cinnamon dolce latte to warm myself up since it was cold and rainy. I also pulled Aubrey's blanket out of the trunk and she took a nice, long nap. :)

Sunday night consisted of grocery shopping, dying my hair, shopping for new outfits to get our pictures taken in, a pretty late bedtime for Aubrey, followed by a game of Monopoly for me & Keith. This is our favorite game to play. We get pretty competitive (all in good fun, of course). Keith had Monday off so we planned on doing family portraits. I got up early Monday morning and got my haircut. It had been over a year since I got it done last (before my baby shower!) so needless to say, a lot was cut off because it was dead. I left the salon with my head feeling SO much lighter! It's amazing what a good hair cut/style can do for the soul ;)

Our photo appointment was for 1:20, so at 12 we got ready to leave so we could have a quick lunch beforehand. But of course that didn't happen the way we planned.. We spent half an hour trying to find the car keys that Aubrey so sneakily hid in my underwear drawer. Luckily we found them and got there with plenty of time to spare.

I wish we would have attempted family pictures when Aubrey was younger (I originally wanted to do them when she was first born, but after having to have a c-section, I was in no mood to get my photos taken!). She did NOT want to sit still! We managed to get a few good ones, but a majority of them showed a very cranky toddler.

Here are the ones we decided to get prints of. The photographer literally had to chase Aubrey around with the camera to get these shots:

Mouth full of Goldfish crackers. These will be displayed in the living room. I figure it will be a good story to tell when people come over :)

And here are a couple of outtakes, just because I think Aubrey is hilarious in them (however, I didn't think so yesterday, but looking back she looks pretty damn cute)

Hope you all are having a nice week!
<3

We're going on a trip..

2010-08-19T16:13:00.000-04:00

I won't be around tomorrow since we are going up to Maine for a Family Reunion so I figured I would post today.

This week hasn't been very eventful, though we did have a going away/birthday party for a friend of ours that is going off to Afghanistan next month. I didn't get a chance to take pictures so I'm going to swipe some from Katy @ Tangerine Hearts :)

The cake that I made. The gel that I got to write on it was horrible. Guess that's what I get for skimping and buying the cheap brand!

The guys. Ryan, Mike, Spencer, Diego, and Jon [the guest of honor] in the front

Me & Holly

Mike & Keith

It was a good night. We left around 11:30 and enjoyed a quiet night at home since Aubrey was with Christina

One bummer about this particular trip up to Maine is that we can't bring our dog since my mother-in-law's neighbors have a dog that they don't like to keep on a leash and it seems vicious, but my wonderful mother is going to come over and house and puppy-sit while we're away.

I'll be back Sunday with lots of pictures and shenanigans to write about :)

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
<3

Old MacDonald had a farm...

2010-08-14T17:06:00.005-04:00

And we went to go visit! Yesterday, my mother & I took Aubrey to Parlee Farms, which is right up the street from our home. I wanted to get some strawberry preserves to make Breakfast Cupcakes and I thought it would be fun to show Aubrey the baby goats.

Getting ready to go, all dressed in her farmer attire. Funny story: I had a different shirt picked out.. a plaid one to go with the "farmer theme" (yeah, I'm a nerd). I put it on the coffee table because Aubrey was occupied playing with one of her toys and I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.. and she comes in with the shirt and throws it in the toilet! I guess she didn't approve of it. :( But that's okay. I still love her.

^ Me loving Aubrey.

She had fun with the goats.

So I got some strawberry preserves, and they were sampling a bunch of the jellies, so I tried the a hot jalapeno jelly and it was delicious, so I got a jar of that, too. It's so good on my Wheat Thins!

I worked for a few hours earlier & then came home to bake a cake for a going away party that we're attending tonight. Our friend Jon is going over to Afghanistan, and it was also his birthday earlier in the week so we all wanted to get together for one last hoo-rah before he leaves. I'm just waiting for it to cool so I can frost and decorate it. Aubrey is staying with Christina for the night. Hopefully it goes smoothly since she has never stayed there before!

Hope you all are having a nice weekend!

I'm back.

2010-08-10T22:14:00.002-04:00

We were without internet for a few days last week so I couldn't post at all over the weekend or make a Thankful Friday post.

We spent those days playing outside, discovering new toys Aubrey got for her birthday that she hadn't played with, and I got to introduce her to a few of my favorite kid movies. We watched The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Lilo & Stitch, and Happy Feet, which Aubrey absolutely loved. I pulled out the penguins that Keith got for me when the movie first came out and she loved playing with them.

She has also been trying a bunch of new foods and loving them all!

Meatloaf, carrots & mashed potatoes

French toast & sausage for breakfast!

Macaroni & cheese with hot dogs!

Over the weekend, we went to a family friends' birthday party. Aubrey was pretty cranky the whole time so we had to leave early and I couldn't get many pictures. It had a luau theme so we threw on a flowery dress and I made her a lei at the party that stayed on for a total of 5 seconds.

(Don't mind our possessed-looking dog in the background)

She wasn't amused.

This week, Keith has been working overnights which is definitely taking it's toll on the three of us. Aubrey knows her Daddy is home and sleeping in the bed, so she sits at the closed bedroom door and cries because she wants to play with him all day. I, of course, can take this for about 5 minutes before it stops being "aww how cute, she misses her daddy" and starts really getting to me.. and of course he's tired because his schedule is all screwed up. Thankfully it's only til Thursday night.

Hope you are all having a good week!

The Butterfly Place

2010-08-01T11:26:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, we spent the morning trying to figure out what to do. Christina & Michelle were over so we wanted to do something. Keith suggested the beach, but when we go, we like to leave early in the morning so we can walk around before it gets too crowded. Since it was around 11, we decided to save the beach for another day. Another suggestion was the Lowell Folk Festival, an annual event where all the streets in Downtown Lowell are closed off and there is a ton of food, activities, and entertainment. We played with that idea for a bit but finally decided on The Butterfly Place, which is an indoor butterfly garden about 10 minutes down the street from us.

On our way!

She was confused!

Pretty butterfly!

Aubrey loved the pretty butterflies! (And the pretty butterflies loved Christina!)

We had a really nice time and can't wait until she's older so we can bring her back!

Thankful Friday

2010-07-23T10:52:00.000-04:00

I have decided to bring back "Thankful Friday". I never really wanted to "do away with it", but I wasn't posting very much so I kind of just.. fell off the wagon. But, I am posting a lot more frequently and I feel that we have so much to be thankful for and I want to share. :)

This week, I am thankful for..

Wonderful friends. I had been having a crappy week. Things just didn't want to go my way & Aubrey had been super cranky. I checked the mail yesterday and saw that my friend, Sarah, sent me a card and it totally made my day. She made me feel so appreciated. I am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life. :)

Aubrey's messes. Because really, if I didn't have her mess to clean up, what else would I do with while she was napping? ;)

I am also thankful that everything is back to normal with the family. It isn't my place to say exactly what happened, but someone in our close family had a really, really tough week and I'm glad to see him home again with a smile on his face. :)

What are you thankful for this week?
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend <3

Finally turning around..

