A Happy Holiday

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with family. Aubrey loved spending time with her aunts and cousins. She and Max did much better together this time. They actually played together some, although she is on a big "mine" kick, especially when it comes to her toys. She isn't so great at sharing. We are working on it. She also loved opening presents and was great at waiting her turn. We got her a kitchen for Christmas, and she got lots of dishes, food, and things to go in her new kitchen. She also got some baby stuff that she can use to change the baby's diaper. She loves it all!
My parents came last weekend and we painted the spare bedroom purple so that it could be Aubrey's big girl room. We bought her a new purple butterfly comforter to also go in her room. I wanted to move her over to her new room before the baby is born. Tonight is her third night sleeping in her big girl bed (a full sized bed). She looks so little and sweet sleeping in it. She isn't doing too bad. The first night she woke up and I had to go up there with her. The past two nights, she has woken up and made a little bit of noise, but has fallen back asleep on her own. She has been waking up earlier than normal though. The worst part about it is that she has cried hysterically when I leave every nightt so far. Calvin goes up after a few minutes and gets her to go right to sleep. I don't know what he does, but it works!
Aubrey's vocabulary continues to grow every day. She says so many things I couldn't even begin to list them all. She loves to play baby and with her kitchen. She also loves to play ball with her daddy and asks about him all day long.

I am looking forward to the baby being born. We are on a countdown of less than six weeks now. I am going to wash up some baby clothes tomorrow and put them in the nursery drawers. In the next few weeks, I need to get the small crib set up in our room and then get some of the other baby things down also. We are getting anxious!

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks that I thought you might enjoy!

Posing in front of the Christmas tree at Grandpa and Grandma Timm's house

Helping mommy make sugar cookie dough

Family picture before opening presents Christmas Eve night

Aubrey did NOT want to get her picture taken with Max in front of the Christmas tree. Max was oblivious to her crying.

Snacking with Grandpa and Maximus before opening presents

Aubrey was such a great helper passing out presents. She took her job very seriously and loved handing out presents.

Opening presents with mommy and daddy

Making sugar cookies

Aubrey did very well pressing the cookie cutter into the dough to cut out the cookies. She loved it!

Playing piano and singing songs with Aunt Jenna

Cheese! Aubrey loves to smile for the camera.

Like my new hat and outfit?

Clare and Aubrey showing off their matching hats from Aunt Kathy

The Wagner girls

The Latest Happenings

I can't believe that it is December already. It seems as if the year has been flying by! Our Thanksgiving was great and we enjoyed spending time with family during the holiday. My sister Danielle stayed with us for almost a week and Aubrey was pretty attached to her by the time she left. She can also say "Aunt Dani" and continues to ask for her even though it's been a week since we've seen her. She also loved having my other two sisters and parents here. There was never a lack of attention or someone to play with. She seemed a little lost once everyone was gone and it was back to just mom and dad. She cried and cried when my sister Jenna and mom left. She had big tears just rolling down her cheeks. I think that she was sad that her playmate was gone.

She has slowly gotten back into her normal schedule and adjusted to being with just mom and dad. She is very entertaining and loves to play with her babies. She has also gotten into this ball throwing thing. She loves to throw balls and then chase after them, only to throw them again. Talking on the phone is another of her favorite things. She loves to talk to people and will say a few things, but mostly shake her head in answer to their questions. It's very cute! She has become very independent and her vocabulary has really started to expand. She will repeat almost everything you ask her to and most of the time you can figure out what she is trying to tell you. In a way, it's nice that she can communicate, while sometimes it's very frustrating, especially when she tells me no and throws a fit when she doesn't get what she wants. She's pretty easily distracted though, and you can usually get her to stop by focusing her attention elsewhere.

A future teacher - Aubrey is reading my teacher's manual.

My little helper - Aubrey helped me bake oatmeal-raisin cookies for Daddy.

Running to the leaf pile that Mommy made

Buried in leaves and happy about it!

Hunting for the perfect Christmas tree with mommy and daddy

A future fashion diva in a Christmas hat and mommy's socks

Unpacking the ornaments and helping decorate the Christmas tree

Painting is so much fun, but it takes lots of concentration!

Happy Halloween!

Aubrey was a cowgirl for Halloween. At first, I wasn't going to have her dress-up, but then decided that I would just put something together for her. She had everything for her costume except for boots. I found some snow boots for her that she could wear with her costume, plus wear this winter playing in the snow. She did not want to put her costume on at first, but ended up having a good time. We only went to four different places - all family, but she had fun showing off her costume and getting candy. We gave her a few smarties and m & m's, which she liked.

Aubrey was not happy about putting on her costume.

She got over it once she was all dressed up and got candy.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

What a busy month it has been! We have been busy planning and celebrating mom and dad's 30th anniversary, doing report cards, balancing checkbooks, and working on other items for school as well. I had hoped that by having a blog I would be able to keep people updated more often, but I have been bad about doing it the past couple of months. My goal is to be better the next few months.

