sew amazing

Our dear dear friends, Jason and Sam, came down last weekend from NYC to visit and it was so wonderful to spend time with them! We love these two so much. And they brought us a gift for Annie... a gorgeous baby quilt that they sewed by hand. Uh-mazing!

All the colors are absolutely perfect for Annie's nursery.

And I am just in awe of this bunched fabric around the edge. So beautiful.

Here is what Annie thinks of taking a nap on this fabulous quilt made just for her...

Thank you, Sam and Jason! We miss you so much already.

aquatic center

Audrie and I went to the Springdale Aquatic Center last week and had such a blast. (Thanks to my mom for keeping Annie so Audrie and I could go play for a few hours.) I wasn't sure how it would go since Audrie is not a big fan of getting her face wet. But she actually loved it and jumped right in with no hesitation. I was starting to think I was sad I didn't have a camera with me and all of a sudden my next door neighbor, Gina, showed up and she had her camera. So, thank you, Gina, for these photos!

They had a toddler area for ages 4 and under. We stayed there a little while but then Audrie wanted to go play in the bigger kid area. It actually wasn't too crowded. Although I did find myself wondering exactly how much pee was in those pools.

Audrie really loved the water slide and I was proud of her for not being too scared to go down it.

Her head went under the water a few times at the bottom of the slide but she still loved it. I couldn't believe it (did I mention she really hates getting her face wet??).

It was such a great few couple of hours with nothing to do but play with Audrie in the sun and water.

I definitely hope we get to go back every week. So fun!

(PS- the Springdale aquatic center is open every day from noon to 6:45pm except Sunday they open at 1pm and it's $2 for 4 and under and $4 for everyone else.)

golf pro

So apparently tennis is not the only sport Jamie at which excels. His entire office building had a golf putting competition and Jamie won! Never mind the fact that they were using a plastic kiddie golf club and a little wiffle ball... he still accepted his trophy with pride.

So proud of you, babe. ;)

random camera photos

So I love taking photos with my phone. Obviously because I just love taking photos. But I'm also addicted to my phone so it's usually nearby me at all times. Though I have to admit that sometimes when I'm driving down the highway I have strong urges to chunk my phone as far out the window as I can and see what kind of overwhelming relief I feel. I mean do you even remember that time in life when we went ALL day without a phone and came home in the evening and checked our answering machine?!

A couple months ago Jamie and I decided to go a whole week without being on our iPhones (except to answer calls)- no texting, no email, no facebook, no twitter, etc. I think we lasted about 6 hours. Sad. Sad. Sad! Anyways, I do have some fun camera apps that I love messing around with. All these photos I took with different apps and didn't edit them- just downloaded them from my phone as is.

(Nothing says summer like swimming butt naked in a plastic kiddie pool...!)

More of Jamie's beautiful gladiolas...

Check out that amazing double chin. (You could hide so many things in there!)

My sweet girls cuddling in bed with me in the morning.

And if you needed more proof how cool these apps are- this photo of me is right after I rolled outta bed with no makeup and my glasses on. That is one magic camera! :)

For you iPhone junkies- the camera apps I use are:

Hipstomatic

Best Camera

Tilt Shift Generator

father's day

If you haven't figured it out by now- you should know that I have an amazing husband. The list of reasons is too long to type but Audrie, Annie and I are blessed beyond words to have such a wonderful man love us so much. He celebrated his Father's Day by letting us spoil him a little all day. I hope you know how much we adore you, Jamie!

"A father is his daughter's first love."

29 again... and again and again

Maintaining 29 is tough, but I managed to celebrate it again this past week. And I shared the birthday with Annie since she turned one month on the 18th. Audrie was at her Grandma Cornett's for the weekend, so Jamie took Annie and I out for a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, Copland's. I was so excited I actually put makeup on! (Not sure what Annie is doing in this photo...)
Friday morning Annie and I got out to do some shopping and I treated myself to my first caffeine in ten months. Java Chip Frappicino from Starbucks (and they even had a 'birthday cake' donut that I had to have, too, of course).

