These birthdays keep happening, huh

In other words, Aubrey is FOUR! I still have a hard time remembering that she isn't 3 anymore. I have to make a conscience effort to say 4 now. But, no matter how hard I struggle, she is quite proud of her advanced old age and will proudly show off 4 fingers when anyone asks how old she is. 

It was nice that her birthday was on a Saturday this year so we could celebrate on the actual day as a family. However, we did have a little stress after another winter "storm" passed through Charlotte on Friday. Luckily, the storm only brought freezing rain and didn't cause nearly as much drama as the snow and ice from her first birthday. 

We started the morning off with some pancakes with sprinkles, followed by opening presents from us. After lunch, it was time to get ready for her birthday party. We decided to invite her preschool class and her BFF Landon to Monkey Joe's and it turned out to be an excellent party. The kids got to run and jump for an hour, eat some yummy cupcakes and ice cream, open presents and then jump some more. It was a chaotic 2 hours but Aubrey loved every second of it and in usual Aubrey fashion, threw a tantrum when it was time to leave. We rounded out the birthday night by having dinner at Jason's Deli followed by digging into all of her presents when we got home. 

On the Monday after her birthday, I treated her preschool class to doughnuts and Aubrey was so excited to walk in carrying those bags. She also got to wear a crown that said "I am 4" and she loved it.

Aubrey had her 4 year check up on Tuesday and was almost crying from the second we walked in the doors. She knew she would be getting shots this time and I think watching Mason get his a few weeks ago terrified her. The good news was she is healthy. She is now 40" tall (57th%) and weighs 37 lbs (67%). Dr. Honeycutt said she has slimmed down over the past year but that is a good thing. She passed the developmental questionnaire and Dr. Honeycutt said she is on track for everything. She refused to cooperate for the hearing screen but passed her vision test with flying colors. Unfortunately the nurse then announced that it was time for shots and she started crying before she even laid down. She really let loose once the first shot was in and cried for a good 5 minutes afterwards. And, there was not even a lollypop to bribe her with because of the stupid flu season germs. Luckily, she won't get any other shots except a flu shot until she is 11 so I hope that will make future doctor's visits a little easier. I was able to come home and treat her to a doughnut so that made her world all better again.

We have one more celebration with family this week for her birthday and then we can call birthday season over in our house. Aubrey asks me everyday when her next birthday is and is already planning what she wants to do next year. Let the planning begin (as long as I can deny that she will be FIVE!).

Mason's First Birthday Party

We hosted Mason's first birthday at our house and decided to keep it low key with just family and a few friends with babies around Mason's age. I learned after the debacle that was Aubrey's first birthday that no matter what the party situation there would be a good time and enjoyment by all so I scaled back my planning and let the focus be on our little man. After a yummy lunch, Mason had a blast with his cupcake and we were relieved. We were worried after his cake smash pictures that he wouldn't enjoy it, but he did exactly what we hoped and destroyed it. We also watched a slide show of pictures from his first year and watching it the first time made me so sad, but by the 5th or 6th time, I was able to get through it and just be happy. We then opened a few presents, including his new riding toy and toy phone that he loves to pieces. All in all, it was a great little party and even though he won't remember it I am glad that Mason had this time to be celebrated.

The "I guess I have to write that Mason is ONE post"

If I could avoid this post, I completely would. Writing things down just makes them seem much more real for me. So, writing down that my little man is now the big ONE makes me just sad, sad, sad. Since he was born early in the morning, more of my reminiscing about his birth was done the night. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a very glamorous day to celebrate his birth. It was a Monday, which meant business as usual, which also included visiting the car dealership to patch another freaking hole from a screw in my tire in the rain. But, Mason did get lots of extra hugs and kisses throughout the day and I did bake him a cake for his birthday so it wasn't too terrible for him. I am excited for his birthday party this weekend and hope he is little more excited about his cake then than he was for his cake smash pictures that I'll share soon.

This month's milestones:
*Left upper central incisor broke through 12.17

*Right upper central incisor broke through 12.22 (so now we can joke he did get his 2 front teeth for Christmas!)