Aubrey is growing and changing all the time. She is now 19 1/2 months old! I can hardly believe that she is so big already! At her 18 month doctor's appointment, she was 31 1/2 inches long and 20 pounds 9 ounces. She is still a little peanut, but the doctor says that she looks great. She is becoming more and more independent all the time. She likes to do things for herself. For example, tonight she had to put her dirty socks in the basket and her diaper in her diaper pail. Her favorite words are daddy, mama, and no. If you ask her a question, she almost always says no even if she means yes, so you have to try and figure out what she really means. She also loves to help. If you give her a job to do or have her help you, she loves it! She is definitely growing up and getting bigger.

Aubrey loves butter. She will lick the butter off of a cracker and then want more!

Aubrey sitting on her little potty for the first time. She goes every once in a while and tries every night before her bath.

Making smores over our grill with the aunts.

Aubrey riding in the combine with Daddy.

Aubrey loves to read books. When I'm making supper, she will go and get books to read and then sit on the floor in front of the kitchen sink. It's really cute!

One of Aubrey's favorite foods is cheese. She usually eats a piece every night.

One of Aubrey's baby dolls has a pacifier. Aubrey decided to walk around with it in her mouth.

Another of Aubrey's favorite things to do while I am making supper is to play with the spice rack. She loves rearranging them.

I am still feeling good. There's the tiredness, but that comes with being pregnant, not going to bed early enough, and having to get up early. Plus, Aubrey's idea of sleeping in on the weekends is 7:30 a.m., no matter how late I put her to bed. I am almost six months (24 weeks) along. The baby moves all the time - a lot more than I remember Aubrey doing! We had our ultrasound about a month ago, but we didn't find out what we're having. I want to be surprised, so we are waiting to find out until the baby is born. I will be happy either way.

Here is the baby's profile.

Here is the baby's face with the arms right next it.

Here is me this past Sunday. I am finally starting to show a little.

We had a surprise party for my parents the first weekend in October. Their 30th anniversary is November 26th, so we wanted to have something special for them. We were able to all get together for a weekend, including all of my siblings, my dad's sisters, and my mom's parents. It was a fun, and busy, weekend!

Grandpa and Aubrey

Maximus and Aubrey eating cake.

The family

I have been informed by some of my sisters that I need to update the blog and add new pictures. I intended to do this last week, but had other things that needed to get done first. So I am finally just now getting new pictures up.

School started August 21st. It is going pretty good. I only have fifteen children and an aide to help with the teaching load. Things have finally started to get into a routine, and my aide is getting the hang of how I want things done. The hardest part is getting up in the morning. I am just so tired! I need to go to bed earlier, but that is easier said than done. The other hard part is the school work. I have twice as much grading and lesson planning to do as last year, so it is definitely more challenging. Aubrey is also getting into the hang of our school schedule. At first, she cried every morning that I left, but she now doesn't seem to mind going to the babysitter's. She plays with the other kids and eats, and then I am there to pick her up. The hardest part for her is staying awake on the ride home. If I let her fall asleep, she won't take a nap and she needs to considering she is getting up so much earlier. So we sing songs and she eats part of my lunch. It helps keep me awake on the drive home too. :)

Aubrey is now 18 months old, which is so hard to believe. She is definitely not a baby now. She is a little girl. Her vocabulary continues to grow as she is beginning to say more words. She now says bye-bye, mama, fishy, and all the others too. Her personality is very similar to mine - she can be quite stubborn. She is also very particular about where things go. She loves to help and loves to have jobs or things to do for you. I love that! She has also started to show her displeasure by fake crying. I have to try really hard not to laugh, because it is hilarious sometimes! All in all, life is definitely never boring around our house!

Aubrey helps sweep the floor with her new little broom.

Aubrey loves to talk on the fax machine phone. She thinks that it is the greatest thing!

When we went to my last doctor's appointment, the nurse gave Aubrey some stickers. She proceeded to put them all over her shirt and even one on her cheek! She was pretty proud of herself!

She can now do the harder puzzle by herself.

She loves to play with the big Legos that we bought at a garage sale. She loves to stack them and make trains out of the cars. They are currently one of her favorite toys.

Last weekend, we went to St. Louis to celebrate Maximus' first birthday. Aubrey and Max played a lot better this time than during our vacation together. Maximus was intrigued by her and they both wanted whatever the other was playing with. But at least they were on the ground together and Aubrey wasn't running away from him!

Aubrey, Grandpa, Grandma, and Maximus walking at the park.

Maximus and Aubrey playing with Grandpa

Aubrey carrying a ball with Grandpa

Posing for a picture with Grandpa and aunts Hannah and Jenna

Hannah, Danielle, and Jenna came this past weekend for a visit. It was nice to see them all, especially Dani, as we hadn't seen her since the middle of July. We had a good time with them. Aubrey loved all of the attention that she received from her aunts. She seemed a little lost this afternoon once they had all left, but decided that being with mom and dad wasn't too bad either.