Park Play

When Audrey was Shelby Claire's age, she loved to go to the park and just run absolutely wild. Shelby Claire is no different. She loves every little thing about the park. Clay meets us after work a lot of afternoons and we just let both girls run out their energy.

Audrey is still a fan of the baby swings even at four years old. She is working on learning to pump her legs in the "big girl" swings but would prefer to just squeeze herself into a baby swing. I like that just fine because I can put Shelby Claire in a swing beside her and push them both at one time! 

 Sweet SC is pretty fearless on all of the playground equipment. She watches Audrey very carefully and can pretty much do everything her sister does-- including climb to the top of the rock wall and slide down the big slides all by herself.

 She's very interested in rocks, leaves, twigs, or anything else she can get her hands on to examine. I kinda think this must be what it must be like to have a boy-- a boy who always finds some kind of treasure. She will always bring me her treasure to keep.

 In the next photo, both girls are saying, "yay, yay, yay, yay", which is something Shelby Claire has picked up lately. She has started recognizing when we are getting close to the park and will start cheering from her carseat-- so precious.

Fall fun!

Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons of the year. I am loving this year because we are seeming to actually get a fall season-- the days are cool and the leaves are beautiful! We spent one afternoon painting some pumpkins and hand prints that didn't turn out so great but the girls had a good time doing it!

Audrey was very serious about getting her pumpkin just right. She had a plan and wasn't going to sway from it.

 Shelby Claire started out doing a great job but quickly got tired of painting a boring little pumpkin. She then moved onto her hands, and from there it all went down hill fast.

 Still working hard!!!

 Unfortunately, this little one put her painted hand right onto her little eye! She did not like that AT ALL!!!

 Somehow it ended up in her mouth! Who knows how that happened!

 I tried to get her cleaned up and let her paint some more but after this, she was done. Sweet little Audrey just kept painting away and Shelby Claire and I moved on to snack time!

 One of my students sent this puzzle to Audrey. She LOVES it because my student sent it to her and because it is an odd size. She has never been a big fan of puzzles but she completely this one mostly by herself and was very proud of it!

 We are ready for Halloween!! :)

 They are both growing up so fast! I can't wait to add Winky (a name Audrey gave to the baby) to the picture next year!!

Peanut Butter magic

When Audrey turned four, we told her she could start chewing bubble gum. I'm not sure why we picked four but honestly, I was in no hurry for her to chew gum. Since then, every time she writes her name correctly, she gets to chew a piece of gum. It's a HUGE motivator for her. She will write her name a million times in order to get to chew a piece of gum!!

I'm normally pretty good about remembering to make her get rid of it before nap time but on this day, I completely forgot. You can imagine what happened to that gum. Yep. All in her beautiful, brown hair. 

I've heard before that peanut butter or mayonnaise would get gum out of hair but I wasn't too confident in either one. I googled them both and the majority of people recommended peanut butter so off we went to glob PB in her hair. She thought that was waaaay too strange and I thought she may just cry when she saw how much I put in her hair. I was determined to not have to cut it out though!! 

It seriously worked like a charm. I barely had to tug on it and it slid right out. It's a good thing too because about 3 days later, she did it again!


*In baby news.. the morning sickness is completely over and I feel like my old self again!!! :) * 

First dum, dum and random play

This new little baby is knocking their momma out! Morning sickness has been very trying this time---we are counting down the days until we are able to say goodbye to it! It wasn't nearly this bad with either of the girls and was done with by the 12th week. With this baby, I am having to take medicine to be able to keep water down and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight! Ha! Because of this, we do a lot of inside play, arts and crafts and TV watching (which is hard when you don't have cable).

We've also had our first dum dum sucker. It was a hit!

 The girls love to love on each other and it doesn't matter that SC is almost as big as Audrey, Audrey still picks her up! SC loves for her to do it! :)

 My little monkey is still spending lots of time on top of the table. She will eat her snack and then wait for her sister to leave the table, climb up and finish off what Audrey hasn't eaten!

 Shelby Claire is a great napper and wakes up happy most days. She loves a crib FULL of lovies and knows exactly which ones are missing if you take any out!

 Audrey is getting better about playing independently but still prefers to play with her Daddy over anyone or anything else. If he is not around, I will do and if I'm not available to play...she makes do with Shelby Claire.

 Shelby Claire, on the other hand, is completely content playing all by herself. Something about being a second child, I guess. She loves to play dress up and will put clothes on top of clothes. She loves hair bows and jewelry and high heels!

 Both of these precious girls like to help me in the kitchen. I will often buy the party confetti cake mixes at the grocery store and just let the girls have at it. On this particular day, Audrey had gotten up from her nap early. I wanted an activity that the two of us could do together that was relatively quiet so we wouldn't wake her sister. Just as soon as we got the ingredients out, Shelby Claire woke up. I told Audrey that I was going to get her sister and for her to mix the cake while I was gone. I wasn't expecting her to actually do it but when I got back, she'd mixed all the ingredients--- even cracked the eggs!! It was a proud momma moment for me. :D

 The cake tasted very good too!!

 Audrey's preschool class has a mascot-- a tiny bumble bee named "Sting". Each weekend, someone from the class takes Sting home to watch over him and take care of him. When it was Audrey's weekend, we were headed south to visit with Clay's parents. Audrey LOVED taking care of that little Sting!!

 Shelby Claire also discovered stickers during that trip and they are now her new favorite thing. This picture was a cute picture but ended up with us having to pull the car over to get the sticker off her eye and she cried her eyes out!

September was a busy month!

Audrey's Big Day

My precious girl turned four today. We celebrated with her favorite breakfast, cinnamon rolls!! We sang "Happy Birthday" to her a million times and hugged and kissed her like crazy. We are so thankful for this sweet blessing. 

Audrey and Shelby Claire love, love each other. Audrey is so kind and patient with her baby sister. I'm not sure who she got patience from but I hope she can hold onto it!

 Too Too gave Audrey a set of roller blades (which she asked for), knee pads and arm pads. We can't get her to put them on! Shelby Claire doesn't mind one bit though!

Clay and I gave Audrey a new bike and Shelby Claire picked out an extra special gift... a fish! 

Audrey's birthday was also the girls' first day of school! :) Shelby Claire started going to the Toddler class 2 days a week and Audrey goes to the 4k 3 days a week. I have a part-time job that I work 6 hours a week at that will be over soon. In the meantime, the girls will both go four days a week. :( I'm not too happy about that but I love the job. I teach children who are not able to attend school for whatever reason-- sickness, etc.

It was a day filled with lots of fun for sweet Audrey-- a precious girl who is the light of our life!