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Aubrie
Aidan Albany |
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Stories December 14, 2007 - Okay so like our countdown ticker says we have only 7 more days till the Polar Express!!! And I am actually on schedule. All the baking is done, Christmas cards are addressed and ready to go except I ran out of stamps with only one more card to go but that is okay I will pick up more when I mail them out tomorrow, and I am ready to start wrapping gifts. I am also doing laundry and cleaning before the trip so the house will be nice and clean when we come home.
 Aubrie was in the Christmas parade on Saturday even with the rain for her Girl Scout troop. She had a great time and waved from the float like a pro. The one mile walk back to the car however was not so fun, especially with her complaining "I'm hungry" every 5 minutes.
Our church had their annual Christmas Muscial this past weekend and we really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we will be missing our Sunday School's Christmas party this year so we can get some sleep before our early morning departure for Arizona. Oh well, there is always next year.
Anyway just keeping busy and gearing up for our vacation. We are super excited!
December 6, 2009 - How time has flown again. We have watched Aubrie's last soccer game of the season, celebrated Thanksgiving, decorated for Christmas and now just getting ready for the rest of what this month has to bring.
 It is feeling a little chaotic but we will make it through and enjoy it.Aubrie's last soccer game was actually a double header day. Of course, they won both, not that they keep score. She really enjoyed playing and we will most likely be signing her up again next year. On November 30th, she had her awards ceremony and received a participation trophy. She was so thrilled! She could not believe she was a champion, as she said. She is so cute! She is continuing to do well in school and made the Principal's Honor Roll last quarter for straight A's! We are so proud of her and she is working so hard. Her teacher is really sweet and always has the best things to say about her. She is also keeping busy with Girl Scouts and piano. She also enjoyed her girls' day out with Mommy, G'ma, Kayla and Aly at The Grove. We went to American Girl Place and she absolutely loved it. There were dolls, accessories, and pink everywhere. Since they were out of the soccer uniform she wanted for her doll she got to pick out something else she would like for Christmas. She picked out Sparks Fly, Kaya's Appaloosa foal. She is very pretty and soft. I told her that even though we were getting it today she would not get to open and play with it till Christmas. She said okay and then asked if Santa was giving it to her (this just after she watched me pay for it). I asked if she wanted Santa to give it to her and she said she did. So I told her I would wrap it and leave it on the table so Santa could put it under the tree. Somehow this made all the sense in the world to her. I did mention she is getting straight A's right? Aubrie's Christmas Program is coming up on December 16th at 7:00 p.m. and I think it should be available to watch on livestream through the church website: www.lancasterbaptist.org if you are interested.
Aidan is getting better at paying attention in TaeKwonDo. He does seem to like it just has trouble staying focused the entire time. He is doing good in school and still wants to go everyday. He has been having a rough patch the last few weeks and is very whiny. Last Monday, I went shopping and smart little old me went on a day where I had both Aidan and Aly (yeah, don't know what I was thinking) anyway we went through the toys and Aidan found a McQueen with a Piston Cup. I told him he could have it and we continued on our way. Well once the groceries started accumulating in the back, I told Aidan he was going to have to get out of the cart but that his toy needed to stay in the cart. That was all it took for this. Aidan - on the floor - kicking - screaming. Now that you all have the visual, it was an interesting shopping trip to say the least. Don't worry though it ended well, Tantrum = toy put back = further screaming = mom holding his hand on the shopping cart handle, practically dragging him through the next few aisles, smiling at all the other moms giving me the sympathetic smile and glad my kids are in school/daycare look. He did behave well and have a good time yesterday with Daddy and Papa at the motorcycle show. He especially liked the Ducati stunt show and told me about the spinning tires and all the smoke. COOOOOL! as Aidan would say. A nice time with the guys for him.
Aly has actually been so much nicer to be around lately. She laughs and giggles more and just seems to have more of a personality of her own now. She is also doing better in the potty-training arena. She goes most days without accidents now. However, after a great day yesterday, she had some trouble today. She was dressed for church and I was just about to change her from her panties into a pull-up when I discovered the surprise she left for me. When I asked her why she pooped in her pants she told me because she was playing. Awesome! We are actually getting somewhere, before she would say I don't know or it hurts. At least with this answer she seemed to realize that she should have gone but that she just did not want to stop playing to do so. She is definitely the our baby as she is the latest one to potty train. Aly also had a good time at American Girl Place yesterday. She did not have an accident all day, so it was nice for Mommy too. She loved looking at all the babies in the Bitty Baby Nursery and then really liked going into Pottery Barn Kids and sitting at the little vanity with the pink curtain around it talking on the pink phone. It was heaven for her! She is very much the girly girl, in case you missed it and is constantly wearing the heels of the college girls that work in her nursery at church, and likes when I put my mousse in her hair to keep it from frizzing. She bends over just like I do to scrunch my hair and tries to do the same thing to her hair if she finds any little drop of mousse on the floor that I dropped. Pink and purple and sparkles (or sprinkles, as she calls them) are the greatest!
