"I'm 5 Now"

If you have seen Abby in the last 4 days, this is the first thing out of her mouth:

"I'm five now."

She's telling prefectly good strangers like nurses at the doctor's office, and random people at the store this. Yes, that's Abby - my total socialite, as someone pointed out to me yesterday. :) So what kind of party did we have? A Powerpuff Girl Party of course. (I don't know why she's so obsessed with this show, but she is.)

We attempted to keep her party low-key so she was allowed to invite four friends, and since that was the case, I was able to make each girl her own Powerpuff Girl dress. Since we had two of each color, I played towards the color-themed party. We played games based on their colors using balloons and gift bags. We honed our Powerpuff Girl skills so we could "fight the monsters" on our monster hunt. Here's one of their "teamwork" games. They did way better than I thought they would.Before her friend birthday party, we also had a family party that included a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Abby was very excited all week for this because as she said, "I won't be scared of Chuck E. I'm going to go up to him and give him five." She only hesitated a second before letting me get a picture. Thanks Chuck E. for the awesome pose in this pic!
The best delivered present would have to go to Abby's friend down the street. He told his mom he wanted to make Abby a birthday cake for her present. After his mom tried to tell him she'd probably have lots of cake already for her birthday, he just said nope, that's what I want to give her for her birthday. So they made this awesome cake after asking Abby what her favorite flavors were (pink and chocolate). It's the most awesome "cupcake" cake I've ever seen. And it tasted awesome too. Thanks guys! :)

We love our Abby. She's such a good little gal who loves to help, tell stories, and make people smile.

Happy Birthday!

Holidays and Festivities

Well there's always so much going on in December, that I figured I'd get a quick post in catching up with all my favorite pictures that I haven't posted yet. Most are dealing with one holiday or another so I thought they could all go together in this one post. So to start I have to go back to Halloween. Tyler and I went to a couple's party where we were supposed to dress up as a famous duo. Getting Tyler to go to this was hard in itself, but adding on dressing up it was almost impossible. But I talked him into it after creating the perfect duo costume. Can you tell what duo we went as?We were peanut butter and jelly. I told Tyler how if we dressed in the right colors and had "bread" on our backs, then when we hugged, we'd make a sandwich. Cute huh? I thought so. :)

Another party we went to, Tyler showed up late after he finished up at work. This is how he came to the door:

Spooky isn't it? Aubrey didn't seem to mind it at all.

Moving on to Thanksgiving, we had to make our annual pumpkin turkeys. This year Abby also had to make a turkey by tracing her hand herself and adding tissue paper feathers. She had to have that turkey in every picture I took. They actually turned out pretty cute. We traveled to Utah this year for Thanksgiving and had a great time with our family. We stayed busy with eating, playing games, and enjoying the snow (there wasn't much snow by Utah standards, but Abby thought it was "so much" that she got so excited to show Grandma and Grandpa "all that snow" as soon as they each woke up). I guess Abby's a true Texan now if she thinks this is "so much" snow.
I think the highlight of the weekend for the grandkids was when we got to take a ride on the Polar Express to the North Pole and see Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves. This is what Abby tells everyone about when they ask her about the trip. It was made even cuter with Grandma's matching homemade pajamas that the kids opened that morning during our "Christmas."
These last pictures are included because I definitely think they fall under the "festivities" category. So I got to go see New Moon with some friends on opening night at the theaters. It was AWESOME of course! I helped kick off that weekend by surprising my fellow Edward fan Kasia with a visitor.

How awesome is that?!? I borrowed Edward from another friend and Kasia had no idea he was coming by. She had a fun-filled weekend using him to scare anyone who happened to be walking in the room at her house. But the movie was definitely an A+ for me. I can't wait to see it again!!

Aubrey's Nine Months!!

Here's an update all about Aubrey. She is nine months old today. It's gone by so fast. I can't believe it's been nine months already. Look at my baby girl all grown up!

