First "Toothless" Grin

Andrew has had a loose tooth for a while now and any other kid would've had this tooth out WEEKS before he pulled his, but you know Andrew.  He'll only do something when he's good and ready and 100% sure he can do it perfectly.  So, today when I picked him up from school he announced, "Mom, when we get home I'm pulling my tooth."  And he did!

One last smile with all his baby teeth

He got a good grip with some TP

He was surprised at how easily it came out!

There it is...

His first toothless grin!

There's just something about when kids start losing their teeth.  It totally changes the way they look, and sometimes the way they sound.  With each milestone Andrew has reached up until this point, I've still felt like he was my little boy, but something about losing this tooth....I feel like he's truly a "big kid" now.  And I must confess.  I did cry a little today.  My baby is growing up so quickly.  He'll be grown before we know it.  (Great, now I'm crying again!)

One Last Roll

After Andrew's tee ball game, we loaded up and drove to Auburn for "Celebrate Toomers".  The celebration was in conjunction with the A-Day game, which we didn't attend due to said tee ball game. (But hey, the Rams won!)  We drove as fast as we could to take part in this momentous occasion.  Today would be the last time the collective Auburn family would roll the Toomer's oaks.  They will soon be taken down because they're dead.  *Hope you're enjoying jail, Harvey!*  As part of the Auburn family, we didn't want to miss it!  And plus it was important to us to have Aubrey's picture made at the original "toomer's corner."  It'll never look like this again.

The turnout was something else, though not surprising, as Auburn fans are sticklers for our traditions.  Rolling Toomer's Corner is by far our favorite tradition, so it was great to see the Auburn family come out and give the trees a great sendoff.   (Now, they will be replacing the trees and revamping the corner, so our tradition lives on.  (Go HERE to see a rendering and read more about the oaks.)

We got to town a little after 4 and met up with Kellye on College Street.  Auburn is a magical place and being there feels like "home."  It was good to be back!  The crowd was already massive at this point so we just hung out for a bit on the outskirts of it all.  We saw some good friends of ours and their brand new baby girl.  Andrew rolled a little tree where we were standing.  

 Anderson gave Andrew a lesson on tree rolling.

 He cared nothing about having his picture made.

 This was Drew's first trip back to Auburn since the fall of 2004! (Granted, he didn't get to see much of campus due to our quick trip, so he'll just have to be shocked at how the place has changed this fall.)  He braved the line at Toomer's Drugstore to get us all some lemonade.  He was gone an HOUR, but man it sure tasted good!   He picked up a stuffed Aubie football for Andrew and the children's book "The Spirit Tree."  It's a book written about the oaks and it's guaranteed to make you cry.

 Aubrey won't remember, but look...she's there!

 Me and Kel (and Aubrey too)

 We decided to move a little closer.  It was so sad to see the oaks dead, but they sure looked good in all their "white" splendor!  Andrew said, "Mama, it looks like snow!"

 I liked this shirt.

 This little monkey was perfectly happy climbing trees!

 Andrew and I wanted to get right up under the trees, so we braved the crowd.  I only got hit in the head with flying toilet paper twice!  I couldn't get over how deep it was and how much toilet paper DUST was flying through the air.  I literally couldn't breathe up there.

 Before heading back to Florida, we strolled over toward Samford Hall for some pictures with the sign.

 I loved the view from in front of Samford looking toward the corner.

 Kel climbed up on TOP of the sign.

What a day!  I'm so glad we made the trip.  It was totally worth it, just to spend a couple of hours with our Auburn family celebrating one of our greatest traditions and introducing our daughter to one of my favorite places on earth!  Welcome to Auburn, baby girl.  I hope this place is one day as special to you as it is to me.  

...I believe in Auburn, and LOVE IT!

*On April 23, 2013 the trees were cut down piece by piece.  You can go HERE to watch it happen.  I cried a little watching, I'm not going to lie.  The corner is almost unrecognizable now.*

Aubrey 3 Months

Happy Tax Day!  And Happy 3 month birthday to my baby girl!  It's hard to believe that Aubrey is already 3 months old!  (I know, I say that every month, but it's true) What's going on with the princess lately:

* She laughed out loud for the first time on April 9th (so hard that she gave herself the hiccups). 

*She sleeps anywhere from 11-13 hours a night.  (Praise the Lord) She is very much like her Daddy when it comes to bedtime and very much like her Momma in that she loves her sleep.  She starts getting fussy around 6:30-7 ish, which is her way of telling you that she wants a bath.  

*She still loves bath time.  The fussiness of her telling you she wants a bath totally disappears when you put her in the water.  She'll be my water bug.  

*She sucks her thumb when she gets sleepy; mostly at night.  During the day she tries to eat her whole fist!

*She has started drooling. Hopefully this is not a sign of an early tooth.

*She has gotten (a little) better about riding in the car.  She still cries at times, but I've had a few quiet rides this week!

