KAMALU: 10/06/08

Aubrey wanted to be a boy for the first three years of her life, and as far as she was concerned, she was. I still remember having word wars with her that went something like this, "Aubrey, you are a girl." (Aub) "No! I'm a boy!"(Brooke) "Girl!" (Aub) "Boy!"
Finally I would just give in and say, "Okay, you are a boy." This kept her from crying because she was usually tearing up at this point. We would all try to tell her what a pretty little girl she was and that didn't go over well either.

Aub knew how to work the VCR when she was two, and pulled her pigtails out as she was leaving the bathroom from having them done. She would run around with dents in her hair where her elastics had been, and cried the Christmas she didn't get a wooden treasure box like all the grandsons at the family Christmas party (Grandma and Gramps got her one anyway). She would find all the roly poly bugs she could find and drown them in the little play house on the back porch. When she was asked as a little girl why we have Dads she said, "to help us find bugs."

She graciously ate the whole bowl of dog food I fed her when I was seven and she was one, and she was the only one who would cry when I said I was going to run away. She was the victim of my fascination with the "all-new" bed clip-on lights that came complete with a stylish curly telephone cord and seemed to have emerged in the late eighties.

I still remember lifting her little eleven-month-old body onto my parents bed and then shoving a big stack of books right beside her. I carefully turned the reading light on, and started to read stories to her. Then it happened- I just couldn't keep my kindergarten hands from showing Aubrey just how nifty this reading light was. I unclipped the light (a hot light mind you) and started to show and tell Aubrey all about it. OOPS! too close! I singed the end of her nose, and the poor thing had to be Rudolph for the family Easter Egg hunt. I still remember the sizzle sound of skin on light bulb. Aub didn't want to read books with me anymore (For a while at least).

Aub would always jump into my lap when the T-Rex would show up while watching Land Before Time and she had a love affair with K'NEX and could build anything and everything. She went through a phase when she wanted us to call her Carlos, and I think she also named her girl doll Carlos. ( I'm laughing- Yes, I am laughing)
And she is the only girl I know who got tired of shopping for her prom dress and told my Mom she could pick it out.

Aubrey is sweet. Aubrey is kind. Aubrey is smart. Aubrey is the blonde. Aubrey is the youngest. Aubrey serves. Aubrey doesn't do crafts. Aubrey loves her family. Aubrey loves golf. Aubrey is an athlete. Aubrey gives red cards to the poor sports of BYU intramurals (something I have always wanted to do). Aubrey is brave. Aubrey will do great things.

But no one will forget the night Aubrey stole caramels from Smith's grocery store.

I think she was four or five. It was after FHE (of course) and we all packed into our white Dodge Caravan, and went to Smith's. Aubrey was styling black stretch pants and a tie-dye minnie mouse shirt with her pigtails pulled out (I'm sure my outfit also had something to do with stretch pants). We all went into the store and picked a treat, and got some other items, but didn't notice that we walked right by the bulk candy bins. I'm not sure what happened in between-All I know is that Aubrey was the first one to the van, and once inside jumped into the trunk, (behind the back seats) and I heard a mysterious crinkling noise...hmm....it started to sound familiar.....I looked back at Aubrey and she had little square shapes poking through her stretch pants.

She quickly tried to cover the caramel looking shapes with her t-shirt, but it was too late! Her mouth was full, and the crime had been committed. She had to go into the store with Dad and pay for her mischief. I'm not sure what we learned in family home evening that night, but we all learned that stretch pants are not a good place to hide caramels.

We celebrated that day twenty years ago when the caramel stealer came to our family by going to Power Tumbling and as Napoleon would say "showing all our sweet skills." It was a blast, and we all laughed, got injured, tried not to wet our pants (the moms at least), laughed some more, and made a great memory. We love you Carlos, wait, I mean Aubrey. (Hey, maybe your spy name could be Carlos the Caramel Stealer) Happy Birthday!