A wonderful weekend...

We had such an enjoyable weekend. It started with Friday night enjoying a wonderful dinner out at Campagnia's to celebrate our 5th wedding Anniversary. Yummy, yummy. We had such a fun time together. I had printed off from the internet a bunch of, I guess, you could call them "Newlywed Game" questions. At dinner Blake and I had an awesome time asking them to each other. They were so entertaining. The questions were fun. Everything from...If Blake could take me on a trip to anywhere in the world, where would I want to go? To....What color is my toothbrush? To...How many pairs of shoes do I have? Or for him....If Blake won the lottery, what would be the first thing he would spend the money on? Or...if your spouse could change jobs, what would be his dream job? Yeah, Blake said be a video game tester! We both laughed so hard! It was such a fun night!
Blake's parents were soooooo, soooooo great to us for our anniversary. They took Aubrey to a Fresno State baseball game and then for a sleepover at their house that night. Thank you so much Bill and Linda! You guys are so good to us!

The rest of the weekend was relaxing, catching up with house things and enjoying the beautiful weather outside. We went to church and had some fun time with friends on Sunday. Thank you so much to Rob and Katie for inviting us over for a yummy barbeque. We love being at your home! Here are some more pictures of the enjoyable weekend...

Aubrey Rose loved being outside this weekend. She officially knows which doors lead to the outside. Yesterday was the first time she walked over to the back door, looked at me with this look as if saying, "Can you take me outside, please." (Or that is at least how I interpreted the look to be.) In her mind she was probably thinking, "out now!" She stood there a little bit longer, tried to reach for the door handle, to no success, then she threw a tiny little fit because she wanted to go out. It was such a sincere desire. She is becoming more and more a toddler every day and not our little baby anymore.

Here she is figuring out for herself the beautiful outdoors...

Do you garden in a dress too?


She just started figuring out that she can reach some of the door handles.

She loved to play with the shovel in the dirt, but also loved to put the shovel in her mouth. You will see below the combination of both is not always a good thing.


A dirt mustache or I guess it would be a goatee....I am not sure if she thought it was yummy or not. No complaint from her. Me on the other could not handle the thought of that in my mouth. We cleaned her right up. :)

This was on Friday when she was gardening. The weather here has been so beautiful! I wish it was like this in Fresno all year long!

Aubrey Rose finally got her upgrade for her carseat. She is LOVIN' sitting forward in the car. And we love see her facing forward. Her first ride in it was in Big Papa's car going to the Fresno State baseball game. She is one lucky girl!

Happy 5th Anniversary to us!!!

Today Blake and I are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary! What a wonderful 5 years it has been! I can not imagine a better fit for a husband for me than you, Blake.

Cheers to many, many more years of joy together. I love you!!!

Here are some fun pictures of us over the years. I wish we had pictures of us from high school and of the early years on this computer. But, these ones are pretty fun!

Happy Anniversary Babe!

Opening gifts at our Engagement party

2005...Our 1st Anniversary

2006...our 2nd Anniversary in MAUI!!

2007...our 3rd Anniversary

2008...4th Anniversary...only 10 days after Aubrey Rose was born!

Here are some wonderful memories together over the years...

And then for some fun ones.....I just can't get enough of my husband! He keeps me laughing all the time!

I love you too Nacho!

We are LOVIN' this life! The only thing better is if we could have another honeymoon in Jamaica! :) Maybe that is on the 10 year plan!

*****UPDATE***** After I submitted this post, Blake thought I should adjust one thing...he wanted his SEXY pose on the blog too! :) There you have it...now it is complete!

Happy 1st Birthday Aubrey Rose!

The day finally arrived! Last week we celebrated Aubrey Rose's 1st birthday. Aubrey is our lucky charm and was born on St. Patrick's Day last year, so we thought a crazy GREEN party would be so fun. It turned out to be a perfect evening! I think everyone had a blast. WE SURE DID!!!

Blake's side of the family...his parents, brother and sister

My side of the family...

my parents, my sister (on the right), my brother (on the left)

and their wonderful spouses (next to each of them)

Friends and family...

My wonderful cousin Chelsey with the birthday girl

Amazing cousins...LOVE you all!

A ton of our friends...friends who have been apart of our life in a major way for sooooo many years. I think the shortest amount of time is probably 3 years and the longest is probably 15 years!!! Blake, Aubrey Rose and I are so blessed with such a core group of friends! And this wasn't even everyone at the party. We are missing a couple. Thank you to each one of you for being such an important part of our lives. We truly value your friendship! We would not be the same without YOU!!!

Friends we have probably been having way too much fun with, but then again if it feels right, it just feels right. For some reason, we just can't get enough of our friends!

And on to the reason we all got together and wore green!

Aubrey Rose, Happy 1st Birthday Sunshine!

A letter to my ONE year old...

Aubrey Rose,
I cannot believe it has already been a year since you were born. It truly brings tears to my eyes when I thank God for you, for your life and for the joy you have brought to so many. You are one of a kind. You are unique in your own way and God has made you perfectly the way He wanted you to be. Daddy and I praise the Lord every day that He has entrusted us with YOU. We love you sooooooo much!

