Your birthday is the happiest day of my life.

I am struggling going to bed tonight because tomorrow when I wake up my little princess is going to be one. It is such a bittersweet feeling as a mother... A year has passed but I can still remember every detail and emotion I had the day she was born. This whole first year has been an incredible journey. I fell in love with Aubree the moment I saw those two little pink lines on the pregnancy test, my love for her grew along with my belly. Then exactly a year ago tomorrow my love for her grew more than  could even comprehend. The moment they placed her in my arms I gave her a piece of my heart. I was convinced that I couldn't possibly love any more than I did at that moment but then she grew, we grew together. Aubree has been with me a year and my heart has grown along with her. She has been my my angel. I have no idea how I got so blessed to be her mom. She brightens my days and makes me the person I want to be. I am so so excited for the years to come. She will will always be my baby. I love you sweet girl. Happy birthday tomorrow. You are loved! 

My dear Aubree Jane,

I want you to know how much I love you. I love your beautiful blue eyes and your sweet cheeks. I love the way your hair curls up when its wet or your sweaty. I love the way you crawl right up to me and give me a kiss when I least expect it. I love that you give kisses when your happy. I love having you sit on my lap while I feed you baby food and you want to kiss me after a bite and laugh at me when you get baby food on my face. I love how happy you are when your daddy gets home from work. I love how sweet you are when your sleepy and cuddle. I love crawling after you and making you giggle. I love reading books with you. I love everything about you. Your sweet personality melts my heart. Since they moment I found out I was pregnant I loved you. I loved getting to know you when you lived and grew in my belly. My love for you is something I did not know I had to give. You have taken part of my heart and I love you for it. I have loved spending everyday with you watching you learn and grow. It has amazed me how perfect you are. You are my heaven. I feel so blessed to be your mommy. This past year has been such an amazing adventure for daddy and I. Bringing you into this world has changed our whole lives. Everything we do is for you. You come before either of us and we love it. You have taught us what selflessness is and how to love unconditionally. We look forward to spending year after year watching you grow while you teach us what this life is all about. You have made us a family.
We love you Aubree Jane.

e l e v en months

Aubree Jane Mulcock is now eleven months old! Where has the time gone! Things have been so busy recently that I just can not believe she is already eleven months old. This month uncle Nate's baby was born and his name is Jaxson. He is so sweet and tiny, we are so excited Aubree has another cousin to play with. The first time she saw him all she did was smile and rub his little head, it was the sweetest thing! We also had a wedding this month! Aubree's uncle Jake got married to Felicia and they had a beautiful wedding in Steve and Michelles backyard. It brought back so many memories of our wedding which feels like just yesterday. Such a happy time for Jake and Felicia, it is so fun to see them so happy and in love. We also got the news of another cousin on the way, aunt sha sha is pregnant and due in November. So many cousins are being born it is such a fun time. I am so grateful Aubree has lots of cousins to grow up with. So since we have been so busy with family things I am thankful I started getting things ready for her birthday party months ago. We recently hired a photographer to do a cake smash photo shoot for her first birthday. It went perfectly and I already have some of the photos printed and put in frames for the party. I am probably going way over board for her birthday being that she isn't going to remember any of this but I can't help it! Its so much fun planning a little girls party! I honestly still can't wrap my head around the fact that she is going to be one. This first year has flown by so fast and I have enjoyed every min of it. Having her by my side pretty much twenty four seven has been such an adventure. She has taught me things about myself that I didn't know. For example.. I am the type of mom who wants to play all day and make messes and then once everyone is asleep and the house is quiet I get a second wind and want to clean everything and do the dishes, laundry, sweep, mop, clean the bathrooms. Its crazy I know.. it would make more since to do those things during the day but I just love holding my baby and playing with her and teaching her. She is my best girl friend and her dad is amazing. I don't know what I did to get lucky enough to live this beautiful life I am living. Ben and Aubree make my world go round. I don't know what I would do without them. They make me happy and smile and even when I am feeling down they make me laugh. I love them with all my heart and am looking forward to this next year with them by my side. <3

