Monday, January 31, 2011

Growing Right Before My Eyes

I think both of my little munchkins have recently gone through a mental spurt. They both have seemed older to me this last week. It's both fun and a little sad to see them grow.
Aubrey has just been a little dress-up girl this week. Here's a little ensemble she put together. (I think she was hoping that we would actually leave the house. We were all sick, so we didn't leave the house most of the week.)

 She was Minnie Mouse all day on Saturday. I love how her ears are on upside down.

We have morning church now and I no longer have much time to do Aubrey's hair. I wanted her to have curls for church. She does not sleep well with sponge rollers or tied in socks. So, I tried my own little method to see how it would work.
The experiment. We called them twirly knots - Aubrey got a kick out of them and was very excited Sunday morning to see if they would turn into curls.

The result. I thought it turned out pretty cute - however they were not real easy to pick out. They kind of knotted a bit on the ends.

I tried to get a front shot, but Aubrey was too busy dancing!


With Aubrey in our home it's kind of like living in a musical. She makes up songs about whatever she is doing. Sometimes she sings them soft and sweet and sometimes at the top of her lungs. These are a few of the songs she graced us with at dinner last night:
"I love to look at my family. When I look at each one, I love them."
"In the Spring flowers grow. In the Summer strawberries grow. In the Winter nothing grows."
"Gotta get ready for bed, but I want to play instead" Repeated several times.
"I will eat right now instead of going to bed early." (She's been threatened with that a few times this week because she was taking an eternity to eat her dinner.)

It's fun hearing her sweet voice singing away all day long! (My mom said that I was like that as a kid too.)

Aubrey also loves to rhyme. She speaks in rhymes all of the time. Maybe she'll become a songwriter.

A favorite saying of Aubrey these days is, "I've got a new way of ______" She comes up with new ways to walk and talk and brush her teeth, etc. And of course she has to show us all of her "new ways" and teach Brookie her new ways of doing things!

Another favorite saying of Aubrey's is, "it will take all night to do _____" (or sometimes all day). At dinner she was told she had to eat her vegetables before she had another piece of bread. Her retort was, "but it will take all night to eat my vegetables." Funny kid.

I have been impressed with Aubrey's math ability lately. At dinner she'll ask, how many bites of vegetables do I need to eat (gotta love that question). Then she'll take a few bites and say something like, "I ate 2 bites so I have 3 more left and I will have eaten all 5 bites."


Brooke and I had fun making the cooties on Saturday. She would hand me each piece and tell me what color or what body part it was and tell me where to put it. She tried to put some pieces in herself, but it was a little too hard for her. (Don't you love her too small pj's that she insisted on wearing. And the fact that they are part way open and that it was past noon and she was still wearing them!)

Brooke is still just a talking machine. She is talking in sentences all day now. (Mostly 3, 4 and 5 word sentences.) Her favorite sentence is "I do self." (Translation I want to do it myself.) She also stopped saying "yeah" and now says, "yesssssssss" and "ok".

Whenever we say family prayer she leans over the ottoman and whispers her own prayer the whole time and then when it's done she yells, "Amen" excitedly. I wish I could hear what she is saying, but it's a quiet whisper.

Brooke is loving stories lately. She even reads them to herself. She either talks about the pictures or recites phrases that she remembers. When she gets to the end she closes the book and says, "the end". Then she'll say, "another story" and run off and get a new book.
The other day Brooke was sitting on my lap. Aubrey came over and was trying to get on my lap also. Brooke looks at her all disturbed and says, "No, I cuddlebug." Apparently she didn't want to share the mommy cuddles.

Whenever we smell a stinky we'll ask Brooke if she has a poopy diaper. Sometimes she'll fess up, but most of the time she'll say, "no I tootie." Sometimes she's telling the truth, but other times she is lying through her teeth!

She has now figured out the #3. For awhile she would point out when she would see 2 of anything. The other day we were reading a book that had 3 bears on one page. First she said, "2 bears". I responded with, "Are there 2 bears on the page?" Then she said, "No three."

