Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas - Part 3

We had our little Christmas on Tuesday, Dec. 27

Aubrey had a Christmas feast of chicken and rice baby food...yummy :)
She actually ate it, quite the feat! 

 Aubrey with her gifts that she just couldn't wait to open :)

 musical Rock a Stack 

V-tech rhyming book 

Steve got me a Yankee candle and a gift card for a 30 min massage!

 Since we have a lot of hard wood floors, we got some styrofoam 
ABC's for a soft play area for Aubrey

Sit-to-Stand walker

Daddy assembling the white 9-cube bookshelf/toy holder 

Aubrey in her new play area! 


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Santa Baby

Grandma Van Grouw gave Aubrey this cute little Christmas Santa outfit, so I had to try to get a few pics.  Here are a few to enjoy :)










Friday, December 16, 2011

Winter fun...so far

Aubrey loves brushing her two teeth 

 this is how we found her after her nap one day 

loving all the "pretties" on the Christmas tree

 Mom, I really like it

scouting basketball teams with Daddy

our little cutie before church

 reading with Daddy before bed...a rare thing :)

ready for her first basketball game!

she did great...with Grandpa and Grandma Kaisand

with Mommy and our Oskaloosa gear 

 yay! Daddy got a win! now 4-1

 enjoying the boys' game together



Saturday, December 10, 2011

9 month pics

Well, today we had Aubrey's 9 month pics and unfortunately she was in no mood to smile big to show off her bottom teeth.  They weren't until 5 pm and Aubrey really didn't nap well today, so here is what we got; just a few to share since we want to save some for the Christmas card :) Enjoy. 












Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sleep Training

Well, it started Thanksgiving night. I was sick and tired of being tired and woken up in the night repeatedly by little Miss Aubrey. She is now 8 months old and fully capable of sleeping through the night without having to bed fed, cuddled, and rocked back to sleep.  I decided that I was enabling her not to sleep through the night by herself when I would get up to feed her.  It seemed to be a quick fix at the time, but the habit needed to stop.

I decided that since I would be home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and could afford some sleep deprivation, I wanted to give it a try.  I would start putting Aubrey to bed sleepy, but not sleeping, and let her "cry it out." I would go in every 5-10 minutes to comfort her but would not get her out of her crib and not feed her.

As they say, the first few nights were rough as she would be waking up wanting a "snack" to fall back asleep.  But, when I came into her room, I just patted her and told her to go back to sleep.  She would calm down when I was in there, but would become more upset as I would leave.  It was hard to hear her scream her head off, but she must not have realized how stubborn her Mommy can be yet :) I was determined to make it work.

So, after several nights waking up crying, and letting her "cry it out" for almost up to an hour at times, I think it has finally worked! Last night she did not cry at all, she did not eat, she did not wake up until I got her up at 6:30! I couldn't believe it!

This is going to be the start of a very happy life of sleep for me! She still has a cold so I heard her coughing several times in the night but she was doing it in her sleep as it didn't seem to bother her! So, all in all, I wish I would've done this months ago, but I guess I can just be happy that it seems to have worked for us! YAY!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving + few randoms

we didn't realize her tights are also a tube top :)

 having fun playing with her toys

Aubrey in the middle of all the Christmas decorating disaster 

checking out Christmas lights for the first time

 Thanksgiving at Grandma Betty's 

Aubrey's first Thanksgiving

family photo op

playing with Daddy

check out her shirt~
our babysitter traced Aubrey's hand and made this for her
what a nice surprise!

 playing with Great Grandpa

playing with Aunt Andrea

 Grandma Betty got out this for Aubrey to play on
she loved to bounce on it, but kept sliding off :)

our first family Thanksgiving