Our peanut is 9 months old!

9 months... 3/4 of a year... wow...

 It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time passes with a baby! Weren't we just working through tummy troubles and sleeping more than 2 hours at a time?

These past few weeks she is just jumping over milestones it seems. She pulls up on everything possible, empties any and every cupboard and drawer and last night she even pulled on her first cord which sent Aubrey's snow globe tumbling down from the shelf and crashing to the floor. Fortunately the only casualty was to the snow globe ;-)

A few of this month's highlights:
- 3rd tooth (top right) popped through
- 1st ear infection, in each ear....BOO
- love her little gluten free, diary free, egg free baby puffs
- army crawl/scooting all over the house (today at her checkup she made her first little crawling attempt up on her hands and knees!)
- cannot get enough of her sisters
- has become a total daddy's girl! One morning after she finished nursing, she crawled over to his side of the bed only to realize he wasn't there. She put her little face on his pillow and just cried and cried =(
- lots of babbling but nothing consistent or object specific
- 17 lbs 9.5oz (30%) but finally doubled her birth weight!
- 28 1/4" long

We love you so much sweet Ainsley Rae!!

Instagram January

A nice cold, juicy honeycrisp apple is just what a girl needs to help ease the pain of teething!

.....that is, until Mommy takes it away so she can have a bite!

Ella sold Girl Scout cookies to a family friend who is a firefighter. It was a slow evening at the fire station, so he showed both girls in, on and around the fire trucks. This must have jogged memories of Ella's preschool field trip to the fire station-- I found this drawing in the craft closet. Its Ella's fire escape plan for our house! I'm so impressed and amazed by her details: 2 routes (window or down the stairs), fire with smoke, smoke detector (she is really working on spelling- bape corrected to beap!) and what appears to be daddy watching TV.

Just because we are dairy free doesn't mean we don't get to enjoy the finer things in life...life caramel corn =)

Family skating night = our new favorite way to spend Tuesdays

Sweet smiley girl

1st cold. Yuck! We invested in a new booger-sucking device, the NoseFrida. The red end goes in your mouth, blue vial looking end goes in baby's nose...suck suck suck and voila! Baby can breathe again. No worries, there is a filter that prevents the boogers from traveling up the little straw to get into mommy and daddy's mouth ;-)

Joining the ranks of her sisters in trouble-making! She can now open most cupboards and drawers, pull herself up into a sitting position and empty whatever cupboard or drawer she is currently in front of.

Ella won a very special prize for selling random do-dads out of a catalog last fall. She got her 1st limo ride to have a pizza lunch.

And now she can pull herself up to standing!! This is going far far too quickly if you ask me. Earlier today I went to get her up from her nap to find her standing in her crib as proud as she can be. Slow down baby girl... Saturday she will be 9 months old!

Well there you have it! I managed to post somewhat consistently for an entire month. Now I only have 11 more to go....

Modes of movement

While I've been busy trying to get the blog finished up for 2012, life in 2013 has been moving ahead! Before I get to the "moving" section, here are a few glimpses of life according to Aubrey.

Self-portrait

She does a pretty good job getting pictures centered =)

Hamming it up with lil' sister

Aubrey can often be caught redhanded with the camera, Neal or my cell phone, the iPad...you name it, if its technology she plays with it! She is truly the definition of the new-age child who can operate most electronics without any teaching- I am constantly amazed by what she can do!

For Christmas, Aubrey really wanted roller skates. Stan and Jeanie found Neal's old roller skates (circa 1950!) in the attic and gave them to Neal for Christmas. We had to return one of Aubrey's gifts because it didn't work, so in exchange she got new roller skates and Ella got Neal's skates. Unfortunately when you are 6, you don't appreciate the old vintage aspect of the skates! After a valiant effort of trying to skate with the vintage skates, she asks oh-so-kindly "Can I have some different skates? I don't like these old rusty ones that don't roll well." Anyways, back to the adventure of learning to roller skate...

We are ready to roll hehehe

Aubrey was absolutely DELIGHTED to be skating. I love how her emotion just pours out of her face. She has that throw-your-head-back and laugh way about her. She was a little leery about skating on her own and took a few tumbles, but the smiles by far outweighed the bumps.

Daddy helping Aubrey stay on the skates or giving her a free ride!

