Wordless Wednesday

Here's no makeup Mommy with sweet Shelby Claire--8 weeks old

Easter 2010

The Easter Bunny came to see the girls this year!!

He brought Audrey an umbrella, some play-dough, a sprinkler, some flip-flops and a book or two!

Little miss Shelby Claire got some new pacis, a sun hat, a new set of rings, and a book also!

After we played with the sweet surprises that the Easter Bunny brought, we worked really hard to get to church on time. We prepared for it the night before, all clothes were ironed and all bags were packed. It was IMPORTANT that we make it this Sunday. It didn't happen.

Church starts at 10:45. At 10:00 we were all ready! We have to leave at 10:30 in order to make it on time. As I was getting our diaper bag and my purse on my shoulder, Shelby Claire began to cry. She is not a cry baby. She never cries unless she is hungry or her tummy hurts. I loved on her and soothed her as best I could but she wasn't calming down. She wasn't supposed to eat until 11:30 so I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. I finally gave in and tried to feed her. Clay and Audrey were in the basement getting ready to get in the car. By this time is was already 10:45. It takes her about 20 minutes to eat. We missed church. On Easter.

So, we tried to take some pictures of Audrey and Shelby Claire in their Easter dresses instead. I shoot most of my photos in "manual" mode. I like to be able to adjust the settings myself- mainly because I don't like the harsh shadows the flash on my camera makes. As those of you with children know, it's very difficult to get a good picture of them once they become mobile. Weeelll, I handed the camera to Clay so he could take some pictures of me with the girls and I accidentally left it on manual mode. The pictures would have been precious if I hadn't done that! Here they are after I "picniked" the stew out of them (picnik is an online photo editing program that is easy, easy. I have given up on photoshop and just use it.) and this is the best we got!

Audrey 2 1/2 years old, Shelby Claire- 9 weeks

Poor Shelby Claire wasn't into having her picture made! And yes, I wore black on Easter! :(

Audrey's MDO Easter Party

Last Thursday was Audrey's Egg Hunt at MDO. Clay worked from home that day so I could go to the party with Audrey and help her hunt eggs. He and Shelby Claire had some snuggle time! I have been looking forward to this one-on-one time with Audrey for weeks!

The night before the egg hunt severe weather moved through our area. The field where we were going to hunt the eggs was muddy and wet.  Luckily, her school has an awesome indoor playroom that was perfect for the egg hunt! Audrey and the other two year olds didn't mind moving it indoors at all!

The moms hid the eggs while the teachers got the children ready in their room. They were all so precious coming in the playroom and seeing the eggs! They were all so excited!!

This is a shot of all of them. The boys were very interested in their loot!

We were supposed to have a picnic outside after the egg hunt but due to the weather, had to move it inside. Again, they didn't mind! I think they really enjoyed being able to eat on the floor!

This is Addie, Audrey's best little friend. :D

Audrey loved her egg hunt and especially loved her goody bag she received from the party. It had a purple stuffed bunny, stickers, and candy in it! Everything in it was perfect for her. I love these little MDO parties!! Clay asked me the other day if I thought about going back to work one day. On days like this, NO! Other days, yes! Ha! I don't want to miss any of these school parties though!

Happy 2 Months to Shelby Claire!

Our sweet girl is 2 months old already!! We took her to the pediatrician and she had to have a whole slew of shots. He was happy with her weight gain and said she was growing and doing well. She weighed 11 lbs and was 22 3/4 inches long!

Here she is getting ready to leave for her appointment (she's looking at her sister).

Audrey has "issues" with blankies around here. She will share just about anything with Shelby Claire except a blanket. For some reason she feels very strongly that all the blankets in the house belong to her. In this picture, I'd just put that blanket around SC's legs and Audrey promptly removed it. She's usually nice about it, she just doesn't want anyone to mess with her blankets!

This last picture shows Shelby Claire doing what she loves most (other than being held by her momma!)- watching her mobile pass by. She loves that thing (as did Gracie, Laura and Audrey!)

Flashlight Egg Hunt

We are freezing!

Our little town has a flashlight egg hunt every year for the kiddos. This was the first year that Audrey was old enough to participate. The children are divided into groups by age and each group is given a specific area to hunt. Each child brings a basket and a flashlight to help them hunt the eggs. Audrey's group of 2, 3, and 4 year old's was a large group!

This egg hunt was kind of crazy. The parents went a little nutty trying to get eggs for their children. The picture above is of the field of eggs. You can see how they have it divided for each age group. The first section was for Audrey's group. Everyone lined up along the perimeter of the field and waited for the announcer to blow the start horn.  It was a complete mad-house. Parents were running after those eggs and dragging their poor children along behind them. You would have thought that each egg contained a gold nugget rather than a jelly bean!

This is sweet Audrey before the horn blew. She was thinking she was going to run out there and find her some eggs! Poor thing didn't realize that Daddy would have to have his boxing gloves on if she was going to be able to come out of there with any!

Thankfully, Audrey's sweet friend, Lyric, was able to find two eggs. TWO people! Yes, just two! She was kind and shared one of her eggs with Audrey. That made Audrey's day!

This picture is of Clay after the hunt. He's laughing over how crazy all the parents were! We've decided that this was probably our last flashlight egg hunt but if we are to ever go to another one, we will bring our own eggs with us for our children to find!!

Here's Audrey at the end of the hunt. She's running around singing and playing. She was oblivious to the nut jobs all around her. :D

This was Shelby Claire's reaction to her first flashlight egg hunt. She thought it was ridiculous just like her Momma and Daddy did!

Egg hunt with friends

When Audrey was around 6 months old, I started taking her to the library to a storytime for babies. I loved it! For a Momma who was desparate to get out of the house and meet other new Mommas, it was a life-saver. At that storytime, I met some wonderful Moms and sweet little babies. We have kept in touch since then and our now 2/3 year olds are precious friends. Last Friday we had an egg hunt for our little ones and it was a lot of fun! It wasn't a bright, sunny egg hunt-- more like threats of tornadoes and a hail-storm kind of egg hunt-- but it was fun regardless! The kiddos certainly don't care!!

The last two pictures are of Elizabeth and Audrey pretending to be Rapunzel and "the man". Ha! :) They are in the tower and we were not allowed to enter the tower. I just love this age! Their imaginations are beginning to go wild! Fun!