The Adams' Family

Audrey's 3rd Birthday

2012-01-28T16:44:00.001-08:00

Audrey is 3! I can't believe she's actually that old! This was definitely our best and (easiest) birthday party for Audrey yet. We have always done parties at home, and while they were fun, they were also stressful. Having to clean the house, prepare food for adults and kiddos, create activities to entertain everyone, and did I mention the cleaning?!

So this year we opted to do Audrey's party at ASI Gymnastics. She had been to a few parties there and loved it, so I knew it would be fun for all of the kids. But it was even better than I imagined! We brought all of the decorations, snacks, cupcakes, etc, but the minute we got there the staff insisted on taking everything off of our hands and said they would set everything up and serve everyone! Now that's how I like to host a party! ;)

The birthday girl

Listening to the instructors . . .they were all so in to it!

Sliding down the slide

This is my favorite picture from the weekend. This is Audrey with her BFF Sara, and they are just hilarious together. I swear they have their own language that only the two of them can understand. They are both VERY opinionated and know what they want. I'm not sure what is happening in this picture but I think it has something to do with Sara telling Aunt Amanda what she wants Audrey to play with next and Auds is all "No, let's go play over there next!"

Auds leading the group . . .

Wells is such a big boy!!!

Play time . . .

Blowing out the candles with the help of a friend . . . :)

Snack Time!

Hangin with Auntie Amanda after the party . . .

Hey everyone, I'm THREE now!!

It was such a fun day and Audrey can't stop talking about it. Happy Birthday my love!

Audrey's 3rd Birthday, Part 2

2012-01-28T14:35:00.001-08:00

That's right, part 2. I had Part 1 all up and ready to post, but stupid blogger.com has shut that window down TWO times now. So I will try that part again tomorrow.

So let's start this blog post AFTER the super fun party that Audrey had at ASI Gymnastics. More about that later.

Because even more importantly, Audrey's 3rd birthday was call for her to get her Big.Girl.Bed!!! So exciting. Now, truth be told she had been sleeping in Mommy's bed since we moved, and it was time for her to go back to her room. We had been talking up her big girl bed for the past month, and let her pick out her own princess bedding. She was SO excited.

James and Eric setting up the new bed . . .
I wish I had the super cute picture of her sleeping in it to share, but again blogger.com shut me down. But so far, so good! Audrey has slept in her new room for over a week now and LOVES her new bed. Win win for everyone!! :)

This birthday she was also very interested in the presents . . .

and she got some AWESOME ones. Thank you to everyone who knows her so well and got her so many PERFECT gifts. She loves all of the play doh, Dora, and princess stuff. Let's just say she is never bored!

The day after her party was Audrey's actual birthday. It was so funny when I woke her up that day and sang Happy Birthday to her again, and she was all "No Mama, my birfday was yesterday, it's over!" Then when I explained how today was her real birthday she couldn't believe it!

Birthday donuts. . .

Playing with Grammy . . .

For lunch we asked Audrey where she wanted to go and she immediately replied "McDonald's!" So, that's where we went. But we went in style. Auds demanded that she and I both where our crowns. Why not?

Playing with Uncle Eric . . .

Happy Meal!

Ice Cream with Aunt Amanda

and the fun didn't end there. After everyone left, James and I took her to see Beauty and the Beast at the theater. She loooooves Belle, but hadn't seen the movie yet. It was fun to watch it with her, but she was a little scared. That Beast can be a little scary!

It really was a wonderful birthday weekend. Audrey was so excited and in to it and it just made me realize how fast she is growing up. As everyone knows, I wasn't a fan of the baby stage and couldn't wait for the toddler one, but now that it's here and flying by us, I have this need to slow things down and keep Audrey where she is. She'll be in Kindergarten before we know it!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my favorite little Sassypants! :)

Wait, here's her super cute photo in her new bed. So sweet! (blogger sometimes randomly places my photos!)

3 Year Interview

2012-01-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks Kristin for this great idea! :)

Here is what's going on in Audrey's world these days . . .
Favorite Color: pink!! (she will only wear something if it's pink!)
Favorite Animal: fish
Best friend: Sara
Favorite Food: chicken nuggets
Favorite Tv show: Dora
Favorite Toy: "my babies"
Favorite Movie: Tangled
Favorite Drink: milk
Favorite Restaurant: The Hamby Store (that's what she calls Wendy's!)
Favorite place to go: The Hamby Store!
Favorite Game to play: blocks
Silliest thing daddy does: The Bear Clock (he holds her upside down and pretends she's a clock)
Silliest thing Mommy does: the computer (um, maybe I'm on it too much?!)

We have her party today and actual birthday tomorrow . . .pics to come!

And here comes Year 3 . . . (or Lord, please help me!)

2012-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, so we were "those" people in Chili's today. James and I used to mock those parents whose children were having tantrums in public places. I remember us saying that would NEVER happen to us, and we would always leave the restaurant/store before our child ever screamed.

Right. Until today. It took us almost 3 years to be put in our place. Audrey has always liked restaurants, I mean, she is my child, so she has always been appeased by bread or chips while waiting for our food. We were headed out to Firewheel for lunch and to do some last minute birthday shopping for Auds. (and by last minute, I mean everything. We had to buy her big girl bed, bedding, party outfit and party favors). It was going to be a long day of shopping. Well the minute we walked into the Chili's she fell on the floor and SCREAMED. I picked her up, like oh I've got this, just show her the booth and she'll be cool. NO. She screamed even louder there. Everyone was staring. So I picked her up, walked her to the bathrooms, and had a Mommy to daughter talk with her. She continued to scream and try to climb the walls, while also trying to dart out in the aisles in front of the waiters. This called for my backup plan. The spanking. I told her if she continued to scream and yell, she would get a spanking. She kept on and tried to dart out into the restaurant again. So I pulled her back in and gave her the dreaded spanking, which I swear makes me feel worse than her. She wouldn't calm down. Luckily James came back then and took over. They were at the restrooms for almost 10 minutes, and I don't know what words of Daddy wisdom he used, but she came back to the table and acted like my normal Audrey. Eating chips and salsa and laughing. She then proceeded to be an angel through a whole afternoon of shopping. I know she is testing me, but oh my goodness. We'll see if we make it to four! Any mommies of 3 year olds out there, any advice would be appreciated. ;)

Last Week of Being 2 . . .

2012-01-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

and I just can't believe it! Audrey is feeling a little under the weather this morning, so she's being extra cuddly and wanting to be held, something she doesn't do much of anymore. It makes me realize how old she is becoming. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that I gave birth to her almost THREE years ago. It feels like she has always been here, yet the time has flown by. I know that every year is big and full of milestones, but this year just feels full of big BIG ones. Like my personal fave, becoming fully POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!! Can I get a whoop for that one? Now that happened fast and I truly take no credit for it. It's all her teachers at school. Once they asked her to go on the potty and her friends started doing it, she was all over it. It was pretty easy. She had a few accidents here and there and I had a few moments of panic (like at the Shrek Ice exhibit where there were NO bathrooms in the tour and I was sure she would have an accident and we wouldn't make it out in time, but nope, she did fine!) but once she decided to do it, she was potty trained. Which led to my not so sad goodbye to the diaper bag. I got to carry a real purse again this year! It was a little weird to leave the house the first few times without the diaper bag, pullups, wipes, etc, but I am so used to it now. ;)

I also feel like Audrey really came into her own as a person this year. She has her best friends that she plays with at school and talks about all of the time, her favorite things to do (play with her babies, color, and style mommy's hair), favorite foods (chicken nuggets, quesidillas, hamburgers, fruit, yogurt, meatballs and gravy) and foods she won't eat just yet, but hopefully will one day b/c mommy loves them (pizza, spaghetti, eggs, and well, this list is just to long to type out ;) ) and just all around OPINIONS. Girl is strong willed that's for sure. I love love love her strong personality and know that it will get her very far in life, but geez, she won't give up without a fight on things she doesn't want to do.

She is also smart (I know every parents says that!) and can count, identify letter sounds, rhyme, and remember every little detail. Just now I handed her a Christmas card for her to color on the back of, and she said "Look! It's December Audrey!" So cute.

Everyone keeps telling me that the "Terrible Two's" were nothing and that the "Trying Three's" will kick my butt and I'm sure they will. But it's worth it for my little (big girl) Auds!!

Hilarious Blog

2011-12-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

You have to check out my friend Hilary's blog, http://lambieblog.blogspot.com/

I promise you she is going to be one of those famous Mommy bloggers one day, like Dooce.com. She is absolutely hilarious and fun to read. She just posted about our playdate the other day and had me laughing out loud. I can't even try to repost something near as funny. Check it out! :)

The Trains!

2011-12-27T13:19:00.001-08:00

Audrey LOVES trains. (Which is why we had her 2nd birthday have a train theme.) Every year Northpark Mall does a Train Exhibit that is just amazing. We took Audrey last year and this year when the holidays rolled around, we casually mentioned that we would go see the trains again when Uncle Eric got here, just like last year. Well it wasn't casual to her! Every time someone brought up Christmas or the holidays, she would say, "I go see the trains with my Uncle Eric!" She LOVED the trains.

Let's Build A Gingerbread House!

2011-12-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

We did SO many fun things this holiday season, but I think building and decorating a gingerbread house was by far my favorite. Auds and I had already done one with our neighbors 2 weeks ago, so she knew what to do and was ready to go! :)

James bought the kit awhile ago, and we told her we would decorate it "when Uncle Eric got here". Well poor Uncle Eric, the minute he got here, she dragged him over to the house and said LOOK!! YOUR new house! We do this with you NOW Uncle Eric! (Luckily we had the Trains at Northpark to go see first with him, which was my second favorite holiday activity this year).

But when we we got home from the Mall, it was ON. Here is Auds helping (architect) Daddy (who had big plans the house!), while Uncle Eric and Grammy watch.

Helping Uncle Eric get the walls ready . . .

Taste testing the decorations before we put them on while Daddy did some more work . . .

