Disney World

The other day I realized I never posted about our trip to Disney.  I went to Disney twice as a kid but I barely remember either trip.  I have been wanting to go back for years.  At the end of last year Mark got on board with going in the spring.  In January I started looking at our options.  The trip ended up being cancelled and un-cancelled a couple of times.  My last hope for fulfilling my Disney dreams was to get Nate and Scarlett on board with going.  Mark wanted to go with another family so that we could ride the grown-up rides together (riding rides with someone and about 1,000 times more fun than just riding by yourself.  I didn't realize this until we were at Disney and I said we could never go without other grown-ups again!).  Nate and Scarlett decided a couple weeks before our planned trip (that was no longer planned) that they were on board!  

Disney is the happiest place on earth and probably the most exhausting.  Scarlett and I read tons of blogs about how to "do" Disney and Mark got a run down from our friend Justin (they are Disney pros).  I had our days scheduled out so that we had a list of what rides to ride and when.  We got to the parks by 8:30 at the latest each morning.  Most of the parks don't open until 9. We went back to our hotels for naps on days 1 and 4.  Days 2 and 3 were spent entirely at parks.  Each day we went to 2 parks.  The earliest we got back to our room each night was 10:30.  One night we didn't get back until after midnight.  It was so hard to get out of bed on the 3rd and 4th day.  We were all exhausted. 

 Brigham and Aubree did amazingly well.  Aubree took naps in the stroller and Brigham would nap at the hotel.  

We never waited in a line for more than 20 minutes and we rode every ride at all 4 parks (except Splash Mountain because it was closed).  My favorite ride was Everest in Animal Kingdom.  Mark's favorite was Big Mountain Train (or something like that).  He eventually changed his mind and decided Everest was his favorite as well.  Brigham's favorite rides were Star Wars (Star Tours in Hollywood Studios), Buzz Light Near (Buzz Lightyear in Magic Kingdom), and the race cars/go garts in Magic Kingdom.  He tells me almost daily that he wants to go back to Disney World and ride just 3 rides: Star Wars, Buzz Lightnear, and the go carts/race cars.  Brigham was able to ride almost every ride with the help of some folded up paper towels in his shoes.  He couldn't ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Space Mountain.  As far as I remember he rode everything else.  The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was my second favorite.  It was so fun!

The weather was much colder than we anticipated so we were not quite as prepared as we could have been and that made the first 2 days a little bit less enjoyable.  We were just all so cold.  It was a great time of year for going to Disney and we will do it again but we will have coats with us next time.  The weather forecast said it would be in the upper 60's to lower 70's on those days but it never reached those temperatures.  Then on top of temperatures in the 50's it was windy and cloudy.  I forgot Aubree's blanket on day 2 so I gave her my sweatshirt.  Luckily days 3 and 4 were sunny and warm.  

Mark had more fun than he ever expected and said we should go back every 2 years.  That was music to my ears!  I am excited that this will be a tradition for our family. 

We stayed at a hotel that was just off the Disney property.  Originally we were going to stay at a Disney Resort but I cancelled our reservation after discovering that the bathrooms were tiny.  We needed a large enough bathroom to fit the pack and play in for Aubree to sleep.  We ended up saving a ton of money and getting a free breakfast each day.  We were on Disney property in less than a minute after leaving our hotel.  It was great!  I think staying at a resort would be fun so we could have the whole Disney magic experience but I don't think I will ever be able to justify the cost unless we are millionaires. ha ha

Now for the picture overlaod:

This is the first time we saw characters.  Brigham was star struck and so excited

This is from day 2 and it was midnight.  We were cold and so tired.

These 2 just kind of collapsed on each other.  It was adorable.  I couldn't believe they made it to midnight

This was our last ride on our last day.  It's a Small World.

'Round Here

Brigham hates getting his hair cut but he loves when the tables are turned and he gets to cut his daddy's hair. 

A couple weeks ago we went to Discovery Place for the first time in forever. It was much more enjoyable for Aubree this time since she is older. We spent 2 hours just in this area. 

This is a picture of Brigham saying "can I watch this show?" I'm not sure what show that is but we definitely won't be watching it. Ha ha

The world is his restroom.

This was his surprise for me. It was his costume that he made. 

Not only does she throw all the diapers out of the drawer but now she plays in it.

this week was her 

first time having corn on the cob. Saying she loved it would be an understatement.

Aubree is One!

I took picture above on the morning of Aubree's birthday. She is such a smiley happy girl. Until recently she would eat anything we gave her. Now she has an aversion to mashed potatoes. Ha ha. She just laughs and turns her head so that we can't get near her mouth. Something that she loves but can't have is dairy. It gives her an awful diaper rash and makes her puke. Milk puke is super stinky!

