Audrey's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Audrey's first birthday party today and it was a HUGE success!  We had tons of people here (almost 40 at the height of the party) and it was so much fun.  Thanks to everyone who came and we appreciate you being here to love on my sweet girl! 

Here's a recap, but there are TONS more pictures in the Picasa album linked on the side.  Enjoy!

We started with a little family party on Friday night.  The grownups ate eclairs that were decorated with the number 1:

 Audrey was served her cake on the special Birthday Plate:

 Little cake!

 Ready to try this stuff, Mommy!

 I LOVE CAKE!!

 Clapping with us!

 She was so messy-- straight to the bath tub!

 Me reading her special book (and crying, I mean, let's be serious here...I cried on and off all weekend!)

 Cupcakes, made by mommy.

 The photo area- Audrey demonstrating. :)

 Party decor shots:

 Isn't that animal garland adorable? Clearance back in January at Williams-Sonoma.  Can't say I'm not a planner! :)

 Tablescape.

 The favors- a top hat filled with circus stickers, circus rubber ducks, sunglasses, bracelets, and animal crackers.

 The party garland I made.

 Our house, filling up fast!  People were EVERYWHERE-- so much fun!

 Ellie, Maggie, and Emily.

 Ashtan and Cooper.

 Emily, Ellie and Maggie.

 Birthday girl!!!

 Melissa, due to have Baby Luke in 2 days, holding Audrey.  We tried to get Audrey to talk Luke into being born ASAP!!

 Melissa's husband Dennis and soon to be big brother, Logan.

 Birthday girl and Daddy.

 Daddy and his Girls.

 Cake time again!

 Opening presents- Audrey loved this!

 Emily, jumping and squealing (like for an hour, lol).

 Cooper......sooooooo stinking cute!

 Surprise kiss for Mommy..melts my heart!

 In the middle of all the CHAOS going on with everyone's eyes on her....Audrey pulled up onto my legs and then continued until she was standing STRAIGHT UP.  Paul and I started yelling and screaming and she got scared and sat back down...but holy moly!!!! So exciting!

 Some of her loot.....she made out like a bandit!  Thanks, everyone!

 Beautiful birthday baby...love her so much!

Audrey is ONE Year Old!

It's true, it's true!  My sweet baby Audrey is a year old today.  Time has FLOWN by since last Sept. 2, when I drove to work and never imagined that I'd have a baby in my arms before the end of the school day.  (Looking back,  I guess it's a good thing I left when I did, or a bunch of first graders might have had a VERY interesting day at school, haha!)  Here's what life is like with Miss Audrey now:

- We've had a ROUGH patch here lately-- about 10 days of crying, crying, crying, and more crying.  Oh, with a side of whining and a portion of "you must hold me every single minute" as well.  It has been so hard!  I hate to see her upset but I also have things that have to get done (I'm not talking fun stuff here, friends...I'm talking laundry, making dinner, etc.  I can't do it all during nap!)  Most of our days as of late have looked like this: 

Not pretty, is it? 

- Related to said rough patch, Audrey now has an incisor, which brings the tooth count up to 5 (2 top, 2 bottom, and an incisor).  Maybe now that it's broken through my sweet baby can come back? Please?

- She is crawling in her peg-leg crawl still, but she is FAST!  She definitely doesn't hold back when she's decided she wants something. 

- She loves to pull up on different things...really anything at all, including: me, the dog, the over drawer, kitchen drawer, the inside of the fridge, the dishwasher door, the couch, a stepstool, the easel upstairs, all of her toys, the dress up box...you name it.  She really spends a lot of time pulling up and falling back down!

- She is in love with the little pouch puree baby foods.  She drinks/eats them straight from the packaging like it's a capri sun or something!

- She knows how to clap her hands, "give pats" (she pats the person holding her), give kisses, and give high fives.

- She is saying something that sounds more and more like "dog" whenever Katie comes around.  We're getting closer to a real word!