2010-07-19T09:01:00.002-04:00

Things have been really good lately. I got a job as a PCA (personal care assistant) for a boy with cerebral palsy and I really enjoy it. I've been working a lot the past week trying to learn everything I need to learn (there is so much!) and to get familiar with Brandon. He is such a sweetheart! Always has a smile on his face. :)

Aubrey has been going all over the place. Her walking has really improved. It's not her hanging onto the coffee table, letting go, and taking 2 steps. Now, it's sitting on the floor, pushing herself up to stand without any help, and then walking 7-8 steps at a time. It's really funny to see! I will have to try to sneak a video in, because every time she sees the camera she gets distracted and won't do anything haha

Madden seems to be adjusting better to Aubrey (it's only taken him, what, a year?)

Gotta love crappy cell phone pictures!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we celebrated Keith, Christina & Michelle's 25th birthday last week! I made cake (lots & lots of cake!). I made each of them their own small cake, and then I made a big, 3 layer cake for everyone to have. The trouble with that is..

The heat didn't appreciate the hard work I put into it, and made the whole thing topple over. :( It was still really good, though!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend
<3

Suggestions, please!

2010-07-11T21:27:00.002-04:00

What are your favorite Blogspot blogs to read? I would love some new ones to follow. :)

Look who's taking baby steps!!

2010-07-09T12:42:00.002-04:00

Today, Auntie Michelle came over to come with me to a doctor's appointment. It's always a hassle when it's just me & Aubrey because she's still too little to just sit there while I'm being looked at for whatever. Today, I was meeting with a specialist to see if I need surgery to get my gallbladder removed. I went for an ultrasound last week and it came back normal, but he's sending me for another at the beginning of August. He said that, even though it came back normal, all of my symptoms (and the area of my pain), point to the gallbladder. From there, I have two options. Deal with the pain or get my gallbladder removed. I'm most likely going with the latter because I just can't deal with the pain. It's the worst when I'm by myself with Aubrey because I can't exactly just curl up in bed and cry. I have a child that needs me to take care of her.

Anyway, so after the appointment, we came back to our house and hung around and played with Aubrey. And that's when it happened..

A deep breath, and baby steps
That's how the whole things starts
It's a long, slow, beautiful dance
To the beat of a heart ♥

Happy Birthday To You... ♥

2010-07-07T12:19:00.003-04:00

Monday (July 5th) was Aubrey's actual birthday.. so obviously we celebrated!

The day started with me dressing her up in her birthday party outfit (since I got NO pictures of her wearing it at her party! Bad mama!)

I read online that Denny's gave a free birthday breakfast, so off we went!

(She ate maybe 1/6 of her scrambled eggs & silver dollar pancakes)

After Denny's, we went across the parking lot to Kohl's to do some shopping with a gift card that she got her for her birthday. We got her two fall outfits

"Mommy's Little Sweetie"

"Daddy's Girl"

We went to Grampy's to go swimming for an hour or so before we had to go home so I could get dinner ready. We had Keith's dad & stepmother (aka Grampy & Grammy) and my mother (aka Nana) over for a birthday dinner. I made chinese food (yes, made it! Grammy didn't believe I was actually making it but I promise there were no takeout containers involved). We had orange chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls. Aubrey just had some rice but she seemed to love it! After dinner, Christina came over with a birthday cake!

We did a quick outfit change because we knew we were going to see the fireworks (because, for some reason, our neighboring cities/towns like to do it a day early or late, never on the actual 4th)

We packed everything up and went down to Grampy's for cake & fireworks, since he's about a 5 minute walk from the area.

It was so hot.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Aubrey, Happy Birthday to you!

(Isn't her bow too cute!? I got it from Sophie's Candy! The girls that run this site are so sweet, and their stuff is adorable & very affordable! If you have a little girl I highly recommend them for your girly needs!)

After we enjoyed the yummy cake, we headed over to watch Aubrey's "birthday fireworks" (they were also the first time she has seen them, so it was really exciting!)

We ended the night with a dip in Grampy's pool since it was still in the high 80's, even at 10 at night (Aubrey is not normally up this late, but hey, it was her birthday!). As I was going to get a swim diaper and bathing suit for her, Grampy decided it was a good idea to just put her in the pool as she was, clothes and all (thanks, Grampy!). When she got out, her diaper weighed A TON. We got her all dried off and luckily, Grampy had a surprise (dry!) outfit waiting for her to go home in :)

Our little Red Sox cheerleader ♥

I almost made it the whole day without shedding a tear (hey, a first birthday is very emotional!). But when we were watching the fireworks, I couldn't help but remember that on that very same day exactly one year ago, we were watching those very same fireworks from my hospital room while we prepped for my c-section and I let a few tears go and gave my Birthday Girl an extra big hug.

♥

Polka Dot Party!

2010-07-07T10:03:00.002-04:00

Aubrey's party was a big success! I spent the night before at my sister's house to make food (and so I wouldn't have to make the half hour drive to her house in the morning)

Keith & Aubrey got there around 11

She had a blast with the balloons! I bought a helium tank and Jeannie & I blew them up. The room was filled!

My other sister, Dawn, made the big cake that everyone ate.

I made Aubrey's "smash cake". I had fun making the adorable banner to put on it!

Pictures of Aubrey's first year decorated the yard (along with jelly beans that matched the party's theme!)

The birthday girl's high chair, complete with a '1' banner, birthday bib, and a balloon bouquet that I didn't get in the picture

Original plans were to have a banner made that said "Happy 1st Birthday, Aubrey!" but it fell through, so when Jeannie & I went to a party store to get some streamers the night before and I saw this banner hanging, I had to get it because 1) It had polka dots (though its hard to see in the picture) 2) It had all the birthday colors (blue, green, orange, pink), & 3) Hello Kitty!!!

We decorated the deck with the streamers. I think it looks pretty neat ;)

Alright, enough with the decorations! Time for some photos of the guest of honor ;)

Enjoying some lunch

Pedicure! ♥

Mmmm, cake

So many presents!

Her favorite toy of the day? A brush she's had since the day she was born.

(but this balloon came in a close second)

They complete me <3

It was a great day. We were in the company of amazing family & friends who helped make her day amazing. I fought the tears all day and I think I did a pretty good job (except for when everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to her, then a few tears snuck their way out). I can't believe how fast this year went by. It will make me treasure the years to come that much more.

Beach baby!

