Lots to update on...

We have been busy, but even more so we have been having fun. Sorry for not keeping you better in the loop! Between the Clovis Rodeo, working, birthdays (my dad's!), and our major highlight of going to see Dancing with the Stars LIVE...we have had an eventful couple of weeks. I have been working at my dad's office the last two weeks. One of our favorite girls from the office got married and so they brought in the big guns to take her place while she was out. JUST KIDDING!!! There is no big guns here! I had to be taught everything again! I didn't even remember how to scan things or how to use the phones! Thank goodness they were all patient with me...well, after they would laugh at the simple question I would ask. :) Good times! It was fun to be back in the work world on a daily basis, especially hanging out with my sister, brother and Dad every day. I sure do miss that! Blake's mom, my mom and my cousin Chelsey...I could not have done it without them! Thank you girls for helping me with Aubrey Rose. You girls are always so willing to be with our little sunshine. I can't thank you enough! So on to the update...

First, just a couple cute ones from Easter. I know this feels like it was forever ago (and it was), but I still wanted to share. We had a great day celebrating with both sides of the family.


Below is Mimi giving Aubrey Rose's her Easter basket from Mimi and Big Papa. Thank you for spoiling Aubrey Rose! We were quite surprised with how much she loved the egg hunts. What surprised us the most though was how quickly she realized the eggs were not as much fun to find if they were empty. Hilarious! She would find an egg, open it, if it had NOTHING, she would drop it on the floor and go for the next. If it had a treasure, her eyes would light up, look up at anyone near and say "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and smile...it was priceless! Holidays sure are fun with little ones!


Our favorite Clovis event, which we look forward to EVERY year, is the Clovis Rodeo. It was soooooo much fun. This year was even more fun because we got to experience it with the Miss California Rodeo Salinas!!!! Blake's sister Blair, was a busy lady and looked phenomenal at every event! This year she got to ride in all the grand entries, be in the Clovis parade and just bring so much joy to all of Clovis. I think the best part for her was being able to relax and enjoy every second and not having to worry about the competition aspect, but to be Salinas Rodeo Queen. It was fun to sit with her and hear all the behind the scenes stories. She even had a handful of people think she was Miss California...the one who ran for Miss USA recently. Random people complimented her and thanked her for standing up for her beliefs and for protecting traditional marriage! Pretty entertaining! Aubrey Rose LOOOOVED the Rodeo too. She loved all the action. It is a good thing because this is just the beginning for her. :) She is on her way to Mutton Bustin for sure!


Here is Aubrey Rose and Miss California Rodeo Salinas Queen! We are sooooooooooo very proud of you Blair!

Daddy entertaining Aubrey Rose during the dinner.

We love going out to the Clovis Rodeo parade. It is such a fun family event. This year was even more fun because Blair was in it and so was Bradley! Blake's brother drove his Mustang and Blair was sitting pretty as the Queen. It was so fun to see them!

Blair looked AWESOME as the California Rodeo Salinas Queen! Go Auntie Blair!

Blake loved the VW section of the parade. We thought we should have pulled out his bug to show it off!

Brad (Blake's brother) drove his "baby" in the parade too. His is the Mustang and his old roommate (behind him) drove his big truck in the parade too. There were tons of floats all representing good 'ole Clovis businesses, fire trucks spraying water and making their sirens go, Navy and Army representatives, lots of fun cars and so much more. It was a wonderful morning and the three of us had a wonderful time joining in on hometown fun!

For some more about our Rodeo memories, Blake and Christina joined in the fun too! They posted some pictures from Thursday night HERE and Friday night HERE!

