It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well we bit the bullet and set up our decorations this year with the help of our

soon to be two year old. We had a great time!

Aubrey helped daddy take the tree out of the box and she helped him spread the branches apart...

She then wanted to explain where the lights should go...

I started to unpacked the rest of our decorations and Aubrey became interested in what I was doing because it involved a few stuffed friends! She quickly took them and got into the tree box to play! :D

Aubrey LOVED looking through all of our ornaments and she helped by handing them to us and then she hung a few of her own! It was a fun morning and now each time we come down stairs she lets us know that the "Boo-ti-Ful Chis-Mas Tee" needs lights!

The magic of the season is here!

Around The House

Some cute pics from around the house...

Aubrey plays with her legos a lot these days! I thought these pictures were perfect to explain how she plays with them:

Aubrey using patience and concentration to build a tower...

Aubrey using shear force and will in order to build her tower.

Aubrey will be getting a table and chair set from her MeMe and PopPop for Christmas and until then we like to color on our block container using our stool. :D

Thanksgiving... Round Two

We gave thanks again the weekend after Thanksgiving when Evan's sister, Bethany, and her husband, David, came into town. We had wonderful food and a great time during the weekend making memories. Aubrey, as usual, was shy for about 5 minutes and then she ran around calling out Aunt Bethy and Uncle David during the majority of the day. David and Bethany are currently living in New York and Aubrey has only seen them a few times, but she is in LOVE! We color pictures for them or ask about them, for MANY DAYS, whenever they are not around. When they came for Thanksgiving it was such a blessing to see Aubrey with them. Aubrey finds such joy in being around people and in interacting in any way she can with them. She was truly happy to be surrounded that weekend!

Aubrey and Daddy doing another one of their famous tricks!

I think my daughter is fearless thanks to daddy!

The train is an annual tradition, except this year it was taken up many notches!

Evan and his dad rebuilt the table, redesigned the tracks, and reworked the scenery.

Aubrey was there for the final touches and LOVED it! Whenever the train would go around she would belt out a laugh and scream Choo Choo! She asks to go to Nana and Baba's house to see the train now. She is hooked!

A pre-Christmas gift... I think she will do just fine this year opening gifts!

Aubs and Aunt Bethy... Aubrey found Bethany's old cradle, baby, and accessories and made herself at home playing with them. She never quiet wanted the baby in the cradle though; I think she thought it was for her. :D

Uncle David and Aubrey playing... again she is in the cradle.

Thanks for such a nice visit guys and we look forward to the next!

Thanksgiving!

We gave thanks on two different days this year. The three of us spent Thanksgiving Day at my brothers house and were TIRED by the end of cooking, eating, and playing! We are so thankful for the time we spend with his family and the memories and bonds being created. The kids LOVE each others company and the evidence is in the giggles that heard ALL DAY coming from the playroom or upstairs bedrooms! Here are a few pictures from the day...

Aubrey and Evan showed all of the kids their new trick....

Eli tried...

Norah tried... and LOVED IT!

Aubrey and Aunt T

The evening was spent watching some shows... everyone was pooped!

Aubrey had a tea party and delivered refreshments trough the evening... mainly because, as most of us know, she CAN NOT sit still!

SHHHH .... LOVE IT!

SNOW DAY!!!!

We had our first snow day on Saturday and as soon as Aubrey woke up and saw the snow she yelled SNOW BOOTS!!!!!! She ran around trying to collect her snow clothes and we got her dressed! We had two of her favorite girls at our house that morning so it made the day even better! We all got dressed and went for a walk and then enjoyed a few times down a hill nearby on our sleds. The morning was filled with laughter and noise form three crazy girls! It was a special day and I am so thankful to have participated and been a witness to friendships such as these!

We got dressed for our morning out!

I was dressing Samantha and Sydney was helping Aubrey.

The Girls!

Samantha and Aubrey in the sled and Sydney pulling.

Making their way up the hill.

A view from the top of the BIG SCARY HIL!

Sydney

Sam... I love that she has her eyes closed.

Sydney being sill and Aubs waiting her turn...

Not loving it!

When Aubrey got to the bottom she just wanted out ... but she looked cute doing it all :D

We tried our blue sled instead of the red one and she LOVED IT! She went down the hill a few times using her blue sled and as everyone took turns she would call out "hold on tight"!!

We went for a walk .... the girls rode.

Sydney kept finding the largest "snowballs" and wanting pictures of them :D

This face sums up the day!

Family Traditions

Evan and I have been talking about family traditions and how we would love to have a few of our own. This year we started a new tradition of making our own family ornament for Christmas. We did several trial runs before getting the end result, but the evenings of trials were fun and we LOVE our end result!

We made the first example from play dough :D and then attempted the real thing.

Aubrey enjoyed the play dough time and made a few "cookies" of her own.

The first few were a little disastrous!

We had a little more success later! After we were done Evan sanded all

the pieces and then I painted them.

We LOVE it!