Happy Birthday to my baby!!!

Today is my baby's 4th Birthday. I can't believe she is 4, how the time flies. 4 years ago I went in to the Dr. office for a routine ultra sound to check growth progression. 5 hours later had an emergency c-section and a sweet 3pounds 5 ounces baby girl named Aubree. After such a surprise entrance to this world, I don't know if she has ever slowed down. She is an amazing big sister, a huge help to her mom, and the apple of her fathers eye. I am so blessed that my Heavenly Father would entrust this sweet spirit to our family. We love her so much and just wanted to wish her a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Aubs is hilarious, here are a few of the things she said just last week alone:

Right after she finished drinking some punch:
"there's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy. There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy.

While she was in the back seat of the car with a bag of chips
"mom, I have a new pet"
"really, What?"
"a birdie" as she is taking crumbled up chips in the palm of her hand and having Hayley eat from her hand "here birdie birdie"
We opened gifts this morning so that she could play with them all day. She loved all of them, but was so excited to be just like mom with her hair salon kits from Gran and Papa.

She has been really great about sharing the new toys with her sweet sister. When I asked her if she wanted breakfast, she said," not right now I am in the middle of doing this hair."

Who knows like mother like daughter?

When is it not worth saving?

I have heard it said that sometimes it cost you more to save things to maybe use again, than to just buy them new again. I am wondering this concept myself more and more lately. We have been in "a place for everything and everything is its place" kind of mood at our house. This started when we got a new bed for Aubree (pictures coming). I realized that maybe I have a tend to hoard. I tend to save baby clothes, things people have given me (weather I liked them or not), and anything else I may need in the future. I find that I save everything my kids ever wore ie: socks, tights, and bloomers, even if it is a little discolored. These things are ok to be thrown away after each child right? When we found out we were going to have Hayley we were so excited because we had EVERYTHING, she could possibly need. However then guilt started to come in because its not fair to not get her some new stuff. When is it ok to give them away to someone else who needs them? I have a really tuff time, so if you have any idea's I would love to hear them. My goal is to be done going through everything and I mean everything by the start of the new year. Crazy???

Flower girl dresses

When my mom came down to go to Oceanside, she brought the girls dresses for Trey's wedding for them to try on. They were so cute, they love their dresses. I am still getting the "real" pictures from the wedding just a little preview. :)

Getting out of the house full of boys:

The reason we went to Utah was my baby brother got married. ( I have to get pictures) One the day of his wedding he had all of his groomsmen (8 total) so we thought we would get out of the way and went to do some touristy things.

We took the girls to the Mt. Timpanogoes Temple, it was cold so we took one quick picture and got back in the car. We also took the girls to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum. If you haven't ever been there we totally recommend it. Here we are after we made our dinosaur (all the pieces come off and you get to choose which to put back on):At the very end of the museum you get to excavate in a sand pit, the girls really like it once daddy moved most of the sand and they could see the "bone" they had found:

Pumpkins a family tradition

Our family loves pumpkins! We like the color, the fun of hauling them around with us, and carving them. So since we were going to be in Utah over Halloween we decided to get a few little ones at home and then get our big ones in Utah. We decided to get them from a local grower that sales them from their yard. Here are Aubs and Gran checking out a funny pumpkin:The girls with one of their favorite people:
I got pictures of the end result, but on my moms camera. I will get them and post them.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time:

Isn't she sweet? So cute eating that sticky mess, well don't let that fool you. Because this is what she did after the sucker:See that green permanent marker? Well this was just the most covered area, it was on every single cushion. So who had to clean it? She had to help clean it. But like mother like daughter:Aubree needed in on the action.Notice the costume change? Due to the sucker stickiness.

