a big day

Today was a pretty jam packed day in Cornett-ville. We started it off with a 5K Race (I ran and Jamie and Audrie cheered). It was really fun! I wasn't too worried about my little unborn because he/she was a great running partner in the last race I ran- when I was a few weeks pregnant but didn't know it yet. And since I've still be keeping up (sort of) with my regular exercise- I knew this little baby was up for a 5k this morning. This was the first race that Audrie got to be a cheerleader for me and it was SO neat to come around the corner to the finish line and see her up on Jamie's shoulders... she saw me running and waved and smiled all happy to see mommy... so fun!
And they had lots of bouncy jumpy things for the kids to play on so Audrie had a blast while I was running. Jamie took a picture of her here bouncing away.

After lunch Jamie went to play tennis and I took Audrie to a birthday party we'd been invited to at The Little Gym in Rogers (this place is super cool for kids of any age and I really think we might have her next bday party there). Anyways, Audrie had the time of her life... running and jumping and being all gymnastic like. And this was during her normal nap time so I was pretty impressed with her energy.

Audrie also got to learn a valuable lesson today. Waiting her turn in line. Pretty tough lesson for a 22 month old. She tried to throw a few fits and cut in front of everyone, but after a few times of me dragging her back in line and making her wait- she actually figured out pretty quick that the only way she was going to get what she wanted was to wait her turn. Nice!

BUT THEN... tonight was the BIGGIE. We converted her crib to a toddler bed! Jamie and I were a little excited and nervous how this was going to go down, but we thought it was time to give it a try. (And hoped it wasn't like the "ditch the pacifier" drama this summer- when we gave in after about 48 hours.)

But we made a big deal about it and talked it up excitedly about her being in a Big Girl Bed now and we let her help take it apart.

And she seemed to like her new set up... still jumps just as good! :)

She climbed in and out of it for quite a while. Checking it all out.

After such a busy day we were hoping she would just crash and go right to sleep! (A quick lap around the house with daddy before bedtime here...)

Then we put her in bed, gave her a pacifier and said Good Night. AND SHE WENT TO SLEEP! I honestly kept waiting for her to walk out into the living room... thought maybe she was just patiently plotting until we went to bed. But she just zonked like normal.

Not really sure what's she going to do when she wakes up in the morning. Hopefully make me some breakfast in bed and start some laundry. :)

the wonderful amazing kimberly

The world renowned photographer (and my sister-in-law) Kim has blessed us with her amazing photography skills once again. She took our family photos for us and as always I am blown away with her mad skills! Here are just a few of my favorites... so hard to narrow it down (if you want to see them all you can visit her website http://www.kimlowery.com/ - click proofing at the bottom and our password is cornett09). THANKS KIM!!
This last one is so precious to me because this is actually Audrie's "kissy face"... so it's like she's saying "Hey, where's MY kiss?!" :)

baby fever

Just in case any of you were on the fence about having a baby... let me help you out with that baby fever. Here are some of my new favorite websites that I browse at work while I'm supposed to be doing lesson plans:

www.landofnod.com/baby You know how everyone says "wish they had that when I was having kids"... well Audrie isn't even two and I already see all this cool baby stuff that they didn't have two years ago. So fun!

www.cadenlane.com/ This Caden Lane site has some AWESOME bedding that I'm going to have to take out a loan for... don't tell Jamie. :)http://www.tinyprints.com/ I can't afford anything on this photo site but it gets my creative juices flowing anyways.

http://www.ingridandisabel.com And BRING ON the new maternity clothes... whoo hoo!
http://www.isabellaoliver.com/maternity-clothes Pretty sure this is going to be my new Christmas dress....! ha!

Anyways, just wanted to share some of my excitement about pregnancy number two! I'm really excited about working on another nursery and preparing our home for this new little baby.

juice and cleanliness

Just a couple random stories about little miss Audrie...

So the other day she hurt her toe (ok it was actually my fault but I'm going to leave that guilty part out) and her big toe was bleeding pretty bad. But I guess Audrie has never really bled before or seen blood- because she kept pointing to the blood dripping off her toe and saying "juice... juice". I tried to explain to the little vampire that even though it was red and runny- it was NOT juice. (Though the girl is pretty fond of V8 Splash so maybe she drinks so much of it- it IS running out of her toes..??) And she's starting to get really particular about keeping her face and hands clean. Especially when she's eating now, she likes to have a napkin next to her to wipe her little fingers and mouth. And the other day I got her finger paints out (which she loves to do) and I started her smearing the paint like usual, but she was so preoccupied with wanting to wipe her dirty hands off- that I finally gave her a paint brush and she was happy after that. I can just see her on the first day of preschool when all the other kids dive into the art project and she's all... "excuse me, I'm going to need a smock and clean set of paint brushes".

Anyways, Audrie keeps us laughing that's for sure. We're always looking forward to what funny little thing she's going to start doing next.

seek ye first

(Jamie took this photo on his drive home from work one day last week.)
Jamie and I are really loving our new church! It was starting to get frustrating trying to find a new church that we felt like God was leading us to. The first time we visited Fellowship (I think when we were first married) we were immediately overwhelmed with the size and crowd. And even earlier this summer when we went back a few times, we were still not convinced we could feel at home in a church of that magnitude. But after visiting tons of churches in the area we kept finding ourselves drawn back to Fellowship. So we kept going a few Sundays in a row and somewhere along the way we both just realized that this was were God wanted us. And now we LOVE it! Every worship and sermon really inspires and challenges us each week. Audrie does so great in the nursery (and actually Jamie and I are going to start working in one of the two year old rooms). The music is just so uplifting and beautiful- I can't wait until I feel ready to start back serving in that ministry, too. It still feels really odd to worship with a room full of strangers, but we hope as we continue to attend, join a small group, and get more involved that we'll be confident this is where God wants us to worship and work on our relationship with Him.

oh pretty baby

YAY!!!!! Our friend Jim was so sweet to do an ultrasound for us last night! It was just amazing to SEE our little baby. And watch the baby kicking and waving arms and rolling around and even did a somersault for us. Show off! :)

Jamie took over the controls for awhile and we got to watch the baby playing around in there... seeming to have a blast.