Bryan and I have just been staying busy with work and such. I have also enjoyed making little gifts for my college girls. The church asks people to "adopt" 4 of the college students for the school year and send them little gifts, like cookies, brownies and other little gifts as well as encouraging notes to help them not feel so homesick. It has been a lot of fun. We also enjoyed having the two college students over for Thanksgiving. They were so sweet and appreciative. It was nice to be able to send care packages of leftovers home with them too. We are also just trying to get some baking done, Christmas cards addressed, and get ready for our Polar Express trip. So if I don't update before then, Have a blessed Christmas celebrating the miracle of God's love made manifest.
November 2, 2009 - Well sorry it has been over a month between updates but life has been busy. Aidan started Taekwondo class at this pre-school and well, he has been doing okay but does not listen so well. He really likes going and it is definitely cheaper for him to try it this way than sending him for classes at an actually Dojong. He loves preschool and his class took a trip to a local pumpkin patch last month. He had fun at the petting zoo (wish the animals could say the same), he hugged a goat and then fed it, chased chickens, and picked up the poor bunnies. He then went on a ride there that spins around and you can also spin the wheel inside it like the teacups at Disney. He was all ready for the ride until it started going, then he was gripping the sides with white knuckles and moaning until it stopped. He also went down a giant bounce slide a few times and loved that. Aly enjoyed seeing the pumpkins and going on the slide too. She looked like a mighty imp climbing up the slide. Aidan also had his school harvest party which he enjoyed and he loved seeing all the Halloween lights up in the neighborhood. He loved the Harvest Festival at church and was thrilled about trick-or-treating. All in all he is definitely a big holiday kid and is already looking forward to seeing Christmas lights.
Aubrie has been busy with school, piano, soccer and girl scouts. She is really loving soccer and is a natural at it. She has started passing the ball and even guarded the ball when she was taking it up the field and trying to keep it away from the other team. She is very aggressive on the field and gets in there and gets the ball when the rest of her team is not sure what to do. They have even started having her play backfield after she scores a certain number of goals so that they rest of the team has a chance. Her team is basically undefeated having only lost one game (the only game Aubrie has missed this season) because they only had two players for the whole game.
Aly is getting more and more attitude as the days pass. She is such a diva. She has the typical two year old tantrums mingled with a typcial teenage attitude. She has told me that she is 15 and says she wants to be like Kayla. She wants to go everything by herself, from putting on her underwear to putting on her shoes, and has taken to carrying purses (even though they are empty). She likes phones, babies, Minnie Mouse, and the color pink. You can get her to eat almost anything if it is pink, hence only strawberry and cherry yogurt will do for the princess along with pink frosted poptarts, pink waffles, anything in her pink straw cup and only pink or girly utensils if you please. Don't try to give her the McQueen or Star Wars fork or she won't eat. She wants her Jesus songs on in the car and only her favorites are permitted or you hear about it while trying to listen to a request from Aubrie or Aidan. She loves He is so Wonderful, This Little Light of Mine, If Your Saved and You Know It, Gensis, verse 1:1, The books of the Bible, Old Testament and more. She knows most of the songs along with the Bible story they tell with them. She also amazes us with her vocabulary. I told her that peeing in her pants was unacceptable and the next day, when I told her that she had to let Aubrie have a turn picking a song in the car, she told me "That is unacceptable!". I don't even know what to say to that other than to just ignore her.
Other than that, things have been pretty much the same here, just keeping busy and enjoying the controlled chaos.
