Big Girl Panties!

This past Monday Audrey woke up and told me..."Mommy, no diaper please." I was totally surprised since we have been attempting to potty train for the past couple months, which was more or less just getting familiar with it. A couple weeks ago we had some potty issues where she just wanted to hang out on the potty all day and anytime she was without a diaper, like when I was changing it or during her bath, she would keep telling me that she was pooping...like she was paranoid that she was going to have an accident. We decided to get rid of the little potty and take a break from even bringing up going potty to her. Out of sight, out of mind. Well when she out of the blue told me no diaper the other day I was shocked. So we have just gone with it. Here is a picture of her in her big girl panties on Monday!

We are now on day 5 and she is doing great!

Messy Eater!

Avacado baby!

Hanging out at the Softball Park

Bryan plays softball once a week and we went out to watch him. Audrey LOVED it and she cheered for her daddy and everyone else playing too. I kept telling her that she was yelling for the wrong team, but she just kept saying "Go lady...Go!" Ha!

Chucky Cheeses!

Fun at Chucky Cheese for Robbie's 4th birthday! We love Chucky Cheese, but not enough to have our own birthday there (according to Audrey) because she doesn't want to give Chucky a high five! ha!

Pickin' Strawberries!

What fun! Great friends, wonderful weather and yummy strawberries!

Loaded up and ready to pick!

Back breaking labor, especially with a 20lb baby strapped to your chest! No bending here, all squats!

On the way home we stopped at Chicken Express for some good old fried chicken! Abby and Audrey waiting patiently for lunch!

At home on our front porch with our strawberries!

And just for kicks, here is Audrey totally worn out and ready for a nap!

My little ducky!

Bath time!

Silly Audrey!

Audrey found my pair of Von Miller glasses from the Cotton Bowl and put them on...she is too darn cute!

Lunch with friends!

After Little Gym we headed over to Lenny's to have lunch with our girlfriends!

Here's Avery, Riley and Audrey!

What's for breakfast?

My girls making breakfast for me! Natalie's even helping...she pulled up all by herself!

A little Blotchy

Poor Natalie! She has some skin issues that we have been dealing with like her mild exczema that comes and goes. I have noticed though that is has been getting worse now that allergies have been so bad with all the tree pollen. But I took this picture before bed the other night to show her pediatrician at her 9 month appointment because this red blotchiness has been appearing occasionally on her face. He told me it is just when she gets excited, or upset and it's just a blood flow thing that she will grow out of. I'm not too worried about this, but the allergy induced excema worries me a little. I hope it is something that she will grow out of too! Poor baby!

Our almost airplane ride

We were all excited about our little trip to go and visit Mimi and Poppy up in Oklahoma. With two kiddos and only a weekend to do the trip in we decided to fly there. Audrey was so excited to go on an airplane...all she had been talking about for weeks before was that she was going to ride a pink airplane and go and see Mimi and Poppy. Mimi and Poppy we equally excited and had gone out and bought toys, diapers and food especially for us. Well...we were packed and ready to go. On the way to the airport we ran into the trail riders for the rodeo and since we had plenty of time we stopped and watched the rodeo parade go by. Audrey and I got out of the car and waved at all the horses and riders. She was all smiles! I remember thinking, "wow, what a special day for her...horses and an airplane!" So we get back in the car and make it to the airport. Well we check in, check our luggage and then realize that we have to ride the little tram to another terminal. Wow, now she gets a train ride too! We finally get to our gate and still have about 45 minutes before we board. We pull out the iPad for her so she can watch Mickey Mouse while we wait. We finally get on the plane and in our seats in the last row of those small planes with two seats on one side and one on the other. At first I sit in the seat by itself with Natalie on my lap and Audrey and Bryan are across the isle until the flight attendant tells me that with the baby on my lap I have to be sitting on the other side...by the window (which is where Audrey was). So I switch with her and now I am sitting with both girls with Bryan by himself across the isle. Well Audrey starts trying to lay on my lap, and I keep telling her to sit up. Finally I ask Bryan to get her paci (which she only uses to sleep with) that maybe she is sleepy and honestly we really just wanted to have a smooth take off. Well, just as we put the paci in her mouth it comes flying out, followed by throw-up. Yes, she was throwing up all over the place and not just a little but it just kept coming! I have Natalie in one hand and then I am trying to "catch" the vomit with my other. I look up at Bryan and he has taken off to the front of the plane. Finally a lady in the row in front of us sees what's going on and hands me a barf bag (since catching it in my hand was doing nothing!) and then she offers to hold my baby for me so I could actually do something. To give Audrey some credit, this is her first time to ever throw up and she was not freaking out or even crying. She finally finishes and Bryan is now back getting Natalie from the lady, he says, 'clean her up...we are getting off." I stand up grab a couple napkins from behind us in the bathroom and then grab her and hold her as close as I can to me so that the smell and vomit won't spread. We hurry off the plane and the airlines lady tells us that she contacted baggage and that they were pulling our car seats off the plane for us, but that our luggage was going to have to go to Oklahoma City. We make our way down to baggage claim and wait there for over an hour for our car seats. Audrey had passed out on my chest...we both were just covered in it! yuck!!! Finally our car seats arrive and we load up and head home. Our plan was that if she didn't throw up again we would head to the airport in the morning and get on a flight early. Well after hours of being vomit free, she threw up right after I put her in her bed. She just started yelling, "Mommy, I just spit, I just spit!" Poor baby! :( So it was decided, we were staying home. Here are the pictures of our almost plane ride!