- She has been sleeping through the night almost every night (well, until this teething situation, anyway).  This is great because she has sort of eliminated the MOTN bottle all on her own-- hooray!

- She is obsessed with trying to eat little tiny pieces of ANYTHING that she can find.  I'm constantly having to grab stuff out of her mouth!

- She loves to have her hair stroked when I'm holding/rocking her after her bottle.  She will put my hand back if I try to move it!

- She gets so excited when Emily comes around but will push her away and yell if Em tries to hug/kiss her too hard. 

- She will crawl from anywhere downstairs to go into Emily's room to play- it's so funny!  She loves Emily's castle:

 - She gets so excited about the bathtub now- screams and kicks and flails her arms.  It's too cute!

- She can eat animal crackers on her own now-- chews them up and everything.  She is getting SO big!


That's all I have for the monthly update.  I'll post party pics, doctor appointment updates, etc. ASAP! :) 

Songs about Jesus

I posted this on Facebook too, but it needs it's own blog post too, I think. 

Emily treated me to a song tonight. I have to believe that it was a mash-up of sorts, since I really doubt her Baptist preschool is teaching this:

"God made me, God made me....and heeeeee maaaade Jeeeesus too, and Jeeesus loves me, and ifwe'rereallyreallygoodHeisgonnacomebacksoooooooonnnn.....and He will wear high heels"...
OMG.

It's a laugh a minute around here, folks!

Emily is 3 Years 10 Months Old!

Another month has absolutely FLOWN by.  I can't believe we're just 2 months from Emily turning FOUR! This month has been a whirlwind of activity-- playing outside; my in-laws closed on their house here, thus prompting the daily question, "When are Granny and Grandaddy going to live at New House?"; the beginning of her "real" class at school; trying out Awana Cubbies for the first time, etc.  We are so busy!  Here's a glimpse into life right now:


- The nicest family EVER moved in next door to us.  Ordinarily, that would be good enough, but they also have 4 children, 2 of whom are little girls right around the same age as Emily (one just turned 4, the other is turning 6 in a few months).  Emily LOVES them and loves that they invite us over to play and swim in their pool.  I am so happy for our neighborhood-- this is truly an idyllic little place we have here.

- She begins dance class in another week...I am excited!  She is going to have an excellent teacher and I'm so happy we have found (what I hope!) is a great class for her.  45 minutes split between tap and ballet.  Now I just have to get her some shoes...we are selling ours at the studio since they are too small.

- She has to wear makeup now.  Every day.  When I'm getting ready she'll come in and say, "I need my makeup now Mommy- put me on the counter!" I put her up on my bathroom counter and dabble a tiny bit of blush and eye shadow on her...it's so light you literally cannot see it....but then I give her the mirror and she gushes about how BEAUTIFUL she looks.  Makes me a little sad that she wants it every day, but I think it's more about wanting to make a fuss over herself, and not because she feels like she "needs" makeup to be pretty.  She always keeps me guessing!

- I showed her the new kelly green Marshall shirts Paul and I bought for the football games this year...I pointed to the M logo and she said, "GO HERD!"  LOVE IT. 

- She is very into helping right now-- loves to throw things away for me, water the plants (this is really just an excuse to get soaking wet, I think), fold laundry, make beds, etc.  I love this and love that she is genuinely wanting to help me, not doing it to get something else.

- Related to that, she is really understanding feelings a lot better now.  She is picking up on the differences between sad/angry/disappointed and continually asks me if I am proud of her.  Melts my heart that she is so concerned with how others feel!

- At school they are working on all kinds of things that are, frankly, a little shocking to me.  The other day she came home with a printing sheet of vertical and horizontal lines (think like lines you would use to make letters/numbers).  I am shocked that this is what she's doing at 3 almost 4!  Her handwriting when she writes her name has already begun to improve.  She drew a picture of a beach in the driveway the other day (complete with a boat!) and did such a nice job...her art skills are getting better too.  I am very pleased with her preschool and so glad we got a spot there.

