Just the Four of Us

out and about

2012-01-27T20:11:00.001-06:00

The first couple of months that we lived here I always wanted to go DO stuff any chance we got. But now that we've been here for awhile I can finally accept that its ok when we stay in our pajamas all weekend.

But the past couple of weekends we've been out and about.

We took the girls to the NYC Public Library. But it was when Annie was starting to recover from being so sick so I thought she would be ok with getting out of the house. Nope. She melted down pretty quickly so we didn't stay long. Audrie has been asking to go back- they had a really fun children's department.

So while Annie stayed home with Jamie. I took Audrie to see the musical Pinkalicious (based on her favorite children's book). She was SO excited!

Here we are running to catch our train. (Audrie has become a natural with the subways now. She knows the the "A" train is 'our' train and if we want the uptown or downtown train, etc. It's cute to hear her talk about it.)

Made it to the theater with only a few minutes to spare.

Of course they were serving cupcakes as we sat in our seats!

Cupcakes and a musical?! What more could Audrie ask for?

It was a fun date with my girl.

I also had another celebrity moment, because sitting right next to us in the theater was Caroline Rhea and her four year old daughter.

Our former neighbors from Arkansas, Becca and Kyla, came up to visit for a few days and OH MY GOODNESS they did every single thing there is to do in New York City while they were here. If you have a chance you should totally check out the blog she created about their trip (amazing photos): http://beccakylanewyork.blogspot.com/2012/01/american-girl-5th-avenue-day-1-part-3.html

I swiped a couple photos off her blog:

Audrie was excited to have Kyla here to play with. (Here they are having breakfast one morning.)

I like this photo Becca took of us getting ready to head out with them to see some sights around town.

We took the girls to Chinatown. Honestly I've only been to the side of Chinatown that is purses and shopping mania, but the more authentic streets with Chinese culture is really awesome to experience. It was funny because when we turned the corner Audrie gasped "It's Mulan!".

We went in a Chinese Mart (nothing like a Wal Mart... ha!), but it was so cool and I found this book that my mom used to read to us as kids.

Audrie bought a Chinese umbrella and loves it so much she sleeps with it. :)

One of the days they were here we went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Audrie was really into all the artwork. She kept asking me to read all the placards that tell about the paintings.

I like this photo of Kyla and Audrie pondering the Rembrandts.

I wanted to steal this painting for my living room... (I loved the mom with her two little girls!).

It was so great having Becca and Kyla in town for awhile! I still can't believe how much they managed to do while they were here. Truly amazing.

This weekend we are keeping it low key around our house because next weekend is.... Audrie's birthday!!

sweet sweet girls

2012-01-21T20:20:00.001-06:00

This evening we were getting ready to go to a friend's house (yes, we are making friends here!) for dinner and I decided to snap a few quick photos of Audrie and Annie before we left. I had them stand on their kid's table in front of our living room window (lots of natural light). I love how these quick little photos turned out!

Can't believe our LITTLE girl is turning four in a couple weeks. Love her so stinkin much!

Cheesy little grin (I mean, big grin... she still has the biggest smile I've ever seen on a kid!).

And then there is this one. (Oh, Annie what are we going to do with you??)

We just adore this girl.

She gives THE best hugs!!! Such a cuddler! But also recently has decided she likes hitting and screaming NO. Can you imagine this sweet face doing such a thing??

How can you love someone so much that drives you so crazy?

We can't imagine life without these two rocking our worlds each day.

snow day!

2012-01-21T11:24:00.000-06:00

Audrie and Annie both woke up this morning squealing about the snow! It was so cute to see them watching the snow with their faces next to each other pressed up against the window.

After breakfast we suited up and got ready to head out to check out the snow.

Annie wasn't a big fan of walking across the steaming subway grates on the sidewalk.

We don't really have good snow boots for Annie and her gloves kept falling off (need to find some longer ones or some that have those tightening straps).

I have a huge coat that I bought a couple months ago for my recess duty at school. It feels like I'm wearing a sleeping bag, but it keeps me warm!

There was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Audrie really wanted to build a snowman but the snow wouldn't pack at all.

She did manage to make a few snowballs though.

Annie liked throwing snow at Jamie.

Audrie made some snow angels.

It is really pretty snow!

In front of our apartment we saw these amazing four wheelers/snow plows that were cleaning off the sidewalks. We talked to the guys driving them and they said they had the most fun job ever!

They let the girls sit on the four wheelers for a minute.

We stayed outside for about an hour before our faces were so red that we had to go back inside.

We fired up our Cocomotion (one of the few kitchen gadgets that we brought with us... thought it might come in handy during the cold NYC winters!). The girls loved stirring their hot chocolate with candy canes.

Somehow Audrie managed to get her sticky candy cane all wrapped up in her hair!

A quick detangle and back to the slurping.

I'm sure in no time we'll be tired of the snow here, but today was a fun snow day in the city!

sick and grouchy

2012-01-16T20:24:00.000-06:00

Annie is starting to feel better, but after being sick and cooped up in the house all weekend... she's a little grouchy. I caught a little video of Annie this evening telling me exactly how happy about life she is...

c'est la vie

2012-01-15T18:51:00.001-06:00

Just some random iphone photos from the past few weeks.

Everywhere you go downtown there are these Statue of Libertys at random stores. And for some reason Audrie loves them and always wants her picture taken with them!

I'm not sure if I already posted this, but a few weeks ago I got my official New York State teacher license. Since I have my National Board Certification (which allows me to teach anywhere in the US) it was super easy to just transfer my teacher certification from Arkansas. No tests or fees.

I really miss having a piano in our home! But we do have a full size keyboard that I get out every now and then for the girls to bang on. Annie loves it!

Annie looks so cute in her headphones. I think she needs some Beats! (I actually do want a pair. Maybe when we win the lottery!)

Jamie is still making tons of lamps and sells a couple a week. It's so neat to watch him create new lamps. His products are featured on a new website.

We try to hang out with Jason and Sam (and Sammy-o) a couple times a week. The girls love them!

Jamie's Aunt Barbara, Uncle Mike, and two boys Michael and Ryan, came to visit a few weeks ago. It was so fun to have them here!

Annie smiling as we wait in line for the carousel in Central Park (the girls favorite spot in the city).

I can't believe Audrie is going to be FOUR in few weeks!

Jamie's cousin Ryan took a photo for us while they were visiting. (Isn't my husband a cutey?)

Annie actually fell asleep in her stroller the other day. And if you know our girls- that is really unusual!

I made Annie breakfast in bed the other day... buffet style!

My brother Caleb is still staying with us and trying to find a job. Annie thinks he's the greatest thing ever. Maybe he should take her with him to a job interview...?

But maybe not until we get her hair under control! We've had the most trouble with Annie's hair. My goodness. We tried bangs and it was ok for awhile but now she's got this Jeff Daniel's (from Dumb and Dumber) look going on and we're just hoping it all grows out soon. :)

But she's still so stinkin' cute. Love her!

Annie has actually been really sick the past couple of days. The pediatrician said it is RSV and we've been giving her lots of meds and TLC. I hope she is better soon. We miss our smiley happy girl.

Ok that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by! :)

these shoes are cool, right?

2012-01-10T22:03:00.003-06:00

So this will be the most random post ever, but I haven't updated on how the real life is going lately here. Things had been so busy that honestly Jamie and I haven't had much time to reflect other than the few moments before we fall asleep exhausted at night and ask each other "what are we doing here?!?".

We still have great days where we are in love with living here and all the amazing opportunities we have at our fingertips everyday. How on New Year's Eve (we weren't brave enough to go into the madness) but we sat in our apartment looking out the window as the fireworks went off above the skyline in Times Square at midnight. It was pretty cool.

Or how Saturday morning I woke up and decided to do something fun with Audrie. I got online and got two tickets to the musical Pinkalicious (her favorite children's book!). An hour later Audrie and I hopped on the subway, went downtown, watched an amazing performance (we just so happened to be sitting next to actress Caroline Rhea and her daughter), and then we stopped at a hot dog vendor before we caught the train back home. It just felt so "new york" and it made me happy.

We have lots of happy moments.

We have lots of not-so-happy moments.

Like when we cry tears of frustration at how HARD it is to live here. I've had several pity parties for myself centered around the theme of "I hate walking everywhere. I don't want to carry all my groceries five blocks home. It's COLD! I just want some peace and some quiet and not have PEOPLE crowded around me all the time."

We miss our family and friends.

We miss our church!

We miss our cars.

We miss our WASHER and DRYER!!!!!!

I know I haven't talked about my school much, but I can officially say that it's going good. (And if you knew how much I've cried over this job then you would know that is a big statement.) MOST days I really do like it. It's just that when I have a bad day, it's pretty off the charts bad.

I will tell you that I had my first evaluation with my principal a few weeks ago and it went AWESOME. Apparently he thinks I'm doing a terrific job and he would like to hire me again next year. Which is a big deal considering this school makes a bold statement about how they fire teachers every year who don't meet the rigorous expectations.

I have a ton of pictures and stories that I want to share about my students. I will get that posted soon. But I can already tell that I've been teaching too long in this inner-city school, because I've found myself wanting a pair of these...

I better move back to Arkansas fast!! :)

song and dance

2012-01-08T18:39:00.000-06:00

Audrie is still in love with singing and dancing and we love watching her perform for us all day long! I thought I'd share a couple of videos with you...

Her ballet class doesn't allow the parents to sit in on the class, but the other day they had an open session where parents could come watch. Jamie took several videos on his phone for me (because I wasn't able to go). Here is one of my favorites:

And while we were in Arkansas for Christmas, Donna's church asked me to play the piano since their music person would be gone. I had Audrie come up during the offering to sing in front of everyone (her first official "on stage" debut). She climbed up on the piano bench next to me and sang into the microphone. My heart was just bursting I was so proud of her. (She did make up her own version of "Joy to the World"...)

new year resolutions

2012-01-05T19:40:00.001-06:00

Can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year!

whole lotta Christmas pics

2012-01-02T14:22:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday morning we packed up as much as we could carry, walked to the corner, hailed a cab, and headed to the airport to fly home to Arkansas for Christmas.

