Isn't She Lovely

Isn't she just amazing!

Well, I broke down and went and got Aubrey's pictures done today. They turned out so amazing and I spent so much more money than I should have. I had planned on doing the $10 special thing...wow, that DEFINITELY did not happen! But I am so excited! They got so many good poses. This is one of my favorites. I will post more another time maybe. I am so tired tonight.

Just chillin

I love how Willy is bigger than Aubrey, he actually outweighs her by a couple pounds too. He is huge. Aubrey wants some dog food! Actually, it's the water she is interested in. Almost everyday when I'm doing something in the kitchen and she is in there with me playing on the floor I will suddenly hear a swishing sound and I look, she is always getting to the cat water dish and making a huge mess with the water. The cutest thing, just a little messy!

Kenny multi-tasking with Tiki and Aubrey! This was Thanksgiving and I think Aubrey had a pickle...honestly I can't remember for sure.

Januari invited me to go swimming with her and Juliane and Jay. I was going to get in the water but Aubrey didn't like it much so I just stayed out and waited for her to get tired of the water. It was a little cold for her, and I don't have a swimming suit for her but this was her first pool experience. What an awesome Auntie Januari!

This is my favorite picture lately. Zach said it looks like she is a model. She's like, "Yeah, this is my ride and I'm bad!"

I went into the other room for just a second and this is what I came back to find. Aubrey is a little climber already!

Yep, she's about to disturb a sleeping cat. :)

I just love this gummy smile! She is almost never this happy to be in her car seat!

I just love these last few pictures I took of her today. She is growing so fast!

Playing with the magnetic alphabet Januari gave her.

Quiz from Andrea

Answer the following 5 questions, and then tag 5 people.

(I am not going to tag anyone)



1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
In December of 1999 I was all eggcited about the new millenium! Being a loser 15 year old, chillin at home, no man, no job, no car.


2. What are 5 things on your to-do list?
1. Lose 5,000 pounds
2. Get through school and become a Registered Nurse!!!
3. Be a good Mommy and Wife
4. Make my new home a safe and clean place to raise a family
5. To be accepting of people where they're at in life, in hopes that they will do the same for me

3. What are snacks you enjoy?
Is this a trick question? The question should be, "what snacks DON'T I enjoy?"


4. What are the places you have lived?
Moses Lake, Arlington, Marysville


5. What are 5 things you would do if you became a billionaire?
1. Pay off my bills
2. Buy a nice home with some land
3. Keep going to school
4. Get a boob job and liposuction (well, after I was done having kids)
5. Share some money with family, make sure everyone is taken care of

Not feelin it

I figured I better post a blog to at least let you all know I'm still alive. I just haven't felt like bloggin lately. Everything is sucking the life out of me, don't have much left over at the end of the day lately. But, here's what's new:
House update...ARGH TIMES 100! Closing date got pushed back once again (big surprise). New date is December 15th. Our lender and agent are very confident we will close by this date, or earlier...I am not so confident. I am questionable on that whole situation. I am to the point of just having the attitude of "I'll believe it when I see it."
My first quarter of college is coming to an end. Lecture is actually over and next week I just have two finals and I am done! I am actually already done with my English class. I had to turn my portfolio in yesterday by 4 p.m. I am so excited that I survived my first quarter. I have a long road ahead of me but I feel like it is really doable. So far I am really loving college. I think next quarter will be even better because I am taking two on campus classes in the morning Mon-Thur and then I have one online class. So, it will be easier to get into a routine. My classes this quarter were so spread out, it was hard to get used to anything. I am excited for next quarter! I will be taking Math 95, English 101 and Lifetime Wellness.
Let's see...Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Kenny's parents house for the whole weekend. It was so nice to be able to stay for a few days instead of what we usually do, which is drive over Thursday morning, drive home Thursday night because I always had to work at the bank Friday. So, we got a hotel and stayed Thursday through Sunday. So relaxing to have a hotel room to ourselves, just the three of us! No dogs, no cats, no birds, no brothers or sisters or mom's and dad's. Just the three of us! It was a nice preview of finally having our own place soon!
Well, I think that is about it for now. Just a quick update.

Aubrey is 6 months! HOLY CRAP!

I cannot believe Aubrey is six months today! Time has been flying so far. She gets more fun to hang out with every single day. I am loving watching her grow. She is definitely getting me off my butt lately with her roaming all over the house now since she started to crawl two weeks ago.  I am always afraid she is going to bump her head or fall over...which she does. Especially since she has been sick the last few days, it's like she is drunk.  Her balance is not as good as it usually is but it's all good. Hopefully she is back to her happy healthy self soon.

I went out with Nathan, Dunnette and Januari last night. It was so much fun to get out of the house and just hang out with my family for a night.

