calling all baby mamas

Hey all you baby mamas... if you've had a baby in the past three years (which is just about every one I know!) go to this website for the NWA Birth Network and take their survey about your birth experience and you will be entered to win some AWESOME stuff.

art & music fair

We stopped by the Art & Music Fair today that is going on at the Promenade Mall and it was really cool. They had tons of fun artwork (that I really wanted to spend a billion dollars on and hang all over our house), live music playing and way too much tasty food everywhere (we ate greek gyros and then cheesecake drizzled with chocolate and caramel... out of a waffle cone)! I had an artist draw a caricature of Audrie, but the only way we could get her to sit there was to give her a huge chocolate cookie...

I think the festivities are going on tomorrow, too, so you should go check it out... and pick me up some artwork... and more cheesecake! :)

puddin' face

We took Audrie out to eat Chinese food with us and all she ate was french fries and chocolate pudding. (So very ethnic of her!) I remember once upon a time when I just knew that MY child would eat all their vegetables and never throw fits in public and heaven forbid if they said NO to me... Ha! Good thing I love her so much!

sweet kayla

Yay! My friend, Shannon, had her baby girl yesterday morning... on LABOR day... perfect! They named her Kayla Grace and she is just the most adorable thing ever. I absolutely love her thick pretty hair. She weighed in at 9lbs 4 oz and 21.5 inches long. (Big baby!) I stopped by the hospital yesterday to visit and they let me snap a few pictures...

I'm just so thrilled for this new little family. Congratulations Brian and Shannon!!

run for a child... and to meet a duggar

Jamie and I got up early this foggy morning to Run for a Child. We registered a few weeks ago for this 5K and we're excited to support our friend Emily in her first 5k race! It was pretty foggy but there were tons of people there.

Here is Emily waiting in line to pick up her shoe tag (this race was so fancy smancy that we got the cool computer chips tags to attach to our shoes).

Emily and I were pretty pumped about getting our run on!

Jamie was not.

But I was glad to have my hubby there to help cheer us on.

Plus his friend, Trent, was running, too and Jamie wanted to show off his sweet racing skills.

I actually snapped a picture in mid-race here and told Em to give me her best "game face"... I wouldn't get in this girl's way! :)

So we made it all 3.1 miles and crossed the finish line to the cheers of the crowd... and Michelle Duggar!

The Duggar's were there filming for their show on TLC and when I crossed the finish line Michelle Duggar patted me on the back and said "good job!". So I told Jamie I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant now! ha!! (For those of you who don't know Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 19th baby, so the fact that she touched me surely boosted my fertility!)

Anyways, it was a really fun race and I was proud of all of us for getting up early this morning to run a few miles for a great cause!

big fat weekend

So far we've had a pretty awesome weekend! Here's a little update of what we've been up to... Audrie kicked things off Friday night with a little concert- a piano duet with Gymbo the Clown. (She blamed all the missed notes on him.)
Saturday we had a Say Something Hat Day. I went shopping with my mom and got some great bargains on some fun clothes at the Name Brand 1/2 Price store in Springdale. Jamie, Audrie and I went to church on Saturday night (we've been wanting to check out the Saturday night service at Fellowship and I'm SO glad we did. It was incredibly humbling and inspiring!). Then I finished off the evening by going to a late movie with Kim- we saw Time Traveler's Wife and sobbed a few buckets of tears.

Sunday morning we had brunch at Copeland's and got to sit right in front of the jazz band.. which Audrie LOVED! It really was so much fun.

This afternoon we kept it low key around the house (Jamie's been glued to watching the US Open) so Audrie and I played in our neighbor's back yard. They are out of town and don't mind if we play on their grandkid's playground.

Had a bath and some snuggles. (Yes, she's bathing with a necklace on!)

And brought the weekend full circle by finishing up with another piano concert.

These are the days of our lives...

flower child

So I don't what has gotten into me lately but for some reason I can't seem to stop wearing flowers in my hair. I think it all started when I bought this flower headband in Kansas City a few months ago... I was just hooked after that. I didn't realize how much I was wearing them until yesterday one of my students asked me why I DIDN'T have a flower in my hair that day. They really are a fun phase for me right now! A few weeks ago I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bunch of flowers and some alligator clips- then hot glued the clips on the back of the flowers. I did accidentally discover a little secret to successful flower clips... if you wash the flowers in with a load of clothes (before you glue them) it really softens up the flower and makes them lay a little more flat on your head and they look more natural, too. I am a little scared that I look like those newborn babies with the HUGE flowers overtaking their tiny heads, but oh well, I like wearing them for now!

I've also been clipping them to my purses and clothes, too.

I hung them on the back of our bathroom door (next to my cluttered jewelry stash).

So I'm on the lookout for some fun hair accessories. If you find anything- let me know! I'm trying to decide if I can pull off wearing a headband from this site.

gotta start the shoe fettish early

I bought Audrie THE CUTEST pair of tiny high top pink converse tennis shoes the other day and I just love them! The only thing I don't like about them is how grown up she looks... like she's ready for her first day of kindergarten. But so adorable. And the best part is that I got them for $4 at the Rhea Lana sale! That place was a MADHOUSE but I walked out of there with an arm full of fall & winter clothes, jackets, shoes, toys, for Audrie- and for super super cheap! It's still going on today through Sunday if you need some good deals on baby galore.

I think I might have to find her a pair of these shoes in every size because I'll be so sad when she outgrows these!

does it get any better?

So I have to mention the perfect day I had on Sunday. Not to rub it in, but just so I can go back again later and re-read it and re-live it. It was just one those days that couldn't get any better and if I had to be stuck in that movie "Groundhog Day" and redo the same day over and over again... it would be yesterday. We went to church and the sermon was very inspiring! We picked Audrie up from the nursery and she was just SO darn cute running towards us all happy "Mommy, Daddy, yay!!!". Came home and had a picnic lunch on the back porch in the insanely BEAUTIFUL weather. Then Jamie went to the movies with some guy friends and Audrie went down for her long afternoon nap. So I sort of had the house to myself... opened the windows to let the cool breeze air out the house, cranked up my favorite playlist on my iPod and I cleaned the house (which is actually something I enjoy). We had dinner again on the porch that night and then finished up the evening by taking Audrie to a little playground near our house. It was just one of those days that before I had kids I used to sort of imagine a great day as a family would be like. Almost makes me forget about how many times Audrie has pooped on me. Almost.Pictures from our evening at the playground. (And I took these photos on phone so they're a little blurry...)

"Nothing is more than this day."- Goethe