And it went on like that. Audrey was really into decorating at first, and then when she realized that her hands would get all dirty and sticky she was D.O.N.E. She was hilarious. "Auds, do you want to put some candy on the doors?" "No, I just can't. It will get my hands dirty." :) So she just sat and watched, and snacked, while everyone else built a really good house!

So much fun!

Christmas Pageant Picture, more to come

2011-12-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

She's the 7th from the right, getting down!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2011-11-27T12:42:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Christmas and this year is already turning out to be the best one yet. Audrey is really getting into the Christmas spirit too, and she was so excited to get a Christmas tree!

It was so much fun to pick out a tree with her this year. She really had an opinion and James and I went with the tree she liked the most. The funniest part was how shocked she was when we told her the tree had to go on top of the car to get home. Audrey just couldn't compute that little fact in her brain. It was hilarious to sit with her in the car as James got the tree on the roof. "But, the tree is up there Mommy??" she kept asking me.
"Now the tree at home!"

I have to add this picture, because it was the only one taken of me all day! I promise I did more work than just play with Auds. ;)

Watching in amazement as the lights went up . . .

Picking out just the right ormament . . .

She kept hanging the ornaments and saying "That's perfect!"
The tree really did turn out just perfect!

James hanging more decorations . . .

And then Audrey had to call Sara and tell her all about how her house was now decorated for Christmas! "Hello Sara, I have a tree. Do you a tree?"

Now let's hope she stays off the naughty list and gets all the toys that she wants! :)

Stationery card

2011-11-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

Oh Holy Night Religious Christmas Card

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Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

I won't be with Audrey this Thanksgiving, she gets to go to Houston to visit her Nana and Papa with James, but I wanted to wish all of my bloggie friends an early Happy Thanksgiving. I get to go to Tulsa with my mom to visit my brother, so everyone will be busy in our family! :) We're lucky to have so many. But I wanted to wish everyone a holiday filled with thanksgiving, family (whoever they may be), and love.

Here are some pictures of Audrey already doing that at her Thanksgiving feast at school. Before we could eat, they all had to say a prayer in thanksgiving for all of their blessings. It was too cute. You can't see it, but Audrey has her hands together in prayer.And of course, celebrating with her school family, especially Sara.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It Really Does Take A Village. . .

2011-11-16T15:33:00.000-08:00

to take care of a kiddo when you are a sick, single momma!

I started feeling sick on Sunday, but tried to blow it off because as a mom, you can't just use up your sick days. But finally yesterday it got the best of me. I had could barely breathe, had a horrible sore throat, and was coughing so bad that I literally was scaring my kiddos. I still tried to stick it out.

But my truly wonderful team insisted that I leave at midday to go to the doctor and take the next day off, even though I could not find a sub. Now if you're not a teacher, you don't know what a big sacrifice this is. When my class doesn't have a sub, they have to be added to other classrooms. Imagine already over crowded classrooms adding 5 kiddos to the mix. It really is a true sacrifice.

So I left, went to the doctor, knowing my kids were in good hands and not worrying that anyone was holding a grudge about it. Trust me, this does NOT happen on most teams.

As I was driving to the doctor, I called my mom at work, and before I could even get the words out, she said she would pick up Audrey from daycare and take care of her until I got home.

Soooooo . . . . .I get to the doctor and am so sick and coughing that yes, I start throwing up. Long story short I got shots and many prescriptions. Now here comes the dilemna. The one main prescription that I had to take was pretty much a straight up drug full of codine made to make you stop coughing and pass out. Well, for a single mom that is just not an option! So what to do.

I got home, and the shots were already making me feel better and the coughing was decreasing. My mom had to leave to meet some friends for dinner, but offered to come back and SLEEP ON THE COUCH so I could take my medicine and sleep and not worry about Audrey waking up. Wow. I told her I would let her know. Right after she leaves, my neighbor calls (her daughter is in my class) and told me she knew I was sick and asked if she could watch Audrey for a little while so I could rest! I told her James was coming at 6:30 and I would love if she could watch Audrey for a few hours. AND SHE DID!

Then James called and when I explained the situation, he also offered to sleep on the couch so I could take my meds and he would take care of Auds, bathe her, and put her to bed, as well as listen for her through the night. So I took him up on his offer and her said he could be here by 7 so he could pack a bag.

So I picked up Auds from the best neighbors ever and all I could bring myself to make her for dinner was a pb&j sandwich and let her watch Diego while I laid on the couch.

The minute James got there at 7 I went to bed and slept until about 7. Wow ! What a difference a 12 hour night of uninterrupted night of sleep does for you. James then took Auds to school and I slept the day away.

So to sum up, I truly coudn't be sitting up, not coughing up a lung, without all of these wonderful people in my life willing to help out whenever needed. Thank you! I can't wait to repay these favors. Thank you.

Mr. Guiny's Visit for the Weekend

2011-11-12T12:13:00.001-08:00

We had a visitor to our house this weekend, a guinea pig named Mr. Guinea! He is my class pet in my classrooom, and I knew that Auds would just love if I brought him home for her to see. He is the cutest!

She took to him right away, lifting off his little nap area so he could come out and play . . . . "Come out and play Mr. Guinea . . ." she kept saying.

She just wanted to play with him so bad, it was the cutest thing ever! But when I took him out of the cage to hold, she was a little shy and wasn't quite ready to hold him yet.

She was also quite enthralled with his eating habits. When she got up and had breakfast she stomped over to his cage and said 'Drink your water Mr. Guiny, eat your food!! It's time!!"

Come on now, Audrey says so! (She must feel my pain now when I want her to eat! ;) )

She had a blast with him and has has me rethinking my no pet decision . . . . hmmmmm. . . . .what's the easiest pet to get . . .???

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T16:05:00.001-08:00

Being a Parent is Hard

2011-11-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

So what are your struggles . . . ??

Audrey is a pretty easy going kid . . .I won't be that mom who goes into all the things she's great at. ;) But every kid has to have one or two problem areas, right?

Well Audrey's is getting dressed in the morning. My goodness gracious. It's hit or miss with her. Most days she's fine and then BOOOM she's just blows up and refuses to get dressed. It goes something like this:
1. Audrey baby, it's time to get up.
NO. I SLEEPY!
2. Ok, 5 more minutes while Mommy gets dressed.
3. Then I draaaaag her out of bed (and her clothes are all laid out from the night before) and her favorite phrase is I DO IT! So you're going to put your big your big girl panties on by yourself? Go for it girlfriend. After 10 minutes of trying, she finally asks for help, and I do it. Then pitches a fit over what was picked out to wear the night before. Um no, you picked this out, you are wearing it.
4. Which results in time out at 6:45 in the morning. So sad. Then she finally gets dressed.
5. Hair. I don't WANNA do my hair. she yells. Too bad. So I struggle to get her hair looking somewhat decent.
6. AND THEN it's the socks. Good Lord the socks. She must put them on herself or the world will end. Add 10 more minutes. Luckily she lets me put her shoes on for her.
7. We're ready to head downstairs for vitamins and to grab her breakfast (prepacked) and get out the door. The funny part it she wants to open the vitamin can herself. Um, honey, it's BABYPROOF. Good luck. So we get through that and then we are finally out the door.

I can then turn on Kidd Kraddick and all is right with the world.

So tell me, what is your child's defiant issue? And please respond, my child can't be the only one! ;)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN FUN!

2011-11-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

This Halloween was just too much fun. It was just a whirlwind and I felt like it went by too fast. We were so lucky that Aunt Amanda and Uncle Rick made it into town for the festivies and of course, Grammy was there too (but I don't have any pictures of her.) Auds was SOOOOO excited to about everything she could hardly stand it. Auntie Moo, Uncle Rick, Rapunzel costume, presents from Grammy, candy, AND I get to go to Sara's house??!! It was hilarious!

Here she is with her Aunt Amanda showing off some toys.

And here is why she loves Uncle Rick so much, he's just a big kid!

Trying to get a pose with princess Mommy . .

More fun with Auntie Moo

Now off to Sara's house for a pre-ToTing dinner - pizza of course!!!

Let's go!!

The daddies took the girls around the neighborhoods while Katie, Amanda, Rick, and I stayed home and just hung out.

Checking out the loot!!!! The best part!

What's better than spending Halloween with your best friend? It was a great night! Thank you Katie and Steve for having us!

More Halloween Fun!

2011-10-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

We were busy party party hopping hopping between two of our favorite people! This morning was Well's 1st birthday party, and while I didn't get any pics of him, here are some of Auds playing with her friends and decorating pumpkins . . . .

Great party J!!!! :)

Then after a *short* nap we had to put our costume back on and head over to Cade's Toddler Halloween party. SO MUCH FUN!! Hilary went all out. Digging for bones, pin the tail on the witch, pin the eyes, on the ghost, pumkin decorating, and tons of cute snacks. All while she has a little 3 month old as well. Very impressive. Auds had a blast!

If only the Aggies had won! Oh well! It was a great day full of wonderful friends and good times! :)

School Halloween Carnival

2011-10-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Audrey's school does the best Halloween carnival every year. They really go all out and Audrey was old enough this year to actually be looking forward to it all week. She woke up yesterday saying "Carnival Day!"

Her favorite movie is Tangled, and when we asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she replied "Tangled". Well, Tangled really isn't a person honey, but we knew she meant Rupunzel. It was so much fun to set out her costume in the morning and hear her talk about what all of her friends were going to be at the carnival.

Here she is, ready to go!

With one of her wonderful teachers, Miss Veronica

Look who we found . . our bff Sara, I mean Snow White!

playing games . . .

With her other amazing teacher, Miss Ginger

Yay for bubbles!

Now who's ready for a weekend of Wells' first birthday party, a toddler Hall0ween party, a visit from Uncle Eric and Aunt Amanda, and then Halloween?!!

