First Birthday Party

 We celebrated Aubrie's first birthday party at our house with the Evans side. The theme was ladybugs and Aubrie even wore a ladybug shirt and cute fluffy red skirt with black poka dots. We decided to buy fancy cupcakes from 'One Sweet Slice' a bakery that won Cupcake Wars TV show. They were really yummy. For Aubrie, I actually made a cake but had to buy special gluten and dairy/egg free cake mix since she has never had milk or eggs yet. I made a giant cupcake cake and put tons of frosting on it.

 I made this banner (it was cuter in person) that featured a few pictures from each month old. It was fun to see how much she has changed from month to month.

 I even made a 'ladybug' fruit tray.

 The birthday girl loved attention from her family....she was so hyper.

 Opening presents with daddy.

 The people who attended your party: Grandma/Pa Evans, Grandma/pa Pearson, Grandma Joan Evans, Dave and Cher and Jake Pearson, Shannon, Sterling, and Amanda.

 This girl got spoiled on her birthday with lots of fun toys and books including: a pink 4-wheeler daddy picked out right after you were born, a Minny Mouse couch/bed (which she wouldn't get off of), a big yellow ball, barbie tent, dolls, a cool playhouse from my parents, books, and some push toys.

 Aubrie's first birthday cake and sugar overload:

 She loved massaging the cake and frosting in her hands and started licking the frosting off the cake.

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet One Year Old!!! We love you and have enjoyed your sweet and fun personality and the joy you have brought us!

We had another party with Jeff's side of the family at a park the next week. Lots of parties and sugar for this girl :)

One Year Old

 This cute girl has grown up from a tiny baby to a toddler now.....People always say kids grow fast, but its true...its toooo fast. Here are some pictures from her 1 year photo shoot.

 Love her little mischieveous look!

 Aubrie loves to clap.

 Her first birthday cake smash. She wasn't too sure about what to do at first, but with a little help from mom and dad, even her feet enjoyed the cake.

 Look how big she has grown...this is a 6 month difference

The past year has been full of joy, laughter, and a lot of learning for our family. Aubrie had a tough few months with lots of colds, ear infections and eventually tubes in her ears, and a trip to Primaries for RSV. Hopefully she will have a great immune system for when she goes to nursery in 6 months. She has brought a lot of learning experiences for us from having to feed a newborn every 2 hours, dealing with a colicky baby, learning to go out in public with a baby, learning how to take care of a sick baby, making baby food, learning how busy babies can be and move, and lots of diaper changes.

At 12 months Aubrie:
 * Has learned to say a few words: mom or mama, ball, hi, uh oh, mummm, vrrrmmm (for her 4wheeler),  kitty, (well more of a hiss/key sound) and dad. She has been saying na for the past month or two, but we can't figure out what it means.
 *Loves to clap when anyone is clapping or music is on
* Dances to music
*Waves and says hi to everyone
* Is able to sit to stand without pulling up onto anything and can stand briefly before falling
*Is so close to walking herself, but will walk if we hold her hand and walks really fast if she is chasing the cats
* Loves to be chased down the hallway as we crawl after her. She looks back at us to see if we are coming to get her and then she giggles as she crawls quickly away. She will stop and let you get her "tickle her" and loves it. She is learning to get us back.
*If you are not giving her attention, she will hang on your legs until you look at her and she will smile and laugh at you.
*Loves her bath time still and cries everytime she gets out
*Loves reading books. I will often find her with her basket of books just flipping through pages.
*She enjoys being outdoors doing anything, even if its watching daddy mow the lawn (she started waving at him everytime he passed by)
*Is becoming more independent with feeding herself and doesn't like baby food much anymore. We found out she still can't have bannans and now oranges (she got hives)
*Loves to sip out of a straw at restaurants and puffs her cheeks out to suck.
*Likes to look at pictures and point to the people.
*Finally sleeps through the night!!!! On her belly with her bum in the air.