Aubree loves Brigham and he really loves her too. I look forward to when she starts walking and running so they can play Brigham's favorite game: chase me. I get bored chasing him after about 2 minutes so it will be great to have someone else chase him and enjoy it as much as he does. Ha

This week (the first week of April) Aubree has mastered crawling up the stairs and she is constantly wanting to do it. Today I ordered a gate and while we wait for it to get here our ottoman will be blocking the stairs. Until today she would just climb 2 or 3 stairs unless I was there to watch her. This morning she climbed to the top without an audience. Luckily she knows how to get down the stairs successfully unless she is at the top. At the top of the stairs she tries to go down head first.

Aubree is definitely a mama's girl but she willingly goes to other people (most of the time). She does great in the child watch at the gym so hopefully that continues when it is time for her to go to nursery in 6 months. She does great at church for the most part. We are able to sit in Sacrament meeting, go to Sunday school every week and Relief Society/Priesthood about 50% of the time.
Aubree isn't walking yet. She cruises along furniture and crawls super fast but no walking. Mark predicts she will be walking by 14 months. She could easily do that but I also see 14 months coming and going and she will still be just crawling around. Ha ha. She doesn't seem all that interested in walking. Her max walking time with us holding her hands is probably a minute.
She loves playing with Brigham's cars and any toys that make noise. So far she isn't a toy cuddler and she isn't all about the baby dolls.
Aubree was off the bottles before her birthday which is always a great thing! I hate washing bottles. She eats 3 times a day. She would eat snacks if we have them to her but any time she eats anything other than the 3 meals she will puke so I try to avoid any extra eating. Every morning she has oatmeal and a banana. The rest of the day depends on what is in the refrigerator.
Her stats:
Weight: 22lbs-85th percentile

Height: -25th percentile (I have to find the sheet with her actual measurements)

What she does when she doesn't want to eat what we are feeding her

Favorite thing to climb on now that the stairs have a gate

                                 

First peanut butter sandwich

Pigtails! 

At Boppy and Gabby's

The Party

We had about 25 people over for her party on March 24th. It was all family or family of family. Mark created the birthday menu. We had grilled BBQ chicken, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. We had some fresh fruits and veggies and dips also. I made a pink ombré cake with white frosting. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the inside of the cake. We sang Happy Birthday to Aubree and my grandmother and right at the end, Aubree touched the flame of the candle and spent the next few minutes crying. Krystin got some good pictures once she calmed down and realized how sweet the frosting on her cupcake was. It was a great party and we are so grateful to have so much family close by.

Baby Steps

Tonight we had dinner at the Fife's. We were all in the kitchen talking and preparing breakfast for dinner. I stood Aubree up as usual and instead of sitting down she took steps! After 4-5 steps she sat down. A couple minutes later I stood her up again and she took 7-10 little steps. Our sweet girl will be walking in no time. I was hoping she would be walking by the time we go to the beach with the Winn's in June and I am pretty sure she will be a walker in the next couple of weeks.

Lost Pictures

Since I am awful about updating this blog I usually do a big update post or several small posts to update since the last time I blogged. I usually use the pictures on my phone to help me remember what we have been up to and to post funny stories and moments. Well my phone went berserk and I lost all my pictures from August of last year up until February 16th of this year. The only things I remember being on the phone are a picture of Brigham reading a book in the foyer while holding his open umbrella over his head as if it was raining and then the picture of The post-its I left for Mark on our bathroom mirror for valentines day.
Here's to hoping I become a better/more consistent blogger so I have our memories recorded or maybe I can at least do a better job at backing up my pictures.

Brigham

Brigham is such a fun, silly, loving, cuddly, serious boy. He worries about Aubree- Rose when he doesn't know where she is. He loves making her laugh and making her cry. She gets aggravated when he touches her hands, feet, legs, and head. Ha ha. He loves laying on her, pushing on her, and pulling her arms and hands. Brigham is a pretty good eater. He willingly tries new foods. He loves artichokes, chicken, chicken nuggets, cheese, butter, homemade macaroni and cheese, waffles, milk, protein shakes, and anything sweet. These are things he consistently loves. Other foods may be hit or miss depending on the day.
Brigham's favorite movie is Rise of the Guardians. Almost every day he says he "wants to watch it 2 times and then we can turn the tv off." He also asks if we can watch daddy's scary show. Ha ha. I think this is referring to Once Upon a Time and/or Grimm. Brigham loves playing with his cars more than anything else (except maybe the iPad). He loves Iron Man and the avengers. He has some guitar pajamas that he wants to wear constantly. He has even worn them to the store And to the gym. I never thought I would let my kid wear pajamas in public but you have to pick your battles and if he wants to wear his pajamas 24 hours a day then so be it. I won't let him wear them to school though. I'm not that crazy. Ha ha
Brigham is currently enrolled in swim lessons. He has 5 weeks to go. He loves going but he doesn't really love the lesson. Last week they made them go under water. I thought that would for sure be the end of liking swim lessons. He wouldn't go under by himself but he didn't cry when they put him under and he let them do it 2 or 3 times. Afterward he said he loves swim lessons. He still hates taking a bath or shower if he has to wash his hair. He HATES water on his face. It can be a huge ordeal at bath time. I am hoping he grows out of this.
We love this funny sweet boy so much and we are so grateful he chose us!