2010-06-17T19:07:00.004-04:00

Last summer (if you want to call it that), we had constant rain. It was a drag and a major summer buzzkill. Seriously, the week I was in the hospital after having Aubrey (I had to stay longer because I had a c-section), I was in a bed next to a window where the only view I got was the raindrops falling on the window. This summer doesn't look very promising, either. It's supposed to rain for 5 days straight next week. I checked accuweather & weather.com and they both said that the day of Aubrey's party is supposed to be sunny and in the low 80's. I'm praying that it stays that way, though I know that there is a lot of room for that to change. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Aubrey & I went to the beach on Tuesday with her auntie Christina and Christina's friend, Jen. It was fun. We laid out in the sand and got a little sun. I actually got some nice color instead of burning, which was nice. The water was cold so we didn't go swimming, but we did get our toes wet!

Fun in the ~~sun~~ shade!

All the fun wore her out!

We also went for a walk at a local park/walking grounds called Mine Falls. I was excited to use the backpack carrier I scored for $10 at a yard sale last month.

Clearly, she loved it!

"Hi Dad!"

The last few days have been spent doing crazy party planning. I got a huge dent done out of my "Party To-Do" list but there is still a lot to do. I made a list of the things I need to buy for food, decorations, and gifts for Aubrey. I already have some things for her (tote bag that I am going to sew a "sweet pea" (her nickname) patch on, a ton of summer clothes, a pair of sandals, a Little People car, and 6 "Little People" (even though they're animals..). I still want to get her another Little People car, a Little People building, a booster seat for the kitchen (because her high chair takes up so much space!), books, a few sippy cups to try to get her away from the bottle, a pool float, sandals & sneakers (because she has outgrown the ones Grampy got for her not even a month ago!), some letter magnets for the refridgerator, some snacks, and maybe some new bedding if I have some money leftover. Yes, she is spoiled!!! Now I just need to wait til Tuesday when I get paid to go nuts :)

I'm off to go watch Michael Jackson's This Is It. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest it. I may be biased cos I was (still am) a huge MJ fan.. but ah well :)

D'oh!

2010-06-11T13:40:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I was reading Pam's blog [theburrusfamily.blogspot] just now, and realized that she nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger award a while ago (I should really keep up with this!!). Thank you, Pam!!!

The rules for the Beautiful Blogger award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who nominated you

2. Copy and paste the award to your blog

3. Link the person who nominated you

4. List 7 interesting things about yourself

5. Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers

Now, 7 interesting things about me... Oh man this will be tough.

I can't stand cold ketchup. It has to be room temperature or I will not eat it.
I spent my childhood summers at fairs with my father. He had a concession stand selling soda, cigarettes, and whatever else he had that year (he was definitely a businessman. He always had something going on.. whether it be statues, Disney movies, gumball machines..). He would stand me up on the booth and make me yell "cold soda, cigarettes!". I also learned how to and made my own fried dough when I was like 10 because he was buddy-buddy with "the fried dough people", who now have a fried dough stand up at the beach I go to every summer.. so I get free fried dough (or my new favorite, funnel cake!) whenever I go up there!
I am still afraid of the dark. I'm determined that there is someone waiting in the shadows to kill me.
I played Harriet Tubman in a 5th grade play. They put a ton of brown makeup on me. I wish I could find pictures to share.
I have a really bad shopping problem. I spend more money on Aubrey's clothes than I will ever admit. I pay more stuff for her clothing than mine (and I know I won't outgrow mine!)
I'm very crafty. I'm trying to open up a little business but I need funds before I can start.
I have an unhealthy addiction to these (clickable) frosted sugar cookies. Whenever I go shopping I need to distract myself from the aisle; especially now since I'm doing a "Biggest Loser" competition for the summer with a group of friends.

I nominate...

2010-06-11T13:06:00.003-04:00

On May 19th, I promised a "huge update very soon". It is now June 11th. Yikes.

Since Aubrey has started crawling, I don't have much computer time. She hates to be confined to her high chair, even when we're feeding her dinner she keeps trying to twist & turn her way out of it. She won't even sit in her seat to watch an episode of Wonder Pets. In the words of Ming-Mind duck, "this is sewious". I have to have my eye on her at all times. I take back the part where I said that motherhood was easy. It is far from easy, but it's the best damn thing that has ever happened to me.

Can you all believe that 2 weeks from tomorrow is her first birthday party? I have been spending the past 2 months thinking of things to do to make it perfect. Yes I realize "she's only one, she won't remember it." But guess what? A camera and my Flip camcorder will help her. In years to come it will show her how excited I was that she was growing up (as much as I hate to admit it). I've got every single little detail planned. I still have a ton of stuff left to do but it's keeping me busy at night while Aubrey sleeps & Keith plays Modern Warfare 2. I've been working on a scrapbook of her first year that I will finish before her party so people can look at it. I also made a slideshow DVD of pictures and videos.. from pictures of the positive pee sticks (yeah, I'm that girl), to my ever-growing belly, to hospital pictures, to videos of her cringing at the tartness of cranberry sauce. I've got it all and have it set to play to four songs ("My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw, "My Girl" by Jackson 5 [of course I had to get some MJ in there], "Let Them Be Little" by Lonestar [I haven't made the DVD yet, so I may change this one and put a faster-paced one in there] & "Forever" by Jesse & the Rippers [yeah, I went there!])

June has been such a crazy month so far, and it's not going to get any better. Whether it be a graduation party, baby shower, Father's Day, or of course, Aubrey's birthday party, we have something to do every weekend this month. Some weekends have 2 events. It's so crazy. If I knew June was going to be so jam-packed with things, I definitely would have had Aubrey's birthday party in the middle of July after the 4th plans have all died down.. but by the time we got wind of all of the things going on, invitations were already ordered and in my hand. There were so many things that I wanted to buy for her as birthday gifts, but I'll have to wait until after because I had to buy graduation gifts, shower gifts, & a Father's Day gift for Keith.

I wish I could post pictures things that I've done so far for the party, but I know that a lot of people that read this are going to be going and it would be nice to not spoil everything.. but I will post this picture, which was one of the ones we used for her invitations.

Anybody who has me added on Facebook has already seen this, but that's okay. It will be fun to look back on :)

One last thing before I sign off, I wanted to share that I am part of a 3 month weight loss comptetion.. "Biggest Loser" style. There are 12 girls and we each put $50 in. The person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight come the beginning of September gets $500 to buy a new fall wardrobe, and the second place winner gets $100. Tomorrow is our first weigh in so I'm really excited to see how everyone is doing. I cheated and looked at the scale last night and I've already lost 4 pounds this week. :)

I promise you'll hear more from me before another month passes!

I love Giveaways!!

2010-05-19T15:49:00.002-04:00

I have been so busy lately. I promise a huge update very soon!

But until then, head on over to Divine Image Photography's HUGE Multi-Giveaway post and try your luck! They have some fabulous gifts up for grabs.

Wow.

2010-04-05T14:36:00.002-04:00

i'm not quite sure how i let this go for almost a month. things have been absolutely crazy around here the past few weeks. i've been falling behind on everything, not just this. this morning i uploaded over 100 pictures to my facebook because i had been slacking on it. i uploaded pictures from aubrey's first trip to the park, our trip to the new england aquarium in boston, just random pictures that i take during the day, and of course her first easter, which was yesterday! we had a lot of fun with her. feel free to take a look at my facebook to see pictures. i wish i could post them all on here but i'd be here all day.

my sister had an early easter dinner on saturday because my neice is up from virginia. i don't know if you all remember when i posted about my great-nephew, owen, being born.. but we got to meet him for the first time! he is such a doll:

we recieved our beautiful layla grace dress last week from pick your pocket studio. her facebook page was running a contest a couple of weeks ago and aubrey won 12 free dresses! i can't wait to order them. :) i will share with you the layla dress, which aubrey wore for easter:

this is the best shot i have of it right now. i will post another one when i upload it from my camera.

last night was opening day at fenway park! the red sox played the new york yankees. it seemed that the yankees were going to win, but the sox came back and won! we are big red sox fans in this house.

aubrey is thisclose to crawling. by the time she starts, walking will be right around the corner, i'm sure. today is her 9 month birthday! we've already set a date & location for her 1st birthday party. it's crazy how fast this year is going by. we already bought the dress she is going to wear, plus napkins and thank-you cards. they go so perfectly with our theme we couldn't resist getting them a little early. she is saying 'mama', 'dada', and 'baba'. she understands what a baba is. she understands who 'madden' is (our dog). she is just getting so big so fast. watching her grow and learn every day is absolutely amazing. i'm so blessed to be able to stay home with her and i hope i can continue to do so.

hope you all are doing well.
<3

Rest in Peace, babygirl.

2010-03-09T14:19:00.002-05:00

sweet little layla grace, you accomplished more in your short time on earth than most people would ever dream of. you've made me look at life in a different way. while i am deeply saddened that you are gone, i am so thankful you are no longer suffering. have fun playing with the angels, babygirl.. and watch over your family. lord knows they will need it.

11/26/07-3/9/10
gone from this earth, but NEVER from my heart.

Recap Sunday

2010-03-07T11:41:00.002-05:00

this week was pretty busy! i was sick monday and tuesday, so late tuesday morning i went to the doctor's. they did a throat culture to make sure it wasn't strep. it wasn't; just a viral bug.

tuesday night, i went to a lia sophia opportunity night. i have decided to join this fabulous company and can't wait until my starter show & to get my kit to start doing shows of my own!

wednesday night, we just relaxed and had a movie night.

thursday night, my sister came over and watched aubrey while we went out for dinner at american joe's.

friday, i went to christina's house for her lia sophia party. after, we went out for drinks & dancing, which was fun. we're pretty bummed that we didn't get a chance to do karaoke, but next time for sure!

saturday [yesterday!] was fun! jeannie came over again so we could go to the movies. we were going to go thursday night, but by the time she came over it was too late for us to go see one so she said she would come over so we could go this weekend. we saw alice in wonderland in imax 3d and it was pretty good!

today, it is absolutely beautiful outside. i'm trying to get keith to come to the park with me & aubrey, but he is saying it's going to be too crowded. we are also going to go to walmart and get a new trash can and some dirty clothes hampers. we've had our trash can since we moved in here in 2007 and it's starting to smell, and the hampers we have are the mesh ones and they are all ripped and tattered. i am also going to look for magenta-colored shirts for the blood drive my friend, chrystyana, and i are doing in honor of layla grace. this guy that works downstairs from the place i used to work designs t-shirts, so after i buy them i will give them to him and he's going to put "team layla" on the front, and then on the back we're getting our names with the number '2', baseball style (because layla is 2 years old). i'm also having one made up for aubrey so that will be cute! i can't wait to get her "layla" dress in. it is absolutely adorable, and $10 from the sale is going towards layla's family for her medical bills, so it's for a good cause.

hope you all had a great weekend!

Cook-With-Me Saturday!

2010-03-06T11:34:00.000-05:00

whenever we're in the mood for chocolate chip cookies, this is the recipe i always go by. they come out so yummy and are super easy to make!

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
[makes 3 1/2 dozen]

ingredients:
1 cup of shortening or butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
2 cups rolled oats
[before you start making the cookies, make sure you don't have instant oats! the first time i made these, i accidentally got instant and when i took the first batch out of the oven, it looked like one big cookie because they all formed together!]

1. preheat the oven to 350º
2. in a large bowl cream shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. add eggs & mix thoroughly.
3. combine baking soda, salt and flour and stir into creamed mixture.
4. add oatmeal & chocolate chips and stir until well blended.
5. drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet & bake for 15 minutes

Grateful Friday

2010-03-05T10:34:00.002-05:00

this week, i am thankful for...

my little sweetpea. she is 8 months old today!! i don't even want to begin to think where the past 8 months went.

i'm also thankful for all the extra "help" i got in the kitchen today while making rice krispies treats!

hope you all have a lovely weekend!

[ps: i totally had this typed out on friday and right before i posted, my computer froze and i forgot to come back and post it!]

Must-have Thursday!

2010-03-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

this week's "must-have" is:

i found these on etsy and fell in love! i am currently waiting to hear back from the seller to see how stretchy they are so i can order them for aubrey. it says "newborn" crochet hat, and they are priced by the dozen@ only $20.99! if these will fit her for a while and i can choose the colors i want, i am ordering them asap! i fell in love with these when i saw miss layla grace [laylagrace.org] wearing them. i should really learn how to make them, but for now i'm happy just buying some.

Memory Wednesday

2010-03-03T10:25:00.002-05:00

this is me on easter last year, at just about 7 months pregnant! since we're all getting in the easter spirit here, i figured it would be appropriate :) we don't really celebrate st. patrick's day since we aren't irish, so i use this month to prepare for the easter bunny, especially since it's the first weekend of the month this year!

Tuesday Love!

2010-03-02T05:49:00.002-05:00

when i did our grocery shopping yesterday, i came across this. i love green tea, i love ginger ale. this is perfect! i was really excited to get home to try it and when i did, i wasn't disappointed. good job, canada dry!

Wordless Monday

2010-03-01T03:54:00.002-05:00

Anniversaries, and V-day, and babies, oh my!

