May 7

Our weekend full of company continues! My mom left this morning, just as Daniel's parents (aka Mimi and Papaw) were arriving. They came over to celebrate Mother's Day and Daniel's birthday with us. I'm pretty sure Audrey is loving yet another day of attention from grandparents!

Daniel's parents are staying in a hotel with an indoor pool, so we went over there tonight to take Audrey swimming. She enjoyed swimming with Daddy and walking up and down the steps all by herself. Every time she walked down a step, she made this face...it was pretty cute!

Also, we officially do not have a closet door in our living room anymore. Daniel and his dad took out the door today and filled the opening with dry wall. It's not finished yet, but we can no longer walk through that closet into the piano room. It's only been a few hours, but I can't even count how many times I have tried to walk through there to go to the other room. It is going to take some time to get used to it, but I think I'm going to like the final result. Our living room is feeling much more open and spacious.

May 6

It's been a good day! My mom came up for the day to go to my doctor's appointment with me and to do some garage sale shopping.

The sonogram/doctor's appointment went really well. The baby measured exactly as she should this time. Her belly was measuring right at 33 weeks, so maybe she went through a growth spurt over the past 2 weeks and caught up to where she should be. Or maybe the measurements they take are just estimates and far from an exact science. Everything looked good...heartbeat, breathing, size...so nothing to worry about right now! They also confirmed that she is still a girl, so it's good to have reassurance about that. (I keep reading stories about people who were told they were having a girl and then had a boy....which wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be annoying as we have spent money on new girl things!).

According to her measurements at this sonogram, they estimated that the baby should weigh almost 8 pounds at a full term birth! Quite a bit different from the 6-7 pounds they predicted two weeks ago (again, I'm not convinced about the accuracy of these sonogram measurements!). My doctor thought that was a little big, and she also said she doesn't expect me to go all the way to 40 weeks. Her predictions were that the baby would weigh 7 lbs, 2 oz and be born before 39 weeks. It won't be too long until we find out if she is correct in her guesses!!

This evening my mom and I, along with Daniel and Audrey, headed out to garage sales. We didn't find any super amazing deals, but we did find a few things that made our trip worthwhile. Then we had dinner at Lake Point Grille, which was very yummy!

Here's another picture with Daniel's iphone, because I didn't have my camera with me. Audrey LOVES hanging out with her Nana. She has been so happy all day long!

May 5

(this photo courtesy of Daniel's iphone)
Elliot and Simon just got back from Florida today. And then they came straight over to our house to play while their mom and dad hosted an event at church!

Life is definitely more lively with two boys added to the mix!! We've decided that Audrey is much more of a follower than a leader. She just sits and watches Simon and Elliot, and then when they start doing something she thinks looks fun, she mimics exactly what they are doing.

Here are Audrey and Simon, playing with Barbies!

May 4

We finally got back to some letter of the week activities tonight. I think we did "E" way back at the end of March. Then I was sick for like 3 weeks, and then we had our garage sale. But now, life is somewhat calmer, and we jumped back in with the letter F.

We made a letter F craft tonight, decorated with flower stamps and flower stickers. And then we planted some flowers. I got these little pots at the dollar spot at Target. Most likely flowers won't even grow in them...but we had fun mixing up the dirt and putting the seeds in tonight.

I think it's time to record a few more funny things that Audrey has been saying and doing lately! One of these days, I'm going to gather these all up together one place...

• Me: "Audrey do you want peanut butter and jelly or chicken nuggets for lunch?" Audrey: "More choices."
  
• Me: "Audrey, do you like Mommy?" Audrey: "No, I like poop."
• Today, I was circling around the library parking garage multiple times trying to find a parking spot. And I was getting a little frustrated. Until Audrey said, "It's okay, Mommy. Stay happy."
• I found Audrey climbing up on the toilet the other day and sitting on the lid. I asked what she was doing, and she replied, "I sitting on a pretty rainbow." I had to have her repeat it three times to make sure that is what she said, but I think that's what she really said...I have no idea where she came up with that!
• She is starting to play "pretend" games more and more. This morning while I was getting ready, she said, "Bye-bye Mommy. Gotta go to the clubhouse (as in the Mickey Mouse clubhouse). See you later." And she walked out and shut the bedroom door. Then she repeated this game over and over, substituting different places each time (church, mall park, Nana's house, etc.).
  
• Audrey has been really interested in stoplights lately. She knows that green means "go" and red means "stop". The other day, she noticed a yellow light and asked what it means. I told her it means to "slow down". She said, "Slow down. Be careful. Mommy says that." I guess I tell her to slow down and be careful a lot!
• Audrey loves to know the order of what we are going to do. We just have to tell her once or twice what we are doing first and then second and so on. She loves to repeat the order over and over again! For example, here she is telling our "plan" for the night:

She is always distracted by the camera, so she never says things as clearly when the camera is on. Here's a translation: "First make craft. First listen bells. Then ice cream." She normally will add "do ALL these things" at the end, but she didn't this time. And that is what we did tonight: we made our flower craft, then went to listen to Daddy and the handbell choir play at the nursing home, and then we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.

May 3

Audrey was in a super silly/happy mood tonight. She and Daddy had fun making lots of silly faces for the camera!

May 2

It's been a fun day around here...Daniel and I both got new "toys".

First, I got a new lens for my camera...finally! I have been saving my money forever to get a new lens, but it has been a very slow process. I actually had the money for the lens at one point, but then my computer died and I had to put the money towards a new computer instead.

For those interested, here are the details on the lens. It is a Tamron lens...the 17-50mm, f2.8 For a lens, it is a pretty cheap one and it's not Canon brand. However, it has received tons of good reviews, and I'm hoping it will work well for me.

I haven't really played with it too much, but here is one picture I snapped of Audrey after I opened my package this afternoon. The lighting was not ideal for this shot, but I was able to take the picture. I would not have been able to take this picture at all with the lens I have been using, the 50mm, f 1.8, because Audrey would have been too close to me.
So I am excited about this lens because it does have the option to zoom out, which should give me more flexibility with what I can shoot...especially indoors. And it also has a fixed aperture of f2.8, which means that even when I am zooming, I can open up the aperture quite a bit to allow more light into the shot. That will also give me more flexibility...especially indoors!

And now for Daniel's new toy! I finally let him get an iphone! It is his birthday present from me this year. I think he likes it!

May 1

Happy May Day! Audrey was looking pretty cute all dressed up for church this morning. Thanks for the new dress, Aunt Nancy!