Christmas Around Our House 2010

Christmas this year is so much fun with Audrey. She is loving everything about it! It started with us decorating our tree! She was fascinated by the whole process-- ornaments, lights, everything. Clay and I are loving experiencing Christmas through the eyes of our toddler this year more than any other year.

She did a lot of arranging of the ornaments. I encouraged her to leave them in place and not take them off but I am not a stickler about "no touch". I wanted her to really enjoy the Christmas tree and everything that went along with it. If that meant she rearranged the ornaments everyday, then so be it. I did make sure that my most treasured ornaments were out of her reach though!

One of the things I get teased about from my family (especially Clay) is that I love to see Christmas presents under the tree. Up until this year, I was always the first to dive under the tree to see whose name was on what gift. Audrey took my place this year! She definitely inherited the love of Christmas gifts from me! By the time Christmas Day actually arrived, she could tell you to whom almost every gift under the tree was intended for.

 We went on a play date with friends to "Painted By U" to make Christmas ornaments again this year. This has become one of my favorite traditions we have started with Audrey. This year, she helped paint her ornament red and put her hand print in green on the ornament. We then turned her hand print into a Christmas tree. I love these ornaments!! This was definitely one of those ornaments that was up out of her reach!

Another random favorite memory I have of this Christmas season is that every person Audrey sees in stores, at church or where ever, that slightly resembles Santa Clause, gets a run-down from Audrey of what she wants for Christmas-- a soccer ball and chocolate milk. My favorite one was a bell-ringer outside of Sam's. She looked him right in the eye and said, "I want a soccer ball.". I apologize and told him that she thought he was Santa. He then turned to her and said, "Of course I'm Santa! She can clearly see that!". Haha! 

This is what happens....

... when Momma gets a stomach virus at 30 weeks pregnant and spends 2.5 days in the bed!


Audrey talks her Daddy into letting her "paint"! She and I do this together on just about a daily basis but I've never gotten such a masterpiece out of her like her Daddy did!

Clay brought the camera to me to see the pics because I was quarantined in our bedroom. We were hoping to prevent Audrey from getting the virus! These pictures definitely cheered me up!

P.S. Audrey never did get sick! Yay!

Christmas Playdate

We went to our sweet friends, Cannon and Dylan's house to celebrate the birth of Jesus with a little playdate. These playdates are fun for Audrey and super fun for me to!

Audrey is continuing to display this precious smile whenever we ask her to actually smile! I love it!

This is precious Rohan. If I had one word that could adequately describe him, it would be "boy". He is ALL boy! He's rambunctious, loud, rough, fast, and perfect all rolled into one handsome little thing. Unfortunately, his sweet family is moving this summer far, far away!

 Elizabeth the super model...

 Claire Bear and Cannon

 Any kind of train table is a hit with Audrey. She loves to push those trains or cars all over the tracks-- loves "Thomas" and anything related to him. She spent the majority of her time here at this table during our little party.

This is Dylan, Cannon's brother. He is the baby in the bunch! Well, just until Shelby Claire arrives!

 Elizabeth gave all of her friends Gingerbread cookies as a treat at the party and Audrey LOVED hers! She really became attached to Gingerbread Men this year after we read the book a million times. She has to eat it, "fast, fast" before the Gingerbread Man runs away!

I'm so thankful to have sweet Mommy friends and kiddos to play with. I just wish they all lived in my neighborhood! :)

MDO Christmas Party 2010

I love going to see Audrey when she is at school. Some days she is as sweet as pie while I'm there and then other days I don't recognize her as my child. Today was a middle of the road kind of day. She was excited to see me and greeted me as she normally does (running, squealing, calling my name) and it sets my heart on fire each time! After that, it went a tad bit downhill. Nothing too serious-- no major meltdown or anything but I heard a lot of "no!" "that's my mommy", etc. For example, I sat on the floor and was playing blocks with her and her friends when one of her classmates plopped down in my lap. She immediately let him know that I was HER MOMMY and that he was sitting in HER MOMMY'S LAP! That territorial behavior is so typical of a two year old and that didn't concern me but for the first time I was a little worried about what it would be like to have another little girl in our house competing for AUDREY'S MOMMY'S attention. As we moved on and built huge towers of blocks and the boys' ran cars up and down my legs, I thought about the time I have left as being just Audrey's Mommy. Poor girl. Nine more weeks as a family of three. Clay and I are beyond excited about Shelby Claire's arrival but I know Audrey will have an adjustment period. I just hope it's not that long of an adjustment. Ha!

This is at the beginning of the party when they are saying the blessing. Yes, I was taking pictures during the blessing! I thought they were all so cute!

This is very shortly after. Notice Audrey's face-- she gave me that look a lot while I was there. Sitting beside her is her sweet friend, Addie.

 The birthday cake for Jesus. It was a yummy ice cream cake!

She made a Christmas ornament that should have said, "Love, God" on it but she's two, can't read, and wants to do it "myself". So, our precious ornament just had the letters placed where ever Audrey's heart led her to place them. I love it! By the end, she decided she didn't want any letters at all on it so it is a completely blank cross. Still precious in my eyes and will certainly go on the tree!

A few days before Baby Sister arrives will be Audrey's Valentines Day party. We'll see what sort of visions I get during that party!

Audrey's in her Big Girl Bed!

We moved Audrey into her big girl bed a couple of months ago and she is doing so well with it! Initially, she just took naps in it and it took some convincing for her to sleep in it at night. After a couple of weeks of just taking naps, we just told her she had to sleep in her big bed at night and she did! She's afraid to get out of the bed by herself so we don't have to worry about her wandering around her room at night-- yet! I know she won't be afraid forever!

Here's a pic of me at 30 weeks pregnant with Shelby Claire!

Christmas Playdate!

Audrey had a playdate Sunday with a few girls from her MDO program and their parents. One of the mommas made Gingerbread Houses for them to decorate and the other mothers supplied the candy to put on them. They had dinner and exchanged gifts with each other. It was a super fun and super easy little Christmas get-together!