2010 in Review

This year has been so much fun. Its so hard to believe we went from a crawling little baby to a full on running and jumping toddler. It has been so neat to watch her grow and change and we continue to be amazed every day as she learns more. I thought I would do 1 post with a couple pictures from each month (some regular ones and her growth pictures) so everyone can see the changes.

January

We celebrated Aubrey's 1st birthday on January 26. Although her birthday party was almost snowed out, we still managed to have a lot of fun.

February

After cutting out the final bottle in early February, we let Aubrey start learning to feed herself and this is what happened:

March

March gave us the official change from baby to toddler when Aubrey took her first steps.





April

In April, we celebrated Easter and Aubrey's 15 month birthday.







May

We finally got some warmer weather so we began the first of many weekends spend on the back porch.







June

June included Father's Day, so this is my favorite picture of Aubrey and her daddy.



We also celebrated Gma's 60th birthday a little early.





July

We spent most of the month trying to stay cool.



Aubrey also got her first pillow in July.



We also found the Pebbles hairdo this month.




August

August was hot and miserable, but we managed to get some outside time.







September

We finally got some RnR in September by going on vacation to Myrtle Beach.







October

The weather finally started cooling, which meant the pumpkin patch and Halloween.







November

First hair cut and Turkey Day









December

To wrap up the year, we celebrated the holidays, which included the first white Christmas in 47 years.











We can only hope that 2011 will be just as fabulous as 2010!

Happy New Year!!!!

23 months

We've had a really busy month this month. All the holiday festivities kept us hopping and made the month go by so fast. I really can't believe I'm writing the last monthly blog before she turns 2. I just can't think about it too much without getting teary so I'll just move on to the highlights.

***We have pee-pee in the potty! On Christmas Eve, Todd was getting Aubrey out of the bathtub and she said "potty." So he sat her on the potty and after a few minutes, she actually managed to pee and Todd went nuts. I was downstairs cooking when he starts yelling at me to come upstairs. I run upstairs thinking something is wrong and he tells me she peed in the potty so I go nuts with him. We are trying to make it a big deal so she'll keep doing it, but so far she's only done it 1 more time. But, its a start!
***She had her first white Christmas. So beautiful.
***She's using even more 2 word phrases, such as telling Bailey to "sit down" and telling us "right here."
***She had her first request from daycare to be out for 24 hours because of too much "number 2." She was fine and had no fever, so we went shopping while everyone else worked and went to school.
***She also threw her first full on kicking and screaming tantrum in public during that shopping trip. That was not fun for anyone.
***She took her first shower and was not too happy about it. So, we'll stick to baths for now.

White Christmas

It started snowing late Christmas night and by the time we woke up the next morning, it was gorgeous outside.

The dogs had a blast playing in the snow after Allie got over the fact it was cold.

Todd drug Aubrey around on the sled, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

She thought Todd would like to be pulled around too and told him to "sit down Dada" so he sat and helped her pull him for a bit. She worked so hard and was "rewarded" by falling down in the snow, which Todd found pretty funny.

While the snow was not much fun for getting other Sunday chores done, it was so much fun to play in.

Christmas 2010

We were pretty excited about Christmas this year. While Aubrey still doesn't understand the meaning of Christmas, she does understand the excitement that comes along with it. We started the Christmas season by helping Todd's parents decorate their house. Aubrey did her own version of helping by taking decorations down, which was not very helpful, but still cute.


We then went to pick out our tree and Aubrey loved walking around and looking at all of the trees.


We then let her help decorate our tree and hang her stocking, which were very cute to watch.

The week of Christmas always brings the tradition of traveling to Raleigh for Todd's dad's family Christmas. Christmas Eve always starts with a big breakfast.

After breakfast, Aubrey, Betty, Traci and I all took off for our annual Christmas Eve shopping trip. It was a little bit more difficult to shop with Aubrey in tow, but we managed to make it with only a few tantrums. After shopping and socializing, it was time to eat. The family always roasts a pig for Christmas, but Aubrey decided she only wanted to eat chocolate-covered cereal instead.

Santa always comes by the house on his way around the world to see the children and give out an early present. Aubrey did not disappoint with the expected meltdown when Todd tried to place her on his lap.

Sitting with Aunt Traci didn't help much either.

We somehow got this picture with her none the wiser about Santa sitting right behind her.

Presents seemed to help things seem better.

We drove back home Christmas Eve so we can wait for Santa's arrival. And Santa was very good to Aubrey this year.

Her face realizing that all those toys were hers was priceless.

She loves, loves, loves the Crazy Coope and we have a hard time getting her out.

The ball pit was a big hit as well.

We then traveled to see Gma, Grandpa Jimmy, and Traci to see what Santa delivered there for us.

We went back home and picked up Grandpa Barrett and traveled to Kernersville to see my mom's family. It started snowing on the trip up there and made everything so pretty.

We enjoyed hanging out with the family, but had to leave early to get home before the roads got worse. We then had Christmas dinner at our house with Grandpa Barrett, Lacey, Jeffrey, Gma and Grandpa Jimmy. During dinner, it started snowing pretty heavy so all the family left us to get home. Todd took Aubrey out and all she kept saying was "its snowing, its snowing." She got to experience the first white Christmas in our area in 47 years so that awesome.

All in all, Todd and I agree that this was one of the best Christmases ever. This is what we dreamed about when we decided to become parents and it was so much fun to share with Aubrey.