Happy Thanksgiving!

Tyler brought this home from school yesterday and it just makes me giggle every time I read it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New trick

A few nights ago, I was doing laundry in the living room...one of many loads this week. :) Anyway, Aubrey started flinging herself onto a pile of blankets, and eventually onto Tyler's mattress cover. Wayne started filming, and here is a little clip. Enjoy!

What a week

Starting last Monday, November 15, we had quite a week. Tyler has had an ear infection and Aubrey has had a stomach bug (with vomiting - including on herself while she was asleep - fever, lots of diarrhea and sleepless nights). The worst night was followed by the discovery of a broken furnace and broken kitchen faucet that flooded our under-the-sink area. Just when we thought things were looking up, I was taking the kids for Christmas pictures and the garage door opener broke. After two separate photo sessions we couldn't get a good picture of the two of them together. (So if you see our Christmas picture of them, you can just smile and nod knowingly). :) Though, at this point, I was not surprised...it was just fitting. I kind of think of the pictures as representative of the week we had.

On my friend, Michelle's, recommendation I had previously purchased Bag Balm for the occasional diaper rash. (It's originally meant for cow's udders - hee hee - and is only found at Walgreens around here). It does not sting, and works really well. I developed a true appreciation for it this week!

One positive of the faucet ordeal is that I LOVE my new faucet. I didn't know how much I could appreciate a faucet that works...and doesn't randomly turn itself off...or leak for that matter :)

Another plus was that I got to enjoy lots of snuggling, rocking and loving on my baby. (That's what I kept reminding myself of when I was up rocking Aubrey in the middle of the night).  I'm so glad they're both feeling better!

This afternoon Part 2

This afternoon Part 1

T Dubs

Tyler has never let me play with his hair. But, in my opinion, because he sees me playing with Aubrey's hair, he let me play with his hair the other night. We had fun with his little faux-hawk.

10 Months

How did she already get to be 10 months old? The little Love has been changing so quickly, as babies do, and it's a lot of fun.

She has responded to the word "no" and quickly stops what she is doing. I appreciate this, knowing how soon this will change. I'm also glad that she immediately responds because she is a fearless little monkey and can be found climbing (under and onto) all sorts of things when you look away.

One of her favorite spots is under the table. Which is fine, as long as she doesn't stand up to bonk her head...or crawl under the chairs and get stuck...which seems inevitable.

She has been doing a lot of pointing to parts of our faces (and loves to "honk" our noses), as well as her own.

 

Her two upper teeth came in a couple of weeks ago, and we get a kick out of her new toothy grin.

 
 

Yesterday, she wore a Tyler hand-me-down to help her Daddy cheer on the Steelers...that's all we'll say about that game. ;) (Yeah, she loves those blocks too - they are fun to bang together and scramble around).

Silly goose loves to come crawling over to me as soon as I pull out the camera. And, of course, gets so close that I have no idea what I'm shooting. I was amused by this shot that I took "blind." Silly girl.

 

She's been making this silly face to us for a couple of weeks - a mixture of excitement with goofball. We get a kick out of it and have tried to get a good photo of it, but that's hard since the expression often only lasts a split second. We haven't quite caught it yet, but we'll keep trying. :) (The top left is probably the closest).

She started walking a couple of weeks ago. She's still unsteady and doesn't walk too far. If there's something she is really interested in, she gets farther. Here's a brief video I took tonight.



And we'll end with a little dancing with Aubrey from Saturday morning. She loooves music! And Tyler likes to share the limelight as you will see. (You, lucky you, also get to see our lovely stand-in for a gate in front of the stairs. We resorted to this lovely arrangement (since we don't have a normal staircase to put in a gate), after she forced our hand by making it up several stairs when we weren't paying attention - and all the way up several times when we just wanted to see how far she could go while we were right there...silly little monkey).