Audrie chatted up the cab driver the whole way.

Annie snuggled with me. (Still so weird to not have car seats in the cabs, but thankfully we don't have to do that very often!)

We braced ourselves for a day of flying with two little girls. Audrie did amazing. She likes flying (except every time the flight attendant walks by, Audrie screams "NUTS, PLEASE!!". It's a little mortifying.)

Annie, on the other hand, is not a fan of sitting still for hours on end...!!

I had a big bag of tricks that lasted a little while and eventually she fell asleep, but it was still not the most fun I've ever had.

Finally we landed in Arkansas and Donna picked us up to drive to Green Forest in time for Christmas Eve with Jamie's family.

It was great to see everyone and feel at home again.

It was a houseful with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins running around. But we loved it!

And it's not officially a holiday until your name is on a red Solo cup, right? (Did you know there is a song about that??!)

We ate way too much food and enjoyed catching up with everyone.

Audrie stuck close to Cory's side the whole night. She loves him!

Annie made friends with everyone!

She is quite the flirt.

There is always a game of cards being played with Jamie's family around.

Tucker and Dylan.

Tiffanie's little boy, Jess...

We opened presents.

Annie loves her little Fur Real puppy.

Audrie got some new books and art supplies. Perfect for her!

We do a gift card "dirty santa" every year and it's lots of fun.

Thanks to Larry and Pat for hosting!

Annie trying to pretend she's not chewing on a Barbie shoe...

A lovely shot of Dylan...

Grandma Cornett stealing some kisses from Audrie.

Not sure what's going on this pic but I thought it looked interesting (thanks to Kameron for taking all these photos for me, by the way. I love letting her steal my camera so I can just relax).

Oh, Dylan. :)

We went back to Donna's house that night and tried to get the girl's in bed early so they could be ready for another round of Christmas the next day. Annie woke us all up early...

She loved playing with Donna's Christmas tree.

Chalona and Steve came over that morning to celebrate with us.

And they brought some wonderful presents for the girls.

Two more Barbies!!!

Here is my attempt to get a photo of the girls in front of the tree.

Annie just wanted to snuggle.

We went to the family's church that morning. (Thanks Donna for this picture!)

Later that afternoon Donna let Audrie open her present from her...

A big girl bicycle!!

Audrie was super excited!!

And she did really great on it! So proud of her.

Then after naps we headed back to Pat and Larry's for leftovers. Annie quickly found a snuggle buddy.

Jamie tickling Audrie...

It was so nice to be home for the holidays. A few more random photos from my Instagram app...

Annie was pretty worn out the entire trip (traveling, no naps, up late at night, etc). But she was a trooper!

I think Aunt Wendy got more naps than anyone...! ;)

Jamie did catch a few naps here and there.

The girls loved being in Arkansas. (Audrie actually had a lot to say about her memories of Arkansas and I think it was a little confusing for her at times, but we took time to talk to her about it all and she handled it so great!)

Of course, we ate at Jim's Drive In several times while we were in Green Forest. Our favorite item on the menu... taco pie!

Jamie and I got to escape on Tuesday and headed to Branson to visit my sister, Denise, and go see a movie. It was nice to just be the two of us in car. (I know that may seem weird to say, but the solitude is something we rarely get in nyc.)

On Wednesday we drove over to NWA to visit friends. It was cute to see the girls sleeping in their car seats again.

These photos are a little out of order, but we went to Trent and Candace's house. Audrie was SOOO excited to see Camryn!

The rode bicycles around the kitchen. (Everyone's house seemed so huge to us, after living in our tiny apartment for 6 months!)

Camryn and Audrie powdering their noses...

The girls had fun playing together! And it was awesome to spend time with Trent and Candace!

Jamie got to ride in their Tahoe (with all the girls). He misses his vehicle!

We also took the girls to visit Jamie's old coworkers at Arvest. We had a good time hanging out there and letting the girls terrorize everyone. :)

And we also spent a few hours at Nathan and Kim's house. Audrie talks about Jacob and Emma all the time, so we pretty much didn't see her once we arrived. They spent almost the whole time playing in the backyard. I did snap this pic right before we left. They finally came inside to rest.

I didn't get a picture but we also stopped by our old neighborhood to visit our neighbors, Gina, Gracen, and Gaven. Audrie and Annie immediately ran back to their room to play (just like old times).

Audrie did get sad when she saw our old house and asked to go inside to play in her room. She got a little tearful when I explained that new people lived in that house now.

But cheered up again when we arrived at my mom's house. Audrie said she just wanted to play in Grandma Lowery's "park". ha!

My niece, Emily, was in visiting, too.

My mom had some sweet gifts for the girls.

Thanks, Jamie, for taking this picture (and for not warning us to step out of the huge shadow...ha!!).

My brother, Seth, came over on his lunch break to my mom's to visit with us. So nice of him!

I also got to have a nice long breakfast at Mimi's with my gals that I miss SO much- Kate, Mel, and Shannon. I didn't get a picture because I was too busy holding back tears from missing them so much. But it was truly wonderful to see them again.

Finally, after our whirlwind tour of visiting everyone, we headed back to Green Forest. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted on this trip, but hopefully next time we will!

Donna has a cow pasture right next to her house and the girls love watching the cows.

Audrie yelling at us from Donna's porch. (Jamie and I were going for a last night meal at Taco Bell). I'm not sure what Audrie was yelling... probably "NUTS, PLEASE".

Friday morning Donna drove us to the airport to fly back to NYC.

Oh, joy. Another day of good times on the airplane!

Weary travelers!

But thankfully, both girls crashed and slept almost the entire flight home!

It felt really strange to come "home" to New York City. But it also felt good, which was nice. I wasn't sure how I would feel after my first trip back to Arkansas. I LOVED seeing everyone and getting the downtime and the fresh quiet air. But honestly, after the week was over I was ready to come "home".

Jamie and I have talked about how we feel homeless sometimes, because we don't really know what to call home. But I told him on the way back from this trip, that we aren't homeless... we are homeful because we have several places to call home. Cheesy, I know! But I have to think of it that way for now.

Ok, well thanks for looking at all million of our photos!

christmas card pics

2011-12-30T18:42:00.006-06:00

We had a wonderful trip to Arkansas this past week and I can't wait to blog all the photos I took. But since I'm still shaking from all the sugar I've consumed, I'll have to detox a bit before I can get those photos organized. In the meantime here are the pictures from our photo shoot in Central Park a few weeks ago for our Christmas card photos. (Most of these photos were taken by my talented brother Caleb!)

Audrie striking a pose...

I love this next photo of Annie on the carousel (she has finally decided she is not scared of the carousel- yay!).

I really wanted Caleb to capture a photo with people blurred in the background (left the shutter open longer while Jamie and I stood very still). We had to shoot it a few times to get it right.

Which is why Jamie is looking so over it in this next photo.... ha!

Jason and Sam's brother-in-law, Josh, took a few photos for us, too. (We had our own little paparazzi going on!)

I took this last photo (and I have to say it's my favorite). Such sweet girls! As much as they drive me crazy sometimes, I do love them with every ounce of my heart!!

And they both love each other very much. It's been so fun the past few months to watch them really start to show affection to each other!

we cheated

2011-12-22T22:51:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago when Jamie and I sat down to figure out how all our Christmas plans were going to work out (take presents to Arkansas, wait and open gifts when we get back, etc). And how we would explain how Santa brought gifts to two places...? We decided that we were going to celebrate Christmas a week early in our house.

So last Friday night we declared it Christmas Eve and I went into the kitchen with the girls to bake cookies for Santa!

Both the girls heaped on the sprinkles.

Until Annie realized it was easier just to eat the sprinkles straight from the jar.

Audrie wrote a letter to Santa. (She told me this says "Dear Santa, I'm on the nice list.")

After the girls went to bed, Jamie and I piled up the presents under the tree.

My brother Caleb is still staying with us and I didn't have a stocking for him, so I had to make do...

The next morning the girls woke up all excited that it was "Christmas"! (C'mon this is the only age that we could convince them it was Christmas Day, right?) They didn't know the difference and tore into their stockings.

Jamie must have been on the nice list, too, because he got a few things in his stocking.

Annie and Caleb discussed their strategy for which presents to open first.

The girls helped me sort through all my treats, too.

Then finally we let them open their gifts!

Audrie is at such a perfect age where she LOVES every single gift and is equally excited about each one. Annie really got into it all, too. It was fun watching them both squeal with excitement.

Audrie was more than thrilled that Santa brought her the Barbie doll she asked for!

Jamie, being the amazing dad he is, pretended to be thrilled about Barbie, too. :)

We had to take a pause in the present opening to play with the new doll.

I got Audrie a little pink acoustic guitar. (Hoping we can get her on a street corner singing for cash soon.)

We got Annie a sturdy toy shopping cart to tote all her loot around, but then realized later that she looks kind of like the homeless pushing her shopping cart down the sidewalk. Oh well, she loves it!

Audrie bought and wrapped some presents for everyone. The best part is how she 'labeled' who the gift was for... she drew a picture on the wrapping of whose gift it was...!

Audrie wanted to carry all her presents around. (Could we get her any MORE pink??)

Caleb serenaded us with a little caroling.

It was a fun "Christmas" morning! I baked Paula Dean's french toast casserole and we had a yummy breakfast after opening presents.

Both the girls played with their presents all morning while Jamie and I lounged around like lazy bums. Perfect!

Then Annie modeled her new house slippers...

It really was a great time. Even though I'm sure we broke some parenting laws by having a fake Christmas Day..! So, um, Merry Christmas everyone! :)

weekend with the campbells

2011-12-17T21:55:00.003-06:00

Brandon and Erin came to visit last weekend and we were SOOO excited to have them here!

The first night we all went downtown to see THE Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.

It was a beautiful night out! When we arrived at 5th Avenue there was an awesome light show playing on the side of the building.

Then we turned the corner and there was the tree! Audrie LOVED it!

We stood and watched the ice skaters for awhile and just took all the sights in.

I have been looking forward to spending our first Christmas in this city and going down to see this tree with the girls was just as magical as I hoped.