Here are some pictures from the last couple days

Aubrey and Allison

Kenny wearing his Seahawks gear and Aubrey wearing her Seahawks hat, hard to tell...but that's what it is.

Willy wearing Tweaks new sweater...he is pissed!

Aubrey playing with her cool "Silly Town" toy on her 6 month birthday

Nathan, Dunnette and Januari at Shari's last night. It was so fun!

This lady is crazy! But she sure knows how to clean a window!

Pretty good...eh?

Yeah, how do we all like my new blog setup? Dang, who knew it could be so involved? Only bad thing is I couldn't figure out how to center the picture of Aubrey. Oh well..any of you geniuses want to let me in on the secret, let me know!
I don't really want to blog right now. I want to go to bed!
Aubrey is sick with a cold and it sucks big time! This is really the first time she's been sick. She had a cold for like two days when she was three months...but that was nothing compared to this crap! She barely slept maybe three hours last night, which is unusual since she has been sleeping through the night since I don't know when. Anyway, I am exhausted, she is exhausted, Kenny is exhausted...we're all exhausted! She can't breathe while she is laying down so I took her for a drive before class tonight to put her to sleep. That was at like 6 and it is 10:30 now and she is still asleep...so that makes me happy...but now I'm going to go to bed and she'll probably wake up like fifteen minutes later. Oh well, it's all good! I'm just glad she is getting some rest finally. She has just never been sick like this...and she is miserable and it makes me sad for her cause I can't really do anything for her....so that is a major bummer!
House update #563 (that's what it seems like): Close date has been pushed back AGAIN! Me = ANNOYED! Ya know, I didn't mind it the first 562 times...but this does it! I am so tired of having no idea of when we're really going to be able to move in. It was fine until...now it's going to be frickin freezing Mr. Bigglesworth when we are moving.  So, anyway...the NEW new close date is allegedly November 25th. We'll see how that goes. :) Really, it's fine because I am so busy with school. Moving is going to be so stressful!
Let's see...what else...I'm tired...no new pics this time folks, sorry...goin to bed now!

House update

Kenny and I have been thinking we need to figure out exactly what day we can get all moved into our house. So, I called our loan officer last week to ask her the exact closing date. All we knew was it was supposed to be sometime the first week in November. Well, after I asked her when she thinks it will be she broke the news that she thinks we will probbaly have to move the date back AGAIN! She said that every time she checks the USDA website the files keep taking longer and longer. There are just so many loans trying to get approved right now so they are really backed up. I am so bummed! I wanted to be in our house before it got crazy cold! She said it will probably be around the middle of November. At this point I am trying to not get my hopes up. Once again it just gives us more time to get things prepared for when we actually do get to move in.
Kenny recently got a second job. I can't remember if I blogged about it yet. He is working for a place called Service Master. He is working about 23 hours a week in the evenings Mon-Fri. He is always so darn tired now, it sucks but I really appreciate him working so hard to keep us going while I am going to school.
By the way, the quarter is half over and I can't believe it. Time does fly when you're having fun! I really am loving college so far!
Here are some awesome (as always) pictures of Aubrey!

Havin fun at Grandma & Grandpa Durbin's house!


She is seriously gonna go for it!


Can you believe she actually did it? This child is out of control!

Crawling one day and pulling herself up to standing position the next day!

Look at the darling dimples! How could I not adore this girl?

Crawling!!!

This morning I put Aubrey on the floor while I got her bath ready and she was playing with some toys on the floor. I thought to put a toy just out of her reach to see if it would give her incentive to crawl...and it worked!!!!!!!! She took about three or four forward movements! She's been crawling backwards for a couple weeks now but hasn't really gotten the forward crawling down. It looks like she'll be crawling all over the place pretty soon. I spent all morning trying to get her to do it again...hopefully I'll get it on camera this afternoon so I have a video to go with this post! Man, I was so excited when I saw it! She is 5 1/2 months tomorrow! She is so awesome! I am enjoying every minute I have with her! Mommyhood is really getting to be more amazing everyday!

EASY!

All right, so now that everyone is calling me up worried about me after my last post I need to post a disclaimer! Sorry I got everyone so excited! I was just in a bad mood after having a bad couple of weeks. You know sometimes life is just crappy for a while...sometimes caused by...oh I don't know...a husband? I'm just sayin... :) Anyway, I'm better now, I'm not longer pissed at the world. So, everyone just take it easy already. However, I do feel quite loved at the moment that people were actually worrying about my well being. That is a nice feeling! I have so many people that love me. I am a lucky gal! And as for Kenny, he's not such a bad guy. It's just sometimes I forget that he is a man and I have to take into account what I am dealing with. So, all is good in the neighborhood!

