Sunday, February 28, 2010

February 28

Audrey was so cute today! She looked cute in her pink dress and silver shoes. And she let me put a bow in her hair for the first time in a long time, then kept it in all day, even during her nap!! Plus she was in the best mood and kept cracking us up all day long. Her newest thing is to say her name. It is just so adorable to hear her say "Au-dee"! I wish I had a better picture, but here she is giving someone at church a high five.




Saturday, February 27, 2010

February 27

Today we went to KidFest at our convention center here in Springfield. I would best describe it as a crazy, crowded, loud mass of kids, strollers, parents, booths, bounce houses, candy, and chaos!! Basically it was a bunch of local businesses who set up booths with activities for kids (and brochures for parents). Anyway, there were so many people there that you could barely walk around. Our church had a booth, so I was there for a couple of hours this afternoon to help man the booth. Daniel and Audrey stopped by for a few minutes, but quickly decided that Audrey was a bit too young and the place was a bit too crazy for them to stay very long. Audrey did get to meet her first costumed characters--a giant dog and a big kangaroo. I didn't get any pictures, but she did pretty good when we took her up to them. She told them both "hi" and didn't act too scared!




Friday, February 26, 2010

February 26

Here is Maggie, getting ready to go to sleep in our bed. She has slept in our bed for pretty much her whole life. Normally, it's not a big deal...I like cuddling with her, and she is a good little heater! But lately, I have not been sleeping well. And Maggie is not making it any easier for me to sleep. She seems to be more restless than usual at night, or maybe I just notice her restlessness more because I am so restless myself. She starts out under the covers, then she gets too hot and climbs out on top of the covers. Then I think she gets cold and goes back under the covers, and then back on top again. And this seems to go on all night. All the while I am trying to sleep, and every movement she makes seems to be amplified more and more. Plus, we have a double bed...so there's not much space for moving around!




Thursday, February 25, 2010

February 25

Thursday morning is Sprouts morning! Sprouts is a playgroup that we started at our church (I posted a picture about a month ago when our group first started). Audrey had fun pushing around the shopping cart and collecting groceries this morning at Sprouts (before she had a major melt down at the end...She's back to taking morning naps again, and missing her nap this morning was ROUGH!). Today was our 4th week of Sprouts, and we had 42 kids there this morning! I didn't count the moms, but I'm guessing there were about 25-30 moms there as well. So that's almost 70 people in our play area. The area seemed nice and roomy when we first started, but at week 4 we are already looking into ways that we can expand our space!




Wednesday, February 24, 2010

February 24

I babysat Simon and Elliot this morning, so obviously I had to take some pictures! Especially of Elliot, who is one of my favorite photography subjects because he is so cooperative. Even though he is mobile now and always on the move, all I had to do was say "Elliot, say cheese," and he would stop and look straight at me and smile.




Tuesday, February 23, 2010

February 23

This is what time it is as I am getting ready for bed tonight, and I am hoping to fall asleep very soon. Last night I also went to bed at about this time, and 7 hours later, I finally fell asleep! It was 7 hours of absolute misery and exhaustion...tossing and turning and thinking about how miserable the morning was going to be. There was no reason for it; I just couldn't fall asleep. Then finally, sometime after 4:30 am, I fell asleep. Only to be woken up by Audrey at 6:30 am! Daniel went into work late so that I could try to get a little more asleep, but I was still very restless until I finally gave up at about 9:30 am.

It's not that unusual for me to take a while to fall asleep...1-2 hours is probably normal. But 7 hours was a bit ridiculous! I'm taking a couple of Advil PM right now, in hopes of preventing another night like last night from happening again tonight!




Monday, February 22, 2010

February 22


Here is Audrey trying to grab the camera, as usual!! At least she isn't screaming. She spent most of the day crying or screaming or throwing a temper tantrum. Oh my, it has been a long day! Her fever has been gone since Saturday, and we were thinking she was feeling better. But today something was just not right with her. It looks like some of her molars are trying to come in, so I'm thinking that might be the problem. This girl's teeth seem to come through in the most excruciatingly slow and painful ways!




Sunday, February 21, 2010

February 21

Today I got to cross another movie off of my Oscar nominated movies to watch list. I actually really liked this movie, which was surprising because I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it. It is quite unique (and quite bloody, I had to turn my head away a few times). And it's definitely not based on a true story!

So, I have now seen 7 out of the 10 movies: Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air, Precious, Avatar, Up, The Hurt Locker, and The Blind Side. I still need to rent A Serious Man and District 9. And I'm not going to be able to see the last one, An Education. I missed it when it was in the theater, and it's not going to be out on DVD before the Oscars. So, I'm not quite going to make my goal of seeing all 10 movies, but I'm going to be really close!




