Happy Birthday Daddy!

Ryan turned 33 on July 21st. He decided to work that day (he always takes the girls bdays off). So there was no way we were going to let him just have an average day at work.
That morning, after he left for work, I woke up the girls. Then I threw some clothes on them, grabbed the balloons that were hidden in the house, plus a couple presents and we were off!
Had to stop at the Donut Spot to grab some treats for us and a few more for his great Guards and fellow workers. What's 3 dozen in the scheme of things, right?

We scared the guards a bit (Apparently, a big red stroller filled with donuts and presents is a security threat), but they helped us out by calling him down to the front desk to surprise him. Aubrey got to ride the elevators and share donuts and milk with her Daddy. Amber was chill, as always, just sitting in his lap while he opened some presents.

Happy Birthday, Honey (and Daddy)! You are the best.

P.S. Next year, we'll bring you less Donuts. ;)

Happy Easter!

Amber is officially 4 months today. Which means there is only 8 months and 1 day until Christmas... :) Easy to keep track now.

I hope your Easter was wonderful. We spent it busy in Church and together as a family at home. It was very peaceful and relaxing.

We really enjoyed the Ruggles Annual Easter Egg Hunt yesterday! It was our 2nd year going. Hard to believe that it was a year ago we were watching Aubrey grab eggs and throw them back on the ground. She didn't understand the "putting them in the basket" part. This year was a bit overwhelming for her, but she eventually filled her basket full.

Amber watched the Egg Hunt in the arms of a friend (Thanks, Kaci!), so Ryan and I could help Aubrey and record it for posterity. That's right, posterity...You better really enjoy all these movies and pictures we're taking cause it takes a lot of effort. Especially when one child refuses to be recorded or photographed most of the time. ;)

Later, sugar meltdown ensued! But, it is so worth it. Kids really only have two days a year to gorge themselves on candy, right? Yep, worth it...

Everything is worth it.

Daddy and his girls...

Love our girls!

Who wants to do laundry when you can play with these two? (Please ignore the pile in the background). :)

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

Our sweet muffin turned 3 on March 16th. We had a fun family gathering for her. My parents and Ryan's Mom and Wayne were all there. It was so fun to have both girls in our arms that day. I had envisioned how fun that day would be when I was pregnant, but it was even better than I imagined.

Aubrey is super creative and very inquisitive. She has known her ABCs for a long time now. She also points out colors and numbers. She continues to correct us when we are driving and not going the normal route we take. I can't believe she remembers how to get places, as I STILL get lost.

Her favorite things to do are playing outside, finding snails, telling me the snails are broken (after she steps on them while my back is turned), she loves playing with bubbles, and she has mastered the computer in many ways in the past few months.

Ryan once asked me if I had let Aubrey use the laptop...she had found it closed on my nightstand, opened it, and was searching the favorites bar for the saved websites I have for her. If you haven't found pbskids.com or nickjr.com, they are great! She loves playing matching games and word games on the laptop. I am totally stunned at her abilities.

With all these vast changes, we are continuing to notice that she still has a hard time in social settings, or when there is too much noise. It really throws her for a loop emotionally. She becomes very quiet and even withdrawn around people (and kids) she knows. We press on and hope she will find a way to feel comfortable in new (and familiar) settings with time.

Amber is now 3 months old! It has been very eye-opening to see the differences in our two girls. Having another child 24/7, it becomes very apparent that they are two different personalities and we love that! Amber continues to be very chill. She doesn't like it when big sister is crying and may start crying herself at times, but for the most part she seems unbothered by all the commotion of having an very active big sis. She will sleep through just about anything and calms very quickly.

Amber's nickname is Sis. Little sis, little miss, sweet sis...etc. :) She is very smiley and loves to make eye contact and respond to people talking to her. She can be calmed with a pacifier rather quickly. She takes a while to get to full blown wailing. We have maybe heard that 5 times. She usually just cries out in a "Hey, I'm over here!" kinda way. She loves sitting up with us at the dinner table on one of our laps (We have to get a softer highchair soon!).

