Who needs toys??

She managed to scoot herself completely off of her play mat...

Happy 26th, babe!

sorry this is a little late...

His birthday PIE! This is what he wanted, so I made it for him. It's an awesome and easy recipe I got from a lady in our church. She made one a while back for us. Mix 8 oz. cool whip, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 1/2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, and fruit cocktail (drained). Put in a deep graham cracker crust and refrigerate!

The whole pie is on fire!!

mmmmmm!

Aubrey-Girl!

I just love the look on her face!

Too cute...Aubrey held her own bottle in her carseat the other night while we (Mandy Whitmer, Amy Morris, Adam and I) were out to eat. When she was almost out, I put the blanket under her hands so she wouldn't get air...

Daddy feeding Aubrey for his first time. They were having a great time!

Teeth!

Fun times with Mommy!

Adam's birthday week!

Each day of Adam's birthday week I wanted to do something special for him. It worked out great until Thursday...what a BUSY day! Oh well...

On Monday, I decided to surprise him with a picnic supper at the beach around sunset. It was a surprise until I asked him to grab the wet wipes from our bedroom so I could change Aubrey's diaper. All of a sudden I heard, "Oh Val, I'm not supposed to go in there." I was sooo happy he remembered because the picnic basket was on our bed. I told him that he for sure would have known if he wouldn't have remembered he wasn't supposed to be in there. His reply, "Is it a picnic?" Grrr... He'd gone in just far enough and when he saw the basket it reminded him he wasn't supposed to be in there! Even though it wasn't a surprise it was still a nice evening. Ron and Becky kept Aubrey for me, so that was nice. It's amazing what 30 minutes away can do for ya. Really. We left, went down to West Bay Beach, ate chicken wraps and some other stuff, went for a short walk and headed back home. 30 minutes was all it took! What a fun, relaxing time.

With the amazing Caribbean Sea in the background.

What a FUN time!

our baby

Our baby is growing up SO quickly. I can't believe how big she's getting! So many things have been happening to her lately. She's rolling over quite a bit more now (seems to do it more when she's on her activity mat in the mornings when she's home with her daddy.) and loves to lay on her belly and look in her mirror on the end of her crib. Her latest news is that she is now the proud new owner of 2 TEETH. She has successfully cut her first 2 bottom teeth. The first one came through on the 11th and the second one for sure today. She's been such a trooper through it all...it just kinda happened!

Over the weekend she decided it was cool to grab her feet.

Eating cool whip

Spitting at Grandma today...must feel good to her gums. She also learned to do that this weekend.

You didn't know we live on a farm, did ya?! Well, we don't. This hen and her 10 chicks have decided that their home is our front yard. They have been hanging out quite a bit, so yesterday Adam decided to give them bread crumbs. They loved it and ate it all up! Today, we were on our way home from an AWESOME birthday lunch at mom and dad's (thanks!) and this hen and all her little chicks started heading right towards us. It was like they just knew that we were the ones giving out the food! So, Adam went in and got the bread and I grabbed the camera. Aubrey did watch them a little, but I don't think they made much of an impression on her. =)

a very special day!

I hope that you all had a very Happy Valentines Day. I did. It was special also in that it was my birthday. It was an incredible day! To start the day, Adam got up with Aubrey which allowed me to sleep in a bit. After getting up around 10, we got ready to go out for lunch. We went to "Treats" ~ a place that has limited hours that we've been wanting to try. After we left there we went to Caymana Bay ~ a new shopping community not to far from our house. It's quite a pricey shopping community, but we had been wanting to go there and walk around. We also knew that Aubrey would love to ride around in her stroller...she loves the outdoors! There's a really nice book store there which we looked in for a while and at the back of the book store is Cafe del Sol. We decided to stop in there for a caramel frappe. It was very good! For their customers they provided a separate area which had very comfy couches where you could just relax if you wanted to instead of sitting out in the cafe area. We enjoyed the quiet for a little while then headed back home. Adam had a surprise for me that afternoon...so, after a little while we hit the road again...without Aubrey. He had made arrangements for her to stay with her grandpa and grandma while he took me to my surprise. We finally stopped at Body Works. He had made a 3:00 appointment for an hour massage!!! I was a bit nervous at first because I've never had a professional massage...but it was WONDERFUL! I'd go back any day of the week! So relaxing. It was so quiet and calm in there...the workers even whispered to each other in the lobby area where you sign in. Guess that atmosphere is pretty important! With teaching 4 year olds and having a 4 month old at home I don't get that "quiet" that I had there for that time period. It was very nice. On our way back home we stopped by "Picture This" and ordered Aubrey's pictures and then went to the grocery store. Later that evening we went up to the road to another restaurant we'd been wanting to try ~ Alfresco's. We had eaten their food on Friday night at our Youth Banquet, but wanted to go back and try various things on their menu. We were going to eat outside by the ocean, but the sun was down and there were too many mosquitos. We sat out there for a little bit but then decided to go inside for dinner. I had a chicken quesadilla and Adam had Grouper. For dessert, we shared a piece of key lime pie. It was amazing! Aubrey even got to enjoy a little bit of the cool whip! Thanks, Adam for making this the best and most relaxing birthday of my life!!! Love you so much!

Here we are by the ocean...the sun had just set.
A dozen roses were on my kitchen table when I got up Saturday morning!

My parents (through Adam) got me gift certificates to "Perk Up" ~ a coffee shop. YUM!

Here we are at Caymana Bay just before we left.

Aubrey had enough excitement for the day!

change...

