8 month comparison

Just a fun comparsion of the girls at about the same age.

back with the knit hat

Jamie says Annie looks like a little boy in this picture. I say she looks stinkin' CUTE.

its official

Never mind the obvious questions like "why is she wearing only a diaper and a knit hat??" (she's wearing the hat to stay warm, duh). Focus instead on the fact that Annie took her first official steps tonight!

Up until now she has been "falling with style" in her attempts to walk. But tonight she actually took a few small steps around her bedroom. It was pretty exciting!

snow day

Last week we got a little snow (enough for a couple days off school- whoo hoo!). Audrie did go outside in it for about 7 minutes. That was all she could handle. Donna helped me get Audrie dressed. (I think we spent more time getting bundled up then the actual amount of time we spent outside!)

We had big plans to build a snowman but all Audrie wanted to do was eat the snow. It was turning her cheeks bright red!

 "Um, mom, can we go inside now??".

 So we came back in and made snow ice cream.

 I'm not exactly sure what Audrie is doing in this picture...!

No pics of Annie in snow. It was a little too cold for her!

But she did like looking at the snow from the window.

And licking the window pane...!!

Guess I don't have to worry about washing the windows.

I had a good time spending some quality time with my girls while I was home on my snow days. I hope we get at least one or two more before winter is over!

a very merry unbirthday to you

Tonight I was sitting in the living room reading a book when Audrie walked over to me and announced that she wanted to have her birthday. Um, ok.

She said she wanted to have her birthday party and eat cake. Her birthday is not until next week, but I decided what the heck. We can have a little pretend party if that's what she wants. Jamie was off playing tennis and Annie was asleep.

So I got a brownie and stuck a candle in it. We sat on a blanket in the kitchen floor and sang "Happy Birthday to Audrie". She blew out her candle and we got some forks and ate her "cake". Audrie was pretty happy about it.

The cute thing was how that really could have been all we did for her birthday and she would have been just as happy! So precious.

just a cute pic

I've been wanting to post this photo for awhile. I took it several weeks ago and just couldn't believe how alike the girls look in this photo. (Ok, I did dress them in the same shirt and put huge pink flowers in their hair...) but their sweet faces look really identical to me here.

murder

Jamie and I were invited to a murder mystery party this past weekend and, oh my goodess, it was so much fun. You can check out the rest of the pics on Keisha's blog. A huge thank you to Ryan and Keisha for hosting such a great murder!

rub a dub dub

When I was pregnant with Annie one of the things I used to envision was my two girlies taking their bath together before bedtime. It took a few months to get to this point (because Annie was like a slippery wild pig thrashing around in the tub), but she has recently learned how to calm down and enjoy bathtime.

To accomplish this I have to let her chew on child 'safe' toys like empty shampoo bottles and plastic slinkys...

 Audrie is a good 'momma' and likes to help wash baby Annie.

 I think it's so crazy how Annie can look just like Audrie sometimes, but yet still so different.

 Of course I think both our girls are beautiful! :)

 Audrie always sings loudly in the tub (or anywhere for that matter) so Annie gets a free concert as she bathes. Audrie is like having your own personal jukebox follow you around (stuck full volume on preschool songs and Disney showtunes).

 It really is wonderful having two kids the same gender. I would love to have a sweet little boy someday, too, but if our house is full of fun little girls like these two that would be ok by me! (ask me again when they are teenagers...)

future gold medalist

Tonight was Audrie's first night of gymnastics. I don't know who was more excited... her or me!

(Couldn't you just see this next photo as the first page in her autobiography some day...)

Jamie and I had been talking about doing this as a birthday present for her this year. So we signed her up and I picked her out a leotard (polka dots, of course). We had been discussing it with her for awhile and I showed her some You Tube videos online of famous olympic women gymnasts. She was pumped up and ready for her class to start!

 When we got there she was in awe of everything. The place we chose is Aspire Gymnastics in Bentonville and it's a serious training facility for gymnists. So from the viewing area we were watching some crazy flips and vaults and girls flying through the uneven bars.