 September 26, 2009 - Well time is definitely flying by. In the last month, we have adjusted a little more to school schedules, piano lessons, soccer practice and games, church and work and all just in time to start adding Girl Scouts back into the mix next month. I was gone on a Ladies Retreat with the church Sept. 10 -12 and we had the privledge of getting to see Papa Sam while he was out for the shuttle landing. All in all it has been a very busy and fast month. Bryan and I are doing well with work and working out and just keeping up with the kiddos. Aubrie is enjoying school and is in the top reading group in her class. Because of the Ladies Retreat, I was a little crunched for time getting a party together for Aubrie and since we thought her first soccer game was also that day we went with small and simple. She ended having a BYE that week for soccer so I was able to stay for the last day of the retreat and we had a nice time with just family at Aubrie's Ladybug party. We still can't believe she is 6 now! She is enjoying piano lessons and loves playing soccer. We were not too sure about it until after her first game. The light bulb went on then and all the practice seemed to make more sense to her after the game. She is very competitive and likes to have the ball most of the time, this year they are still working a lot on teamwork. Watching her play is something else. Aidan is continuing to do well in school and is amazing more and more everyday with all the things he is learning. He has learned about the letters A, M, and T this month but does not seemed to interrested in them, however, she somewhere along the way has learned X and is really enamored with it. He can spot them anywhere and will even say it's sound. He also picked up recognition of the letter I from the fridge magnets and also now knows it's sound, thanks to the Letter Factory DVD. Then out of the blue the other day, as we were driving to church, Aidan says "Look Mom, the letter I" I turn around and he had written a capital letter I on his magna doodle. WOW! I was just a little impressed to say the least. He is also very good with number recognition and will tell me the numbers he sees as we walk through Wal-Mart, mainly only through 6 but it is a start. He also has some basic math skills going on. I took him into class on Tuesday and his teacher has three of each letter they are learning. They are then placed around the room for the kids to find and gain letter recognition with. Well Aidan walked in and saw one letter M above the chalkboard, turned to Miss Lise and said "So we need to find two more letters, right Miss Lise?" Aly, well Aly is just as stubborn as ever and has such a vocabulary and then an attitude to match I sometimes feel like I am dealing with a teenager. Aidan frequently tells me how old he is and then how old Aubrie and Aly are, so Aly tells me the other day that she is 15. I told her no she was only 2 but sometimes it feels like she is 15. She can pout, get snotty and throw tantrums with the best of them and is so independent about certain things that she can make life miserable. She does not want to hold our hands in the parking lot because she wants to "walk" and if you take her hand, she will frequently drop to the ground, then you get the joy of picking her up kicking and screaming and she is no light weight. She is vindictive and will out of the blue hit Aidan or Aubrie because she wants the toy they have or because she is getting back at them for something they did to her 5 minutes ago. She is especially trying in the car and will talk back and tell me "NO!" because it is much harder for me to discipline her then. But then she does things like ask Aubrie to read her a story, come up and tell me she loves me while grabing my face so she can give me a kiss or try to comfor Aidan when he has hurt himself and you get a little glimpse of her inner angel. :) She is so smart though and you can see the wheels working as she analyzes different things, she does scare me. Other than that, we are doing well and hope all of you are too. We are definitely looking forward to cooler weather, at least that is what we are saying right now. :)
August 30, 2009 - This is gonna be a quick update as the story I just typed out was erased and I don't currently have time to write it over.
Aidan is loving school and doing very well. He wishes he could go everyday. Aly is doing good with potty training and had her first day without any accidents this last week. She was on a streak until Saturday but hopefully we can get back into the no accident groove again. Aubrie is back to school and there are a lot of firsts in First Grade. The is her first year going to school all day, sitting at a real desk, and eating lunch at school. She was pretty tired by the end of the week but I know she will adjust to this new schedule quickly.
Bryan ran in his first race on Saturday and has caught the racing bug. We saw a flyer for it the last time we were in SD and I encouraged him to give it a try. He was already running 5 miles consistently and a 10K is 6.2 miles so I knew he could do it. Well he did and set a personal record for himself, finishing at 46.45, just under 8 minutes a mile. He wore a yellow dri-fit shirt so we could see him easily and I told him he was a running banana,
 . He is already looking for more races and will be running B2V around March/April time for the ML team.Well we are settling into the school routine and staying out of all the smoke from the SoCal fires. We hope you all are enjoying theses last days of summer but we are definitely ready for the Fall and Winter and some much cooler weather.