I should believe it's been that long however because she can do so many things. Just read on to see for yourself:

Aubrey is standing up with anything she can get her hands on.

She even walks along with anything that rolls.

It doesn't take them long to mirror what they see. Aubrey has already learned the art of talking on the phone:

Unfortunately, she has also started learning how to climb the stairs. Eek!

And... she finally has her first tooth!
We love our Aubrey. Keep on growing girl!

Warning!!! Don't Touch!

So we had an eventful Friday last week. It began when Aubrey stood up by my leg screaming like she was hurt or really mad. I thought she was just really tired so I was getting ready to lay her down for her nap, but she kept acting really upset. I even took off her socks thinking one of her toes got bent funny or something. Anyway, I tried nursing her to sleep but she was too upset to even eat. She does this sometimes when she's over tired so I decided to just lay her down in her crib to see if she'd fall asleep on her own which she usually does, but after about 10 mintues she was still crying uncontrollably, so I went to pick her up. At this point I started to freak out because her lips looked swollen to me. I didn't know if it was just her face from crying so much and for so long but everytime I looked at her, it looked swollen. After talking to my sister-in-law who asked if her tongue was swollen I really started to freak thinking if her tongue and/or throat started to swell that would be very very bad. So I called her doctor and took her right in.

Long story somewhat shorter, the doctor gave her benadryl but we didn't really decide on a reason (and it was just one part of her upper lip that seemed affected.) However, while waiting for the doctor I also noticed that her thumb and first finger looked red and swollen as well. Weird, but it's the thumb she normally sucks so I didn't know if whatever it was started at the lip and went to the thumb when she tried sucking it or vice versa. So we're thinking some kind of allergic reaction like maybe she found some random piece of food she shouldn't have and tried eating it because she's all about picking up stuff off the floor and putting it right in her mouth. But I couldn't think of anything the girls or I had eaten that would do this (ie peanuts or the like). However that's all the doctor and I could think of: maybe she found some random peanut butter or something.

Anyway, so after the benadryl kicked in Aubrey finally fell asleep and after she was asleep and calm you could finally see what was really red and not just from her crying. It was the entire section of her upper lip under her nose and a small bit under her bottom lip, but you could totally see the redness. It was crazy. Now as I write this I wish I had a picture, but at the time, taking a picture was the least of my worries.

So after getting home I went straight to the living room where she first started freaking out thinking I'd maybe find some remnant of some crumb or something but guess what I found! One of these, all curled up like someone had rolled it up between her fingers:

That's right! A caterpillar. And not just any caterpillar, a stinging caterpillar. I'm pretty sure Aubrey found it, tried to pick it up, and probably tried to eat it until it stung her and she started crying. These caterpillars are all over my porch and I've wondered about them for months (what they are and stuff). So after this, I finally did the research and found out.

The southern flannel moth caterpillar,

aka the puss caterpillar. Here's one from bugguide.net.

Every site I found about them had the same warning: don't touch, they sting! Thanks for that a little too late; my poor baby! And after reading other people's experiences with stings from this monster, we're very lucky it was such a minor reaction on Aubrey. But they seriously cover my entire front door frame, porch, and bushes. It's crazy. I'm very relieved that none of my girls or I have ever stepped on one because we used to go outside all the time with bare feet. As soon as Tyler got home and saw Aubrey and the research I had done, he went outside and sprayed every caterpillar he saw with our outside bug spray. The first picture I used was of a dead one that was left over on our porch after the spraying. Here's a picture of our bush that they cover. In this picture alone there's like at least 7 either in cocoon form or empty already. Every khaki blob in the picture is one of them!So, just so you know, if you see a fuzzy caterpillar of any kind - don't touch it! It more likely than not will sting you. Oh, and don't let your infant try to eat one either! We're just glad she's okay and now I have a nice big stock of benadryl on hand just in case.

