Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

Since today is Bryan's birthday, I feel justified in sharing a few things about him you may not know. I usually parade my kiddos all over this blog but this one is just to share a little bit about why I am excited that Bryan came into this world 32 years ago.


































(The above pictures were taken in London on our honeymoon 3 years ago - I thought they were only a glimpse of Bryan's sense of humor)


Let's see, where do I even start?
I love his:
- genuine love for God
- Randomness
- keen sense for style
- cleanliness
- honesty
- thoroughness
- ability to make anything we do FUN
- drive to see something from start to finish (completion)
- ability to be one of the best dad's ever
- great laugh
- ability to fix things (troubleshooting)
- beautiful mind/ creativity
- sense of humor
- great company
- awesome insight
- loving nature
- family values (commitment)
...and the list goes on!

Here are a couple of pictures from 32 years ago. His mother (Debbie) developed toxemia during her pregnancy so Bryan was brought into this world just a little prematurely but was a healthy little boy none the less. Kind of remind you of Pete?



We thank God for you Bryan and we love you!
What I am trying to say is HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN! Your family loves and adores you.

"I'm really sorry Aubrey!"

I really feel bad when my child has to go to the Dr. when she is hurt, but I feel just AWEFUL when it was my fault!
Aubrey was laying on the floor at our house after church and I told her to do something, she wasn't minding me so I pulled her up by one arm - this made her cry (not unusual right?) Well, she kept crying (which is a little unusual) then after she stopped crying, she started up again whenever I would move her left arm (VERY unusual - and alarming) I started to feel just terrible about the whole thing. I hand fed her, then put her down for her nap, then called the "on call nurse" for Aubrey's Dr. - she advised me to come soon because Aubrey's Dr. just happened to be at the diagnostic clinic (she was "on call" on a Sunday which was sweet)

Her Dr. told me not to worry, Aubrey just had Nursemaid's Elbow.
"What is that?" you ask

Nursemaid elbow is a common injury among preschool-aged children. Referring to a condition in which a child's elbow bones get partially pulled out of joint and do not line up normally. The injury can occur innocently from swinging a young child by the arms or pulling a child's arm while in a hurry (which is what I did). It is a temporary condition without permanent effects, it can be quite frightening to parents who find their child lacking the ability to use his or her upper arm.

How was it treated?
Aubrey sat in my lap while Dr. Roberts checked her arm out. She then straightened her arm out forward with her palm upwards, then bent her elbow so her hand touched the top of that same shoulder. THAT WAS IT! It worked like a charm. Aubrey's relief was instantaneous. Sheeew - Then, I stopped feeling horrible for doing this to my sweet, little Aubrey and relaxed. We then went to Sonic to get Aubrey a shake of her choice - she got chocolate but ended up switching with her daddy and had a strawberry-banana smoothie.

I am posting this to help others who may come across this common occurrence with their child. Hopefully this post will help you to avoid this from happening all together OR at least not get too worked up once it does happen.
Click here for more specific instructions on how it is treated by a professional. I hope this never happens again, but if it does, I probably wont freak out and cry to my mom, husband and a friend.

"...singin' a song, side by side"

Pete loves his big sister! When he hears her voice, his face lights up. He smiles and laughs at her constantly. She is always loving on him too and asks to hold him. I let her a lot more now than I use to and also, he is pretty sturdy; I doubt she could do much damage :) I am excited that I have a front row seat as I watch this relationship grow.
I have a few random pictures I wanted to share so I will post them for you here. Hope you enjoy them:



"It's time for Bible class."
Sometimes you never know what scenario your child will come up with when left to themselves. I walked into Aubrey's room after not hearing her for a little while (I usually know somethings up then). She explained that her pink duck was Mrs. Patty (her Sunday school teacher) and the other bears and chickens and things were her students. Hey, they need to learn about God too right?


Rainy Days: We have been so grateful for the rain! The other day I told Aubrey we could go to the library so she was getting excited about it and right before we were about to leave, it started raining. I really didn't want to get out and drive in the rain so I came up with a better solution...let's just PLAY in the rain. So that is exactly what we did. Free entertainment - I am all about that.

Wanna be, wanna be like daddy. Pete resembles his dad which is great because I have always thought Bryan is and was absolutely adorable (I know mushy hah? - just keeping it real here) These shirts were given to Bryan by our friend Libby when Aubrey was born. We busted them out the other day and saw this to be more fitting since Pete really is a mini-version of Bryan. I am proud of my boys!

