The fort

For a week before Calvary PDO started, I was home all day every day with both girls. It was NEAT. Audrey turned 3 months old and I was getting a bit antsy about not having really been back to work for longer than an hour or two at a time. So what else was there to do but build a fort? We ate in the fort, watched movies in the fort, colored in the fort, and sang Princess songs in the fort. It stayed up for an entire week and it served us well. Grace called it a fork until Thursday when she finally realized what I was saying. I'm sad I only took one picture of it, but here are Dan and Grace watching the princess sing-a-long movie while he was home on his lunch break.

In the Bumbo

You are such a little sweetheart! Here you are sitting in your Bumbo seat for the first time. You didn't know quite what to think but you acted much the way you always do- laid back!

A little tuckered out!

Market Trip

I took Audrey with me to market last weekend and my mom and sister watched her while I worked. I brought her up to the 14th floor so all of the sales reps could fuss over her, and fuss they did! I got nothing done on Friday, but I was able to show off our sweet pumpkin so that made it okay! At only 10 weeks old, it was the perfect time to take her on an airplane and she did wonderful on her first flight. On the way down there, we had the entire row to ourselves so she slept and nursed and charmed the stewardesses. On the way back she was a tad fussy because of the turbulence but she was still a dream.

Juggling nursing and pumping with a back to back schedule is always fun, but I have figured out when to take breaks and even made a Snapple bottle pull double use as a bottle! Being a mom is so humbling sometimes.
I found some great lines at market and picked out most of our Winter and Spring collections for the store.

Enjoy the pics from market!

A lady came up to us at the airport and said, "Please let me take a picture of you and your baby. You need to see how cute she is tucked in there!"

Amber brought over the kids who absolutely loved Audrey. They took turns holding her and passing her around.  Auntie Am was such a big help watching Audrey while I was gone on Saturday. 

Miss Sue loving on Audrey. She smiled and cooed at everyone the whole time. 

She was tuckered out before we even got in the airport! 

Audrey 7-11 weeks

Sweet Audrey, you are the most laid back and enjoyable baby! 

You love your daddy and only smile when you really want to. 

You are already showing such a chill attitude. 

You love your pink bouncy chair. 

You don't fuss even a little during bath time. 

You are wearing 3 month clothes. 

A few of Grace's favorite things

You are obsessed with twirling. You ask almost every morning if I want to twirl with you. I brought home this little nightgown and you love to twirl and sleep in it.

Nana bought you a Princess DVD that plays the most popular songs from Disney movies. We watch it once a day and you know nearly every word to every song. The other night you asked me if I would fix your hair like a crown.

You love to eat breakfast with Daddy and think you are such a big girl when you eat cereal by yourself.

                             

You love spending any time at all with your Daddy. I love finding you both like this on Saturday mornings after you've had your cereal!

You sleep with your Minnie Mouse nearly every night and even have us cover her up with her own blanket. Yesterday you twirled around and said, "Look mama, I'm a princess just like Minnie."

Long gone are the days of Sesame Street. You are all about Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When we say prayers and "thank you's" at night, you always thank God for Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Daisy, and Donald. Sometimes Pete sneaks in there.

You are still big on reading books and us reading to you. Your favorites are, You are Special, My Own Big Bed, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Fancy Nancy, and Rudolph. You have started reading to us and when you open any book you start with, "Once upon a time..." It is so cute.

Animal Hunts and Blessings

Grace, there are times I feel so much love for you in my heart I think I am going to burst. Right now you are giving us a run for our money and all of the sass and frass is enough to make us wonder what we got ourselves into by becoming parents. But God is faithful to teach me something new through you almost every day, and tonight was no exception.
You love to go on "animal hunts" every night, which consists of us walking around our block and looking for bunnies and giraffes. We have yet to see a giraffe, but you love to look and I love to help you. Tonight we were walking hand in hand and you said, "Mommy, tell me somethin'. What colors do you see?" and that kicked off a game of 'I Spy.' Then you said, "Mommy, can you see my wings? I have wings. I can fly and fly so high up to the moon! Mommy, do you want to go to the moon with me? I love the moon, and I love you, Mommy." This is when my heart almost burst.
I cannot believe how blessed I am to be your mommy. You are such a sweet and caring girl, so full of everything wonderful and I love that God gave you to me. The responsibility of being your mom has overwhelmed me lately, but you give me so much to look forward to. Thank you for bringing so much joy and laughter into my life. I love you, sweet Gracie girl.

