Our first born...

February 27, 2003....the day Ridley was born. Happy 6th birthday to Ridley. I have called you many names throughout the years, but you are a good boy!!! Enjoy your day.

Fear the Cow.

Tonight was pajama night at Chick-fil-A. Audrey wore her jammies and got to do story time, watch a puppet show, eat chicken nuggets (of course) and see lots of her friends. In times past, she has been a little skeptical of "the" cow. This time however, Audrey was high fiving him, following him around and seemed to enjoy his presence. I mean, he was wearing jammies too, so he's cool. Until....picture time. She was clinging to me and would not look at him at all once she sat down for the picture. Her explanation for why she was scared......"Mommy, those were really big pajamas."

Quote of the day

"Mommy, sharing is really hard sometimes."
-Audrey

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Today is Jeff's birthday! Audrey wrote his card out all by herself! She has to do some rearranging of the letters as she ran out of room on "Audrey" but it's all there. More to come as the birthday develops. We'll be baking a cake and wrapping presents today. What fun! Audrey has also invited ALL of her stuffed animals to his party.

Deciphering the recipe for Daddy's special dessert.
Opening the oven for Mommy

35 Weeks

Here I am at 35 weeks....getting down to the last few weeks of all of this. I am feeling pretty good overall and getting mentally prepared to be the mom of two. Are you ever really ready??

Left: 35.5 weeks with Audrey - Right: 35 weeks with Ben

Audrey posing with my belly

The Next Food Network Star...

Audrey decided to inject some of her own style into making Valentine's cookies for Daddy. These glasses are ridiculous to me, but they are the ones she picked out, so whatever. Diva-lish is her name and baking is her game. I don't think the people at the Food Network would allow her to lick the beaters, but who knows.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! This is my 15th Valentine's day with Jeff! Here's to many more...

My Silly Valentine...

I know it's not Valentine's Day yet, but Audrey had her party at pre-school today so I am feeling a little Valentine-ish. I put together a little tribute to my silly little Valentine who isn't seeming so little anymore. She's such a big girl these days, with her vocabulary and conversations and independence. Here are a few pictures from the last year. The one with the icing on her face is last Valentine's Day. I love you Audrey!

Poppers!

Daddy gets lots of packages! Almost all of them are filled with "poppers." Audrey loves to open all the packages with Daddy and jump on the poppers. Yesterday Daddy got a ton of packages and one of them was bigger than Audrey, and it was filled with dozens and dozens of poppers and who knows what was actually in the box. Audrey had a great time this morning body slamming all the poppers and playing in the box they came in. Why does she have all those toys if this works so well?

Love Letter

Audrey is very interested in writing letters to her friends. She writes one at least 5 times a week, and they are often addressed to the same person....William. Here she is working diligently on perfecting her most recent letter.

Dear William, Love, AudreyPerfect!

Snow Day

We had our 2nd "snow day" this year and this time it actually snowed. We got about 3 inches and of course the greater Charlotte area was closed for the day. It was a nice surprise since the oh so accurate weather people said that we might have a few flurries and they would not stick to the ground. Audrey was very excited and ready to go first thing in the morning! The dogs (or zany canines according to Fancy Nancy) were thrilled to get some snow in their paws. We had the neighborhood to ourselves until the older kids rolled out of bed a few hours later. Then it got a little complicated. Note to neighbor kids: do not attempt to herd my dogs, especially when they are not bothering you. This resulted in a rather harsh collision between Audrey and Murphy and further resulted in Motrin, a blanket, the couch and tv for a few hours. Anyway, we had a great time and are now ready for spring.

Ready for anything. Not sure what the umbrella is for, but just in case...
Murphy and his snow 'stache.
Who knew the Barbie jeep had snow tires!
Exploring with the boys.

Quote of the day

"Mommy, can you turn that vacuum down so I can hear my show?"
-Audrey

Superbowl Sunday

We had some friends over to "watch" the game and eat lots of food Sunday. Audrey's boyfriend, William came over to play and I think they had the most fun of everyone. They built lots of block towers, houses, and bridges and after a costume change for Audrey she and William practiced their football dance. They had to dance until the football stopped spinning. It was quite entertaining. We all watched the 3D commercials with our fancy glasses. Audrey is very excited that all of the glasses are still here this morning for her baby dolls. Guess she has some sort of 3D adventure planned for them today. Anyway, that's that. A good time was had by all.

What goes up....
must come down.
Football dance = dizzy kids
Bill, Julia, and Patrick in 3D

Quote of the day

"Mommy, can boys eat girl cheese sandwiches?"
-Audrey

Quote of the day

"Mommy, you're getting big."
-Audrey

Big Sister Tour

We had our sibling tour at the hospital this afternoon. There were several big sisters and brothers that got to learn about what Mommy is going to be doing at the hospital. Audrey had a lot of fun learning how to correctly hold a baby and how NOT to ever try to walk with the baby. She also got to see the room where the baby will be born and got to take a ride on the automatic bed. Audrey also got to look at the new babies in the nursery and then see where Mommy and baby will be for the rest of the hospital stay. It was a lot of fun, and as you can see Audrey got a lot of great accessories and now refers to herself ans "Dr. Audrey."

Learning to hold a baby

New Dr. hat

Trying out the automatic bed

Showing off the new loot

Weekend with Grandma and Papa

Grandma and Papa came to visit last Friday and we were all sad to see them go. They helped finish some things up with the nursery and entertain Audrey. I am not feeling very "bloggy" this week, so I'll let the pictures tell the story and keep this text short and sweet.

Baking with Grandma

Taste testing

Quality control on all ingredients requiredIt is exhausting being a princess!
Showing off the new outfit Grandma made
Cheesing for the camera
The new quilt Aunt Barb made for the nursery

Practice makes perfect

Audrey is of course obsessed with babies right now, and she finally found one to hold! This is baby Quinn, her good friend Rory's little sister. Look how excited she is to be holding a real, live baby! Great practice for the little brother.

Super Hero Man!

While we were snowed in today we decided to hit Build A Bear and use a gift certificate we got a while ago. Audrey decided to build a bunny for baby Ben. His given name (on his birth certificate) is Super Hero Man, but she has decided just to call him bunny. I think his super power is that his shoes fall off a lot and that the real super hero (Mommy) has to put them back on all the time.

Snow Day

The rumors were flying everywhere yesterday....2-6 inches of snow...100% chance. Low and behold our weatherman came on late last night and changed his story a bit. The story changed to a light dusting or maybe a few inches. Anyway, we got about a half an inch, which was enough to cancel school and of course, pre-school too. Audrey got out early before everything melted and turned into mud and played in the snow with the dogs. There was enough to appease her though, and she had a great time. Here are a few shots of Audrey with the dogs and the "winter advisory."

The boys

Audrey trying to scoop enough snow to do something with
Catching snowflakes on her tongue