Bryan had to run a quick errand so he asked Aubrey if she wanted to go with him (which is a real treat because he usually is working in his office during the day). Of course, she jumped at the chance and enjoyed it.

I love this picture he snapped of her. She looks so grown up and so proud to be hanging out with dad during the work day.

Our Little Tyke is getting bigger

Mr. Pete had his 4 month appointment last Thursday (he is actually 4 1/2 mo.) and Dr. Roberts says he is doing great. He is growing at a nice rate and is just a healthy boy. He weighed in at 16.8 lbs. (80th percentile) and was 28 inches long (99th percentile) jeepers!
Pete is almost as big as his friend Lars who was born less than 24 hours before him.
Life has been a dream having a 2nd child - a sweet, cuddly, lovable, happy, little boy, a wonderful son. Aubrey was a peaceful baby so people told me that our next one would be a terror - "WRONG!" Well, at least I can say that as of right now. Pete is one of the most laid back children I know. Thanks God!

Here are a few other recent pictures of Pete and some relatives who love him dearly:
Pete and his Unky Aaron

Pete and his Aunt Gi


Aubrey is still loving on Pete and has been so wonderful with him. She throws his diapers away, helps cleanup spit-up, puts blankets on him when she thinks he is cold, comes and tells me when I need to take care of him, ect.

What a wonderful big sister!

Pete for sure recognizes her voice and gets so excited when she leans over and talks to him in her soft voice. She is usually greeted with a huge Pete smile.

Aubrey calls him "Little Buddy" (got it from Wow! Wow! Wubzy!) now which is almost as cute as when she called him "Baby Peep."

Reid is HERE!!

Our sweet niece, Reid, was born yesterday, August 13th at 10:59 PM.
We got news that Reid and Renee' are both doing very well.


Reid weighed a whopping 9 lbs, 6 oz and was 21 inches long. Huge baby. Pretty impressive for little Renee' to carry a good sized baby like that. Just for reference, that is 2 lbs. more than Pete weighed when he was born. She was born in Florida (Casey and Renee' currently reside in Crestview, FL.)
We are so happy and proud for the growing Robertson family!
...and proud of our little niece.

Here is a sweet video of Reid and Casey (her daddy)



...and of course her Nana and Grandad were there along with her Aunt G'

Almost there - Aunt Nee'

My sister-in-law, Renee', is anticipating being induced tomorrow and we are all anticipating the arrival of our niece, REID NOEL ROBERTSON! If I am not mistaken, Renee's due date is actually today so at least by tomorrow we will get to see what baby Reid looks like.
She is Aubrey & Pete's first cousin on Bryan's side of the family. We could not make it to Florida for this wonderful occasion but I am so glad Debbie, Darrell & Angie are there to celebrate with and support Renee' & Casey at this time. Although we are not there physically, we wanted Casey, Renee' and Reid to know we are there in spirit. We will be praying for a quick, safe and healthy delivery of sweet baby Reid. I hope for my next post to have little Reid's beautiful face on it. Darrell and Angie promised to send me pictures asap. I can't wait!

RENEE" LOOKS GREAT! Angela took this picture just the other day and I have to say that Renee' looks wonderful.

She is on top of things - Little Reid's room is already set up and looks so cute with a cowgirl theme to always remind Reid of her Texas roots. What a great idea. Debbie had the great idea to make the group of pictures spelling "REID"s name on it, so Bryan designed the letters you see above her crib. I thought he did a great job and I know that will mean something to Reid that her Uncle Bryan made it for her.



She even has her own Cousin Welcoming Committee from Texas who is poised and ready to hear of her arrival:

the wubblog

Aubrey and cousin, Alyse, made it on the wubblog.

WALL-E

Bryan had the great idea for us to take Aubrey to see her first movie in a theater. After hearing some friends rave about it, he decided that WALL-E would be a great movie to take her to see. I agreed! It was for sure a great choice. I believe it is one of the best animated films I have seen to date. WALL-E was very well made and visually breathtaking. I fell in love with him the first part of the movie (which the first 30 minutes was just of him) The movie had a lot of underlying themes and they were presented brilliantly. Bryan and I definitely had a few laughs throughout the movie. We will for sure own in when it comes out on DVD. All this to say that we recommend it to people of all ages.
Aubrey really enjoyed it as well, it kept her interest for the most part (tip: it is good to bring a bag of m&m's to help keep a child interested towards the end of a movie)

TWO THUMBS UP FOR WALL-E

A splash in the world

I had some pictures from a couple of weeks ago I wanted to post. Bryan, Aubrey and I headed over to Amy Pruitt's apartment complex for a swim party in her honor...well, Aubrey Pruitt and Laurel (A.K.A. LoLo) Pruitt were honored as well because all of their birthday's being so close together. It was great to hang out with the entire Pruitt clan as we know it and the Nortons.