Then I met my brother, Caleb (whom I share a birthday with) and my mom for lunch in Fayetteville.

My mom brought the most crazy looking cupcakes for us to blow out some candles. Super sweet of her! Can't believe Caleb is 20. Not a teenager anymore. And finishing up the last year of his architecture degree at the UA (a 5 year program). So proud of him!

After a fun filled birthday, Annie and I went to the Burrow's for dinner and Emily made me a funfetti birthday cake! So nice of her! (I don't have any photos because Annie was fussing the whole time and we actually had to cut the evening short because she was so cranky... I guess that's what I get for drinking all that caffeine!). So Annie and I went home and crashed!

Since both Jamie and Audrie were gone (Jamie left to go on a guy's camping/float trip)- it was just me and Annie (two worn out birthday girls) snoozing soundly. She is awful cuddly! :)

It was truly a happy birthday and I am looking forward to a wonderful year of being 29. Again.

one month old

Our sweet Annie is one month old (and actually 5 weeks tomorrow... I'm behind on blogging!). We are so in love with this little girl. Yes, she still sleeps. Alot. But when she is awake she is showing off her personality more and more.

I took her for her one month check up at the pediatrician on Friday and she had gained two pounds (whoo hoo!) and grown two inches. My goodness. I knew she was a good eater, but I felt like a proud dairy cow when I saw she had grown so much.

She makes the BEST happy faces right after she's done eating. I can never capture them quick enough but managed to grab my cell phone and snap the one above. For the most part she is an extremely easy baby. We are still sticking to our guns on "no pacifier" this time. And it's been tough a few times in the evening when she gets so fussy before bedtime. But that has only happened a few times so we are hoping to not give into the pacifier temptation. Yet. :)

Annie still loves being swaddled. She also loves being in her swing. A few times in the past few days she has started to "coo" at me... showing signs of wanting to get her voice heard. (I told her if she wanted to get a word in edgewise with Audrie around- she better start talking now!)

Annie has moved out of newborn diapers and wears size 1 now. And her newborn sized clothes are too snug and she is wearing her 0-3 month clothes. Her hair still has the slightest bit of a red-ish tint, but who knows what it will end up... probably blond.

She eats every three hours during the day (almost to the minute- very punctual gal) and at night she goes 4-5 hours (wakes up just once to eat). Although the other night she did sleep for 6 hours!! I don't think she's far from sleeping through night so that is exciting! Can't wait to watch her change and grow and learn so much over the next few months. It goes by so fast!

We love you, baby Annie!

belly buttons and video monitors

A couple months ago Jamie planted gladiolas in large pots on our back porch and they are starting to bloom now. They are so pretty! Lots of different colors, but I just snapped a couple photos of the purple ones.

And in other random news... Annie finally has a belly button! Her stubborn umbilical cord finally came off yesterday after 31 days. About time! :)

Also a couple of my friends had asked about our video monitors so I wanted to give you a quick update on those. We got the second video camera in the mail yesterday and set it up in Annie's room- and it works GREAT! So how it works now is- we have one monitor screen in our room that we can flip a switch on the side and flip back and forth between looking in on both their beds. The image is crystal clear for both channels (color image during the day and "night vision" when it's dark). The sound quality is awesome, too.

Ok, now the catch is- you can only hear whatever room you have the channel switched to. So last night (Annie's first night in her bed all night- yay!) we kept the channel switched to hear her room since Audrie never wakes up anyways. But in our case- our two girl's rooms are next to each other so I can actually hear both rooms no matter which one I have it switched to because the sound quality is so sensitive (make sense?). So even though I left it switched on Annie's room- I could still hear Audrie when she woke up in the morning because her room is so close to Annie's. So anyways, some of you had asked- so there you have it. We love them and are so glad we have the video monitors (hope they last until they're teenagers... ha!)