We are still enjoying every single minute with her.  Since she sleeps late, I do manage to get some housework done before she wakes up.  Once she's up though, it's all I can do to put her down.  She's just so much fun!

As far as my life goes, we're in a good rhythm; back to normal, I guess.  Drew's schedule has allowed him to take Andrew to school in the mornings which is a HUGE help to me.  Since the princess likes to sleep late, I don't have to drag her out of the bed.  I have recently finally gone back to choir at church.  Drew picks the kids up, while I stay for practice.  Wednesdays are his days to play Mr. Mom.  He gets to cook, give two kids a bath, and put the baby to bed. My hero!  I usually make it back just in time to read books to Andrew.  

 And now, for the cuteness:

 She wakes up super happy in the mornings.

 Hannah (Andrew's 4th girlfriend-his words, not mine) couldn't wait to hold Aubrey.

 Big Brother loves to feed her!

 Two of my girls from my children's choir.  They love her!

Hanging With My Brother

Andrew is the best big brother.  He loves Aubrey so much and it just melts my heart to see them together.  He is always willing to help with anything I need and he's so cute talking to her in a baby voice.  She'll be crying in the car and without being told, he'll reach over and place his hand in hers and tell her everything is ok or he'll start singing "You Are My Sunshine."  

 She is enamored with Andrew.  I can't wait to watch her grow up...always looking up to big brother.

 I've been getting ready to go back to choir practice on Wednesday nights, so I've been pumping a milk supply.  We had to test it out and see if lil miss would take a bottle.  The first time she WOULD NOT have it.  It took her a good 20 minutes of fighting me before she got hungry enough to take it.  So on Wednesday nights while I'm at choir practice, Andrew feeds Aubrey her bottle before she goes to bed.  

 He takes his job very seriously.

I'm blessed with two amazing children.  They are so sweet and I thank God everyday that they're in my life.  I mean, my cup runneth over!  And in case you didn't get enough of the sweetness, here are a couple more.

The Princess Goes to Disney World

That's right, we're the crazy folks who take a 2 1/2 month old to Disney!  Since buying the Ergo Baby I have found new freedom.  Carrying Aubrey in that thing is magical, I tell you!  She LOVES it, so one day I made the comment, "I could do anything with her in this carrier."  To which my dear husband replied, "Then lets go to Disney."  We looked for a break in Andrew's school schedule, found a teacher workday (which later was turned into a 1/2 day?? oops), and planned the trip.  Here's Aubrey all ready to go:

Now, I've mentioned how my child likes to scream bloody murder every time we put her in the car, so this 7 hour road trip had me a little apprehensive.  But I'm happy to report that she behaved fabulously! She only got fussy twice, which was right around feeding time and we had to stop for gas and food anyway so it worked out perfectly.  Andrew, Aubrey, and I all had a nice long nap to gear up for a late night at Magic Kingdom.  We finally made it on property around 6:30 pm. (we checked Andrew out early on Thursday).

Here's how Andrew felt about seeing the sign:

 First things first, we got all checked in at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  They had some kind of promotion going on so we all got pirate bandanas.  

Aubrey got her official "My 1st Visit" button upon check-in

Magic Kindgom was open until 2 am, so that's where we were headed.  You just can't start  a trip without going to MK first.  We went straight to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We took advantage of the "child swap" program so Drew and I could both ride since Aubrey can't ride those.   Then we were starving so we ate at Pinocchio's with a nice view of It's A Small World.

 Aubrey's first official ride was Winnie the Pooh (she slept through most of the night)

 My riding buddy

We love the Magic Kingdom on late nights like this.  Most of the folks with young kids go home after the fireworks, so there are hardly any lines whatsoever!  Several of the rides had no wait and we were able to just stay on and ride over and over again.  We went non-stop until closing time.  We barely made it on the carousel before the park closed.  We got there just in time for the last ride of the night.  Andrew looks pretty pooped by this point.  (Check out the photo bomber in the background!)

By the time we got back to the hotel and in bed it was 3 am.  Our "plan" was to be at Magic Kingdom when it opened at 8 am to see the park opening, but do you think that happened?  Um, no!  We decided that sleep was more important. So we slept in and finally made it to Epcot around 11:30.  I have never seen so many people there in all my life.  The Flower and Garden Festival is going on right now, so that might have had a little to do with it.  By the time we got there, we missed out on fast passes for Soarin and Test Track.  The wait times were over 2 hours for each!  Test Track was broken down at one point during the day so Drew stood in line outside the ride while Andrew played on a nearby playground.  He made a friend.

 The line opened up and the wait was only 90 minutes!  While the boys waited to ride, I took my cute lil Minnie Mouse to have her picture with the real Minnie.  Isn't she adorable?

 She's not the biggest fan of giant mice in costume, but Minne LOVED her. She had her picture made with Mickey too, but that one is on the photopass, which I haven't even looked at yet!