Sun, beach, boat.

- She loves to do my hair and do my (pretend) makeup with her kits upstairs.

- She is constantly playing Teacher in the playroom.  The other day we came upstairs to find about 25 stuffed animals ("stuff animals" if you ask Emily) in a line in the middle of the playroom.  We asked what they were doing and she said they were "lining up to take turns".  Well OK then!

- She is very distraught that Audrey's birthday is coming so soon, and even more upset that it's coming before her own birthday.  It should be an interesting birthday party for Audrey, to say the least!

That's about all I can think of right now.  Thanks so much for checking in on my sweet girl!  :)  

The teacher in her

Here's Emily, for your viewing pleasure.  I have to say that this all seems very similar to what I would have done at the same age...singing, dancing, being bossy exhibiting leadership potential, being wild.  All par for the course.  What are we in for with this one?! :)

CLAPPING!

I just have to share- AUDREY IS FINALLY CLAPPING!  I know, it's nothing *huge*, but it is for me since I've been waiting for her to clap her hands for LITERALLY months.  She started on Sunday on the way to Ellie's birthday party-- she clapped for Emily in the car.  All night Sunday and Monday she would only clap for Emily-- not for me or Paul!  Then last night we were all eating dinner and we asked her to clap and she did!  I am so proud of that little baby...she is so funny and we love her more every day.  :)

Audrey is 11 Months Old!

I cannot, CANNOT believe Audrey will be one in one month!  It's completely unbelievable to me that she was born almost an entire year ago- I swear this has been the fastest year of my life!  Here's what she is doing this month:

- She eats 100% table food now-- just smaller pieces of whatever we're eating.  And we still have yet to find any food that she doesn't like, although we have learned that she is not a huge fan of mashed potatoes.  That's fine- Emily would eat her share any day! ;)

- She has started making the same sound for "dog" each time-- whenever Katie (dog) walks in the room Audrey makes the same sound, although it's like a gutteral sound that I can't really type out.  She also says Mama and Dada but not always when we're around...sometimes she just babbles it.  But then she has said it when our backs were turned (like to get our attention) so maybe she does know a few words? Who knows.

- She FINALLY crawled!!!!!!!  I have the most adorable video to upload the next time I sync my phone-- it was totally precious!  (If you follow me on Facebook, it's the same video I posted there).  I was so thrilled to have caught her very first crawl on video.  She is sure to keep me busy now!

- She has learned how to do 1 of the toys on her pop-up toy (the push-button one).  I am proud of her!  She also learned how to make the jack in the box pop up on her exersaucer.  Smarty!

- She has started this patting thing that she does to whoever is holding her- it's so funny!  She pats your chest or shoulder really hard and makes the most hilarious face...I don't know what she's thinking but I would love to know what she means by this.

- She is trying the sippy cup still but we have really struggled to find one that would let her super thick liquid through it.  If she fails her swallowing study again next month I will ask the speech pathologists there if there's a sippy cup they recommend.  I've tried drinking through it and you really have to work so hard to get any liquid out.  :/  I'm mostly hoping she's grown out of the swallowing dysfunction but we'll see.

- She's gotten 2 more teeth this month, for a total of 4.  She's got a runny nose today so I'm wondering if maybe there are more on the way?  She has been such a trooper getting through this teething thing and I'm so proud of her and her new chompers!  She looks totally precious with more teeth, too, although I'd really like her to look like a baby, not a big girl quite yet!

- She continues to adore Emily-- she stops in her tracks whenever Em comes around and loves to spend time with her.  Now that she's not so "babyish" Emily is really enjoying her too.  The other day they were laughing together and it completely melted my heart...I couldn't be happier that they have each other (and that we have them!) I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

It's all fun and games until someone has to wear the Minnie ears...

All in all, it's been a great month.  Can't wait to see what's in store in the next coming weeks.  Thanks for checking on my sweet baby! :)