August 18, 2009 - Well Summer is pretty much over for us. Today Aidan started Pre-School! Last week I went to register him only to find out school had already started just like the public schools, so he started a week late. What a difference between the first and second child. Aubrie was registered for school in March and Aidan was signed up a week late in August. Oh well, he enjoyed going to get school shoes, new socks and his lunchbox for school last week. He had a great day today and is already asking when he goes back to school. Today he got to play with the class turtle, play outside (this was the best part of the day), had a snack and then lunch there. Aubrie starts back to school next Wednesday. Aubrie is also signed up to play soccer this year. I was also late on getting her signed up for this but fortunately they still had openings in her division. On Saturday we went to Sports Chalet to see how much it would be for her gear but also to look at baseball stuff so she could see her options. We also took her to a Karate place and then let her decide what she wanted most to do. The deciding factor: SHOES! Yep, she pretty much went for soccer because she could get pink and black butterfly cleats. Always a girl! Don't worry I will get pics of her shoes as well as her in all her gear. We will find out this week what team she is on and when her practices are. We do know her first game will be Sept. 12th. Hopefully her team will win for her birthday!. July 26, 2009 - Surf, sun, and great weather! That about sums our trip to SD for Bryan's and Steve's birthday get together weekend. The weather of course was awesome, staying in the high 70's to low 80's with a balmy ocean breeze. The surf was incredible! We paid for Aubrie to take one private surf lesson and it was perfect. She had a great time and spent almost 2 hours in the water with the instructor, Daniel. She loves it and is ready to go to surf camp next summer! Bry also got out in the water and had a good time getting back into the groove. We had a very nice relaxing weekend doing a lot of nothing, well at least nothing that was really planned. We just kinda went places on the fly, except La Pinata, that is of course a given. Where else can you get "Amazing" enchiladas? The kids enjoyed the beach and even got to go out on a smaller Nintendo bodyboard Uncle Steve had picked up during his Game Stop day. Bodyboarding was a piece of cake for Brie after her surf lesson and she loves being out in the water, it is hard to get her back in. Aidan had a blast getting knocked over by the waves and rolling in the sand. He also tried his hat at bodyboarding and liked it. He wiped out a couple of times and even looked like he was trying to drop-knee once but he loves the beach too. Aly on the other hand took much longer to warm up to the idea. Initially she did not like the water too much especially as the water pulled back before the next wave came in. However, once Aubrie was done with her surf lesson and went out with her, she was out waist deep getting knocked down by the waves and laughing about it. Aubrie and Aly were both a little more reserved about the water when we went to Shores. There was a lot of sea grass in the water and more kelp and neither of them, especially Aly, liked that. Aly walked into the water and as soon as the sea grass started wrapping around her ankles she started saying "EEWW!, Yucky!" and wanted to either be held in the water by Aunt Hollie or me or be out of the water completely. Even walking along the shore around the piles of sea grass she tiptoed while saying "Eww, Yucky, that's disgusting!" She was much more content to sit on her beach towel, sipping water, eating pita chips (in her case sandy pita chips) and sunbathing. She is definitely our little diva and really only goes to the beach to make the beach look good. :) I can already see a rarely used designer surfboard in her future so she can justify wearing all her cool surf clothes and looking too cool on the beach. Nevertheless, it was a great relaxing weekend and we look forward to going back to the beach soon. July 9, 2009 - Okay so it has been over a month since our last update, which is partly due to my hard drive crashing and to our very busy summer. After Brie's graduation we had Aly's 2nd birthday. She had a Minnie Mouse Pool Party, courtesy of G'ma and Papa and had lots of fun! Then it was off to Disneyland! Th kids had a great time meeting Buzz, Silvermist, Tink, and Minnie Mouse. They got to go on quite a few rides and Brie enjoyed her first rides on Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Materhorn. We even stayed for the fireworks but Aidan and Aly ended up sleeping throught them. Then a week later we were off on a camping adventure. We camped at South Carlsbad and enjoyed Legoland and Sealife Aquarium at Legoland. The kids had a lot of fun but the height restrictions really limited what we could go on. It was a fun couple of days even though our battery died on the second day as we were getting ready to go to Legoland from the campground but after some friendly and helpful neighbors gave us a jump and a little detour to Walmart, we were on our way. We also went to the San Diego Zoo which the kids loved and then spent a couple of nights with Uncle Steve and Aunt Hollie. We toured through Old Town where the kids had a blast at an old fashioned candy store (I think Aubrie, Aidan and Aly liked it too) and then we had some "amazing enchiladas" at La Pinata. Aubrie caught the surfing bug from watching all the surfers at South Carlsbad and was in heaven when Daddy and Uncle Steve took her to Clairmont Surf Shop. She picked a pink shortboard as her favorite. After that trip it was a little over a week before Daddy took off on the Men and Boys Campout with our church. Papa, Uncle Steve and Daddy had a great time and loved rafting. While they were gone I rearranged the house a bit. :) We both think it looks better and is more functional now. So then before we knew it, the fourth of July was upon us. My friend Christin and her family came out for swimming, BBQ and