What a crazy year it was for us. The year 2011 brought many new changes for our family. Yes, we are still living in Iowa, and yes Mike is still in medical school (it will be over soon right?) We are enjoying our time here and cherish our experiences and our friends that we've met along the way.
There were many highlights from 2011. Aside from having so much fun with a new baby, we were blessed to have Nicole's family and Mike's parents come and visit us in January. Mike finished his 2nd year of Medical school and after he took his step 1 boards in July, we went on a family vacation with Mike's family in Fairmount , British Columbia. The main reason for visiting was to attend Mike's father's memorial in Calgary. Sadly, Mike was unable to attend the funeral when he passed away in November 2010, so it was nice for him to say goodbye. We had a such a fun time and enjoyed spending time with family. At the beginning of October we moved for the third time since moving to Iowa into brand new duplexes. We love them and were lucky to move with some friends who will be our next door neighbors. Less than a week after moving, we drove out to Washington state to live with Nicole's parents for 3 months while Mike did some rotations there. We have enjoyed spending the holidays with her family and are so grateful to them for allowing us to stay with them so long.
We began our year with one cute addition, our newborn Aubrey Claire, who was born December 12th. She was a beautiful baby and has grown to be an adorable and very curious 1 year old. We couldn't have asked for a better baby and we are so blessed to be her parents. She loves and already looks up to her older sister. She loves to chase or be chased by her sister. She also has natural talent when it comes to dancing. Since starting to dance she has learned to booty shake, head bob, and shimmy all on her own. She started walking around 11 1/2 months and refuses to crawl now. She has learned to sign and say a few things such as "nigh, nigh" for night-night and "wow." She continues to change and it makes Nicole sad to see her baby get so big so fast.
Morgan turned 4 this year and is doing preschool at home with Nicole 2-3 times a week. Nicole and Morgan enjoy being able to spend time together and Morgan's favorite thing to do in preschool is cutting with scissors (not too hard to imagine if you think back to the hair cutting incidents of 2009. The child is obsessed with scissors). She is learning to read on her own and counting to 100. She sings and dances daily. She and Mike frequently can be caught having dance parties when doing the dishes after dinner. She loves living in Iowa but more importantly loves her friends in Iowa. She is a social butterfly and loves being able to play with her friends almost daily. She has changed so much and we can't believe that kindergarten is just around the corner.
Nicole loves being the mom of two cute girls and embraces the challenges that go along with that. Nicole enjoys photography and has learned a lot this year and can't wait to continue to learn and improve.
The first half of the year was a pretty stressful one for Mike. January marked the second half of his second year of medical school which meant that step 1 of his medical boards were fast approaching. Mike worked hard in school and studied late into the night for his board exams. We were all grateful when he finally took his boards in July so that we could spend a little more time with the guy! August was the start of his 3rd year of Medical school. This was exciting because Mike is able to learn hands on with doctors instead of sitting in classes. His 3rd year has been challenging and exciting so far and Mike has learned a lot.
We are so grateful for our friends and family and to have spent this year with so many wonderful people. We have been so blessed this year. We know our Savior lives and we are so grateful to celebrate his birth this Christmas season. May the Lord bless you and your family this coming year!
Love,
The Pfeiffers
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| Winter in Washington hasn't been so bad. We thought it was warm enough to go to the park and the kids loved it! |
I am finally trying to get caught up on my blog after three or so months of not doing anything. We took the first sunny day we could get and it just so happened to be 11 days before her actual birthday. So, here is the cake smash session that I was able to do with Aubrey! It was so fun, but like Morgan she wasn't really into eating cake so we had to help her a bit. She did like to eat the big sprinkles though.
That's the wall of the arena behind us. As you can see we were the second to last row in the arena, but luckily we could still see the show pretty well. 
I love the fall here in Washington! It's warm and there are so many colorful trees and plants. Today Morgan was playing with a friend and I told her it would be fun to rake all the leaves in a pile and jump in them! So they raked them up but there weren't a ton of leaves so they didn't do a whole lot of jumping. But of course I had to take a picture of my cuties with the fiery orange leaves.
Her being a "cutie pie." When we say cutie or cutie pie she'll cock her head to the side. She's so silly.
Aubrey is 9 months! The one year mark is getting closer and closer. I feel like I need to cherish every moment in the baby stage because she is already looking like a one year old. Aubrey can now climb up the stairs quickly, hence the baby gate on the front of our stairs. She can pull herself to stand and is cruising around the furniture. She hates to be left alone in a room. She loves to walk while holding onto our fingers. She learned to clap this month and loves to play peek-a-boo. She's even said "no" clear as day while shaking her head...coincidence?? Probably, or hopefully I should say. :) We love this cutie so much.
Here are the girls. Aubrey stayed up for part of the movie, but then fell asleep in her car seat.
Here are all the kids in the back of the Coombs' van. They always have so much fun together.
Aubrey is now 8 months old and 19 pounds! She's definitely not my little baby anymore. She's learned so much this month.
You can tell how much Morgan loves Aubrey. She's such a good big sister and tries to help with Aubrey all the time. Morgan was about to sneeze in the last picture, I thought it was pretty cute that Aubrey was just staring at her.
The fair is also known for it's huge animals! They had an almost 3000 pound bull, 2000 pound boar named "tiny" and 2000+ pound Belgian horses that were over 17 hands tall. (I don't know what that means but they were big.) :) They also had a place where baby animals were born. They were so cute.
Morgan did the "helping hands on the farm" again this year where they get to plant and harvest their crops to sell at the farmer's market. She earned a dollar and bought a chocolate milk from the store.
They of course had huge pumpkins and Morgan loved the miniature horses. Some of the horses were smaller than some dogs that I've seen.
This was our second time going to the Adel Corn Festival and once again it was so fun! First they had the parade, and what is an Iowa parade without lots of tractors, lawn mowers and pickup trucks! There was a really cool race car and Morgan asked if she could have a ride.
On to the yummy corn! Iowa boasts to have the best sweet corn and I have to agree. The night before the corn festival they have a party and everyone comes to help shuck the corn. This year they had a truck load of about 7 tons of corn! Holy moly that's a lot of corn.
This year Morgan and Cole got to do the tug-of-war style game with the water hoses. Morgan had a lot of fun until it got a little too cold. By the end she was standing there while the girl that was helping her sprayed the bucket.
Also this year they had a life flight helicopter and a police car for the kids to climb into. They got to turn the siren on and climb in the back. Hopefully this is the only time that she sits in the back of a police car.
It was really cool, literally, when one of the balloons floated over by us and blocked the sun a little bit. Morgan and Cole were being such goof balls, they always have such a fun time together.