2010-03-01T03:01:00.005-05:00

can you all believe that it is already march?! february just came and went so fast, i barely even knew it was here. it was a pretty busy month for us, between our one-year wedding anniversary, valentine's day, and last but definitely not least, the birth of my first great-nephew! WARNING: this post is going to be very picture heavy! :D

the last time i posted was, *gasp*, the 12th of february. we have a lot to catch up on, don't we? go on and grab a cup of coffee. i'll wait for you.

are you cozy? did you grab me a cup? extra cream, 1 equal please :)

alright... and here we go!

our anniversary was the 7th. of course, it landed on superbowl sunday so we spent it at my father-in-law's with the family. i can't believe how fast a year flew by. though, with being in the last half of my pregnancy, giving birth, and then raising a newborn, you could see where it all went. we've had some ups & downs, but they say that the first year is the hardest and i think we did a damn good job, especially with being first-time parents on top of being in our first year of marriage.

valentine's day was fun, although aubrey was getting over a tough cold. you could tell she wasn't feeling 100%, but she still gave me that beautiful smile for pictures.

i spotted this precious moments card at hallmark and didn't think twice about grabbing it. i love precious moments and collect the figurines so it was perfect! her eyes are all red from her rubbing at them :(

and here, ladies & gentlemen, is what my daughter's personality is turning out to be:

what can i say? she got it from her momma :)

sigh, still no teeth!

now it's time to introduce to you the newest addition to our family! my niece, carina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on february 23rd at 5:25pm. he weighed 8.5lb and was 21.5" long! this makes me a great-aunt & keith a great-uncle!

mommy & baby

my sister, dawn. the proud nana :)

we are so blessed and thankful to welcome this gorgeous little man into our family! unfortunately, they live in virginia so we haven't met him yet.. but we are very excited to! congratulations, carina & mike!

i'll leave you off with some random pictures!

last sunday, i cooked a big ham dinner and my mother & my in-laws came over. i decided to let aubrey feed herself some mashed potatoes and squash :)

all of that eating must have worn her out, because this was her 10 minutes after her bath:

in an effort to update this blog more, i am going to have each day be a "theme", similar to grateful friday:

wordless monday - just pictures, no words (i will be making a post piggybacking this one with some pictures!)
tuesday loves - a post of things i am especially loving this week.
memory wednesday - a memory, whether it be in picture of writing form.
must-have thursday - a post with things i feel that i *must have*
grateful friday - what i am grateful for this week.
cook-with-me saturday - a recipe that we love
recap sunday - a recap of what we did this week

of course, i will also post here & there about whatever i feel like talking about, along with the theme for the day.

Grateful Friday

2010-02-12T15:32:00.002-05:00

today, i am grateful that my sweetpea has kicked whatever it was that was making her feel miserable. it only lasted a day or two, but it was a day or two longer than i would have liked.

when i finally got her comfortable enough to take a nap, she slept for two hours! that's about 4 times the amount she usually naps, especially when she isn't in her swing.

but, she seems to be feeling much better today. she's back to her old giggly self again.

i also wanted to ask you all to say a prayer, or if you aren't religious then please just keep this family in your thoughts. http://laylagrace.org/ layla is a beautiful 2 year old girl from the houston, texas area who is slowly losing her battle with cancer. i have never sat here and cried over someone i didn't know.. but this story has me absolutely heartbroken. if you have a child, please hug her/him extra tight tonight, and be thankful that you have them.

hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
<3

Homemade baby food & party planning!

2010-02-01T18:45:00.002-05:00

i've finally gotten the motivation and time to really think about making aubrey's baby food! we get 31 cans of it for free from wic, but they are all boring flavors and half the time, the grocery store i go to only has a couple kinds in stock so aubrey doesn't have any variety. so, once we get our tax money back i am going food shopping and getting different fruits and veggies, and probably a food processor, and am going to go to town!

if anybody has any good recipes or websites, please feel free to share them! i know of Wholesome Baby Food. i'd especially like your baby's favorites!

another thing i've started to think about is aubrey's first birthday party. yes, it's not until at least june (depending on when my family is going camping, we will have it either june 26th or july 10th). but i have ocd about planning things/making lists/etc. i have the theme picked out already and am gathering ideas from different websites and i can't wait to start making things! if they come out the way i'm picturing them in my mind, i was thinking of making an etsy shop. i make a few things really well, but would like a bigger variety of product before setting anything up on the website. i'm not sure if i'll be sharing the theme before the party actually happens, but we'll see!

Grateful Friday

2010-01-29T11:07:00.003-05:00

this week has been a huge blur. i don't know why, but it has gone by so fast!

this week i am grateful for:
* the spring-like weather, even if it did only last a couple of days
* madden (our dog) finally warming up to aubrey. he has always been protective of her. if anybody other than myself or keith held her he would be right there staring them down; but if i put aubrey near him he'd get up and move. but not anymore!

* and of course, what i am thankful for every week: being able to spend all day with this beautiful smile:

this weekend is going to be a busy one. tomorrow, i have to go to training to become a girl scout leader. a couple girls that i went to girl scouts with and i are going to start a troop! then after that, aubrey and i are going to a birthday party for the son of a family friend. then on sunday, my best friend (since we were 2!) is coming over. i also need to throw food shopping into the mix, maybe tonight after i go to the hospital for my mri (they are trying to figure out why my back/hips/knees are always in so much pain! i hope they can find out & help me figure out a way to deal with it!)

hope you all have a lovely weekend
<3

Grateful Friday

2010-01-22T08:03:00.003-05:00

how did i let 20 days go by since the last time i posted?! ed, kyle & peyton started on their long drive back to georgia yesterday. we all went out for dinner at the olive garden on wednesday night, so that was nice. they will be back up in the summer for aubrey's birthday party.

i got aubrey's 6 month pictures done about two weeks ago and i picked them up yesterday! the quality isn't the best because i had to take pictures of the pictures. our scanner is not hooking up to our computer just right.

i am thankful for being able to see this every day:

this was the picture that we chose to get multiples of..

..but you know i let them sucker me into getting these ones, too. look at this first one with the calendar. it melts my heart! i couldn't say no to it:

hope you all have a wonderful weekend
<3

Grateful Monday

2010-01-11T19:05:00.003-05:00

this week, "grateful friday" has become "grateful monday".

so, on this monday, i am extremely. thankful. (i can't stress it enough) for having such a healthy little girl.

(don't mind the christmas pjs! we don't have many pjs that fit her right now, as she is going through a growth spurt!)

a friend that i met on WhatToExpect.com when i was pregnant is going through an extremely difficult time with her daughter (who was born in july, just like aubrey) right now. out of respect for her, i won't say exactly what is going on but it makes me sit back and realize how fortunate i am that aubrey has been 100% healthy for her first 6 months of life (minus a small 24-hour stomach bug she had on thursday) and i can only pray that this good health continues until she is old and gray. my fellow WTE mama and her family are in my thoughts & prayers, as well as everybody else she knows, i'm sure. <3

that being said, i am also grateful for family. aubrey met her first little cousin, peyton, on thursday. peyton lives in georgia and is visiting for a couple of weeks with keith's brother and his wife. aubrey is almost 3 months older than peyton, but peyton is almost just as big.

hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Holiday Recap!