One of my favorite things:

I love to see famous people, it never gets old. It doesn't matter if it is someone I like or not I love to see them. Eli and I had the opportunity to attend a double header at the Staples Center. We got to see the Clippers play the Jazz and the Lakers play Bobcats. It was so cool to get to see the Jazz players I love and see the Laker players play. We sat literally 6 rows center court. It couldn't have been better. Well maybe if Jack had been there because our seats were 6 rows behind where his seat are, but of course he gives them to someone and doesn't attend pre-season games. WHATEVER!!! Here are my pictures:
Kobe:Fisher:
Boozer:Deron Williams:I was so sad because Andrei Kirilenko, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom weren't even there. What don't you have to work? So sad to miss them.

Va-Ca

We went to Oceanside in Oct. for family vacation. We had a lot of fun sitting in the sun, playing in the pools, being a stones throw away from ocean, and going to Sea World.
The kids each got a map at sea world, here they are trying to figure out where to go next:I have found that we don't take many pictures with all of us in it so this is my new goal:If you know Eli at all you know the man loves horses. One of his favorite things is to see the Clydesdale horses, this time we even got a treat we got to watch them give them a bath:Another thing Eli loves is to play carnival games, we arrived at the park a little early so while we waited Uncle Eli got a bucket of rings and let everyone take a chance. Won't you know it we barely missed getting a new Wii:Our family loves the beluga whales. I don't know what it is but it may have something to do with the fact every time the girls walked up to the glass one would come right by and check them out:
Another family photo:
The group waiting for a show:But don't worry it wouldn't be all of us together if someone didn't get sick. I am sad to say that I ended up getting an ear ache. (thats 4 in 5 months, and yes adults do get ear aches)
We had a lot of fun and would just like to thank Gran, Papa, Laine, and Papa for the good time.

Date with Mommy

I was able to take Aubree on a little mommy and me date. We went to see the Toy Story Movies at the El Capitan. Aubree did amazingly well for a double feature. We had VIP seats, which give you an assigned seat, popcorn, a drink, and some apple slices. Here she is with her glasses:
this is how she spend most of the movies, glasses off:
I am so glad we were able to do this, I will defiantly make sure we get to do something like this again.

Trick-or-Treating Disney Style

We have started a new family tradition, we Trick-or-Treat at Disneyland. (well California Adventures) We decided to beat the traffic and headed down before rush hour, so we decided to go out to dinner before our big event. The girls tend to always want to sit by daddy:but every once and a while one will sit by me:After dinner we changed the girls into their costumes: The girls had so much fun and at the end of the night we had a lot of candy and a new family picture:If you have ever thought about going, it is totally worth it.

Aubree's First day of school

While Eli was gone on his long business trip Aubree started preschool, which she totally loves. We couldn't let this momentous occasion pass with out taking a first day of school picture.Here we go off to schoolHere she is with her very own cubby:And this is where we sign her in and outShe was so happy to start school. I admit that I cried just a little but I held it together while I got outside. It helped once I saw my friend Kerri, who told me she gets teary too.

while dad's away...

Eli had a 2 week business trip (yuck) so to help us pass the time Aubree and I made a paper chain.Aubree was so proud of her paper chain she didn't want to cut it, and anytime it fell on the ground she needed it back up asap!Hayley wasn't so into it and only wanted to eat her applesauce.ps. thanks to everyone that helped entertain us while he was gone.

FBI agents in training:

This past summer Papa graduated from a FBI leadership academy. As a present he sent the grandkids FBI shirts:When we take family pictures my dad always likes the ones that show people's personality's more than the ones where everyone is looking right at the camera and smiling. So this one is for him:

Hi ho hi ho its off to home we go

We drove my sisters mini van back to Cali. We stopped at our favorite McDonalds in Cedar, where the girls had so much fun.I love that the girls have so much fun together and don't need anyone elseAubree was really good on the ride home, this is her trying to please mom and smile for the pictureHayley was really good to until the last hour of the drive and then I was so lucky to have had a See's Candy store sucker in my bag. Which kept her entertained for the rest of the drive. And might I add really really sticky.