Audrey is walking!

Beating the previous record of 18.5 months set by her big sister Ava, Audrey officially started walking at 14.5 months on May 2nd. She'd been toying around with it for about a month, but as of last Sunday she's all over the place, done holding onto furniture, etc.

Check out our little girl walking!

April, May... What?

Wow, so April came and went, didn't it? We had a wonderful month as a family. A lot went on between Easter and a few trips here and there.

We spent Easter with all sorts of friends. We started the day with church (of course), then went to our annual brunch at the Clarks house. Colleen was mucho grande pregnant, and ended up  having their sweet baby girl, Bridget, just two days later! Afterwards we came home and rested a while before hosting our good friends, The Cains, for Easter dinner. Also pregnant, Kelly had their second boy, Ryan, later in the month on the 27th (darn, he should have waited until the 30th! Jim would have been so excited.)

The following weekend I traveled to home sweet home Indiana. It was a much anticipated trip, and I loved every minute of it. I don't get home enough, and nothing makes me happier than seeing cornfields and my best buddies. I spent the first half of my trip in Winamac hanging out with Em. I gave her strict instructions that I wanted to do nothing more than eat Pizza King pizza with her, drink a few beers, and just catch up! She didn't let me down and we had a great two nights together just listening to crickets and enjoying one another's company, just like the good ole days.

After that I hopped in my rented Prius (quite fun, I must admit) and drove on down to Danville, IL for one of my best friend's baby showers. Jess is a roommate from high school and my other roommate Whitney drove up all the way from Oklahoma. Unfortunately our fourth roomie had a family emergency and couldn't make it, but I selfishly get to see her whenever I want, as she lives here in Charlotte :)

Anyway, we had a great time helping Jess and Robby get the house ready for both baby and 35+ guests at a BBQ that was held after the shower. It was great to see my girls, and I can't wait to see them again in August at Whitney's "take two!" wedding in Culver.

The next weekend (I know, we just don't stop...) Jim and I took an adults only weekend trip down to Tybee Island, GA. This is Savannah's beach, for those of you who haven't been there. We got to drive with the top down on the Jeep, enjoy some fried shrimp and margaritas, and explore River St. in Savannah. What a great city! I can't wait to go back. The reason we were there was because I had a beach wedding to shoot, so the second night was spent working, but as always it was more fun than work and Jim joined me which made it all the better! We knew the family of the groom very well (next door neighbors) so it was really fun to be a part of the party with them.

Finally the last weekend in April came.  You know what that means... GOLF! (we'll get on to Jim's birthday in a bit.) The Quail Hollow Championship comes to Charlotte every year and this was our fifth year in a row going on Friday to watch all of our favorite players. We followed Phil for a few holes, same for Tiger (but man was that gallery crazy big!) then just enjoyed letting the players come to us. Concequently, this was also Jim's birthday, so that night we picked up the girls and his parents and hit up Cantina 1511 for dinner (Mexican IS Jim's favorite, so I didn't put up a fight). He had a wonderful birthday full of new accessories for his Jeep. He's a happy man...

So here's on to May. I won't give you a preview, as this has gone long enough. I will try to update before a whole month goes by though!

Egg Week

So Easter is upon us and I couldn't be more excited! Our Easter weekend highs are 82, 75, 74 with no rain. It will be perfect. Ava stayed home today due to a runny nose that won't stop. It probably didn't have to happen, but we both enjoyed it. We used some of this time to dye our Easter eggs. Ava of course loves the pink eggs. She added some flare to all of them via Ariel stickers which she thinks are just fabulous!

Saturday is our neighborhood's annual Easter Egg hunt, so Ava is really looking forward to that. Audrey won't have a clue what's going on, but I'm sure she'll enjoy eating a little candy (if Ava will share.)

Speaking of Miss Audrey, she's very close to walking autonomously. Her favorite activity right now is crawling to the stairs, getting on the first step, and just sitting there banging her heels against the staircase with a huge smile on her face. She likes to climb the carpeted stairs at her grandparents, but luckily I think our all-wood stair case intimidates her a little.

Our Easter Day will be jam packed. We're volunteering at church to help check in the kids (something we do a few times a month, but since Easter and Christmas are any church's biggest traffic days it will be busy). After church we're going to our good friends, the Clarks, house for our 4th annual Easter brunch (this is, assuming their first child doesn't arrive just six days early). Lastly, we're having our good friends, The Cains, over for Easter dinner which will be prepared courtesy of Honeybaked Ham (yet another tradition of mine.)

Spring Has Sprung

It's officially spring here in Carolina. The highs are in the 60s almost daily (72 last weekend) and my bulbs are a bloomin! (see pic) It's been a long time coming, and we're all glad it's here.