2010-01-01T11:16:00.004-05:00

i hope you all had a wonderful christmas and new years eve. i apologize for not posting for a while. every weekend in december was a busy one! the weekend after aubrey's baptism was my niece's baby shower. she is having a boy and is due in march! then, of course, the weekend after that was christmas, and before i knew it, it's almost 3 weeks since my last post!

christmas eve, we went to 3 different houses to celebrate! first we went to keith's father's house. we opened our presents and spent some time there. i got some good-smelling candles from bath & body works (kitchen spice & moonlight pomegranate) and a giftcard to michael's (which i already used, obviously! i love my crafts!). aubrey got quite a few toys and outfits. after that, we went to my sister's house for presents and dinner. i finally got some cushions for my rocking chair! it is much more comfy to sit in now. after we left there, we went to keith's stepmother's brother's house. we played rock band (i even sang! nothing too hard, just the ramones & another song that i can't remember right now). we got home around 11 and aubrey slept through til 6am when i woke her up to open presents.

santa was very good to us this year! after presents, we packed up the car, picked up keith's sister christina, and started on our 4 hour journey up to maine. we stopped at a gas station to fill up before hitting the highway and they were giving away free iced coffee (i know, i know, iced coffee at a gas station? but it is REALLY GOOD coffee. better than dunkin's, in my opinion!) so i pretended like i had a car full of people that wanted coffee when i went in and got more than just one :)

when we walked into keith's mother's house she was sitting at her dining room table. when she saw us, she got up and ran over to us and gave us hugs and started crying. i'm so glad that we could surprise her like that. she grabbed aubrey right away and brought her over to open presents. she got her that recordable 'twas the night before christmas' book that hallmark put out this year, which is great because now aubrey will be able to recognize her grandma's voice even though we don't see her often. we stayed until about 10am on sunday and then came back home.

a few (of many!) christmas pictures:

aubrey and the build-a-bear santa brought for her. matching outfits!

we had a nice new years eve, too. i gave aubrey a bath in the new inflatable rubber duckie tub i got her! she's getting too big for her new tub (did i mention, she is now 17.5 lb and 26.5" long!?

aubrey must've known it was a special occasion, because she just did not want to sleep! finally around 10pm we decided to go over to keith's dad's to bring in the new year.

this week is going to be a pretty busy one, as well. aubrey's little cousin peyton is coming up to visit from georgia! we haven't met her yet and we are so excited to see her and keith's brother and wife. i will definitely be posting pictures! we are also in the process of rearranging and cleaning our apartment top to bottom, so expect pictures from that soon too!

i wish you all a year that is full of laughter, fun and of course, love! after getting married and being blessed with a beautiful, healthy little girl, i know 2009 will be a tough year to follow, but i am excited to see what 2010 holds for me & my family!

Aubrey's Baptism

2009-12-17T09:38:00.002-05:00

as you all know, we had aubrey baptized on sunday! the day started off with a bath

her hair is getting so long!

she did very well at the ceremony (meaning, she slept half of the time):

she liked when the holy water was poured over her head:

and even when she was awake, she was too focused on the ceiling fans at the church to be loud and talkative:

after the ceremony, we went back to aubrey's godparent's (who happen to be my sister and her husband!) home to celebrate.

i didn't see much of aubrey once the party started. there were so many people there who wanted to see and hold her!

aubrey got so many nice gifts from our family and friends. she got quite a few books (yay!), clothes, a few toys, picture frames, and keepsakes, not to mention some lovely cards.

after everybody left, we got her out of her dress and let her (attempt to) crawl around and play.

did you, or do you plan to, get your baby baptized? it was such a beautiful and spiritual ceremony and i am glad we did it!

Grateful Friday

2009-12-11T09:10:00.001-05:00

this week, i am grateful for...

another year with my mother! yesterday was her birthday. i made her a strawberry cake with cool whip topping. we went down to her apartment and gave her a card with some scratch tickets and enjoyed our little dessert..

aubrey had a tiny bit of cool whip, too!

this weekend is going to be a busy one. keith's mother is coming down from maine to spend the weekend for aubrey's baptism, which is on sunday. i also need to get the food ready. i am doing a fruit platter, tuna & chicken salad finger rolls, and crock pot kielbasa. :)

what are you thankful for this week?

Grateful Friday

2009-12-04T10:48:00.004-05:00

this week went by very quickly.

things i am grateful for this week...

i have no picture, but i am loving that we are getting our first snow storm of the year tomorrow! the past couple of days we have had such warm weather that i had to open the windows and enjoy the fresh air!

i'm grateful for winter evenings, which mean warm jammies and lots of snuggling by the tree

i'm grateful that aubrey is now just big enough to wear these pajamas. i bought them when i was pregnant, just a day after we found out that we were expecting a girl! i absolutely love them!

i'm grateful that madden is so good with aubrey. it takes him a long time to adjust to people, but the moment we brought aubrey home, he's very protective over his "little sister"

what are you grateful for this week?

New layout!

2009-11-30T12:29:00.004-05:00

i went to the fabric store on friday when keith got home from work and got some fabric to make a quilt for aubrey. i just got done cutting out the squares from the first pattern. i find that nothing feels better than cuddling under a blanket on a cold rainy day, kind of like today is. aubrey is also getting to be old enough where she will sit still and look at a book that i am reading to her, so we can do it more often now. i got her quite a few books for christmas already.

speaking of christmas, now that it is december (well, in 12 hours anyway...) i put up a christmasy layout! i think it's adorable.

last night, we gave aubrey carrots for the first time and she couldn't get enough of them! she kept grabbing keith's hands and wouldn't let the spoon leave her mouth.

after she ate, we had a movie night and snuggled:

i also wanted to share this video of aubrey from yesterday. i don't quite know what was so funny, but this video makes me smile every time i watch it :)

to get in the christmas spirit, what are you all asking "santa" for?
i would love:
a sewing machine
coffee for my keurig
and another wonderful year with my family

Grateful Friday

2009-11-27T13:43:00.004-05:00

this grateful friday is being written by an especially grateful mama. yesterday was aubrey's first thanksgiving! this year, my sister jeannie hosted thanksgiving at her house. the food was delicious, as always. after dinner at my sister's, we went to keith's dad's and spent some time there.

i absolutely love this dress.

trying so hard to sit up!

aubrey and her daddy

me and my little princess!

aubrey's little "feast". potatoes, squash, baby turkey in broth, and green beans! she also had a little taste of cranberry sauce:

also, aubrey has learned the true meaning of thanksgiving: passing out after eating!

another thing i am absolutely, without a doubt thankful for is discovering that frozen waffles make amazing teethers for a baby who rebels against teething rings:

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Grateful Friday

2009-11-20T10:16:00.007-05:00

i am extremely aware i've missed the past couple friday's and to be honest, if it weren't for miri @ herewearetogether making her grateful friday post, i most likely would have forgotten today too. the days just seem to blend together lately, mainly because my baby is taking shorter and shorter naps. yesterday, she only slept for about a half hour total all day! but she has been sleeping for almost three hours now to make up for the lack of sleep yesterday, but i won't say anything else as i don't want to jinx it :)

this week, i am thankful for:

hot chocolate with marshmallows (and no, the rum in the background sadly did not make it's way into our mugs)

old christmas movies. santa claus is comin' to town is my absolute favorite (much better than the new stuff they are coming out with these days)

my beautiful little family in front of our beautiful tree

my sweet baby, who really is the best gift ever.

i know it is a tad bit early to put up our tree, but from now until the end of the month, seehere.com is offering 50 free photo cards with free shipping! just enter code freebies4mom-1109 when checking out :)

what is everyone doing for thanksgiving? keith and i will be going to my sister's house. she is hosting thanksgiving for my family this year. after that we are going to my father-in-law's. i can't wait to put aubrey in her cute little dress!