Go Texan Day!

Dressed up for school!

Daddy's Shoes

Park Fun

Sweet sisters!

8 Months and Happy Valentines Day

My baby Natalie is officially on the move...and not just on the move, but ON THE MOVE! She is fast and is crawling everywhere! She is such a happy baby and will lend a smile to anyone and everyone that smiles at her. Here's a couple more things new this month...

- she loves to eat! This is one thing she is just like her sister...my girls definitely don't lack appetites!

- she sleeps in her bed from 9:30 to 6:30 and then nurses and goes back to sleep in her bed till about 8am.

- she loves to steal toys from Audrey...if it's good enough for big sister than it's good enough for her! ha!

- she loves her daddy. She will sit up and talk to him and tell him all about her day.

- she likes to feed herself avocados, bananas and peas

She turned 8 months today, which was also Valentines Day. Here are a couple pictures from our stay at home Italian dinner!

The girls with their giant Gorilla that Daddy brought home for them!

Dinner time!

She's pooped!

Poor sweet baby! She was so tired she fell asleep in the high chair!

The Audrey dance!

Snow???

We were forcasted all week for snow. I mean they were pretty much guaranteeing it. We were supposed to go to bed and wake up to snow on the ground. I'm not gonna lie, I woke up in the middle of night to look out the window...no snow. No snow in the morning either...the weather men were wrong. So here we are checking out all the ice. We had a pretty hard freeze and we were iced over, which was almost as exciting for a 2 year old.

Mix of emotions

Oh the joy of being a girl...we don't know if we want to laugh or cry. I feel like this a lot too!

Go Packers!

We went to the grocery store today to get a couple things and I had already promised Audrey her free Kroger balloon well she spotted the Superbowl balloons so I thought it would be good to ask her which team she wanted to win the Superbowl by letting her pick which balloon she liked. So here we go...Audrey is a cheese-head...Go Pack Go!

P90x

Audrey doing P90x with me. Actually I took a little break to watch her because she was just too funny!

Eye-blink / Grunt

What is the eye blink - grunt? She has been doing it for two days now and when I first saw it I started laughing, but then she kept doing it over and over again. I started to worry a little that it was a seizure or a twitch. (You know a Mom always worries!) I think I figured it out though...she's doing it when she wants something. Either something in your hand that she wants...or just your attention. I guess she found a way to communicate!

Coffee and Texting

The other morning we were in the playroom, like we are almost every morning, and I take a break from texting and look up at Audrey over my coffee cup and this is what I see...

I guess I need to reevaluate my morning routine!

Arrgh! Meow! Yee-haw!

Dress up wtih Audrey!

Grocery shopping with two

Wagon Ride

Audrey got this wagon for her first birthday...at the time I was barely pregnant with Natalie and I remember thinking someday there is going to be two little ones riding in here! Well here they are...sweet sisters! It was so cold out...we made it to the mailbox and back!

