leaves falling

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

I know that it seems as if we haven't posted anything on here for months, it's because we haven't. Just to quickly summarize our past few months. I finished my student teaching in November; therefore, I am officially a college graduate!! The same day as my last day of teaching, we celebrated Wade's 25th Birthday. He was a little jealous because I got more gifts and parties from my students than he got on his Birthday. After we celebrated those 2 events, we got to celebrate Thanksgiving. We were able to enjoy it with all of Wade's family. Jena, hosted a fantastic dinner and decorated her house with beautiful place settings and Thanksgiving Decor. 1 week after Thanksgiving, Andrea took pictures of Aubrey and us. They turned out beautiful!

Well, the day after pictures, Aubrey and I jumped on an airplane and headed to West Virginia for the rest of the holidays. My mom's Birthday is December 4th so we flew in unannounced and had Jessie pick us up from the airport. We laid low for a few days at her house then she dropped us off at Emily and Chris' house to surprise them first. Emily was student teaching when we got there ,Chris unfortunately spotted us sneaking up to the house. We then waited for Emily's arrival. We dressed Aubrey up as a boy and had Chris tell Emily that it was Jessie's cousin that they were going to babysit last minute. Emily was a bit suspicious when she came home, but she had no clue that we were there and the very baby she was holding was Aubrey. After a few minutes of awkwardness, I jumped into the room.
The next day was mom's birthday, so we planned to trick her as well. Emily, Molly, and Julie met mom and dad at P-king to eat dinner together. We picked Molly up from school before hand and got her in on the surprise too. We told her to tell mom she was babysitting a little boy. Then Molly arrived at the restaurant with Aubrey dressed up as a boy. Mom had no idea; however, she kept remarking how he looked so much like Aubrey. It was so funny. Then I came into the restaurant and surprised her and everyone else as well. It was so much fun!
Wade flew in two weeks later and we had an awesome break spending the time with family and friends.


I am going to hold back on all the text because I could go into great detail and fill the blog with words but the pictures are the most exciting so we'll just cut to the chase. Unfortunately, I accidentally placed all of the pictures in the opposite order so if you want to start from the bottom to make them in chronological order you can... or not, it's all up to you... Please enjoy!


The 3 babies all swaddled up like a bunch of burritos

Grandma telling her famous "Pickle-juice stories"

This picture captures the warm feeling of the love Grandparents give so freely.

Grandma and 3 of the 4 new babies.... we missed little Jaxon and can't wait to meet him too!

New Years Eve! The babies almost made it to the New Year as they played with their toys to keep them busy and alert!
When Parker noticed that they were going to be late to the movies, he decided to take his helicopter instead so they could beat the traffic!
Aleigha and Parker decided to go to the movies and see "The Princess and the Frog" They went by car and looked so stylish.
More time spent with friends!
One of Wade's highlights this holiday was that he went hunting and got his first deer!!! He was so proud of himself and I must say I was proud of him too!!! He spent the next few days making steak and deer jerky!
..... Brenton took the Binky away!"

"It was all fun and games, until....

Aubrey's first BUBBLE bath! She loved it sooo.. much!
All the kid's laying in a circle!
More Cousins!!! Could Christmas get any better?!?! Parker and Ollie came to W.V. a couple days after Christmas... we had so much fun playing with them all!
Aubrey brought her bouncer to WV and Brenton ended up getting one for Christmas too! The two of them looked so cute playing in there; however, I think Aleigha enjoyed them the most!
I know the Chowey was Wade's Christmas present, but I think someone else liked it just as much... "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
Aubrey: "Is that really what I think it is?" Thank you so much
Grandma and Grandpa, now I don't have to waste the batteries on Brenton's!

Aubrey, are you excited to open that gift?

This year all of the kids threw in to get Mom and Dad a few nice gifts instead of a bunch of crappy little gifts... We got them a 36" T.V., a bludray player, a new web cam, and card. They were surprised and now they don't have to sit 5" in front of the T.V any more!
The 3 of us on Christmas Morning, Wade woke us up super early... even Aubrey wasn't used to getting up that early.
Babies' first Christmas Morning.... There were so many presents!
Daddy's stocking had a "Chowey" attached to it. When Wade was a little boy, a lady from his ward made him sock monkeys that he called Chowey and loved so much... This year when I saw them at Wal-mart I had to write a letter to Santa and tell him that Wade would love a Chowey!
The babies waited patiently in Grandma and Grandpa's bed to see what Santa brought them. I have several memories waiting in my Mom and Dad's bed early in the morning until they finally let us go down when everyone was ready.

Christmas Morning.... There were so many gifts! Lucking Aleigha and Brenton were so good this year or the tree would look empty.
All three stocking hung from the chimney with care... in hopes that St. Nicolas would soon be there!
Time to hang our stockings baby girl... Santa will fill them tonight!
Aubrey's first Christmas Eve... This was the first gift she opened... she surprisingly did awesome at opening presents.