Thank You

2011-09-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to take a minute to thank those of you who have reached out to me since my last blog post about James and I divorcing. Divorce is such a hard thing, and sometimes the easiest thing to do is to just not talk about it. But I have been consistently amazed at the outpouring of love and support I have gotten from so many of you. Some of you that I haven't even talked to in years. It means so much to me to have us in your thoughts and prayers. Just today I got another e-mail from an old coworker expressing her support and it was much needed after a long day.

Audrey and I are doing really well, and it's just so nice to hear the encouragement, because at first I was embarrassed to put it out there. So thank you blog readers and friends for being so supportive! :)

Outtakes

2011-08-28T12:35:00.001-07:00

Out to eat with Mommy . . . like M0mmy, like daughter, we both love our chips and salsa!

Uncle Eric and Grammy at dinner

watching "Tangled" of course

{love}

Uncle Eric's Visit

2011-08-28T11:28:00.001-07:00

My brother and I are almost 5 years apart, but I would say we are pretty close. We talk frequently and I always love spending time with him. He lives in Tulsa, so we don't get to see him as much as we would like, but every visit is fun! Audrey has a special bond with her "Unc Eric" as she calls him. She was asking all week when he would be here. And the minute he got here they got to playing!

Playing in her toy house . . .
Eating ice cream . . . outside . . . in the 110 degree weather . . . now that's love! ;)

And the swimming! We went swimming twice with Auds and she just had so much fun!!!

Can't wait til the next visit! :)

The Help

2011-08-14T14:20:00.001-07:00

Wow is all I can say about this movie. The book was incredibly moving and the movie was everything I hoped it would be. But no movie review I could do would be better than the one my friend Katie did. Go to her website to read:
http://thebrittainbuzz.blogspot.com

The End of Summer

2011-08-11T15:11:00.001-07:00

Our wonderful summer is coming to an end, so I tried to capture all of our fun moments in one day. Mainly because it was that one day that was below 100!!

Audrey loved riding her Dora tricycle . . .Blowing bubbles and dancing outside . .

And her absolute FAVE was eating ice cream outside. YUMMY!!!

She also was a big swimmer this year, but I didn't get any pictures, b/c I was the one in the pool with her!! I can't believe the summer went by so fast!

Happy 2 1/2 Birthday Audrey Elizabeth!

2011-08-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Audrey turned 2 1/2! She is growing up just so too fast these days. Sometimes (well, most times) I wish she had a mid-year birthday. The holidays are so busy, and then BOOM it's her birthday and she gets a slew of gifts and excitement all at one time. But then I have students who complain about their summer birthdays, so who knows? So we are going to celebrate her 1/2 birthday as well! Why not, right? ;)

Audrey, here are some words I would use to describe you at this stage in your life:

INDEPENDENT! Holy cow do you want to do things on your own. One of your favorite phrases is "No, I do it!!!" said in a very very independent tone. ;) You want to do everything on your own, which is scary and a bit time consuming.

Smart. Oh my goodness are you smart. I know that every parent says this about their child (I've witnessed it) but I really believe you are above average in your intellectual ability. As soon as we moved into the new house, you walked up the stairs and said "12!" Grammy and I couldn't believe that yes, you counted the 12 stairs correctly, in your head. You can count to 20 in English and Spanish and you have awesome 1 to 1 counting. You actually *know* what 8 means. We are so proud of you!

Social. You want nothing else than to be around your friends and other kiddos. You don't care if they're 2 or 10, you just want to play! I love how you just run up to a new friend and want to play. I hope you always keep this open mind and outgoing spirit.

Artistic. You get this from your Daddy. Your favorite thing to do is color and paint and you can sit for up to 45 minutes doing either. You woke up at 6:45 this morning yelling "I need to color!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And you got right to it:

I love this picture of you from Bridgette's birthday party. You were a painting rockstar! :)

Things you are into right now are: Princesses, coloring, painting, Cars!, Dora and Diego still a bit, playing in your kitchen, and then coloring some more! You also love to swim and dance.

Happy 2 1/2 Birthday Auds!!!!! :) We love you!!

A New Version of the Adams' Family

2011-07-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been putting off this post for awhile now. But it's time to just jump out and do it. The reason I have this blog is for Audrey to have a record of her life. And my sweet little Auds, a pretty big life change just happened to you. Your mommy and daddy decided to separate and divorce. For one reason and one reason only. We are not IN love with each other. We love each other a lot, and love you COMPLETELY, but we do not have a bond to each other to keep us married. I hope one day you understand. Your dad and I are still very close and are YOUR parents. We have one purpose in life and that is to raise you. And we plan to do that together the best we can. We are still a family, just a different version of what we were. Still full of love, fun, kisses, hugs, learning, and did I say LOVE?!!!!!

So, all of you blog followers, this is where we are now. Audrey and I have moved out of our beautiful home into another beautiful, love-filled home. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue on this new phase of our lives. Here is a picture of our new house:

Fourth of July Parade

2011-07-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

The Whistlestop Parade was TOO cute. But I don't think Auds is ready for Toddlers and Tiaras just yet, because she didn't have her game face on. ;) She was a little scared of the whole thing and just started crying when she saw us cheering her on!

And of course our camera died, so luckily my friend Lisa got these cute pics for me. And of course they put Auds and Sara together to walk. :) So cute.

Lisa is SUCH a good photographer, you should check her out: http://www.imagesbylisasmith.com/

And thank goodness Sara's dad had his video camera. Audrey will love this when she's older! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRwrXYqdLs8

Watering Flowers

2011-07-02T16:27:00.001-07:00

Audrey's new favorite activity is to water (or "help water") the flowers. We recently did some new landscaping to our yard, and Audrey insists on being involved everytime we water to plants. Even when it's right before bedtime and she's rocking her princess pj's! ;)

I can't wait til she's 6 and can mow and edge the grass! ;)))

Getting Ready for the 4th of July . . . at least Fashion Wise! ;)

2011-06-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned that I love love love Audrey's Daycare? They are just fantastic and I swear every single employee there knows her name (and not b/c she's the naughty one!!) and greets her every morning. So not only do they truly love my child, but they plan the most fun events for every holiday. On Friday they are having a 4th of July Parade. Each kid will ride in the parade, wear fun sparkly headbands, and these super cute t-shirts that the teachers made for each child. They used their fingerprints to make the American flag. It is too cute! In addition to the parade there will be face painting, games, and snacks. I don't know who's more excited, me or Auds!

Here is her cute t-shirt (front)
(Back)

To add to our cute 4th of July outfits, Katie picked up this adorable dress for Auds at Old Navy after they were out of them at the one near me. Love it!

And when I saw this little onesie I just had to buy it for our newest baby on the Shire, Jackson. He will be just too cute in it! (ok, so I've overused the words "cute", "adorable", and "precious" in this post. Comments with synonyms to these words would be appreciated!)

Get ready for parade pics coming soon!!!! :)

And . . .already a mistake!

2011-06-27T15:47:00.001-07:00

And I can't fix it!!! Not Best "Weekened" Ever. But "Best WEEKEND EVER"!!!

Why can't I edit my posts???? Help from fellow bloggers please!

Addition to Best Weekened Ever

2011-06-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

So as you know, blogspot is NOT my favorite website. It takes me forever and day to post 2 pictures and a sentence in the correct order! ;) So yesterday's Best Weekend Ever double post made me so proud! I can do it! I can become a Mommy Blogger like dooce.com and quit my job and make all of my money by just blogging! But alas, not so much. As I read through the post I noticed typos, too many spaces, and not any explanation on who that new guy was in the pictures! I tried for FOREVER to edit the post, and decided I better just log off before I through my shoe at the computer screen.

Soooo . . . . . sorry for the typos, spaces, and unexplained pictures. Let me fix that in a new post! (Because that's the only way I know how!) My Uncle Mike came to visit this weekend, which only added to the Best Weekend Ever! He's such fun guy and I always love seeing him. But he and his family live in Pennsylvania, so that doesn't happen very often. This was his first time meeting Audrey and they hit it off! It was great to see him. And he and my wonderful Aunt Pam gave Audrey a gift to go buy toys, clothes, or whatever she needed! So of course Mommy hit up Old Navy (Audrey does not need one single new toy in our little house!!). They were having an awesome sale, so not only did Audrey get some adorable clothes, so did Mommy, and our new little friend down the street who is 2 months old. (Who can pass up an adorable onesie?) Thanks Uncle Mike for coming to visit and thank you for the very generous gift!

Our loot! Whoop!

And just for fun, here's a cute art project Auds did at school a month ago. Love it! :)

Now I'm off to make dinner, so no time to spell check or check for errors. So if there are any, lo siento! ;) (That's for Bethie, Ster, and Kristen. What's up Senora Kirk!)

Best Weekend Ever, Part 1

2011-06-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend was by far the most exciting one we've had in awhile. First and foremost Uncle Eric came to vist anf he brought his dog Laken! Now you all know I have never been a dog lover, but seeing Audrey interact with Laken (plus Laken is the best behaved dog ever) made me rethink on having a dog. Here's Audrey playing with Laken and her toys,
Mommy, I LOVE Laken, can we have a doggy pretty please??

I love my Uncle Eri

MOVIE TIME!! We took Auds to see her first movie, Cars 2.

Picking out candy . .

Ready for the show!

She loved it! Can't wait to take her to see more movies in the future. :)

Best Weekend Ever Part 2

2011-06-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Breakfast with Grammy, Uncle Eric and Mommy at our new favorite breakfast place, Crossroads Diner. It just opened up at Walnut Hill and Greenville and it was amazing.

Here are Grammy and Audrey coloring while waiting for out delicious food.

Still coloring . . . but it was worth the wait!

Audrey, happy and content after a wonderful breakfast with her favorite peeps.

Part 2 of Day 2 of the Best weekend ever. Splash Park with Audrey's BFF Sara! Here we are trying for a group shot, not really working because the girls were too excited to get going.

Fun in the water. It was so interesting to watch the girls play in the water. Sara was so adventourous, running from this place to that, while Auds kind of hung back and took awhile to join in.