2 month doctor appointment

Audrey's 2 month appointment and shots were on Monday. She was such a trooper! She cried for just a second and then fell asleep soon after that. 

She weighed 12.8 and was 23 inches long. 50th percentile for both. 

I love this look! She was not super thrilled about being in the doctor's office!

Our little cheese muffin

Grace and Wade

Our sweet friends Brody and Loren came over for dinner a few weeks ago and brought Mr. Wade over to play with Grace.  Does anyone else have friends with whom you seem to continually say, "We should get together soon!" but never seem to make the plans? Well we decided to make plans and actually get together instead of just talking about it and we had such a great time. 

The highlight of the evening was at the end of dinner when Wade decided he was going to go outside. Brody and Dan followed him out there and about 30 minutes later we went outside to find this: 

                                    

Wade managed to find the water hose on the side of the house and made his own mud hole under the tree Dan was watering. 

Grace was not having the mud. Notice her unsure eyes in both of these pictures!

We decided to throw both of them in the bath and then document it so we had great footage to show at the wedding!

7 weeks old

Audrey, we could not have asked for a better baby. You are so laid back and such a joy.
Right now you are:

Sleeping from 11-6 ish. You started this at 4 1/2 weeks. What??? Who gets that lucky with both babies? You do not like the process of being swaddled but once you are wrapped up you are a happy baby. You sleep in your crib or swing. We have one or two nights a week where you wake up between 3-4 but your daddy can usually get you back to sleep. Your daddy calls you baby Moses after he wraps you up like this at night. Actually, he called you baby Noah and we had a good laugh.

You are a grunter, especially when you eat. Your dad has to go out to the couch most mornings when I feed you because you are so loud. You are not patient waiting for the let down.

You have started smiling! Oh my, I forgot how great it is to see a baby smile for the first time. Your first for sure smile (verified by your father) was June 21st. Not even 4 weeks old! (This picture was last week. We didn't catch you smiling on camera for another 2 weeks).

You are so patient with your big sister. She likes to be up close and personal with you at all times and it is a wonder your head is still in place with all of the accidental mishaps. Here she is giving you a "hug." Or a choke-hold as I like to call it.

You have no trouble with your digestion flow! You burp like a champ (I think God knew with a second baby we don't have 10 minutes after each feeding to work on getting a burp out) and if you haven't burped in 60 seconds then it's usually not going to happen for you. I will leave out diaper details, so as not to embarrass you one day when you read this, but I will say that they are both plentiful and frequent. And your nickname is "motorboat." I'm just saying...

What people say about you:
"She looks just like Grace!"
"She doesn't look anything like Grace."
"Oh, I love that name!"
"She is just beautiful. Like, really, really pretty. I mean, seriously pretty."
"She definitely looks more like you."
"She definitely looks more like Danny."
"That bow is bigger than her head!" (got a problem with it?)

Most days we are on a 6, 9, 12, 3 schedule which works great for me. You sleep on and off throughout the day but you are staying awake longer and longer.

At your two week check up you were 8.3 and 21 inches long. You gained almost a pound and I was so proud! I am not looking forward to your two month check up next week. Shots! I almost forgot about the terrible shots.

Nicknames: angel baby, pumpkin, silly goose, goose-goose, and Audrey girl. Your sister calls you, "awwwww, sweet Audrey" like it is one long word. So cute.

You are starting to get the chubby baby cheeks and legs. You are definitely long- you have been wearing three month clothes and were out of newborn around 3 weeks old.

The sweet cheeks progression...

In your favorite chair at 8 days old

 At 3 weeks

And again at 4 1/2 weeks

 5 1/2 weeks old

 And six weeks old... I lovingly call this photo, "Chins."

And here is proof of my mother of the year award. I forgot to tighten your shoulder straps after I loosened them one afternoon and this was the result. I text your Mimi the picture and she said, "Glad you had time to stop, take a picture, and send it to me before you got her out!"