oh baby, baby

Oh my. Bad mommy moment (and I'm sure my music degree fell off the wall with this incident, too). So Audrie woke up from her nap the other day and was eating a snack in her high chair. I turned on the iPod and set it to randomly play just to have some music going while I cleaned the kitchen. A little while later I noticed that Audrie is singing loudly "baaabbbyy... baby.....". I was all pleased with my little singer. But then to my horror I realized that a Britney Spears song had come on and she was singing along to "Hit Me Baby One More Time". Every time it got to chorus "Oh, Baby, Baby" Audrie would start singing along. NOOOOOO!! Not my sweet little girl. There is no way I'm writing in her baby book that the first song she sang along to was by Britney Spears!

So today just to convince myself that my daughter isn't a total heathen... I taught her to sing a new song about the Bible...

But, for real? Britney? I'm so bitter. I told Audrie we're only singing songs about Jesus from now on!

just the TWO of us

Yay! Jamie and I had such a wonderful weekend! We got to sneak away and get a little couple time... just the two of us. My nephew got married Saturday in Branson, so Jamie and I decided to go up early and make a weekend of it. We dropped Audrie off in Green Forest with Jamie's mom (we slowed down and rolled Audrie out the door as we went by... ha just kidding- we actually really missed our little girl!). But we had an amazing weekend hanging out with each other. One of the best parts was this wonderful romantic restaurant I had made reservations for us at called The Candlestick Inn. It overlooks downtown Branson (on the lake) and the view from our table was gorgeous!

It was fun to get dressed up, have some wine & cheese and eat a long leisurely delicious meal that we didn't have to cook or share with a toddler. (And I got to show off my new clutch purse that Candace got me... thanks, Candace!)

And I got to show off my sexy date...

Kim and I took pictures at the wedding so we'll be sharing more of those later, but here is a photo of me and a few of my siblings (there were actually 8 of us 12 in one place at one time so we had to capture the moment).

I really am so glad Jamie and I got to spend some quality time together this weekend. It was a nice reminder that we really do like each other. ha!

young love

I got a new toy. It's a called a Flip and it's the easiest video camera on the face of the earth. (Even a caveman could do it?) It's about the size of a cell phone and you hold it in one hand, press the record button and viola! So simple. I love it! So we tried it out last night at Gulley Park and captured this soap opera moment where Audrie was caught in a matchmaking love triangle. (The band was really loud so you might need to turn your volume down...) Prepare yourself for some adorable young love (by the way we have no idea who these kids are!)...

But the COOLEST thing about this video camera is that when you open the files on your computer the automatic software (which is super easy to use, too) lets you turn any millisecond of the video into a photograph. You can just click through each split second of the videos and make a photo of any scene. It's really fun. So all the photos you see here are from the video camera.

Looks like Jamie might need to have a little talk with Audrie about slow dancing with boys!

a very special lesson

So for awhile now Audrie has been able to climb up on the piano bench by herself and it's not unusual for me to hear her throughout the day playing the piano (aka- banging out notes to her own little atonal melodies that make my ears cringe). But the other day I walked by to see this in progress and had to grab my camera. Audrie giving her first piano lesson...
She was obviously explaining to her baby doll all about major and minor chords, sharps and flats, and harmonic intervals...

And then she banged the baby doll's hand on the keys.

More teaching...

More banging.

I can't think of where she learned this violent process of teaching... At one point she was even banging the poor doll's head on the keys.

But apparently the method was working. The doll wasn't complaining and Audrie was having a good time.

Then a hug after the lesson. Good job!

Maybe I should give this method a try on my piano students this week. Or just let Audrie teach them!

farmers market

Jamie and I took Audrie to the Fayetteville Farmer's Market this morning. The weather is amazing this weekend- almost feels like early fall! Perfect day for spending some time browsing for fresh veggies. (I'm guessing from the sign here that these are a special hillbilly type of tomato...)

Audrie loved seeing all the people out with their adorable doggies!

And she loved all the street musician's (me, too)!

I really think we could have left her parked in front of one of the musicians for a long time- she was enthralled with it all!

So Jamie likes buying up all the veggies and Audrie loves the music and dogs. But for me- it's all about the fresh flowers!

I told Jamie we had to leave soon because I was getting carried away with the flower buying. (But they're SO cheap and beautiful I can't help it!)

