Sleepy Head

Aubrey has been so sick the last few days, high fever, congestion, croupy cough and snot. She fell asleep on the couch both Tuesday & Wednesday before her nap. Poor Girl! The Beckster has the same thing although his cough is not as bad. We went to the doc AGAIN this afternoon. It is viral-Benedryl & Tylenol for Beck & Tylenol & Robitussin for Aubrey, she alreay had a round of steriods. Hopefully it will be over by the weekend, hoping to take the kiddos to the Austin Children's museum.

Please learn from my lesson!!

So Tuesday Aubrey started a new semester of Kindermusik (more on that later) and I walk into the house and am almost knocked over by the smell of natural gas inside the house. The kids were still in the car and I remember the night before (Monday night) around 10 pm that Brad mentioned that he smelled gas, he had gone out to the garage and noticed when he came back in. Then he said well I just changed the thermostat from the heater to the air conditioner maybe it is a musty smell from that. I never left the house all night and never noticed the smell until Tuesday afternoon when we got back. So I ran over to the stove and realized that the burner that I used the night before to make beef stew was on but not lit. I think that when I put the veggies in the stew I turned the burner on but didn't light it so it had been emiting natual gas into the house all night long. I think that the burner was on for around 18-20 hours before I realized it, thank God that it was on low. So I opened up all the doors and a bunch of windows luckily it was a super windy day. I got the kids out of the car and we hung out in the back yard for an hour or so. I didn't want to leave the house with doors & windows open and didn't want to take the kids anywhere as Aubrey & Beck both have some viral infection again. Lots of snot & coughing at our house this week. I called Brad about million times during this ordeal all along realizing that I almost blew my family up. If I had left the burner on high or something had sparked we would have been toast by now. So I have been freaking out all week just thinking about it. So everyone please be careful if you have a gas range, double or triple check that your burners are off. And if you smell natual gas investigate it until the smell is gone don't just blow it off, like I did. Please learn from my stupid mistake!!

Lions & Tigers & Bears umm, I mean Tortoises...Oh My!

Of course we growled at the lions & tiger!! ROAR!!

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the bears. We went to the zoo on Saturday and I took lots of pictures of the animals to make Aubrey a photo album so that we can practice our animal names & sounds. Aubrey really enjoyed herself, the Austin Zoo is pretty small and it is more like an animal sactuary. It turned out to be a pretty warm day, we thought that is was only going to be in the 60's but ended up in the mid 70's.

She really like the Llamas, it was the only animal she called by name. It is so cute to hear her say "Llama".

Not a fan of goats! The people just before us had that food for the animals so the goats were freaking out. That goat sniffed her arm and she fussed like it bit her. They were really aggressive.

My 3 babies after we enjoyed a refreshing sno-cone.

Brad is shushing because the wolf was sleeping.

Aubrey also liked these green parrot type birds but now I can't remember the name. The birds said "Hello", "Polly, want a cracker?" & "Goodbye". She couldn't figure out who was talking, she kept asking Who's that? It was so funny.

Miss America

Just in case anyone cares Miss Michigan won Miss America.

Theres just something about girls from Oklahoma...

Ok Folks, the Miss America pagent is Saturday night. There is just something about the Miss America pagent it just reminds me of when I was a little girl and would watch it. I always wanted to be one of those beautiful girls. The last 2 years Miss Oklahoma has won, lets see if we can win 3 years in a row. Or I would be happy if Texas won too.

Miss America 2006 Jennifer Berry from my hometown of Tulsa, OK.

Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson

My Cheeky Monkey Aubrey

She has the best smile and her infectious laugh is even better!

This Kid is Advanced....well at least that is what Brad says.

Look at Beck drinking from a cup! This is the first time that we gave him a cup. He loves water, I just put a tiny amount in the cup and he sucked it down. I thought that I would start the cup at the same time as the rice cereal just like I did with Aubrey at 5 months. But it took Aubrey a couple of tries with the cup and she just spit the water out. Beck sucked it down and this was after he had cereal & peas. Of course he has been rolling over front to back and back to front for over a month now. And he is constantly trying to sit up. He can't sit up on his own by any means but if you lay him on his back he does these mini-crunches like he is trying to sit up. Oh yeah, he is so smily and is constantly laughing (especially at Aubrey). Like Brad says "This kid is Advanced!"

