Dallas

I know these pictures are really late. I could come up with a really great excuse, but I guess I'll just play my mommy card. :) When my parents were here in the beginning of April we decided to take a day trip to Dallas and visit the Aquarium. It was going to be Aubrey's first visit to see the fishies. Jonah wanted to drive by the Cowboys Stadium and just look through it, but you couldn't do anything without tickets for a tour. After much debate, we decided Aubrey wouldn't really care where we were and opted to tour the Cowboys Stadium instead of visiting the Aquarium. I didn't want to put Aubrey back in the car for another half an hour drive around Dallas either. :) In the next three pictures we were standing in the "cheap seats". These are tickets sold for standing room only and there is a level open for people to stand and watch the game. It was a long way down...Grandma was worried about Aubrey getting dropped, but it all worked out okay.

Here is the view of the field from the standing room only seats. Not a bad view.

This one is for Ian...He knows we are so far from being Cowboy's fans, but we figured we would get Aubrey sitting in the ear-hole of the helmet in the end zone. Needless to say, she is a little small. She wasn't sure about the fake grass and fake dirt (or ground as we used to call it back in the marching band days), but she sat and smiled for the camera anyways.

We figured we better get a picture of her by something neutral so we could pretend it was from Lambeau Field...does this NFL logo look neutral enough?

The tour included not only the field, but also the players' locker room. Marion Barber played for the Gophers when Ben and I marched in the band. It only seemed fitting to get a picture of the one player we kinda like ;).

This was at the end of their visit. Aubrey loved spending time with Grandpa...he gave her cookies.

Easter and Beyond

This is one of those pictures that is worth a thousand words, but it may need a bit of explaining. Only in LA...our neighbors own the green truck and park it everyday on the street between our houses. Ben parks his truck on the other side of our driveway. We had some friends staying with us for a few days (he owns the gray truck), and he parked on the other side of our driveway. Apparently our neighbor didn't appreciate having his "spot" taken so he decided to just park on the sidewalk! Matt and I couldn't believe it! One of those things that warranted a picture.

"Nah-Nah", Grandpa, and Uncle Jonah came down to visit for a week over spring break and we had a little mini birthday party for Aubrey since she was turning 1 in a few weeks. It was a little early, but they had fun watching her open her presents! Little does Aubrey know she is going to be getting three parties! Grandma and Grandpa Kempen are coming to visit next weekend so we will probably have some cake then too! Her "real" birthday party will be the day after her birthday with some of our friends in the area. Here are a few pics of her first bite of cake! She didn't get an afternoon nap that afternoon since she was shopping with mom and grandma all day, so she was really tired!

mmmmmm.......strawberry

"I'm listing to the left mom...must be bedtime."

Easter morning Aubrey came out to find that the Easter Bunny visited and left her an Elmo basket with some toys in it! She wasn't sure at first, but she soon figured out it was full of goodies for her!

Cookie Monster and Abby Cadaby were just two of the characters in her basket. We spent the morning lounging in our jammies before we had to get ready for church. If you look at the post before this one you can see some pics of her in her Easter outfit!

My parents bought Aubrey this walker for Christmas knowing she would grow into it. The front detaches and makes all kinds of noise (her favorite, not mine). She has recently been figuring out how to pull herself up on it and even walk across the living room! I figured it was kind of a big thing and was worth posting a video on the blog so I could brag about my little genius!

Enjoy the video! Sorry it cuts off so quick...the battery on my camera died.

Recovery Room...

This post is dedicated to the crew of the Recovery Room at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. A little birdie told me that the current picture gracing the screen of your computer is "old". This is a picture of our little bug from Easter in her sailor outfit. I swore I would never put my daughter in clothes like this, but what can I say...like mother, like daughter. Hope y'all enjoy!

Bossier City, LA

Here we are! Home Sweet Home...in Bossier City, LA. We have been here for about two weeks now and are all settled in our new house. LA welcomed us with a round of the flu, but we have all had our turn and should be back on track now. I love Bossier City! There is so much to do here and the weather is beautiful! I can't wait to get outside and give our yard the little bit of TLC it needs. Some weeding, flower planting, and fresh grass seed in the backyard should do the trick.

Here are a few pictures of our new house! This first one is the living room. We love the fireplace! There were even screws already in the brick that matched the hangers for our big picture! The bookshelves built in took away some clutter of having our own bookshelves and DVD racks in the living room. Aubrey loves all the space and I love the floor to ceiling windows on either end.

Aubrey loves her new room. It's hard to believe this is the third bedroom/house she has lived in since she was born! I guess that's the Air Force for you! It's setting her up for being moveable in the future. :) It's amazing how everything seems to just fit.

This is the guest bathroom. Our blue and brown decor works perfect with the brown vanity and light brown walls. The blue helps brighten it up a bit. You'll just have to ignore Aubrey's pink and purple towels hanging from the shower.

Here is the "green room". The windows are beautiful and, as you can see, Sadie has found her sunning spot. Sadie and Maggie will lay in here all day and just watch out the window. It is an incredibly bright green, so if you're coming to visit I hope you're feeling cheery! The bedding I had in my room in high school matched in here perfect!