Saturday, February 20, 2010

February 20

Tonight, Audrey and I were looking through some of my old books from when I was a kid. And we found this! It cracked me up!! I was 12 years old when I wrote this check. I'm assuming that my parents gave us some old checks to play with, because I don't think I would have stolen one of their real checks to use as play money. Still, it made me laugh. And it made me feel old when I realized that I wrote this 17 years ago!!




Friday, February 19, 2010

February 19

Tonight, Joni and I made a bunch of these cake pops for Breanne's baby shower tomorrow. Bakerella makes these pops look so easy on her blog, but they are a bit more difficult (and time-consuming) in real life! Oh well, we got them done and they look pretty cute (and they taste really good!).




Thursday, February 18, 2010

February 18

I don't have any pictures from today. Audrey is still running a fever and not feeling well, and I don't really feel like we did much of anything today.

So I am stealing Kellie's idea from the other day and taking a picture of the book I am reading right now. It has taken me a while to get into this one, but it is starting to get interesting. It is only the 4th book that I've read this year. I was hoping to read 60 books this year (I read 40 last year, so that is probably a bit ambitious). I'm not off to a good start, but I'm still going to try to reach my goal. Guess it is time to stop typing and start reading!!




Wednesday, February 17, 2010

February 17

Poor Audrey..she had a fever all day today and did not seem to be feeling well at all. She actually just laid on the couch like this (watching Yo Gabba Gabba) for almost 15 minutes. On a normal day, she wouldn't lay still on the couch for 15 seconds, so I knew something was definitely wrong! She is getting some teeth, so I don' t know if that is causing this or if it is something else. I just hope she feels better tomorrow (and that she sleeps well tonight!).




Tuesday, February 16, 2010

February 16

Today both Audrey and I were wearing purple shirts. I tend to do that a lot--dress us both in the same color, but it's never on purpose. People have commented several times how cute it is to see us both in the same color. I don't think it's all that cute but kind of cheesy really. So I never purposely dress us a like. I guess that somewhere in my subconscious mind I am in the mood for certain colors on certain days. And since I pick out Audrey's clothes as well as my own they often end up being the same color!




Monday, February 15, 2010

February 15

These light switches are in our living room. One turns on the front porch light; the other one controls the power to an outlet in our dining room, which is also the outlet that I use to charge our camera battery. The problem here is that I never can remember which switch does what.
Earlier today I noticed that my camera battery was dead. So I plugged it into the charger (the charger that is plugged into the outlet controlled by the light switch in the living room), and I left it there to charge for a while. Later tonight, when I wanted to take my picture for the day, I went to get my battery and found that it was still dead. I checked the light switches...one was on and one was off. The front porch light was on; the outlet power was not on. So I had to turn on the other switch and wait for my battery to charge (for real this time!). Now it is late and I don't have anything to take a picture of, except for this dumb light switch!

The worst part about this story is that this exact same thing has happened to me before--many times before, actually. If I was smart, I would just turn on both light switches, so I wouldn't have to guess which one did what. And if I was really smart, I would move my battery charger to an outlet that didn't have to be turned on with a switch. But I am not that smart, and I'm sure this will not be the last time I find myself in this situation.




Sunday, February 14, 2010

February 14

Happy Valentine's Day! Audrey was looking cute today in her little lovebug Valentine shirt and pink leg warmers. She was also having a lot of fun playing on the stairs at church this morning. Because she was so focused on playing on the stairs, I was actually able to get a couple of pictures without her noticing the camera!




Saturday, February 13, 2010

February 13


To celebrate Valentine's Day, we went out with some friends this afternoon/evening. First we went to see Avatar. I'm so proud of myself for making it through a 3 hour 3D movie. I have motion sickness issues, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle the 3D. The first few minutes were rough, and after we left the theater I felt like I had just been in the car for a long time and had a bit of a headache...but for the most part, the 3D stuff didn't bother me.

After the movie, we had dinner at a new Japanese Steakhouse in town (I can't remember its name right now though). This was our chef for the night. I had never been to a place like this before, so it was a new experience. The food was probably not my favorite (though everyone else thought it was really good), but the atmosphere was fun...a great place for a group date on the day before Valentine's Day!




Friday, February 12, 2010

February 12

I watched the Winter Olympics opening ceremony tonight. There was a technical difficulty when it came time to light the Olympic torch. The cauldron was supposed to come up out of the ground, but it didn't! There was definitely a long, awkward moment as everyone tried to figure out what to do! It finally came up, but it was definitely missing a leg!

I do love the Olympics! The Winter Olympics aren't quite as exciting as the Summer Olympics. But they are still the Olympics, and I'm still excited to watch!




Thursday, February 11, 2010

February 11

When my mom was here yesterday, she brought some clothes for Audrey, including this sweater. She looked super adorable wearing it today!!