fireworks. The kids had so much fun swimming and watching the fireworks that they were exhausted. Aidan fell asleep in the car on the way home and then when he came in the house, he took off his shoes, put them away and then passed out again on the carpet. We just carried him upstairs and put him to bed in his day clothes. As for everything else, we are all about the same, just enjoying the summer and utilizing the warm weather for potty training Aly. It has been about 2 weeks and she is doing really well. She did not even have an accident at the park yesterday. YAY! Well check out all the new pictures, there are a lot and we hope you are having a great summer. May 22, 2009 - Aubrie is officially done with Kindergarten! She graduated on Sunday, May 17th, and we are so proud of her. She did a great job and looked so cute. Before, the ceremony we celebrated by going to Shakey's, Aubrie's new favorite restruarant. She actually eats the pizza there, mind you she only wants cheese pizza, and likes to play the games. It was fun and really made her day extra special. On May 15th, just before graduation, the Kindergarten had their awards ceremony and Aubrie received an Eagle Award for Loyalty, her award for 3 quarters on the honor roll and one quarter on the Merit Roll, as well as a Certificate of Scholarship in Bible. They also handed out two pins in each class, one of which was for Most Improved and Aubrie received that pin from her class. We are so proud of her and all that she has accomplished this year. Yesterday, she went back for a field day at school and had fun playing water games and eating lunch with her friends. Aidan and Aly have been up to the same old stuff, getting in trouble, being crazy, and just generally being kids. Monday, May 18th, officially marked one month since Aly has had a pacifier and we are so thankful that she gave it up easily. The next hurdle is potty training, however, she is asking to go potty sometimes and frequently does go when we take her. She is also very interested in wearing underwear so hopefully, she will keep up the good attitude when we dive into it next month. Bryan just finished Force Instructor School today! He really loved the class and it was a great motivator in the weight loss department. Over the last six weeks he has lost 30 lbs. and looks and feels great. The one damper on his day was scrapping up the side of his truck. He was pulling into get gas and thought he had enough room to squeeze by a parked Pepsi truck when, well he found out he didn't. We already have it in getting fixed but it was still a major bummer. We have actually been working on weight loss together and I have been able to drop about 15 lbs. so far. Eating better and going to the gym have been a big help and Bryan has really helped to keep me motivated. Work has also been going well for me. Things are getting busier now with a satellite office opening up here and some nurses taking vacations. I am also working with a another nurse doing case management for personal injury cases. It is really interesting and I am learning alot. Today I went with a client for a physician case conference and was able to watch and hear a little of the discussion the doctors were having about the case. So that is pretty much what we have been up to, hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend. We definitely will as we celebrate Aly's 2nd Birthday! May 13, 2009 - Happy May! I can't believe it is almost the middle of May already. I hope all the mommies had a great Mother's Day. Ours was good but not what we had planned. Our original plans consisted of going to church and then down to Moorpark for lunch with G'ma B, Papa B, Lynnie, G'ma, Papa, and Kayla. However, the day started out with Aidan waking up crying because his arm and leg hurt, he also had a 101° fever. We gave him Tylenol and his fever dropped, aches went away and he was acting normal. We decided to still go to church and just keep him with us in the service and see how he was doing. We proceeded to get ready for church and like usually Aubrie did not want to eat breakfast, nothing new. Now we left for church and stopped on the way to get gas when Aubrie said she had to go potty and complained her stomach hurt. So off we went across the street to Walmart to use the potty. No sooner had she sat on the toilet when she vomited all over the floor. Lovely! So back home we went. We did go ahead and get El Torito take out for lunch and just relaxed the rest of the day. So aside from cleaning up vomit off the bathroom floor of Walmart, it was a pretty good day just not what we had planned. We are now gearing up for Aubrie's kindergarten graduation and Aly's 2nd birthday. It will be a busy next couple of weeks and before we know it May will be over. I will update again soon with more pictures, especially of the graduation. If you can watch the graduation on the live stream it would mean alot to us. April 20, 2009 - Okay so time for more funny stories from our house. So you are most likely assuming they must be about Aidan and you are right about one of them but the other is about Aly. So I will start with Aly just to give Aidan a break. Aly has now learned to take off her pants and of course now her diaper. She is also very interested in going potty now and has even stayed dry for a few hours and will frequently tell us she has to go potty and then actually go when we take her. However, she has not pooped in the potty lately. This brings us to last Wednesday (04/15/09). She is home with G'ma and going potty all morning. She then goes down for her nap. I get home with one chart to finish just before they are to get up from their naps when....Aidan comes down the stairs and says that Aly took her diaper off. Well Aly is a pretty regular girl and usually goes twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. When she does not go in the morning you can guarantee that she will go in the afternoon, such was this particular Wednesday. She pooped in her diaper and then proceeded to take it off. Evidently she did not like the feeling on her butt and felt