(photo credit- Brandon)

Brandon and Erin have been to NYC several times, but not during the holidays so it was fun for them, too.

Audrie and I on the subway home. (photo credit- Erin)

The next day Audrie and I went with Brandon and Erin to Lincoln Center to see the New York Ballet performance of The Nutcracker! Audrie was super excited! (So was I!)

Had to stop for a hotdog on the street before we went in. (Audrie has become a huge fan of the hot dog stands that are everywhere!)

I have walked by Lincoln Center but have never been in or stopped to really look at the area. It's very cool!

Once we got in the theater I wasn't able to get pictures because of the rules. But the theater was stunning!

Audrie had been talking about this for weeks and was just so thrilled to finally be there. I was a little nervous about her sitting through a two and a half hour ballet, but oh my goodness she sat there perfectly still with a huge smile on her face the entire time! Pure bliss.

The performance was just amazing. My face hurt from smiling, too. (Mostly from watching Audrie's face as every new scene unfolded.)

The next night, Jamie and I went with Brandon and Erin to see the musical "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" featuring Daniel Radcliffe. I honestly wasn't sure how much I would love this show because I didn't know anything about the music or story (or how well Harry Potter could sing). But it was AWESOME. We laughed through so much of it. I wasn't expecting it to be such a comedy. It was great!

After the show we went to our favorite spot for cheesecake, Juniors. We also ordered a plate of onion rings and hot chocolate (random!) but so tasty.

Their last day here we kept it low key and did some shopping in our neighborhood.

Jamie and I felt so refreshed from having family with us for a few days. It was a much needed recharging. They are two of THE most kind, loving, supportive, and real people.

I told Jamie it was like in the show Survivor when the contestants get a phone call from home it gets them all refocused and pumped up in the game... that's how I felt after having Brandon and Erin here! (Although I'm sure they were completely exhausted from spending four days with the dynamic duo-Audrie and Annie!)

Thank you, Brandon and Erin, for coming to visit and boosting our spirits! We love you guys.

instagram

2011-12-09T12:51:00.000-06:00

Jamie got me hooked on Instagram last week. It's my new favorite! If you decide to join the obsession... add me so I can follow your pics! (These are a few of the photos I've taken on my phone.)

Macy's Santaland

2011-12-07T15:45:00.001-06:00

Last weekend we took the girls downtown to Macy's to visit Santa! So exciting.

We went early in the morning, hoping to beat the crowds. But Jamie and I were determined to brave it even if it was madness.

And actually we lucked out and there wasn't a crowd! (Who knew that could happen in NYC??)

We went straight up the 8th floor of Macy's and walked right into Santaland! Audrie was a little unsure at first, but she quickly got excited when she saw all the festiveness.

At the entrance they had displays playing all the famous Santa movies.

There was a little bit of a line, but it was moving quickly. It was just enough of a pace that we got to enjoy all the displays along the way.

Then we boarded the train to the North Pole...

and once we arrived it was actually pretty magical. I almost felt like I was at Disney World for a moment.

Talking trees...

A huge city with tracks of trains running everywhere.

Annie was enthralled with it all, too.

A teddy bear marching band.

Santa's sleigh...

And finally we arrived at Santa's front door. Audrie tried to act shy for a moment, but then walked right in. I didn't take photos inside Santa's house, but he was so sweet with the girls! Both Audrie and Annie walked right up and sat in his lap. He whispered to them about if they had been good girls this year and what they wanted for Christmas.

Audrie told him she wanted a Barbie and then she translated for Annie's babble and told Santa that Annie wanted a little baby doll of her own. So precious.

It was a fun morning at Macy's!

christmas tree shopping

2011-12-05T20:57:00.001-06:00

Last weekend we set out to pick out our Christmas tree. (Of course Audrie sang all the way there...)

How it works here is there are Christmas tree stands set up every couple of blocks and you pick out the live tree you want to take home.

Audrie was excited!

Annie was snuggled in my baby backpack, but she was a happy girl, too.

We picked out a little tree this year, since we don't have any extra space in our apartment. This is our first year to have a live tree and it smelled so good! Jamie carried it the three blocks back to our place.

But he had a good helper...

Jamie unwrapped the tree for us so we could start decorating.

We cranked the Mariah Carey Christmas playlist and unpacked our tote of decorations. (ONE tub of Christmas decorations was all Jamie would let me bring from Arkansas when we moved. Breaks my heart. But it kept the girls busy for a long time!)

They both had lots of fun putting ornaments on the tree.

Jamie did his fatherly duty and put the star on top when we were done.

I love how warm and Christmasey it is in our apartment now! (Don't the girls look cute sitting there doing art work together?)

Until you look closely and see that Audrie is unraveling a whole roll of tape and Annie is marking all over her hands...

ha! Good times. :)

our thanksgiving day

2011-12-03T11:42:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving morning we started cooking early.

You can see Annie was a big help in the kitchen!

While Audrie was busy pretending she wasn't the one who trashed her room...

We went over to Jason and Sam's apartment to spend the day feasting with them.

They had cooked up tons of tasty treats. Including two of Jason's famous carrot cakes. I actually had a piece of cake BEFORE the meal!

Annie helped herself to the appetizers.

Almost tall enough!

Audrie waited patiently for the food to be ready.

Though we missed our families, it was great to have our dear friends to spend the holiday with!

Jason's sister, Juli, and her husband, Josh, were in town from Boston, too. It was great to get to see them again!

We skyped with family in Arkansas.

Tried to get a photo of the four of us. (Thanks, Caleb, for the attempt!)

Josh and Juli are both like baby-whisperers who were able to keep all the kiddos happy throughout the day. It was a huge help to have them playing with the girls so we could eat and relax.

Finally the turkey was ready to devour.

So we sat down and enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner!

Audrie provided some entertainment after dinner, prancing around in Jamie's shoes.

When we left that night we piled both girls in our laundry cart (that we had used to haul our food over).

Thank you, Burrows, for making our Thanksgiving such a special one!

elf on a shelf

2011-11-29T01:13:00.000-06:00

So we decided to do Elf on a Shelf this year. (If you haven't heard of it... google it- you'll be amazed.) We let Audrie and Annie open this gift from the North Pole...

Needless to say, Audrie was pretty ecstatic!

She was smitten at first sight with the cute elf. (Whom she named "Tommy"...??)

We read her the story of how it all works. (The basic idea is that the elf sits quietly and watches all day and then at night- after Audrie is asleep- he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa about all the good choices that Audrie has made that day.)

I'll admit it's a little creepy and deceiving, but Audrie loves it! She wakes up each morning excited to see where the little elf has come to sit that day.

I know it's a short window of time that the girls will believe in Santa, so we're enjoying their excitement! (Well, Annie couldn't care less but it's cute to watch Audrie try to tell her about it.)

date night with Audrie

2011-11-28T01:17:00.000-06:00

Jamie and I took Audrie on a special date night last week. Just the three of us went to see a movie. Audrie was SOOOO excited.

We took her to see Puss-in-Boots. I was thinking I would just have to endure the kid's movie for Audrie's sake but it was actually pretty cute.

The movie theater we went to was near Lincoln Center and was a really beautiful theater. (I felt a little underdressed for the movies.)

It was in 3D and we weren't sue how Audrie would do with the glasses, but she kept them on and loved every minute of it! (Not sure why Jamie is making a weird face in this photo...)

We let her have way too much popcorn, candy, and soda! But it was her date night so we let her go for it.

It was a fun night out with Audrie! We will definitely do it again, soon.

macy's day parade

2011-11-27T01:07:00.002-06:00

A few years ago we came up to nyc to visit Jason and Sam (actually it was when I was pregnant with Audrie) and we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade then. It was MADNESS, but fun. Since we knew it would be so crowded we decided not to take the girls this year, but did opt to go downtown the night before and watch them air up the balloons.

It was hard to get a good photo on my phone in the dark, but I did capture a few. (I like this one because Annie and I are both too distracted by the huge balloons to look at the camera...)

It was really cool to see all the huge cartoon character balloons and Audrie loved it.

It was cold so we didn't hang out too long. We did meet up with Caleb for the subway ride home.

It was fun to watch the parade on TV the next morning and listen to Audrie exclaim about all the balloons she had seen the night before!

I know there are some things you just 'have' to do in this city, so maybe next year (if we're still here) we will be brave and take the girls to go stand with the 3.5 million people at the parade!

grandma cornett

2011-11-26T12:46:00.000-06:00

Last week Donna came up for a visit and we were SO thrilled she was here. We were also very impressed with her traveling skills- she flew from Bentonville, layover in Chicago, into NYC and then took a cab to our front door! All by herself!

Audrie had been counting down the days until she arrived.

It was such a nice break to have her here to help with the girls and give Jamie and I a chance to get out a little bit, too.

Audrie and Annie stuck pretty close to her side the whole week she was here. They read a lot of books and played at least a hundred games of hide-and-seek. They have missed their Grandma Cornett.

I'm sure she was pretty wore out when she left, but we can't wait until she comes back again!

new bff

2011-11-25T21:01:00.000-06:00

My brother, Caleb, graduated from college this past May and has been traveling through India for the past three months. He flew into NYC two days ago and is going to be staying with us until he finds a job and an apartment here. I really love having him around and Annie seems to have made an instant new best friend. She follows him around everywhere and always wants him to rock her! It's really cute.

so much thanks

2011-11-23T23:12:00.001-06:00

Moving to New York City has definitely turned our world upside down and pretty much nothing is the same about our life. But in so many ways it has been the best thing for us. We are closer as our little family of four. We've had to lean on God in a major way like we have never had to before. We are learning so much about ourselves and about living a life outside our comfort zone. And when we hit a rough patch that seems unbearable, we pick up the phone and we call those people who are back home rooting for us and loving us. We are constantly reminded of how MUCH we have to be thankful for.

But we ARE going to miss our families tomorrow on Thanksgiving. My mom was up two weeks ago and Jamie's mom was here last week (and actually my brother, Caleb, arrived yesterday) so we have had some quality time with family that has been wonderful for us (and the girls)!

Although according to Audrie- all she is thankful for is...

When she brought this home from school yesterday, Jamie and I looked at each other and asked "should we make some spaghetti for Audrie to eat on Thanksgiving??".

