houseguest

One of our best friends, Gloria, came to stay with us this weekend and we loved having her here! She's only been moved away a month, but we miss her so much already. Audrie was excited to have her "Aunt Glo" back, too! :)

Gloria is teaching K-12 Music & Choir in Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas and changing the world one singer at a time. She did offer to let us grade some music quizzes this weekend, but we didn't want to rob her of that joy...

I guess her internet connection in the sticks where she lives isn't the greatest so we let her use our fancy Cave Springs internet to get caught up on the world.
This is how we all felt about letting Gloria go back home today...

Miss you, G! Audrie will practice saying your name... maybe we can even get her to sing "G-L-O-R-I-A...."!

our lil' hog fan

Audrie got to wear her adorable Arkansas Razorback onsie today and I took a million pictures of her in it, but I just had to share these two for now.
Jamie and I had fun at the Razorback game. Well the game itself stunk, but hanging out with friends and tailgating was where the real fun was. Thanks to my mom and dad for babysitting Audrie! (Jamie and Jim get really excited about the flyovers during pregame...)Erin teaching Jamie how to play "Bago"...
Apparently Brandon is undefeated.
Even if the rest of the football season is a bore, we can look forward to spending some good times with our favorite hog fans!

Woo Pig Sooie!

counting down

My first few weeks of teaching school this year have been the best I've had in a really long time. I've got an awesome group of students and so far I'm having a blast! Of course, that doesn't mean that I'm not counting down to our next holiday break. Usually when school starts that's when Jamie and I start thinking about what we are going to do for spring break. This year we've decided we deserve a redo in New York City since last time we were there Broadway was on strike (and I was 7 months pregnant)... but somehow it was still one of the best vacations we've been on. So anyways, we're scouting out airline tickets now for another trip to NYC for spring break to visit our dear friends, Jason and Sam. It's always nice to have a vacation planned (sort of like a carrot dangling) to help the long days at work seem shorter. But if my school year goes as wonderfully as these first few weeks, I've got no worries.

Although I did have to wear my glasses this past week to school because my crazy eye infection just won't go away! Since my glasses make me look so different I decided to go ahead and wear my hair straightened this week to really throw the kids off...
I honestly had one student walk in my room and ask me "where is Mrs. Cornett today?"!

audrie the evangelist

Ok, I had to post this picture for my dad to see. Don't you think this photo looks like Audrie is having a little laying of the hands/prayer time with baby Ben...??
Audrie is always really excited when Jim and Emily bring their baby over to play! So excited that she decided to claw his head off... (notice how Emily is actually trying to stop things and I'm just taking a photo... I'm such a good mommy).
So Audrie is almost 4 months older than Ben, but I'm pretty sure Emily is feeding Ben miracle grow...
I guess Audrie thinks she has to beat up on poor Ben while she still can...!
It's going to be fun watching these two grow up together (hopefully Audrie will learn to play nicer)!

first time for everything

Our little cupcake is growing up right before our eyes! (Check out the little sprout of curls on top of her head!) She's had several new "firsts" lately. We went out to eat after church this Sunday with some friends and I actually ordered some food for Audrie at the restaurant- whoo hoo! (ok, it was just a little cup of applesauce, but it was still a fun "first".) I have to share this photo of her dress she wore to church, too. So adorable!


And she no longer uses her baby bathtub, but sits in the tub like a big girl. Nathan, Kim and their kids were over the other night and Kim got to give Audrie her first "real" bath. It was pretty cute. Of course I took photos...
(Raise your hand if you pee in the bathtub...)
Audrie has also been standing up lately, too. She doesn't pull herself up, but will stand there if we prop her up. I hope she's not one of those babies that skips crawling and goes straight to walking! Right now it's pretty hilarious because when we hold her hands and try to get her to walk around- she will only walk backwards. And it totally looks like she is moonwalking!

And it was a sad day when we had to pack up all her clothes that she has out grown! These are all her clothes from newborn to 3-6 months sizes that don't fit her anymore.
...and Jamie got me these great vacuum sealable bags at WalMart (that my mom told us about) that are really cheap and so easy to use. So that huge pile of clothes is now neatly packed away!
And she is still saying "dada", but now with much more enthusiasm. Our neighbor, Becca, emailed me at work today to tell me that as she went to check her mailbox this afternoon she stepped out her front door and heard Audrie (who was on our front porch swing with Donna) exclaiming "DADA!" and all kinds of excited baby babble. I guess I can forgive Audrie for not saying momma yet, since she's so crazy cute!

"A moment in my tummy... a lifetime in my heart."
-Anne Lindbergh

i heart photography

Kim just posted some photos on her blog of a wedding I helped her with recently. I love weddings and I love photography, so helping Kim as her second photographer is a total blast!

(This was one my favorites of the photos I took at this beautiful wedding.)

extreme fan club

Jamie is playing in a tennis tournament this weekend and the other day he was telling our friend, Jim, about it and Jim said he and Emily wanted to come watch Jamie play tennis sometime. I guess Jamie told him he was a little hesitant about having an audience and that spurred Jim on to a great idea. He called me later and told me that we should all surprise Jamie at one of his games this weekend... Super Fan style. Jim and Emily decided that we needed tshirts with Jamie's face on them, banners, signs, visors, etc- all proudly boasting Jamie's name. I knew Jamie would probably die of embarrassment but life is short and you have to have a little fun, right? So we did it. We showed up at his game yesterday afternoon all decked out in our "Go Jamie" gear and cheered on our boy! Jamie was definitely surprised and even seemed amused with his fan section. He played awesomely and won the match! Here are some photos...

The chalice in Jim's hand here was a "trophy" they brought for Jamie... I guess like the big silver one you kiss when you win the US Open! (And, yes, Jim is wearing a pink shirt!)
Audrie was Jamie's "# 1 Fan"!

Even Baby Ben sported his "Jamie's Fan Club" onesie...!
Audrie likes watching her daddy ace his opponents!
She did get a little sleepy towards the end of the match, but I kept her entertained on the sidelines.

She is already looking forward to her first tennis lesson from her daddy.

Thanks, Jim and Emily, for the hilarious idea and amazing cheerleading gear! Jamie plays in the finals today, so hopefully he will win so he can put that sweet trophy on his shelf!