Goodbye to 2013 and Welcome 2014!

I wanted to be able to remember all the ups and downs that 2013 brought our family so here is a little list:

Aubrie's changes:
-We began the year with a cute 5 month old baby who was starting to sit up and move around and interact more with us.
-Aubrie went from breastfeeding and rice cereal to formula and baby food to whole milk and "regular" foods
-Aubrie went from a 14 lb baby to 23 lbs and from waking up 4-5 times a night to maybe once or twice
-Underwent her first surgery to get ear tubes in, which has been one of the best decisions we made
-Spent time at Primary Childrens Hospital for a few days with RSV, ear and eye infections
-Swimming in a pool and lake for the first time and absolutely loving it
-First camping trip to Timpanogos/American Fork and to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days and going to Hatch
-Turned ONE year old and had a lady bug themed birthday party
-Loved watching all the parades this summer, dancing at concerts, and watching fireworks
-Went Trick or Treating for the first time as a bumble bee
-Played in the piles of leaves and played in the snow and went sledding

Jeff and my yearly events:
-We (well I forced Jeff) to embark on a weight loss lifestyle change starting in April....Jeff has gone from 241 to 201 lbs and I have gone from 193 to 159 lbs. It was not easy, but so worth it to feel better about yourself
-We sold the Mazda and bought a Chevy Traverse
-We enjoyed many local vacations including: Hatch, Yellowstone, Bear Lake, and Timpanoogos Cave
-Jeff got layed off from Fetzers right before Thanksgiving and with lots of prayers and interviews, was hired right before Christmas at Fondell Woodwork.
-I survived being a mom to a newborn and very active little girl....nobody tells you how hard being a parent is
-Jeff and I have been serving at the Bear Den leaders in our ward and can't wait for March to come so Aubrie can be in nursery
-We continued with our yard and house projects this year by planting many flowers and fruits and Jeff painted the entire house while he was unemployed.
-Through many hard months earlier in the year, we became closer as a couple and family and learned to appreciate the small things in life
-Enjoyed all the events that summer time brought including fairs, fireworks, and parades

HERE'S TO 2014 AND MANY MORE GOOD TIMES AND HOPEFULLY A GROWING FAMILY!

Christmas Traditions and Fun

  This Christmas season was filled with lots of traditions new and old. Little Aubrie came home from daycare with this elf hat on and loved it so much she wouldn't take it off and kept saying, "hat, hat, hat".

 This was the second year for the Evans family Christmas party. This year my mom added some contests since our family is quite competitive. The first contest was "ugly sweater/outfit" and my dad won of course, even though he was mad about having to wear his outfit the entire party ;) There was also a white elephant gift exchange that included lots of family gems including pig statues from my grandma.

 Our little family in our "Ugly Christmas outfits" minus Aubrie's cute outfit.

 The second contest was the Gingerbread House Contest. Sterling/Amanda and Grandma Downhill won this year. This was our house with our secret ingredient of cotton candy snow. We found out the next day that this wasn't such a great idea as it all shrunk and looked terrible. Next year we will have to find another secret ingredient. Jeff had fun getting into building our house and putting all the details on it.

Some of the Christmas traditions I enjoyed this year:

As a child we had one of these advent calendars that you would "decorate" the tree each day with an ornament. Aubrie enjoyed putting one on each day and would clap after she placed them.

We weren't able to make it up to Temple Square this year but we did get to see the lights via drive through at Thanksgiving Point. Aubrie was in awe and kept saying, "Woahhhh" at all the lights. We went during a terrible snow storm so we opted to skip petting the reindeer, maybe next year.We also drove around Draper and Sandy to see some lights. This was my favorite house below. They had lights that were synchronized to music and even had what looked like a real Santa in the window. We sat and watched for a half hour since it was so neat.

 Draper Park:

Merry Christmas 2013

 Merry Christmas!!! This year we spent Christmas Eve at the Bath's house for dinner and to open jammies and came home to color our page in our coloring book.

This year was our first year hosting Christmas Morning Brunch since Santa comes to our house for Aubrie. Santa brought her lots and lots of toys this year. Some of her favorites were her play kitchen, giant Minnie Mouse, and 2 Fur Real Kittens( I should say these were her absolute favorite thing as she still doesn't let them out of her sight!)

 Walking out to all the presents on Christmas morning. Below, Aubrie is pointing to a package that was moving and meowing. She would stop what she was doing and listen for the cat noises.

 Aubrie and her favorite toy cat....she mauls it to death by riding it, kissing it, squeezing it, and giving it hugs.

 She also enjoyed "riding" all the boxes.

Christmas morning we held a huge brunch with all sorts of goodies including treats from Schmidts, Costco, trifle, ham, and the traditional quiche and mom's kneaders french toast.

We had my family including Ster and Amanda and both sets of grandparents over to enjoy the festivities. For Christmas Dinner we went to Grandma Evans house for more food and playtime with cousins. Aubrie loved running around with Taylee and Porter and squealing at the top of their lungs.

My favorite memories of this Christmas include:
  -Aubrie learning to say, "ho ho ho" and recognizing who that was and the excitement that comes with it.
  -Aubrie sneaking out each morning to discover where Elfie was hiding and putting the ornaments on the advent calendar
-Looking at neat Christmas Lights in Sandy/Draper
 -Jeff's favorite thing was receiving gifts for the 12 days of Christmas from our Secret Giver
- Spending time with family and enjoying their company
-Jeff getting a new job the week of Christmas at Fondell Woodwork in Lehi.....what an answer to prayer!
-Aubrie slowly unwrapping gifts and handing each torn piece of paper to us saying, "here".
-The joy and excitement of Christmas with a child in our home
-Teaching Aubrie about baby Jesus

15 months old

This little cutie is 15 months old already and no longer a baby at all. She had a fun and healthy fall filled with lots of new adventures.