Four months, already?!

2009-11-11T08:02:00.003-05:00

i can't believe my sweet little baby is already four months old. she's so close to sitting up on her own. all she does now is hold on to my finger. she is also becoming more & more aware of her surroundings. she loves looking in the mirror. she laughs every time she sees our dog, madden.

we are putting up our christmas tree early this year. after my experience with getting aubrey's pictures done at a "portrait studio", i've realized that i can do way better myself, and with a lot less frustration. so, instead of going out and paying too much money to get pictures done (sorry, mall santa, $22 for 2 5x7's is a bit much..) i will do them myself in front of our tree.

we tried our first bite of peas last week and she loves them. next on the agenda is green beans. we'll see how she feels about them. sweet potatoes are her favorite, i'd say. we can't get the spoon in her mouth fast enough!

what is your little ones' favorite foods?

There she goes...

2009-11-04T07:35:00.003-05:00

i'm happy (and a bit nervous, i must say) to announce that aubrey is now rolling!

this weekend was a busy one. halloween was saturday and i decided to wait until the last possible minute to finish making aubrey's costume (from scratch!). i hate to toot my own but i do think i deserve it this time. toot toot!

she (obviously) was elmo from sesame street! the dye in her shirt & hat didn't come out as dark as i would have liked, but i enjoyed making it very much.

aubrey & her daddy

aubrey & her (messy-haired!) mama

aubrey & her papa (and her friend, mr. spider!)

we went to the doctor's yesterday and aubrey now weighs 14lb7.5oz & is 25" long! our little girl is growing up so fast, it's unbelievable.

what were your little ones for halloween?

Well, hello there..

2009-10-29T13:05:00.002-04:00

things have been busy lately! we've set the date for aubrey's baptism, december 13, and i've been looking high and low for invitations that aren't crazy expensive. i got her gown at a consignment shop for $20 brand new with the tags still attached to it!
my sister and brother-in-law, jeannie & rob, are going to be aubrey's godparents. when deciding, there was no doubt in my mind that they were the ones i wanted to fulfill the role.

what else is going on? oh nothing much, besides aubrey is now eating rice cereal!! keith and i mixed some cereal with some formula and the results were not pretty. hilarious, yes. pretty, no.

since she didn't like it, i decided to go out and buy a few cans of banana puree to mix in and she absolutely loved it! it also made her sleep extremely well last night. we fed her the cereal right before bedtime and before putting her down, rubbed a little orajel on her poor little gums and she slept for almost 12 hours!

halloween is saturday and i have not finished aubrey's costume! i can't find the fabric dye that i bought and without it, i can't finish. if i can't find it by saturday, i will just go and buy one from walmart. they are ridiculously cute and inexpensive!

what are your little ones dressing up as for halloween?

Sorry.

2009-10-16T12:46:00.003-04:00

not much has been going on lately, so i apologize for not writing in this more often.
we did get our first snow of the season, even though it's only mid-october.

aubrey and i went to parlee farm on monday and took some pictures. i, of course, forgot my wallet.
otherwise i would have gotten some apples and a pumpkin, or two.

on wednesday, i took aubrey to the mall to get her pictures done and was not happy with the results. the photographer only took six pictures. out of the six, only one was good. if i didn't have a coupon for 36 photos for $4.99 i wouldn't have even ordered any.

this is the one that i ordered. all of the other ones she either looked awkward, or looked like she had just got done crying.

what are your plans for the weekend? <3

Our trip to Maine

2009-10-06T16:37:00.002-04:00

this weekend was lovely. friday morning, i packed up the car and me, aubrey & my mother started our 3 1/2 hour trip to maine to visit keith's mom. aubrey did quite well during the ride and we didn't have to stop at all! the foliage on the way up was absolutely beautiful. i wish i could've gotten a picture, or two. so many different shades of reds, oranges, and yellows..

it's always chilly up in maine, so i made sure to pack some extra snuggly pj's for my sweetie

aubrey and her grandma!

we left early sunday morning and later on that afternoon, we went to visit rachel and mackenzie:

such a big size difference! baby mackenzie is only 5 weeks old, so it is to be expected. aubrey was also 3 days late, whereas mackenzie was 3 weeks early.

i hope you all had a lovely weekend. i really do need to start updating this more! as soon as aubrey gets old enough to do more things, i will be making a blog just for her.

On the road again..

2009-10-01T23:12:00.002-04:00

i've spent the past hour trying to get aubrey to go to sleep but it's not looking too promising.
tomorrow after she has her a.m. feeding, i am loading up the car and we're taking a trip up to maine to visit keith's mom. it's a four hour drive so i would really like her to go to bed soon.
keith won't be going with us. just me, aubrey & my mom. it's my mom's first time up there so hopefully she'll like it. i made keith's mother & grandmother frames. if my camera wasn't already packed away i would upload the pictures to show you. i really love how they came out!

aubrey has been kind-of fussy for the past week or two. she was crying earlier and i got a good look at her gums and the bottom ones are super bumpy! i am praying that she's not getting in a bunch of teeth at once, the poor little thing. i have a couple of teethers packed and if worst comes to worst, i can grab some baby orajel at walmart when we get up to maine. hopefully i'll come back on sunday with lots of pictures to share.

i hope you all have a lovely weekend <3

This post has been brought to you by the number '4'..

2009-09-28T07:34:00.005-04:00

tagged by miri @ herewearetogether.com!

four jobs i’ve had
stock clerk/assembler at a wire & cable company
customer service rep at bed, bath & beyond
assistant manager @ claire's accessories
..and of course, a mama :)

four movies i could watch over and over
the departed
fever pitch
10 things i hate about you
sex and the city

four places i’ve lived
lowell
tyngsboro
(yep,just two.)

four places i’ve vacationed
daytona beach, florida
hartland, maine (my favorite place to go to get away! so quiet and peaceful, and we get to see keith's mom
columbus, georgia (not really a vacation, more like visiting his brother who got into a bad accident)
upstate new york

four of my favorite dishes
steak, corn on the cob & baked potato
chicken gratella
brocolli & cheese
macaroni & cheese (the best comfort food!)

four sites i visit daily
gmail
facebook
etsy
pogo

four tv shows i love
drop dead diva (i really hope they continue on with this.)
friends
sex and the city
jon & kate plus 8 (yes, still)

four albums i can’t live without
greatest hits, michael jackson (it's always playing in my car and keith hates it!)
jack johnson & colbie caillat mix i made
#1's, elvis presley
playtime fun, baby einsteins (i played it for aubrey and she loves it!)