10 m o n t h s

My baby girl is ten months old and growing way to quickly! I can not believe she already has two bottom teeth and is working on a third. Her sweet personality continues to grow and has us wrapped around her little squishy finger. Aubree has battled her very first year infection and took her antibiotic like a champ. I am so proud to call her my daughter, she has seriously been the easiest baby. We can pretty much take her anywhere and she just goes with the flow. Showing off her tongue tricks is still one of her favorite things to do. Her kisses are still open mouth slobber kisses but we love them and love how willing she is to give us a love and kiss. We were able to take her on her first cruise this month with my family. She did wonderful and we all had a fantastic time! Everywhere we went people would stare at her and compliment us on how well behaved she was. Seeing her experience the ocean and sand for the first time was amazing, she is defiantly a water baby and loved the ocean. The sand was another story.. she hated sitting in the sand but was okay sitting on a towel and playing with the sand, she even tried eating it at one point. We started our trip off by flying to Port Canaveral Florida on a red eye flight. Our flight left at 11: pm and we landed in Florida at 6:27 am. That was Aubree's first time flying on an airplane. We were all exhausted but so excited! I didn't sleep at all on the plane and it was really hard getting Aubree to sleep. We will probably never do another red eye flight with a baby again. Once we got to Florida we took a bus to the cruise ship and got on board! We spent our first day at sea. It was so fun laying out in the sun, swimming in the pool, going down the water slides, eating good food and watching amazing entertainment! Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico and we missed our excursion because we didn't get off the boat soon enough. So instead we went on a bus to this beach club called Carlos and Charlies. My mom, Brooklyn, Ashlynn and I got matching henna tattoos and Ashlynn and Brooklyn got their hair braided. My mom got a massage and Ben got his picture taken with Aubree holding a Iguana. We all had a blast having lunch there and relaxing on the beach. The next day we stopped at Belize and went snorkeling. We took a boat out to a small private island where we had lunch and went snorkeling. Ben's favorite thing on the cruise was snorkeling. It was a lot of fun being able to see the ocean that way. Ashlynn got a little sea sick but we all had a great time. I'm so grateful my mom was willing to stay on the boat with Aubree and Hayden so I was able to experience snorkeling. Laying out on the sand only being able to see the ocean around you was incredible. That was probably my favorite part of the cruise as well. Our next stop was Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan where we did some extreme zip lines. Aubree and Hayden were able to stay in the kids club on the boat for about three hours while we went zip lining with the rest of the family. I was a little nervous about leaving her but she did great! It was an incredible experience and we got some awesome pictures. When we were done we went back on the boat to pick Aubree and Hayden up and went to the beach. The water and sand were beautiful! Everyone was in the water because it was so nice. We stayed out in the water and on the beach all the day. The last stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. My family went on an excursion while Ben, Aubree and I just went site seeing and then spent the rest of the day on the boat. There wasn't much for us to do besides shop at the tourist shops and then get back on the boat. It was nice just spending some quiet time together and being on the boat when most of the guests were on the island. The next day we spent at sea relaxing and laying out most of the day. We went to a lot of shows at night and spent some time in the dance club with my parents. The kids club watched Aubree from 10 pm till 3 am but i'm pretty sure the latest we stayed up was maybe 1:30 or 2 am. All of the crew members at the kids club loved Aubree and called her their baby. Aubree would flirt with the dinner waiters and made everyone smile. Her stranger danger is wearing off and we love it! In Belize Aubree let one of the native men hold her and we got a picture of them. A lot of the Mexican guys wanted to get a picture of her and waved and smiled at her. On our way home we had a layover in Charolette, South Carolina and Aubree made friends with the lady that sat next to us on the plane ride there. She smiled at her and even let her hold her and tried giving her kisses. The lady was super nice and didn't mind at all, she had a cute accent and loved children. Thankfully :)  So all in all ten months was a great month for all of us. We came home tan and happy!