3 years old....

So Aubrey turned 3 on the 14th of October.  Not sure where the time is going but it's going "superfast" as Aubrey would say.  I have pictures from her party of course, but I'll save them for the next post.  This post is to comemerate her at 3. 

* She is a spunky opinionated sassy one.  I have my hands full.  She lets us know when she doesn't approve of something, and she tells us what she thinks of certain things.  I'm loving her sense of what she wants, but not loving the sassy mouth a lot.  We are working on it though :) 

* She's determined.  She will find a way to make it work, which I love.  She's not a giver upper, and this trait will suit her well. 

* I am amazed at the difference in a year.  The only thing "baby" left about her is her squishy cheeks, and she still has pudgy hands.  Everything else is all little girl. 

* She's an overall happy child.  She only seems to be cranky when she isn't feeling good, or is tired.  When she's unhappy, you know it. 

* She loves Lego's and puzzles the best.  Those things will entertain her for an hour at a time.

* Dolls, her kitchen, and dress up are the next best thing.  I am loving seeing her imagination at work.  She's definitely creative. 

* We think she's going to be a lefty.  She uses her right hand some, but she mostly uses her left hand, especially for writing/drawing, and eating.  Wes and I are both right handed, so this is new territory for us. 

* Chicken, rice, green beans, okra, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, oranges, sausage, and hot dogs are her favorite foods. 

* She doesn't really care for sweets, unless it's a cookie. 

* When she watches tv, she likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Gaspar and Lisa, Doc McStuffins, and the Little Einsteins. 

*She hasn't really taken to movies much yet, although I have gotten her to sit down and watch most of Beauty and the Beast, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

* She has a soft heart, just like her daddy.  She has begun to show a lot of empathy towards situations, and it warms my heart.  She's pretty sensitive, like me, and it's not hard to hurt her feelings. 

* She loves music and loves to dance and sing. 

*She's a bit of a drama queen, but it's funny to watch.  I can just imagine the teenage years ;) 

She looks like her daddy, but she acts like me.  My momma marvels all the time about how much she reminds her of me.  She's a joy to be around (most of the time lol), and she definitely keeps us on our toes.  I am trying to soak it all in, the good and the bad, and hold it close to my heart.  I know one day these days will be a fleeting memory. 

So yeah....

all my good intentions of documenting our day by day of Disney just didn't happen.  Life did instead.  I have been swamped this semester with school, so not nearly enough time to blog.  So I'll sum it up for you:

Disney with an almost three year old was an experience.  Characters were the big main hit.  She loved them all and I have lots of pictures.  Turns out boat rides can be scary.  Of course this was a mommy fail, as I had forgotten that the first ride we went on was a dark ride with some thunder and lightening effects...silly me.  Ah well, you live and learn.  She loved the parades, and street dance parties as well.  Oh and the carousel, and the tea cups.  I spun around and around enough to last me a while during that week :)  I'll leave you with this one picture...and the link to check out my album on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.495832210427162.116972.100000011623706&type=3

I still have her third birthday party to catch up on here, and yeah after tonight Halloween...and this starts the ultimate busy season around here.  I am thinking next year I am going to have to use a different format on these blogs, as I don't want to give it up since it's my way of documenting, but I'm going to have to condense it somehow.  Maybe a week by week thing will work.  Anyhow, hope everyone has a Happy Halloween and gets lots of good candy :) 

Disney: Day One Part One Hollywood Studios

 Every time we go to Disney we get park hoppers.  Some people say it's not worth it, but to me it is.  I like being able to be flexible in my plans for what parks we like to go to, and so it's a must have for our trips. 

Our first day we started the morning off with breakfast in our food court at the resort, then hopped the bus to Hollywood Studios.  We didn't ride a single ride there, because the only two I was interested in doing were the Toy Story Mania and the Disney Live show.  If you don't get there when the park opens and get a fast pass for TS Mania then you are guaranteed a 60-90 minute wait.  Now Aubrey proved to be a good waiter, but I didn't feel the need to test it on this trip.  My viewpoint was, that this trip was for her, and this isn't the only time we will be going so if we didn't ride something, no big deal.  To our disappointment the Disney Live show wasn't operating the day we were there, and we never heard exactly why.  So we took the time to knock out some character visits and it was awesome seeing Aubrey's face light up every time she saw one :)  

My next update will cover a really cool acrobatic type show and dining with the princesses :) 

 This is the Phineus and Ferb character spot.  It was the first place we went, because I love my husband lol.  He is a HUGE P&F fan, so this made his day :) 

 Aubrey was dancing...they were telling them what moves to  make and she was following right along. 