Brooke is a real good helper and usually likes to help clean up. Whenever she is finished with a snack or a cup of milk she will say, "put in sink" and then run to the sink and throw it in. She also likes to throw things in the trash, although she sometimes mistakes the toilet for the trash.


I love those two little cutie pies!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Chocolate Mustache

 I don't know how a chocolate chip cookie can make this big of a mess! But, Brooke sure is a delicious mess!

 Here's Aubrey asking, "Do I have chocolate on my face too Mommy?" Nope but you sure are cute anyway! (I'm so glad she's not so messy when she eats these days.)

(I cut Aubrey's bangs shorter than I usually do. I'm not in love with them, but at least it will take longer before I have to trim them again. And now there's more of a distinction between the ones I am growing out and the ones that I'm keeping bangs.)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Making Necklaces

 Grandma Buell sent a little package that included necklaces for the girls to make. Aubrey was able to make hers entirely on her own.


Brooke had fun handing me the beads while telling me what color or object they were. She loves that she can participate in the big girl things that Aubrey is doing.

Here she is sporting her necklace with her makeup face and Minnie Mouse purse. I didn't think that I could have a girlier girl than Aubrey, but I think Brooke has surpassed her in girliness! Poor Jeff, there sure is a whole lot of girl happening at our house!

And here's Aubrey sporting her necklace and shades.

Thanks grandma for the package, the girls sure have fun with the little crafts you send them!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Painting

The girls are sooo happy when mommy gets out the paints. I found  some cute little ceramics for the girls to paint and got them out while I was making dinner a few days ago.

Brooke's attention span has really been increasing lately. She stayed at this task for quite a while.

Aubrey had a ball painting her castle.


It's so nice seeing them at play happily together.

I was just a few yards away in the kitchen while they were painting. My view is obstructed by the couch, but I can hear them. After a bit I went and peaked at them, and this is what had become of Brooke! Hurray for washable paint!

I Love my little cutie pies!

This week Aubrey showed her first interest in painting something how it is seen in actual nature. Usually she wants to mix colors and add as much paint as possible randomly to whatever object she is painting. She wanted to paint this little strawberry and told me, "Mom I only want red and green paint." This little strawberry is no bigger than a quarter. I was very impressed with her painting job on such a small little object.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Little Sweetie Pie

While I was getting ready this morning, Aubrey made a Thank you card for me for her Christmas presents. It was the sweetest little surprise.

Then she dictated the words she wrote on the card:


"Dear Mom,

I Love you. I love all the fun things you gave to me on Christmas. Thank you for the Minnie Mouse, I love her.
(She got her from me last year.) Thank you for the camera, I love taking pictures with it. I hope you like the presents I gave to you. I love you.


Love,
Aubrey"

What a way to help mommy forget about her cold!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Updates

 I LOVE it when my girls will play happily together. They have been getting better and better at playing together. They both love drawing on the easel. I thought they looked so cute with one on each side drawing pictures.

 Aubrey would be so happy if she could turn Brooke into her very own real live Barbie doll. Most of the time Brooke doesn't want to be messed with. But, every once and awhile she'll let Aubrey do what she will with her. The other morning I caught them playing beauty shop. Brooke was willingly letting Aubrey brush and put clips all over her hair. It was really cute!

Aubrey's new thing is to dress up her dolls and animals with her clothes. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand it is really cute seeing her put all of her babies in clothes and taking care of them. On the other hand, it's hard to keep track of which clothes of Aubrey's are clean and which are dirty. Whenever I'm in doubt I always lean toward letting her be creative. So, Aubrey, you win, dress up your babies to your hearts content!

The other day the girls were drawing pictures and Aubrey said, "I want to draw a picture of the whole family at the cabin." She would draw a person and tell me who it was so I could label it. She even got in Santa and his bag - because it was Christmas time when we were at the cabin.

