more of audrie's singing

I just have to say again that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I'd have a daughter that loves singing so much. The other night I took Audrie to an audition with me and she sat there so sweetly while I ran some vocal exercises with the singer. On the drive home I heard Audrie in the back seat singing those same little warm ups and actually really on pitch. I was so excited that when we got home I sat with her at the piano and had her sing those for me with the piano- and she did awesome! Jamie commented that he was going to have to get started on the tennis training if he had any hope of competing with the music! :)

Anyways, here are a couple video clips of her latest singing skills. I know there are several, but if you have the time you should watch these! (Especially the last one- my new favorite!)

Twinkle Little Star from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.



Untitled from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.

she did it!

Annie has been teasing up for a couple weeks with her attempts to roll over. And she finally got it yesterday! I only managed to capture the last few seconds on video, but at least we have some small proof of her amazing feat. :)



Annie Rolls Over! from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.

don't make them cry

My students also started back to school last week and I have to say it's been one of the best starts of school I've had in a long time! I have a great group of middle schoolers this year and I am really excited about a wonderful year.

This is my tenth year of teaching! And I still get really pumped up about teaching the world to sing. I am so glad I truly love my job!

And being in a routine again is nice, too. Even though my day starts at 5:30am, it's good that I have to shower and make myself presentable each day. :)

Middle school kids are a fun breed. They are old enough to laugh at my stupid jokes but not quite old enough to be "too cool for school". I really love this age.

I have about 450 kids that I teach in my choir room each week and it's really kind of scary how much of an impact I can have on them. I just hope that I can share with them my love for music and be a positive influence in their life.

Or as my friend Gloria would say... just don't make them cry. ;)

audrie's pre-school

Audrie started at her preschool last week and just loves it! (I had to have a good crying spell but managed to pull myself together eventually.) Audrie was a little shy (for about 2 seconds) as we first walked in her classroom....

She was excited to hang her backpack on her on special hook with her name on it.

As soon as we went in her classroom, she started playing with all the different learning stations they have set up. Her favorite seems to be the "home & living" area with a play kitchen, baby dolls and a huge stash of dress up costumes.

I was just amazed at the adorable tiny toilets they had in the bathroom. I realize this photo gives you no spectrum of how tiny they are... but these toilet seats are like 6 inches above the floor. When Audrie saw them she said "Oh my goodness, mommy, that's a lot of pee pee!".

When I came to pick her in the afternoon I had to sneak a quick photo of her class sitting and listening to the teacher so intently.

When I walked in, she didn't see me and I got to sit and listen to them reviewing their shapes and colors. It was so sweet to hear Audrie's little voice calling out "blooo circo!".

She loves her teachers and ironically enough when I walked into the classroom the first day I realized that the teacher's aide in Audrie's room is a former choir student of mine. "Miss Logan" thinks Audrie looks like me and I said "thank you, but wait until you meet my husband...". (Everyone always changes that opinion when they see Jamie.)

So, it's going great so far! Audrie is SUPER excited each time we talk about school and even though she's only been a few times we can already see little signs of what she is learning.  She eats lunch and snacks there, takes a nice long nap, has structured lessons, art, music & playtime outside. So fun! I would love to be a fly on the wall though. I can just imagine all the things she tells those teachers and how she probably tries to boss around the other kids!

Look out, world! :)

three months old

I snapped a couple quick photos of Annie the other morning as she was waking up. (I'm trying to keep her baby book updated with her monthly photos and stats and so far I've been doing pretty good.)

Raise your hand if you're a sweet girl....

She is so much fun to talk to... just coos and smiles and makes so many adorable faces at you!

Audrie likes to crawl in Annie's crib with her. I usually tell her no (because Annie needs her own space away from her sister!) but that morning I let her get in there with her. It's amazing how even at just a couple months you can already see little signs of how much they love each other!

But I love Annie's face here. Like she's rolling her eyes and saying "OMG... she is SO immature". 

And this one... "Ok, mom, are you going to save me from her, or what??".

I love my little girls! So much fun. (Remind me of these times when they are 15 and 13 and fighting over clothes...)

It's been insanely hot the past couple weeks and to keep cool (and water our grass) Audrie has been spending a lot of time in the sprinkler. She loves it!

So the other night Jamie joined in the fun!

As I looked over the pictures later I thought it kind of looked like a little water ballet duet between the two of them...

A beautiful 'grand jete', Jamie!

Anyways, they had fun and got to escape the heat for a moment. Can't wait for some cool fall weather!!

guess who's excited??

Audrie is starting her first day of pre-school tomorrow! She's going to go all day twice a week at the Pinecrest Private School in Bentonville. Jamie and I took her for a tour last week and, oh my goodness, she was crazy excited!

She wore her backpack around the house for an hour before we left because she couldn't wait to go see her school.

We are excited for her to be in a classroom with kids her age and teachers that can straighten her out. :)

I do have to tell you that when we were touring the classroom there were some summer school kids in there playing and one little girl comes up to Audrie and tries to take her flower out of her hair. And Audrie just straight arm shoves the girl down. I about died. We'd only been there a few minutes. Great first impression, Audrie!

Hopefully she won't get sent to the principal's office the very first day! :)

grandma's back!

Audrie calls her "Nan-ma Tornett", but I call her "Thank the good Lord you are back, here are my babies, I'm leaving, bye!".