10/12/09

I am stressed out and pissed at the world so I'm not going to say much cause I don't want to be a downer but there are some gorgeous pictures of Aubrey. Her big blue eyes are killer! She is so beautiful. I realized today as I was going through my pics of her I don't have a lot of her smiling. I'll have to work on that!
We have a new close date for our house. The USDA is taking a long time to work through all the loans going through right now so it's taking longer than expected. The new date is sometime during the first week in November. I am fine with that. One less thing I have to worry about for now. Moving is going to be so stressful! However, it will be nice to have my own space. That's all for now. Just wanted to post some newer pictures of Aubrey.

I started school at Big Bend Community College two weeks ago and so far I am loving it! At first I was really stressed out because I am taking an online class and I wasn't really sure what my teacher expect from me on certain assignments but it has been going really well so far. I am taking Math 90, English 99 and College Survival Skills which is required if you don't place in a college level Math or English. I am really enjoying my English and CSS but my Math class is a little different story. The teacher has a day job as an engineer and she said she is just teaching "for fun". I want to tell her not to quit her day job because she isn't the greatest teacher! This is her first class so I know she is really nervous and doesn't have her technique down yet...but dang. She usually ends up confusing me more than helping me. I have been making sure to go through the sections BEFORE class so I already know the information and then hope to learn a little more. We have our first test this Tuesday. I should get an A...the only questions I've missed on the quizzes have been dumb mistakes like adding instead of subtracting...so I need to take it slow and I should do well. I LOVE COLLEGE!
Aubrey is doing awesome. I can put a blanket down and she'll play on the floor for usually about 5-10 minutes. I think she gets lonely and realizes that Mommy left her and then she freaks out but she is becoming a little more independent. It's hard because I want to spend every moment with her but at the same time I have so much more to do now with homework. She is starting to move around on the floor. She'll roll all over the place or she can also crawl backwards...it's not exactly crawling but more like scooting. She is changing everyday! It's amazing!
News on the house is we are just waiting for approval from USDA which is taking an average of five to six weeks for most loans. So, we are just patiently waiting for that and then we will be able to finally close. Our original closing date was October 12th but I found out yesterday it will probably be more like the beginning of November. I am not in a huge hurry. I mean I am super excited to have our own place but living with my parents is just giving us more time to get our bills paid down. Moving is not going to be a fun task either...so I'm not really looking foward to that part of it...especially since we're going to be getting to November...it's going to be cold! BRR!
I think Kenny just got a new job! I mean...a second job in addition to his current one. He will be working about 20 hours in the evening as a janitor. He did that kind of work while he was going to school and he liked it for the most part. He enjoys working independently so I'm sure he'll do fine. The lady that interviewed him last night told him she had to interview one more person but that Kenny pretty much had the job and to just show up Monday night. So, that is exciting! That will help us since I'm going to school and I don't really want to work and go to school at the same time. I want to avoid that for as long as I can.
I think that is about it. Weight Watchers has been a bust...I actually cancelled my membership because I wasn't going to the meetings and now I have class so I can't go to the meetings...I think I've already gained the "freshmen fifteen". When I am doing my homework I always want to be snacking...or I need a break from studying so I get up and wander to the fridge. IDIOT! It's all good...it will happen someday when I am better prepared to focus my energy in that direction. As of right now, I think I have too much going on...and I like food A LOT! :) Well, that is about all. Here is a picture I took with my phone about a week ago. Isn't she adorable!?

Not enough hours in the day...or night!

So we found a house and we put an offer and it was accepted! Right now we are just waiting for the financing to go through which I guess can take up to two months. Our tentative closing date is October 12th I think. So, we have about another month as long as everything goes as planned. I am so excited and a little nervous about us having our own place. It is such a big commitment! But, it will just make life a little more enjoyable I think. It's a 3 bedroom, one bath and it is on 1/3 acre. The yard is not fenced so we will have to get that done sometime but it is awesome for a starter home I think. I am so excited!
Weight Watchers is going so so...I had lost 18.6 pounds but I haven't weighed in since then because I was really sick...so we'll see this Thursday if I've gained any back. It is hard being sick because I haven't been exercising as much as I should then I feel like a bump on a log and then I want to sit in front of the tv and stuff my face. :) So, I am feeling a little better so I am trying to be "back on the wagon"! I'm only 13 pounds from my prepregnancy weight which isn't bad since I gained 50!!!
Here are some pics of Aubrey! She is growing so fast! She is grabbing for her toys now and sticks everything in her mouth! She grabbed Kenny's glasses off his face last week. It was the cutest thing! I do believe she is teething because she is a slobber machine and she has been so fussy lately. I think she is in a transition because she has no pattern of sleeping or eating or anything at the moment. She has a Dr. appointment tomorrow so I can finally find out how long she is and how much she weighs.