I inherited several traits from my father. One of these traits was the desire to collect change. I am unable to walk past a fallen coin. It doesn't matter if it's a penny, I will stoop down and pick it up. I love change. I recently began selling candy out of my classroom, as the school quit selling it from the cafeteria, and I've been putting the change from sales in a jar. Anyways, the jar was filling up, probably about 80% full, so I decided to see if Dad would want to buy the change from me to put in his 5-gallon collection jug. He did, and he also volunteered to help count the change. When he got over to our apartment, he verbally regretted his volunteering. But it was fun, and his 5-gallon jug has benefited.

Said jar.

The spread.
Quarters... $224 of them, I believe.

An aerial view.

Today for lunch we had Jarrett over. Val made some chicken/rice/vegetables/lemon juice/asiago cheese/something or other dish (REALLY good!) and then we had corn and rolls and an awesome dessert!!!! It's sorta like busterbars from DQ but in a 9x13 dish... phenomenal! Jarrett is one of Aubrey's good friends. He's in highschool, comes to youth, helps out in youth services in church, sings in our ensemble Sunday mornings, etc. He's also a good friend of mine.

usps... Unable to Speedily Present your Stuff?

I received in the mail today this thank-you card from my cousin and his wife. They mailed it on October 6, 2008. I got it today, January 28, 2009. Yes, we live outside the U.S., but normally it takes only about a week or two to receive letters from the States. Then I noticed the nice ink-stamp on the front of the envelope. Somehow, this letter was sent to Singapore. This struck me as being odd. What did they see in the address that led them to ship this letter to Singapore? But what really bothered me was my next realization. Why do they accidentally send stuff to Singapore often enough to warrant creating a stamp that says "Missent to Singapore"?!? Your tax dollars at work, good friends. Rest easy.

Growing like a weed!

Aubrey decided to try something new this afternoon. She rolled over from her back to her tummy! ...and the nurse just asked today if she was rolling over...*sigh*

This was Aubrey's second time having cereal. She was a bit tired, as you can well see!!
(the pics uploaded backwards...)

Aubrey absolutely goes crazy whenever we are eating trying to get to our food. She loves to drink from my cup of water when I have some. So, I decided it was time to start her on cereal. It was SO cute - I was fixing her food for her and it was like she just knew that I was making something for HER. Adam was holding her and walking around and she would turn her head so far just to try to see what I was doing. When it was ready, we put her in her Bumbo seat and I sat down in front of her with her little bowl and spoon. Her whole little body was tense and every time I would put the spoon to her mouth, she would dive for it! So fun!!

Lovin' life!

Reaching for Daddy's beard.

Today, Aubrey went for her 4 month check-up. She is healthy and growing so fast. She weighed in at 19 pounds 14 ounces and 27.5 inches long. CRAZY! Today was also immunization day. I was so surprised...she didn't even cry! What a little trooper. I always dread "shot day" and usually make Adam stand by the table with her so I don't have to watch. Well, today I decided to just stay right there with her too and held her hands and talked to her in a really happy voice the whole time! She even smiled through the first shot. The doctor told us that the second shot usually hurts more than the first one and she did start to whimper, but that whimper quickly turned to a smile with more prodding from mommy. She is such a happy little girl and we are certainly blessed to be her parents.

His Excellency the Governor!

Tomorrow is Heroes Day, a national holiday here honouring those who are old and have fought in wars or done great things somehow. Our church had a special service today honouring several people, some of whom have passed away. The Governor attended, as did his lovely wife, to send birthday greetings to Sis. Julia, who recently turned 100. Val asked the Governor's driver, a police officer, if it would be appropriate to ask the Governor for a picture with Aubrey. He said that this was actually the place where it would be entirely appropriate. Which made Val happy. So, after the service ended, we were fortunate to speak with the Governor and his wife for a few minutes before they left our church. Aubrey was really cooperative as well, not fussing a bit. We think Aubrey is now a bit snobbish... it's like she expects us to do her bidding. Oh wait... we already did all that. Anyways, pretty cool stuff for this backwoods girl from Louisiana. Now I realize that Aubrey is not backwoods or from Louisiana. But I think that says it perfectly.

Getting into the car is the driver for the Governor.

Here are some more shots from this afternoon.

so i think i like some new things...

Aubrey has apparently decided to broaden her horizons and enjoy new things.

Things like actually half-way enjoying the swing.

She's also started reaching for things. Like Val's face. She'll reach for just about anything that's held in front of her. Which means at meal times we now eat out of the serving dishes, as they're out of reach. It's really great for not having place settings to wash, but the whole "double-dipping" think is kinda getting out of hand. Aubrey has also started this thing of looking longingly at our food while we're eating. Seems so cruel...
She's also very interested in books. This particular book is one I had fun reading with/to Kaitlynn when she was a baby. Val found a copy of it while we were in the US over Christmas.

Aubrey is enjoying tummy-time more and more, too! She loves to lay in her crib and look at/play with her toys, talking a mile a minute. At least we think it's talking.

Again, her book. The real reason for the pic, though, is that I love the outfit. I don't know if she'd been in navy before, or at least not a solid navy. Cute!

Val's mom and dad wanted to get her a bumbo seat, but transporting one home from the US wasn't practical, given their size/shape. So, we hopped on ecaytrade (kinda like craigstlist) and found a used one for a great price! Aubrey loves sitting in it... thanks mom and dad!

I know this pic is a little blurry, but I love the expression on Aubrey's face. Somewhere between a huge smile and a yawn, methinks.