Tomorrow

Tomorrow my little bouncing baby Ben will be one year old. Gasp. I cannot believe it. I will be out of town tomorrow so I am posting this today and will update with a walk down memory lane on Sunday. Happy 364th day Ben! To really make my day Ben said "Iwuvyou" this morning when I went to get him- without being prompted!

Donuts for Daddy

This past week was host to the annual "Daddy and Donuts" day at pre-school. It is a grand day filled with, you guessed it, Daddies and donuts. The best thing is that all the kids fill out a questionnaire on their Daddies and the answers are priceless. Audrey's answers are respectable, but some of the representations are hysterical. If you remember correctly, last year Daddy's favorite drink was "beer." I'd say the portraiture skills have improved greatly, and how can I not mention that Daddy got younger!

My son.....

...the plumber. I am so proud. His future seems to be written for him! Poor little man has a bit of a raw tush; thanks to yet another antibiotic to work on those darn ear infections. I let him go "commando" this afternoon and I guess the diaper really makes up for a lot in the fit of the pants. We see the ENT Friday to assess the ear situation. In the mean time....my little one has an adorable plumber butt.

Shameless plug

Have you heard?? Yes, you probably have. I am running the Country Music Half Marathon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. there are only a few more weeks to donate, and I need your help. Visit this blog:

YOU can Help Cure Blood Cancer and you Don't Even Have go to Medical School!

to check out my progress and to donate if you are so moved.

Random act of cuteness

Meeting Maggie

Jeff and Audrey had the pleasure of meeting Little Miss Maggie this weekend. I had to stay home due to an upper respiratory disaster. They had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed their visit with the newest family member- all 3 weeks of her.

Proud Uncle and cousin

So excited to finally meet her!

Sleeping beauty

Uncle Jeff does diaper duty.

Yay! Pride and joy!

The Natural

I don't mean to brag....but my kid is way better than all the other kids in her ice skating class. Audrey started ice skating lessons last week and had her second lesson today. It is adorable to see all of the kids in helmets, skates, and gloves. It's heavy on the boys- future hockey players I assume. Audrey did awesome in her first official class. Audrey is a natural. At least at this stage of the game. Most of the kids are falling and scrambling and Audrey is doing her thing and gliding and stopping and not getting any attention form the teachers because she is not falling. So, of course she falls. The teacher called her out and said, "you did that on purpose." So far she's the best, but we'll see how things progress. She has a lot of fun and Daddy enjoys it too. I think he has visions of a hockey player in his head. Audrey has so much fun and is sooo excited to go to her ice skating lessons. Kristi Yamaguchi lives in Raleigh, so who knows what is in her future?!?!?

Off Target

Oh what a joy it is to go shopping with children. This time I had the rare opportunity to go shopping with only one child, Ben. So I cruised down every aisle and had my cart loaded to the brim. I have not really shopped since vacation, so this was a biggie kind of trip. Not to mention that we have a double birthday party tomorrow, and Ben's gifts too. The checkout girl is ringing me up and I dig into my purse for my wallet and "crap, oh crap." "Be there, come on, be there." "Crap." I do not have my wallet. I offer a shy smile to the cashier while still panicking and tell her I do not have my wallet. She tells me not to fret and to go to my car and look for it and she will save my stuff for me when I get back. The wallet is NOT in the car. I call Jeff whose car I drove to my run this morning (Jeff just drove to Atlanta!!!) and ask if my wallet is in his car. He says no, so there is hope that it is at home. I slap Ben back in his car seat and drive home at warp speed, a safe warp speed. Praise the Lord, my wallet is on the kitchen table!!!! I drive back to Target and hope that my items have not been re-shelved. I owe a huge thank you to the cashier whose name I do not know on checkout 18 who rang up and bagged all of my items and left them at Guest Services before she went home. I love you Target girl. It took me about 20 mins to come back and I just knew they had sent my stuff back to the shelves. Thank goodness for nice people and the moral of the story is to check your purse for your wallet before you leave for the store.

Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order for 2 couples! Apparently Cupid was busy this season and hit two men hard with the "forever" kind of love bug. Congrats are in order for Jeff's cousin Adam who proposed to his girlfriend Erin last week. She said "YES" of course!
Another round of congrats for my cousin Jared who proposed to his love Audrey this week. Another exuberant "YES!"
We are so happy for the four of you!