I just wish that he would stop growing & developing so fast. We are pretty sure that Beck is our last baby. I feel so lucky & blessed to have a set of healthy happy kids. I want him to stay a baby for a little while longer and not grow up as fast as Aubrey did (I know that she is only 2). When I was pregnant with Aubrey people always told me to cherish, the baby times because they grow up so fast. Man, those people weren't kidding. I feel like I just found out that I was pregnant and my baby girl is already 2. And Beck is already trying to keep up with his big sis.

Mmmmm...yummy feet!

The Beckster loves his feet. Don't you wish that you were this flexible?

Aubrey & her Dee Dee, she came to visit us one last time before she leaves for Canada on February 1st.

Must See TV!

I am sad, where are you The Office. I need you. Where are you Michael? I need your inappropriate jokes. What are Pam & Jim up to? Are they scheming against Dwight & Angela? I heard that Angela is prego IRL? I wonder how they will write that into the show. Oh yeah, no writers, hence my boredom on Thursday nights. This can't go on any longer. The Office is the best show on TV.

BTW It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is #2. If you haven't seen it you must check it out. It is genius! It's on FX, check your local listings.

Bath Time!!

Is that better Jerry?





Tonight was bath night, well actually last night was bath night but I have a severe case of Mommy-Brain (technical term) and I totally spaced out. At like 10 pm I looked at Brad and said we didn't give the kids baths tonight. So of course Brad snuck away with B-Daddy (that's what Aubrey calls our friend Brian) to have a couple of beers so bathtime was all up to me tonight. (Aubrey has a big crush on Brian, more on that later.) Beck has already out grown his baby bathtub since he is so long. Last month at his 4 month check up he was 25.5 inches long in the 75% for height and just about 14 lbs which is in the 25% so he is long & skinny. Oh yeah he has a big head too, 42.5 cm in the 50% percentile. Anyway just before Christmas I started giving he and Aubrey baths together. It makes is so much easier to do one bath and it takes half the time. Beck just lays on one of those SaferBather things, its a mesh foamy bathtub pillow thing and we get all clean. I tried to cover Beck up with some bubbles, but those little guys seem to come through in the pic. After bathtime we got our lotion massages, got our jammies on and Aubrey decided to read Beck a book. After she brushed her teeth of course, Aubrey would brush her teeth 7 times a day if I let her. After every bath she screams "TEETH" She loves Elmo (not quite as much a Grace does though).

Dinnertime

The night before last I made this yummy roast (a recipe that I got from my SIL Shelly). She calls it Gail's Roast. It is awesome and we can eat for dinner and have enough for dinner the next night and the best part is that clean up is a breeze. And Aubrey likes it too, a plus when you can get your 2 year old to eat what your having and don't have to make extra meals. So I made the roast & some yeast rolls. And I said "Brad, dinners ready". Aubrey goes into the living and says to her daddy "Brad, It's ready". It was too cute!!

Gail's Roast

3+lb chuck roast
can of cream of mushroom (sometimes I use 2 cans to make more gravy)
can of golden mushroom
packet of lipton onion soup mix
bag of new potatoes
carrots
white onion

Place roast in dutch with a little bit of oil brown all sides of roast. Turn off heat. Cover roast with cans of soup & soup packet mix. Stir & slather roast with mixture. Place in oven & bake for 2-4 hours @ 300-325 degrees. Add the sliced onion, carrots & potatoes in at the last hour of cooking. I usually make sure that the potatoes are covered by the gravy mixture. And it can cook for longer than 4 hours.

Super yummy recipe plus you only have to clean one pan!

Okay people make sure that you leave comments on my blog.

Aubrey's Tricycle

Aubrey got a Tricycle for Christmas from Brad's mom (NiNi). Aubrey loves her tricycle. Everytime she sees it in the garage she jumps on it and screams "MINE".

Beck's 1st Meal

Beck had his first meal today, it consisted of organic multi-grain cereal & pumped breast milk. He tolerated it pretty well, I think that he might have even swallowed a couple of bites. He was mostly interested in chewing on the spoon. He is such a cutie!!

Dedicated to Dee Dee

I am starting this blog because my Mom (known to Aubrey & Beck as Dee Dee) is moving to Canada. I hate Canada for taking her so far away. So I wanted a way to show her pics as often as I can. (See Aubrey & Dee Dee at the lake) And to generally let her know what is going on with us because long distance is out of control. Also my SIL in Jacolyn inspired me with her awesome blog. I love seeing all the pics of Sophie, Mack & Grace and thought that people might like to see pics of my kiddos too. So here we go....
Let me go ahead and apologize in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors.