Florida Trip--Day One

I have decided that instead of doing the biggest post EVER I will break up our amazing Florida trip into a post about each day.  It's just easier on my mind and yours that way!

We traveled down to Florida on April 20th for a part-beach-part-Disney/Orlando trip with my mom and sister.  Our flight on Saturday was to Tampa so that we would have a pretty short drive to Treasure Island Beach.  The flight left at about 2pm and was both Audrey and Parker's first airplane ride ever!

 

Ready to go!  

The backpack was just too cute.

They both did so good.  We had the iPad for Parker, and my goal was to nurse Audrey to sleep and have her sleep as much of the flight as possible.  The plan worked out great.  Parker played with the iPad almost the whole time, and Audrey slept almost the whole time.  She actually wasn't feeling very good and had a fever of about 101.3, but with the exception of a few small cries, she did great!

One funny line from Parker as we were waiting for the plane to take off--"Are we ready to BLAST OFF yet??" (or something similar to that--my memory is escaping me!)  We were all laughing hysterically. 

Poor bebe.  Seriously.....was not feeling so hot!  We gave her Advil literally right after we got off the plane.  She did much better after that!

We got the rental van, picked up a pizza and some salad, and finally arrived at the hotel!  

We decided to pack light for this trip.  haha!

After we ate our fab dinner (seriously such good pizza), we headed down to the beach for an evening playground session.  Parker was sooooo excited for a new playground!

 

Apparently Ryan was pretty excited, too!  

Once we were finished on the beach, we headed back and the kids took their first ever bath together! 

Can't believe this all happened over a week ago--it seems like just yesterday!

Audrey is 10 Months Old!

Audrey

It is SO crazy that in two short months you will be a YEAR old.  What!?  You are turning into our wild and crazy child, but it's okay because you are super-sweet and funny, too.  I took your pictures on the 7th, so they were technically a week late.  Bad Momma!  Here's what's up with you this month:

Unfortunately, the best picture of you also included your father's hand!

• You have not been to the doctor this month, thank the Lord, so I am not 100 percent sure about your weight and height.  You seem like SUCH a "big" girl now.  Mainly in length.  You are still wearing a lot of nine months size clothes and some 12 months sizes.  I bought you some shorts that were 3-6 months size at Old Navy and they fit great.  You are such a skinny Minnie!
• You are still wearing a size 3 diaper in disposables.  

• Your bottom two teeth are both through, and now both of your top teeth are through!  The second one on the top has just come through, so it's not really visible to others yet.  Finally, you will have matching sets!

• This month you have been eating everything.  I have been giving you little bits of what we've been eating and there has been nothing that you haven't eaten--pork, chicken, spaghetti, vegetables, fruit, pancakes, pickles--you eat it all!  This makes me SO happy and also makes me think that we must have just started too late with your sweet older brother.  We shall see how long this continues, but I am definitely liking it!

• You are at a stage right now where you like to screech a lot.  You screech when you're excited, happy, and mad.  You usually get pretty upset if you are "confined," like in the pack-n-play or exersaucer.  You were getting so upset this week in the exersaucer, and I finally found out that all you wanted was out.  I have been putting you on the kitchen floor and you love it.  Now if I can just keep you out of Reese's bowls, we will be all set!
• You have definitely gotten to the "hey--I can take my headband/hair bow off of my head!"  phase, and I am not happy about it!  I have no clue how to get you to listen to me on that front.  Every time I sternly tell you, "no!", you smile at me like I'm being funny.  Not cool, missy!  You look super-sweet with your hair "done" so we need to keep the accessories in!

• You are starting to "talk" more.  Of course it's baby babble and your favorite syllable phrase is da-da-da-da-da-da.  Ummm, helloooooo?  What about Momma!  You've said it a couple times but you definitely don't do it often.  We are working on it! 
• You have still been waking up most nights right in the middle of the night.  We have been letting you cry-it-out for the most part.  Daddy was out of town this week and I had to go in and get you when NayNay and Mona were staying here so they wouldn't go crazy listening to you cry.  Lucky girl!  It's hard for me to leave you in there most nights but I know it's for the best.

• Your favorite toy right now is a little baby doll that Honey got for you for Easter!  You are pretty much obsessed with this doll and start kicking your legs and freaking out every time you see "her."

You are truly a precious little gemstone.  You're so much fun and have SUCH a personality.  We are going to Florida next week and I cannot wait to see you on the beach with your brother!  

