new look, same great flavor

This is the sixth year for the children's choir that Andrea , Jamie and I started. (Andrea left two years ago to pursue her doctorate and choral composing but we still talk often and I'm proud to say "I knew her when...".) Now my friend from college, Rebecca McBride, assists me with the older choir and we are getting ready to kick off our 2010-2011 season. However this year we decided to change our name. No longer the "Bentonville Children's Choir"... we are now the Northwest Arkansas Youth Chorus.  It's something we've been wanting to do for a few years and finally decided it was time. We have a new website and logo (both I'm proud to say I designed myself... ooh aah). So if you know of any boys or girls ages 8-18 who love to sing... we'd love to have them join our choir family this season!

www.nwachoir.com

take me to your leader

Oh Audrie. Hanging out with this two year old all summer has been entertaining to say the least! So she is still so awesome with being a big sister. She LOVES Annie. Wants to kiss her, hug her, sing to her, teach her things all day long. Audrie would make Annie her own personal baby doll if I would let her. I have to intervene at times and give poor Annie a break.

She would smother Annie with love. (Annie actually doesn't ever seem to care but I have to stop Audrie at about 20 kisses and say ok enough!) 

And I know this next picture is not a very flattering picture of Audrie... but I get the idea that this is the way Annie sees her crazy sister!

But we love our sweet Audrie!

And she cleans toilets now, too!

(ok, I'm not a mean mother... I was cleaning the bathroom and Audrie wanted to help!)

cooooooool

For those of you who don't usually view my blog in it's "real" live format (you use bloglines or blogreader, etc)- you have to check out the changes I made to the look. Not sure if I love it yet, but I like toying with the new options that blogger has with the custom templates. But I'm a nerd like that.

"tall and tan and young and lovely"

Doesn't this picture make you dizzy?! I wanted to snap a quick photo of Annie in her Baby Legs because I thought they were so cute on her. So I put her down in her crib to take a photo, but then all the mix of prints and patterns made my head spin. But I also thought Annie is looking really long/tall (can you really call a baby "tall" when they never actually stand up??)- she's 24 inches at 10 weeks so she's definitely got some length going on.

All I know is that she is growing up too fast already. I can not believe I go back to work in two weeks. Seems like I just had Annie days ago! Where did my summer go??? So bittersweet. I am definitely going to miss all the sweet moments with my girls, pajama days and the afternoon ice cream truck... but I feel like I'll be ready to get back to my daily work routine, seeing my teacher friends, and getting excited about teaching the world to sing. Plus our girls will be in such great hands with Jamie's mom all day! I told Donna I was ready to get back to teaching so I could get a break. :)

antm?

A huge shout out to Erin Campbell for always keeping my girls in fashion. She got Audrie this totally adorable summer skirt and shirt set. Audrie loved it (and cried when I made her take it off for naptime... kept saying she wanted to sleep in her "pwetty dwess"). The outfit is not only cute, but Audrie can still run in it...

and jump...

and do somersaults...

and play hide and seek!

The perfect outfit for a girl "on the go". :)

Thank you, Erin!

nothing says summer like a snow cone

I have been complaining all summer about how I haven't had a snow cone yet. It's almost the end of July and not ONE snow cone! So finally last night Jamie took us girls out to try a snow cone stand just south of Lowell.

I got my favorite snow cone flavor- coconut! We got Audrie a rainbow one because it was colorful and she loved it. Jamie tried an Andy's Chocolate Mint snow cone and I thought it was disgusting, but he liked it. Chocolate flavored ice? Yeck. But Audrie loved the snow cones so we'll have to go back and try all a million of their flavors they had on the menu.

Sweet Annie fell asleep on the way there so we left her next to us in the air conditioned car. So no snow cone for her. Maybe next summer! :)
Thanks, babe, for the snow cones! It's July 23rd and I can now say it's officially summer. :)

Wonder how many more we can eat before summer ends?!

annie banannie

8 weeks old and we fall more in love with Annie every day. I took her for her two month checkup with the pediatrician yesterday and she is doing wonderfully. Gained two pounds and grew two inches in a month. She weighs 10lbs, 13 ounces (50th percentile) and is 23.5 inches long (90th percentile).

Still eats right on schedule during the day- every 3 hours with the occasional cluster feeding in the evenings. Her fussy/colic? episodes that she was having every evening seem to be going away- she only has those every once in awhile now.

The glorious thing is her night time sleeping! She goes to sleep for the night about 7:30pm. I wake her up again about 9pm to feed her, put her right back to sleep and wake her up once more about 11:15pm for one last dreamfeed. Then finally this week she has been sleeping all night! Wakes up about 6am to start her day again. I can not believe she is sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old! Combine that with all the smiling and cooing she has been doing... I am smitten with this young lady!