The Rodeo is not the only fun we experienced in the month of April. We got to watch Dancing with the Stars LIVE! Oh, this is definitely going to be a highlight of mine for probably my whole life. :) Okay, I might be exaggerating a little, but I do hope I will never forget this memory! I loved every minute of it. The road trip with friends, the anticipation, the excitement, the memories of waiting in line for 4 HOURS, leaving the hotel the night before at 11:30PM (yeah almost MIDNIGHT) to sight see and to find the walk of stars, just being in the room when they are starting the show LIVE, the introductions of everyone, the way they entertain the crowds at commericals, finally seeing the HOLLYWOOD sign in person (I know living in CA for almost my entire life you would have thought I had seen it by now, but I can finally say I have), seeing the celebrities and professionals dance in person, the excitement in the room, laughing and hanging out with Blake and Christina...just everything! We had the best time! My parents were so sweet to watch Aubrey Rose overnight. Thanks Mom and Dad! The only sad part of the whole experience is ABC does not allow any cameras or cell phones, so we could not take pictures, however check out Christina's phenomenal post about our memories! Thanks B and C for thinking of us and inviting us! You guys truly are such a blessing in our life!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Here are some pictures our favorite bunny. Happy, Happy Easter!

Here is Aubrey Rose in her Sunday Easter dress...

And with her bunny ears...

This one we took a couple of weeks ago, but she was so cute with the Easter flag I had to include this one too.

And a little Easter photoshoot we did a little while back. We just can't get enough of this girl. We hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter.

Little Bunny Foo Foo!

In honor of Easter, I thought I would share about our neighborhood bunny. I call him Little Bunny Foo Foo. :) We have no idea whose bunny it is. We really think it is our neighborhood bunny. I remember one of the first times we had come over to our house to show our family the home (before we had even bought the house) and Little Bunny Foo Foo greeted us in the front yard. Little side note....not sure if you knew but when I was little, my dad asked me "If I could be any animal what would I be?" I responded with "A bunny because they are so soft, so cuddly and so cute!" Who would have known that when I grew up I would have my own bunny! And the best thing about this bunny is we just get to enjoy it...no cleaning up after it and we don't even have to feed it. Although he does eat my flowers, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. :) The bunny is not out every day. We see him maybe once a week, but sometimes a couple of days in a row. We have no idea where he sleeps or even if anyone owns him. We have lots of friendly people who walk by our house and let us know that our bunny is out. I even had one lady knock on our door. It has become pretty entertaining. Aubrey Rose LOOOOOVES to see him. She hasn't quite tried to catch him, but she loves to just watch him. I, too, have yet to touch him. He just hops away when I come near, but oh it makes my day when I see him! So cute!

Here is Blake a few weeks ago trying to reach for him.

Chaffee Zoo Time!

We had a fun afternoon with great friends today. Aubrey Rose and I met my wonderful friends Katie and Katie out at the zoo today. Their girls Logan, Grace and Avery were so much fun to be together with. Logan and Grace are just a couple of weeks apart in age. They are so cute together...sharing their snacks, pointing out the animals to each other, holding hands while they walk...just adorable. It was great friend time for us girls and of course the little ones LOVED it too! What a delightful afternoon!

Katie D. and her daughter Logan (on the right)

and Grace (on the left)

Katie S. and her girls...Grace and Avery (almost 6 months old already!)

Avery is such a sweetheart. Not even a peep out of her. She is such a good girl!

Katie and her daughter Grace

Katie D. and Lolo

See I told you Logan and Grace were so darn cute together!

Logan is so sweet to Aubrey Rose. Thanks for being such a good friend to Aubrey, Lolo!

Bowling with PopPop

We had such a wonderful time last night bowling with PopPop for his birthday. MomMom and PopPop are Blake's grandparents (his moms parents). Here are some pics of a fun family night and also Aubrey Rose's first bowling experience. She was quite the fan!

PopPop and Aubrey Rose

The crew...Blake's grandparents, parents, Uncle Gary, Blake's brother and sister and us!

This was the first thing Aubrey Rose did when she got to play with the bowling ball. She tried to pick it up. It was a little too heavy though.


MomMom and PopPop...they make the BEST pair! We love you guys!

