Catch UP To Us!

We have been so busy - I have no idea how I ever had a job and did everything else too.  I realize that I did not have as many activities, and that we had a babysitter who was fabulous, but still I have trouble remembering how I managed.  Jon says that I am more relaxed and he loves that we don't have to spend the whole weekend catching up on housework and other chores.  I love it too - its been seven months and I am still very grateful that I am able to be at home with our girls.  

Right after Hailey's preschool year ended we had her dance recital.  She was adorable and loved every minute of it.  Dance is a very expensive extracurricular activity and the recital was painful, to say the least, but she was so proud and so cute.

 The picture below is her little friend Caroline, who is her BFF.  They were in the same class last year and will be together again for this school year.  We have a weekly playdate with Caroline and her siblings (she is one of six) and her mom is one of my favorite new friends.

 Jon and Hailey have lots of adventures.  He tries to take her somewhere and do something special every weekend.  Sometimes we go along, but mostly I keep the little one and they go do scary dirty stuff.

 This time we went along, and it of course decided to thunderstorm, so Aubrey and I got to spend 2 hours in the car. 

 Hailey had swim lessons the first two weeks of summer and by the end of the first day she was swimming on her own with no flotation devices.  Aubrey REALLY wanted to swim too, but she had to stay in baby jail

 Above and below, my trouble makers.  

 These two pictures (above and below) are of Hailey's first swim meet.  Right after she learned to swim she tried out for the Panama City Summer Splashes Swim Team.  She has practice 4x a week and swim meets every week too.  IT has kept us very busy, but more on that later

 Some of the wildlife outside our house.  Jon is fascinated and insists on showing me and photographing everything he finds.  We are up to four snakes and the scorpion shown below.

 I decided that I needed to learn how to sew, so I bought a sewing machine on craigslist for $20.  I made this dress and the skirts the girls are wearing below.  They aren't perfect, the machine has been completely taken apart and repaired twice by my loving husband, but I am still determined and enjoying it.

 THE SCORPION I MENTIONED

 more 4th of July photos taken by our friend Tiffany

 Above is us at the pool in Tiffany's neighborhood, where we tend to spend lots of time. THe extra little girl below is Tiffany's daughter Georgia

Aubrey's Big One

First, a little about this gorgeous girl who just turned one.  

As you can see she has this amazing blond hair and sparkling blue eyes and a nice brown Florida tan.  I am asked all the time if her father is blond, and I understand that he was when he was little.  I think its striking for people to see her with just me, because my hair is so dark and Hailey's isn't nearly as light.  Regardless, I get lots of compliments on how adorable she is, and I have to agree she is stinkin cute!

Its a good thing she is such a good looking kid, because she is TROUBLE!  She still does her modified scoot-instead-of-crawl and she is fast.  She is also a very accomplished climber and has mastered getting on and off the couch, tries every day to throw herself over the back of it, climbs on chairs to get on tables, uses the step stool to get whatever she wants off the counter, and managed to get on Hailey's bed just yesterday.  She can't walk - hasn't even tried to take a step - but can go from the floor to standing without holding on to anything.  She usually claps for herself when she does that trick.  She has become a good mimic and makes whatever sound we make to her right back.  The girls can spend large amounts of time growling at each other and just giggling.  She says several words, although probably only distinguishable to me...ba(ball), woofwoof, joos(juice), mama, dada, hayey(Hailey), whassat (whats that), huwoe(hello) which I think is quite a lot for 12 months.  She does hear Hailey talk ALL DAY LONG though, so it shouldn't surprise me that she is speaking earlier than Hailey did.  

She loves music and dancing.  Hailey sings all the time and Aubrey tries to sing along and dances.  Hailey's preschool has a song called "the Animal Alphabet" that we listen to in the car all the time and Aubrey gets very serious and tries to do all the hand movements just like Hailey.  It cracks me up.  Her other loves are eating  - she will eat anything and everything but she is still 2 pounds lighter than Hailey was at 1 yr,  Hailey - she wants whatever Hailey has and wants to do whatever she is doing, and dogs - loves all dogs, especially little ones.  Overall she is a very happy and easy child and we love her to pieces!

We spent July 7 much like we spend most days, except we skipped Hailey's swim practice because we didn't think it would be nice to make Aubrey do something she doesn't really enjoy on her birthday.  By 8 am we already needed a wardrobe change because Aubrey climbed on top of the table and tried to eat a black crayon.  

 Hailey had a very tough time handling that it was Aubrey's birthday and that she got to open the presents.  Fortunately for Hailey, Aubrey really didn't care to open presents, so Hailey ended up doing most of them for her.  We spent much of the day waiting for Jon to get home so he could put together the present that Hailey picked out special for Aubrey.

 She eventually figured it out, and loves it.  So does Hailey...

 We decided to wait till her party for this one from Aunt Jessica, which was fine because Aub really just wanted to sit on it anyway.  

We let this happen several times until they took a corner too fast and had a bad crash.  

Cakey Monster

These pictures are from Aubrey's first birthday party, and they do a spectacular job of summing up the evening.  One of my new friends took all of them for me, so they are way better than if I tried to do it myself and it was so nice to have someone there to do that while I was doing everything else.  Unfortunately, Tiffany (that is the friend) 's little ones were sick, so they didn't get to be at the party, and we missed them!

 At one point in all the chaos Aubrey escaped out the back door and we found her on top of the picnic table helping herself to someone elses juice box.  I made her dress, by the way!

 I made this little munchkin's dress too.

 And then it was time for the birthday cake

 Which Hailey insisted that we put bugs and snakes on, which is appropriate considering...

 Some of our party guests 

 MMMMM

 she is a big fan of cake

 A proud father laughing at the mess (which he actually cleaned up with the help of Rolo)

 We thought she had had enough, but then she decided to play some peek a boo

 Off to the bath

 Helping open presents

 She can stand without holding on, but can't walk yet

 Of course this basket was meant to be sat in

Happy Birhtday Lovey!