 They loved our autograph mat.  All the characters seemed to.  We got so many compliments on it from cast members and other people in the parks.  I'll have to post a picture of the finished project soon, I love it and think it's the perfect momento from Aubrey's first Disney trip. 

 This is one of my favorite family shots of us the whole trip :)

Disney: Traveling Day!!

I am going to break our Disney up into days, because well that's just easier to recap.

We left on Saturday September 22.  We flew down there so we entered a first for Aubrey...flying on a plane.  I had been worried about it, but we flew because for two reasons: 1) I got a fabulous deal through Southwest, and 2) a twelve hour car ride just wasn't sounding pleasant to me.  I was worried about two things: 1) her panicking on us when she couldn't get up and play and 2) how her ears would feel. 

Turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about.  She loved it!  She thought it was so cool to be in a plane, and she loved those peanuts lol.  We made sure to give her something to drink in her straw cup, and had fruit snacks for her to chew.  We bought a new portable dvd player and a new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse dvd for her.  There was also a new backpack with some new entertainment in it.  I was probably overly prepared but I don't view that as a bad thing.

When we got to Orlando, the Magical Express (one of Disney's best FREE services) picked us up and took us on our way to our resort.  You can't use car seats on buses in Orlando, so Aubrey got a little taste of freedom from the car seat.

Don't worry we were sitting still when I took this.  I made her sit in her seat and face forward at all times the bus was in motion ;) 

And then as soon as the bus started moving, this is what happened.

Too much excitement all ready lol :)

When we got to our resort, check in was a breeze thanks to early check in that I had completed a few days prior.  We got to our room and when we walked in this is what we found:

It's the little things :)
We went on to Downtown Disney and ate at Earl of Sandwich.  I was looking forward to that one after reading about it, and it definitely didn't disappoint.  Loved it! Aubrey then decided she wanted to dance in the bubbles.

And then go play at Once Upon a Toy.  They have all these cool Mr. Potato Head parts, and you can stuff a box for 19.99.  So yeah we did that, and now Aubrey has some really cool parts for her Mrs. Potato Head! The cast members will show you how to work that box like a pro to get the most pieces in there. 

And then we headed back to our resort, where I caught the last half of a Auburn's best played game yet this year (even if they did not win.) 

Mission: College Football

Labor Day weekend 2012.  Atlanta Georgia.  The Georgia Dome.  Chick Fil A Kickoff Classic. 
2 games. 4 teams.  1 heck of a time. 

Yeah, we had a blast.  One of our teams won, and the other put up a good fight but just didn't finish.  That would be my team, but I am still proud to be an Auburn Tiger :)  The Georgia Dome is pretty cool, but I personally prefer the college stadiums.  I also discovered that 90% of Clemson fans are obnoxious.  I discovered this BEFORE the game in which they beat us, in the form of the MARTA system and a bunch of them constantly screaming the same 2 cheers over and over...and both of those cheers spell CLEMSON.  Yep.  A couple of them that we met after the game showed me that there were about 10% nice ones though...after part of the 90% proceeded to stampede everyone in their path to get onto the MARTA leaving the Dome.  But hey Cam Newton was there on the sidelines, and I got the entire Tiger Walk on video after BOTH Phillip Lutzenkirchen and Emory Blake slapped my hand...I was in heaven :)  The stadium was much louder Saturday night than Friday night, as us Auburn fans get into football more than the Tennessee fans apparently.  All in all it was a great time with fun people and I am so happy football season is here! 

 The Vol Walk

 Wes and his cousin Dave. 

 The SEC guy.

 Smokey and the UT cheerleaders. 

 A bunch of UT players I don't know....

 and the one UT player I do know...Quaterback Tyler Bray.  And let me say ladies, in person he's quite the looker ;)  But I like the brown headed blue eyed guys lol. 

 Wes playing Plinko.  He won Aubs a Chick Fil A moo cow. 

 The power T.

 Tiger Walk.  I didn't get any still pictures other than this of it.  I videoed it instead.  I might put it on here another time. 

 There were Auburn people EVERYWHERE!  Love it!

 Friday night we had club level seats which were nice.  Saturday night we were in the nosebleed lol, but you could see all things up there. 

 Thank you shaker for blocking out the "T" in Tigers. 

 Well they look tiny in the picture but that's Lutzie, Emory Blake, and Daren Bates heading out to go do the coin toss.