The picture that brought them fame....

Check them out- top center.

This is the 3rd time this picture has been in our paper.

Aubrey would like to thank God for her good looks, her Aunt Christy for bringing her fame, the bear for making an appearance, Brogan for looking cool in his shades....and of course the Bakersfield Californian for REALLY liking this picture. :)

Just Because They're CUTE!

To Be or Not To Be...

That is the question...

Or one of the questions. You know the "BIG" questions in life, starting early with what do you want to be when you grow up? Then it progresses to where are you going to college? And, finally, the REALLY tough questions like is he "the one", when are you getting married, and when do you want kids?

I always hated these questions, for a couple of different reasons really. First, I always felt like I didn't really know. I mean, do you really have to decide your forever career at the ripe old age of 7? Or even 18? How do I know what I want to be? Or is he "the one"? What is "the one"? And how the heck am I supposed to know when I have nothing to compare him to? I mean it feels right, but what if I think he's "the one" and I tell everyone that he's "the one" and he's not? Obviously, he was "the one", although I don't really believe in "the one". I believe that you become "the one" together as the years pass, but anyways.... The second reason that I always hated these questions was that it seemed like just about the time everyone started asking them, I started having to ANSWER them! Not just for the other people, but for myself too. You know, those conversations you start having with yourself in bed. They went something like this: "Maybe we should start trying for a baby. I mean I know some people who have taken up to 5 years to get pregnant. What if we wait a long time and then we can't get pregnant? But then what if we decide to start trying, expecting it to take 6 months to a year and we get pregnant right away? Are we ready for this yet?"

Lately I've been feeling like it's that BIG question time again. "When are you going to give Aubrey a sister or brother?" AHHHH....Already?! Do I really have to think about this already? But then the conversations with myself have begun. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to start trying. I mean it took us 7 months last time and then 9 months of pregnancy. That's another 16 months, which will put Aubrey at about 3 years old." I don't want my kids to be too far apart, but the idea of having TWO is scary! Scary for a couple of reasons.

1. Being pregnant was fun, but only for about 4 months. You know the 4 in between the "so sick that I pop a blood vessel in my eye" first 3 months and the "so huge that I can barely walk on my thankles" last 2 months. So that leaves me with 5 months of misery trying to care for poor little Aubrey. Seeing cute pregnant ladies like Justin's cousin Annie and my friend Lisa, gives me a slight inkling of inspiration. Then, unfortunately, I see pictures of myself looking like this. And well the illusion of cute pregnancy quickly fades away!!! Disclaimer: this is me 1 week before giving birth to a 9lb 14oz baby in the heat of Bakersfield. I actually was checked into the hospital for false labor on this exact day, hence the look of pain on my face.



2. Can I really keep up on all the laundry? I feel like I'm drowning in it already.

3. Am I ready to share my attention with two? I love being able to spoil Aubrey with mommy love and I'm not sure I'll have enough to go around.

4. Did I mention the laundry? or the misery of pregnancy?

So that, my friends, is my dillema. To be or not to be? I really need to start thinking about this, because I don't want another end of summer baby. If I wanted a spring baby for long term sub purposes, I'd have to start trying now. YIKES! I'm scaring myself.

Summer Fun

Last Year

A few posts back, I mentioned doing a little calendar for some summer fun activities. I finally got around to getting it done! I don't want to post it on here for any old crazy to see, so leave me a comment if you're interested (with your junk e-mail address) and I'll send it your way. I already sent it to most of the people I have e-mail addresses for, but you might want to check just in case.

You don't have to have kids to join us :)

Good Mail and Good Times

Yay! When I checked my mailbox, it had a big priority mail envelope in it. At first, I thought it was a returned package that I had just sent out the day before, but it wasn't. Maggie and Dallin had sent a sweet little package to Aubrey, Brogan and Reagan. Aubrey got a this adorable new dress, which I already made bows to match :) Reagan got a matching outfit (I'll be making her a matching bow) and Brogan got the coolest book I've ever seen....it was picture animation. I'm bummed because I brought it down to him before I got a picture. There is nothing like good mail to brighten a day....thanks Anna for helping your kiddos get the package together :)

