Joy riding her tricycle

I was so excited the other day when Joy started riding her tricycle. Now she can ride her bike in the front yard with the other kids. I didn't foresee one major problem though. Once she got going she didn't want to stop or turn around. She kept going and going and when I finally caught up with her to turn her around, she had a major tantrum. Luckily Daddy saved the day when he got home by showing her that she had to turn around often to stay close to home. She still won't do it on her own, but she'll let us turn her around now without a big fit. I took these pictures of her the other day, she's so cute! Have a great weekend!

 

 

Joy Comedy

When Mark was taking Joy into Nana's house this morning, she waved at a dead worm on the driveway and said, "Hi, snake!" Mark said, "Actually, that's a worm." She came back with, "Actually, it's a snake. Actually, its a big snake."

We love our sweet Joy. Have a great week!

Easter!

Spring is springing and Easter is here. We had fun yesterday on Easter Bunny Day. We hunted for treats in the morning and Joy thought that was really fun. She's old enough to really enjoy holidays now, and it's great to see it through her eyes for the first time. Later in the day, Daddy and Joy ran errands while Grace, BethAnne and I went to a movie. It's fun to have outings with my big girls.

Today, the girls wore their new spring dresses to church. I took pictures after Church. The girls are all in pretty serious need of a haircut, but other than that, I think they're pretty cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you all are having a great weekend. We're having the Rogers over for Easter dinner tonight, which reminds me of a funny thing Grace said in the car yesterday. She said, "when I have a family, will it be the Grace Family?" I said, "no, it will depend on what your husband's last name is." Then she said, "But your name is Roger and we're the Rogers family." I then proceeded to tell her that my name is Aubrey and I explained how it all worked, but I thought that was really funny.

Then another funny thing happened at church today. We sat on the front row because those were the only soft seats left when we got there. Things went pretty well until Joy said "Knock, knock" (she likes to tell Knock, Knock jokes). I whispered that it wasn't time for jokes and then she proceeded to keep saying "Knock, knock" louder and louder until she yelled "KNOCK, KNOCK!!!" I decided at that point that I better follow along, and then she quieted down. In better news, Joy is enjoying nursery now which is a huge blessing. We were worried that we'd be taking her to our meetings until she was a teenager.

Everything else is going pretty well. I'm pretty tired and sore lately, but I'm okay. I'll be 16 weeks on Friday and I'll start having ultrasounds every other week at that point to make sure everything is okay. It will be great to see the baby next week and it will be fun to find out if we're having a boy or girl sometime in the next month. We'll keep you posted. Have a great week!

Love,
Aubrey

BethAnne's Birthday and more!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated BethAnne's 9th birthday. On her birthday (February 24th) we went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then we celebrated at home with just our little family. BethAnne loved her gifts and she was glad she had chosen to go to Macaroni Grill because they ended up closing the Boise location a few days later (which would have been more sad if they hadn't taken all my favorites off their menu the last few years). The day after BethAnne's birthday, we celebrated with Nana and Papa Rogers, Aunt Lisa, Grandpa and Grandma Baker, and Chrissy and Jon. It's so fun to be able to share these occasions with so many people we love. We're so grateful to have BethAnne in our family. She is such a great helper and a beautiful, brilliant, sweet girl.

 

 

 

Then today, our scruffy doggies were groomed. They are looking more and more alike all the time and it's getting hard to tell them apart. Except when one is getting into mischief or trying to lick you, then that's usually Lily. Joy loves her doggies, she was giving Lily kisses until daddy suggested that it wasn't terribly sanitary.

 

 

Mark and I had a great date to the Twin Falls Temple last week. It was such a wonderful experience. It is so nice to be able to go to the temple and feel the Spirit and get answers to prayers. We're looking forward to when the Boise Temple is done being renovated and we're so grateful for wonderful grandparents who babysit until then.

The kids are on track break now, so they have the rest of the month off. It will be great to have all my girls home for a few weeks. I'm hoping they will be big helpers. I think I'm starting to feel better (I had a few weeks of morning sickness and back pain that were not fun). I'm taking it easy for the most part and Mark is a huge help. I'm now 11 weeks along, I have my 12 week appointment next week. We have a lot of hope that things will go well. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Aubrey

Grace Comedy

We were having a Saturday morning clean-up awhile ago and we were getting some resistance from the kids. Grace was pretty upset and she just sat on the floor of the playroom saying it was too hard to clean it. After awhile of this, she came to our room where Mark and I were folding laundry. Grace said- "I have an idea. If you don't like our house the way it is, we should move".
___

Then the other day Grace wanted help with something while we were all busy with other things. Exasperated, she said "You all need to stop thinking about yourselves and think about me!"

We love our funny Grace! Have a great day!

BethAnne's Clogging Competition

BethAnne's clogging group participated in a clogging competition on Saturday. She and her group did very well, I'm really proud of the progress she has made.

 

I think she looks so gorgeous in her clogging outfit, complete with hair and makeup.

 

While we were waiting for BethAnne's turn, BethAnne taught Grace and Joy some dance moves. It was very cute.

 

 

Here's a cute picture of photogenic Grace. We had a fun time at the clogging competition. I've been morning sick on and off, but it's been manageable so far. I had a bad cold last week, but it got better really fast and I'm so grateful for that (it's hard to be pregnant and sick :) So life is good here in Boise. We hope you are all well.
Love,
Aubrey

Here's the video I made of her performance. It's not great quality but you get the idea. BethAnne starts out in the back row on the very right, then for awhile she's in the front row on the right. Enjoy!

Christmas 2011

We had a very festive house this year, especially thanks to Mark. I've always wanted to hang up colorful lights inside and I told Mark about it and one morning he surprised me by putting them up all around the main floor. I got some bows to go with them and it's been a fun addition to our decorations.

 

 

 

Here's our Christmas tree this year with presents underneath.

 

This one big present didn't fit under the tree. Daddy spent a few hours building it on Christmas Eve, I've always wanted a train table and wooden train set for our kids and I found a great deal this year so we got one. We got some Thomas engines to go with it, so that makes it even more fun.

 

This is a beautiful flower arrangement Mark got me last week. It smells like a fresh Christmas tree (without all the hassle) and I've loved it.

 

Here's the family room after "Santa" came.

 

The girls are enchanted by their big Christmas present. Yay for Santa! Joy didn't open any other presents because she just wanted to play with the train table. If we tried to hand her a present to open she would say "don't like presents". It was very funny (we opened her presents for her).

 

So much fun, they've played with it all day!

 

A new cuddly friend for Grace.

 

We had a lovely Christmas day. We started with a devotional in our room before we went downstairs. We were able to bear our testimonies and share the Christmas story from Luke and other scriptures from Isaiah. Then we got a fun surprise. Mom and Dad had been downstairs making breakfast for us and it was almost all ready when we came down to open presents. We opened presents with them and then had a wonderful breakfast all together. I love my family and I love living here in Boise. I'm so grateful for my Savior and for the Gospel. I love my sweet husband and dear children. I hope you all had a beautiful day too.

Love,
Aubrey