Quote of the day

"Daddy, I tooted. I'm getting really good at tooting."
-Audrey

We are such proud parents.

Watch out!

Barbie and Ken are on the move, and Barbie is driving without a license! Audrey thoroughly enjoyed giving Ben a ride in the Barbie jeep today, and was very slow and cautious to her credit.

St. Patty's Day

Ahhh, in days of yore and yesteryear, I might be doing something other than going to bed early on St. Patrick's day, but not tonight. Instead I went to pre-school and to a playgroup with Ben, and then to the Y. It was a great day though and the sun shone just enough to make me think that spring really is sprung. I admit that I did not do the best job of photographing St. Patty's playgroup today, but those kids move too fast for this novice. Here are 2 pics to document the event.

Hudson (1 tomorrow) and Ben. For some reason Ben always wants to rub Hudson's head. Maybe he's jealous of the hair.

Ben motoring on by my camera.

In Audrey news....She had Daddy and Donuts day at Pre school and had a wonderful time showing Daddy around. The most exciting part of the day, however, was when she returned from recess and the Leprechauns had turned the chairs upside down and left gold coins all over the room. Audrey was intense in the retelling of this story and very curious about the Leprechauns. It was adorable.

Bubbly bliss

A girl, her bubble gun, and a breezy afternoon....what more could one ask for? Did I mention that this bubbly bliss lasted for about 2 hours!!! I'll be buying more bubbles tomorrow.

Quote of the day

"Mommy, when I'm 7 can have the chore of cleaning Bailey's poopy litter box so you won't have to deal with the mess."
-Audrey

I am really curious about this statement as I have never really spoken to Audrey about the littler box or an age for chores for her. However, I will have a tape recorder playing next time so I can hold her to this!

The Scenic Route

There really is no other option in WY than the "scenic route" Every road we took was embraced with glorious mountains, wildlife, and all of God's glory. We saw some crazies fly fishing in the icy river, and some nut jobs swimming, but other than that, all we saw were the magnificent mountains and all their accessories. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but will acknowledge Aunt Susan and uncle Steve (Shaf's) for allowing us to stay in their fabulous ranch with such picturesque surroundings.

Blood, sweat, tears, and a lot of fun. AKA: Jackson Hole

What fun! What a rare and wonderful time we had to have a vacation without children, with some of our best friends, and in such beautiful surroundings! What pain. What suffering. What enjoyment. What a delightful and miserable time we had. I am exaggerating on the misery, but you know the day you can't see your kid is the day you want to see them! Jeff, Shaf, Melinda, and myself had a wonderful time exploring Jackson Hole, WY and "perfecting" our snowboarding skills. I suppose I should have researched the fact that Jackson Hole was not an easy mountain. It seems that everyone knew that but me. Jeff and I have snowboarded twice before, and successfully done "blue" slopes, but not these! Ouch. Oooooh. Oooooops. Aggggghhhhh. I did it, I did it!!!! We did it! The learning curve was steep and we had a wonderful time, despite the extensive fatigue and the "Tailbone McTwister that I landed at the end of the last day. It was truly a wonderful vacation filled with the joy of good friendship, the beauty of the mountains, and the rush of speed. Having said that, we did thoroughly enjoy the "spa day" in which we all received deep tissue massages and spent the day exploring the sites and shops of Jackson Hole. We saw a moose, a beaver, a muskrat, an eagle, and a few hundred elk. What a brilliant place, and what an amazing opportunity to explore new things and to rejuvenate old friendships.

Escape artist

Here is a shot of my little escape artist. Every time the door to the garage is opened, Ben is on the move. He strongly believes there is something exciting out there. The other day Ben pushed his chair over to the door, climbed up and started pulling on the door handle. Note to self: keep baby-proofing.

Snowboarding

Ginger in the red, Melinda in the white and Jeff behind the camera.

Tech savvy

Kids these days! They are so in the know and can probably google, text, and Tweet faster than their parents...if their parents know what those things are. Ben is no different. Here he is checking his latest text messages before dinner.

Ben, didn't you know it is rude to take a call at the dinner table?

Ohh, this is serious.

Do you mind, this is personal.

By the way...Ben has lost an entire pound in 4 days as a result of a wretched ear infection/antibiotic/revolt situation. My little man is looking a little thin. How come I can't ever get on that diet plan?

Quote of the day

"Ma-ffy, arf arf"
-Ben

Translation: Murphy, woof woof.