Friends! :) I just love watching Sara and Audrey interact. More than one person has commented that Sara looks and acts like my best friend when I was younger, Kristen. I tend to agree. What an interesting observation!
And of course ice cream is the perfect end to a perfect weekend. :)

Best Weekend Ever!

2011-06-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-06T15:02:00.001-07:00

An oldie, but one of my absolute favorites!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-23T16:16:00.001-07:00

I got this idea from a fellow bloggie friend of mine, to post a picture every Wednesday with no captions. Just for fun. Can you guess what is going on here?! ;)

More Spring Break Fun!

2011-03-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

After we got back from our Road Trip, Audrey and I kept on the go! :) We had so much fun playing with our friends this week!

We went to the Arboretum with Audrey's BFF from school, Sara, and her mom. It was so pretty there and the weather was perfect. But I think every other mom in Dallas had our idea too because it was packed!

Dora snackies and a red wagon are a must for a trip to the Arboretum!

Having fun playing in the houses . . .

Lunch! It was so funny because Katie and I were the least prepared parents there. We completely forgot blankets and other fun things that the mommies around us had. The moms on one side had a whole set up of hummus, dips, and a variety of small sandwiches for all their kiddies. The moms on our other side had a huge comfy blanket and WINE! We vowed to be more prepared next time! ;) But Auds and Sara were happy as could be sitting on the grass with their lunches.

So many beautiful flowers!

The Arboretum has a neat water feature for the kids to play in. Sara jumped right in, but Audrey was a little scared of the water shooting out of the big frogs!

It was a lot of fun and it's so nice that Audrey loves her friends at school!

We also had a chance to play with our friend Ayers, who lives down the street. I watched him all day and we had fun, but they wore me out! The also both decided not to nap, so it got a little crazy!

Here they are tricking me, thinking that they might want to nap later!

Dancing to Dora Music! Vamanos amigos! ;)

The next day Audrey's friend Cade came over with his mom Hilary, who I've known since high school. Audrey and Cade are tight because when they were babies they were "helmet buddies" and both had to go through the wonderful head reshaping process!

So much fun but I think that I need a break from our Spring Break!!! :)

Audrey and Mommy's Road Trip!

2011-03-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

WE DID IT!! I have been planning to visit one of my oldest and dearest friends for awhile now, but the 6 hour drive alone with a toddler was a *little* intimidating! But for this Spring Break I just decided to go for it and I'm so glad I did. Audrey and I had such a great bonding time and we both had a blast. Audrey's Auntie Moo and Uncle Rick (who she adores) live in San Antonio, so we decided to start off slow with just a 5 hour drive to SA to see them, and then on to Uvalde (another 1 1/2 south) the next morning. Here we are, ready to go!

I packed toys, toys, and more toys for the trip. So even though I was hoping for a nap early on, she was pretty happy to just play for a few hours.

She did pretty well the rest of the way (and I didn't even have to bust out the DVD player! What what!!) But started to get preeeetty cranky when we were almost to San Antonio. Not cool because that was the one time I actually needed to pay attention to the directions to get to Amanda and Rick's house. We were both almost in tears when she thankfully passed out and I was able to spend the next hour navigating through San Antonio and we made it there safely!

Auds was sooo excited to see her Auntie Moo and Uncle Rick, but especially Mimo, her favorite dog in the world. She immediately took charge and told everyone what their coloring duties were. ;)

Playing with Uncle Rick in the backyard.

I think one of her favorite parts of the whole trip was when Rick played his guitar and she got to dance with Amanda. I don't think I've ever seen her smile and laugh this much. She LOVED it! :)

Off to dinner for some amazing Mexican food. So yummy.

Getting some love from her Auntie. She sure does love her!

The next morning we were up and ready to roll onto Uvalde. Audrey was pretty sad to leave Amanda and Rick, and was all "Really mom, weren't we just in this car all day yesterday??!!!" Luckily the drive to Uvalde is all open fields and right next to the train tracks, so she loved looking at the tractors and the trains that kept chugging by.

Finally in Uvalde and ready to play with Nixon and Daren!

Sterling and her husband Chris live on a beautiful farm with lots of land, goats, and even a horse! Nixon and Daren were so sweet to show my little city girl around. It was so funny how Audrey kept getting upset when she got dirty and Nixon just kept telling her this is how it is out here!

Audrey was a little scared of the goats at first. Nixon and Daren just jumped right in there with them, but Audrey held back. But she learned quick and soon got right in there to feed them!

One of my highlights of the trip was RIDING A HORSE! I haven't ridden a horse since my girl scout days back in '88 and was so excited to ride Woody!

Audrey couldn't believe that I was actually on a real, live horse. It was hysterical. We tried to get her on, but she wasn't having it. Next time though!

We had so many new learning experiences on the trip, me riding the horse, Audrey learning to climb a fence . . .

and of course how to pull her weight in the barn. Get to work girlfriend! ;)

By Day 2 she was a pro at feeding the goats and kept saying "more feed goats! more!"

Being silly with her friends . . .

"What are these hurty things Mama?" The cacti (cactuses???) were all over the farm and Auds kept wanting to touch them. Luckily she only got one owie.

Driving around the Big U to see the sights. Audrey and Daren loved singing along to "The Wheels on the Bus". Here they are acting out "the babies on the bus go waa waa waa!"

Uvalde has the BEST restaurants. After eating Mexican food for 4 meals straight, we decided to change it up and eat at the old school Pharmacy/Deli counter. The girls especially loved their ice cream.

Trying to get Auds on the horse . . . she loved petting him, but just wasn't ready to sit on him yet.

And yet another learning experience on the trip . . . .wait for it . . . .I learned to shoot a gun!! Crazy, I know! Chris showed me the basics and taught me how to handle it, but man, shooting a gun is hard work! But I finally hit a beer can! Whoop!

What's more fun than digging in the dirt with friends?

The sunset was so beautiful on their land. We both loved just looking at all of the land and enjoying the fresh air.

Getting ready for bed so we could rest up for our 6 HOUR DRIVE the next day.

And yes, we drove the whole 6 hours home (took us 7 with only two stops, but Austin SXSW traffic was crazy.) I cannot believe we did it! Audrey did great and slept a lot. We stopped in Austin for lunch, and then were back on the road. When were about an hour from home she got pretty cranky though. "Mama, no more car!!!!!!!!" Who could blame her though, my butt was numb at that point too. ;) The closest place to pull over was the tiniest town in the world, Carl's Corner. Which doesn't even have an open gas station. So we just pulled in the parking lot and walked around for a bit. Then I finally gave in (I was super proud of myself for waiting this long!) and turned on the Dora dvd in the backseat. So of course she was happy as could be all the way home.

It was truly one of the best vacations I've ever had. Audrey and I had so much fun together, we got to see family, and I got to hang out and relax with one of my favorite people, Sterling, who made me laugh until my stomache hurt many times, while our girlies played so nicely together. Can't wait to go back!

Big Girl Table!

2011-02-17T16:57:00.001-08:00

Well, Audrey has decided she is done with the highchair! Which is fine by me because that thing is *not* fun to clean up! The past few days she has been asking to sit at the table, and tonight I decided we would have a Mommy and Audrey dinner at the kitchen table. Just two ladies chatting about their day! ;) She loved it right away and dug right into her dinner. (It was Mac and Cheese with hot dogs and peas and carrots -don't judge - it was a long day!!!)

Then I reminded her that big girls who sit at the table have to use their utensils properly. And she did! She loved using her fork to get her hots dogs. Too cute!

Eating dinner with Mommy at the table is FUN!!!

Next thing we know she'll be asking for a glass of wine with her dinner! ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T17:20:00.001-08:00

Wow! Hard to believe this is Audrey's 3rd Valentine's Day. This was the most fun one by far because she got to have a party at school and pass out and get Valentine's from her friends.

Her day started with her gifts from Mommy and Daddy . . .

She loved the Elmo book we got her. (Trying to break away a liiitle bit from the Dora here.)

Wait, you mean I get chocolate in the morning Daddy?? YAY!!!

Not so impressed by her Valentine bear. But hey, who wouldn't be when there's chocolate to be eaten? ;)

Please can I have one more piece for breakfast??? Well okay, it's a special day!

Dressed and ready to go at school to pass out cards and have a par-tay!

After school we passed out valentines to all of our neighbors with Bridgette, Aiden, and Heather. The girls' moods cracked us up. They both had their share of sugar and went from way excited to super meltdown mode within minutes. They kept us on our toes! :)

V-day dinner at Picasso's. Coloring with Mommy. Notice the booster seat!! She no longer needs the high chair!

My precious Valentine. :)

Drinking from a big girl cup.

Ready for bed after a long day of partying. Reading books with Daddy is a great way to end Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!

More Party Pics

2011-02-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so blogger.com is not my friend right now! I have tried and tried to post these party pics in order, with cute little captions and it.is.not.working!!! It changes the order on me or just shuts down when I am halfway through. So here are the cute party pics - out of order, and you can just make up your own captions. ;) Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us. It meant so much to us and to Audrey!

Party Pics!

2011-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

2nd Birthday Party - Post #1: The Preparation!

2011-01-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

Wow. I just cannot believe my baby girl is 2. She has grown so much and just amazes me everyday with what she is learning and what an independent person she has become. For some reason this 2nd birthday has been more sentimental to me than her first. I think it's just because she's really coming into her own and she's such a wonderful little girl. But I'll save my sappy post for another time! ;) We had a train party for Audrey because she is obsessed with two things: Dora and trains. I just couldn't bring myself to spend a day singing "da-da-da-da Dora" all day, so we went with the train theme. :) It was a hit. Audrey loved it and loved all of her train stuff. I have so many pictures to share so I thought I would put it into two posts.

This one is all about the preparation that went into the party. It was a lot of work but it was totally worth to see Audrey and her friends enjoy it.

Just to start us off, here's Audrey and Uncle Eric just relaxing watching, what else, Dora, while everyone else was running around like crazy. Thank you Eric for keeping her entertained so we could get ready!

Here's the cute little train cookie decorating station for the kiddos.