*We think he has started working on his lower lateral incisors

*First Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day

*First few nights away from me 

*Started the transition off breast milk. We started with a coconut milk/rice milk mix. He didn't handle that so well. We knew soy milk was out so after some more research, he is now drinking hemp milk. Its freaking expensive, but he seems to be tolerating it well so we'll just deal with it for now.

*He has started sleeping with a little comfort blankie. It is the cutest thing to see him snuggled up with it. It has greatly helped with his bedtime crying and fussing so I am seriously considering buying about 3 extras to have on hand just in case the first one is lost.
*He had his first visit to urgent care after we thought he may have swallowed the slider that goes on the bottom of our kitchen chairs. Luckily, the x-ray found nothing out of the ordinary inside him but made Todd and me feel so much better. We still can't find that slider though...

*He is walking pretty well behind his walking toys. He just giggles the entire time he is walking and will walk until his walker won't move anymore.

He had his one year well check today. He weighs 18.5 lbs (15%), is 28.5 inches long (15th), and his head is 45 cm (45th). The only concern Dr. Honeycutt had was regarding his verbal development, but she said that second born children, especially boys, will often be slower on verbal development and faster on the  motor skills because the older sibling will often talk for the younger child and youngest want to be able to keep up physically with that older sibling. Perfectly true in our house. She just encouraged us to keep reading and encouraging him to make sounds and see what happens by the next visit. Otherwise, he is healthy which made her happy. He did have to get 4 shots and his blood drawn, but he continues to show he is a tough guy by only crying until I pick him up and give him his paci. So,  hopefully no more doctor's visits and shots until July for his 18 month appointment. 

After his first spaghetti meal. He loved the spaghetti, however his stomach did not enjoy it so much. 

Poor little guy was fascinated with the x-ray machine.

This is how he greets me most of the time when I go in his room to get him up.

2012 year in review

Our year in review through pictures

January                                       February                                       March

April                                            May                                            June


July                                             August                                        September


October                                    November                                   December

2012 was a great year for our family. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. Happy New Year!!

It's that time again

New Year's resolutions time. I didn't even bother with resolutions last year. The only things on my mind were getting Mason here and surviving the newborn stage with the addition of a 3-year old. Both of those tasks were accomplished reasonably well so I will consider the year a success. However, this year doesn't have anything standing in my way of setting some goals. I am a firm believer in writing down goals to hold myself accountable so here we go:

1. Ok, yes, its totally cliché, but its still my goal. I have a bridesmaid dress hanging in my closet for my sister-in-law's wedding in June that is a size smaller than I wear right now. I ordered it as motivation because I need it. I have about 3-4 more pounds to reach pre-baby weight and then I'd like to lose about 10-15 pounds on top of that. Hopefully 15+ pounds will mean the dress is too big and I will have to get it altered. But, I'll be perfectly happy if the dress zips comfortably. I have already lost 7 pounds since Thanksgiving, even after I had to take an knee injury-induced break from Insanity. I like being able to walk and knees are necessary for that, so I am going to give my knees another month-long break by doing the 30 Day Shred before I restart Insanity. I kind of miss the Insanity workouts, though, so I hope I am ready in February. After I finish Insanity, it should be around the beginning of April and I hope to start running again since it will getting warm outside. I've been cutting my calories and using My Fitness Pal to track what I eat, which is a big reason for the weight I've lost so far. I lost 30 pounds after grad school by tracking what I ate so I know this works for me. I just need to stick to it and make it happen.

2. I am starting a 365-day photography challenge. I used this blog to create a 52-week blog challenge in 2011 and I really enjoyed it. At times it was challenging and I felt forced to write, but that was the point. It forced me to write and document our lives and I love having those entries to look back on from 2011. I have been in a photography rut and needed a challenge to get me back behind the camera and be creative so I think a 365 challenge will be perfect for that. I created a separate blog for this adventure and hope to upload the pictures at least weekly.  If you'd like to check it out that blog its here: http://the365daysof2013.blogspot.com.

So, those are my 2 big goals of the year. I'd love to have more goals but I have to be realistic with 2 kids and a husband in grad school. Hopefully, I will accomplish goal #1 by June and I might be able to re-evaluate my goals and make some others. But, I am only setting my heart on these 2 goals for the year and anything else will be bonus.