Ella. Ella has always been our determined child. When she decides that she wants to do something (read, write, learn to braid, draw, etc) she gets down to business! Skating has been one of those things that she is so determined to learn how to do. The last 2 weeks we have gone to our local skating rink on Tuesdays (its a whole $2.50 for skate rentals and 4 hours of skating...AMAZING cheap family fun date!). Ella ditched the ol' rusty skates for the rental skates and started doing her laps. The 1st week was filled with many tumbles, but she persevered. One of the workers gave her some tips and 2 hours later we had to drag her and her red cheeks and bruised body off rink to head home! This last week, she had already made great progress. She was going 2-3 laps or more without falling and even going at a pretty good pace. She decided to trade her chore money for a pair of new skates like Aubrey's so she can't wait to go skating again next week.

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Ainsley isn't quite ready for roller skating, but she isn't to be left out of this new movement trend. She is full-on inchworming her way around our house! That girl goes from sitting nicely in front of her toys, to behind the rocking chair, into the pantry and then off to the playroom in the blink of an eye. And boy is she proud of herself!!!

And oh yeah, she can now pull herself up all by herself!! Sunday night she was laying on the floor playing, next thing she has pulled herself up onto an ottoman then came crashing down because she let go. Oops! She thinks she is pretty hot stuff with her pulling up on things and gets a little upset if she can't manage to stand up as quickly as she would like.

And Ella, who has been reading over my shoulder as I wrap up the blog, suggests a simple closure...
"That's all for now..."

Insta-life

Its funny how the new year and all its resolutions, reorganization and new starts can be so motivating... yet come June I will feel just as convicted that I've slacked off yet lack the drive to get back on board. I really wish I could set up a system to which I could be motivated by others all throughout the year, like lets say on Pinterest only people whose last names are A-K can post organizational/refreshing/start anew posts until July. Then in August, L-Z get a shot and now I have great ideas to keep me going all year instead of me trying to unrealistically cram all my new changes into just 31 days!

Where is the all coming from? And what is the point? Well, as many noticed last week I went on a blogging frenzy. I had a list of all the things I needed wanted to include in my blog book that was supposed to be from January 2010- December 2012. After I blogged my heart out I went to put the book together and realized I had dropped the ball on my intent to put my Instagram pictures on the blog. So in one more attempt to really, officially, for the last time, no I really mean it round out the year of 2012!

Here is our life September through December as captured on the go via phone pictures:

Thanks to technology, I was able to renew my ACLS certification while sitting in my comfy chair with a precious sleeping girl on my chest!

Aubrey is a ham...Ainsley isn't so sure

Nothing more precious that this sleeping girl right this moment

Her smile melts my heart (and looking at this outside of the situation it makes me sad to notice how tired her eyes are...we had a long few months with those tummy troubles)

She listens very intently to Aubrey

Such tiny little feet

Blue-eyed girl after her 1st blood draw

Ella is becoming so grown-up and independent. She chose the correct screwdriver and attached her own horn to her scooter.

Oh Aubrey! You are so you.... and we love every bit of it!

Another sweet picture of my baby when she was feeling less than stellar and waiting for her x-ray

Happy 6th birthday Ella Marie!

For her family birthday, Ella wanted us to go bowling. And it was a blast! She is a natural.

My beautiful beautiful Ella

Aubrey had a great time bowling as well. Although she was just as excited to throw the ball down the lane as she was to see if she even hit any pins ;-)

Ainsley enjoyed just hanging out with Mommy

Trick or treating here we come!

Ella fixed Aubrey's hair for church

Ainsley LOVES her tongue

I love Ella's new toothless smile =)

Aubrey's 1st ponytail on her own

Aubrey is a great big helper. She loves to give Ainsley her morning pear juice with miralax and probiotic

Bundled up for a cold walk to school

Lots and lots of applesauce has been made this fall. 31 quarts so far to be exact.

Gingerbread making fun

Christmastime at our house

She makes a Santa hat look good!

Look at me! I'm sitting up!!

Thanks Pinterest and Christopher Roe Photography for helping me create this gallery wall!

She melts my heart on these cold mornings

Trying on Christmas dresses

Merry Christmas!!

This little treasure came home from school in Ella's backpack. Mrs. Reed told me that Ella decided to cut her hair during school today and immediately felt bad about it. Mrs. Reed also told me the evidence was in the backpack. I was not expecting to see quite this chunk of hair!!When I asked Ella about this incident, she only could say "I'm so sorry mommy...it was just an accident!"

Visiting Santa turned into an afternoon of getting ears pierced.

A very rare but sweet picture of Aubrey with her normal pretty smile

Sweet girl

Zoo lights!

Ainsley, Aubrey, Ella and Kolby in their Christmas outfits all made by Grandma Marian

Roller skating!!

Phew.... let's hope that in 2013 I can stay on top of things a little better!