Heck no. We are not eating spaghetti on Thanksgiving.

We are actually all getting together with our friends, Jason and Sam, for an entire day of feasting. I think the basic plan is: breakfast while watching the Macy's parade on TV (we took the girls downtown tonight to see the giant balloons getting aired up- so awesome!), then lunch and naps, then the official Thanksgiving Feast begins in the evening. I'm so excited! I may break out an old pair of maternity pants for the all day eating.

I hope each of you have an amazing Thanksgiving Day!

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever."Psalm 107:1

just another saturday

2011-11-18T21:13:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday Jamie and I headed out with the girls and I decided to finally bring my camera along to try to capture some of the fall leaves in our neighborhood (as well as to get some photos of a typical Saturday for us here in the city).

I am absolutely loving the Fall here! My walk to work every morning is really stunning and even though my job is stressful, I try to enjoy my beautiful walk on the way.

The leaves in our neighborhood are so bright yellow!

We are thankful that we are still able to be outside with the girls now, too.

You can see Audrie likes it, too!

The cold air makes Annie's face water, but she loves being outside. So much that we have to avoid saying that word around her! :)

Jamie looking all cute in his man-scarf.

We were meeting Jason and Sam at the subway station and the girls always get excited when they see them coming...

Yay, it's Jason and Sam (and Samuel)!!

We got on the subway train to head downtown.

Annie gets really excited when she hears the train coming and points her long little finger out in excitement every time.

We rode down to 82nd street which is one of our favorite neighborhoods to spend time in. Lots of family friendly things to do around there.

And the leaves there were just as gorgeous!

And of course there is a Starbucks on every corner (which we frequent often)!

As well as cute random stores that sell just about anything you can think of...

Annie looking all sweet...

All the cute stores are so tempting to me and it's hard for me not to want to SHOP every single day here.

As we walked along I was reminded how every few feet it seems there is a beautiful photo spot just waiting for a photo shoot...

Random photo of Sam pushing Samuel in the stroller (we have one of these plastic bubbles for our stroller, too- so great to keep warmth in and the girls actually don't mind it).

Me and Jamie...

Me and my two little crazy girlies.

We were walking up and down the sidewalk trying to kill time while we waited for our table at a restaurant. (Thanks, Jamie, for the photos.)

Samuel is awake!

We were standing next to some neat red church doors, so we played a game for a few minutes pretending to knock on various people's door (Santa, Elmo, Grandma, a scary troll, etc).

Finally our table was ready. It's a big feat when we all attempt to sit down for a meal together at a restaurant! When the waitress asked how many, Jason said 4 adults and twenty kids- because that's what it feels like sometimes! :)

Jason was very patient with Audrie while she showed him every letter she has learned to write at school.

And we were as equally impressed with Samuel's ability to feed himself cheerios!

We ate at the Popover Cafe that is famous for it's amazing 'popover' muffins. So delicious! We actually made it through the meal and had a lovely brunch together.

Then back on the subway to head back home. I really like this photo of Jamie and Audrie in the subway station.

Annie waiting for her train to arrive...

Audrie is just another new yorker on the subway...

Sam helped entertain Annie on the ride home.

And here we are back on our block (that's our apartment building on the right).

Audrie was tired from all the walking that morning...

Both girls always race each other up the steps. "Home sweet home". :)

Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed a little insight into a Saturday morning for us.

alligator recital

2011-11-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

We were hanging out in the living room tonight and I randomly decided to see if I could teach Audrie how to play a song on her toy xylophone. And oh my goodness she picked it up SO fast and was asking for more notes. I LOVED it, of course!

I started with simply using a few color coded shapes to get her started "reading the notes" and she just took off!

Here is a video of her big accomplishment (took her about 2 minutes to learn this song):

I was so wrapped up in my excitement about Audrie's note playing that I didn't realize that Annie was sitting right next to us sucking all the ink out of the markers...

I'm sure her diaper tomorrow will be just as impressive as Audrie's "fine art", too. ;)

sweet, homeless, braided, hungry, and french - by Jamie

2011-11-14T13:52:00.000-06:00

Sweet:

Homeless:

Braided (stylist - daddy):

Hungry:

French:

the ballet

2011-11-12T12:33:00.001-06:00

Last week Audrie and I got to her ballet class early before anyone had arrived yet, so I turned some music on my phone and let her dance. It was so sweet to watch her dance all over the room.

The dance company that teaches her class is amazing and they have tons of photos lining the walls of famous Broadway actors who have studied there. But they are strict about no photos or video of the classes (and actually parents sit outside the doors and aren't allowed to watch class- they don't want us to "distract" the dancers).

But Audrie is learning a lot and having a blast so I'm glad she is able to have this experience here in nyc.

In a couple of months they are going to measure her for her recital costume... can't wait to see that performance!

I'm pretty sure this next 'move' is something she made up on her own...!

Oh, Audrie. I'd love to have a little glimpse into your future! I can only imagine where your personality is going to take you.

sweet cuddles

2011-11-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

Annie becomes more full of life and personality every day. We are loving this stage she is in!

She is at that age where it seems she learns several new things every day. Her little brain is just soaking everything in.

I can't really put it into words, but she is just so full of joy and spunk and sweetness and energy and tons of fun.

Our truly favorite thing about Annie is her cuddles. This girl LOVES to give hugs. Every morning when she wakes up all she wants to do is snuggle in bed with us.

She wakes up in THE best mood... so full of smiles.

How can your day not start great with this little girl??

Love. Love. Love!

busy weekend with my mama!

2011-11-04T18:38:00.000-06:00

My mom came up at the end of last week to spend a couple of days with us and I was SO excited to have her here. But I didn't know she was going to bring 4 inches of snow with her!

The random snow was pretty but a little crazy, especially since we were trying to do things around town while she was here. We took Audrie to a small theater production of Rapunzel and, of course, she was thrilled!

Audrie did amazingly the entire time we were there. She got a little antsy waiting for the show to start, so my mom let her count down the time on her watch.

Audrie absolutely loved the show and had a huge grin on her face the whole time (though she did ask me to hide her eyes once when the fairy tale witch got a little scary). After the show, mom and I took Audrie to a diner I had been wanting to try near Times Square. They have singing waiters and the atmosphere is so fun.

It was Audrie's heaven. She was in awe the entire time we were there and could barely eat her food because she was so enthralled with all the singing.

Annie didn't run around town too much with us, but she did get some good snuggle time in with her Grandma Lowery.

On Sunday afternoon I took mom downtown to the Museum of Modern Art. Most of it we loved (like this awesome Picaso) and we saw THE 'Starry Night' painting so that was cool. But there were definitely some very strange modern interpretations of 'art' in there (like a large canvas painted white...). But it was fun to go see it all!

After the museum we walked past a frozen yogurt place, Pinkberry, that is all the rage. So we had to try it out.

I had chocolate with tons of toppings and my mom had pomegranate yogurt with some yummy toppings, too. It was really good!

It was soooo nice to have my mom here! Jamie and I were able to go out on a double date with Jason and Sam. And on Saturday morning we even slept until 9am!!

We did wear her out while she was here, but I hope she won't wait until too long to come back again!

trick or treat

2011-10-31T20:04:00.001-06:00

The number one reason to have a close friend that is a costume designer... she can make AMAZING halloween costumes! Sam totally MADE this Cinderella dress for Audrie. Isn't it just too wonderful??

Audrie was in LOVE with it and will probably not take it off until June.

She had to make sure it twirled just right...

And it did! This is one happy little girl.

Sweet little Annie was a pumpkin (to pair with the Cinderella story) and looked so cute!

She actually hated the whole costume idea for the first five minutes, but once we mentioned "going outside" (her favorite phrase) and get "candy!"- she decided she could live with the costume for one night.

Such a doll!

Here is my attempt to get in a photo with the girls. (I dressed up like a cowgirl for my school's costume day today.)

Jamie put on a viking hat so he could say he tried to dress up, too.

Our first stop to test out the trick or treating process was at Jason and Sam's apartment. Here are the girls waiting for the elevator.

And knocking on their door...

Trick or Treat!

Sam and Baby Samuel joined us for a little walk around the neighborhood.

So how it works here... all the cute little trick-or-treaters walk around with the families and go into the stores and restaurants around the neighborhood to get candy. Everyone was SUPER nice and gave the girls way too much candy.

It actually was really fun going into all the shops and meeting all the owners.

The girls loved it!

Every time Audrie came out she was crazy excited about her candy and would show Jamie every new piece that she got. It was cute.

There were trick-or-treaters walking around every where. It made the blocks around us seem even more "homey" than before. We really love living in this area.

Here is a quick photo Sam snapped of the Four of Us.

We trick or treated for about an hour, but it was starting to get cold so we headed home.

Annie slobbered on a huge sucker all the way home. She was happy!

Samuel got to chew on some unwrapped candy and was just as happy. :)

So that was our Halloween night here in the city. Not too much different than home... just a little change in the scenery.

Thank you, again, to Sam for the special one-of-a-kind dress that we will cherish forever!

loves her sleep

2011-10-25T21:58:00.000-05:00

I snapped this photo on my phone the other day at the park and thought Annie looked too grown up for me. I also wanted to share something she did tonight that totally cracked me up!

So we've always been so blessed to have two girls who are awesome sleepers. Both Audrie and Annie have always loved sleep since they were born, gave great 'sleepy clues', and were quick bedtime routines... basically throw them in their bed and they're out.

Ok, but tonight Annie really topped the charts. I was putting away laundry and I noticed Annie was getting pretty cranky and letting me know she was READY for bed. She kept trying to drag me by the finger towards her bed and pointing to her blankies. But I wanted to finish putting away her clothes in her room before I put her to sleep. She kept whining a little more and then... out of the corner of my eye... I see her run and, honestly, LAUNCH herself into her pack-n-play! She did a little head-over-heels flip over the railing and landed in the pile of blankets!!! Then she laid her little sweet head down and snuggled down to go to sleep. I just about fell over laughing at her! She had had ENOUGH of waiting for me and decided to put herself to bed. I couldn't believe it! So I tucked her in, shut off the lights, and let the poor girl get some sleep.

parenting is easy

2011-10-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

This weekend Audrie tried really hard to remind me why I'm not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom. I truly admire those moms (and dads!) who are on the front lines every day and sometimes I find myself daydreaming of Jamie going back to work and me staying home. But this weekend I was never more thankful of my teaching job. It was one of those times where Jamie and I looked at each other and said "What are we doing wrong with Audrie??".