Ok seriously, it has been tough to leave my girls to go back to work. But this year, more than ever, I am so grateful to have my mother-in-law caring after my girls all day. I love teaching. And I'm happy knowing that Audrie and Annie are being loved by Jamie's mom while I'm at work. Although that first day when I came home from work I don't think I put Annie down until bedtime!

Here's a short video of Annie talking a little. (This clip is pretty boring but you can hear Annie's tiny sweet voice so I had to post it so I can watch it at work when I start to miss her!)

baby talk from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.

annie update

Annie is going to be three months old this week! Time flies when you're lost in baby world. I was talking to Jamie last night about how I almost feel a little embarrassed about how panicked I was at the beginning of this summer- wondering how I'd survive two babies. Because now it's really pretty easy. Annie is such a sweet sweet baby! She sleeps amazingly- two hour naps throughout the day and 7-8 hours at night. And when she is awake she coos and smiles and is so content. (Too bad she's going to turn two someday...! ha!)

Annie loves her bumbo chair. I actually didn't realize that she was ready to sit in this yet, but Jamie was home with the girls the other day and he got the bumbo chair out for Annie and she loved it!

I've been in teacher workshops the past week and so Annie has had to adjust to taking a couple bottles during the day. She wasn't a big fan at first (I got lazy this summer and didn't give her many bottles). But now she's fine with them and doesn't mind switching between me and the bottle. My goal is to nurse until Christmas and I've got a freezer stuffed full of milk so I think we won't have to buy much formula.

(Random tangent- Did you know you could sell breastmilk?? I'm not going to, but I saw several online sites where you can advertise and sell your frozen milk for about $2 an ounce. Crazy! So now every day when I pump an 8 ounce bag and put it in our freezer I'm going to give Jamie a bill for $16!)

And the infatuation between Audrie and Annie is still going strong. Audrie loves to kiss and hug on her sissy and Annie just watches every move Audrie makes and smiles so big at her. I asked Audrie to get next to Annie for a photo...

I like this next photo because you can see Annie's only line of defense... "you get too close to me and I WILL lick you!".

Sweet baby Annie! We love you so much. You are such a perfect addition to our family!

We are having Annie's baby dedication at church next Sunday (August 22nd) at 11am at Fellowship Bible Church in Lowell- in the Community Worship Building. We would love to have you there! (Audrie is going to be on stage with us and you wouldn't want to miss the moment when she pulls her dress up over her head!)

let's. get. fired. up!

I've been in teacher inservice training for three days and I'm actually pretty pumped up about school starting. Our district brought in a "big deal" conference to get us all inspired and ready to change the world and I have to say I was really impressed. I feel like I'm ready to be a better teacher this year. (Last year I was pregnant all year long, August-May.) So I feel like I have to make up for a grouchy year!

I had to share this video clip that was shown in one of our workshops this week. It's kind of long (3 minutes) but it's really funny. The relevance to teaching is how occasionally as teachers we try to 'make something up' when our students ask us something we don't know the answer to (who does that??)...

 

roll, baby, roll

Annie is trying SO hard to roll over. And it's sadly the most entertaining thing in the world to us. So, of course, we have to share the riveting footage with you... (and, oh yes, that is Audrie singing in the background... she's in the bathtub making up her own special song!)

Roll, Baby, Roll from Rachel Cornett on Vimeo.

daddy

My neighbor, Gina, snapped this photo of Jamie and Audrie the other day after the ice cream truck had passed by. I was out running errands and she emailed me this picture.

 

This is what happens, Audrie, when daddy is in charge- you get to run around outside with no pants and eat the HUGEST popsicle ever made. :)

friends

I read an article once about how important it is to have different types of friends in your life. Some that are in the same stage of life to sympathize with your situation, some that are older to give advice, some that are younger to keep you energized, etc. My friend Jaclyn is one of those wonderful friends who I can hang out with to get my mind off diapers and tantrums. She is young and fun and has no babies. And she's always so sweet to ask about the girls and tell me how pretty they are, but then the rest of the time we talk about all the other things I forgot existed- cute shoes, tattoos, religion, hairstyles, sailors. It's refreshing to spend time with her. Thanks, Jaclyn, for letting me hang out with a cool chic like you tonight! :)

sleepover with the lowerys

Audrie went and stayed the night with her cousins Jacob and Emma the other night. She adores them and it's so nice that Audrie is old enough to go stay the night with her "friends" just for fun. We always have to be strategic about when we tell her that Jacob and Emma are coming over because if we tell her too soon she will freak out for hours waiting for them to get there. She has a great time playing with them and they are so super sweet with her. It is lonely in our house when Audrie is gone, but it's good for her to get away and "miss" us a little. :) Kim sent us a couple photos from her phone so we could see how much fun Audrie was having at their house!

Love her! It's still hard to believe sometimes that she is not our 'baby' anymore. I get a monthly parenting email update about what milestones, stages, etc that my child is going through and it used to say "your 10 month old baby should be..." and then it started saying "your 20 month old toddler..." and now it is saying "your 30 month year old PRE-SCHOOLER"... wha?? Pre-schooler? That sounds so OLD. It might as well say "your 520 month old college grad"!

turn that frown upside down

Audrie had a little trouble shaking off her nap this afternoon. Her hair was a hot mess and her lip sticking out in a major pout. So you know me- I just took a million pictures of her little pouty face.

She does have some amazing eyelashes!

And big beautiful brown eyes.

Uh oh... starting to cheer up...

Cmon, you can do it... just a little smile...

And we're back!

Oh the joys of toddler mood swings! Good thing we love her so much.