Aubrie Turns 4 Years 8 Months, Elise's 13th Month

I'm going to squash these two posts into one, since I haven't been doing a great job of writing posts lately. In fact, I'm even late writing this post. Such is life, I guess.

My two girls are growing up, and are so beautiful! Aubrie will be 5 before I know it, and Elise is not only 1, but a month past already. I'm enjoying every minute of it, though!

Aubrie is just a fun as ever. She's enrolled in a 3 day pre-k program at our church, and she is having a great time and learning a lot. I hope that we're doing as much for her as we did for Evan in getting ready for kindergarten next year (which I can't believe will be happening!).

Her speech always cracks me up, as I think the way she says things is just so cute. Lately she has taken to saying an "st" sound whenever it should be a "th" sound. This results in words like "stink" for "think," and "sting" for "thing," etc. When she says something like "I stink...," I try not to make a big deal about it, but we turn it into something funny. I'll say, "You stink?? I thought you smelled pretty good!" Then she'll realize what she said and usually fix it, trying to make me think that she said it correctly the entire time. :)

Other than that, we're just enjoying every day with her!

Elise is still not walking, or even standing on her own, but we can tell she has the idea. She doesn't try it on her own, but will take a few steps if she inadvertently grabs our finger. She's also cruising along furniture a lot more often. I'm ecstatic that she's not walking, as that is just that much more that I have to chase her! Her other favorite thing to do lately is to crawl up the stairs. We had to put a gate across the bottom of the stairs, but we still have to watch it as the other two kiddos tend to leave it open a lot. I usually let her crawl upstairs on her way to a nap, though, and she loves it!

Speaking of naps, I'm so thankful that all 3 of our kids have been good at napping. They're not great if we're out and about, or if there is something going on, but I could usually just "throw" them into their crib and say goodnight. Elise is the same way. She has her puppy, glow baby, blankie, and she's good! She's also a great snuggler, and it's cute to watch her snuggle with her puppie and blankie.

She's still nursing, and I'm loving the extra bonding time that I have with her. Staying home with her is one of the best things I've ever done, as it enables me to do these type things that are so important to me. I'm very thankful that I have this opportunity, and am loving every minute of it.

Until next time. :)

First Admirer

It has happened, albeit much sooner than we thought. Aubrie has an admirer! 

Funny story. While picking Aubrie up from Pre-K one day, this sweet boy walks up and asks her what her name is. She said, "Aubrie," and then his Grandmother asks to take their picture together. This little boy, Cade, is the son of some friends of ours from church, who also happens to be the son of Evan's school principal. When I messaged his Mom to tell her how sweet Cade was this morning, she wrote back saying that she finally knew who Aubrie was. Cade had been talking about her often, she said! Apparently, Cade mentioned to Stacy, his Mom, that he loved Aubrie as much as her! Stacy made me laugh as she said, "I'm not liking Aubrie too much right now!" (Joking!). He talks about her all the time, apparently! 

Since then, we've bumped into the Halls often, and Cade is just so cute with Aubrie! We saw him at the Bearkat Bash with Evan, and poor Cade saw Aubrie and then didn't know what to do! Stacy makes me laugh as she says, "It's bordering on stalking!" 

I asked Aubrie what she thought about Cade, and she said, "Good." She also said, "He plays with me outside. He is nice. He doesn't make me be the monster." When Evan, Aiden, and she get together to play, the boys always make Aubrie into the monster, which she hates. She really likes that Cade listens to her while they're playing. She's also very excited that they'll both be in kindergarten next year at Earhardt! Since Cade's Dad is the principal, he can make sure that they're in the same class next year so that the romance can continue!

I know that Chris was hoping for ugly daughters so that he wouldn't have to deal with this type of thing, but I think we missed the mark on that one! Maybe this is God's way of getting us ready for what is to come?! I have to say, though, that if a boy is going to like my daughter, at least he's a cute, sweet, church-going, red-headed boy!