Aubrey has been working very hard at trying to pronounce the letter L. Up 'til now her l's would make the w or y sound - which I think is pretty cute. A few posts back I told the story of her correcting Brooke's pronunciation of balloon with her own incorrect pronunciation. She heard me telling daddy the story and was confused. I then helped her make the l sound and taught her the correct way of saying balloon. Since then she has been really working at it. When she says a word with L in it she will really accentuate the L as she says it, so she can say it correctly. It's really cute seeing her work so hard at it.
Her great big imagination continues to be a source of entertainment at our house. The other day we had lost the top to the chap stick the girls were putting on. We were looking for it everywhere but couldn't find it. Aubrey then said, "I know. Sometimes some little crickets come into my room and turn my light off. I think some crickets came into the house and took the top away from us." Who knows where she came up with that one! She also thinks that when it's dark there is a dragon on her ceiling. I tried to explain that it was a shadow that looked like a dragon, but she did not believe me!

We play the primary music in the car when we are driving around. Sometimes she sings along and other times I didn't even think she was listening, until lately. As songs have been starting to play she's been telling me what they are about. For instance, "Mommy this song is about Jesus dying and then coming back to life again." or "This song is about Joseph Smith." I love how interested she is in learning about the gospel and how much she takes in just by listening to music in the car.

Brooke has been loving building block towers lately. She can get quite a few blocks stacked up before they fall over.

On Friday we went to the library's used book sale. The girls LOVE LOVE LOVE getting new books and they were selling children's books for 50 cents. Brooke picked out this Hide and Seek Grover book. (It's similar to There's a monster at the end of this book.) Brooke absolutely LOVES the book. She has hardly put it down since we got it. She will even ask for it (She calls it Monster - probably because of the other monster book he is in) as soon as she wakes up in the morning or from naps. She really gets attached to things. 

Brooke is getting quite possessive of things lately. Her favorite word these days is, "mine." Even when things aren't hers, she tries to convince me that they are! She will even say, "My Mommy" when Aubrey is giving me a hug sometimes. Funny kid.

She always wants to do or have anything and everything that Aubrey has. If Aubrey says she wants something Brooke pipes in with, "I want _____ too!" She also has become quite the Aubrey copy cat. If Aubrey's does a little dance or movement Brooke copies. If Aubrey makes funny sounds Brooke copies her. So far Aubrey has liked when Brooke copies her. I am hoping Aubrey doesn't grow tired of it - But my guess is that she probably will. :(

The other day Brooke was looking for me in the house. When she finally found me, she fell into my lap and gave me a great big hug. She then stayed there for several minutes snuggling with me. I kept calling her my little cuddle bug. After a few minutes she got up and played for a bit - then she ran back into my arms and said, "I cuddle bug". She did this routine over and over again. It was really sweet.

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Few Events

We had a short visit from a few Tanners a few weeks back. With them dropping and picking up kids from school and very shortly dropping off missionaries, we've been getting to see them more often. The girls love it when we have visitors. Stephanie was real sweet to play with them, and they loved it!


For Martin Luther King Day we decided to go to a local in door, glow in the dark, mini golf place. It looked really cool and the girls had fun. It was pretty packed so we just skipped around to whatever holes were open and let the girls have at it.

Aubrey had fun hitting the ball over and over again until she got it in the hole.

Brooke mainly liked putting her ball down on the little hole where you tee off and then picking it up and finding the big hole to put it in.

Then we headed off to McDonald's for lunch and play time in the play area. We rarely go out to eat, so it's always a real fun treat for the girls. We had a real enjoyable day together!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Blue Chocolate Milk

Aubrey woke up one morning and said, "Last night I had a dream that I drank blue chocolate milk." We had a good chuckle over that. Well it became a recurring dream for her. After the 3rd time of her reporting this dream, I decided I better make her dream come true and make her some blue chocolate milk. She was so delighted!


Brooke, of course, requested some purple chocolate milk.

And as I fully expected, and the reason why I held off making her blue chocolate milk in the first place, we have to have colored chocolate milk everyday. It has just become our lunchtime ritual. Aubrey likes a new color everyday and will mix food coloring to discover new shades. Brooke only wants purple! What an obsession that girl has with purple!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Preschool - Letter Z

Last week was my turn for Preschool. We learned about the letter Z and had a Zoo themed day. I had the kids bring some animals from home and as they came in they added them to the zoo we made in the front room.
After learning about the sound that Z makes and all of the very few words that start with the Letter Z we played a zoo habitat game.