Its been really challenging at times keeping Aubrey busy while I feed Amber, but it has been a great learning experience that I wouldn't change for anything! Let's just say I have a truckload of sympathy for moms with 2 kids, now. :) Wonder what 3 kids will bring? That's not an announcement, either!

Ryan's job is going well. I continue to admire his hardwork and dedication to his clients. I am also so grateful for all the time he spends in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. It truly blesses my life to see him serving others so willingly. Good example to me.

I am continuing to learn patience. For myself, my girls and towards others. It is a long journey for me and a very necessary one. I am so thankful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father will never give you more than you can handle. That does not mean things will be easy, but you will be strengthened to meet your challenges. Whatever they may be.

Love you all!!

Amber is here!

Amber Jeanelle Aten is here! She was born 12/24/10. 7 lbs 8oz and 19 inches at 37 weeks. She spent 5 hours in the NICU for fluid in her lungs and then was able to join us. We had a wonderful Christmas the next day and feel very blessed. :) Enjoy the pictures! She is now 6 weeks old and such a delight in our family.

Mm-hmm

Aubrey continues to pick up more and more grownup ways of talking. It is so endearing! Her latest feat is simply saying yes with an mm-hmm noise. Like Uh-huh, but with her lips closed. Apparently we do that a lot around here. :)

"Aubrey, do you want some lunch?" "Mmm-hmm."

Her Fisher-Price nativity set is getting a lot of use this year. She arranges the characters all looking in one direction, usually away from the stable. The sheep has replaced the angel on the top of the stable. Only the sheep is allowed to be up there.

She is captivated by Frosty the Snowman. She loves his movie and anytime she sees a snowman character she exclaims "Fwosty!" She pulls me out of my chair so we can march around the room with the kids in the movie too.

Aubrey also calls Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer movie the "Donkeys" movie. Yes, Aubrey thinks donkeys are pulling santa's sleigh.

As for Amber, I had my 35 week checkup today. Everything is looking right on track. She still can move around quite a bit, though she stays to my right side most of the time. It has been really interesting to notice the difference in movement between her and Aubrey (in utero). I used to get surprised by Aubrey's kicks. She mainly seemed to "protest" me resting a hand on my stomach or daddy trying to feel her kick. She would powerfully kick right at the spot of pressure once or twice and that would be it. I would be sitting at my desk at work, rest my hand on the top of my stomach without really realizing and pow! She'd kick right at it. It was really funny cause I'd jump a little. Ryan and I were amazed at her accuracy and felt like she was showing us her personality right from the start.

Amber is not really like that at all. She seems to move her body around where my hand is resting. Or she seems to just move around on her own, not really reacting to my hands or Aubrey sitting close next to me. She's definately going to be used to more noise than Aubrey was. She'll probably recognize Aubrey's shrill scream right away after she's born. haha!

Only about 36 more days until we get to meet her!

Fun times with Santa

Our ward had a great primary activity, complete with pictures with santa. Aubrey is holding up her Snowman ornament she made. Santa was very nice, but she only wanted to sit on my lap. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Hairstyle by Daddy

So, obviously I style Aubrey's hair during the day (how long it lasts is another story!). But, daddy is in charge of bathtime hairdos. :)

Snails for Aubrey

One of Aubrey's favorite art supplies is Playdough. I've made the mistake of creating quite a few animals with the playdough. So she now demands that we make the same ones over and over again. Her favorite animals are snails, spiders and squirrels. If I make one animal, she asks me to make another version of the animal. Like "Ok, mommy, make a daddy snail. Make a mommy snail. Make a grandma snail and an Amber snail" (her little sister's name). She then arranges the animals in a certain order. Usually all in a row. What a funny girl!

Mmmm...Apple Hill

The day before Halloween we made the famous Aten/Cadle Family trip to Apple Hill. We figure this is a tradition we've beeen keeping for 5 years. Boy, do we love Apple Donuts!