 Audrie LOVED watching it all as we waited for her class to start.

 I thought she might be nervous or act shy (believe it or not... Audrie can turn on "shy" when she wants to). But as soon as her class started she didn't miss a beat! Took off into her class without even a wave to us. She was SUPER excited.

 She is in a class with 6 kids and 2 coaches. And I love that she is with the 3-4 year olds so that she can learn from the older kids in her class.

 These photos are a little blurred because I was shooting through the window panes of the class.

 I almost cried watching Audrie. She did SO good. Following every instruction her coaches gave her and not giving up when they had her redo many of the steps.

 There are some things we noticed we need to work with her on. Like skipping. Oops, apparently kids her age know how to skip. And learning how to lock her arms instead of bending them. And a few other little things that we can make a fun game of at home.

 Her coaches were great and spoke highly of Audrie after her class was over. I was beaming with pride.

I'm not sure if this is going to be something Audrie sticks with (until the Olympics... ha!) but for now I can tell it's going to be a wonderful experience for her!

happy 8 month birthday, annie

Annie Bannanie is 8 months old today! She is still so close to walking but thankfully not quite there yet.

  If she were in a beauty pageant she would announce her hobbies as: "I like to eat house plants, play in the cat food, and can't keep my hands out of the toilet." Ugh! This girl is SO fast we have trouble keeping her out of trouble. Good thing she is so darn cute.

 We had a randomly warm day last week so I took her to a little park near our house to swing.

 She loved swinging! Her smile is the best thing ever.

 She is growing up so fast, but I love watching her learn new things every week.

I can't believe she is creeping up on one year old. We are sure in love with this sweet girl!

a wonderful mess

I remembered I had a few Audrie photos on my phone that I'd been wanting to share.

Can't believe she is turning 3 in a couple weeks!

I took Audrie to school with me one day a few weeks ago and she had a blast. I honestly could have left her in charge of my classes all day and no one would have noticed! She had those kids wrapped around her finger in about 30 seconds.

She sang all day with them and they joined her in a little coloring, too. "Miss Cornett" is a great teacher! My students are always bugging me about when I'm going to bring her back.

She is also a great big sister. Really, I am continually impressed with just how awesome she does with Annie. They both adore each other and have so much fun playing together.

I can leave them both playing in their rooms and they play together so wonderfully. I love that having two kids really seems to work better now because they can entertain each other so much!

Here Audrie is singing songs for Annie. It's the perfect match because Audrie loves to perform and Annie loves watching her!

And here is Audrie pulling Annie around the house in a laundry basket. She did this for about 30 minutes!

Annie thought it was pretty great!

Audrie still loves board games. I thought I'd get her started early on being my Scrabble buddy...

She is pretty wonderful.

Don't get me wrong... we still get plenty of this...

She has to practice her dramatic starring role at least once a day...

Oh Audrie. You are too much!

We love you.

one of those days

This morning was one of THOSE moments when it was so bad it was almost funny. Almost.

I had been up in the night with Annie because she has a nasty cough and didn't sleep well. She finally went to bed only to wake up grouchy at 5:30 this morning.

So while I was trying to soothe her (and get ready for work) I had to wake Audrie up to get her ready to go to her preschool. I was already running late but I needed to give Audrie some cough syrup and she was NOT having it. Throwing a huge fit. The medicine spilled all over her face, down her neck, on her clothes, and in the floor. Jamie came over to help me and stepped in the syrup. It soaked the bottom of his sock and he was tracking a sticky mess all over the kitchen floor. Annie was crying. Audrie was crying. I was snapping at Jamie to take off his freakin' sock. It wasn't pretty.

Eventually we got things somewhat under control, but I was never more glad to leave for work! :)

check this out!

Oh my goodness, have you seen this women's blog??

She, Adele Enerson, takes photos while her daughter is sleeping (she says she snaps quickly in about 5 minutes so it doesn't disturb her daughter). She calls it Mila's Dayreams.

Amazing creativity!

On her blog she said she has a book coming out soon. Fun!