Beach

We were able to spend our Memorial Day at the beach. Love the beach.

And we realized after we got home that we spent last Memorial Day at the beach. A lot has changed in a year!

Aubrey has a lot more hair for one thing. I almost forgot she was such a little bald baby.

She will seriously sit and play in the sand for HOURS. I really have never seen another kid love sand like she does.

I never thought I would get to this point, but California now feels like home. If only it were not so darn expensive we would probably stay here forever. We have a good life here.

And, this has nothing to do with the beach, but my old roommate Heather came to visit today! She was in town and stopped by. Aubrey loved her and I loved catching up. Has it really been six years since we were roomies at BYU? I'm starting to feel old.

A Day in the Life

I get to hang out with this cutie all day:

She is sweet, generous, and tons of fun.

She is also mischievous, sassy, and way too clever for her own good. 

I don't want to forget any of these crazy, fun-filled, tantrum-filled days. So to help me remember, here is a typical "day in the life" at our house, with today as a snapshot. 

6:30-7:00: Dragged myself out of bed, and got started on "morning chores." 2 loads of laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the apartment, ate a bowl of granola. Chatted with Steven as he got ready for work.

7:45: Steven left on his bike to work, and I hear miss Aubrey waking up in her crib. Breakfast for Aubrey. She (sadly, unlike her mother) is NOT a morning person. She wakes up and is little miss grumpy until she has a full belly.

8:15: Strap a very unwilling Aubrey into the stroller and go for a run. Run by the park. Aubrey and I make some new friends, climb, and go down the slide over and over. 

Then I bring out the bucket and shovel and she plops herself down in the sand for a good hour. I wipe down the stroller, help build a few sand castles, and fill out my California Primary election voter card that I have been ignoring for the past few weeks. 

10:00: Run home. Fold laundry. Attempt to take a shower. Aubrey freaks out and so she comes in the shower too. I have yet to find a way to shower without her sleeping or Steven home. *sigh* Aubrey "helps" me with my make-up.

11:30: Lunchtime: Strawberries, and leftover meatball subs. We read some books. Aubrey picks out Dilbert. Steven will be so proud :)

12:00-2:15: Naptime! Whahoo. While she naps, I finish the laundry, pay some bills (so exciting), update our accounting, make a shopping list, and waste time on Pinterest and Babycenter (my guilty pleasure). 

3:00: Meet some friends at the pool. I bemoan my super sun-burned shoulders from Tuesday's pool day (does anybody else slather their kid with sunscreen like crazy and completely forget about themselves?) and try to keep Aubrey from drowning. I also get to hang out and chat. Love this part about being a mom!

5:00: Home to change. Aubrey walks around in my high-heels yelling "shoes, shoes." She is truly a girl.

6:00: Steven is HOME. We decide to go the Chipotle for dinner. This part is not typical. I love to cook and so we rarely eat out, but the cupboards were looking pretty empty...

7:00: Due to empty cupboards, we go grocery shopping at Target and Fresh & Easy. I LOVE shopping with Steven around to help. 

8:00: Aubrey goes to bed and falls asleep in about 10 seconds. I've been very blessed with a good little sleeper.

9:00: And now, I will finish up the blog, probably watch an episode of Lost with Steven (our third attempt at watching the series.... haven't figured out why everybody thinks it is so amazing yet...), catch up on our day together, and go to bed!

That is a day in our crazy life. Every day is different, but they are definitely busy. I love it and am so grateful for my little family.

LA Again

We have spent the past week with my family. First, my parents and brother came to visit us in good ole' Santa Clara. We had lots of fun:

One of my favorite activities was visiting Alcatraz. All of the pictures are on my brothers phone, but that was a really cool place. I definitely recommend it, even though I felt kind of spooky the whole time. But, don't worry. We finished off our SF trip on a lighter note with $9 ice cream sundaes from Ghirardelli's. Best ice cream EVER.

We all then made the trek down here to LA (where Aubrey and I still are) for little Zachary's blessing day:

Not all were happy about taking family photos. 

But, it is good to document us all being together, because it doesn't happen enough!

I read a quote the other day that said, "if I could apparate, my life would be so much easier and cheaper." 

I totally agree. Just our immediate families live in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, Provo, Calgary, and Portland(soon to be Indiana). I think both sets of parents should invest in an airline!