These are the ADORABLE menu cards and cupcake decorations made by none other than Design Roots. Check out http://www.design-roots.com/ for their awesome ideas.

The wall decorations and door hangars (plus the confetti on the table) were made by my friend Meaghan. SOOOO Cute! The door hangar said "All Aboard"!

And the wall decoration said "Audrey is 2!"

Our big gift to Audrey was her toy car. She is obsessed with them at school and we knew she would love it!

And she does!!! We've spent every afternoon out riding in it. So fun.

More birthday pics to come in the next post. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support group of family, friends, and neighbors who came out to celebrate Audrey. Pictures to follow! :)

Best Holiday Season Ever!

2010-12-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

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 . . .

2010-05-26T17:31:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-03T17:48:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-03-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-16T17:53:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-02-28T13:54:00.003-08:00

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!

2010-02-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T10:37:00.001-08:00

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.

1 Year Old!!!

2010-02-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

Wow. I cannot believe that this milestone is finally here. Audrey Elizabeth Adams is 1 year old. I was pretty emotional the week before her birthday. I kept remembering every moment as it was 1 year ago. I remember being so uncomfortable that I just wanted her OUT. I remember James and I planning every single detail. I look back at that time and am just in awe at how little we knew of what was to come of our lives. How could we imagine this perfect being? Audrey is simply the best thing ever. We are so blessed to have known her this past year and I can't even imagine what the next year will bring.

Happy Birthday Audrey! We woke her up with a candle in a donut. She loved the candle, not so much the donut, which is a theme that went throughout the day . . .

Time to pose with Mr. Bear!

Heather wanted to get Audrey some ice cream for her first birthday. What a perfect idea! So Heather, Bridgette, Audrey and I went over to Northpark for a birthday outing. Audrey had a great time until we actually forced her to try some ice cream
After a few bites I let her go . .

and had to chase her through the mall!!! Ok, fine, we'll give you some veggies

On to the party. James and I have been calling Audrey "our little bear" since day one. So that was the theme of the party. And yes, I made these super cute cookies!

Heather made the delicious cupcakes.

She also designed the invitations and gift tags. Too cute!

Audrey was ready to PAR-TAY!

Posing with Grammy

And with Grandpa and Mommy

Audrey had all of her friends there. Miss Paige stole the show and was such a helper with Audrey. :)

Audrey and DaddyThis picture isn't the best, but it's Audrey's FNA's. (Favorite Neighborhood Aunts) Mary Nell and Julie are so good with Auds!

Play time!

Okay, time for a cupcake hat
and a real cupcake!

Happy 1st Birthday Audrey!

She is such a lucky girl because she is loved by so many. I was so crazy that day that I missed so many photo ops. Thank you to everyone who loves our Audrey.

11 Months Old

2009-12-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Audrey is one month away from being ONE YEAR OLD!!! Time flies! Here are her 11 month pics - she actually stayed still for a minute!

Audrey had so much fun over Christmas and loved opening her gifts. Christmas pictures to follow soon . . .

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2009-12-24T06:57:00.001-08:00

10 months and a Turkey!

2009-11-28T15:18:00.001-08:00

Wow! I know I say this every month, but I cannot believe Audrey is so old! 10 months. She is just doing so many new things every day. Here's her "Top Ten"!

1. I love to pull myself up onto everything. Everything!
2. My favorite toy in the whole house is the power button on the tv. It's so fun to turn the tv on and off when Mom and Dad are trying to watch!
3. My 2 favorite "real" toys are my push stroller that I can walk with. I can walk with my stroller all around the house by myself! I also love my Dance and Sing Stage. I dance by shaking my hips back and forth. Watch out Beyonce!
4. I can eat all kinds of food now! Cheese, cheerios, crackers, turkey, spaghetti, I love it all. Except bananas. I spit those out every time.
5. I've learned how to make a snorting sound. Mommy laughs every time I do this!
6. I can say Mama!
7. My favorite book is Chicka Chicka ABC.
8. I have to have my 2 blankies to sleep with.
9. I can stand on my own for a minute or so now!
10. I can almost walk by myself!

We tried the pictures in Mr. Bear's lap again this month, but Auds would not have it. So we tried something new. At least we can see how much she's grown?

Thanksgiving was so exciting with Audrey!

Here's her Uncle Eric actually COOKING!

Grammy did a *little* cooking. (by little I mean cooking a complete delicious meal!)

Eric and I

An Adams and Nedzinski holiday tradition - PUZZLES! Daddy got Audrey started. She worked on it for a few seconds. ;)

Okay people, I'm ready, where's this Thanksgiving dinner I've been hearing so much about??

Rolls!

All done!

Now on to Christmas!!

Halloween!

2009-11-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

James and I hosted a little Liptonshire Street Halloween Happy Hour on Saturday. We are so lucky to live on a street with such wonderful people, and some pretty cute babies! ;)

Here is Audrey, Little Miss Ballerina, greeting everyone at the door. I remember being in Gymboree less than a year ago, while pregnant, finding her costume on sale and thinking how cute it would be on my baby. Little did I know just HOW cute my baby would be!

James was a vampire and I was a witch. Aren't we creative?? We put a swing in our front yard and she just loves it.

Family Portrait. Two scary parents and one precious baby.

Audrey and Grammy.

Here's Audrey playing with her friend Ayers, who lives down the street. He was the cutest pumpkin!

The HOB had a great costume. Hilarious!

Adrienne, sweet Caroline (really, it's not just a song, she is!), Audrey, and Mommy.

Mommies and babies.

Our awesome neighbors, Alice who lives next door, and Mary Nell who is down the street.

And here's Greta, and her friend with the sweet boombox.

Happy Halloween!

9 Months Old! (yes - really!)

2009-10-27T17:06:00.001-07:00

Audrey is 9 months old! I just cannot believe how old she is. She had her 9 month check-up last week and she is doing great! She is off the charts for her length!

She is just growing and learning new things every day. And she will not sit still. For anything. Always on the go!

Her new favorite thing to do is stick her tongue out. It's too cute!

Some New Pictures . . .

2009-10-19T14:05:00.001-07:00

We went to the Arboretum today and it was beautiful! We tried to get a cute pic with Audrey and Bridgette, but they wouldn't really cooperate!

Audrey's new favorite thing to do is clap. So cute!

I love this picture. Cuddling with Daddy!

New Tricks

2009-10-07T17:34:00.001-07:00

Audrey has now learned to stand up on her own. She will find any surface and pull herself up. So fun! Until . . . she has to get back down. She alternates between trying to get down by herself (and then falling and crying) or whining until someone helps her down. It's so cute, yet so time consuming! Especially when she does it in her crib 10 times in one hour.

But even when she's crying she's just the cutest!

And she just loves to pick up books and look through them. She's going to be an avid reader, just like her mom and dad!

And thanks to Grammy for the super cute corduroy overalls. Audrey loves them!

Yes, We're Still Here!

2009-09-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

We've had so much going on! Audrey is now 8 months old and all she wants to do is crawl, crawl, crawl. She doesn't want to stay put for a minute. James had to hold her in place for this picture . .

And the minute he let go, she was off! She is just too fast. She now has four teeth and is pulling herself into a standing position. Who knows when she'll start walking!

We had James' 30th birthday party last month. It was so much fun. We had tons of friends and family, awesome food, and just a really good time. Here's James and Bob relaxing before the party. (Please note the super cute Bridgette in the carrier.)

This is the other Bob, a coworker of James', who generously offered to do the grilling for us. The food was amazing!!!

And here is James, proving he can still hang at 30! ;)

This month was also too fun because I got to go to Cape Cod to visit 3 of my best friends. Kristen, Beth, Sterling and I have been friends since elementary school. We are now all in different parts of the country - me in Dallas, Sterling in Uvalde, TX, Beth in Atlanta, and Kristen in Indianapolis. Beth's parents have a BEAUTIFUL house in Cape Cod, so we decided to have a little reunion trip!!

We packed out bathing suits, but it was a LITTLE too chilly and windy to lay out.

Beth took us to a "fun" shopping area of town. Who doesn't love a picture next to a whale??

It was just too beautiful there. Every single place looked like it was straight out of a picture.

Too Many Pictures!

2009-09-09T18:26:00.001-07:00

There is just too much going on! I have so many pictures to share, but not the time to do it. Audrey can't be left alone for a minute b/c she will find the one thing in the room she can't play with!

We had James' Big 30th birthday party 2 weeks ago and it was too much fun. Pictures and comments still to come . . .

I am packing to leave for Cape Cod tomorrow. Woo Hoo! I can't wait to see Ster, Bethy, and Kristen, but I will miss my family so much. James has Daddy duties for 4 days.

My brother came to visit this past weekend. He hadn't seen Audrey for awhile! But they hit it off . . .

And we are done with the helmet. Woo-hoo! Check out the round head! :)

And we've moved onto meats now. Here's James feeding Audrey some turkey.

Friends

2009-08-31T16:08:00.001-07:00

I am lucky to get to watch Caroline twice a week. She is so cute and it is so much fun to watch her and Audrey interact. The first week was a little tough b/c Audrey was all "Hey, who is this other person that my mommy is feeding?" Followed by some fussing. But now she is used to having Caroline over and we have so much fun!

This morning Joey dropped Caroline off and I noticed she was wearing an outfit that Audrey had too! So of course, I had to take some pictures!

Okay, we're both super cute. We know!
Audrey got a little upset over the attention being taken away from her. She tried to knock Caroline out of her way!

Friends again. This picture is just so sweet. Friends forever!

7 Months Old

2009-08-30T14:34:00.001-07:00

Happy 7 Month Birthday Audrey!

And thanks for staying still for at least one picture with Mr. Bear. On to more fun things!

Can't catch me, I'm Audrey!

2009-08-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

WOW! In a matter of 4 days, Audrey has learned how to crawl. I mean really crawl. Last week she propelled herself around her room and it was so cute. Now she can and will crawl wherever she wants to go. I was sitting in the computer room this afternoon for 5 minutes. I saw Miss Audrey crawl past me and laugh. She then turned and crawled into the kitchen to find the wine stash. (She's my daughter alright!)

