Birthday Posts, Basketball, Pinewood Derby ~ January 2013

When the kids have a birthday day I like to list their favorite things and some other information that will help me to remember them at that age.  I forgot to put AJ's on the last blog so I'll start with it here before I do Audrey's. Grammy Roome asked him the questions again this year while she was here so I'll copy them below.  

AJ still loves to snuggle every night at bed time.  We read scriptures, say prayers, turn on the CD of stories from our friend Julie Rose and snuggle.  AJ still has trouble going to sleep, but we are continually trying new things.  In the morning to help him wake up I still give him a piggy back ride down the stairs and even warm his clothes in the dryer next to the kitchen to help getting dressed a bit easier.  Our mornings are just go better this way so its worth the extra effort.  AJ, daddy and I have started playing games at night at that is a fun new tradition. We also love to play catch after school with the football, Frisbee or baseball.  We also play tennis which is his 2nd favorite sport.  He loves his tennis classes at the JCC.  AJ loves to play games on the computer, watch tv and make many Lego creations. He loves to go to the pond by our house and to play with his remote controlled boat. He is doing great in school, but he complains that he doesn't learn anything.  I'm planning to get him into an IB elementary school next year and I'm so excited.  He will be more challenged and love the project based curriculum. AJ still absolutely adores Audrey, but they definitely have their moments. He is very thoughtful and continues to love to do nice things for others. 

Look who's officially 3! The pictures above catch just a few sides of my sweet, stubborn, cute, energetic, artistic, loving Audrey. Audrey loves pink and purple everything.  She wants to wear a tutu everyday since she started ballet classes.  She already picks out her clothes everyday because I've decided its not worth fighting over, most of the time. She loves preschool and her friends at the YMCA that she sees whenever I go workout.  I love to do her hair and she is beautiful. She loves Little Einsteins, Dora, Diego, Robots and Princess Sofia.  Coloring, Dot stampers, painting, puzzles, Play-Doe, singing into her microphone, Legos, riding her new bike and Power Wheels, collecting sticks outside, digging in the dirt or sandbox, and getting into AJ's toys are her favorite activities. She loves fruits, vegetables, eggs, "quackamole", Taco Bell, and candy, especially chocolate, are her favorite foods. She loves to go to any store with me. She loves to wrestle with AJ and ride on his back like he is a horse. She also teases AJ and drives him crazy. She loves when daddy plays airplane with her or tickles her. She loves bath time and water in general. She will love you one second then totally ignore you the next. Total girl with her constantly swaying emotions! She melts my heart when she says, "You're my best girl" and I always say it back. When she is with others she tells them, "My mommy loves me berry much!" and that makes me so happy to hear. Every day she says the breakfast prayer. Each night at bed time she will say her prayers and sings I Love to See the Temple. She often wakes up singing in her loudest voice songs like Twinkle Twinkle, a made up song of counting 1-10 in Spanish, or a church song. She is a hand full in every way, and I'm thankful that she's mine. 

I brought cupcakes to Audrey's preschool class. She wanted purple cupcakes with purple frosting and she wore her purple shirt and tutu.  It was super cute and she was a very happy birthday girl.

Audrey was very excited to get a package from Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen.  Her favorite cereal currently is Cracklin Oat Bran and she loves stickers.  We love grandparents!!

Now that Audrey is 3 she can join the tap class at the Y.  Her first class didn't go so well since in all her excitement she started running to me and slipped in her tap shoes and banged her head on the floor.  It took 2 more classes before she would join in, but now she loves it along with her ballet. I also added a line of glue from my glue gun on each shoe to help give her a little more traction.

We love to go to the pond with the boat. After taking a picture of the kids on a big rock when we first moved here, every time we see one Audrey wants me to take a picture.  It is nice to not have to beg her to smile for a picture every once in awhile. 

AJ has started basketball again.  We are with a new league this year and they play for real in stead of with lots of kid rules.  Aaron is learning a lot, but I'm thinking basketball might not be his sport. I'm glad he is having fun anyway, at least most of the time.

I made these little cupcakes for my little Sunbeam class at church.  I have 8 great kids!

Audrey is sitting on her bike for the first time.  We haven't taken it outside yet, but riding around the house is fun for now.

The dusting of snow that you see on the car behind Audrey is all the snow we've seen so far this year.  This picture was taken at the YMCA where I work out, but at our house we didn't even get this much snow.  Audrey was so excited she wanted me to make her a snowball.  The snow was actually covered in ice but I pulled off a square and she loved it for a few seconds.  For the following few weeks she asked for a snowball every time we went to the Y. 

AJ with daddy painting his first Pinewood Derby car.

We love Saturdays with daddy.  This Saturday we went to Pineville Lake Park to bike, run, and play! I attempted to ride along side of Audrey, but since she is still learning to break, it wasn't a pleasant experience.  After giving up riding myself, we had a better time and also enjoyed playing catch with the football and Frisbee.

 The Pinewood Derby was fun and a little sad.  AJ's car looked awesome, but didn't drive very fast.  AJ raced a few times but lost and he cried. Audrey would go visit him while he was cheering with his friends and give him encouragement. He was most happy when Aaron showed up towards the end and was able to see AJ race his car down the track.  I made some sugar cookies decorated like tires that the kids enjoyed as you can tell by their black teeth!