Look who's trying to Pull up

Audrey-isms

My baby Audrey is growing like crazy! She has definitely been going through a HUGE growth spurt since her birthday. She put on her Halloween kitty costume the other day and it now fits her as a shirt! She is now about 3" taller than all her friends that she used to be the same height! I guess I should have guessed this was going on because she sleeps 12 hours straight at night and also takes a 3 to 4 hour nap everyday! Plus, as always, she loves to eat! She still will eat anything you put in front of her. The only things that she has to be in the mood for (occasionally eats) is tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms. Otherwise...anything is game! ha! She is in size 6 diapers and size 3T (sometimes 4T) clothes!

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Everywhere we go everyone always assumes that she's 3, because of her size and also her vocabulary. Believe me this girl TALKS! Here are some of "her" funnier sayings...

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- When she is yawning I will ask her, "Audrey are you sleepy?" and she will tell me, "No, Mommy that's just my funny face!"

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- When it's time to change diapers she will always tell me..."Nalalie first!"

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- Last night Bryan was telling her that we are going to ride on an airplane to go and see Mimi and Poppy and he asked her if she was going to sit by the window. She answered, "No Daddy, that's where the pilot sits!" (I asked Bryan if he had already talked to her about the plane and the pilot and he said no. Where does she learn all of this?"

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- Every night she says her prayers as she is going to bed and she says, "God is good, God is great, thank you for my Mommy, my Daddy, my Nalalie and everybody! AAAmen!"

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- She got married at school one day. I picked her up from school and she was wearing this big purple pimp hat. I asked her to take it off and she said, "No, I'm married!" Evidently Griffin gave her a hug, a kiss, and a pimp hat and told her that they were married! Isn't two too young to get married...and to think they sealed the deal with a pimp hat! Ha!

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- If I ask her who her best friend at school is she always says "Peter," but if I ask you her best friend is she always says "Collin."

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- Every time I go to the bank to make a deposit she tells me from the back seat that she has money too. So she reaches into her pocket and grabs her pretend money to hand to me. I take it from her and stuff it into the container and send it to the lady. She loves going to the bank!

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- Anytime I put on music so we can dance...we start out dancing, but always end up running laps around the house. At least 50! She says it's running music!

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Anyway, these are just a few things that I want to remember her saying....her Audrey-isms!

7 Months Old

This photo shoot was a breeze! I probably took twenty pictures and all of them had this beautiful smile!

Natalie at 7 months...
- She loves to do raspberries! She buzzes all the time...riding in the car, playing and especially when she is eating! Believe me I take a sweet potato shower almost every night! ha!
- She is up on all fours and rocking!
- She loves to jump! This kid won't sit still! She is our little monkey and she is getting really hard to get dressed. She is constantly jumping up and down like she is in her jumper!
- She goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps till 6:15am. I nurse her and then cuddle with her until around 8am when Audrey wakes up!
- She loves to watch Audrey entertain her! She just laughs and laughs! (I love it!)

I love you Natalie! I love how your smile just lights up your whole face!

Cotton Bowl

Our weekend (okay, really only one night) away from the girls. In my defense it felt like a long weekend away. I'm so proud of myself for letting go and making the 4 hour drive up to Dallas to spend time with Bryan and our friends. We had only spent one other night away from the girls (even Audrey...not counting the two nights in the hospital when I had Natalie) when we went out for our anniversary to Cirque de Soleil here in Houston and stayed overnight at a hotel in downtown. Anyway, we had a great time...and even though the Aggies lost, I'm so glad we went and supported our Ags after a great season!

We brought a cooler full of beer and a couple bags of pretzels and had a total low key "tailgate" in the bed of our friend, Shad's, truck. It was great! (BTW- LSU has great fans for people watching! There were so many "crazy" fans that I wanted to take pictures of, but didn't have the guts to do it! ha!)

Beautiful sunset before we headed in to Jerry World!

Shad and Lauren in the Von Miller glasses that he bought all of us to wear!

That screen is huge...I can't even explain it!
We look so nerdy! ha!

Coffee Party with Pappo