Past few months

We welcomed Gil home with open arms this past June. It took Aubrie a little while to get use to him again but it is so nice to have him home and have our family complete again.


We took advantage of Gil's time off and stayed busy doing stuff as a family. We made several trips down to Honolulu to go the zoo as well as the Cream Pot (our favorite brunch place.) Gil also found a really good deal for a resort on the North Shore so we went for a night and enjoyed their golf course and pools. We also had a 4 day vacation to Kauai but that trip deserves a post of it's own.


Once all of our vacations were over it was down to the nitty-gritty of preparing for our move; with just three weeks left (which I am sure will just fly by) we are going to be very busy, packing up our house and saying our goodbyes. I would be lying if I said we are sad to be leaving Hawaii. We are very excited for the next chapter and look forward to three full years of us being together as a family even if it is in the middle of the dessert.


Not only are we preparing for our move but we are planning Aubrie's 1st birthday! I can't believe we are already at a year. We are very excited that we will be in New England and will be able to celebrate not only her birthday but also her christening with all of our family and friends.
We are so excited for the family to see Aubrie again and see how much she has grown and changed. She may even be walking by the time we leave. She has such a personality and the most entertaining faces!


She is a crawling machine and is a pro at the stairs and pulls herself up on everything. She will take several steps but only if you are holding her hands.
More of an update on Aubrie in about a month when she will be my tiny ONE YEAR OLD!

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"I shall call him 'Squishy..."

"...and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy"


We took a spur of the moment trip to the Waikiki Aquarium today. I felt we needed to get out of the house and do something fun rather than run errands. So we packed up and went to the Aquarium. It was very small but was fun to see Aubrie watch the fish

There's a cool bubble you can sit in that makes you feel like you are in the tank with the fish and sharks. Aubrie enjoyed watching them swim over her and was curious why she couldn't touch them.





I think she enjoyed the fishy's. What do you think?

Infectious Smile

I feel I can now say that Aubrie's gummy smile is now a toothy smile! Her tooth has been trying to cut through for a while but on Friday I felt the first pinch of something sharp when she bit down on my finger.

Today, the whole tooth cut through. It still has a ways to go before it is a full tooth but that gummy smile is definitely gone.

I have tried getting a picture but she won't sit still long enough for me to get a good shot. This was my first attempt and as you can see it is blurry and you can't make out the tooth.
I will keep trying.

1st Mother's Day!

I know, it has been a while since I have blogged, but what better day to start back than on Mother's Day...the reason I haven't been blogging in the first place.

We have been staying pretty busy since we got back to Hawaii. I started taking Aubrie to My Gym and she loves it. It is amazing to see her grow and develop with all her My Gym buddies.


Her favorite part of class is the gymnastic exercises. Here she is on a the uneven bars.

Through classes we have met several Moms and have been to two first birthday parties and out to lunch after class with a couple of the moms and babies. I think I have enjoyed socializing in class just as much as Aubrie.

I took two online photography classes through Nicole's Classes which were amazing. I learned a lot, had a lot of fun and got some great photos out of it...like this one...


The first class I took was a basic course as a refresher. It was a really great class and I learned a lot more than I expected. The second class was all about photographing infants, toddlers and children. I got some great tips for creating a in home studio and some wonderful tips for working with kids.

Aubrie has been introduced to several fruits and vegetables. Her favorite is still butternut squash. We recently tried avocado and she actually liked it. It is definitely the strongest flavor she has had so far. I also put down my mommy guard and gave Aubrie her first solid fruit, clementines. She likes to suck the juice out then pass them to me. She gets the biggest grin when I start peeling them.


To mark the 6 month milestone we had some more professional photos taken. We got a great deal through the spouses group on base and the money all went to charity. I was really happy to finally get some pictures of the two of us as well. It is a little hard to do when I am the only one here to take them. Below is one of my favorites from the shoot.


Between all these events I got a chance to get away and go see a movie. My neighbor was nice enough to watch Aubrie so I could have a night off after a very rough week of no sleep. I went to see Water for Elephants with a friend and already have my next date set for this Friday to see Something Borrowed.

Now for a few milestone updates. Aubrie has been sitting on her own for several months now. She always wants to be standing. She has almost pulled her self up on her own but I am in no hurry for her to learn that. After months of rolling over from tummy to back, Aubrie has finally decided she is ready to roll tummy to back. I knew she was able to but she was never I interested in doing it. She started last week and hasn't stopped rolling since. In big milestones....we have a tooth coming in! It hasn't cut through yet but I think it is only a matter of days (then again I have thought the tooth has been coming forever so what do I know.)

I know I say this a lot I will try to keep blogging and not let months go by again. We just got an iPad which makes it a little easier since I can do it in bed after Aubrie goes to sleep.

I leave you with a shot of Aubrie looking super chic at the beach.

Happy Mother's Day!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Milestones

It seems like everyday Aubrie is changing and doing something new. But yesterday seemed like the first major milestone (at least to me)...Rolling Over! I laid her down for some tummy time which she is gradually growing to like again and I noticed she was leaning to one side. I grabbed the camera just in time to watch her roll over for the first time! Aubrie proceeded to roll over 3 more times before Grandma got home and then rolled over once more for Grandma.

I am so happy I was able to get it on video so Gil won't have to miss out on all of her firsts!