Here she is reaching out for a big hug...

And, oh yes, I totally painted her finger nails. I know it's so wrong, but I couldn't help it!!

She's proud to show off her lovely manicure...

I love this next photo. She's thinking, "mom, are you for real with this headband??".

I had so much fun snapping these photos of her. It's about time for her to learn that the front of mommy's face looks like a camera. ha!

Annie's eyes are still hanging on to that newborn grayish blue color, but I think they will turn brown soon. Another 'brown-eyed girl'... one of my favorite songs!

This pink polka dotted dress is actually from Audrie's Closet (Annie's favorite place to shop)!

My goodness, I just love kissing this sweet face.

Happy two months old, Baby Annie. We love you!

get ready

Annie turned two months old yesterday, so I had a little photo shoot with her. I thought I'd warn you now that I got a TON of really cute photos of her and I am about to unleash them on here! I'm only going to post a few tonight as a little tease but oh my goodness I am in love with this little baby girl of ours! Annie and I sat on the back porch last night as the sun was setting on her two month birthday and she told me all she had learned in her long life so far. It was a sweet moment and I look forward to many more chats with her. Here are few photos of our precious daughter, Annie Beth...

luv her

I took my 14 year old niece, Emily, to see the Twilight movie, Eclipse, last week and we had way too much fun hanging out. She is definitely my favorite teenager in the whole world. I need to know what the secret ingredients are to raise a girl like this. She is sweet, thoughtful, polite, hard working, funny, smart, talented, and beautiful. I really can't think of enough adjectives to describe what a wonderful young lady she is. (And even though she says "she can't sing good", she can.) I always love when she comes to stay at my house for a few days. Audrie adores her, too. I may have to kidnap Emily to live with me.

We stopped at Starbucks before the movie to get all hyped up on caffeine and goofed off taking photos of ourselves. We laughed about how these made us look like we had black eyes.
It's been so fun watching Emily grow into a young lady and I can't wait to see where her life takes her.

Love you, Em!

this too shall pass

So we've made it a whole two months as a family of four and haven't lost our minds yet... well maybe a little. We definitely still have our tough days, but God is good and never gives us more than we can handle. Takes us right to the breaking point sometimes when we think we are going to run out the door screaming, but then Audrie will say something totally adorable or Annie will rip the loudest poo sounds in her diaper and we laugh and remember that "this too shall pass".

Even though it's summer break and I'm doing "nothing"- somehow we are always busy. It's a lot harder to make social plans right now, but we still manage to attempt some dinners with friends and visits with family and occasionally we all even sit at the table at the same time to eat.

I tried to take Annie with me last night to my monthly Bunco night with my gal pals, but I should have known better... she cried and wanted to be home sleeping in her crib so bad that I couldn't stay long. But again I know that it will all get easier eventually.

Though the girls last night were talking about how each stage of motherhood has it's challenges and we always seem to think "the next stage will surely be easier, right??". But then it's not. I think that's just life.

Remember when you were 12 you thought your life was ruined because your parents wouldn't let you wear make up yet or when you were 16 and you were grounded for life because of your long distance phone bill to your boyfriend and you couldn't wait until you were older and on your own... then life would really be easy, right?? But then you're 21 and you've maxed out all your credit cards and you think "I can't wait til I graduate college- then life will be easier, right??". Next thing you know- you're 32 with a tantrum throwing toddler and a newborn that sprays yellow poo everywhere...

This message was in my devotionals a few days ago and it really struck home with me.

Life is meant to be lived one day at a time, one lesson at a time, one struggle at a time. The joys are meant to balance out the sorrows. At times, we may be stretched to the very limits of our resources. It may all seem like too much to bear, but Jesus knows what burdens we can handle with His help. Every difficulty serves a purpose. Each step in life leads to the next. Each challenge teaches us more that will help us when the next test comes. Through it all, Jesus is with us, and He sends us his Holy Spirit to guide us. We come closer to the truth of life and the knowledge of God working in our lives... one step at a time.

girls just wanna have fun

Our friends, Trent and Candace, came over for dinner the other night. They have an adorable little girl close to Audrie's age and these two little girls play like they are long lost friends. So cute!

After dinner the girls wanted to play in the kiddie pool and had a blast going down the slide about a million times.

They were so precious cheering for each other. "Go, Audrie!"...

A natural cheerleader!

Making a splash!

Camryn was fearless on the slide!

They both 'talked' to each other all evening in their own secret language.
Camryn is SUCH a cutie!
Look, mom, no hands!
These two would have played out there ALL night if we had let them.
Who needs tv when you have this kind of entertainment?! :)