I also sent out some good mail to my cousin Michelle. She's due to have a little boy any day now. Seeing as she makes big babies like I do (her first was 9lbs 10oz), let's hope she has him sooner rather than later. I made her this dipes and wipes and I'm pretty proud of it. First of all, I L-O-V-E the fabric. I bought it before I had Aubrey, in case she was a boy. Secondly, it's the first one I actually followed directions on. I'm totally a half-a** type of person. If I can wing it and it works, well I do ;) My previous dipes and wipes have been cute and useful, but not nearly as professional or nice looking as this one turned out. You can't really tell by the pictures, but take my word for it. I actually examined all the Cham clans while in nursery (you know between the 7 screaming babies ;) ), took notes, and, although it's not as perfect as theirs, it's not half-a**ed either ;0
Last weekend we had our church's family fun picnic in the park (I forget the official title). It was so nice to have an opportunity to fellowship with our church family. Aubrey was under the weather and pretty miserable, but she was a trooper and hung in there. Being the competative person I am, I can't wait till she's old enough so that we can compete in the family relay race. These are pictures of my best friend Misha's family paticipating. The King's were my second family my junior and senior year of high school and just recently started attending our church. I'm so excited to have them there and I already see them getting fully plugged in. These pictures are supposed to inspire Misha and Mike to move closer to home so that we can all be one big happy family again.
And, finally, I leave you with a video of Aubrey rocking out. When Justin pulls in the garage after work, he honks, Aubrey shakes with excitement and runs to the garage door saying "daddy ride". She walks into the garage, I put her in the front seat of his car, they roll down the windows and rock out to her veggie tales CD. Seriously, this is like a daily routine. So cute!

Pause music to hear the video

Little Mama

Learning multi-tasking at a young age!

I was NEVER into dolls, but this kid can't get enough of them.

Too cute!

Grandma took these pictures this morning. I had a dentist appt. so she watched Aubrey and went into work a little late---THANKS!

A Labor of Love

When Aubrey was just a wee baby, I had many non-parent friends ask me if it was hard being a mom. Honestly, I never felt like it was. Don't get me wrong, there were days that I felt overwhelmed. Aubrey was not an "angel baby", but she was just what I expected. She was a baby with needs and opinions, and I was okay with that. That's what I signed up for :)

I've come to realize that it's not the day in, day out duties of being a mom that make it "hard". It's actually the intense love, the overwhelming need to protect, the helplessness you feel when they're sick, that make being a mom "hard". Being a mom has made it nearly impossible for me to watch a crime show without crying (for not only the victim, but also the criminal that was probably unloved or abused in some way), has kept me up many nights when I'm worried about Aubrey being cold or sick, and has just plain made me more compassionate and emotional. It's a labor of love.

Last night was a "hard" night. Compared to some of the suffering that other mother's go through, it really wasn't THAT hard, but it was still harder than most nights. Aubrey has been sick with a little cold since Tuesday night, you know the runny nose, stuffy head kind. We were letting it run it's course. It would wake her up at night because she couldn't breathe, but nothing we couldn't deal with. Then yesterday we saw our first signs of the yellow mucus, which in my mind means keep a closer eye on it. We were still letting it run it's course. Then, last night she started acting weird. She wouldn't eat ANYTHING for dinner and she was REALLY shivering after her bath. I took her temperature...nothing. To bed she went. Then, she started fussing around 10:30. I usually let her fuss it out, but I decided to check on her before I went to bed. She was BURNING up! We gave her motrin and changed her to cooler jammies, but I noticed she was breathing really fast and I got PARANOID! An hour later, her temp hadn't gone down and she was still breathing funny. Brogan just got diagnosed with Croup on Thurs. and I didn't know if it was contagious, so being the worry wart I am, I wanted to take her to urgent care. When we got there her temp was still 103* an hour after the motrin. They gave her a Tylenol suppository and kept us there for an hour till her temp dropped (the lowest it got was 100.6*). Off we went with the diagnosis of an upper respitory infection and fever. We were to alternate Motrin and Tylenol at the same time to keep the fever down and let it run it's course. Justin knew it was nothing serious, but the mom in me had to go in and make sure. Better safe than sorry!

All this to say, that sometimes being a mom is hard, but I'm BLESSED immensly! Blessed that my baby is healthy for the most part. Blessed that I only have to deal with the "hard" times every once in a while. Blessed that I have medical care nearby and that I can afford it. And most of all, blessed that I have a baby to love, to worry about, and to care for. Praise God that she's fine and that scary night is over.