she needed to wipe it off. Being the lady she is, she did not use her hands as her hands were clean but she made good use of the wall and carpet. So yes, the mental picture you now have of Aly wiping her butt on the wall and carpet is corrected along with the one of me steam cleaning the carpet and Clorox wiping off the walls. Oh, by the way, she also did not get any on her bed because that just isn't sanitary you know. Now on to Aidan and an explanation of his name at the top of the page. Last Sunday, that would be Easter Sunday, Bryan went to pick him up from his Sunday School class. He showed the ID card to the guy at the door and asked for Aidan. They guy then went to get him but came back without a kid and asked if Bryan was sure he was in that classroom. Bryan said yes, we dropped him off before the 8:30 service. They guy then asked Bryan what Aidan was wearing and Bryan told him he was wearing a light brown suit with a green, blue and yellow tie. The guy then says I thought that was him but when I asked him his name he said his name was Joe. Joe! We have no idea where he got Joe but it is partly correct if you take into account his middle name. On the way home we asked him his name and he laughed and said Aidan. When we asked him why he said his name was Joe he laughed again and said he did not know. The rest of the week he has used his correct name so maybe it was just the suit that changed his identity to Joe. We will keep an eye out for Joe the next time he wears it. :) April 14, 2009 - Aidan had his 3-year-old check up today. He is doing great and in the middle average for height and weight. He also had an x-ray done of his left hand because he most likely has a ganglion cyst (more info here: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ganglion_cyst) on the back of his hand. He is being referred to an orthopedist to further evaluate it but most likely won't need surgery since it does not cause him any pain or limit his functional ability. Other than that he lucked out on shots as he only needed the last in the Hep A series and they were out of the vaccine. He will get it in May when Aly goes in for her 2-year check up. April 13, 2009 - Sorry that it has been so long between updates. I really don't know much of what happened to March. It seemed so busy with work, spring break for Aubrie and Aidan's birthday. On that note, Aidan had a good birthday with family this year. He was supposed to have a few friends over for lunch on Friday, March 27th but the girls were sick with high fevers so we called it off. Instead we used the decorations for Saturday when G'ma B, Papa B, and Lynnie came out to see Aidan for his birthday. He had a Buzz Lightyear party and really enjoys wearing his Buzz costume from Andrew and Lindsey. He stands on the couch, pushes the red button on the costume, throws his arms out to the sides like Buzz's wings, yells "To Infinity and Beyond!" then jumps off the couch. Buzz is not too popular anymore and since he alreay has a Buzz he did not really get anything else Buzz for his birthday, instead he got some more Geotrax, more Cars and the Fisher Price Nascar Racetrack. He also received balloons on his birthday from Papa and Yaya which totally made his day. He was so excited when he saw the balloons! Aubrie is losing another tooth. It is the bottom one next to the first tooth she lost. She is just getting too big. She also got to go to the Jr. Cheerleading Clinic at school today and really loved it. She went back to school at 2:45, got a t-shirt, pompoms, dinner and learned two cheers from the cheerleaders, then performed at halftime during the student faculty game. Check out the pictures and also check out how grown up she looks this year in her Easter dress. Aly is terribly two, well almost. She is really giving us a run for our money again. She can throw insane tantrums, give awful looks, break out the snottiest attitude and is so stubborn. We spent 15 mintues on the side of the road with her getting her leg spanked before she would give in and say "Yes Ma'am" after being corrected for her poor attitude. She really turns it up in the car because it is much harder for us to do anything about it but that is going to change. We are going to be on the side of the road a lot more now. We have been letting her get away with a lot more in the car and letting her have her way just to have peace but we have now determined that as much as we want peace, we want a nice, well mannered little girl more. She is not going to be a spoiled brat and her mentality will definitely take her there if we don't nip it in the bud now. As for us, other than needing some sanity we are doing well. Work is going well for both of us but we are definitely looking forward to summer and a nice vacation. February 10, 2009 - Well it has been an interesting few days around here. I will start with our trip to San Diego and move upto today. Last Friday, we went down to San Diego to see Uncle Steve and Aunt Hollie and pick up their old kitchen table to use. The trip was great, the drive to and from were a little long and nerve wrecking with the rain but went well and the kids enjoyed using the DVD player and watching movies in the car. :) We got to see Uncle Steve and Aunt Hollie's apartment and then headed to Old Town to eat at La Pinata. We ordered the kids Cheese Enchiladas a la carte and Aidan stated that his enchilada was "amazing!" Then we headed to Seaport Village to walk around and the kids had fun watching some of the Navy ships leaving port and looking at all the "Cool Globes" on display there. Our last stop was at Mission Bay park to let the kids play a little bit before grabbing some Mickey D's and heading back to Steve and Hollie's. The kids ate dinner while Uncle Steve and Daddy loaded up the table and chairs. We then headed home. Our new table is bigger and with the extra chairs we can now all sit around the table easier. Saturday was pretty much a rest and relaxation day so that we could recoup a little. Sunday was church and also the day that Aubrie lost her first tooth! Papa Sam used the dental