I had a box with a picture of water inside and one with a picture of land. The children took turns pulling an animal out of a bag and deciding if it should go in the water box, land box, or in the middle (for animals who spend time in both areas.)


Then we did some crafts. We made lion heads out of paper plates and used potato stamps to make penguins.

Then they packed up their snacks which included, bananas, carrots and nuts. All foods that zoo animals eat.

They loaded their snacks in their backpacks and we headed over to our stuffed animal zoo.

Then we had a little picnic at our zoo.

I really love our little preschool!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam

A week ago Sunday, Aubrey had her first week as a Sunbeam. She was excited about it the whole week before. Every morning she would ask me if it was Sunday so she could go to Primary. She's heard a lot about Primary since she was a little baby, and was so happy she could finally go to Primary with Mommy. We talked a lot Primary and about being reverent. She did such a good job. I was so glad that I was in there to see her sit so reverently and fold her arms the whole time. When she was supposed to do some actions with her arms during Singing Time she would try to do the actions while folding her arms - it was so funny to watch. I'm glad that Aubrey is in Primary - I've really enjoyed watching her the last couple of weeks.

During class time she told us that they talked about their Spirit. She said that they were supposed to draw a picture of their spirit. I thought her picture was so cute that I had to scan it.




Then for several days after she played Primary with her babies and animals.

This is after church her first Sunday in Primary. She sat up her babies in a row and was teaching them how to sing, "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam."

The next day she set up even more chairs and animals and even Brooke got involved. Before they began Aubrey explained to Brooke about how to be reverent in Primary.

Here is Aubrey leading the music in her Primary.

I'm sure glad that Aubrey loves Primary just as much as I do!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

New Years Eve

We decided to have a little New Years Eve party as a family. After having pizza for dinner, we played some games.

First we played a very scaled down version of charades. We each took turns thinking of a word and acting it out. It turned out really fun. Aubrey could have played all night.
Here is Aubrey acting out dancing.

 We had to help Brooke out with the words, but then she would act them out.

Here she is hiding.

Here she is being a kitty.
The funniest one was when Aubrey tried to be a picture. She tried to climb up the wall and hang on it like a picture frame. Funny kid.

Then after putting Brooke down for bed, we got out the board games.
We played almost all the kids games we had. Aubrey was pretty much the happiest kid in the world. I think she loved the special time with Mom and Dad.


 She looked so cute holding up her cards.

Playing her new game "Break the Ice." 

All of us with our Cooties.
 

After playing Chutes and Ladders it was just about 9:00 and time for our fake New Years. When I lived in California the ball in NY would drop at 9. I forgot that since we are in Utah, that doesn't happen until 10. Jeff cleverly found a video clip of last years ball dropping and we watched that instead and made lots of noise and hugs and kisses. Then Aubrey very reluctantly went to bed. It ended up being such a fun little party. Aubrey wanted to stay up late playing games for several nights after that. It's fun spending time with just our little family.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

One last Christmas Present

My sis-in-law Katie had my name for Christmas. She is a hair stylist, so I asked for a hair cut.

I've been debating for months on what I want to do with my hair. I couldn't decide, so I figured the best thing to do would be to cut off however much I would need to be able to donate to Locks of Love. After all I have a ton of hair and those kids don't have any :(.

Even after the over 10 inches of pony tail cut off, there still a mound of hair on the floor after my haircut. So, we had to document it. Can you believe that pile of hair?

Katie did a fantastic job - I Love my new do!
 

Thanks Katie - you're awesome!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Fun in the Snow

It was freezing and snowy here last week. The girls were dying to go out and play in the snow. So I bundled them all up and sent them out, while I watched warm and snug from the inside.



It's not easy making a snowball with big gloves on - but Aubrey finally did it.

And then what did she do with it? Threw it at her sister of course. Something I'm sure she saw on a show. Good thing she doesn't have very good aim!

Maybe if I had snow gear and boots (I have never owned a pair of boots) then I would enjoy the snow better. But, as of now, I'm still not a fan!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...