Yellowstone and a new car

 In September, we visited Yellowstone for our first time with my family. My parents rented a trailer and we stayed in West Yellowstone at a nice campground. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so great (like 30's and 40's with rain) but we made the best of it and had lots of fun seeing the animals and geysers, especially Old Faithful.

Aubrie and me at Bear World in West Yellowstone.

 It was fun to watch these huge grizzlies flip over rocks and logs like they were nothing to find their food.

 On our way to Old Faithful, this buffalo was walking along side the main road and as we drove up to him, he was the size of our SUV.

 Aubrie all bundled up and waiting for Old Faithful to explode.

 Visiting all the geysers around the park. It was neat just driving around and seeing the steam coming off of them all over the mountains and in the trees.

 Aubrie just learning to walk...a week or so later, she was walking on her own (9/20/13).

 We saw lots of elk and babies.

 These are some stairs on the side of the cliff that lead to a lookout point for a huge waterfall.

 We saw 2 black bears while driving and came across more buffalo in the road.

 On our way home, we visited Bear World in Rexburg. This park is neat because you drive your car through 60 bears just roaming around. We had a few walk right next to the car which was a little scary.

 We visited the petting zoo there which was fun to see and pet these animals so close.

In other news, in August we decided we couldn't wait any longer to sell the Mazda since we were having one problem after another and were wanting to get something a little bigger anyway. We sold our car on KSL and found a 2011 Chevy Traverse at Car Max for a pretty good deal.

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