Aubrey's 5th Birthday

On February 10th, we celebrated Aubrey's 5th birthday. We even did a chain count-down to her birthday, and she was super excited to tear one off each morning (we usually forgot to do it at bedtime, but it was the first thing she thought of in the morning.) She helped me cut and tape them together. Here's a picture of her last one (the night before her birthday.)

 

We finally decided awhile ago that we would only have big birthday parties every other year, so this was supposed to be Aubrey's "no party" year; however, since we stay home all day while the older girls and Dad are at school and work, I decided we could at least do a play date on her birthday. (It was a Monday). So Aubrey was excited to invite a few friends over to play and have cupcakes. (No games, favors, etc, so it was quite easy for me!)

 

She wanted blue icing to go on the cupcakes because she's very into the Frozen movie and anything having to do with Elsa and Anna. She even wears her hair in the sideways French braid ("Elsa Hair") almost every day.

 

 Here are some more pictures of the Elsa and Anna hair from the front and back. Aubrey loved having the Elsa Hair and luckily Taryn preferred the Anna Hair because her short, fine hair probably couldn't have done much else in regards to french braids.

 

 Once the family was back together after school and work, we went out to dinner - Aubrey's pick. We went to her favorite place to eat - IHOP. She LOVES that place. They even gave her a little ice cream sundae for her birthday. And then we headed home to open her presents. Here's her wrapped stash.

 

Some of her presents included the Frozen soundtrack, an Elsa dress, Frozen cups, some Frozen t-shirts (remember she loves all things Frozen), and a Lego Friends set. 

 

Grandma and Grandpa sent Aubrey her first and very own American Girl Doll. Tessa got her AG doll at age 5, so for the last couple months, it's all Aubrey's been talking about whenever they play dolls. She got online with me, looked at all the dolls, and decided she wanted Ruthie because of her pretty purple dress with flowers, and a purple headband. She was super excited when she opened it. 

 

We love this girl!! She's grown up to be quite the little lady. She loves to do and try everything the older girls are doing whether it's riding bikes and scooters outside, or playing the computer or Wii inside. She's still our thumb-sucker and even though she said she'd stop when she turned 5 ("when she was a big girl"), we're still working on that one. She loves picking out her own clothes (still skirts and leggings only - no pants) and when I have to pick something for her, she always says, "make sure it's beautiful, mom!" She wears headbands (whenever it's not in a braid for Elsa Hair) and she makes sure she's fully accessorized with headband, bracelets and sometimes necklaces every morning when she gets dressed, which she usually does before she even comes downstairs. Her favorite pair of shoes right now are pink cowboy boots that are like 2 sizes too big, but it doesn't stop her from wearing them ALL the time.

 

Happy Birthday to our Aubrey!!

Beginning of 2014

It's already March and I haven't posted a single thing this year. I was so proud of myself for finishing the blog through the end of the year; I guess I took too long of a break to celebrate. Besides Aubrey's birthday (which is my usual beginning of the year post) I found a few "firsts" pictures that I have taken that were worthy enough for a blog entry. They span January and February, but I figured I'd squeeze them all into one post to catch up and then do a separate post for Aubrey's birthday afterwards. Now that I have Spring Break activities and Tessa's birthday on the horizon, I know I've got to get back to my usual one blog per month schedule so I don't get too far behind again. So here are some "firsts" for our family as we started the year 2014:

 

Taryn got her first haircut. I finally decided her long hair just needed to be trimmed and evened out. It wasn't totally noticeable, but I did grab a front and back picture after I cut it. I had even cut Tessa's and Aubrey's hair while I was at it, but just trims for them as well.

 Tessa finally lost her first tooth on January 6th - middle of her first grade year, just like Abby. She was one of the last kids in her class to lose that first tooth. She was happy when it was all said and done, but the wiggling and bleeding did upset her for awhile as you might be able to see from her reddish eyes.

 

This was taken on the first park days of the new year which was on January 8th. What was awesome about it was that it was like 70 degrees in January and while a lot of my friends up north were complaining of snow and cold and talking about their kids playing in the snow and making snow angels, we were enjoying the warm Texas weather while the girls made sand angels at the park.

 

Our first motorized vehicle for the girls. Funny story: Our family plays the "slug bug" game where we point out Bug cars as we see them drive them around town. We were discussing one morning how much we like Bug cars to the point where the girls were talking about how they want a Bug car as their first car once they were old enough to drive. We separated from Tyler and Taryn for awhile and when they came back from the store, Tyler told the girls that he bought them a Bug car just like we had been talking about. They were super excited thinking it was a real Bug car. I was smiling thinking it was a little candy-filled toy or something, and actually it was somewhere in between. He said he found it on sale and couldn't pass it up. The girls drive it around every day - they love it so much!

 

I love taking pictures with Tyler and all the girls. This is definitely not a first, but still some of my favorite pictures.

 

Also not a first, but funny that over the course of two months, I found multiple pictures of Taryn snuggling with her sisters. I love seeing them snuggle so much, especially when I just walk into the room and see it. And Taryn has no preferences. She'll snuggle with anyone!

 I love these girls. They are getting so big! I'm happy to share our fun times with everyone and be able to keep our good memories preserved forever!