floss to help it along but Aubrie lost her first tooth on Sunday, February 8th, a little over five years after it came in. Awww! The tooth fairy visited that night and that little baby tooth earned her a whole dollar. The poor tooth fairy has been hit by inflation too you know. She was pretty exicted the next morning and her tooth money is now sitting in her piggy bank. Aidan had been fine all morning and stayed home with me from church because both he and Aly had pretty yucky green noses. However, at lunch he started acting really tired. I took him upstairs and put him to bed without any fuss. We thought maybe the trip and his cold had really taken it out of him until we brought the girls upstairs for naps. About an hour previously Aidan had gone upstairs by himself and Aubrie tattled that he was drinking water. Well what she had called water was actually about 4 tsp. of PediaCare Cough Medicine. I discovered the empty bottle and some spilled cough syrup on the counter. We rushed in and were able to wake him up pretty easily but he was really groggy and seemed a little confused. He wanted to fall back to sleep and would do so easily and he refused to talk to us. I grabbed my trusty drug guide and he was definitely exhibiting the drowsy side effect but did have any other side effects going on. We called Poison Control and were told that he would be okay and that he would have needed to drink 12 tsp. or 2 oz. to be of concern. We kept him awake the rest of the day and within a couple of hours he was back to his normal self. He had managed to take the child safety cap off the bottle on his own. He had done this before at my parents house with Kayla's bottle of Singulair. So now all of their medicines are up at the top of our medicine cabinets which is a much harder reach. Now here we are at Monday. I called in sick to work because the kids were sick and my mom (aka "the babysitter") was sick too. It worked out well because we had some dustings of snow, nothing that really stuck though and my mom and sister both ended up feeling pretty yucky. If I would have been over an hour away at work and heard it was snowing, I would have been majorly stressed out so the day went well for all. Well, at least until Monday night when Aidan went in to use the potty. He is now used to taking off his pants and underwear so he can sit backwards on the potty. I went to tell him to start heading upstairs so he could get a bath and he decided that he did not want to put his pants and underwear back on. I told him to just carry them upstairs then and asked him to flush the toilet as I walked out. Well he decided it might be fun to flush his underwear down the toilet. Are you getting flashbacks to about a year ago when he flushed his McQueen socks? Well, underwear is bulkier than socks and his Bulkhead Transformer underwear transformed into a clog in the downstairs toilet. We were unsuccessful at removing them with a fish tape and wire coat hanger so that next option was to remove the toilet and pray that they were stuck in the trap and we would have an "easy" fix. So this morning, Aidan, Aly and I went to Lowe's after we dropped Aubrie off at school to pick up a new wax ring and some caulking so that Bry and Papa Sam could take up the toilet and check the trap. The Lord answered our prayers and the underwear were wedged back up in the trap and easily removed as soon as they pulled up the toilet. YAY! Needless to say, Aidan has been informed he is not permited in any bathroom by himself anymore (his red bottom helped to drive this point home). It has been a pretty dangerous room for him lately and hopefully he will be capable of using the bathroom by himself again before he graduates high school. So you are now caught up on the saga of our lives, (read primarily Aidan) and hopefully you have enjoyed this little melodrama. :) Back with another exciting epsiode next week, just kidding! No really, I am kidding, prayerfully so! February 3, 2009 - Still not used to 2009 yet, I have written 2008 too many times on my checks still. I am hoping it will sink in soon or I will be 2 years behind on my dates. :) Aubrie is losing her first tooth. I had not expected anything since she had not complained about a lose tooth. However, the other day she was brushing her teeth and I looked down to check how she was doing and there was her permanent tooth. It is on the bottom right and coming in behind her baby tooth. The baby tooth is a little lose but WOW! Her permanent tooth is really far along. When did that happen. It is really strange looking (you can see the picture in the pictures section). I told Bryan that we will need to take her tooth fairy money and start saving it in a Braces Fund. It definitely looks like she is going to need them the way that tooth is coming in but we will see. January 6, 2009 - I can't believe the date, I almost typed 2008. :) Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's and are enjoying the first days of this gift. Our New Year's was a little disease infested with pink eye and a bout of the stomach flu but everyone seems on the mend now. I have been doing lots of deep cleaning to make sure we don't have an repeat episodes. I guess this just means we are getting our spring cleaning done early. Hehehe! Aubrie has started back to school and seems to be adjusting well back into the routine, I am the one having the hard time. I know I will be ready for summer break before she is. She is also enjoying Mommy and Daddy's Christmas present, the Wii. She is quite the bowler and frequently gets strikes. She also likes playing golf, baseball, and boxing. Aidan started the new year off well. He had his first incident of the new year already yesterday. Here is the dialogue he and I had yesterday in the car on our way to pick up Aubrie: Aidan: "Mommy, I sick." Mommy: "What's wrong, is your nose sick, your stomach sick or your eye sick?" Aidan: "My nose" Mommy: "Is it yucky?" Aidan: "Yeah" Mommy: "Okay, I will take care of it when we get to Aubrie's school" Aidan: "Okay" A couple minutes later we pull into the parking lot