Aren't I too funny?

Okay, you're boring me. On to bigger and better things.

I'm back!!! Look how cute I am!!! :)

Audrey's Top Ten

2009-08-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm stealing this idea from Carolyn because it's an easy way to list a few new things Audrey has been up to!

1. I can sit up on my own!!! I can sit up from laying on my belly and from my back. It's especially fun to sit up in my crib and move the baby monitor camera away from the crib so Mommy and Daddy can't spy on me anymore! Well, it was fun until Daddy lowered my crib!

2. I can CRAWL! Yes people, I am an official mover and shaker. I can crawl from my toys on one side of the room all the way to my changing table on the other side of the room and pull out all of my diapers in 10 seconds flat! Yesterday I crawled from my play mat in the living room over to the tv stand and pulled out all of the dvd's while Mommy left the room for 2 minutes. Who knows what I'll get into next!

3. I am eating all sorts of new foods. I had a real banana the other day and tonight I'm going to try turkey!

4. I love to express myself through yelling. I made Mommy and Daddy and all the other people in the restaurant laugh hysterically today while I was telling them how excited I was to sit in a highchair. So many nice ladies came up to smile at me. :)

5. I've been wearing my helmet for 4 weeks now and have just a few weeks left!!

6. I have a new friend, Caroline, who comes over at least twice a week to play while Mommy watches her. She is 8 weeks old and super cute.

7. I also get to go on walks with my Aunt Heather and friend Bridgette a lot. It's so fun!

8. My Daddy makes me laugh we he makes funny faces at me.

9. My Mommy makes me laugh when she sticks her tongue out at me.

10. Next Saturday my Daddy and I will share a birthday. I'll be 7 months and he's turning 30. I can't believe he's so OLD!! I can't wait for his birthday party. Happy Early Birthday Daddy!

Professionals Pics

2009-08-11T06:59:00.001-07:00

These are from 3 months ago. I'm a little late on posting them! :)

Blinged Out Baby

2009-08-07T17:09:00.001-07:00

So . . . 3 weeks later we have finally finished decorating Audrey's band. Originally James wanted to paint it, but the paint kept coming off, I couldn't find stickers I liked, etc. FINALLY I went back to Michael's today and found some cute stickers that I really like. They are so sparkly and cute! Here's Miss Audrey showing off her cutey little helmet.

And the funny helmet comment of the week is: We were at Tom Thumb, checking out. The teenage bagger looked at Auds and then turned to me and said, "Wow Mom, you really are keeping her head safe. That's some sweet protective headgear!"

I just laughed. Then he said, "No really, you are the most protective mom I've ever seen of her baby's head!"

So I had to explain that no, I'm not overprotective. My baby just has a flat head that needs to be evened out! ;)

Too Fun!

2009-08-06T18:36:00.001-07:00

We've been so busy this past week! We started the week on Tuesday going over to my friend Sterling's parents' house to celebrate Daren's 1st Birthday. Got that? :) Sterling is one of my closest friends, we've been friends since 5th grade! She lives with her husband Chris, two daughters Nixon and Daren, in Uvalde, TX. Which is 6 HOURS AWAY! Luckily her parents still live in P-town, so we get to see them when they come in town. Anywho, Daren had her 1st birthday this past week. It was a lot of fun. And also really nostalgic for me because the last time we got the girls together Daren was 6 months old and Audrey was just a few weeks old. It's amazing how time flies!

Nixon is the sweetest girl and she was just so precious with Audrey. Here she is trying to give her the balloon.
Audrey's all "I got it, now what's going on over here . . ." :)

Daren and Audrey playing . . .

And here's one of Audrey sleeping tonight. This is her new favorite position. Butt up, legs in, let's sleep!

Mommy feeding Audrey

2009-07-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Dad here... I hijacked the blog for a quick post! It just so happened that I had the video camera out and caught this clip at just the right time while Amy was feeding Audrey some cream o' banana's!

It makes me laugh everytime I watch it! Thanks Amy for having such a great attitude with Aud's even when she gets a little bit messy!

True Life . . . Living with a Doc Band

2009-07-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

Well, Audrey has been wearing her Doc Band for about a full week now. It's already been such an interesting journey. It doesn't seem to bother her at all during the day, but at night it's a different story. James and I watch her each night on the monitor trying to get comfy. It's hard for her! She's been waking up a few times each night crying. Usually she can get herself back to sleep within a few minutes, but sometimes she just wants us to hold her and rock her back to sleep. What a transition for us! She spoiled us by sleeping through the night at six weeks. Last night we were up 3 times trying to calm her down. The poor baby also just got 2 new teeth, so her jaw hurts, her head isn't comfy, and she just wants to sleep. I think it is the teething though, and not the helmet. I wonder how long this stage lasts??

And, during the day, she's just a beautiful baby, with a helmet. I knew people would stare but I didn't know how KIND people really are. It's actually been a lot of fun to go out every day and meet new people. Everyone wants to talk to us now and know why she's wearing the helmet. It's so neat to talk to people every day and explain to them why Audrey's wearing her helmet.

The most common question is: "Oh, did she just have surgery?" The best one so far has been the older man we saw in Target yesterday. He was probably in his 80's, and he just came up to Audrey, looked at her, and then pointed to her helmet and said "That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. What a precious baby." So sweet!

We also had the best playdate with my friend Hilary and her baby boy Cade at Northpark Mall this week. He is 3 months old and he just got his band too! It was our first outing with the helmet, and it was so nice to have another "helmet baby" with us. Hilary is my friend from when I worked at the super cool Islands' restaurant in high school. She is a great girl with a wonderful baby. Little Cade even brought Audrey some stickers to decorate her band with. What a gentleman! :)

New Jersey Trip

2009-07-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

As I previously posted, my Grandma passed away a few months ago. She was my last living grandparent and I really wish she had the chance to meet Audrey. My Grandma lived in the most gorgeous house in Clifton, New Jersey. It was the house that my Grandfather built and my mom grew up in. You can literally walk down the street and see the NYC skyline. It's amazing.

Last weekend, James, my brother Eric, my mom, and my cousin went up to New Jersey to clean out my Grandma's house so they could put it on the market. It was a LOT of work but they had fun hanging out and eating New Jersey food!

The house:

James and Eric using yard tools from the 60's to clean up the yard. :)

Eric cleaning out the detached, 2 car garage. Pretty nice for a 1950's home!

And they worked just so hard that they had time to go into the city for the day. How nice for them! ;) Here they are posing in front of 30 Rock.

We're hoping the house sells quickly and I'm sure it will. It's a great house in a great location. If only James and I could buy it!!!

6 Months Old and Rockin the Helmet

2009-07-22T10:56:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Audrey is half a year old! She is just getting so big!

She is getting teeth, rolling over, smiling like crazy, and now she can even sit on her own for almost a minute!!!!

The helmet is back on for good and she's doing fine with it! We're going to decorate this weekend and bling it out! ;)

We have a TOOTH!!!

2009-07-20T15:09:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it! I looked in Audrey's mouth today and thought, gee, what is that white thing in there? It's a tooth!!! It's on the bottom in the middle. I just can't stop staring at it! (Which is annoying Audrey because she's busy trying to eat a toy or blanket!) I almost want to cry because she's getting so grown up. She's so close to sitting on her own and she is just rolling like crazy. I can't leave her alone in a room for 5 minutes or she will be up against a wall!

Other things going on over here are helmet/band issues. She did fine with it Weds. night and slept straight through. I took it off on Thurs. morning to check for red spots like they told me too. She had a few. The doctor told me not to put the band back on until the spots fade, which shouldn't take longer than an hour. Well one spot just wouldn't go away. So I called Cranial Tech and they had us come in on Friday. They readjusted the band but told me not to put it on until the red spot went away. Well it's Monday and it's still there! So we have to go back tomorrow to get Audrey examined. It's so frustrating because she was getting used to the helmet, and now I feel like we're back at square one. Hopefully she will get to wear it tomorrow.

Also, no pictures to post because we have to get a new camera. The reason the pictures were blurry in the last post was because I had the camera in my diaper bag, with a bottle full of water, and you can see where this is going. Yes, the bottle leaked all over the camera. :( So we are going out ASAP to buy a new one because we have to take pictures of Audrey on Wednesday when she will be SIX MONTHS OLD!!!

Also, two of my friends started blogs! I will try to link to the Acuffs and James' blog. Too cute!

Update!

2009-07-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

We've had so much going on that I haven't had time to update the blog.

Most importantly, Audrey's friend Bridgette was born on July 2. She is absolutely perfect!!! Go to the Bloem's blog to see pics.

And finally, Audrey got her helmet. I have been so worried about this that I can't even tell you. I'm worried it will hurt her, cause her to wake up at night (she's been sleeping 13 hours!!), and just make her unhappy. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Knock on wood! Since it was put on earlier today she hasn't even fussed. She fell asleep with no problem. Let's hope it continues this way!!

Audrey was baptised last weekend in James' hometown church in Kingwood. I posted a whole long post about it last night and it got lost!!! But here are some pics for now . . . the whole fam . .. minus Uncle Eric and Uncle Rick . . .

Audrey got to wear the Christening gown that I wore and my mom wore. She looked beautiufl.

5 Months Old!

2009-06-25T14:39:00.001-07:00

Audrey is 5 months old! She's such a big girl! (I say that every time, I know.) Her new favorite thing to do it put EVERYTHING in her mouth. So of course the minute I put the cute sign I made saying "I'm 5 months old today!" next to her, she grabbed it and shoved it in her mouth. It was hilarious. The other night we went out to dinner, and Audrey was being a little fussy. We tried giving her the rattle, other toys, etc. Finally James handed her the gift card envelope thing that we had and she was just enthralled! She sat there and played with that thing (and put it in her mouth) for forever. I guess that goes along with the story that you can buy kids the most expensive toys, but they will just want the cardboard box it came in!