Tamale Pie

I had not had Tamale Pie until I tried this Taste of Home recipe last week. We all loved it. The heat is balanced by the sweet cornbread and cool sour cream which makes for a nicely balanced flavor combination. It's warm and comforting, perfect for dreary fall days. I even ate it as leftovers twice, which I normally cannot do. (Normally: Leftovers once = fine. Leftovers twice = ewww). We're making it again this weekend. It is so easy and so tasty. :)

Slow Cooker Tamale Pie

1 lb ground beef
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp salt
½ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp pepper
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 ½ oz) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained (I used about 1 ½ cups frozen white corn)
1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce
2 green onions, chopped
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
1 pkg (8 ½ oz) corn bread/muffin mix
2 eggs
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Mexican cheese blend
Sour cream and additional minced fresh cilantro, optional (but recommended) ;)


In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cumin, salt, chili powder and pepper. Transfer to a slow cooker; stir in the beans, tomatoes, corn, enchilada sauce, onions and cilantro. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until heated through.

In a small bowl, combine muffin mix and eggs; spoon over meat mixture. Cover and cook 1 hour longer or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with cheese; cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream and additional cilantro if desired. (Which, I thought was a pretty tasty addition but I love both sour cream and cilantro)!

Aubs

The computer I normally post from is still not allowing me to get onto google/blogger applications which has highlighted how much I have come to rely on accessing these...multiple times daily. I hope I can find a solution!!

But, I digress. That is not what I was hoping to post about. It seems that our little Aubrey-Pawbree has been changing so much lately. I think she's been going through a growth spurt and suddenly seems longer. She likes to sit on her knees and bounces, stands up and sits down, "wrestles" us and is usually exploring and moving.

Within the last week, if I'm looking away and she wants to see what I'm eating or saying or perhaps just wants to look at me, she firmly takes my jaw with her hand and turns my face toward hers. I'm rewarded with an inquisitive look or a big smiling grin. Like this:

Melts my heart. This picture was taken a few days ago. She has cut both top teeth since this was taken, so we have two little white nubbies to look at now.

She has been grinding her teeth together, seemingly testing out the new feel in her mouth. She's making expressions like this quite frequently:

 

Kind of makes her look like she's trying to be tough.

I don't know if teething is why, but this week, it's been hard for me to convince her to eat much off of a spoon. She certainly prefers finger foods. She has either refused to open her mouth, or just starts spitting it back out. She does the same thing with Tylenol...this is a little frustrating as it results in a sticky mess down her PJs.

Little Squirt, we love her so. :)

Brief Update...Very Brief!

The bad news - I was, in fact, getting sick Tuesday night. I was home sick with whatever Wayne had yesterday. Tyler was home sick today...pukey puke.

The good news - Aubrey took her first steps yesterday. Some more today. A few at a time. Hoorays can be heard through the house! :)

Rocket

Tyler received a rocket for his fifth birthday from Grandpa Norm. We've been waiting to have the right conditions (and to get us all out to the park to shoot it off) for far too long. FINALLY a couple of weeks ago we went. We took video for Grandpa Norm since he couldn't be here to see it. We shot it off many times.

Here is a video of the first launch. Tyler is first seen picking of burs (or stickers as they call them here). Then he launches it before the end of Wayne's countdown, thus the "What!?" from me. :)




I found it very difficult to film these rockets. We took lots of video...most of it is beautiful blue sky. :) Here is a video Wayne shot that captures it a little better.

Halloween 2010

Last weekend was a good one. Friday we decorated pumpkins. Mine was a pirate skull/crossbones (per Tyler's request), Wayne's was an owl in a tree, Tyler's was a pirate Mr. Potato Head and a bat.

Saturday, Ted and Sue came to watch Tyler's soccer game. Then they watched the kids so we could go see The Social Network (which I really enjoyed), then stayed for dinner.

Sunday was trick-or-treating.

Aubrey was a princess, and Tyler Jengo Fett.

We went with Lisa, Oliver and Eli.

Here are Aubrey and Eli in their strollers.

Oliver and Tyler (Oliver was a Jedi Knight, so they made a good pair).

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Pulled out Dick & Jane tonight and Tyler is reading. This makes me smile.

What doesn't make me smile? Wayne is pukey sick. Boo. Perhaps he got this from Aubrey. Hopefully it ends with Wayne. As I write this I feel queasy. Oh psychosomatic brain of mine. :)

Surprisingly I got some things done tonight. Even a tire rotation and oil change. Thankfully the kids behaved themselves while we were there.

I have lots of pictures to post from last weekend. But I'm too tired again tonight to upload and post them. I promise I will...soon!

Is it really only Tuesday? Ah well, I'll be back soon, as promised.