Wednesday, February 10, 2010

February 10


My mom and Marcus were in town today, and we all had a nice lunch at Lake Pointe Grill. Audrey was in a super silly mood and was having fun drinking out of a straw (with some help from Grandma!).




Tuesday, February 9, 2010

February 9


At the beginning of this year, I went through a stage where I was really bored being at home and thought I needed a few more projects to keep me busy. I found a few more projects I guess, because now I am in a stage where I just cannot get everything done. It's driving me crazy, because I'm home all day long...I should have lots of time, right? This picture is of the baby announcements I have been working on for a friend. I wanted to have them done last Friday; Tuesday is now over, and they still aren't finished. Other things just keep coming up and getting in the way. I need to find a new way to organize my day or something, because the past few weeks I feel like I've just been running around like crazy and not really accomplishing all that much...very frustrating!





Monday, February 8, 2010

February 8

I hate snow! When I was in school and then again when I was a teacher, I got so excited every time it snowed, hoping for a snow day. But without snow days, snow is just not fun! While I admit it is pretty as it is falling from the sky tonight, the prettiness will wear off quickly when I want to get out of the house tomorrow morning!




Sunday, February 7, 2010

February 7


Mike won the trophy tonight at our Super Bowl party for picking the final winner and score. He picked the Saints to win (which they did), and even though his score wasn't exact, he was the closest. I'm sure he will cherish this trophy forever!




Saturday, February 6, 2010

February 6


Audrey got this sled from Mimi and Papaw for Christmas, and we took it out today for her first time sledding. It was a brief adventure due to the cold, but Audrey seemed to have fun. Until then end, when I think her fingers got too cold. She does have gloves, but she doesn't like to keep them on her fingers, so I didn't even bother with them today. She was all smiles while Daddy was pulling her on the sled though! I have a few more pictures that I will post on the other blog soon.




Friday, February 5, 2010

February 5


Audrey definitely knows how the remote works! We try not to turn on the TV too often when she is awake, but I do let her watch a Baby Einstein DVD or a Yo Gabba Gabba episode occasionally when I want to take a shower or teach a piano lesson in peace and quiet. She gets very excited when you tell her it is time to watch a "movie".

Today we got an Elmo's World DVD at the library. We have an Elmo book, and Audrey knows who Elmo is now and calls him "Melmo". Tonight I got out the DVD to put it in the player. Right away Audrey grabbed the remote and tried to turn the TV on, and I had to stop and take a picture. It was so cute because she was determined to turn it on herself. Then once I turned it on for her, she only paid attention to Elmo for about 3 minutes before she was ready for something new!




Thursday, February 4, 2010

February 4


Today was the first day of the new playgroup we started at church--South Side Sprouts. We are holding the playgroup at our Southwest campus, which is actually an old car service garage. So there is a huge garage area in the back, and we even have a Burger King playland back there. We fenced off a section of the garage, scrubbed and cleaned for hours, and then filled the area with toys to create our Sprouts play area. It was a ton of work, but all of our hard work was rewarded when we got to see the kids play this morning. This is a picture of the Baby Patch play area. This was taken before the group started. Once all 18 moms and 29 kids arrived, the whole play area filled up quickly!!




Wednesday, February 3, 2010

February 3


This is not a very good picture, but it's all I have today...we'll try for better quality tomorrow. This is what Audrey does whenever you tell her it's time to go night-night. She runs to the stairs, waiting for you to come and open the gate so she can climb the stairs. Then when she gets to the top of the stairs, she runs into her room, tries to turn on the ipod that plays her white noise/sleeping, and then she starts looking in and around her crib for her pacifier. As soon as you pick her up, she burrows into your arms, ready for sleep! She really knows her bedtime routine...it's so cute!!




Tuesday, February 2, 2010

February 2


Tonight was the premiere of the final season of Lost. I forgot to bring my camera to take a picture of our viewing party tonight, so here's a picture of my Entertainment Weekly cover for this week instead.




Monday, February 1, 2010

February 1...A new year!

I'm back, and ready to go for the rest of this year! I decided I'm not going to number my days this time around, since I'm starting a month into the year. I'll just finish this year out, then maybe in 2011 (if I'm up for a 3rd year of doing this!), I'll go back to numbering the days! I have to admit, it was kind of nice to have a break and not worry about finding a picture each day. But I also didn't take many pictures last week...this blog is definitely a good motivation to keep me interested in photography and taking pictures!

I think crying pictures are so cute! And this one gives you a good look at her cute little teeth! Audrey has really been quite happy and so much fun lately, so this picture isn't a good description of our day. Most of my pictures of Audrey recently have been very close up, because she is very interested in the camera. As soon as I pull it out, she runs straight to it. She likes to look at the pictures on the back of the camera. Today I was trying to show her how I could take a picture, and then she could look at herself. But she didn't understand and got very impatient waiting for me to take a picture, which is why she is crying in this picture.