Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Summer time

We spent a whole lot of time last summer at the Splash Pad. This year we didn't go as much because Shelby Claire couldn't be out in the heat for that long and because I think Audrey is over it *gasp*! The last 3 or 4 times we've been she's played for about 10-15 minutes and then just wants me to hold her or give her a snack. Since these photos were taken, we've been one other time and I'm not sure if we will go back this year. Next year we will probably only go when Daddy is home because Audrey will want to be in the pool and Shelby Claire will want to run around the splash pad. :D

This was Shelby Claire's first ride in the big girl stroller. She loved it. She could watch all the action much easier this way!

 Audrey's reaction to seeing her friend, Addie, coming through the gate!

 She's posing for me... love, love her!

 Addie!!!



She's 5 Months Old

and I just tucked her sweet little self snugly into her bed. Her absolute favorite thing right now is me. I love this stage! She lights up whenever I talk to her or even look at her. I can remember Audrey being this way- being so attached to me that she wouldn't let me leave her sight. They grow so quickly! It makes my heart break but at the same time I feel a calmness about it. I remind myself that they are not mine. Just entrusted to me for a short time to love them, care for them and most importantly teach them about their true Father. It's so hard. It gives me peace at the same time though.

I've been away from blogging for a bit. Life has gotten in the way. I love to blog- mainly as a record of the tiny events in our lives that are meaningless to others but mean the world to me. Now that I have Shelby Claire, I love to look back at my posts of Audrey and remember her at the same stages Shelby Claire is in. They are so different but alike in many ways too. I'm working on trying to figure out how I can work blogging into our routine so I don't forget the tiny things with Shelby Claire. For years I did it while Audrey napped. Well, now that I have two, they are never napping at the same time so I don't have that computer time anymore. Right now I am doing it because Clay is running and I am waiting for him to be done so I can go to sleep. That is working tonight but most nights I am so tired all I want to do is look at other people's blogs mindlessly so I don't have to think.

Anyway, sweet Shelby Claire is five months old and turned 5 months about 2 weeks ago. She is growing so quickly and weighs 16.5 pounds by our scales here at home. She's quite the chunky little baby! I love the rolls on her thighs and her arms. Audrey's MDO teacher commented that she had "muscles" and she's right! Chunky, chubby, squeezable, lovable baby muscles. I have a hard time not just kissing all over her all the time. She has very little hair. We are not used to that with a baby! I love that I can see her perfectly round little head and every little spot on her body. She's not covered by anything and I know every inch of that pink squishiness.

Shelby Claire loves to be held facing forward so she can see what's going on in the world. Audrey can make her laugh the most precious laugh that comes from deeeeep down in her little body. She will laugh so hard at her sister that her whole body shakes and quivers. She will start bucking her body and squirming all over the place. Audrey doesn't really have to do anything in particular to make her laugh either. She was just walking up the stairs in front of Shelby Claire and me the other day and SC laughed at her all the way up the stairs. She just loves her!

Speaking of Audrey, she is the most precious sister to Shelby Claire. SC is at the stage where she grabs and pulls at anything that comes within her reach. Well, with Audrey and all that hair she has, she often falls victim to the clutches of SC's baby fists. Audrey has never- not one time- fussed or cried when SC pulls her hair. She'll just gently pull her hair out of SC's hands and say, "no, sister, not my hair". Just typing this about Audrey makes me want to run up the stairs and climb in her bed with her and kiss her to pieces. I don't think she could be any better of a sister. Another thing she does pretty consistently is that she tries to console Shelby Claire when she cries. Shelby Claire doesn't like her car seat these days and cries every time she is put in it. Audrey always stops what she is doing and will go to Shelby Claire and say, "It's okay, Sister, I right here...right here" in the most soothing little voice. It almost always calms SC but if it doesn't, Audrey will call for me and tell SC "don't worry-- Mommy's coming, Mommy's coming" as she's kissing and rubbing all over her. That's precious, you know?!?!