Halloween!! Our Girls are The Powerpuff Girls

Blossom, commander and the leader

Bubbles, she is the joy and the laughter

Buttercup, she's the toughest fighter

Powerpuffs save the day...

Fighting crime, trying to save the world

Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls

Fighting crime, trying to save the world

Here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls

Powerpuff!

That's the theme song, and if you're not familiar with the tune, just ask Abby and she'll sing it for you. And in case you still don't know who the Powerpuff Girls are, here's a picture:

And here are my Powerpuff Girls:

I thought they turned out pretty cute. Abby HAD to be Buttercup (the one with the attitude on the show), Tessa is a dead ringer for Bubbles (the cute, sweet one with blond pigtails), and that left Aubrey to be Blossom (the leader) which was perfect because Blossom's distinguishing mark (the big red bow) looks awesome on Aubrey's beautiful head!

I'm hoping to get more pictures of the girls as we have our Halloween festivities this week. We've actually already started with the festivities by going to the Frisco Fire Safety Town last Friday for their Trick-or-Treating. Here are some pictures from that.

Put on by the Frisco Fire Station, they had many firetrucks to look at while waiting in line to get in, so we got a picture with the girls inside one.

Abby and Tessa saw (and pointed out loudly) every person who was dressed up like a princess. They even met "the real Snow White" as they called her, so we had to get a picture. (Although with the lighting of my camera, she looks like "the dead Snow White" to me...)

And here's our Blossom enduring the colder weather. She was a trooper considering she didn't get any candy for all her waiting.

Two people (adults) actually said something like, "hey, it's the Powerpuff Girls" so I was happy to know the girls were recognized by some people. :)

And here's our family!

Little Mommies

So I should have known that having girls would lead to little mommies, but when multiple events occurred in the same week, it made me stop and smile.

Abby has always been a "help" when it comes to her younger sisters. I say that like "help" because I don't really know how much help she really is. She loves to try to pick up Aubrey even if it's the last thing Aubrey or I want her to do. Aubrey is very good about crying and screaming her discontent whenever Abby does this, but Abby hasn't quite figured out what that means yet (apparently) because she keeps doing it.

I still remember the story of my friend with three boys who said that whenever she'd put her baby on the floor her older boys would pretty much just ignore him. She got a glimpse of what it's like for me (and why I never could just put Aubrey down on the floor) when we were visiting once and my older girls bombarded her baby as soon as she put him down. Girls are so funny about babies! Little mommies already in training.

So in the mean time of Abby always obsessing over Aubrey, she has also moved on to "mothering" Tessa. The other day Tessa and Abby were playing when I heard words like "milk" and "boob" in their conversation. So I went into the living room to investigate and found Abby "nursing" Tessa. That's right. It was quite funny, but we still had to have the "this isn't really an appropriate way to play" talk.

The next event occurred the following day as Tessa was using the toilet. We are mid-toilet training and on this particular day Abby was "assisting." Tessa prefers to be alone during her toilet time so after a couple minutes of this, Abby came to get me and said she needed help. I went into the bedroom to find Tessa on the floor waiting for a new diaper to be put on. And Abby is in the process of explaining to me that Tessa went potty and poop in the toilet and that she, Abby, had already used a wipe to clean Tessa and was trying to put a diaper on, but didn't know how.

I guess I should keep a closer eye on that one, but at least she's trying to help. My little mom in training. They keep me busy if nothing else! Girls - you gotta love 'em!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No it's.....

Super ABBY!!Abby decided she wanted to be a superhero on this particular day. She picked out her own superhero costume. She used ribbon that HAD to be over her eyes and you can't be a superhero without a cape! I thought it was pretty cute considering my girls are usually dressing up as princesses not superheros. And what's new with the other chick-a-dees?

Tessa is still getting into everything she shouldn't and slathering it all over her face. Here she is after finding my mascara and eye shadow.
Pretty isn't it?

