December 31...and 2010 in Review!

We had (actually, we're still having) a New Year's Eve party at our house tonight. The party started at 8, so Audrey didn't get to hang out for long. But she got to spend about 30 minutes playing with and entertaining everybody, and she squeezed a lot of fun into that 30 minutes!

The rest of the evening we hung out and played lots of games. Now we're waiting for midnight, so we can go to bed! This is pretty impressive for me to up and functioning this late.

My friend Lizzie posted a year in review on her blog this morning, and I thought it looked fun. So here is mine: the first post of the first day of each month, along with the picture, for the past year. I'm not sure if it is really a good summary of our year or not, but it's kind of fun to look back at what we did and how much Audrey has changed!

January:

We got a new dryer today.

February:
I think crying pictures are so cute!

March:

And the Oscar movie countdown continues...I crossed movie number 8 off my list tonight, District 9.

April:

I have been so excited this week to pull out Audrey's spring and summer clothes!

May:

More garage sales today, more cheap VBS finds!

June:

Poor Audrey is still sick today.

July:

July--go away, I am not ready for you yet!

August:

Tonight we had the Lanters over for homemade ice cream and blueberry cobbler.

September: The Springfield school district has a program called Parents as Teachers.


October:

Tonight was a book club night!

November:
I was a little nervous that Pippi is too outdated, and people wouldn't recognize Audrey in her costume.

December:

Happy December!

December 30

First thing this morning Audrey wanted to play the same game of catch/run and sit in the chair/pose for pictures that we played last night!

December 29

Tonight I wanted to get a nice picture of Audrey sitting in the new chair she got for Christmas. She loves the chair and was more than willing to sit in it...but getting her to sit still in the chair, look at the camera and smile was a different story!

Our photo shoot soon turned into a silly game of catch with Daddy, combined with running back to the chair to sit and pose for a picture before getting up to throw the ball to Daddy. We had a lot of fun playing and laughing together as a family tonight!

December 28

We made it home with all of our stuff today. Daniel managed to fit everything in our car! It's hard to tell in this picture, but our trunk was completely packed.

Audrey was quite excited when she realized that all these new toys she had been playing with at her grandparents' houses got to come home with her to her house. As Daniel was unloading the car, she would get so excited every time she saw him bring one of her new toys inside.

As for me, I am anxious to clean out a bunch of toys and junk around here. I'm thinking we will have a big garage sale this spring.

On a side note, Oscar movie viewing season has begun! Heather and I again have a goal to see all the Oscar nominated movies. We don't know what is going to be nominated yet, but we already have a list of potential nominees to start watching. I got 3 movie theater gift cards for Christmas, so I'm all set! Tonight, we saw Black Swan. It was disturbing on several levels. I did not absolutely hate it, but I didn't really like it much either. I would like to see Natalie Portman get an Oscar for her role though. She was very convincing as an obsessed, psychotic ballerina.

December 27

We had our final Christmas celebration with Daniel's family this morning. This is Audrey's stack of presents!! I'm not sure how we are going to fit it all in the car to get it back home!

Tonight, we went over to the Bungards' house for dinner. Ava and Audrey's relationship was similar to the last time they saw each other. There were times when they played nicely together (see picture above), and there were times when they played not so nicely.

We also learned that Audrey freaks out when Daniel holds babies too. Daniel held Truett tonight (who is not even a little baby, he's 7 months old), and Audrey freaked out just like she did when I held Josiah last week. I was really surprised, because she normally isn't too clingy with Daniel. Seriously, we need everyone who has a baby, to come spend some time at our house before June. Audrey needs some major help getting used to this idea of Mommy and Daddy taking care of someone else!

December 26

Before we left Keokuk this morning, we finally got Audrey to hold Josiah. She seemed to like him from a distance and was always very interested in what he was doing, but she was never too sure about having him up close (and she really didn't like him close to Mommy!). But this morning, she laid down on the floor with him and held him and even gave him some kisses.

Then we got in the car and drove for 6 hours to Indiana. Audrey only slept about 45 minutes, but she did a great job in the car with very little fussing/crying/whining/screaming. Special thanks to the portable DVD player and Wonder Pets, Yo Gabba Gabba and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for keeping her entertained and happy!

December 25

Merry Christmas!! Daniel finally made it through all the snow so he could spend Christmas day with us!

We had a nice day spending time with my family. Audrey seemed to enjoy opening and playing with her new presents...especially the Mickey Mouse music player that we got for her and the keyboard that my mom got for her. I'm worn out and ready for bed now! I have more pictures from our day posted on Facebook.

And now it is time for sleep! We are driving to Indiana tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with Daniel's family. The 6 hour drive is the longest we have taken with Audrey in a while...hopefully it goes well!