We'll be eating some tasty veggies this week!

defying gravity

Thursday I took my mom, my niece Emily and my former student Cynthia to see "Wicked" in Tulsa! It was, of course, AMAZING. This was my third time seeing it but I still had that same overwhelming feeling afterwards where I just wanted to lay down and ball my eyes out cuz I love it SO much! I already want to go see it again! Here we are in our green Emerald City attire... Before the show we stopped and ate at a Spaghetti Warehouse. And hugged a bear.

Goofing off before the doors opened...

Our seats were crazy high but actually once the play started we were so caught up in it all it didn't matter how far back our seats were.

I'm so glad I got to see it again and be there with them as they saw it for the first time. It's by far my favorite musical of all time!

nappy hair

My lovely daughter seems to have been blessed with my "wake up hair" genes (ya know, where you're never really sure what is going to greet you in the mirror each day)! This afternoon I went to get her up from her nap and I had to run back and grab my camera for this extra special episode of Nap Hair...

(Her hands are stamped because I took her to Gymboree Play-n-Learn this morning and they always stamp their hands at the end of class- which she LOVES!) However she did not love me taking her photo instead of getting her out of bed...

But, oh my goodness, isn't this hair amazing??

"Ok, seriously, Mom- put down the camera and GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

She also seems to be blessed with mood swings (bet she gets those from Jamie...). Cuz I took all these pictures in about 60 seconds and I had her laughing by the end.

But all a girl needs to recover from a bad hair day is to sit in your underwear in the kitchen floor and eat some spaghetti-o's...

That'd cheer anyone up, right?!

my first attempt

We are trying to do a little more advertising right now for the Bentonville Children's Choir to help get the word out about auditions for our upcoming 2009-2010 season. So I contacted a few local magazines (Kid's Directory, Peekaboo, Celebrate, etc) about putting an ad in their publication. So that meant we had to have an ad design. I didn't want to pay the design fee so I tried one on my own... here's what I came up with. (You have to click on it to be able to see it better... the logo is a little pixilated so I have to keep working on that.) I'm sure it won't win me any graphic design awards but I didn't think it was too bad for my first attempt!

proposals, flip flops and trains

So just in case you were wondering... I am thoroughly enjoying my summer break! I do have an occasional pity party for myself when Audrie is testing her toddler powers, but aside from those moments it's been a pretty awesome summer so far. And thankfully I have some great gal pals who come to my rescue at just the right time. A few weeks ago I went out with a wonderful group of my girl friends to see The Proposal and I was surprised at how MUCH I loved that movie! We laughed through the whole movie but it was sappy romantic, too. I highly recommend seeing it! And Thursday night some sweet girls I know invited me to play Bunco and since it was only my second time playing I was lucky enough to win the "biggest loser" prize. Ha! They also had a cute flip flop contest (that I did not win) but the competition was tough... And yesterday my friend, Emily, knew I was having a tough morning so she invited me to ride a kiddie train with her... that is true friendship! ha! Check out the photos on her blog.

terrible twos already?

There are some days I think teaching 300 middle schoolers is easier...!

But God does have mercy because during this "fun" stage of Audrie's life she has also recently learned to say "I love you"... (sounds more like "wuv you" but melts my heart every time)!

Wuv you, too, baby girl.

wildlife zoo

Sunday after church Jamie and I decided to pack a picnic lunch and take Audrie out to the Gentry Wildlife Zoo. Audrie took a few minutes to warm up to the animals in the petting zoo area, but soon she was running around squealing at all the little animals. It's really neat how you can walk right up to a kangaroo or hold a tiger cub. I'm so glad we went!

After the petting zoo we drove through the four mile safari drive and it's crazy how the animals come right up to your window!

Except this @#%& bird thing wouldn't stop trying to get in my window and freaking me out (I kind of have a bird phobia). And Jamie kept rolling my window down every time it got close to us. I didn't think it was as funny as he did.

Audrie was kicked back with a mouth full of grapes just checking out all the animals.

I'm thinking about getting a sign like this for our front door...

We had a great time there! They are open every day from 9:30am to "dark" and it's $10 for adults and kids under 2 are free (I think kids over two are $5, not sure). I had to scrub Audrie's shoes for awhile to get all the poo off the soles but it was worth it!