For some reason this weekend Audrie just totally lost her mind several times and gave us (and every one around us) an awesome display of spoiled brat. Like people walking by hugged their kids a little tighter and thought "at least my kid is not THAT bad". ha!

I mean, we had some really great fun moments this weekend! But at one point we had to drag Audrie home kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs for five blocks "I DON'T LIKE YOU, DADDY! I DON'T LIKE YOU, DADDY..." (I only share this embarrassment because I'm sure at some point in the future this will seem funny. I hope. Right? Someone lie to me and tell me that someday when I have two teenage daughters they will skip home from school every day and tell me how right I am about everything. And how smart I am. And I'm pretty and smell good.)

Of course you know we LOVE Audrie more than life itself. And 99% of the time she is the life of the party and we just adore her awesome personality! But that other percent was in full force this weekend and we are praying that it is a bad phase (a very SHORT phase)!

ben!

2011-10-21T13:26:00.000-05:00

Yay! Ben (and Jim) are in visiting from Arkansas and Audrie is just beside herself with glee.

They came over yesterday as Audrie was getting up from naptime and the two of them didn't miss a beat and were best friends sharing a snack again.

Jamie and Jim left for awhile to give Jamie a break from the estrogen in the apartment and I let the kids do some artwork.

Annie joined in the fun. It was cute because she saw how Ben and Audrie were laying on their bellies to draw- so she had to try to be just like them and laid on her belly, too.

Ben and Audrie played for hours together and had THE best time catching up.

Ben told Audrie a wild story about some pirates...

And Audrie was a good girl and smiled and nodded at all the right times in the silly boy story. ;)

They were cracking each other up.

The best part of the evening was when we got out the dress-up box and the two of them spent some time dancing together.

My camera was on a weird setting so the pictures are a little grainy but I was glad I captured this moment. These two really love each other.

Breaks my heart even more that we live so far from them now!

annie's first haircut

2011-10-21T12:32:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago we took the girls to a children's salon near in our neighborhood. Audrie needed a trim of her layers and I decided to try bangs on Annie (she won't keep clips or bands in her hair like Audrie would as a baby so she always has hair hanging in her eyes).

Annie actually did really good with the haircut, considering it was a split second cut of her bangs. At first the lady was taking too long and Annie was starting to wiggle, so I nicely explained to the stylist that she would have to make it quick or it wasn't going to happen.

So now Annie has bangs and looks super cute! I'm not sure if we'll keep the bangs or try hairbands again, but for now I like Annie's new look. Congratulations, Baby Annie, on your first haircut!

how are things?

2011-10-15T13:01:00.004-05:00

This is just a random update on how we're doing (and some photos from my phone, too).

I think things are starting to stable out a bit for us. For awhile there were really bad days and really good days and not much middle ground. But it seems lately that the roller coaster has smoothed out and we are seeing 'a life' starting to emerge.

The girls do much better traveling around on the subways and buses. (Of course it might have something to do with the fact that we give them lollipops anytime we go more than 20 minutes on the train!)

(Audrie is in her leotard because we were coming back from her ballet class.)

There is SO much to do in this city every day of the week. It's almost a little too much pressure, because I want to do it ALL. And tons of kid friendly events, too. A few weeks ago I took the girls to a musical festival in Battery Park because they were featuring one of my favorite folk singers, Tom Chapin. Audrie loves his songs, too.

At the festival they had lots of activities for kids. Audrie loved the painting exhibit! It was so cool. They had glued together some cardboard boxes cut out in the shape of a skyline. They gave the kids cups of paint and a brush and just let them go at it!

Audrie could have stayed right there for hours!

The coolest thing was that in the background of her painting was this inspiration...

Annie joined the fun for a minute but then she started eating the paint, so I had to squelch that.

On the walk home we saw a double-dutch jump rope group performing so we stopped to watch for a bit.

We see street performers almost every day. And it's always something different. Here is a hip-hop group doing a fun routine. Imagine how cool Audrie thinks it is to see people performing 'for her' all the time?! :)

Today we were getting ready to get on the subway and I saw a little mariachi quartet group about to get on, so I walked down to their train car with them because I knew the girls would love watching it on the train ride (it's like free babysitting entertainment!).

It is starting to get colder here, so we're all wearing jackets and scarves. The heat radiators haven't come on in our apartment yet, but I'm interested to see how that is going to work out when it does.

Jamie is still loving his new job as Mr. Mom. I know he gets tired of me asking him all the time if he is doing ok with the new role and prying to see if he's really ok. But he honestly loves it and is truly enjoying this time he gets to bond with Audrie and Annie. (And occasionally Baby Samuel...)

And my job is... well it's still insanely hard, but I'm finding ways to make it manageable for me. I still get nervous every morning as I walk into work and I constantly pray for help throughout the day. But I will say that the rewarding side of this job is like nothing I've ever experienced. These kids are starving for affection and when you give them even a little love they just glow.

I gave them a writing reflection the other day to do at the end of class and at the bottom I let them write any question they wanted to ask me (I got some interesting ones, ha!). But this one really touched me...

So we are really doing good. Living in New York City is really starting to feel 'normal', which seems a little crazy! :)

the talented cornett girls

2011-10-10T12:17:00.002-05:00

Some cute photos that Jamie took this weekend.

And some videos to show off the girl's "skills"...

A few weeks ago Annie taught herself how to do a somersault and it's too cute!

And Audrie shot this video of herself singing earlier today (beware her camera skills are a little shaky.. but the passion in her singing can't be topped... nor can the size of her mouth!).

lil sam

2011-10-08T20:48:00.002-05:00

We get to spend lots of time with our friends Jason and Sam and their super cutey little boy, Samuel. Usually once or twice a week we will babysit Samuel and he is THE easiest baby to hang out with. He's only 8 months old so he doesn't get into everything, throw fits, or sass us- like two little blond girls that we know.

And the great thing is that every now and then we cash in those babysitting hours and go on a date night! Which doesn't seem like a fair trade for Jason and Sam, but we love it.

(I like this next photo of Samuel because it seems like he is saying "how YOU doin'?"... who could resist those smoldering blue eyes and that sweet mohawk?!)

He's just too stinkin' cute. I couldn't help but snap these quick photos of him the other day.

But then he was over it...

So Audrie read him a story.

We love you, Baby Sammy-o!

Safety First - by Jamie

2011-10-07T18:21:00.000-05:00

In case anyone is concerned about our safety here in the city, there is no need to fear. The Dark Knight made an appearance at the park this afternoon and Audrie was so excited. We came straight home and watched some Batman cartoons on Netflix.

picnic in the park

2011-10-03T19:59:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon Jamie and I took the girls to Central Park to play and have a picnic. It was one of those perfect evenings as a family that you just want to hang onto forever.

We absolutely love Central Park and since the girls are getting better about dealing with the subway we try to go downtown a little more often now. It's still crazy to be playing in the park like any old day, but have these beautiful skyscrapers towering nearby.

Of course we made a stop at the Carousel. Audrie smiled the whole time!

We found a beautiful spot to spread out our picnic blanket.

The spot we chose was in the "Sheep's Meadow" of Central Park- a 15 acre pasture of the prettiest green grass!

The girls ate quickly so they could run off and play.

It was nice to stretch out and relax for awhile.

Annie kept running off into the green meadow, but Audrie was 'nice enough' to bring her back. :)

Behind us were some climbing rocks that the girls had fun on.

The weather is definitely starting to get cooler here, so it was nice to fit this picnic in while it was still warm enough.

We said it was a good day because we got home and both girls had grass stains on their clothes! :)

fall is here

2011-10-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

We went to a local farmer's market this morning and got apples, pumpkins, and mums! It almost felt like home for a second. :)

making friends

2011-09-29T18:53:00.003-05:00

Audrie all dressed up (and posing) for her ballet class this weekend.

So we've lived here three months and are finally starting to establish some real friendships with other families in our neighborhood. It's so nice to have other people (aside from our dear friends Jason and Sam) to spend time with.

Audrie actually had her first friend over to our apartment the other day and she was so excited about it. She and Corrina played dress up and giggled for a solid two hours. (And I got to sit and chat with Corrina's mom, too.) It was fun to have someone new in our home.

Hunter is another friend Audrie has made at the park. His mom, April, will often text us to see if we want to get together at the park and play. (This is the boy whose dad is starring in Rent on Broadway.) A really sweet family! We're so glad to have made friends with them.

This is Jessica and Audrie goofing off on the playground by our apartment. Jessica is in first grade but she and Audrie get along so great! They chase each other non-stop and have a great time playing together.

And actually any time we go to a park, both Audrie and Annie find new kids to play with almost immediately. These are not shy girls that's for sure!

Audrie got her first birthday party invitation the other day, so we're very excited about that! I told Jamie we had to hold off on being the first to RSVP so we wouldn't look so desperate. Ha! We're just excited to be making friends here.

we missed you daddy!!

2011-09-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

Jamie got back Monday afternoon from a 4 day much needed 'vacation' from us girls. :) We sure did miss him though! So glad to have him back.

museums

2011-09-25T21:19:00.000-05:00

So I'm pretty determined about whenever I have any free time I make it a priority to get OUT in this city and do fun stuff with the girls. As physically exhausting as that is sometimes it would be more painful for me to live in this town and not take advantage of it.

Also before we left Arkansas a neighbor friend of ours gave us a packet of cards "52 Adventures to do with your kids in NYC" and these cards are the BEST thing ever. Audrie loves looking through them and 'deciding' what we are going to do each weekend.

The card she picked last Saturday was the "American Museum of Natural History".

So off we went. This choice was great because they open at 10am and it was one block off the subway stop (about a 20 minute trip).