After we went Christmas Caroling, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and guess who got the nut???? 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count... That's right Molly!!! However, she did divulge in sharing her secrets to always winning, next year it will be cut throat!

Mommy and Aubrey in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve getting ready for all of the festivities and traditions.
Santa Clause really came and made a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve... He was so generous to leave Aleigha tons of gifts including this awesome keyboard... We found out that these kids are musical prodigies and they rock!
When we finally were able to break free from Lynn Camp Road, I got to hang out with a few friends from high school. It was really fun spending time together.

POWER OUTAGE!!! We got a huge snow storm that trapped us at home for 3 days without any power.... The first days were really fun especially because Molly's phone died and she was forced to hang out with us. We had a blast until, we all got cabin fever and began fighting each other like trapped lab rats.

Aubrey's first Christmas card from Grandma

Who can sit up taller and smile bigger?

So the secret's out: Aubrey is actually an elf!

Aleigha and Aubrey conspiring a plot against Brenton!

Aubrey loved playing with her cousins, Brenton and Aleigha, she already misses them sooo.... much!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Festivities!

Happy Halloween!

This was Aubrey's first Halloween so we took some pictures so you all could be a part of all the fun and festivities she took part in. About a week ago we started our fun as Wade and I threw a Halloween party at Grandma's house. All the kids came dressed in their costumes. However, I unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of all the kids except Aubrey. They were all very cute though! Wade and I got cookies, eyeball stew, chips and salsa, candy, and all sorts of other goodies. Then we all had a weenie roast in the backyard around the fire pit as Wade's family shared stories of their childhood. It was really fun to hear all of their memories. We dressed Aubrey up as a ballerina princess; but, she was very tired fussy and not very photogenic
She couldn't understand what all the poof was all about

Aubrey was so excited and surprised to see all of her cousins dressed up


This hat was cute on her for the whole 2minutes that it stayed on.

All the kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline in the dark!

Wade and Aubrey sitting around listening to scary stories.

Jena and Andrea, enjoying all the good food. You can tell Jena is a mom by all the weenies she can cook at one time... impressive!

The night before Halloween, Wade and I started carving our pumpkins we didn't get too far because Aubrey wasn't in the mood and Wade remembered that he needed to dress up for work. We paused in the carving process and threw together some stuff for Wade's costume.


After all was said and done, Wade was a news anchor in a terrible wind storm. We are so good!

After sleeping until 3 on Halloween, Wade, Aubrey,and I continued carving our pumpkins. This time, Aubrey was more compliant.

The pumpkins are almost done!

I turn my head for one minute and Aubrey started carving the pumpkin all by herself!

Aubrey: "How do you guys like my carving skills?"

Aubrey tried fitting herself into the jack-o-lantern, but soon realized that she isn't as small as she used to be.

After all was said and done, Aubrey was so excited to pose in front of her masterpieces!

She was so happy because she new that when the jack-o-lanterns were done, it was soon time to go trick-or-treating!

"Okay, I guess you can take one more picture, because I am so darn cute!"

Aubrey getting ready to get some candy... can you tell what she's going to be yet?

Her costume is starting to come together more... any ideas yet?

That's right!.... She was a "Jack-in-the-box" or you could say a "Jackie in a box"

I was a welding Wade for trick-or-treating!

Wade was a redneck, cowboy.... so, here are the 3 of us together right before we left!

Aren't the people suppose to be surprised when the "Jack in the box" pops up?... not the Jack

The last house we trick-or-treated was Grandma and Grand-dad's so they just had to take another picture of us.

Can you tell how much Aubrey liked her trick-or- treating experience?

Finally, Aubrey was able to get out of her box and stretch her little arms and legs!

Of course, Aubrey had to count and sort all of her candy and goodies.

"Yup, that's right, Aubrey got over 5 full sized candy bars, soda, apples, goldfish, and more... what a lucky baby!"

"Show us your favorite treat you got!"

I think Aubrey thought all of the candy was actually new toys because of all the bright colors and and crinkly sounds they made.

Right before we went to bed for the night, we lit up our jack-o-lanterns and Aubrey loved the warm orange glow they made.

We hope you all enjoyed your Halloween too! Happy belated Halloween to all those we love and miss!
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I also got to enjoy some extra Halloween fun at the elementary school. My cooperating teacher and I stayed after school one day to create our costumes. I dressed up as a washer and she dressed up as a dryer. We had some of the coolest costumes that were there. We even got to march in the Halloween parade and have fun parties in our classroom! I unfortunately forgot my camera, but when I get copies from Lindsi, I'll be sure to post!