Weight loss journey

Early this year I decided it was time to make some lifestyle changes because I was tired of trying to loose weight by exercising and eating better (which was doing NOTHING for me) and I researched other options. In April I decided to join weight watchers and convinced Jeff to join with me so we can feel better about ourselves. We here we are at the last day of August and I have lost 30lbs and Jeff has lost almost 35lbs. I never thought I would even be able to loose 5lbs so I am thrilled. We both feel a lot better and can fit into lots of our old clothes much better.
   Weight watchers was quite a change for us the first few months and at times, still is a little hard because we have to be very careful with what and how much we eat. We have learned through this process how snacking (even healthy things) is not so good and that we ate out way too much and ate too large of portions. Weight watchers has forced us to keep track of everything and how many points each food is during the day. What  I have liked about it is that I don't feel starved and deprived of things (ok, well maybe a cheeseburger and onion rings from Astro Burger). We can still eat out at most places and if we are hungry for snacks, we eat fruits or veggies. I wanted to put up some before and after pictures so we can realize how far we have come. The hard part will be to maintain the weight loss (I will be doing the Lifetime program at WW where you have to weigh in monthly to keep your membership free).

February                                                                                             August

11 months old

 Little Miss Aubrie is not so little anymore 11 months now....she is growing so quickly and having so much fun doing it!

Hard to see, but this was her first pony tail. Aubrie is also showing her really excited cheesy face.

 She loves trying to get her "treats" out of the container and of course making a mess as she does it.

 This girl absolutely loves watermelon and gets so excited when she gets it that she immediately snatches it from her tray to eat.

 This is her morning routine: watching Micky Mouse and drinkin her bottle.

At 11 months Aubrie:
  -Is very active and can pull to stand on anything including the fridge and can furniture surf
  -Waves "bye bye" to everyone and sometimes will use both hands
  -Loves going to the parades and especially loves hearing the marching bands so she can dance
  -Loves music and dancing
  -Doesn't like being held much anymore and would rather be crawling around or into something
  -Loves reading books and will sit with her basket of books for a long time
  -Is starting to recognize places and more people
  -Loves playing in any water including: the hose, pools, lakes, tub, or the sink when washing our        hands but is not so fond of the shower
  -Loves being around kids of any age
  -Talks to the cats in a funny high pitched voice and loves grabbing their fur
  -Enjoys feeding herself at meals and her recent favorite finger foods are watermelon, string cheese, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash.
  -Doesn't like keeping her shoes on at all

 Jeff and I both had a day off work so we took Aubrie to the zoo. She loved the birds, little monkeys, cats, and meercats run around.

We took a family vacation to Bear Lake for Raspberry Day's and camped out. We went to the craft fair, watched a rodeo, ate Raspberry shakes, and of course played in the lake! The Siebenhaars were at their cabin so we played with them for a while  to let Aubrie and Brody (Lindsay's baby) play in the water.

4th of July celebrations

This year for the 4th of July I was able to be off work so on the 3rd we attended the Riverton Parade with Amanda's family and our grandparents (Mom is still not doing well and is sick every day). Since Shannon is the 1st attendant for Miss Bluffdale, she was on the Bluffdale City Float in many parades this year.

Grandpa always has his duck call whistles at the parades to embarrass us all :)

 On the 4th we attended our ward breakfast in our circle and that afternoon we went to the Sandy parade. Dad drove the float Shannon was in this year so we couldn't be in the firetruck. We then went to Riverton to watch the fireworks that night.

10 months old

 This little munchkin is 10 months old now and as you can see by the pictures, is very active and does NOT like to sit still at all. Trying to take her "month pictures" is getting more and more challenging as now she likes to eat the sticker the second she sees it.

 "Hmmmm, how can I destroy this paper?"

 " I will just crawl away and do some push-ups instead"

 Another one of her favorite activities now that is can crawl is to chase the cats around the entire house. The second Aubrie gets within arm's reach of them, they take off.

 She still loves giving the "cheesy face" everytime the camera comes out.

At 10 months Aubrie:
 * Started to army crawl about a month ago and all of a sudden she is taking off on all fours
    and if she really wants something she speedly army crawls to it.
*Has a new found love for her pink blanket from the hospital and gets so excited to see it and cuddles it once she gets her hands on it
*Has finally cut her two bottom teeth while we were in the hospital and now is drooling like crazy
*Still loves watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, and now Jake and the Neverland Pirates
*Is starting to get separation anxiety :(
*Thinks it is fun to drop her cheerios or toys one by one onto the floor and cry until you give them back, just for her to do it again.
*Has tried chicken, bits of green beans and string cheese
*Still gets daily compliments wherever we go on how cute she is and how cute her hair is
*Is able to open drawers and is starting to pull herself up onto the couch