And for Aubrey who is not even 8 months old yet: She's standing while holding onto things. This picture was taken a couple weeks ago. Now she can pull herself up at the edge of the couch as well.

She's also been sitting up on her own for while now. They grow up way too fast. I keep telling myself to enjoy it while I can. They aren't tiny for very long, but even with savoring each day, it still goes by way too fast!!

Labor Day Weekend

So we got to spend an enjoyable weekend with the entire Black family last weekend. We had a great time starting with the boys at the BYU/OU game which was AWESOME, and the girls with the kids at Chuck E. Cheese and grandma's swimming pool. I got a new family picture because we were also together for our niece's blessing.Rebecca Macy was born on July 28th, and she's adorable. She is the 7th grandchild on my side of the family. So now Aubrey is right in the middle of two other girl cousins - Chloe is 6 months older and Rebecca is 6 months younger. I think those three will cause major mischief in the years to come. Here are my parents with all 7 grandkids.

The older kids (and the parents too) had fun having a marshmallow-shooting contest with some contraptions my parents bought (think pea-shooter).

Abby took on the role of photographer again whenever she could get her hands on the camera, so here are some of her shots.

They weren't hard to shoot, but they were hard to aim. We set up some targets, but no one ever hit any. Abby caught this picture though while Tyler was on marshmallow pick-up duty. My main duty was to try and keep Tessa from eating the dirty, reused marshmallows. We had a fun time together and can't wait to do it again come Christmas.

When Abby's Away, Tessa Will.... Play??

Abby had the privilege of spending 4 days with my parents last week, a tradition they started last summer. However, this year Tessa was too young to go, but old enough to realize she was being left behind. So instead of feeling like I had extra time and more quiet with one less child, I spent the majority of the days trying to find things to entertain my 2-year-old. You'll see why I felt this way after you read the following:

So my parents came to pick up Abby and while we were getting everything ready, Tessa saw Abby's pillow downstairs, so she immediately said "my pillow" and ran upstairs and brought down her own pillow and blanky to have it ready. And then later when my dad was moving Abby's carseat from our van to his car, Tessa came inside all upset because Grandpa wouldn't take out her carseat too. I had been trying to avoid these scenarios because the past couple weeks whenever Abby mentioned going to Grandma's she always had to include, "and you're staying home, Tessa" which only made Tessa cry, scream, and/or get upset, so I was afraid of these problems. So wouldn't you have done what you could to make it all better?!? Well, I tried. We bought her snacks like string cheese and fruit snacks (her personal favorite) to have in the house. And I tried to come up with fun things to do so I french-braided her hair (this was a first). We painted our nails, and watched lots of movies. Her movie of choice was "the elephant show" (Horton Hears a Who). We got to go to Tyler's office and out to dinner one night. And probably her favorite thing, she got to sleep in Mom and Dad's room each night. (I just couldn't see putting her to bed upstairs all by herself.)

I don't think she minded too much once Abby was gone, however with her playmate gone, she was always begging me to play with her. It was a bit hard at first when I thought I'd have more time to do my stuff like read or relax, but that's okay, I really did enjoy the one-on-one time we were able to spend together. I know she still missed Abby though because when we drove out to pick her up, Tessa was so excited as soon as she saw Abby coming out of my parents' house, it was so cute.

And don't worry, the adventure was well worth it. Abby had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. She got to swim a lot, go to Chuck E. Cheese (her favorite thing to do when visiting Grandma and Grandpa), play with her cousin, eat out A LOT, hold and feed her new week-old baby girl cousin, and basically just follow Grandma and Grandpa around all day.

We're definitely looking forward to next year when both girls get to go. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the fun memories!

Aubrey's Crawling!!

Well, sort of crawling. I guess scooting across the floor counts. She gets from A to B anyway.

Here's a clip of it.

All I can say is it's pretty early for us. She's not even 6 months old yet. My other girls were way older when it came to crawling and walking. I guess Aubrey just wants to be like her older sisters, who never stop moving.