It was pretty chilly, so Aubrey stayed nice and bundled in her stroller for most of it. Our little sweet tooth loved her apple donut. Wish we had another box to enjoy as the first one was gone too quickly (I may or may not have had a dream last night that I was back at Apple Hill enjoying another crumb topped apple donut). :)

No trip there is complete without a Pony Ride to top things off. Despite her face, she was so happy to be on that pony. She begs to see ponies and even rides around the house on her stuffed cheetah calling it a pony. Future cowgirl on my hands?

It was another great trip! Thanks right back at ya' Cadles!

Really?!

I just timed uploading pictures and typing out this blog post. Before new laptop, I was sitting at least an hour while my sad computer tried to process the few pictures. Then it would quit and I'd be back at square one. That's not even including the blog post I would have written that would also goof up and never make it to the publish stage. So I did what any person with zero patience for continued errors on blogger...I let it sit...

Hooray for a new laptop! Here are some pics of Aubrey's Halloween costume. She was a Ladybug and she loooved her "wings." She had so much fun at her Trunk or Treat party given by her Ward Primary.

Ryan and I were invited to our FIRST grownup Halloween party for the following night and enjoyed once again getting a little creative with our costumes. Yes, those are tattoo sleeves on our arms, not makeup. Soooo much easier to remove and I couldn't wait to see my normal arms again after a few hours. You can only look at Dragons and flames for so long.

We made our first trek to Bishops Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland with Gigi (Ryan's mom). Aubrey was determined to get a green pumpkin. No normal orange one for her! It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to go back next year. Amazing pumpkin pie is served there too...food always gets us back to places.

Speaking of eating, you can definitely tell in the pictures that I'm only about 70 days away from meeting Aubrey's little sister. It's going fast. Thank goodness for Zofran and the ability to eat much more than just popcorn, white bread and cereal (Aubrey's pregnancy). Of course, she was worth every sacrifice! We love her.

Pictures are coming...

So my biggest block in posting more has been the lack of computer access. Our desktop is maxed out with pics and over 5 years old. It runs all day to just pull up a website. My hand-me-down laptop has been shot for awhile too.

So I'm happy to announce that in 7-10 days a new laptop should be arriving at my doorstep! Hope to get pics up soon. Our little Aubrey isn't so little anymore. :)

Great to be back. Thanks for the love, everyone.

Well, hello again!

Sooo... It's been awhile since my last post.

Lots of changes since then, for the better! We moved in May to a 3 bedroom house with a yard and a garage! After 7 years of apartment living, we are so grateful for a little room to stretch out. It's been a huge blessing! Ryan's mom moved out of the house he grew up in for something more managable and we are renting from her. It's been great.

We are also excited to announce that Aubrey is going to be a big sister in less than 100 days! I'm 26 weeks pregnant with another girl. We are so happy. Every time we would ask Aubrey if she'd like a brother or a sister, she'd say "umm, I think I will have a little sister." she was right on.

Ryan's work location has changed also. Same job, different building. With less of a commute, we get more time with him now. Love that!

We are now in the Tempo park ward activily serving away. It's been fun making new friends.

Life has been very good to us. So we've been busy living it! I hope to update a little more frequently.

Love you all!

Insert Clever Lion Joke Here

Last month, Aubrey and I went to the Wild Animal Park in Southern California with my siblings and parents.


Uncle Orrin and Aubrey. Aubrey and her cousin, Lily. They are only 4 months apart and such buddies already.

It's Auntie Beck!




We couldn't take our eyes off the majestic lions. Then a lioness came walking over to our glass wall and started watching us. They are really massive, but Aubrey didn't seem to mind the "big kitties."

Yahoo for Coupons!

Any guesses on how much I spent on all this at CVS??

$4.09!

If you haven't tried using coupons on some things, you might want to check it out. It's really fun! CVS has some great coupons like $5 off a $20 purchase. Combine that with coupons for other items you need and you get a low total everytime. Great way to stockpile some essentials and even some candy for all your Young Women's lessons too.

If you need more info: check out www.Moneysavingmom.com (she's a pro in Kansas) and www.myfrugaladventures.com (she's a pro in Roseville, CA).

Have fun!

I'm two!

Happy Birthday on the 16th, sweet girl! We love you!