Oh and to make this post even more random... here are some photos of the girls I took yesterday!

fun with grandma

My mom has been coming to get Audrie two mornings a week for a "date". They do all kinds of fun things for a few hours and then back in time for Audrie to take a long afternoon nap. It gives me such a blissful break to get so much done (and spend some time loving on Annie). And Audrie has so much fun with her Grandma Lowery. Doesn't she look like such a big girl in my mom's car here...??

And one morning a week my mom keeps Annie so that Audrie and I can have some time together. Isn't my mother wonderful?!

I'm really starting to feel like Audrie is growing up too fast and she's turning into such a "little girl". I'm so glad I'm getting this summer to hang out with her. She totally cracks me up with all the funny things she is starting to say (she really talks nonstop these days and most of it is hilarious). Gonna be a fun summer!

(Thanks, Candace, for the adorable tutu and flower headband!!)

guess who hates bathtime?!

Oh wow. Annie hates taking a bath!! Poor thing. (Look at the death grip she has on the washcloth...)

It's almost been four weeks and her stubborn little umbilical cord has not come off her belly button. But Annie was getting pretty funky smelling so we decided she had to have a bath. The whole ordeal lasted no more than 5 minutes- we scrubbed her quick. But, my goodness, she wailed like a true drama queen the entire time.

I had to give her a little extra cuddling afterwards to calm her back down. Her bottom lip just quivered as she told me she never wanted to take a bath again.

Sweet thing!

blog award

My cousin-in-law (if there is such a term for a family member) and dear friend, Erin, has awarded my blog with it's second award so I feel it is time for me to partake in the nature of the award. The idea is that you are suppose to choose 5 of your favorite pair of shoes and feature them on your blog (and then pass the award on to other blogs you love). And since my life is in full blown baby mode I thought it only fitting (pun intended) that I feature 5 of my toddler's favorite shoes. (Although I feel the need to brag that I actually wore high heels to church last week! Never mind the fact that I honestly had to get a wet cloth and wipe the dust off them before I could wear them.) Anyways here are 5 of my favorite pairs of Audrie's shoes (Annie's tiny little newborn feet are still too little for shoes)...

These adorable polka dot flats with a ruffle are just everything I love in a shoe! Sadly Audrie only got to wear them once before she outgrew them but they are in good condition for Annie's feet when she gets bigger. I got them at a yard sale so I'm not sure where you could find a pair.(And if I could find them in my size I would buy them in a heartbeat! Is it sad that I would wear the same thing as my toddler??)

I guess I could say the same for these silver strappy sandals from Baby Gap (I really do have a pair of shoes myself that are similar!). I mostly put these on Audrie for church or special outings, but they are very durable and stay on her feet (actually she can't take them off so that's an added bonus).

And, oh, the pink converse! LOVE THEM! She has worn these for almost an entire year but has finally outgrown them so I'm the hunt for another pair (I would love some high top converse for Audrie in turquoise!). I also got these at a yard sale, but I'm pretty sure they sell them at Target or definitely online. They are by far my favorite pair of shoes for Audrie. Lots of memories in these shoes.

These little pink butterfly shoes are really not the cutest to look at, but they are SQUEAKY shoes and Audrie adores them. And yes they do get a little annoying but I really love putting them on Audrie and letting her squeak around the house. And actually they are nice when you are at a busy event (birthday party, chuckEcheese, etc) because you can always keep track of your child! She wore them today and we were flagging down the ice cream truck this afternoon as it went down our street and I could hear Audrie's little squeaks running behind me as she was belting out in her cute toddler voice "ice cream truck, ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!". (ok, maybe that was me yelling...) ha!

And last but not least are the pair of shoes that Audrie has been living in for a month. Jamie got her these cute little pink Teva sandals at Lewis & Clark Outfitters and while they were a little more expensive then we'd like to pay for toddler shoes- they have been worth every penny because she wears them almost every day- in the sand box, in the pool, splashing in mud, dripping popsicles all over them, etc. And I just wash them off in the sink and they are good to go! And I think they are really cute, too.

Ok, there you have it! Thank you for the award, Erin! It was fun! And now I pass the award on to:

The Hopkin's Household