Not too much new at our house. Audrey's getting closer and closer to walking solo. She loves to climb on things, especially her and Ava's soft pink chairs. She's pretty good about getting off of them too, so that helps me rest at ease.

Ava is enjoying her pre-school/daycare more and more, so we're thankful for that. For a while we were tinkering with the idea of getting a nanny, but she's made good friends so we think we'll leave her until she heads to Kindergarden in about 18 months.

Vacation season is upon us. We have a few mini trips planned. The first is to Tybee Island, GA, which is basically Savannah's beach. I have a wedding there April 24th, so we're going to spend the whole weekend and explore the area. After that in mid May, Jim may attend a conference in Orlando. If that comes to fruition the girls and I will join him and hit up Disney for a few days. Ava will be over the moon! She's still obsessed with princesses, although it seems to be waining slightly in favor of my little ponies. I'm sure it will swing back any day now.

Happy Spring!

Projects

I've tackled a few projects this month. Seeing the Hopes super fun playroom inspired me to re-do our girls' playroom which wasn't very functional before. We had three really tall bookcases who's bottom shelves were getting all the use (not to mention they were a danger zone as they could easily topple if one of the girls pulled on them). As well we had an old couch taking up too much room and rarely, if ever, getting used since A + A like to play on the floor. Both of those went on Craig's List and were gone within a few days. Next we made a trip to Ikea on a Sunday morning thinking it would be calm (this is the South... everyone's in church but we went the night before as part of our strategy.) Did our hypothesis work? No! It was super busy and they were out of half of what we came for. Fast forward one week. I had a meeting in the city for work, so I decided to leave early and hit Ikea on a Thursday morning at opening time. Much better plan. Got everything I came for with time to spare.

Here's the transition. New cubbies/shelves for the girls' playroom along with a new table/chair set. We have a foyer on our second story that leads to the upper porch and Ava's bedroom. I have a small craft desk where I keep all my stuff. I decided to give Ava an area for her arts and crafts, so we put her new easel here and I bought her a giant dry erase board on Craig's List to color on. Fun times!

The most rewarding part of the playroom makeover was when Ava saw it for the first time. I got the best compliment ever: "Mommy, this is just like Maddie's playroom!" Ahh, the sweet smell of success...

Before:




After: The new bookshelves are from Ikea as are the inserts. I'm going to buy tiny wooden signs at the dollar store, paint them in chalk board paint, tie twine through, and sew them to the bins so I can label each one for the girls.




Foyer: For now, this is as good as it's going to get. I still need to hang the dry erase, but you get the idea. Someday I hope to have a real desk with built-ins on both sides and above. Talk to me in a year or two...



The second project has been doing some applique work. While in Colorado my girlfriends and I stumbled past the CUTEST boutique called Magical Scraps. I instantly fell in love with all the cute clothes. Prices were fair, but I realized quickly that the project idea itself was really, really simple. So now I'm basically making my own versions of their items for way less. I've made two baby gifts and a shirt for myself so far. Cute, huh?

A friend in the neighborhood just had a baby girl, so I appliqued this onesie.




Another friend in the neighborhood has a daughter turning 1 this month. I'm going to make a matching barret with the help of fabric and hot glue soon:




This one's for me. I mimicked the stitch I saw in Colorado, but have decided I prefer my zig zag stitch that I did on the above two projects. I like the cleaner feel of it.

Movers and Shakers

I honestly don't know where the rest of the month went. Audrey learned how to pull herself up and walk (with assistance) while we were in Colorado (she stayed with her grandparents), so that was pretty cool. She gets a HUGE smile on her face if you start walking with her. It's a newfound freedom she can't get enough of! As well, she enjoys the water. Bathtime is her favorite. We can't wait to get her in the pool this summer! Here are a few pics of our baby girl.


Audrey prefers the tub. Mom prefers the sink.




She LOVES to go round and round the house on this. We're thankful to have a girl 3 feet tall to push her.


Walk me, Daddy!

Colorado Ski Trip

Where has the last month gone? So much to catch up on. First and foremost, our super fun trip to Breckenridge with the Hopes and Varcas. We had such a great time and loved seeing everyone. We hope to lengthen our trip next year, as four days just wasn't enough. Ava did really well with everything, but wasn't a huge fan of the snow. I'm afraid I'm raising a southern belle. Time to toughen her up, midwestern style! We lasted about 10 minutes in the snow before she wanted to go back in and play, play, play. Such is life... next year she's going in ski lessons. We hope to also incorporate a Carolina beach trip into everyone's lives starting in 2011. We miss our friends dearly, but are thankful we all live in great places to visit one another!