Shelby Claire has been eating rice cereal and oatmeal since she turned 5 months old. She doesn't really care for either but slightly prefers oatmeal to rice cereal. I bought her some squash, carrots, bananas (these were Audrey's favorite), and pears today. I'm going to start with the carrots tomorrow and see if she likes them. They tend to lean more to a sweet taste than the squash so maybe she will just love them.

We've started bathing the girls together and it has cut down on our bath time tremendously. Shelby Claire sits in her bumbo chair and tries to grab toys as they float by. Audrey uses every ounce of restraint she can muster up to not splash her sister or dump water on her head. They are pretty much on the same bedtime routine now and that makes life so much easier. Around 5:30 every night we eat supper and then we have baths around 6:30. By 7:00ish we are done and go downstairs for cuddle/comb hair/brush teeth time. At 7:30, either I or Clay (we switch out every other night) will go upstairs and read with Audrey while the other takes care of Shelby Claire. Most nights both girls are in bed by 8:00 and sleep until around 7:30 or 8:00 (unless it's the weekend and then they both get up before 7:00). Shelby Claire is usually up earlier than her sister but who knows if that will last. This routine works for us and Shelby Claire has fit so well into it.

Shelby Claire is not yet sitting up on her own but I see it in her future sooner rather than later. She can sit up if I hold her hands pretty easily. She's found her chunky little feet and plays with them often. She hasn't yet put them in her mouth but I know that once she does, there will be no turning back! Ha!! No teeth yet either but she's gnawing and chewing on everything so I expect them soon as well.

Overall, we are a pretty happy bunch around here. Our day-to-day life is consumed with taking care of these two girls and is probably not very exciting to most people. To us, it's perfect- just like our girls.

Girls Trip

I've been wanting to take Audrey to Atanta to the Georgia Aquarium for awhile now but things just never seemed to work out so we could go. A sweet friend of mine moved over there and had a baby recently and we decided that now was the perfect time to go and see the baby and get to have our little trip to the aquarium. I mentioned it to Clay and he was a little thrilled with the idea but not a lot thrilled. He wanted to see Audrey's reaction to the aquarium but was not excited at all about going to Atlanta. So, we agreed that I would ask one of Audrey's little friends and her momma to come with us! It turned out to be the best decision we could have made because Clay would have been going crr-aa-zzy smashed in that aquarium with us and all of Georgia.

It's been awhile since I've had time with Audrey all to myself. Once we decided we would go, the weekend couldn't get here fast enough! I love spending time with both of my girls but it's been really hard for me to squeeze alone time in with Audrey lately. I was so looking forward to spending some time with just her! :D

Here we are waiting for our friends to come pick us up. We left bright and early Friday morning at 7:30. Audrey isn't usually awake at that time so this was early for her! Oh, and yes, I am really that pale. I say "yes" to the sunscreen!

 Our first stop was the Cracker Barrel in Anniston. Audrey had to use the bathroom. About an hour later, we stopped at another Cracker Barrel because she needed to go again. I made the mistake of dressing her in a sweet little romper that required me to take it completely off of her to go to the bathroom. Um, yeah, we won't be wearing it again any time soon!

Once we made it to Atlanta, we went straight to The Children's Museum so these precious girls could run some energy out. They had been strapped in their car seats for a good while and were ready to go!! After 3 hours of giggling and squealing in the car, I was ready for them to get some play time as well!

 The children's museum in our town has a cafeteria that has lots of food choices and we fully expected the one in Atlanta to be the same or better. Not the case. All they had was a kiosk of Chik-fil-a food and it was sold out when we got there. They did get more in, about an hour after we got there. This picture is of Audrey and Addie sitting as far away from us as they could get. We are standing in line waiting for our food and had sent them to sit down at a table. They chose this one.

The Children's Museum in Atlanta is a lot smaller than the one we have here in town but the girls loved it. It had different exhibits than the one we have and Audrey loves to play with new toys!! 