Ahhhh....my favorite part of the house. I love the kitchen! Although there are a few things I would change, there are more than a few things I love. Our kitchen table fits in here great and there is a little desk off to the right where we can have all my cookbooks and our computer stuff. It's really nice to have all that in the kitchen so we are all in the same room more often!

Here it is! We are very close to our neighbors, but they are pretty quiet so we don't mind. I love the green siding and blue door, but Ben isn't so sure about it. The big tree in the front yard is already budding! You can see the water tower in the backyard...it's one of the points the B-52 flies by in their pattern. I thought I would miss the jet noise since we aren't living on base...boy was I wrong! The Buff has 8 engines and it sounds like every one of them are going to come through our front window when they fly overhead. I love it!

After finding out that Ben was going to be pulling 12-14 hour days when he hits the flight line, and hearing about the 4 am shows and 2 am returns, we decided he needed his own car. He was able to find this great 1997 F250 Heavy Duty truck. He finally got his truck and I have my own car again!

Our move out from MS was somewhat uneventful. Aside from some arguments on what our pets did to the carpet and what they didn't we were able to get out of there with a small fee. Here is Aubrey crawling under the table and re-arranging the furniture. :)

While I was visiting a friend in Minot, Ben had to clean and pack...looks like he had quite the little helper!

This one is from the "old" house on Mississippi Ave. She was waiting for the cookies to finish in the oven.

Now we are at our new house. It only took her two days to start standing here! The windows are so low that she was able to use the windowsill to stand up. She was just hanging out watching the kids play outside.

So adorable! I wonder what she was thinking?

Can't forget about our other two "kids". Sadie and Maggie have adjusted great to their new house! They have a fenced in backyard again so they can play outside without having to be on a leash. Maggie was watching Aubrey look out the window from the picture above.

Oh Sadie...she is being such a puppy right now! There is a lot of open space in the living room and Sadie is taking full advantage of the wrestling space.

Here she is! She was using her pack'n'play for her crib while we were in the moving process and this is what we would see when nap time was over!

Aubrey loves to help daddy. He was tacking down our cable chord and she kept crawling all over him. It took a little longer than planned, but it got done!

Aubrey is constantly crawling over to the fireplace and using it to help her stand up. I don't think we'll be having a fire in there anytime soon so she's good!

Here she is again by the back windows. The dogs were outside playing and she just sat/stood and watched while she squealed at them through the window.

Whew. I know it's been a long time, but I hope y'all enjoy the update and the new pictures! Hopefully it wont be so long before the next update!!

She's Crawling!!

I can't believe I missed it! I was visiting with a neighbor and Ben managed to catch her first forward crawl on video. Just wanted to share it with y'all! As I'm writing this she has made her way from the living room to the dining room and is fascinated with the hard floors. She is now working on chasing after the dogs squealing the whole way!

New News!

As many of you have probably heard we wont be heading to Oregon for F-15 training. Because Ben is too healthy he kept GLOCing (G-induced loss of consciousness) at the centrifuge. He decided it wasn't worth risking his life every-time he went up in the jet so we started looking at other options.

Today Ben and I found out our future (for the next few years anyway). Ben will be flying the B-52. He is so excited to be in a bomber and have the opportunity to "distribute the hate". Everything starts happening pretty quick now. Once his orders come in we are free to start the process of PCSing. We have to report to Barksdale AFB near Shreveport, LA by March 5th and he starts his training on March 15. Rumor mill has it that we can plan on being there for about 8 months and then either we will stay there or head back up to Minot, ND.

This is really good news for us. He has a great opportunity to possibly cross train and fly each of the three bombers throughout his career. This is all we know for now, but I wanted to keep y'all updated.

Off to Louisiana! At least we get to stay in the south!

Freedom Park

On Saturday Ben and I decided we wanted to get out of the house for awhile. After getting Aubrey all bundled up (it was a little colder than we thought) we made our way to Freedom Park. It's a nice distance away from our house so Ben and I were able to stretch our legs a bit. This was Aubrey's first experience at the park and she loved it!! As with all the other firsts I try to get a few pictures and thought I would share. This first one she had to sit on my lap on the swing since another family was using the baby swings. It has probably been ten years since I have been on a swing, but I survived!

Like I said, a little colder than we thought. We got Aubrey dressed right, but apparently the sweatshirts weren't enough for Ben and I.

At the top of the slide there is a tower with the window cut out. You just have to pretend the big yellow sweatshirt isn't behind her. :)

Ben took Aubrey down the slide for the first time, but she had to stand on the top of it first.

She absolutely loves being thrown in the air. I love this picture of her with the sky and trees in the background. You would never guess we are in MS!

After the other family left we headed over to the "Tot Spot". It's the cutest thing! Everything is mini-sized for the little kids and there is even some sand around instead of just the mulch. Aubrey went down the little slide all by herself (with a little help from daddy).

We decided we would have to bring her back to play in the sand on a day when she doesn't have to wear her mittens.

Right before we left Aubrey got to swing all by herself! She is still a little small, but she loved it. I'm sure this was just the first of many trips to the park. I can't wait for her to ask to go!