I just love MomMom! She is so sweet to me and to Aubrey Rose!

Blake, Aubrey Rose and Blake's brother, Bradley

Practicing her skills with Aunt B.

Having fun with Daddy

Game time for Aubrey Rose! The first one it took her a second to figure out she was in control.

The second ball...oh, it was ON!! She had it down. No time for pictures Mommy!


This was the final result. 3 pins left. Pretty good for a 1 year old! We, of course, were so proud. :)

Blake's sister (Blair), Aubrey Rose and Blake's mom (Linda...or Aubrey Rose's favorite Mimi). Thanks girls for being so great to our little girl!

A pleasant surprise...

This past weekend we stayed home. Aubrey Rose still was not feeling up to par, so we decided to not do much besides be at home. It was such a pleasant surprise to find ourselves spring cleaning...actually I mean spring ORGANIZING! It is such a good feeling when you get to go through those areas in the house that just NEED your attention. It started with getting a few miscellaneous tax papers together. That led to organizing our files, filing cabinet, and then the closet that I have been wanting to tackle since we moved in! It is my craft closet. I have all of my wrapping stuff, ribbon, tissue, paper, my sewing materials and of course the miscellaneous extras. It looks beautiful! Then, we continued the madness into the garage! Even the fridge got to be cleaned this weekend! It was such a pleasant surprise! And you know those weekends that you just enjoy doing it together and things are just clicking while we work together on the projects....that was this past weekend. Such a joy! See...I told you the weekend was a pleasant surprise! Next project...finishing my staining of my dining room chairs. Table is done. Chairs are next. There will be more to post about later, on this subject, I am sure.
Aubrey Rose is feeling much better. She has the giggles back which are so fun to hear again. I got kind of worried about her. She started throwing up on Tuesday of last week and I thought she was getting better and then she threw up again on Friday, which is kind of weird that there were 2 days in between. Made me worry. And then on the weekend she was fine, except we still were working on her appetite coming back. I am kind of curious how much weight she lost. She honestly did not have a substantial meal from Tuesday lunch until Monday! It was so sad! The adorable little lines in her legs were starting to disappear and her cheeks were getting smaller. It made me so sad. Finally on Monday she started eating normal again. I have no idea what she had. I don't know if it was the flu (which is what our doctor thinks) or if it was from the vaccinations she got for her one year check up or what it was. No fever and no appetite, not her normal cheery self, and then she threw up a couple of times. Weird. But, we definitely looooooved the extra snuggle time from her.
Now it is Wednesday and we are looking forward to tonight! It is family night with the Smittcamps. Every Wednesday, Blake's mom is so great and makes yummy dinners for us and the family. Tonight we get to add to the family fun! We are going bowling with Blake's grandparents, MomMom and PopPop. PopPop's birthday is in a couple of days and since he is in a bowling league, we thought we would take him out and challenge his skills. :) It is Aubrey Rose's first bowling experience. Don't worry...I will bring the camera!

Little under the weather...

Aubrey Rose caught some kind of bug. She is almost back to normal now, but we haven't quite found food that sounds yummy to her. She has been offered a ton of different things, however so far, applesauce and Pedialyte ice pops have worked at least for a couple of bites. Hopefully her appetite will be back in no time. So we have stayed at home enjoying all kinds of entertainment. I tried to think...what would I want to do if I didn't feel good? Maybe a movie. So, I put on a video for her. How do you get a child to enjoy watching TV? She is hilarious. She has to be busy while she does it. She found Daddy's video game basket with controllers to play with. Those are now up high where she can't reach. Then she found the coasters...those were scattered all over the room. Then, on to the remotes. Those are now scattered in different rooms because she takes them with her when she leaves. That girl is hilarious. The sweetest thing she does is she will come find me wherever I am in the house, she will walk up to me, give me a big squeeze and hug and then she will return to the family room where the movie is playing. So sweet. She can melt my heart in a second.