Audrey's First Birthday

I am lost for words. I cannot believe my sweet baby Audrey is officially one year old today. The past year flew like no other. WAY faster than Ava's first year. I feel like it was yesterday. Jim and I had a 6am breakfast at IHOP before arriving at CMC Main by 7:30 for my induction. It was the easiest labor ever, and at 3:25pm our sweet angel entered the world.

The past year has truly been the most wonderful of my life. It's so much easier to enjoy when you're veteran parents. We didn't freak out about things like we did the first time. We just let nature take its course, and in the end we have a very happy, very fun-loving, beautiful brunette we thank God for every day (and her amazing big sister.) Their personalities are very different, and you never think with your first child that you could love anyone as much, but then you have your second and happily prove yourself wrong.

So following our family tradition, we took Audrey's birthday picture at the exact time she was born. Sadly, I didn't think this through ahead of time and scheduled her 12-month appointment for her birthday... for 3:20pm. Well, knowing it would take weeks to reschedule, I sucked it up and took our clock with me. My purse must have weighed 40 pounds. The nurses must have thought I was crazy, but I don't care. I got my picture :)

Tomorrow's her big party. A winter snow blast is rolling through tonight and I hope it doesn't shy people away from coming. The snow started at 5pm and hasn't stopped. It's BEAUTIFUL outside. None the less, I've spent weeks planning an amazing cupcake-themed party (with much help from my super crafty friend Kristin). I can't wait to share pictures with you!

Happy birthday sweet girl...


Happy as always...

Even though her party's tomorrow, we're sneaking in a cupcake tonight!

Slacking in the New Year

... so I've been slacking on the blogging, and for that I apologize. I think only like three people read this, so feel special that I'm trying to keep it up to date! (Kristin, get back to work!)

We had a wonderful Christmas break. Jim and I both worked a little, but we kept the girls home for the better part of two weeks. My sister and brother-in-law came from Tennessee to spend Christmas with us which was special. Ava loves her Auntie so much! I think Uncle Matthew loved playing with Audrey the whole time too. They make a good pair.

We spent Christmas Day with Mary's family since we're all "local". We had a yummy dinner courtesy of Honeybaked Ham (me cook on Christmas? I think not.) This was the first year that Ava really understood the whole Santa thing. The first thing she said upon waking up Christmas morning was "Daddy, I didn't hear the raindeer's footsteps on the roof." She was sorely disappointed, but the frown fell off her face as soon as she saw what Santa brought: a huge Cinderella castle complete with all of the characters and furniture. She loved opening her gifts (and Audrey's) and we are truly thankful for all of the people who took the time and love to pick out such wonderful things for our girls.

The rest of our break we just chilled. Ava went to the movies for the first time (Princess and the Frog) and also experienced ice skating for the first time. Jim nearly broke his back holding her up for a half hour straight, but she enjoyed it and that was the main goal!

We rang in the new year with a Jeff Dunham comedy show courtesy of the Accenture box at the arena. Silence... I kill you! Oh we laughed... it was fun. Happy new year, all!

Catching Up

Halloween: fun times! except it rained horrendously and Ava only made it to about five houses. She was completely happy to come home and hand out candy to all the bigger kids who just decided to get soaked anyway. We were also lucky to have Ava and Audrey's godparents, Steve and Jenny, in town from Durham. She loved that! (so did we). As well, Audrey was dedicated on November 1st at church, so that was an exciting event for all of us.

The girls on Halloween. Every Vaca is a cow the first time...

With godparents Steve and Jenny at Audrey's dedication

Thanksgiving: Jim's entire family came to Carolina from Chicago and Cleveland. All six grandkids had such a great time playing together. We adults also enjoyed one another's company. We took all the kids to the parade downtown on Thanksgiving Day, then had a huge dinner at our house (16 mouths to feed) before sneeking into bed so we could rise early for Black Friday :)

December: The month started off on a sour note, as our hardwoods buckled thanks to water damage we didn't know was occuring. We've been in a war zone for the last week and will remain so for at least another week. The worst is over, as the super loud fans were on 24/7 for six days and they are gone now! Wish us luck on the completion of this job. Thank you, State Farm.

Audrey finally learned how to really crawl this past weekend. She's not fast (yet) but she can get from one end of the room to the other within a minute or two. She's also very curious (no shocker there) and is already pulling herself up to peek into things she can't reach.

The whole fam went up to Blowing Rock yesterday to get our Christmas Tree. We like going to the cut-your-own farms. We learned the hard way that we'll take the 4x4 next year, as minivans don't do so well on muddy farm hills. LOL. We had a great time though. There was even snow on the ground which Ava loved. Now we just have to decorate the darn thing...

Pics are forthcoming of these last two. Jim and I are running a 1/2 marathon Saturday. Wish us luck!