Buddies

This is Aubrey and her little buddy Tyler:

Since Tyler's mom, Ashley, and I are good friends, these two have also become quite the little buddies. Aubrey gets super excited whenever she sees him.

They are a lot alike. They both run rather than walk anywhere, are very social little kids, and have a whole lot of attitude to boot. I think it is funny because they also give each other LOTS of hugs and kisses.

Aubrey, I won't think that is quite so funny when you are 16 instead of 16 months!

We have been loving the warm weather lately. There is this awesome park for kids called Happy Hollow that we have a season pass to. They have kid rides, a carousel, lots of parks, petting zoo, etc. Pretty much toddler heaven. 

In a way it is also mom heaven because they spend all morning running around like crazy and then take a LONG nap in the afternoon. I think I will cry when Aubrey's napping days are over. 

Thanks for the pictures Ashley! I never seem to remember to bring my camera....

Toms & Easter

So, I may have a slight obsession with baby shoes. I'm almost ashamed to admit how many cute pairs of shoes I have bought for Aubrey. I do get good deals, so I don't break the bank, but she has a lot of shoes.

And when I saw that Toms shoes makes "Tiny Toms" well... I couldn't resist. And... when I realized that most of my shoes are at least a few years old (life of a mom...) I decided that the whole family would get a pair for Easter.

So now we are all matchy matchy. Pretty dorky... but fun.

Easter today was a great family day. Church, dinner with friends, and spending time reflecting on the life of our Savior. 

I attempted photos. Most ended up like this due to the ongoing fight with Aubrey over the camera:

A few were cute:

I know that I am biased, but this little lady is adorable and melts my heart everyday. She looked pretty sweet in her Easter get-up (thanks to H&M). 

Happy Easter!

Egg Hunt

Today our church had an Easter egg hunt for all the children. They had different age divisions, with the smallest one being for those under 18 months. Aubrey definitely loved it.

 Squinty eyes with the sun... but I always love a picture with my girl!

 Nothing to do with eggs... but aren't the turquoise skinny jeans adorable? They also have them in other colors.... I think I might have to go back.

 She got right in there and kept trying to grab multiple eggs at a time. Steven was a great dad and helped her the whole time. 

 I was pretty excited when she dumped out all the chocolate and only wanted the plastic eggs. Except for the ones that had goldfish crackers in them. She was all over those.

Definitely a successful first egg hunt. Holidays are a lot more fun with a little one running around. We are excited for Easter tomorrow! 

The Price is Right

I guess with an accounting degree you could say that I like numbers. And memorizing things. I definitely have a lot of useless knowledge memorized. Back when I was on the BYU tax team, my friend Lauren and I memorized hundreds of Internal Revenue Code sections (could I be any nerdier? The team did come with a free trip to Florida and $$, so I feel a little better.)

Now that I am doing the mom gig full-time, I have decided to put my love for numbers and memorizing to good use in my grocery shopping!

We probably live in one of the most expensive places in the US, and I am pretty proud that we are actually spending LESS on food here then we did in Provo. And we have even added another little mouth to the mix. Steven does get free lunch at work, so that helps, but I would say that our food budget is pretty darn low.

We live really close to lots of stores, so I don't waste a ton of gas going around. So I do all my shopping between Target, Fresh & Easy, Costco, and Safeway. Usually all of them.

For example, I know that Yo Baby Yogurt (a staple in Aubrey's diet), is $2.54 at Target, $2.69 at Safeway, and $2.99 at F&E. Combine Target with 50 cent off coupons from the company website, and I get a darn good deal. If you live in the Bay Area and want to know grocery prices, I can definitely help out!

If I get coupons, things definitely change, but here is a general mix of what I buy from where:

Costco- diapers, cheese, tortillas, sour cream, milk, chicken. There might be more here that has a lower unit price, but these are the only things we eat enough of to justify.

F&E- most produce, ground beef, granola, canned goods.

Target- household items, cleaners, baby clothes/items, yogurt, bread, pasta.

Safeway- cereal, berries (usually have a 2 for 1 deal), salsa.

Grocery shopping may be a slightly dorky "hobby" but I find it to be a game to stay within our budget and still cook good, healthy, interesting food.

And, quite honestly, as a mom, it feels good to keep my brain working. Even if it is working memorizing hundreds of different prices. I should so be a contestant on the Price is Right.