This is the cutest picture ever! I swear she was smiling when I took the picture and then in just a split second she was terribly sad about something.

OH SNAP!

I have been a member of Weight Watchers for a little over 4 weeks now and I have lost 14 pounds exactly! I am sooo eggcited! I feel so good already! I measured myself the night of my fourth weigh in...so after four weeks and I've lost 3 inches off my waist and 2 inches off my hips so that is an awesome visual. Pounds are a little bit harder to visualize...but we all know what an inch looks like so I was really excited to find that out! I haven't updated lately because yes Aubrey is for the most party still sleeping through the night...but barely napping during the day at all so I basically can't get anything done until she goes to sleep at night.
I've registered for my classes at the college and I am taking English, Math and College Survival Skills which I guess is required since both my math and english I placed in are below college level. Oh well...I'm sure it will help me since I've been out of school so long. I could use a brushing up on my study skills and such. I am sooo pumped to start school!
Also in the mix...Kenny and I are house hunting. We went and got preapproved for a mortgage today so the hunt has officially began. We have been looking at houses but didn't really have a price range to keep in mind. So, now we know what price to look for so it is getting more real. We are so excited to have our own place soon! I hope we can find something that we like and can fit into our small budget!
Here are some more recent pictures of Aubrey. Her heat rash on her cheeks finally went away after what seemed like forever!!!





Here is Willy, my huge cat. Look at the size in comparison to Aubrey. He is huge! I love him!

I brough Aubrey in the bedroom to change her diaper and this is what I found...a huge lump under our blanket on the bed...what could it be?

This cat is crazy! He does this all the time and just chills there. I don't know what his deal is I guess he just likes darkness...or maybe he gets cold I don't know. My parents also have a slip cover for one of the couches and he will climb underneath the cover of the couch and just go all over the place. It drives my Mom's dog crazy! I love animals! They are such good times!

WEIGHT WATCHERS BABY!

So, I joined Weight Watchers last Monday and tonight was my first weigh in since I joined and I lost 2.8 pounds. I was a little discouraged because the first time I joined I lost 6 pounds the first week. But, almost three pounds is still quite a bit of weight to lose in 7 days. So, I am excited to be skinny again soon. Last time I joined I lost 34 pounds and then I had to quit because I was pregnant with Aubrey...so hopefully this time I can actually get to my goal which is about 70 pounds away! It will be a long road but I know I can do it because being skinny is good times! Being chubby is...not such good times! I will post a picture of myself from today. Then...after I lose a little bit I will post another picture! I am so excited! Tis hard work, but tis worth it!

And another picture of Aubrey today who is more adorable everyday!!!!

School

Well, I went and took the placement tests at Big Bend Community College last Friday so I am one step closer to being a college student. I don't think I've blogged about this yet because I am afraid that it might fall through. I've considered college a couple times before and I tell everyone about it and then I feel like an idiot when I don't follow through. Well, this time I think it's going to happen. I have the support of my family and my husband and it's something I really need and want to do. I am super excited! I have been wanting to be a nurse for about a year now. That's the longest I've ever been decided on one career so that is an accomplishment in itself. Big Bend has a great nursing program. I have a lot of prerequisites to take first so it is going to be a long road but I am still young and I know I can do it! So, everyone give me a round of applause for making the decision six years after graduating! It bums me out to think if I had gone right after HS I would be done already...but...then I might not have Aubrey and that wouldn't be right!
Speaking of Aubrey, here are so awesome pictures of her this last week:

Aubrey is 7 weeks

These are just some random pictures from the last month. I haven't posted for a while...Stacy has made me aware that I am overdue for a blog. :) I know I am but dang where do you find the time? So, here's some newer pictures...the one where Aubrey is wearing brown with polka dots is from when she was 4 weeks old...most of the other ones are more recent. The one where she's in the car seat, we were on our way to Kenny's parents house. They live about 3 1/2 hours away, in Arlington, WA. Aubrey was so good all the way there and all the way back. I am finding that she really doesn't cry all that much. Mostly, just when she needs something. I still get a little aprehensive about taking her places by myself but it's getting better. She really is a great baby! I am enjoying getting to know her everyday more and more. She is sleeping through the night except requiring a feeding usually around 3 or 4 a.m. and she usually goes right back down after I change and feed her. So, my sleep isn't suffering too badly. As you can see, Kenny helps out quite a bit. It's funny, we both have our own techniques for getting her to settle down. He extends his arms and bounces her up and down. I would die after about 5 seconds of that. She loves it though! He is really good with her. I think he enjoys her more and more as he can actually interact with her. She is starting to make cooing sounds. So sweet! Well, that's all for now! Tata!