This museum was SOOO awesome! I was in awe every time we turned a new corner in this place. Audrie was freaking out about how cool the dinosaurs were.

They had room after room of huge dinosaur exhibits. It was really fantastic.

Annie was entertained, too, and had that long finger out pointing at every thing she saw.

We spent about an hour with the dinosaurs (and both girls never got tired of it). Then spent another hour checking out the other exhibits. We could have spent all day there.

This huge life size blue whale was hanging from the ceiling in the aquatic atrium. And the elephant pictured below was two stories tall. Amazing!

It was getting close to naptime (and I was worn out from chasing Audrie from one exhibit to the next) so we got back on the subway and headed home. (I asked a nice man on the subway to take our photo. This was after he asked me if Audrie and Annie were twins. Ummm... not sure if he understood that twins have to be the same age...??)

This Saturday I decided to take the girls to the Children's Museum of Manhattan (a hands-on learning museum). I saw online that this was the last weekend that the Curious George exhibit would be there. So we took the subway downtown and walked a few blocks over to check it out.

And oh wow this place was kiddie heaven!!! I thought it was awesome, too. Except one small important detail. You need one adult per kid for this place! Both Audrie and Annie were SO thrilled about touching all the cool exhibits, but they kept running off in a sprint of excitement. I honestly lost Audrie twice for a few seconds and about had a stroke each time. Finally I had to take turns carrying one of them on my hip while I chased the other. I totally recommend this place! But next time I will make sure Jamie can go with us.

This museum is four stories and each floor featured different children's characters. And every few feet there were tons of choices of hands-on stuff to mess with.

Audrie and Annie both loved the kitchen/cooking section in Dora's house. They spent awhile there baking some fake cookies.

Here is Annie at the doctor's office. She kept hitting random people in the leg with the rubber knee mallet thingy. But she did it with a cute smile so that made it ok.

Audrie made a friend at the huge lite-brite. They played together for a while. I'm sure it was their polka-dot attire that drew them together. :)

I loved the bicycled powered tv! We totally need this in our apartment.

Oh then Audrie found a microphone that would playback your singing. It was a little too tall for her but you know she didn't let that stop her. I eventually had to pry her away!

These two museums were a big hit. I can't wait to see what card from the deck Audrie chooses next. (I also love to use the website www.mommypoppins.com because each week it features kid's stuff that is happening around nyc.) I see that it is starting to post stuff about Halloween festivities for toddlers, so I'll be looking forward to what we do for that. I think Audrie is going to be Cinderella for Halloween and Annie is going to be "Gus-Gus" the mouse (from Cinderella)!

dress up!

2011-09-24T19:17:00.000-05:00

Kim mailed the girls a package of goodies the other day and included some awesome dress up clothes. Audrie was so excited she couldn't decide whether to be a pirate or a princess first. So she chose both...

And of course made up a random song about pirate princesses!

Annie joined in on the fun. Cutey!

Audrie snapped a few pics of me, too.

These girls are too much fun! Thanks, Kim. for the goodies.

oh help us

2011-09-21T21:19:00.000-05:00

Are they texting each other about how lame their parents are...??

Wimbledon 2026 Champion - by Jamie

2011-09-19T15:29:00.000-05:00

In an effort to stay active through the winter we enrolled Audrie in a group tennis class that meets once a week. It started last week and this girl has the perfect combination of Serena Williams' power, Roger Federer's touch, and Maria Sharapova's good looks...

Who am I kidding, she can barely get the ball over the net but she does look adorable trying!

There is one teacher in the class and three kids. They use kid sized everything (racquet, net, tennis balls).

Here she is holding her racquet like a stop sign. She listened to her teacher so well.

Annie watched...I'm imagining the next tennis superstar sister combo.

Annie got so excited when a stray ball came her way.

Look at that follow through...and she's stepping into the ball!! I'm already researching father-daughter doubles tournaments!

I don't know if she will have any interest in tennis and it won't bother me if she doesn't...but it can't hurt to start early!

pigtails!

2011-09-16T21:52:00.000-05:00

Annie reached a huge milestone in a little girl's life... first pigtails!

Such a big day for our sweet Annie.

my classroom

2011-09-15T20:35:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share some photos of where I spend all my time. I leave our apartment about 6:15am in the morning and get home at 5:30pm, so it's a long day. Every day I'm making progress with my students and I continue to receive little 'gifts' from God along the way. Today right before my recess duty it started to rain and I was dreading indoor recess. But about two minutes before it was time to go outside- the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we got to go outside for recess. Ironically enough just as we were lining up to go back in... it started raining again! Thank you, Lord, for that thirty minutes of timely sunshine!!

So here is a photo of the ramp leading up to my classroom door. I teach in a red trailer with bars on the windows. Home sweet home.

The kids don't have lockers so they hang their backpacks, coats, and umbrellas on these coat hooks along the wall as they come in.

I have 32 students in each of my classes, so it's a tight squeeze but I make it work. (I ordered the chair packs for the backs of the chairs and I love that the students have clipboards, paper, and pencil in each one- really cuts down on transitions in the lessons.)

Here are the curtains I sewed for the windows (and hearts the students decorated as part of a song writing project we are doing).

There is not enough room for a teacher's desk in the room, so here is my little station for my laptop (we do have projectors in our rooms) and my walkie talkie so I can contact the office (no intercom here).

It feels nice to have my piano in the room (I ordered the exact same piano I had at my old school so I could be familiar with all the settings).

I really should have taken a 'before' photo because all that was in this classroom when I started summer training was the chairs. That's it. Just an empty room... "go!".

Our school is big on "Tiger Values" and all the student's take Latin one hour a day so here is a bulletin board I designed using both of those elements.

Here is my 'time out' corner. I thought I'd make it all 'zen-like' in hopes of calming the troubled student. Little did I know I would need 30 time out corners...! :)

And I have a cute little classroom library in my room. I've never had one before so it was fun ordering the books. We are all required to have at least 90 books in our classrooms of various reading levels.

I still have a few more decorating things I want to do in my classroom, but for now I like it.

I wouldn't say the job is getting easier, but I'm finding ways to deal with how hard it is- if that makes sense. Today after I walked my dismissal group down to the city bus stop (at 4:30pm) I went back into my classroom and just started laughing. Because I was just so exhausted and had such a ridiculously tough day that all I could do was laugh at myself. I'm sure it was a bit of delirium but it was better than crying.

The next two weeks I only have to work three days each week (due to some random holidays) so I'm really excited about spending time with Jamie and the girls!

tennis, corn dogs, and cupcakes

2011-09-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

We've almost been here two months now and there have definitely been some hard moments of homesickness. To help remind us of the adventure we are on we try to get out into "the city" a few times a week.

Jamie and I went to the tennis US Open the other night and had a blast! (Thanks to Jason and Sam for babysitting.)

Also last week we took the girls to the Shake Shack which is famous for their one-day-a-year (Labor Day) corndogs.

In front of the Shake Shack there were some street musicians that the girls really loved watching.

They even let Annie join them on maracas. I think she could make a few bucks with this!

Here is a photo I tried to snap of the four of us waiting in line to order our food.

The corndogs were crazy amazing! (And the cheese fries were delicious, too.)

Audrie drank all my chocolate shake. She did 'share' a few sips with me. :)

Yesterday Jamie had to run some errands so I took the girls downtown to a famous cupcake shop.

Audrie's favorite thing to watch on tv lately is Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, so I knew she would be thrilled about going here!

Both the girls were very impressed with all the choices of yummy cupcakes.

All of them have icing in the center, too. LOTS of sugar!

Just what Audrie needed. :)

The girls had an M&M cupcake, I got Rocky Road, and we took a Grasshopper chocolate mint cupcake home to Jamie.

As we were leaving I asked a lady to snap our picture and she didn't really get us in the photo, but I thought I'd share it anyways.

I also had something kind of crazy happen. When we got off the subway downtown I was digging in my wallet for some cash because I wanted to buy the girls a bottle of water. I knew I only had a 5 dollar bill so I got it out. Right then there was a homeless man sitting there and I really felt the urge to give him my five bucks. But I really didn't want to because I was thinking 'how will I get the girls some water if I give away my only cash?'. But I went ahead and gave him my money. He thanked me and I walked away not really happy about it because I was thinking he would probably buy drugs with his panhandling.
Later at the cupcake place I totally forgot to ask for a bottle of water with my order, but when I left they were nice enough to give me two free cups of water (and in nyc it's rare that any place gives you something for free!). Ok, stay with me... then as the girls and I were walking back to the subway (on a completely different street) I saw that same homeless guy walking down the sidewalk our way. He looked up and saw me. He smiled really big and held up a sack from a local bagel shop. He said "I just ate breakfast thanks to you! God bless you and your sweet girls." Oh my gosh, I had cry a little as I told him you're welcome. It was such a blessing to me. I couldn't believe I was so grouchy over a stupid five dollars. It was an awesome little reminder that even something so trivial- God can turn into a learning moment.

spider monkey

2011-09-11T08:15:00.000-05:00

We purposely didn't put the ladder on Audrie's bunkbed so that we wouldn't have to worry about Annie climbing up to the top bunk. Here is Annie's solution...

yay

2011-09-10T15:20:00.001-05:00

Annie's smile captures how I feel after my first week of work! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers!! This is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but this past week has been the closest I've ever been to God. I'm still praying before every class and a few times I've walked around with my seating chart in my hand, put my hand on a specific student's chair, and prayed for that child. That God would show me how to reach that kid.

Lunch duty is still a 'work in progress' but my plan is one-kid-at-a-time. I've given up on trying to control the entire group, instead I'm working on taming one student each day and so far that seems to be a better approach.

It's insane that I have to work this hard every moment of the day, but the crazier part is that I think I like it.

So it begins - by Jamie

2011-09-09T18:26:00.001-05:00

School started this week, for Rachel and Audrie. Audrie is going to a morning preschool on Wednesdays and Fridays. This is the mandatory first day of school photo.

Miss Vanessa is Audrie's teacher. Audrie adores her!

Annie and I get some quality one on one time. It's so good for Annie to get a break from her big sister.

It's been raining here for a few days and I was finally able to get the girls outside after school on Wednesday. Notice that there is no look of terror on Annie's face...these two are really starting to get along!

feelin' the love

2011-09-06T19:49:00.000-05:00

I made it through day one! I could definitely feel all your prayers, warm thoughts, and hugs across the miles all day today. Thank you SO much for your support. Please keep it coming as much as you can, because I am going to need it every day of every minute. I actually got down on my hands and knees in my classroom today and asked God to help me make it through the rest of the day. And I made it. He was there for me and never left my side.

I got so many wonderful emails and texts today from all of you cheering me on. I'm sorry if I didn't get a chance to respond. I did love it all though!

My sweet ex-coworkers (and best gal pals ever!) emailed me a picture of how the four of them had "dress-like-Mrs.Cornett" day today in honor of my first day of school here. I just died!! So amazing!

And here is a quick pic I tried to capture of myself today at school, so they could see how accurate their outfits were! (You can't see the pink polka dot rain boots I'm wearing due to the rain.)

My prayers now are for daily perseverance and a renewed spirit each day to be the reason why God brought me here.

Thank you again for the love today, everyone! I love you all so much.

day with the girls

2011-09-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I had the girls to myself because Jamie was at the Flea Market (he did great again!) and I was looking forward to spending some quality time with Audrie and Annie.

We took the subway downtown to Audrie's favorite store, Lush. Ever since we went a few weeks ago, it's all she can talk about. She just loves it!

We got there a few minutes before it opened and she stood there with her face smashed up again the glass of the door staring at the workers. They waved at her and smiled. It was really cute.

Those ladies there treat Audrie like a rockstar the moment she walks in. Taking her by the hand and asking her what fun samples she would like to try. They let her rub sparkly lotion all over herself, play in buckets of bubble bath, and even let her sample edible lip scrubs and balms. She was in heaven!

And I love all their products, too! I use their face lotion and it smells so good on my face all day.

They were really sweet with Annie, too. They got her a big bowl of bubble bath and let her make a huge mess on the floor. They showed her how to clap her hands full of bubbles and make the bubbles fly everywhere. She thought it was great!

After all the fun I let Audrie walk around with her little basket and pick three little things she wanted. (She chose three different types of their bubble bath balls that fizz in the water.)

After Lush, we walked a few blocks to one of my favorite clothing stores, Fiolene's Basement, because I needed a new pair of black 'teacher' flat shoes. The girls did GREAT in the store. Annie just chilled in the stroller while Audrie ran around finding me a million pairs of shoes to try on. Each one was her new 'favorite'. :)

Then we were just a few blocks from Central Park and I had packed a picnic lunch. I wanted to try to find that Great Lawn that you see in the movies all the time. And thankfully we were just about two blocks from that spot, so we walked right to it no problem. (And it looks just like it does in the movies... so beautiful!)

We spread out our picnic and had the best time there! (In the background is a little mini-castle that overlooks Turtle Pond.)

The girls ate and then ran around, picked flowers, and made some new friends while I lounged on the blanket. It was so relaxing! (Audrie blew bubbles with this little girl and her dad for a really long time. I felt like I needed to thank him for babysitting when we left...)

On the way out of the park, I stumbled across another really cool playground area so we stopped in for a while. I honestly think NYC probably has at least a thousand playgrounds. We find a new one a couple times a week. It's awesome.

Annie says "Are you coming, mom??..."

Audrie found a little boy to play with while we were there. Her usual park routine is: 1)take off running around the whole playground and check everything out for a few minutes and then 2) find a friend to play with! And it's great for me because we've found that most parents in NYC only have one kid, so since Audrie starts playing with their one kid then I feel better about keeping my attention on Annie! I'd change the saying to "It takes a village to raise TWO kids". (Ha! I know those of you with more than two kids are rolling your eyes at me!)

Annie had fun running around this park. She actually doesn't eat everything off the ground anymore. Yay!!

However she is a complete daredevil! Here she is about to bail off down this huge slide. Keep in mind I'm 5"9' and here she is way above my head... no fear!

It was getting way too close to naptime when we finally left, so we cheated a little and got a cab home. I let Audrie hail the cab for me. She did great. The taxi stopped for her...!

After naps we went across the street to 'our' park, got snow cones, and played til Daddy got home. It was a great day with my girls!

Love. Love. Love them!

fear not

2011-09-03T20:41:00.012-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day (first day of school with my new students)! I feel like the cliche is true... tomorrow feels like the "first day of the rest of my life". I would appreciate your prayers!

don't worry

2011-09-02T20:12:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share a cute picture of Audrie that I took the other night along with a sweet/sad story.

This week has been TOUGH. I won't go into all the gory details but basically I've just been having a rough time at work (oh, no, the kids haven't started yet...! I'm just psyching myself out and getting all scared to death that I can't do this.) But Jamie reminded me today (when I called him sobbing on the phone) that God brought us here for a reason. And that, no, I can't do this by myself... I have to give it all over to God and have faith that He will stand with me in that lion's den (literally).

I could really use some serious prayer all day Tuesday (that's when school starts) and more specifically at 12:39, because that is when I have 7th grade lunch duty with 31 rowdy teenagers who will smell my fear a mile away.

So the other night I was getting Audrie ready for bed and it had been a terrible day for me (lots of crying at work in front of coworkers... awesome) plus add some homesickness and pms and a little exhaustion. Anyways I was trying to hold my tears back in front of Audrie so I wouldn't cause her any stress. But as I snuggled in bed next to her to read her a story, I couldn't help but let a few tears slide out.

But, oh my goodness, at that moment I had THE most amazing experience with Audrie that I hope I never forget. She didn't miss a beat. She just reached over and touched my tears and said "Don't worry, mommy. Everything's going to be Ok. I'll pat your back a little bit. What happened to your smile, mommy? Don't be sad."

Of course that opened the floodgates even more! But I managed to nod my head at her and tell her thank you for her sweet words. She gave me a hug and we read some books.

It was like God sent me a little message through my three year old.

Don't worry. Everything is going to be ok.

Thank you, Audrie, for the sweet reminder.

the flea

2011-08-28T14:02:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday was Jamie's debut at the Brooklyn Flea Market with his Instrumental Lighting business. We were so excited to go see what people would think of all his musical instrument lamps! Jamie had been working for two weeks to build up his inventory. He took over the guest room for his work shop...

He made about 40 lamps and ten lamp shades to take!

The catch was getting all the lamps and booth gear TO the flea market in Brooklyn. Keep in mind that we have no vehicle! Jamie got a couple huge totes and two carts that we loaded up.

Jamie's gear was massively heavy.

While my little cart was pretty light.

Our plan was to take the subway on the hour trek to the flea market, but we were only going to use subways that have elevators (not every subway station has elevators). We looked pretty ridiculous hauling all this gear onto the trains. But the great thing about NYC is that you can be totally strange and no really cares, because every where you go... there are weird people here! So we were 'those' people that day.

So the 'plan' didn't really work out, because a few of the stations had out-of-order elevators or the map was wrong and there was no elevator where we thought there was. So we had to haul the ton of gear up several flights of stairs. I'll just say it wasn't the happiest point in our marriage.

But we did make it there! Just in time to get the booth all set up.

The lamps looked so great on display. I didn't really get a great pic of Jamie's booth all finished, but I'll snap one again sometime.

His official logo...

It was so fun to watch everyone's reaction to the lamps. The loved them! I was so proud of Jamie.

He sold 5 lamps that day and the other vendors all told us that August is a slow month for the flea market so I'm excited to see how the next couple of months pick up as it gets closer to Christmas.

Since Jamie was making money... I did my part to help him spend it. I'm good like that! The flea has amazing food vendors, so we started the day with big cups of local coffee and these amazingly huge yummy donuts that you had to hold with two hands to eat!

Then I pretty much snacked all day long. I had a tasty home-made soda that was lime and mint. I was addicted! So good.

Since we were sitting in the booth all day, it was fun to people watch. We made up stories about people that walked by. This guy definitely owned a goat and played the ukelele.

When I got bored I would venture out and see all the other booths. Some really cool random stuff!

Of course I wanted to buy all the vintage dresses and shoes!

We did reward ourselves at the end of the day by each purchasing one thing. Jamie got this really nifty plant that grows in a brick.

And I got a turquoise picture frame. It's hard to tell in this photo but it's a really thick heavy frame and I love it!

Anyways, it was a super fun day at the flea market. A huge thanks to Donna who was in town and kept the girls all day. It was a long day, but so worth it. Jamie is going back again this weekend. Now that he has done it once he has new ideas for his booth and set up, etc. It's so fun to watch him work on all this! It's the perfect mixture of creative art and financial business... just like Jamie. :)

lil trouble maker

2011-08-24T22:16:00.001-05:00

Annie is changing every day. Love her to pieces! She is so much fun (aka- empty the bathroom trash can all over the floor and then bat her sweet eyes at you.)

(Photo credit- Donna)

It's such a blast to see her personality coming out so much. She is a sneaky instigator though! She has figured out how to ambush Audrie, pull her hair, and then run off giggling.

(photo credit- Donna)

Annie eats hotdogs like nothing I've ever seen. I told her she was never going to have a boyfriend if she keeps it up. Scarfing down three hotdogs in one sitting is not pretty.

Here is a wacky picture of me and Annie (on a weird bug-eyed setting on my camera computer)...

Although we spend most of our time chasing Annie out of trouble, we can't help but smile while we run after her cuz she's just so stinkin' cute.

(Photo credit- Donna)

Jamie caught a video of her the other night goofing off...

Oh Annie. We didn't think we could handle any more "life in our party", but you sure bring the fun to our family!

a few thoughts and stolen photos

2011-08-24T21:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update on this roller coaster of a life we are living. (PS- I wish I could claim that I took any of these photos in this post, but sadly I stole them from google. But they are pretty, right?)

The good times are still rolling here as we get out and explore the city. Jamie's mom was here for a week (Thank you, Donna!!) so we were able to do more since we had her help. We spent all day Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea Market (more on that soon) and had a blast! Last night Jamie and I went out with Jason and Sam and had a 'best-night-ever' just eating, laughing, and pretending we didn't have a care in the world. It was so nice.

