Best Holiday Season Ever!

Wow! I can't believe Audrey's 2nd Christmas has already came and went. It was by far the best Christmas I have ever had. Seeing her excitement was just amazing. We have had so many fun holiday experiences this past month, but I thought I would start by posting her holiday photos!

Dear Santa, please bring me a train set and a new Dora doll. I promise I'll be good! ;)

This is one of my favorites because it's an Audrey expression I see everyday. Here, take this Mama, I don't want it anymore!!

I've only just started uploading Christas photos. Hopefully I can post them before I go back to work! Audrey and I are having so much fun these two weeks off from school. We are also both now in the habit of sleeping in til 7:30. Next Monday will be tough for all of us! :)

And . . .We're Back!

Hi there! (If anyone is still even checking our blog! Ha!) I can't believe that I haven't posted in forever! Being a working Mommy has taken all of my free time! I'll try to post later with all of the pictures from the last few months, but for now here are some of MANY to come Halloween pictures. Our Halloween was so much fun and busy this year. We decided to dress Audrey up as Foofa, from her "used to be" favorite cartoon, Yo Gabba Gabba. Her current fave is Dora, but at the time of deciding costumes she was into the Gabba. Our sweet friend Michelle offered to make Auds a homemade Foofa costume and it turned out SO CUTE. She is so talented.

The first stop on our weeklong Halloween festivities started at Audrey's school's Halloween carnival. Now, we almost didn't go. The carnival started at 7:00 pm on a Monday night. We all know I'm "kind of" into sticking to schedules, and since Audrey's normal bedtime during the week is 7 I didn't think we could do it. But, I decided to just go crazy and actually stray from the routine. ;) Baby steps, right?

When we got Audrey dressed in her costume for the first time she wasn't the biggest fan. James and I had to actually hold her down on the floor while she kicked and screamed and literally tried to tear her cute little tutu off. But the minute we got out the door and said "We're going to see your friends at school, let's go see Abby (her BFF)" she perked right up and was ready to go. She wouldn't wear the cute little headband , so she ended up looking just like a ballerina. But she made a pretty darn cute one!

Walking into the festival. (Notice the hair matted to her head from the earlier tantrum!)
Waiting excitedly to go in with Mommy! Her school did an AWESOME job with the carnival. Just the outdoor decorations were amazing!

Eyeing the games. Not sure what to think just yet . . .but Mom sure is excited!

I'm ready to get my candy! She did really good with the games. She waited in line and got really into each one. I think her favorite was throwing the rings on the upside down witches legs. We didn't get a picture of it, but it was such a cute game.

Typical Auds - no fear! She jumped right in the middle of all the older kids doing a cakewalk and joined right in! She walked around the circle with them for a minute and then just decided to grab herself some candy without actually "winning" it.

Look what I got!

Ok, I'm tired and ready for bed now. Don't even *try* to take my picture!

I am so so glad that we went. The best part was when Audrey saw all of her friends outside of their normal setting. They were all so confused at first, and then just ran up to each other and said each others' names. So fun!

Being a Mom is the best thing ever . . .

but some days it just kicks my butt!

Otherwise entitled: Dear Audrey, you better spot some good money to put me in a nice retirement home one day. I earned it! ;)

So Audrey is almost 16 months old and just becoming such a big girl. She can say so many words. "dog, baby, and ball" being her favorite. Her little personality comes out more and more every day and I love every minute of it. She especially loves to sing and dance. Too cute. And with this age comes . . . .OPINIONS and defiance. She is extremely particular about many things. Last week I was trying to put her sandals on her and she just kept shaking her head no. She finally ran over to the closet and pointed to her jellies. Well okay then missy, I guess you can pick out your own shoes!

Every day feels like a new, fun adventure with her and most days I feel like I'm a pretty good mom. Like yesterday, when I bought her a MagnaDoodle and we spent all afternoon drawing together. Or this morning when we danced to old school George Strait in the kitchen.

But every now and then I have to relearn that being a mom is H.A.R.D. Like this afternoon.