When I think about my sweet Aubrey Rose, I think of absolute joy. You have such a joyful personality. Joy describes what I feel when I am with you or when I simply mention anything about you. Joy is when I hear you giggle as I chase you around the house or up the stairs. Joy overflows my heart when I tickle you. You giggle and skirm and laugh no matter where I tickle you. Your feet, your toes, your legs, your sides, your neck…pretty much everywhere is ticklish. It is the cutest thing and it brings me so much joy to hear that sweet giggle of yours.

Aubrey Rose, there are so many things that make you be THE Aubrey Rose we have grown so quickly to love. You are quite the mover. You do not enjoy staying still for too long. You are not a fan of getting dressed because that means you have to stay still for a period of time. The best is when we have a bottle to give you and you can forget for just a second, while you drink, that you are still. Really, really soon we will not have that option. We will cross that bridge when it comes.

One of our favorite times of the day is when Daddy comes home! You and I love to meet Daddy at the door with open arms. It is definitely a highlight when we get that wonderful hug from him. Sometimes Daddy is sneaky and he comes home without either us hearing him. When you hear Daddy’s voice, you drop whatever you are playing with and you run to Daddy. The sweetest thing about this is you do this on your own. I love it!! You run with the biggest glow on your face all the way to Daddy. It takes my breath away every time.

Daddy and I often talk about how you definitely inherited your sleeping ability from your Daddy. I am so very grateful for this. You take great naps (still two a day) and then you usually sleep from about 7:30pm until 8am!! Since Daddy and I love to be busy and since we are such people people, :) you have fallen asleep in your pack and play at many friends’ houses. You are an absolute delight when we wake you up to transfer you home to your own bed. You smile at us almost immediately with the sweetest look, we take you home, place you in bed, you roll on your side and you are out again. Aubrey Rose that is when we know you are your Daddy’s daughter. You and your daddy can sleep anytime, anywhere. Must be nice! I wouldn’t know. :)
A couple of days before your first birthday I decided to take your pacifier away. I felt like the meanest mommy when I left your room that first nap with you screaming crying. It ended up taking an hour for you to fall asleep, but you finally did and you haven’t looked back since. Again, you truly amaze me at how easy you make transitions to be for us. We are so proud of you!

(You were about 3 months old in this picture...sleeping in Oma's crib...so precious!)

You absolutely LOOOOVE bath time! You love to play, splash, giggle, smile, say “OOOOOOOO,” and you love to chew on all of your toys. Bath time is definitely a special Daddy and Aubrey Rose time. Then, Daddy wraps you in your towel and I get you dressed. Daddy and I have become quite the team. It is such joy to raise you together.

You have eight teeth…four on the top and four on the bottom. Daddy and I are already praying for the next set of teeth to be straight because these ones are making us think we should start planning for braces. Straight or not, your big toothy smile is absolutely priceless. All of these things and more combine to make you who God has created you to be. And just so you know, we ABSOLUTELY love who God created!


Another characteristic to describe my little sunshine is you are quite the independent child. You are Miss Independent for sure! This side of you makes me a little nervous. Not nervous of what you will accomplish because I already see that you are quite determined. You know what you want and you are going to do what you have in mind. That leader side of being Miss Independent, and getting the job accomplished does not scare me, it is the part of me having to raise a little one with the independent spirit. I sometimes worry about how to train an independent child. When you do not get your way, do I ignore your tantrums or deal with them head on? When you are arching your back, throwing your arms back, screaming, crying and then you throw yourself to floor, everything inside me says just walk away and do not give her a second of my attention. A minute later you are completely fine (most of the time, no tears by the way). I know there will be days and moments, coming very soon, I am sure, that we are going to have to face the issue head on, those thoughts make me a little nervous. I will continue to pray that the work your Daddy and I do on a daily basis to train you in positive ways, I pray it will be all worth it and we will be able to sit back one day and just thank the Lord for the beautiful lady you have become. Okay, I realize I am looking into the future a little too far. For now, Daddy and I will continue to work and work and pray harder that the Lord will take a hold of your life and an early age. We pray that you will ask Him to be your Savior for that is the only way we can have hope in this world. Trust Him with your life, my little sunshine.

Your 1st birthday came around way too quickly. I have a beautiful one year old. That is weird, yet a wonderful thought. It definitely hit me hard that you are ONE, the moment I handed you your 1st birthday cake. At that moment, I almost wanted to cry, with tears of joy, but also of disbelief at all of the wonderful things you have done for so many people. You have brought so much joy. Joy we didn’t even know we could feel. You truly are a gift from God. I can’t wait to celebrate many more years and watch God unfold his desires for your life. I am anxious to see how you develop and mature into the woman God has created you to be. I just want you to know that I love you sooooooo much and I praise God for choosing ME to be your MOMMY. I pray for you every day. I love you Aubrey Rose!
Love,
Mommy

Above is a picture of you at about 8 weeks old with your cuddly teddy bear. Below are two pictures we just took a couple of days before your 1st birthday! You are taller than your bear now!