We have had some sad moments where we miss our family and friends in Arkansas. It's crazy to live in a city with 8 million people and still feel alone.

We are not in denial about how challenging this chapter of our life is. But we are still having more good times than sad. No regrets. Yet. The future is still wide open and that's exciting and scary. We are taking it one day at a time and loving the adventure.

I saw Michael Jackson walking down the sidewalk today. For real. A dude that was dressed and styled to look completely identical to the "Thriller" days of Michael Jackson. I was impressed.

Never a dull moment here.

"Trust in the Lord and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him." Psalm 37:3-7

fun outings

2011-08-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week we took the girls to meet Lady Liberty.

We had been talking about it with Audrie and reading books about the Statue of Liberty to her, so she was pumped when she finally saw it!

Annie thought it was pretty cool, too. :) We just did the Staten Island Ferry since it sails right past the statue and we didn't have the energy to take the girls up into the monument. Plus, the girls thought the most fun part was riding on the big boat!

Jamie's mom, Donna, is up visiting us and we are so excited to have her here! (So are the girls!)

We have missed her so much.

Yesterday we took the whole clan down to Central Park to do a few fun things there. We saw some amazing scenery when we first walked in!

It was just screaming for a family photo shoot. :)

But we were headed to the Central Park Zoo and we made it just in time to catch a sea lion show that was starting. (Audrie's pigtails...)

And her goofy grin saying "cheese"!

I didn't take many photos at the zoo, but it was the perfect size for our girls. Not a huge zoo, but just enough animals to make it interesting and not too exhausting. Although I honestly got attacked by a bird in the tropical bird sanctuary. I kid you not. It dive bombed me and I squealed in terror! The horrid bird pecked at my arm as I ran away. WHY ME?? (Oh and Jamie laughed at me instead of coming to my rescue.)

But everything was better when we got to the Central Park Carousel. Yay! I love carousels and Audrie shares that joy, too. She was so excited to ride it!

Annie was not. (It was too close to lunch/naptime for her to even pretend to like anything at that point.) But I loved it! The music on the carousel was awesome. They kept playing random songs that cracked me up (Wings of a Snow White Dove, Just the Two of Us, Walk the Line, I Fall to Pieces, Macarena, etc... the randomness of the music-box style songs made me laugh!)

It was a beautiful carousel and so much history! (It was built in 1871 and has been through four renovations.) They said it's a "NYC kid's rite of passage". We were glad to take part in this experience. And Audrie waved at all her 'fans' as we rode by!

We've had a fun couple days getting the girls out in the city this week!

holy avocado!

2011-08-18T09:28:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness, y'all! I made these the other night and they are truly amazing. Deep fried slices of avocados!! Check out the recipe here.

marriage of arts

2011-08-17T21:01:00.000-05:00

So you know Jamie opened an Etsy shop a couple of months to start selling his nifty instrument lamps... well the other day he had this great idea to let me spray paint a few of them. Yeehaw!! Don't have to ask me twice to spray paint something. I was on it! So much fun. And then I ran around town taking photos of the fun lamps. Check 'em out...

(then it was raining so I took some photos in our living room...)

Jamie (and Jason) have been making lamp shades out of old sheet music, too. He's still working on that product idea, but I really love the ones they have made so far.

This Saturday is Jamie's debut at the Brooklyn Flea Market! He will have a booth set up of 35 instrument lamps and shades. (If you're in the neighborhood... stop by!)

chatty cathy

2011-08-16T22:18:00.001-05:00

This is a video of Audrie chatting me up at dinner tonight. It's nothing too exciting, but I just thought that someday down the road we would miss this tiny 3 year old voice with big "dee-ahs" (what she calls "ideas").

a little chat with audrie from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.

random update

2011-08-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

We finally got Audrie signed up for dance classes (ballet and tap) at the Broadway Dance Center and I'm soooo excited for her! She had a free trial class the other day and hasn't stopped talking about it. Her real class doesn't start until Sept 24 so we have a while to wait, but I hope she just loves it!

We also registered her this week for a two day a week preschool class that starts Sept 7th. And I'm super pumped about that! I think it's going to be so good for her (and us) to have Audrie in 'school' again.

And just to make sure she's really got a full calendar... Jamie booked Audrie for an 8 week tennis class. Oh my goodness... can't WAIT to see how that goes down!

She discovered that our stairwell is perfect for singing so here is a little video of Audrie belting out some made up song. (and please disregard how filthy the girls are... It had just rained and we let them stomp in the mud puddles in the park!)

In other news... We moved Annie's bed into Audrie's room a few days ago. I was unsure at first how they would do sleeping in the same room, but they are doing great! The first time (naptime) it took them over an hour to stop giggling, but they finally went to sleep. Now it's been five days and they go to sleep much faster (though it is cute to watch them on the video monitor). And for some strange reason Audrie now ASKS to go to bed and take naps. It's like she enjoys sharing a room with her sister! (Hope that lasts a few years.)

I took Annie to the pediatrician this morning and poor thing got three shots but she did awesome with it! So proud of her. (I tried to snap a quick pic in the doctors office but she is too fast!)

She weighs 21 pounds and 31 inches long. The doctor said Annie was a sweet and calm baby. I said Thank God, cuz wait until you meet the other one! ;)

who are the people in your neighborhood

2011-08-13T07:08:00.000-05:00

Wednesday afternoon Jamie and I took the girls for a little stroll around our neighborhood just to get out a little bit before dinner.

Right in front of our apartment building is an awesome park that is basically our front yard. The girls love the playground and I like all the green space. Although I do not like the bird in the photo flapping way too close to me (I have a bird phobia... which doesn't come in handy in this pigeon-filled city!).

Less than a block from our apartment is a subway station which is so nice when we want to head downtown or run errands.

A few of you have asked if I'm ever "scared" walking around here. No, so far I haven't ever been scared- even at night. Often (like in the above photo) there are people sitting around on the streets at all hours and you have to walk right past them which can be a little awkward, but I've never been scared.

There is a Starbucks a few blocks from our apartment which, of course, we frequent too often.

And now that Jamie has the whole family addicted to Mister Softee ice cream we eat way too much of this, too! :) You might imagine with all the walking we do that I'd lose weight... but NO between ice cream, starbucks frappacinos, and having restaurant delivery several nights a week... no weight loss for me!

But how can you turn down ice cream like this??

We found a place to sit and enjoy our ice cream (the bus stop!).

And, yes, Annie is with us on this walk! We were trying out a new backpack carrier that my friend Becca told us about. Annie loves it! (And I do, too.)

People here sit on the sidewalk in front of their apartments like it's their front porch (cuz it really is).

And Audrie talks to EVERYONE. These cool dudes walking past us... Audrie cheerfully hollers out "Hi!" with a big smile and wave to them. She cracks me up.

As this girl passed us Audrie said to her "You look like Princess Jasmine!". I used to cringe and tell her to stop, but it's not like we're going to see them again and I don't suppose she's really doing anything wrong??

On this walk we stopped at a new park (there are a billion parks in our neighborhood and we are still finding new ones all the time).

Annie was ready to play!

Audrie headed to the swings.

There are always lots of moms (and dads!) in every park we go to. Our neighborhood is a very family friendly part of the city.

I usually have to follow Annie around to make sure she is not stealing snacks from the other moms.

Our sweet little Annie is growing up so fast!

She's getting more blond. And tall. And changing too fast.

We love her so stinkin' much!

She decided to get brave and try the tire swing.

Audrie thought she looked lonely and joined her.

These two are actually really enjoying each other's company more all the time. They play together really well and I love watching them giggle together.

Next to this playground was an area in our neighborhood called Cloisters Gardens. So stunning! My photos don't do it justice. It really is an oasis.

Beautiful little nooks where you could read in the cool shade.

Jamie and Audrie ran off ahead of me...

Up the steps there is an area where you can sit and look at the Hudson River. The breeze off the water was so nice!

You never would have thought that you were in the middle of Manhattan!

It was almost like looking over the Buffalo River (almost...).

There was a cute elderly couple enjoying the serenity (well, until Audrie came barging through!).

We were tired from exploring the park, so we decided to catch the bus home. While we waited for the bus Jamie and Audrie acted like big dorks.

Audrie likes taking the bus!

Annie was pretty sleepy and ready to get home.

We got home in time to see the sunset out our window.

Such a beautiful view of our new home! Hope you enjoyed this little tour of our neighborhood. :)

mellow yellow

2011-08-11T20:06:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to put something in our entry way that we can throw our keys and mail on when we walk in. But I also wanted it to be practical and have lots of storage space. (So not just a table.) I looked on craigslist and found this old oak dresser for $50. (It does have top drawers but I didn't remember to take a 'before' photo until I already started taking the drawers out to paint.)

The only catch was that we had to go get the heavy dresser. (And we have no car...) It was only about 15 blocks away but with no car that is still a problem. Jamie had been wanting to try out Zip Car so he checked it out and it was only $15 to rent an SUV for an hour, so he did and went and picked up the dresser for me. So nice of him!

The dresser is very sturdy and has really cool handles. Annie was a 'big help' while I was sanding the dresser....

I decided to branch out from my usual turquoise and go with a warm golden yellow color. (PS- before I left Arkansas I discovered that Sherwin Williams has these quarts of sample paint for $5! You can pick any color from the hundreds of paint chips and in just a few minutes they whip you up a tub of pretty paint. They warn you that it's not high quality paint because it's supposed to be a sample, but I've used it on a filing cabinet, a picture frame, and this dresser- and it's been great!)

Again, my assistant Annie helping me take off the handles.

I sanded it (very lightly because it was so rough anyways it didn't have much shine left on it and also because I didn't want to make a mess in our apartment), then I put three thin layers of yellow paint on it, and then Jamie put the coat of polyurethane on it (while the girls and I were gone for several hours).

I really love how it turned out!

I swiped one of Jamie's instrument lamps to decorate with (don't you love the new lamp shades he and Jason are making out of old sheet music??).

I finally admitted to Jamie that we've reached the max on painted furniture in our home. But even as I said it out loud I knew I'll probably find something else to paint soon. ha!

sharing, caring

2011-08-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

Now this is some good sharing! ;)