We were glad to be a part of it. I took a few pictures from that evening of people in the pool so I thought I would share them. Needless to say, I think everyone had a blast.

(In the picture above, Chris and Adam are throwing Jackson up in the air. I know Jackson thought he was really getting up high because he was. Here is proof)

Here are some other fun pictures.








Our Aubrey had fun swimming with us and all of the kiddos. She really did not want to part with the ducky.

I'm Potty Trained!!

Yes, at the ripe old age of 28 I decided it was time I got to run to the potty when I needed to go...(insert awkward pause)...Okay, really I am talking about our little Aubrey. Yep, I can safely say she is potty trained. She has been for a while but I just wanted to make sure she wasn't still having accidents when I posted this. Yep, only factual information here at the Silverthorne Sentinel - guaranteed. I am so glad to not have to buy diapers for a while. I am still set with the supply given to me for Mr. Pete by wonderful friends and family. We are sitting dry and pretty here at the Silverthorne household.
(Note: this picture was taken in Pitkin, CO - We gave her books to read while on the potty for incentive to stay on there long enough to take care of all of her business)


HOW SHE TRAINED - (Do not read this part if you are not interested in toddler potty training - it might bore you)
I am really proud of Aubrey though. She actually potty trained a lot faster than I thought she would. This is how it all went down:
1)We bought her a small kids potty about 6 months ago and she seemed interested in it at first and then lost it for a little while then I decided to get more serious when I recently heard of her friend Grayson potty training so
2) We got her a lid for the big potty to give her options.
3) Her Nana bought her plenty of cute panties.
4) We gave her lots of praise when she went
5) I then printed out an incentive chart which was just a picture of a choo choo train in which she could put stickers on when she did her business in the potty. Potty "train" - get it? LAME - she got 1 sticker for going #1 and 2 for going #2. Makes sense right? m&m's were given at one point as well. She got a little bored with all of that after a while but by that time, she got use to the idea of going to the potty.
6) We just put her in panties and if she had an accident we would just clean it up and tell her that it was okay but she needed to go the the potty next time. After a couple of days she was going to the potty every time.

I am sure every kid is different but that is our potty story. It was awesome! SHE was awesome. I am so proud of her and it is so cute so see her in her little panties.

"It was a hullabaloo"

We had a fun time in Tyler last week. On Thursday I took Pete and Aubrey to the zoo after hearing a group from our church was going. It was enjoyable getting to see friends from church and Aubrey really had a grand ole time cruising through the zoo, checking out all of the animals with one of her best buddies, Grayson. One way Jill and I kept the kids motivated is by telling them we were looking for the monkeys. Sad to say that we actually missed the monkey exhibit because of lack of time. (NOTE - To Aubrey & Grayson - we will see those monkeys someday but you will have to wait until the fall when it is cooler, it is pretty darn hot out there) Another thing, I thought it was cute that Aubrey would go up to other kids in the group and say "I got a great idea!" then she would start hopping like a kangaroo. I don't know if she was trying to start an animal parade or what but it seemed like a great idea to her.

Here is a series of photos of a giraffe trying to sit down. I have never really thought about it but once I realized what an ordeal this was, I sort of felt sorry for the big guy.





Bryan was out of town for a couple of days so I decided to stay in Tyler and hang out with the fam. We went to my brother's house and just chilled out with my sister-in-law and 3 beautiful nieces. Aubrey really enjoyed that!

Here is Aubrey and her other best buddy, Alyse (A.K.A. Lysie)
I think this is so adorable - these two girls absolutely love to watch "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" and it is great watching them enjoy it together while embracing each other.

We really had a great time with my brothers when they got off of work and our friends, the Roberts, as well. I truly am grateful Aubrey and Pete have such wonderful aunts, uncles, cousins and friends! (this is Pete & his Unky Aaron)
Here are pics of Lysie & Aubs at a park which is just walking distance from the Allen's house: