Aunt Dani Visits

Danielle came last weekend to visit. She was on her fall break and decided to come and spend some time with us. The girls of course loved having her here, as did I. We went shopping, hung around the house, did laundry, and decorated outside for fall. It was so nice to have someone else here to talk to during the day!

Chloe has gotten so much better at crawling. She is so fast! You have to keep an eye on her to make sure that she's not eating paper or getting in the garbage can. She's also started pulling herself up on things and standing up. So even if you put things up on the couch, she can still possibly get to them. That doesn't make Aubrey too happy! She also says "ma-ma" now - not really in response to me, but just in general. It's pretty cute!

Aubrey continues to make life interesting. She loves to play make-believe. She and Sophia have really been into making a house out of blankets and then playing in it, which is fine, except that it takes up half of the living room!

Aunt Dani reading to Chloe

Chloe listening intently to what Aunt Dani has to say.
Story time with Aunt Dani
Studying with Aunt Dani
Cheese!
Fall pictures


Waiting to ride in the combine with Daddy

Waiting for Daddy

Riding in the combine with Daddy

Aubrey's Little Holes

Yesterday, we went shopping to Champaign. We had a bunch of stores to go to and finally ended up at the mall. Calvin and I had been talking about getting Aubrey's ears pierced for quite a while. I told him that I would not get it done without him, because Aubrey does better for him when she's hurt than for me. We have been asking her if she wanted it done, and she's been talking about it forever. She was excited about having "little holes in her ears like mommy". I've had to take my earrings out so that she could look at the holes. Since we were all in Champaign, we decided to go ahead and do it. I was a little nervous about it, but Calvin said that we should just do it. Aubrey was so excited and sat so still in the chair. She definitely didn't know what was coming. She was fine until they pushed the earrings through her ears, at which point, she started bawling! She cried for a little bit, until the girls who did it gave her a sucker and we told her she could ride on the carousel. Then she was fine. She complained about them hurting a few more times after that. Today, she has been pretty good. She doesn't really like it when I have to clean and turn them, but as long as they don't get bumped, she's okay with them. She does like them though and she looks pretty darn cute!

Waiting for the girls to get set up

Earring-free ear lobes Aubrey's new earrings

Grandpa & Grandma's House

Last weekend, we went to mom and dad's house. Hannah won a free facial thing from David's Bridal, so we went to have facials and to try on dresses. The girls didn't do too badly on the way there. They both slept some and watched a movie. On Saturday, we went and had facials. Dad kept the girls for me - I was a little nervous for him, but he said that they were great! After that, we tried on dresses, but found little luck. Hannah found one that she really liked, but we still didn't find any bridesmaids' dresses that we were really sold on. Aubrey ended up trying on a flower girl's dress and looked so cute! The next day, we went to the park before we left, because I had promised Aubrey that we could. We all had so much fun! After that it was time to go home. The girls did good for the first two hours, but then Chloe got really fussy and pretty much cried for the last hour off and on. She had every toy in the diaper bag in her car seat, but it didn't help much! Overall, it was a lot of fun to spend time with everyone!

Chloe's Crawling!

Last week, Chloe started crawling! She had been scooting around kind of on her tummy, but last Wednesday (a week and a half ago), she started actually crawling. It was quite humorous, because it looked very awkward and she was so slow. But now, she can move a lot faster. She loves to get into things that she's not supposed to - paper, the garbage can, Aubrey's things, etc. She's like a magnet to paper. If there is paper anywhere, she will go for it. She has also started pulling herself up on things. She loves to stand up and see what's going on. It makes me a little nervous, but she loves it! Besides her new skills, she has also started eating more foods. She likes green beans, squash, carrots, peaches, and cereal. The only thing that she doesn't like is peas. She makes a very funny face when eating those.

Aubrey continues to be entertaining to both Chloe and me. She loves her sister as long as Chloe is leaving her stuff alone. This week she locked Chloe and herself in my bedroom. Chloe had fallen asleep in the car, so I had put her in my room to sleep. When she woke up, Aubrey wanted to go get her, so I let her. After a couple of minutes I went to check on them and found the door locked and Aubrey couldn't get it unlocked. I called Calvin twice and finally had to just take the doorknob off. I told her to never do that again! Yesterday, we went outside to hang up clothes and Aubrey wanted to take her swimming suit with her. (She's really into her swimming suit and loves to wear it. She also loves wearing tank tops and shorts, and doesn't understand why she can't wear them when it's only 50 degrees outside. I told her that it's too cold, and she said that she wants to move somewhere warmer.) She went up in her clubhouse of her swingset while Danielle and I hung up clothes. I happened to look up at her and saw that she was naked! When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she was putting her swimming suit on. She got her suit on and played for a few minutes until we were done. After we came inside, she then proceeded to take off her suit and put her clothes back on because she was done swimming. She is quite the character!

Chloe eating carrots and green beans.

me and the girls
Aubrey read her library books while I made dinner.
Chloe's newfound love - pulling toys off of the shelf.
Crawling
Chloe's 8-month picture