She's a princess just like her sisters!

Here are a few other things that Aubrey's been up to. She started eating rice cereal. She seems to like it and has just recently figured out how to swallow without spitting it back out after every spoonful.And she has officially become our thumb-sucker. It's so cute!

I know I'll probably say otherwise in a couple years, but for now, it's just adorable, and if it gets her to sleep on her own then I'm fine with it.

Summer Vacation - Part 2

We continue our Utah vacation story by spending the rest of the week with Tyler's family. I felt like this was the best way to do our trip. Tyler has two siblings and his parents who live in Utah, so by making a large circle around Utah, we were able to see each family individually and spend time with them before all meeting up at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was definitely the way to go. So we spent two days with Tyler's sister and family. We went to a splash park which all the kids enjoyed. There were slides that you could ride down with a kid in your lap, so Tyler took turns taking the older girls down. Abby got me to go down with her once and unfortunately I got in the wrong line, so we went down the fast slide. (I'm not a huge fan of water slides) But we made it and it was fun. Here are the cousins waiting to go into the pool. Don't you love how when one kids says "let's make a funny face" everyone loves to participate? It's hard to get them to take a regular picture after that. Here's Aubrey. She even got to feel the water, although it was a bit chilly for her.
The next day we got to spend walking around the old stomping ground of BYU. My brother showed us the new band hall, which is in the BYU stadium now that I never got to use. And we saw all the new buildings and landscaping that has taken place since we left 6 years ago. (where does the time go?!?) I made Tyler stop by this waterfall (which used to not be there) so we could get a picture.

I had no idea Tessa was making a funny face. So typical. Besides visiting the bookstore, we took the girls to the Bean Museum on campus which is full of animals. Even though I spent the majority of the time in the bathroom due to a blowout by Aubrey, the girls enjoyed seeing all the huge animals. And of course, I had to get their picture by something, so they chose the moose.

The next day we traveled up to the Salt Lake area and stayed with Tyler's brother and family for a few days. While the boys took a day golfing, the girls hung out at home. The kids played, ran in the sprinkler, and created their own games. Here they are jumping off the bed and onto the air mattress. I tried to get a picture of them standing up before jumping but as soon as they'd all get up, they couldn't wait to just jump, so all I could get were "in motion" pictures.

Once we made it out to Tyler's parent's house, we waited for all the families to join us. We spent the last couple days of our trip there enjoying time together with the entire family. The kids loved playing in the huge puddles in the driveway while the dads were away fishing for the day.

Here's Aubrey with her cousin Jacob. He's only like 2 1/2 weeks older than Aubrey, but I love to see how different they look. So cute to watch them roll around the floor together and just stare at each other with the look on their faces like, "who are you? I'm supposed to be the baby here." We wanted to go camping but with the busyness of the weekend (4th of July) and all the little kids, we decided to do our camping activites at the house, so we pitched tents in the backyard and let those who wanted to sleep outside do so. The three oldest grandkids and Tyler and his brother were the only ones who slept outside, but that included Abby so I had to get pictures of her first "camping" trip in the tent. She was so cute!

We got to cook tinfoil dinners and one of the fish that was caught. We also did some fireworks and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. So it was like a real camping trip. It was funny to see as the night wore on how the kids fell asleep one by one from youngest to oldest until only the last 5 awake were the tent sleepers. (and the moms making sure the tent sleepers were settled in)

The next morning was the 4th of July so we went to the city parade. It was fun, but very hot.

And it's not a family get together until you take pictures of the grandkids, so we got them all in red, white, and blue clothes and took some pictures. And with 11 grandkids now, it's hard to get one where everyone's smiling. You're lucky to get them all in the shot. This was one of my favorites that I took on my camera. Besides cousin Makaela with her finger in her nose, it's not a bad picture! :)

We had such a fun time in Utah, and making the drive to and from was actually enjoyable for me. We'll definitely be making that trip often, and it's well worth it.