at Aubrie's school. Aidan: "Mommy, my nose is sick. There's a raisen in my nose" Mommy: "WHAT!?!?!?! Sure enough I look in there and he has a raisen stuck way up in his nose. He got a stern lecture about not sticking things up his nose and to not stick his fingers in it. I told him I would have to get it out when we got home. Fortunately, a pair of Kelly forceps did the trick and I was able to pull a snot covered, water logged, soggy, gross raisen out of his nose when we got home. We need an accident counter in our house - "Aidan has been accident free x number of days", unfortunately it would probably frequently be at zero. Aly is doing well and talking more everyday. She has very definite opinions about things. She also loves to have bare feet. It is 65 in the house but she takes off her socks, we get in the car and her shoes and socks come off. She reminds us a lot of someone else in that regard, not to name any names (begins with a Y, lives in Florida) or anything. The only way we are going to get her to keep them on right now is to duct tape them to her feet. Well that is about it on the update for now. We don't have a whole lot of new pictures yet but I will update that as we get more too. Enjoy the new year and remember to write 2009! :)
December 26, 2008 - Well we hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a very nice and relaxing day here at the house with G'ma, Papa, Kayla, G'ma B, Papa B, and Lynnie coming over to enjoy the kids and get their presents too. :) It was a very GeoTrax Christmas for the kids. GeoTrax is the train set that Fisher-Price makes and that was what all of them primarily got. We still aren't sure who had more fun with it, the kids or the guys. Papa, Papa B and Bryan had a lot of fun "showing" the kids how to set it up. Aidan also got a Shake N' Go Lightn' McQueen with a Mack and Trailer and Santa brought him a Bumblebee Transformer that is impossible to transform, hehehe! Aubrie got a My Little Pony Ponyville house and Santa brought her a Prowl transformer which again is impossible to transform. Al's got a stroller and Santa brought her a new baby. She also enjoyed playing with Aunt Kayla on Kayla's new MacBook. Bryan and I did not exchange gifts as we are putting all our money and a little extra toward the purchase of a Wii and some accessories. All in all it was a nice Christmas. We went to Christmas Eve service at Grace with my family, which made us appreciate the childcare that our church offers all the more. :) Today was pretty relaxing again for Bryan and the kids. They enjoyed a good day of play and rest. I had another day of training which went really well and I am get closer to being out on my own which will be nice. Go enjoy all the new pictures and if we don't post again before then, have a Happy New Year! December 22, 2008 - Last night Aubrie had her Christmas program which was rescheduled because of the snow. She only sang one song which she knew very well and was very cute. Next year will be even better as she will be on the platform for more of the program. We are all ready for Christmas with the exception of a couple more gifts that need wrapping and are just slowing down to enjoy the season. We pray that all of you have a wonderful celebration of our Lord and Saviour's birth and that you have peace while reflecting on the greatest gift ever given. Merry Christmas with lots of love from Bryan, Siobhain, Aubrie, Aidan, and Aly. December 18, 2008 - Well the Polar Express was a no go for us this year. We received over a foot of snow and all roads were closed. We called to find out what we could do and they would not refund us our money but allowed us to rebook for another time. We choose to forego the trip this year and rebooked for December 2009. To say we disappointed would be an understatement. We have prayed for a nice snowfall for so many years and of course the one time we don't want it to snow we are inundated with it. We really had to focus on our blessings today, that we are all together and healthy and have the opportunity to go next year. We were just really looking forward to seeing the kids reactions this year. Aidan is so into trains right now but hopefully we can continue to foster that into next year too. We did enjoy the snow and still have quite a bit around to play in. It truly was an amazing sight to see it falling all day yesterday. Fortunately my dad made it home before all roads closed down but the parents of the kids I babysit did not. Their dad was able to get aboard a Metro train though and made it home to get the kids by 9 p.m. He told us how, one train did not even stop at his station because it was so full, how their were over 500 people waiting at another station and the trains were just jammed full. When Bryan went to pick him up from the station there were tons of people that were having to walk home because many roads had been closed in town as well. This was quite a storm and now we face all the problems that will come with the melt, hopefully though this will help our water situation. December 17, 2008 - We are getting lots of snow. It has been snowing continuously since about 6 am and we have about 2-3 inches of snow currently (as of 11 am and it is still snowing). The kids have had a great time on their Snow Day from school. They built a snowman, threw snowballs, and went sledding. Hopefully things will stay open so we can get out to the Polar Express. Keep us in you prayers! :)
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Also as far as I know the girls will pick their team name, I think they are assigned a color and then pick a name, Bryan is just hoping the girls will not decide on a name like Pink Princess Chihuahuas, that was one of the teams last year, but with 5 and 6 year old girls you just never know. Aubrie also enjoyed going to the driving range with Bryan last Saturday and did pretty well hitting a ball 60 yards once. You can check out the pictures in the picture section. As for Bry and I we are doing well and just getting ready for a busy fall. 
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