Warm Evening

Monday was the first warm evening we've had in a while, and we took the opportunity to play outside for a little bit after dinner.  Now that we have a fence, we can let Parker run around and drive his jeep through the yard without having to worry about him going into the front yard.  We're also able to let Reese join in on the fun, and he loves it! 

 

 

This was Audrey's first time having her feet in the grass.  She kept one foot off the ground almost the entire time--it was pretty funny!  She better get used to it because I plan to be out there a LOT this summer.

 Waving from afar.

Prepare yourself for some teeth:

Hahahahaha....love them.

 

My two children for real love each other SO much.  I hope it lasts and lasts and lasts because it's beyond sweet and makes me so happy. 

This will be a picture I can share when they are older and I need to embarrass them.  Love love love it.  And them.

I am looking forward to the rest of spring and summer and being able to spend tons of time outside!

Spaghetti

Just wanted to share that Audrey had spaghetti for the first time tonight and seemed to enjoy it!  I actually made Chicken Spaghetti and baked it, so it wasn't super saucy.  She ate it and also got a ton of it in her lap.  Haha!  She definitely seemed to like it.  We have started giving her more table food earlier than we did with Parker in hopes that this may make her open to eating more things.  So far, so good!

Spaghetti success!  Woooohoooooooo!!

I asked Parker if he wanted me to take his picture, too.  This was the face I got:

Haha.  I also asked him if he wanted to try some of sissy's "Jake and the Pirates" spaghetti.  Yeah, that didn't work.  A girl can dream......

...and as a last shot of our evening, here are the boys "getting" Audrey.  She loves it!  

Just as a remembrance note--this little lady slept all night last night for the first time in at least four months.  Here's hoping for tonight!

Easter 2013

Let me start of by saying this may be in the running for the post with the most pictures ever.  Let's just get that out in the open up front.  I have no regrets about it though because I know that later in life I will treasure these pictures of the days when my babies were still babies.  I also want to remind everyone that my sweet three-year-old does not like to have his picture taken and pretty much had to be coerced to participate in any of the pictures where he was looking at the camera.

Easter was super fun but also stressful and rushed-feeling as usual.  Haha.  We started off the day by having a delicious breakfast at my parents' house as we do every Sunday and then headed to church.

They always have two crosses up at the front of the church and everyone brings flowers to add to them.  They turn out so pretty!  Parker helped Ryan's mom add her flowers.

  This little cutie just sat on the sidelines.

Love this picture of Audrey and her Uncle Bryan.

She was so excited to have her picture taken with cousin Haley!  Haha.  Notice the straight legs.

This is how my children play together--they roll around on the floor and act like monkeys!

Audrey and her BFF, Charlotte!  This is how babies play together.  haha!

Not sure about this one, but I know I love this precious boy.

We went to lunch at Gus and George's with the whole fam and then headed to Ryan's parents house for a quick stop to pick up my camera, which I had left at church.  On the way home from their house, Audrey fell asleep in the car, so when we got home, only Parker headed to bed.  Since he was asleep, I decided to get some pictures of Audrey by herself where I knew she wouldn't be distracted by a crazy toddler!  So happy I did because the sweetness coming from these pictures is ah-mazing!

LOVE this one of her sweet hillbilly teef.

After this session, I made a quick peanut butter pie to take to Omi's house and then left with just Audrey to go over there.  Parker wasn't quite awake from his nap yet and Ryan was finishing up working on the fence, so I decided to leave with Audrey while the boys got ready together so that we wouldn't be rushing.

At this point, the kids finally got to see what the Easter Bunny brought for them!

I'm pretty sure that Audrey is my daughter--going right for the food items first! 

Discovering that there was money in the eggs!

Ryan got new glasses.

Counting his eggs.  Notice the finger.  He found all of the eggs in less than five minutes!

Audrey got in on the egg hunt action, too.

These two sure do love each other. 

NayNay pic!

Opa pic!

At this point we attempted to get some family pictures.  It's SO HARD to get pictures with two children where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling.  I have definitely learned not to expect it!

We didn't do too bad!

Omi made a delicious dinner for us.  We had pork tenderloin, lipton onion potatoes, red cabbage and a green bean casserole my mom made.  So good!  I snapped a few pics at the table.

I love these two so much and love that we have our family dinners every week!

The rest of the pictures are the result of an attempted session with both kids.  You will notice that Parker was basically treating Audrey like she was his puppet.  I laughed when I went through the pictures because I did not realize it at the time.

Too bad Audrey wasn't looking at the camera--would have been "perfect" to me!

 This one really is perfect because totally captures the two of them in a nutshell.  

Until next Easter.......