I couldn't stop smiling! I could just watch for hours... so fascinating.

The machine wouldn't print the images for some reason, but Emily was able to snap these photos with her camera of the screen. I know it probably just looks like a huge blur, but this is a side profile of the baby's face and body- legs kicking and arms waving.

Oh my goodness, made me even MORE excited to meet this little one! (We did show Audrie the screen and told her it was her future sibling... but she was more interested in playing with all the buttons on the machine!)

THANK YOU, Jim and Emily, for letting us get a sneak peek at our little baby (and for the photos)! So fun!

we need a translator

Audrie has a ton of words that she says all day and for the most part we understand what she is saying. But, oh my goodness, sometimes she gets on a rant about something and we have NO IDEA what language she is speaking...

audrie meets the hogs

This weekend we decked Audrie out in all her Razorback red and took her to her first Hog Football Game. The weather was amazing and we had a free ticket for her- so we weren't worried about how long she would last at the game. She actually did really great through pregame and the first two quarters, but by the end of halftime she was ready to go "bye bye!" (as she kept telling the people sitting around us). Anyways, it was cute having her there with us and we made it home to watch the rest of the game on TV while she napped. Even if she didn't appreciate all the Hog frenzy- we were just glad to not have to leave her with a babysitter all day. (Thanks, Emily, for snapping these photos before the game.)

Jamie tried to teach Audrie how to call the Hogs and I'm pretty sure she thought he'd lost his mind.

As always the flyover during the National Anthem was awesome. (And I was just impressed that I managed to catch this photo on my phone.)

And our friend snapped this photo with her camera (that was set to pick up only red tones). Thanks, Candace! :)

preggo update

I'm starting my second trimester and already I am feeling SO much better. With my first pregnancy I was never ever sick. Maybe once or twice I felt a loss of appetite (which is a big deal for me to not want to EAT), but really I didn't even start to feel pregnant until about 25 weeks. But, oh boy (no pun intended), this time around has been a whole new ballgame. Pretty much from the moment I saw those double pink lines proclaiming the great news until just a couple of days ago I've been so nauseous, dizzy, hot, tired, pukey, and feeling every second of pregnancy. But last week I started to feel more like myself again and getting some energy back. (And I discovered I had students in my classroom- wonder where they were the past 12 weeks?). Ha!

The craziest part is that about two weeks ago (week 10) I started feeling little flutters of movement, but I thought NO WAY. It's TOO early to be feeling that- I must be crazy or have gas. But it kept happening and getting more consistent last week. Then yesterday the flutters turned into something official and I knew I couldn't deny it anymore... there is a BABY in my belly (or a tae-bo instructor). I could actually feel the kicks on the outside of my stomach. Just to convince myself I really hadn't lost my mind- I had my friend Melanie (who I share an office with) put her hand on my stomach to feel. And she confirmed that YES there is something kicking inside me! I told the ladies in my bible study last night about it and they all said that they, too, with their second pregnancies felt movement really early and that is was normal to be feeling kicks so soon. (My mom is out of town... well, out of the country... and she is usually who I would call to ask if I'm "normal".) So it was nice to hear from these ladies that this is typical for second pregnancy and that I don't have octuplets kicking up a storm or anything. :)

I'm still able to fit into all my regular clothes for now, but getting really close to throwing in the towel and breaking out my eatin' pants. Jamie has been really sweet again protecting his little mama- making sure I'm drinking enough water and concerned with how I'm feeling. And he got to feel the baby kick yesterday so that was exciting! We're just both SO ready to find out the gender. We won't get our official ultrasound until right before Christmas. HOWEVER... my friends Kate and Mel both took the Intelligender Test (that you can buy now at Walgreen's) and it was correct for both of them... SO... I took one this morning and it said....

BOY!

little coop

Last week a coworker friend of Jamie's asked me to come take some photos of her little 8 day old baby boy. This tiny boy just melted my camera with his sweetness! Meet little Joseph Cooper...

"all the leaves are brown..."

I guess Jamie decided it's never too early to start Audrie on some chores. So he took her outside to help rake leaves in the yard (ok, well, she has a broom but she didn't know the difference)! Audrie did pretty good pretending for awhile but then gave up and decided her place was to sit in the middle of the pile and oversee the job. "Here, daddy, you missed a few..."

new kind of art

The other night we took an idea from a friend's blog and decided to let Audrie fingerpaint in the bathtub. It was perfect... she got paint all over herself and the tub, but then we just washed it all off and gave her a bath. Easy fun!

"oooooh, this IS fun!"
I'm always looking for new games, crafts or fun times that an almost two year old can handle and it looks like we'll be doing this one more often. (Except I am a little afraid of what Audrie will do now when I try to get her to paint on paper again in the future!)

grown ups

As much as Jamie and I ADORE our baby girl, sometimes it's nice when we get a chance to go out with friends and talk about something other than Elmo or poo poo. So, THANKS, Jenny, for inviting us us all out for dinner the other night! We had a great time (and I'm still heartbroken that I passed up the chance to go see Saw 6 with you)! :)