four places i’d rather be right now
in bed, but i have a little one who, surprisingly, is hogging the whole thing in it's queen sized glory.
apple & pumpkin picking. pretty soon my favorite apples, honeycrisp, will be in full force. i think i will use these to make applesauce for aubrey.
in front of a fireplace with a good book & a sleeping baby by my side
up in maine. we may be going this weekend, which would be quite nice.

this weekend has been nice. friday was our anniversary (from when we started dating, not from when we got married). we went out for a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant with our friends mike & jon. saturday was a pretty uneventful day, but you need that every once in a while. keith did give aubrey a bath, and it was his first time (why yes, she is almost 3 months old and daddy still hadn't given her a bath yet):

yesterday, my best friend and her boyfriend came over. keith and kenny watched the football game while laura and i went to the mall. we met up with her brother, whom i haven't seen in years, and we went out for a late lunch. then we came back to my apartment and hung out for a bit:

i can't believe i didn't mention this last week, but keith and i have a new niece! charlotte peyton was born on september 23rd at 10:29 pm. she looks just like keith's brother! she's a doll. we can't wait for aubrey and her first little cousin to meet!:

i think i am going to start making aubrey's baby food pretty soon. it holds for quite some time, so why not get a head start? once she becomes mobile, i won't have time to do ANYTHING. does anybody have any good recipes for baby food, or links to websites? i would appreciate it.

how was everybody's weekend?

Well, that was fast..

2009-09-26T17:08:00.002-04:00

our adorable little fish, chandler, died earlier. we just got him last weekend at my niece's wedding.
rest in piece, little guy!

in other news, our apartment complex had a multi-family yard sale today. i got rid of quite a bit of things we don't use anymore and got some really neat stuff:
a coach wallet for $2. it's a fake, but it's the most authentic looking fake i've ever seen.
two baby einstein cds for aubrey. a lullaby one & a playtime one, $1 a piece! they go for like $15 in the stores.
a little fisher-price keyboard, only $0.50
two frames that my mother was going to put out, but she gave to me instead ;)
a giraffe toy, where you put the ball in it's mouth and it goes rolling down a spiral slide and ends up coming out of one of the giraffe's four feet. $1, too cute!
lilo & stitch, the movie. it's one of my favorites and it was only $1. i have no idea what happened to my copy of it. it must've gotten lost in the shuffle while keith and i moved in.

tomorrow, my best friend and her boyfriend are coming over. laura and i are just going to hang out while kenny & keith have some male bonding time over the patriot's game. should be good times. laura and i have been best friends since we were two year olds. my sister and her father were best friends so we saw each other all the time and became inseperable.

who is your oldest friend, and how did you meet?

Grateful... Monday

2009-09-21T07:02:00.003-04:00

i do apologize for being MIA for almost a week. it's been busy around here!

friday night was my niece's wedding. she and her husband have been together for 11 years and he finally popped the question last october. the wedding was beautiful.

this week i am thankful for:

my beautiful family. that's my niece, and yes she is 4 years older than me. :)

open bar, because well, who wouldn't be? ;)

our adorable new fish, chandler. he was the centerpiece at our table and we won him :)

and lastly, having fabulous friends. <3

what are you thankful for this week?

So much love in the air...

2009-09-15T14:49:00.005-04:00

this weekend was nice. saturday night was matt & holly's wedding:

congrats to you both! here's to a lifetime of love and happiness. we love you :)

sunday was the start of football season so you can imagine what we spent the day doing. yesterday was also the day that i decided that i am going back on weight watchers. keith said he was going to try doing it with me, so we'll see how that goes. i've b een having a hard time finding good sounding recipes, so once i get started i am thinking of starting another blog that will feature recipes, good low-point snacks, and my progress.

aubrey has been a bottomless pit today! she won't stop eating. i finally got her to sleep after fighting with her for a couple of hours.

friday night is my niece's wedding! carina & mike have been together for over ten years! she also announced her pregnancy a few weeks ago. i am so ecstatic for them, and i can't believe i am going to be a GREAT aunt at only 23. then on sunday i am finally having lunch with laura, my best friend of 20 years, and ryan, her ex-stepbrother. we all grew up together and after laura's dad and ryan's mom got divorced, we haven't seen him. i ran into him a couple of weeks ago when keith and i were taking aubrey for a walk on the boulevard and we've been trying to get together but things kept coming up.

i am off to look up some more weight watchers recipes!

Grateful Friday

2009-09-11T20:39:00.006-04:00

today is a very special grateful friday, as we are mourning the 8th year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. this week i am grateful for:

this gorgeous quilt that keith's mom made for aubrey. perfect for chilly mornings!

a gorgeous fall day, which ended with delicious homemade apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream.

the little mermaid, for entertaining aubrey while mama did some dishes and for having such catchy songs that i've been singing to her all day :)

above all, i am most grateful for those who fight for the freedom that everybody in this country enjoys. i am grateful for those who risk their lives over in foreign countries to protect us.. and above all, grateful that even after such a horrific tragedy, we as a country are able to stand tall and keep strong.

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Out in the yard with your wife and children
Working on some stage in LA
Did you stand there in shock at the site of
That black smoke rising against that blue sky
Did you shout out in anger
In fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry

Did you weep for the children
Who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below

Did you burst out in pride
For the red white and blue
The heroes who died just doing what they do
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself to what really matters

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Teaching a class full of innocent children
Driving down some cold interstate
Did you feel guilty cause you're a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone
Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her
Did you dust off that bible at home
Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Speak with some stranger on the street
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Go out and buy you a gun
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watching
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger
Stand in line and give your own blood
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

The greatest is love
The greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?

what are you grateful for this week?

Wake me up when September ends..

2009-09-08T22:42:00.003-04:00

i hope you all had a very nice labor day weekend. the weather was perfect for it!

keith and i took aubrey over to visit aunt kathy on sunday. she met her cousins, ashley & alyssa and her uncle ronnie (to avoid confusion.. there are 3 ronnies on keith's side of the family. one did pass away a couple of weeks ago.)

last night i decided to put aubrey in one of her many red sox outfits and do a two month "photoshoot". i laid our red sox blanket down on the bed over her boppy pillow (which, might i add, is the best invention.. EVER.) and propped her up on it and i went to town. why waste money taking her to get professional pictures done when i can do just as well for free?

i've gotten quite a big dent of my 'to-do' list done in aubrey's bedroom. she's outgrown all of her newborn clothing so i put them all in a box and added her 3-6 month clothing into her bureau along with the 0-3 month clothing that was already in there. all that's left to do, really, is to finish cleaning up the last of our stuff that is in there and decorate, which of course is my favorite part.

what did everybody do for labor day?