The Christmas that made me feel like a kid again

This Christmas was the Christmas that I imagined when I thought about having children. The past few Christmas seasons we have had to do all the hyping up and create the excitement about Christmas. This year, Aubrey was plenty hyped and created the excitement for us. For weeks, every commercial that came on the tv made her Christmas wish list grow longer. She loved participating in the early Christmas  season traditions like decorating, sending/receiving Christmas cards, and picking out presents for others. It was also neat that she was learning the meaning behind Christmas and asked a lot of questions about Jesus and the Christmas story. She also anticipated things, like going to Raleigh to visit Todd's family and waking up Christmas morning. Her excitement and anticipation rubbed off on me and made me more excited for Christmas than I have been since I was kid. 

The celebrating started over the weekend when Todd took the kids to Raleigh. I wasn't able to go because we didn't want to spend the extra money to kennel the dogs so I stayed here with them. It was a nice break for me and allowed the kids to spend some good quality time with their daddy. I hated being away from them, especially since it was my first time away from Mason, but it was a well enjoyed break. Aubrey played on the farm and had a dandy time being spoiled rotten by Todd's family. Mason created a lot of extra work for Todd and kept him on his toes while he was there. Mason gave a spectacular screaming show when they tried to put him on Santa's lap and Aubrey reverted back to her unhappiness with him as well, but they both seemed to be happy with the presents Santa gave them. 

Monday night we started a few new traditions for our house like leaving cookies for Santa and writing a note thanking him for visiting. Aubrey really didn't want to go to bed, but a warning that Santa couldn't visit until she was asleep helped encourage her to go to bed. The next morning, Mason made sure Todd and I were awake at 7:15. However, Aubrey was still asleep at 7:30 so I had to go in an wake her up. There was no way I was letting her sleep in when there were good presents to be opened. We brought the kids downstairs and Aubrey was excited to see Santa ate the cookies and wrote a note back to her. She then walked in the playroom and her reaction to seeing her presents was classic. She was so excited and walked back and forth to her toys and Mason's toys trying to figure out what she wanted to play with. Mason wasn't quite as excited as Aubrey, but he still seemed to enjoy the boxes and wrapping paper he could tear into. The best part of the morning was after we opened what appeared to be all the presents, Todd brought out Aubrey's bike. I was nervous about what her reaction would be because she had told me a few weeks before Christmas she didn't want a bike. I had already bought the bike and knew it would be a gift from Todd and me. Luckily, my fears were eased as soon as Aubrey saw the bike. It was instant love because it is covered in princesses and even has a seat for a doll to ride in the back. She was so excited which thrilled Todd and me to no end.

The rest of the day was a flurry of food and more presents. We did our annual breakfast at Todd's parents house, followed by gifts, relaxing, more presents with my family, and dinner with both families. At the end of the night, Todd and I were exhausted but thankful for a great Christmas.  

Aubrey's First Stage Production

I love Aubrey's preschool for a lot of reasons. The fact that they do a Christmas show with 2 and 3-year olds makes me love them even more. I can only imagine the work and effort the teachers put into getting the 18 children ready for the 5 minutes it took to sing 4 songs. They did encourage the parents to help with their efforts by sending the lyrics home to the 4 songs the kids needed to know. We practiced the songs a few times but Aubrey seemed pretty comfortable with the lyrics so I didn't work on them very much.

I didn't know quite what to expect going into the show. But, I was still surprised at what I saw. The 2- year olds went before Aubrey's class and did a very cute nativity show. They managed to dress each child up as a part of the story and it was so precious seeing miniature versions of Mary, the Wise men and angels. Their songs were very cute and got lots of awws and laughs from the crowd. Then, Aubrey's class came out and did the caroling part of Christmas. Each little girl and boy wore a winter hat and these tiny little scarves that cracked me up. They did such a good job, even though it wasn't the production the 2-year olds put on. I later found out they cycle the kids through the parts of the show, so this year's 3-year olds did the nativity scene last year. But, I was still pleased with the entire show and so proud of Aubrey. I thought she might get stage fright being in front of an audience but she did really well and said she had a good time singing her songs. Watching a child perform is so fun and I can't wait to see what the preschool's spring production involves.