After the children's museum, we went to visit and friend of mine and her new baby. Jessica has two children, a boy Audrey's age and a new baby girl. Jackson is the first friend from MDO that Audrey ever talked about at home. She loves and misses him! She talks about going to see him all the time! They ran around and played the entire time we were there. They are sweet together! 

This little Addie wants a sister of her own. Or as she says, "A Shelby Claire at her house."

After we left Jackson's, we went and checked into our hotel. Audrey was so super excited about sleeping at the hotel. We stayed in a suite that had a kind bed in one room and a sofa bed in the "den". We thought that would be good for separating the girls if necessary. Turns out it was necessary! We let the girls run wild all around the room and then decided to take two, two year olds who hadn't napped out to eat. I'm just going to say "crazy" and leave it at that. We came back to the room really quickly.

Here they are in the sofa bed when all was calm. Then Audrey decided she wanted Addie's blanket and it all went downhill from there! I took Audrey to the king bed and Amy slept with Addie on the sofa bed. It didn't take Audrey long to fall asleep once she was separated but poor Amy and Addie were up a loong time!

Here they are the next morning. Addie and Audrey are both early risers and are little rays of sunshine in the morning!! Addie had come in our room and snuggled up with Audrey. Right around this time she tells Audrey that she is her best friend. So stinkin' cute!

We got the girls ready and after breakfast at Chik-fil-a headed to the aquarium. I didn't take many photos there because we were packed in there like sardines. The girls loved it though. I hope to make a day trip back and go on a weekday. It most likely won't be so disgustingly crowded then.

 We spent most of the morning at the aquarium and then headed back home around lunch. We stopped for our third Chik-fil-a meal in 2 days and then made it home for Audrey to take a late nap. We both were exhausted but had a whole lot of fun with these two sweet girls. When I asked Audrey what her favorite part of the whole trip was, she said it was sleeping in the hotel! Later she added the dolphin show to her favorite list but she's not stopped talking about sleeping in a hotel!!

Wordless Wednesday: Window Markers

Fourth of July 2011

Little Miss Shelby Claire celebrated her first Fourth of July here at home. We went to a festival at Our Lady of Sorrows with our "hoover bunch" of friends and then my parents came up after lunch. We were going to go to the Freedom Festival here in town but it rained us out!

The festival at the church was a scorcher. It was SO HOT! I don't know what we were thinking even getting out in it. Shelby Claire's four month old self didn't care for it much but Audrey didn't seemed phased at all by the heat. Audrey was eating shaved ice like crazy though so I am sure that helped!

 Seema and Rohan (in the bouncy house) moved away July 5th. This festival was our last play date with them! Boo!

 Malay (Rohan's Dad) and Clay watching the kiddos bounce like crazy in the bouncy house. I'm sure they were secretly dying to get in with them! Ha!

 We planned to stay at the festival and eat BBQ but it was waaayyy too hot so we only lasted about an hour and a half. We brought our two exhausted girls home and let them get good naps. After nap, my parents came up and stayed the night with us. They brought us a watermelon from my Daddy's garden and it was so stinkin' good. They are always so much better than the ones you buy from a grocery store!

I have no idea why Audrey has that look on her face. The girl loves some watermelon!!

 hahahaha!

 My parents stayed the night and we had Cracker Barrel for dinner on the 4th and for breakfast on the 5th. One day I'll figure out how to cook them a meal so when they come up here they don't always have to go out to eat!

Applesaucer

Clay and Audrey pulled out Shelby Claire's exersaucer today and boy was it ever a hit with Audrey! She helped Clay put it together, clean it up and even tried it out. She loved it so much that we had our first fit over "sharing" with her sister. She didn't want to get out of it to give Shelby Claire a shot at it!

Bringing this exersaucer out (or applesaucer to Audrey) brought back a lot of memories of baby Audrey playing in it. She used to love it! I'd drag it out on the back porch in the afternoons and she and Sweet Pea would soak up some sun. Fun times!