On September 27th Uncle PJ and Aunt Valerie got married at Pismo Beach.  Aubrey Ann was the flower girl.  The wedding was beautiful.  We also enjoyed taking Aubrey Ann to the beach for the very first time

.  Here are some photos of her first trip to the beach:

Aubrey Ann with Daddy on our balcony

Here are some pictures from the rehearsal, that night:

She said, "Picture...cheese", and this is the smile she came up with!

She always has a kiss left for her Daddy

Here are some pictures from the actual wedding the next day:

All dressed up and ready to go!

Walking down the aisle with her Daddy

Yes, she has goldfish in her flower girl basket.

What a beautiful ceremony

Someone isn't cooperating, who could it be?

With her Mamaw and Papaw

Being a stink-bug with Nana and Papa

The happy couple!

Aubrey Ann did great the entire ceremony, until she spotted a sea-gull.  Then she thought she needed to let the entire wedding know that a “bir-dee” was near.  giving us all one warning would have been enough, but no, Aubrey Ann thought that “bir-dee” was an imminent threat, so she let us know a…..few…..times.  Did I mention that my daughter doesn’t have volume control?  Wonder where she got that from? Ahem, Hopkins family?  Certainly didn’t come from the Parkey side, right? 

Here are a few more pictures of Aubrey Ann having a play day on the beach.  Unfortunately it was cold that day, although Aubrey Ann never seemed to mind.

Digging in the sand with Mommy

There is that dinosaur again. Silly dino.

She thought these, "glashes" were hilarious. So did we!

Aubrey Ann didn’t like the sand at first.  She spent the first several minutes saying, “Yucky.  Wipe.”  while wiping her hands on me.  I guess when you are a Mommy you become the human kleenex.  After about 10 minutes or so, she realized that it was ok if she was a little dirty, and she dug right in.  We have a beach baby for sure, we could hardly keep her out of the water!

It was a great trip, and we are so happy for Uncle “pee-jay”, and Aunt “Val-bee”.

I love you, my little beach baby!

It has been a long time since Mommy updated this site, but I guess it is better late than never! Month number 6 (and 7 and 8!) have been VERY busy!

You are such an amazing little girl. You have such a big personality. We are so blessed to have you Aubrey Ann. Your Daddy and I could not imagine life without you, and we thank God for you every morning and every night. You gave us so many more reasons to be thankful on this Thanksgiving.

Well, let’s take a look at a few of your many achievements this month!

In the very beginning of the month, you mastered sitting up on your own. It was rather funny how you decided to show the world you knew how to sit. We were in the doctor’s office for your 6 month check up, and the doctor asked if you could sit on your own. I told her that I couldn’t ever get you to try, unless you were sitting in the grass (because you absolutely HATED the way the grass felt!) so I didn’t really think so. So, right then and there the doctor propped you up on the examination table to a sitting position, and you sat like a PRO! I felt so silly. You little stinker, you have been sitting up like a champ ever since!

Here you are sitting up:

On the 15th you started to play “Patty Cake” with us. You haven’t quite got the clapping down yet, but you will hold your hands in the air as we play with you. You just smile every time we hit your hands!

On the 16th, you started giving us “High 5’s”. The first time you figured out how to do it, you gave the BIGGEST belly laugh. For the first 5-10 times you did you, you were just SO proud of yourself!

On the 21st you started crawling. This was the day before Thanksgiving. Luckily, it was a rather, slow, clumsy crawl at first, so you didn’t make it very far. Otherwise, I would have had some very big troubles getting dinner ready for everyone!

Another first you decided to have right around Thanksgiving was your very first tooth! It actually came through Thanksgiving night (the 22nd). It was amazing because you never cried or acted fussy at all. You are such a sweet girl.

You’ll have to view the full size picture, but circled is your little tooth poking through:

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to have the entire family over to our home. It was wonderful being surrounded by so many friends and family. Mommy had aprons made for the grandparents that had a picture of you on them with the saying “What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’” underneath your picture. It was a lot of fun. Of course, right before dinner Mommy had to make a little speech saying how thankful she was for you and Daddy. You are such a blessing, and your Daddy is the most amazing father and husband in the world. I am so grateful for you both.

On the 24th, you started pursing your lips together and blowing a stream of air. We couldn’t figure out what you were doing, that is, until the next day. On the 25th, you started whistling! It was so adorable. I never knew that a baby could whistle. I can barely whistle! I guess you were imitating your Daddy, because he always whistles when he holds you.

As was expected, you’ve been extremely cute! We were able to capture a few of those moments.

This is your in your funny hat. If you can get that hat off of your head, you like to bite the corners:

You like technology about as much as Daddy. You would love to slobber on a camera or computer. This is the look on your face right before the slobbering begins:

You’ve really been liking all of the different baby food you’ve been having. You haven’t quite mastered the art of getting all of the food in your mouth, and much of it drops to the high chair. Once it hits the high chair, you think it’s a toy and put your fingers in it.

You’ve also really began to help around the house. You always try to be a little vacuum cleaner, which means we have to vacuum every day to stop you from putting everything into your mouth. Your favorite chore is definitely the laundry.

Here is you playing with Meme the day before Thanksgiving:

Meme says that when you’re Daddy was your age, he would always roll onto his side and stick one leg out. Then you started doing it too!

Whenever you starts to feel like some exercise, you prefer push-ups. You can do about 1 push-up before you fall and start laughing.

Here you are playing with cousin Micah:

Every Saturday we have Daddy-Daughter day. Dad gets up with you and does as much as Mom will let him. Most of the time is spent on the ground tickling each other and playing with your toys.

I always have a good time playing with your hair. Unfortunately no matter what I do it always wants to stand up!

Here you are with Daddy, Grandma Nita, and Pa in the 4 generation picture:

All in all, it was a good month. You have really reminded Daddy and I of all we have to be thankful for.

We love you bunches and bunches baby girl! xoxoxoxo

If you were at our house on Christmas morning, Aubrey Ann would have told you she was awake by saying, “Da Da Da Da”. Then you would walk in her room and see the following, a little jail bird trying to escape.

Just added a bunch of pictures to Flickr.  Check them out here.

Here is just a teaser:

When Mari Jo was about 2 months old, her parents decided to get her ears pierced. Since then, Mari Jo’s earring holes have never sealed (even after not wearing earrings for over a year), and they rarely get infected.

Because of that, we decided that we should pierce Aubrey Ann’s ears before she gets much older. Today was that day.

Here is a before shot of those cute little ears.

Here is our little baby during the process:

And here she is after the whole thing was finished:

Ok, here are a few misc. shots:

And a special thanks to Chris Miller who didn’t want to hurt poor Aubrey Ann, but when I told him we would go to the dirty, infectious Fashion Fair Mall he agreed to do it. He said he might cry, but was able to hold back the tears!

We got a new camera today.  I don’t know how to use it very well, and without reading the manual, here is what I’ve produced:

Below are some pictures taken on my phone over the last month or so.

Everyone’s favorite time…bath time! Is that a smile I see?

Aubrey Ann posing as a ballerina…

Another sleepy baby….

Mama and baby…

Me and my girl…

Another Mama and baby…

Aubrey Ann has decided on a vocation…she’s going to be a plumber!

Here are a couple pictures from the hospital.

And here is one taken from my MacBook Pro yesterday.

Looks like Aubrey Ann has found a new feeding location…I don’t know if this is what God had in mind when he created the natural sucking instinct.

Click the picture for a full size view.