Her hands and feet are always in her mouth. Always. She was smiling and laughing but I couldn't get a good picture because of her hands! It's even hard to feed her a bottle because she wants to grab the bottle, my hair, whatever. But it's too cute.

Here are James and Audrey on his first Father's Day. Look's like someone wants Daddy's coffee! And I just want to say that James is such a good dad. I'm amazed daily at how darn good at it he is! The other night Audrey wouldn't fall asleep, so we're listening, seeing what she'll do. She was just talking to herself for awhile. So I decided to make her a bottle to feed her a little bit more. James said, let's just give her another minute. But no, I thought I knew what was best, so Iwent and made the bottle. When I walked into Audrey's room she was fast asleep!!!! Nice. :)

Such a big girl!

2009-06-17T17:52:00.001-07:00

We've had a fun week! We started Audrey on rice cereal this past weekend. We were going to wait until she was 6 months old, but she's just been so hungry! So we put the tray on the Bumbo, and gave her a few spoonfulls of rice cereal. She loved it. It was the cutest thing ever. She just kept sticking her tongue out, and you could tell she was really thinking about what this new texture was! I was on one side with the camera, and James was on the other with the video camera. It was such an important moment!
And James went out and got Audrey a pool! It's too fun. It has a slide and a little waterfall. She absolutely loves it!

We also had a playdate with Ashley and Sienna. Sienna taught Audrey how to really play and have fun! ;)

So . . . on a less fun note, Audrey has to get a helmet. Our pediatrician has been recommending this for awhile, but we thought we could do more tummy time, excercises, etc, to fix the problem. But now, not only is her head flat on one side, but her ears are off center, and her jaw is beginning to be affected. So we will go in next week to get her fitted for her helmet. She will have to wear it for 6-10 weeks, for 23 hours a day. We hope she adjusts well to this. I know it will really help her in the long run, but it will be hard to see her in it!

6 Years Ago Today

2009-06-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

James and I got married! It seems so long ago. It's almost like I can't picture life without James in it. It feels like we've always been a part of each others' lives. This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding, because it shows why we got married. We can ALWAYS make each other laugh. Always. We share the same sense of humor.

We look so young! And skinny! I remember making Kristen and Ashley run with me that morning, because I felt fat. Seriously! I would kill to look like that again!

And here we are at the Sandals Resort in the Bahamas. It was amazing. I think the best part though, was just relaxing on the beach, drink in hand, remembering every detail from the wedding and how loved we felt not only from each other, but from all of our family and friends. James and I have been through a lot these past 6 years, and I can't imagine spending them with anyone else. I can't wait to see what the next 6 years bring!

Big Changes

2009-06-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot going on around here! First of all, we have to congratulate James' sister Amanda and her new husband Rick on their marriage! They got married this past weekend in Santa Fe and it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony and reception. Amanda was a gorgeous bride and her and Rick couldn't be any happier. I forgot to pack my camera (I know, but you try packing for a 3 day trip away from your baby while packing up your classroom at the end of the year!!) but I will post pictures when we get them. It was such a beautiful wedding!

Also . . . I decided not to go back to work. It was just too hard for me to be away from my Auds every day. I truly truly love my job, especially my team (shout out 1st Grade Team!) and the kids. But it wasn't fair to my students and my team when I rushed out the door every day at 3:30 and it wasn't fair to Audrey, and it wasn't fair to me either. I felt pulled in too many directions. So, after a lot of talking, brainstorming, and praying, James and I worked out a way for me to stay home and for our family to be able to pay our bills. ;) I am lucky to be able to start babysitting Baby Caroline Levandowski and Baby (name still TBA!) Bloem starting in September. Also, I have started selling my worksheets that I have created over the past 7 years. Check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7447061

I am also working on a book! Crazy, I know! I know I haven't talked about this with a lot of people, but I suffered from Postpartum Depression pretty bad after Audrey was born, and there aren't a lot of books out there to help with it. I read Brooke Shields' book but had a hard time relating since she had 2 nannies and a trainer to help her through her PPD. So, I am writing about my experiences and how I came through it. It's a hard, hard thing, but now I am able to look back and see that I was able to overcome it! (With the help of a little medication!) :) So be looking for my picture in your local bookstore . . .

I will also be teaching summer school starting on Monday for a month. But it's only in the morning and my mom will be watching Audrey.

Okay, enough about me. Here are some Audrey pics! She is rolling over!!!!

4 Months Old!

2009-05-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Audrey is 4 months old!!! We can't believe it! Let's start with a few cute pictures! Isn't this outfit the most precious thing you have ever seen? Our super sweet neighbor, Anna, bought it for Audrey.

Well, we are officially done with swaddling! Last week I fed her, swaddled her, and put her down and 5 minutes later she was laughing and talking. I went in and she had gotten out of her swaddle. Fine. So I reswaddle her super tight. Literally 5 minutes later she is screaming. So James goes in to check on her, and she is completely out of her swaddle again. He does the "Daddy Super Swaddle" like only he can do and puts her down. 3 minutes later she is screaming again and out of her blanket! I told her Fine! Mommy gives up! So we put her in her big girl pajamas and put her down. I was sure she would be up all night because her hands, feet, etc, would keep waking her up. Nope, she slept until we had to wake her in the morning! Audrey looks so old in her little pjs!

And here we are during my favorite time of day. Story time before bed. Audrey really likes her books and is starting to reach out and try to touch the pictures. So sweet!

This post is dedicated to "The Hob"

2009-05-11T17:44:00.001-07:00

So, as most of you know, "The HOB" refers to Heather and Bob. Heather and I met in the A&M dorms in Briggs Hall during our freshman year of college. Kristen and I moved in, and looked over at our neighbors' door, which was decorated with Plano SENIOR High pictures. We, being the cool Plano EAST girls that we were, couldn't believe that we traveled all the way to College Station to meet some snotty West side girls. But then Heather and Stacy started blaring the Dixie Chicks, and we all decided to become best friends.

Fast forward 6 or so years. Through many Pat Green songs, many drinking games, and many workouts. And Heather and her husband Bob (who has become one of my best friends too, b/c he's just that cool!) moved across the street from us. Heather and I had, for many petty and silly reasons (too many on my part!) had drifted apart. Then her and Bob got married and moved to Dallas. And we all hung out occassionally, and became friends. Then they decided to move to Lake Highlands. And a home ON OUR STREET became for sale. So I suggested they buy it. And they did! ;) And while James was helping them move in, they discovered that their fridge would not fit in the opening made for it in the kitchen. James suggested they tear down the wall and rebuild it. Bob was in. And a man friendship was made!!!!

Since then, many projects between both households have been completed. Some requiring the assistance of the fire department, some just taking longer than plannned. But through it all, we have made life long friends.

Anywhoooo, the point to this post is that we know we are so lucky to have such great friends live right across the street. And the fact that their daugher will be born in July is even that much more exciting. Her and Audrey will be best friends!!!

Which is why I started this post . . . the HOB offered to watch Auds last week so James and I could go to dinner. These are the cute pictures they took. :)

Here's a preview of our professional family portraits

2009-05-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! So we finally got around to taking professional family pictures, courtesy of James' co-worker Selso, who has a photography business on the side. We decided to do some test shots at home and the rest at Northpark Mall. This is what he sent us today. Too cute!

Lots of changes this week

2009-05-02T07:37:00.001-07:00

This was my first week back at work and it was so hard to leave Audrey! I just don't know how I can do this! I miss her so much all day and rush to see her after work. I love her babysitter and I know she's having fun with her new friends - especially Paige! :), but I just hate being away from her.

So we had to get used to the new routine of getting up earlier, getting her to Sue's house, etc, and also James had to go out of town! He left Weds. morning and won't be back until tonight. Talk about stressful! So I decided to take Friday off (even though I have 0 days left, whatever!) just because I couldn't leave Audrey. There are only 5 weeks of school left and I pray they go by quickly. Who knows what the future holds. I know we will find something that works for all of us.

Another change is that little Miss Auds is getting too big for her swaddle! This is how I found her yesterday morning. She's all "What up Mom, I am so over this swaddle! I'm free!!" It was hilarious! So we are now napping without the swaddle and she's doing great. Eventually we'll try sleeping at night without it . . .

The best part of this week was seeing Aunt Kristen!!!! She hasn't seen Audrey since she was 2 weeks old. She couldn't believe how big she'd gotten! And of course Jack got Audrey to laugh and smile!

If only she could have stayed longer. I think a trip to Indy is in Audrey's future! :)

3 Months Old!

2009-04-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

Look who's 3 months old already! I can't believe it. Audrey's such a big girl! She's really becoming her own little person. Yesterday she actually laughed for a few second. It was hysterical!

Just to compare, here she is at 3 weeks! Wow!

Good Morning!

2009-04-19T17:50:00.001-07:00

This is what I get to see every morning when Audrey wakes up. We know she's awake when she starts "talking" and making noises. She doesn't really cry. When I walk in I say "Good Morning!" and she turns her head and gives me the most beautiful smile. It's the best thing in the whole entire world!

Then I unwrap her swaddler and she just pops her arms out and is so excited to be free!

Audrey loves to stretch her arms out! Isn't she just the cutest??

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures!

2009-04-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

We have so many new pictures to share!

James' parents have a beautiful home and we took a lot of pictures there.

Audrey LOVES bathtime. She usually smiles and laughs throughout the whole thing. James thought it would be cute to make a lot of bubbles and put her in it. She loves it!

Here we are on the flight to New Jersey. I was SO nervous but she did great. It is so hard to travel with children. But so many people were wonderful to us. This mommy thing is so neat. It's like you're in a club. Every other mommy on the flight went out of her way to let us know that Auds was doing great, how could they help, etc. It meant so much to us!

Here's Audrey and I after I had a glass of wine and relaxed. ;) She was great! I just couldn't stop worrying about "what if!" When James asked the flight attendant for a glass of wine for me, she responded " Of course! Every new mom needs that on their first flight!" and she gave me my drink for free!

James loved showing Audrey the sights as we flew in to Newark.