We also just had our four month check up. She is now 13lbs and 24.5 in. long! She gained 4 inches in 2 months! She is in the 97% for her length. She is so long that she is now wearing 6 month footie pjs...all her other clothes are still 3 months. She is starting to be able to wear a few 3-6 month onsies.

We now only have 1 week left until we fly home to Hawaii so we have begun to pack everything up. We are very excited for our 9 hour Valentines date with Elizabeth. We will be meeting up with her in Chicago for the last leg of our trip home. Elizabeth will be visiting us for a week and we are very excited to show her around Hawaii.

That's all for now. I am going to get a few more videos ready to post so check back soon for more videos.

2010 in Photos

2010 was quite a year for us. We spent quit a lot of time apart but the time we spent together we made the most of it.

We started the year off enjoying Hawaii together with a local hike ending at a nice cold waterfall.

In March while Gil and my Dad were both gone for work, my Mom flew to Hawaii to surprise me for my 25th birthday.

In June Gil took a lot of long lunches and time off to come home and watch the World Cup. We had lots of early mornings and donuts for several weeks while the games were on.
We finally got to spend a 4th of July together in Hawaii. We cooked a big dinner then took Kai down to the water and watched the fireworks.
July we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary with an amazing dinner in Honolulu at a Sicilian restaurant.

In August we moved to a brand new house on base.

All the while this stuff was going on, my belly was growing bigger and bigger with our baby girl.

September started with the purchase of a new car after my little Focus died.

And just two weeks later we welcomed Aubrie Ann Desroches into our family!

We had newborn and family photos taken when Aubrie was 2 weeks old.
We spent October enjoying our new family and getting Gil ready for deployment. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Gil's 25th Birthday and Christmas all in one night.
The end of October we said goodbye to Daddy.
And celebrated our first Halloween as a little ladybug.
November took us to the Zoo for the first time...
and to the airport for our first flight of 5 by the age of 15 weeks!
Not only did we fly across the country we then drove for 2 days to Ohio to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.
We received our first photo of Gil and his marines in December. We were very happy to see his smiling face (even if he was forced into the photo!)
We took a trip to the Yankee Candle Factory were Aubrie met Santa Claus.
And on December 25th we celebrated Christmas with the whole Desroches Gang.
By the end of December we enjoyed our first snowfall and made little baby snow angels.
We rung in the new year by meeting Great-Grandma Desroches and all of our Aunts, Uncles and Cousins...
And having some Mommy/Daughter time while we waited for Daddy's phone call.
2010 was an amazing year and we are excited to be in 2011 (the year Daddy comes home!) We are looking forward to Gil coming home, enjoying time together as our new family and moving back to the mainland!

We wish you all a wonderful 2011!

And A New Christmas Tradition Was Born

Today's adventure took us to The Yankee Candle Co. in South Deerfield, MA. Yes, they have all the candles you could ever want but even better they have all these little Christmas villages, kitchen and country stores and so much more!

Our first stop was to see Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Unlike Santa at the mall (who we saw yesterday.) Mr. Claus at Yankee Candle was so JOLLY! He sat in his work shop surrounded by toys and letters from all the little children. He even had a real beard! He spent 5 mins. or more talking to each child and you could take all the pictures you wanted.

Aubrie did so great! Here are a few pictures we took today with Santa.

Here I am trying to get her to smile for Santa.

After Santa we stopped for some hot chocolate at Mrs. Claus Cafe and to feed Aubrie. That is about the time that I decided that this has to become a Christmas tradition. Anytime we come up to NH for Christmas we have to go to Yankee Candle, get our picture taken with Santa and pick out our ornaments for the year.

I was very excited to have found Gil's ornament. I try to have each ornament represent something from the past year. I really wanted to find an ornament that would represent Gil in Afghanistan over Christmas. I was lucky enough to find a guy dressed in full cami's, helmet, vest, gun and all. We had it personalized with "2010 Afghanistan." I also found a cute stocking stuffer for Aubrie and Kai.

After our hot chocolate break we strolled through the "Black Forest" it began to snow...or we waited the 4 minutes like the sign said ("Snow's every 4 minutes") to see it. Either way it was really pretty and Aubrie just stared at it as it fell on her.

We found these great big bears in the forest and couldn't resist taking a picture with them. They are so big compared to Aubrie...or even me for that matter.
We had so much fun walking through all the shops that just oozed Christmas.

On another happy note, Aubrie was awake almost all day, so I think...or hope that she will sleep really well tonight.

After Yankee Candle we decided to stop at a candy store that we saw on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Nutty Episode" Alex Guarnaschelli said that the dark chocolate dixies at Richardson' Candy Kitchen was the best nutty thing she had ever had. Now, I watch this show regularly and have been waiting for the day to be able to actually go and try one of their favorites so, I was really excited to find out that this candy shop was right down the road from Yankee Candle. I always wondered if the things they chose were really that great. Well we just had a dark chocolate dixie after dinner and I have to say, they really are that great! So if you live in the area stop by and if you don't you can order them online!

Our next Christmas activity is finally buying our tree (tomorrow) and building a gingerbread house. As soon as I find a kit like this one...

It must be a no-bake kit...last time I tried to bake one myself it was a disaster. This year I want it to be enjoyable and we all know that the fun part is decorating it, not baking it!

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!