At 15 months Aubrie:

*Weighs 23 lbs and is 30 inches tall
*Loves Loves Loves Pasta with Tomato Soup and cheese and her Gerber cheeto snacks
*Some other foods she likes include: peaches,pears and grapes (she still can't eat citrus or bananna)
  peas, green beans, chicken and stars, soups, and loves ham and chicken.
*She can say mom, dad, keee(kitty), ball, ho ho ho (anytime she sees anything related to Santa), hi, mmmm and makes a chomping noise when she is hungry or sees something she likes, woooah, hot, uh ohhh (any time anything drops). She also signs the sign for "more" but to her it means food. She also says "here" when she hands you something.
*She is very smart and catches on to things quickly...for example, we started saying prayers with her at night and folding her arms, well a week later any time we say " time for prayers" she quickly folds her arms and at the end say Amen and throws her arms apart and claps. We are still working on the clapping and closing the eyes part.
*She loves chasing the kitties around and giving them loves/laying on top of them while they try to escape and throwing their toys at them.
* She will bring your towel to you when you are getting out of the shower and says, "here".
*She loves coming out each morning in December to find "Elfie" hiding around the house and putting an ornament on her advent calendar.
*She has only pulled the Christmas Tree down twice this year...so far.
*She loves her Minnie Mouse couch she got for her birthday and unfolds it every morning to cuddle up with her blankets on.
*She loves to snuggle her blankets....specifically the fleece ones with the tassles I cut.
*Loves running away down the hall from us and giggles the whole time.
*Loves reading books and having them read to her every day.
*Gets really excited when she gets dropped off at daycare and sees Miss Sheena. She loves kids!
*Can crawl up/down stairs very well now and goes down the right way without us telling her.
*Finally is sleeping through the night (unless she is sick) and sometimes will even put herself to bed as long as she has her pillow pet lights on.

 This is the first time she fell asleep while eating dinner...she played hard at Grandmas house.

 First actual time playing in the snow....at first she didn't know what to think and then loved kicking and throwing the snow around.

 Playing with Daddy in the snow.

 This year, Aubrie wasn't a fan of sitting on Santa's lap, so we got to as a family. This was at Bluffdale Light celebration where Shannon performed. Aubrie would cry if she got close to Santa.

In other news, the weekend before Thanksgiving, Jeff got layed of from Fetzers. In a way it is nice, but it sure has been tough finding another job. Hopefully something will come through soon.

Weight Loss Update and Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to write this down so both Jeff and I don't forget how far we have come with some lifestyle changes. Back in April, we started Weight watchers Jeff was 241 lbs and I was 193 lbs. As of this week, Jeff is down to 197 and I am at 157! We have come a long way and feel a lot better now that we eat smaller portions and healthier choices. We still enjoy desserts and treats every now and then to satisfy our sweet tooth, but we have been able to loose this weight through diet change only. Our intentions were to exercise too, but with a 14 month old, and working full time, our time is precious. I love feeling better about myself and not feeling so sick and full after meals.


In other news: On Friday Jeff was layed off from Fetzers, right in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays...isn't that nice? In one way it is a relief to not have to deal with their dishonesty and ever chaning work schedule, but I am just hoping Jeff can find another position he will enjoy. I have had a few interviews with RPT in South Jordan, but didn't get the position, so I guess I am staying put for awhile.


Aubrie keeps growing like crazy and is always moving and doesn't like to sit still anymore. She got her two front teeth over the past 2 weeks, slowly but shurely they have been trying to come in for about a month now. She has learned very quickly how to say her prayers and will fold her arms and sit quietly for a few seconds and then unfold her arms and say amen and clap....it is adorable how she picked up on this within a week of us saying night time prayers. She also learned what Santa says....ho..ho..ho. It is so cute.

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the Evans on Sunday and on Thursday I worked and then we went to the Baths. Afterwards we sat in line at Walmart for the Black Friday madness and also went to Kholes, Gordmans, Ashley Furniature, and Home Depot. I feel like we got a lot of good deals and a very spoiled little girl for the holidays!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

We made a visit to Gardner Village to see the witches around and enjoy the fall air (and a day off work :)

Aubrie is not too sure about this witch...

 I came out to the kitchen one morning and found this:

 We also went with my family to ride the Alpine slide in Park City. We didn't expect to wait 2 hours though...guess the nice weather brought everyone else out too!

 Trying to get a picture where Aubrie is sitting still and looking at the camera is pretty close to impossible these days.

This little girl absolutely loved playing in the leaves and was squeeling the entire time. She especially loved it when we would throw leaves into the air at her.

 This Halloween Jeff and I didn't dress up but had fun dressing Aubrie up in 2 outfits. She was a fairy for the Bath party and a Bee for Halloween night.

 Aubrie was very interested in what was inside the carved pumpkins and kept trying to look inside them.

 Trick or Treating for the first time in our circle with Dad.

 Aubrie and Uncle Ster at my parents house.

 My dad celebrated his 50th birthday this year and of course had his tower of Dunford chocolate doughnuts for his cake.

 These were our pumpkins this year. I ended up carving them both since Jeff wasn't feeling so well.