 After the picture, I met the boys back over at Test Track so Andrew and I could ride.  (Thank you child swap....we only waited 20 minutes).  Then we headed over to eat dinner and listen to the Turtles concert before heading BACK to Magic Kingdom.  It was open until 3 am that night!  We did NOT stay that late.  We made it over there for the Electrical Parade and Fireworks show.  Aubrey and I bowed out at this point and let the boys ride rides.  I could hardly hold my eyes open.  I was totally asleep when they got in...don't even remember them coming in!  

The next morning we hit up Hollywood Studios.  Andrew wanted to bring his sorcerer Mickey hat from home and have a picture made with the real sorcerer Mickey.  

 So he did.

 and so did Aubrey

We hit up all of Andrew's favorites, but by lunch time he was begging to swimming.  We never have time to enjoy the resort pools, so we let him swim.  Drew worked on his online class for work while Aubrey and I sat by the pool and watched Andrew swim.  

 Everyday at 3 pm the cast members put on a "pool party" where they play fun games with the kids and dance and have a good 'ole time.  Andrew didn't want to participate until the very end when they had a "splash dance."  It was fun.

 He had to go down the water slide a few times before it was time to go.

 Little Cinderella and I enjoyed the shade

 After the pool we headed to Animal Kingdom.  Andrew wanted to ride the raft ride (which Drew hates) so I rode with Andrew.  We packed a change of clothes and flip flops because there's nothing I hate worse than sopping wet socks and shoes.  I also opted for the poncho this time and stayed perfectly dry.  The poor folks across from us where the lucky ones who got DRENCHED! 

 After the raft ride we RAN over to the Safari.  The last Safari of the day is at 7.  We got on at 6:55.  We weren't sure how it would turn out because we usually go first thing in the morning.  But it was really good.

 If you've ever watched any of the specials on Animal Kingdom, then you know that at the end of the day each animal group responds to a different tone when it's time for them to go to their "cages."  Well they are so trained that they knew what time it was and they were all pacing by their gates.  The cheetahs are always laying down...not today...they were pacing the fence.

The lionesses were very playful!

This one was ROARING! (an amazing sound)

the giraffes were all huddled by this gate (never noticed it before today)

another one of our favorites! 

 We've been trying to get Andrew to ride Expedition Everest and Rockin' Roller Coaster for the past year.  He has been tall enough, but for some reason WILL NOT ride them.  *Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is his favorite ride, so we knew he'd love the other roller coasters.  I begged him to ride Everest with me.  We even tried to make it a competition.  Mommy likes Everest, but Daddy likes Rockin' Roller Coaster.  We need you to ride them and tell us which one is better.  (That didn't work)  Finally Drew told him that he had to pick one.  We were going to MAKE him ride one.  He could choose.  So at Animal Kingdom I said, "Oh, Andrew please ride Everest with Mommy."  He said ever so nonchalantly, "But I wanted to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster."  What?!  Where did that come from?  It didn't matter...we got on the bus and RACED back to Hollywood Studios.  Drew and Andrew rode it first and HE LOVED IT!  They rode in the very front and Andrew kept saying, "This is AWESOME!"    He and I immediately rode it again, also in the front.  We were so proud of him.  We celebrated with ice cream!

 And we were pretty much exhausted from our busy day.  Andrew was tired so he hijacked Aubrey's stroller.  Ok, so they shared!  Such a good big brother!

 On Sunday, the Pecinas met us at the hotel before we all headed back to Magic Kingdom to finish out our trip.  When we got there there was only a 5 minute wait to see Snow White, so I let the princess get her picture made while the rest of our gang headed out for Dumbo.  

 See...it's a Snow White smocked dress!

The Princesses and Characters aren't allowed to hold infants, so this is best we could get with snow white. *My only regret from the trip: we didn't get a picture with Cinderella in her Cinderella outfit!*

We didn't eat breakfast at the hotel and I was starving so I went in search of some form of breakfast that didn't double as a snack food.  Look what I found instead:

 Lana Parilla (Regina a.k.a. the evil queen from Once Upon A Time) filming a commercial!

 We are obsessed with this show and never miss an episode so it was neat to see "Regina" in real life.

 I called Drew and told him to high tale it over to New Fantasyland.  We sat and watched as she filmed a commercial with Gaston.  

I don't know what it is about us seeing celebrities on Sundays in the Magic Kingdom.  Last April we saw David and Odette Annable (From Brothers and Sisters) riding Dumbo!  So fun!  It was a great way to end our whirlwind 3 day trip.  

Aubrey was a champ on her first trip to Disney.  But after not being in the car for 3 days, she was less than happy about the ride home.  She cried off and on the whole way home.  She's sleep for a while, then cry, then sleep some more.  But we eventually made it home and she didn't even wake up when I got her out of the car and into the crib.  She slept til 9 am the next morning!  I'm glad to know that a crazy trip like that did NOT interrupt her great sleeping skills!  (Good to know because we're going back to Disney June 8th! :)