The trip back was little harder. The weather was awful so our flight kept getting delayed. We were getting pretty annoyed! Audrey was cranky, I was tired, and Uncle Eric just fell asleep! :) When we finally got on our flight everyone was cranky, every seat was full, and the whole mood of the plane was bad. James and I had seats apart from each other and when I asked the guy next to me if we could switch he snapped at me! Hello, lady with a baby here! But he did end up moving and letting us sit together. Audrey was fine and finally fell asleep for the rest of the flight. We didn't get home until 11:30 that night and James and I were exhausted. Note to self: always book an earlier flight. Getting home that late was not fun!

But overall it was a successful trip and Audrey did great.

Here's Audrey with her Uncle Bob. He always makes her smile!

Even when he puts her in silly outfits! :)

And We're Back!

2009-04-13T12:33:00.001-07:00

We finally got our new computer!!! Yay!! I have so much to post about, but not much time right now. So I'll just do the most recent pictures and post the other ones later on.

Audrey celebrated her 1st Easter this weekend at Nana and Grandad's house in Kingwood. It was so much fun to put together an Easter basket for her! I even added some fun candy just for me and James. :)

But I don't think Audrey was too impressed. ;)

Here we are ready to go to church. This is probably the worst picture ever taken of me (except for the one right after high school graduation - Kristen - you know which one I'm talking about!). But it's a cute family photo so whatever! We went to the First United Methodist Church of Kingwood and it was a truly wonderful church service. I am so glad we got to go.

Here's Audrey playing with Nana on her playmate. So fun!

And Audrey with Grandad and Toby. (I think, maybe Gulliver??) Nana and Grandad have 2 dogs and even though Audrey was a little startled by them at first, by the end of the weekend she had fun with them.

We can't wait until next year when Audrey will be able to hunt for Easter eggs!

Update

2009-03-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's been awhile since my last post. Our computer got a virus and totally crashed so we had to order a new one. It won't be here for a few more days, so I am over at my mom's using her computer. And I can't figure out how to upload pictures on her computer, so I can't post the super cute pics we have of Audrey's first plane ride. My Grandma passed away last weekend so we had to travel up to New Jersey for the funeral. My Grandma lived a long life and it was her time. She died peacefully in her sleep. Now she is Audrey's special angel!

I was SO nervous about the plane ride. I literally had a panic attack on the plane. She started fussing and I just kept thinking "What if she won't stop crying and the whole plane hates us???!!!" I almost threw up I was so nervous! But James gave her a bottle and she calmed right down. Then she slept the rest of the flight! Audrey also did great sleeping in the hotel. It was a crazy few days for her. She also did great at the funeral and burial. She was very quiet and respectful. :)

She is now 9 1/2 weeks old. Wow!! I will post pictures as soon as I can!

More Pictures . . .

2009-03-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

I have more pictures to share . . .

This is from a month ago. Sterling came up to visit all the way from Uvalde with her 2 beautiful girls! Nixon and Darin are both precious. Nixon is especially cute. She kept asking to kiss the little baby. :)

Here's Audrey with Grandpa last Friday. She loves to see him!

Audrey has so many friends already! Paige was so cute with her. "Can I kiss Baby Audrey? Please Mommy, let me hold her now!" Paige is just too cute and I can't wait until Audrey is at that age.

This is from last weekend when Audrey had her first overnight stay with Grammy. She had SO much fun. We were a little nervous, but she slept and ate great. James and I had a nice time just relaxing and spending time with each other as well as having some time to ourselves. It was wonderful!

8 Weeks Old

2009-03-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe she's 8 weeks old! We have her 2 month appointment next week and I just can't believe she's that old. She's really growing up! This morning Audrey did her tummy time for 6 minutes!! And then she actually grabbed one of the rings on the mat. She is so strong!!! She is still sleeping WONDERFULLY. 8-9 hours each night. Of course now that I said that, I'm sure I jinxed it! The first night Audrey slept for 9 hours (last Fri) James woke up every hour after 4 to check on her. I slept right through, I knew she'd be fine! ;)

7 Weeks Old . . .and lots of pictures!

2009-03-12T16:11:00.001-07:00

Today Audrey is 7 weeks old! And I put the "big Canton bow" on her just for you Michelle! It actually looks pretty cute and I think I'm going to buy some more bows tomorrow. :)

Audrey is smiling all of the time. I have been trying SO HARD to get it on camera, but can't! But I did get some cute shots today . . .

The Starwalts stopped by for a visit today. Let's forget about Audrey for a minute and just focus on how tall and old little Scotty is!!! I remember when he was Audrey's size!

And here's James giving Audrey her nighttime bottle last night. She is doing so good sleeping in her room!

Such a big girl!

2009-03-10T14:14:00.001-07:00

We decided to try Audrey is the Bumbo chair today and she loved it!! She loves just sitting and looking around the room. Her neck is getting really strong and she is able to hold it up for much longer now. Pretty soon she'll be sitting up on her own!

We also moved her into her room to sleep now. She has been sleeping so well that James thought it was time. I was a *little* nervous and actually spent Friday night on the floor in her room. :) But she did so well that I'm really comfortable with it now and can sleep peacefully in my own bed!

And . . . the big news is that she is going to have a sleepover at Grammy's house this Saturday!! James and I are so excited. We don't know what we're going to do with ourselves! I know we're going to miss our little Auds like crazy, but she's going to have tons of fun with Grammy.

6 Weeks

2009-03-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

Wow! Audrey is finally 6 weeks old. It's such a milestone. She is really growing up! In the past week Audrey has become so independent. In the first few weeks she was only happy when being held. Now she LOVES her little activity mat and spends at least 30 minutes at a time hitting the rattles and staring at the lights. She also likes her swing again and likes to lay in it for a few minutes at a time. And the BEST part is that she is now sleeping consistently at night for 6-7 hours at a time!!! This is huge. The first time this happened James kept getting up to check on her. Now we just count our blessings and sleep! :)

Audrey also started smiling at us this past week. She can recognize us and smiles and coos at us. It's the best feeling in the whole world. We are so lucky to have our beautiful Audrey.

5 Weeks Old

2009-02-27T15:34:00.000-08:00

Audrey was 5 weeks old yesterday. She is getting so big! She didn't cry at all when I put her in the teddy bear's arms! :) We had our 1 month check-up yesterday, and she's doing great! She is now weighing 10.6 lbs and is 22 inches long. She's a big girl! She's also getting stronger. Audrey now does her tummy time for at least 3 minutes without crying. Yay!! I can't believe we're in the second month. She's also starting to smile at us. It's too cute. Hopefully I can catch it in a picture!

4 Weeks Old

2009-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

So Audrey is finally 4 weeks old. I cannot believe it. Part of me feels like this time flew by, but the other part feels like this has been the longest 4 weeks of my life. I remember when she was born, everyone kept saying, wait until she's a month old or 6 weeks, then she'll start sleeping through the night, you'll feel like you have your routines down, etc. Well, it's true! The first 2 weeks were a little rough. It was hard to adjust our thinking to revolve around Audrey and to ALWAYS be worrying about her. It was also hard to wake up every few hours. But now she is sleeping in 5 hour stretches (knock on wood!) and I really do feel "normal" again. Like I can think about something other than her for a minute! :)

These past 2 weeks have been the best weeks of my life. I keep looking at Audrey and can't believe she's MY daughter. I have a daughter. James and I just look at her in awe and can't believe she's ours.

And this song by Darius Rucker just came out (Hootie for those of us in the know!) and it makes me cry every time I hear it. I had James listen to it last night and he actually teared up. We just can't picture our little Audrey as a teenager! You have to watch the video. I promise you will cry too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6JHXHWZLpU

It was a little tough to get Audrey to cooperate on her photo shoot today. She was a little fussy at first . . .

Then she just passed out and was done with it! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

Here's Audrey modeling her cute Valentine's Day outfits!

Tonight Grammy is watching her so James and I can have a date night! We're so excited. We're going to the Studio Movie Grill to see the Shopaholic movie. I can't wait! :)

3 week update

2009-02-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Audrey is almost 3 weeks old! She is changing so much every day. The main change is her neck control. She can almost hold her head up all by herself. And I know the "experts" say babies don't smile until about 5 weeks, but James and I swear she's smiling at us already. Her arms are also getting much stronger and she is kicking a lot.

I'm going to try to take her picture with this bear (bought by her daddy in the hospital) each week to see her growth. It's hard to imagine that one day she will be as tall as it is!

Tummy Time!

2009-02-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

We took Audrey to her 2 week dr.'s appointment this week. She is doing great! She has gained some weight and overall is right on track. :)

Our pediatrician told us to start letting her have some "tummy time" a few times a day to strengthen her arm and chest muscles. So we pulled out our tummy time mat and got to work. Audrey wasn't too into it, but she did pretty well for a 2 week old!

And doesn't she just look too cute? :)

Thank you!!!

2009-02-04T13:51:00.001-08:00

James and I are constantly amazed at how wonderful our family and friends are. I always knew we were blessed with great people in our lives, but since having Audrey, we are even more aware of it! I feel like we've been in a whirlwind since bringing Audrey home, and today as I finally have a minute to sit back, I am just so grateful for what everyone has done for us.

We haven't had to cook a meal since we've been home. Thank you to our wonderful neighbors, to the HOB, to Ashley, and to Jordan! We've never eaten this good! :)

We are still getting gifts from people. I can't believe it. Audrey has the biggest clothes collection of any baby!!

This past weekend Aunt Kristen came to visit!!! It was soooooo wonderful to have her here. We took Audrey for a walk, watched Sex and the City with Audrey ;), and had great girl talk. The Starwalts also came over for dinner and it was so nice to have them here. It was too much fun!

And my mom came to stay overnight and for the first day that James went back to work. Thank goodness! She gave Audrey her first bath. Audrey loved it! Thank you mom for helping us!!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for all of your support. Having a baby is hard work and it helps to know that you have people to fall back on. :)

And here's my new favorite picture of Audrey and Daddy.