I knew we were in for some trouble when Audrey woke up early from her nap. This girl loves to sleep, and when she doesn't get enough it's not pretty. But it was such a nice day outside that I decided we should bust out the kiddie pool. So I went through all of the steps to just get ready for this one activity. swim diaper. check. swimsuit. check. sunscreen. check. towel, water, snacks, flip flops, check check check. We headed outside and I filled up the pool and put it in the best location in the yard. Prime sun spot. Okay Auds, let's hop in!! Um, nope. She wanted NO PART OF THE POOL. She just took off and wanted to throw her bouncy ball around the yard. Mommy FAIL. So we played with her toys for a bit and then her BFF Bridgette came over. Woo - hoo, now the real fun can start! Bridgette loved the pool and so of course Audrey decided to jump in then too. Picture time! I took out my new toy, the iPhone, ready for a cute pic of the girls. Bridgette was leaning over the pool, looking at the grass, and Audrey decided at this moment to become a bully. Yes. My daughter reached over and with one swift push, pushed her friend OUT of the pool. And let me tell you, it was INTENTIONAL. She looked at Heather and I with a look of "yeah, I just did that!" It was heartbreaking to see her act like that. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to be a better friend, but I think poor little BB is still afraid of Auds. :( Oh, and did I mention that as I saw A pushing B, I freaked out and insinctively reached out to stop it and dropped my phone in the pool! Yeah, so now I can't hear anything on it and will be bringing it into the Apple store tomorrow. Fun times.

So we head inside for dinner. I make her favorite - mac and cheese with peas and carrots. For the first time ever, she just screamed her way through dinner. It looked a little like this: Auds screams and points to her milk. I hand it to her. She takes a sip and throws it on the floor. And screams and points to her food. Which I feed her and then she whines. Lather, rinse, repeat for the whole dinner. At least she ate!

Bath time. Her favorite time of day. Today, not so much. Whines, throws toys, etc. So we go in to read books. She only wants to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." Every time I pick up a new book she yells NO. So we read Brown Bear 5 times tonight. She is rubbing her eyes, whiny, etc. All the signs of a sleepy girl. So I put her down, even though it's only 7:00. 10 minutes later, I hear "Moooomeeeeeee!!" And go in to find this . . .

If only she wasn't so gosh darned cute.

And I didn't even get a tan today.

But, I think she's worth it. ;)

Photo Shoot

We got Audrey's photos taken last month and they turned out really well! The Buy Buy Baby just opened by the Galleria, and they were having some awesome store opening specials. Considering the fact that Audrey can't sit still, we thought the photographer managed to get some amazing shots!

Auds' Bath Time Chat!

Daddy here... Amy and I realized that there is just not enough video of Auds babbling and giggling like little tots tend to do! Here's a little clip of the highlights from her bath time.

This is the first time she actually said, "Bye Bye" to us too! I'm so happy we got it on film!

A Visit To Tulsa

Grammy, Audrey and I packed up this past weekend to visit Eric in Tulsa. Audrey has been loving her new forward facing carseat, so I was ready to test drive it for a few hours. Audrey did great! I, on the other hand, was a little scatter-brained trying to pack up the Pack-n-Play, sippy cups, snacks, as well as MY clothes, that I somehow forgot to pack our travel high chair. Nice. Solution = eating out every.single.meal for 3 days. Hey, it's a vacation, right? ;)

Eric happens to live in the best placed apartment building ever. It is right next to the coolest park AND within walking distance to a casino. Fun for all age groups!

Here's Auds loving the park:

And, unfortunately, the casino wouldn't allow me to take pictures inside. But I did pretty good and actually won some money. Woo-hoo!

My very own chair!

Audrey now has her very own chair! It's so cute. :) We put it in the living room and she'll actually crawl onto it to watch Yo Gabba Gabba every night. I tried to take some pictures, but she was all "Um, Mom, it's Yo Gabba Gabba time, I can't be bothered to pose for the camera!" ;)

Can you come back when my show is over?!

Happy 2nd Valentine's Day!

Wow! This is our second Valentine's Day with Audrey! Last year at this time James and I had big plans. My mom was coming over to watch Auds while James and I went to see "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan". I was sooooo nervous. I remember giving my mom itemized instruction on how to give the bottle, put Audrey to bed, etc as if she hadn't done this before! And this was our big night out. And the movie was . . .AWFUL. So bad I actually yelled in the theater at the end because this was my one night out and this movie ruined it!!!

But look how cute Auds was!

Here she is this year, getting her balloon . . .

And cookie cake

MMM, yummy!

Opening up her gift while still eating

Dinner out at Picassos

Before we know it she'll have her own date for V-day!!

Snow Days

Wow! We got so much snow here! It's crazy. Of course we had to go outside and play in it! :)

But last night the snow got to be too much for the old trees in our neighborhood. We woke up this morning to a lot of broken branches. Luckily nothing too bad happened, just a lot of branches on the ground and blocking driveways. It sure looked pretty though!

Poor Alice was blocked in and Bob had to haul this branch out of the way with the Tahoe.

Our neighbor across the street lost a good chunk of her tree!

9211 Liptonshire. :) Just minor branches on the ground.