Elsa, Elsa, Elsa

This is a word that I hear maybe 50 times per day. Seriously, I think Aubrie would change her name to Elsa if I'd let her. And the funny thing is that we haven't watched the movie in months! All she wants to do is watch "Frozen videos" on the computer, which is people on youtube posting videos of their Frozen toys playing. Aubrie sings the songs every chance she gets, makes playdough dresses for the few Frozen toys that she has, and is constantly talking about Elsa.

Since I'm staying home now instead of working, Chris and I are trying to be extra smart about Christmas this year. I had purchased an Elsa dress on sale for Aubrie this year, but we decided that we would go ahead and give it to her since that is what she has asked to be for Halloween this year (duh). I gave it to her this morning, and she has since spent the time actually watching Frozen, and acting out all of the musical scenes (which she normally does, anyway, but with a blanket instead of a beautiful Elsa dress and cape). I seriously don't think that we'll ever be able to get her out of this dress!

Isn't she beautiful, though?!!!! I love this girl with all of my heart, even if I have to hear about Elsa every 5 minutes!!!

----------------------------------

Update:

Well, I guess it was too good to be true. She's worn her dress for 3 hours and we already have our first bobo due to the cape... We were dancing to the music, and WHAM, down she went! I'm just glad it's just her lip and not loose teeth or a broken nose! She's still wearing the dress, though, so it wasn't enough to deter her!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

Isn't he adorable?! Evan FINALLY lost his other front tooth! This is his fourth tooth to lose, and I think he is just so handsome with that big gap in his teeth!!

Evan is very scared of pulling his teeth, so he waits until the tooth is so loose that it just falls out each time. We're lucky that he hasn't swallowed any yet! This time, it was so loose that I couldn't take it anymore. He was talking funny because he was keeping his lips around the tooth to keep it from falling out, the tooth was visibly longer than the teeth around it, and it would wiggle when he would talk! It was seriously grossing me out. I couldn't take it anymore, and asked him if I could try to pull it. He wouldn't let me anywhere near it with my hands. So while sitting on the couch, I asked him if I could see how loose it was. I held my hands up so that he would trust me not to touch it, and then he proceeded to twist it all the way around with his tongue (gross, right?!). Then it just popped out of his mouth!!!!! 

I have to say that I was happy that it didn't fall out in his bed like the last tooth, or that he didn't swallow it (he tried to talk me into "looking" for his tooth if he ever swallowed it... yeah, that ain't happening). :) 

I actually started to get emotional when this tooth fell out. I guess I hadn't thought about it much before, but I remember when he GOT those teeth! Now he's big enough for them to fall out and for him to get "grown up" teeth. That's just crazy to me. But I feel like I've been saying that the entire time I've been a parent. Now he's in first grade, Aubrie starts kindergarten next year, and the baby is already one year old... Someone better invent that button to freeze time very quickly...

Elise's First Birthday!!!!

Our baby girl is 1 year old!!!! How crazy is that??!!!! We celebrated with friends and family at our house. We ate great food, played outside, got to visit with friends, and let the kids played together. All in all, it was a great celebration!!!

We love Elise for so many reasons; too many to list, and I'm sure I'll forget something! We love the way her smile can light up a room, how she says hello ("hi") to everything, and how she loves her brother and sister! She also loves anything that has to do with babies, and animals. In fact, her current words include Mama (Baba), Dada or Daddy, Hi, and Puppy. 

She has almost finished getting some teeth on top, which will bring her count to 8 once they are all in. 6 on top and 2 on bottom. With all of those teeth, she loves to eat! Since turning one, I've been introducing more and more food, and she has loved everything! She's a tank! We go in for her checkup this week, and I'm interested to see what percentile she is in. 

So far, my absolute favorite thing that she does is use her small little hand to pat my shoulder as she's falling asleep. She melts my heart with her sweet smile, hoarse-sounding voice, and fun personality. I can't imagine my life without her!

Party pictures:

Update:

After Elise's checkup this morning, she weighs 18 lbs, 9 oz, is 27.5