So Long 2012

So long 2012! Thank you for probably the best year of my life. Thank you for a healthy pregnancy. Thank you for a summer that wasn't miserable during said pregnancy. Thank you for the most perfect baby. Thank you for giving perfect baby a pretty awesome daddy. Thank you for all the things that made me laugh this year. Thank you for teaching me what was really important in life. 2012, you will always hold a special place in my heart. Here's hoping that your buddy 2013 is just as joyful for the Fergusons!

Run Mommy Run

Yesterday, the family went to Terry Hershey park to enjoy the outdoors and get a little exercise in. I've been doing good with my running sans stroller and can run about 20 minutes without popping a lung. I loaded Audrey in the BOB and took off thinking it shouldn't be that hard. Let's just say it's a little harder to run with the stroller going up the hills (well, hills by Texas standards). I didn't make it too far before deciding to turn my run into a nice walk. I stopped to capture this picture of little bit laughing at me while I was trying to run with her. I'm sure I did look funny huffing and puffing behind her stroller!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas folks! Here's our Christmas 2012 recap. Saturday morning, we packed Ellie the Edge (my beloved car) to the top and headed to San Antonio. I was traveling with Nana, Grandpa and Audrey since Neal was already in San Antonio. First stop was Uncle Bryan's to have Heiner Christmas. How cute is the Christmas baby!

Luckily we were able to kill two birds with one stone and also celebrated with Neal's side of the family while we were in San Antonio.

We got up early on Christmas Eve morning to head back to Houston. After a relaxing day, we went to the Candlelight church service. Hands down my favorite thing to do at Christmas. Audrey was asleep when we arrived at church but woke up during the processional when the choir began belting out "Oh Come All Ye Faitful". She did pretty good and I only had to walk out with her a couple of times.

After church, we ate Chinese food at Kim Son and then came home to get in our Christmas PJs. She actually sat still while I read her The Night Before Christmas.

We woke up Christmas morning and Neal cooked breakfast for all of us. The nice thing about having a 3 month old is that we didn't have to do "Santa" until about 9 am after she'd woken up from a morning nap.

Santa and his elves were very kind to Audrey. Let's just say that we're good on toys for about a year.

There were a lot of things that didn't happen this Christmas season. We never found the time to put lights on the house. I only put out about 25% of our Christmas decorations. I didn't have my all day Bake-a-thon. We didn't get to drive around to see the good Christmas lights. We weren't able to see a Christmas play/musical/program. It's a small miracle that this post is even getting written before the new year. In the grand scheme of things, none of those things really matter. We were able to celebrate the birth of Christ with the best little Christmas present ever. Merry First Christmas Audrey!

3 Months

Our girl is 3 months old! She has changed so much in the past month. Her little personality is starting to show. It's fun for us to see who she is. Her last weight was 12 lbs, 3 oz. She's starting to wear 3-6 and 6 month clothes. There's a few 0-3s we're still able to wear, but those days are numbered. She also moved up to size 2 dipaers a while ago.

We've been doing tummy time just about everyday and she can hold that big head of hers up now. She even rolls over from her belly to her back.

She's still a pretty good sleeper at night. We've one night when she slept from 6 pm to 5 am. Score for 11 hours! Not ready to say she's sleeping through the night yet, but she's moving in the right direction. Even though she's sleeping longer now, I still find myself waking up several times a night to check on her. Since she's been born, I've been amazed at how much I can actually function on such little sleep. I guess your body just gets used to it.

Audrey can sit in her Bumbo chair pretty good. I love this picture. I get visions of her chasing Mack around the house. Hopefully he stays as fond of her as he is now.

Her favorite pastime is playing with her tongue. She's also turned into a drooling machine. Guess that means teeth are on their way. We have such great conversations with her cute little cooing. I love that she's starting to find her voice.


Oh the smiles!

Meet BOB

Meet BOB. Our newest family member. Merry Christmas to us! Turns out I hate the stroller that we bought months ago. People told me I would hate the "travel system" and I was like yea, whatever, we'll try it. It's ok if you just want to push it around the mall or something like that. It s-u-c-k-s if you want to use it on a daily basis for walks. BOB is amazing. Since Audrey is still too little to sit up, we bought the carseat adapter so we could use it now. Smooth ride and I know we'll spend many miles with our new friend.

Back in the Saddle

Work has been super busy since I've been back. This is the time of year in a school when referrals are in full force and kids are going bonkers waiting for the holidays. Busy is good and makes the day go by fast. The first day I returned, this book was waiting for me on my desk. A sweet coworker knew just how to make my first day back not so bad. It's a cute little story about Audrey Hepburn.


- Audrey is doing so good being at her "school." Those ladies are so loving. I love going to pick her up in the afternoons and seeing her little smile when she sees me.

New Trick

Tis the Season

December is finally here! I've slowly been putting out decorations when I get a minute (usually when the babe takes a nap.) The great debate of real tree vs fake tree and when to get said tree began about a week ago. I do love real trees but I'm not one of those that has to have a real tree. I think artifical trees can look just as nice. We decided to get a real tree again this year but might look to see if there are any good sales after Christmas on artifical trees. Last year, we got the tree the first weekend of December and it almost didn't make it to Christmas. It would be better to wait a while before getting one, but honestly if it's going to take me a while to decorate it so we went ahead and got one. What's the difference if it's sitting at Lowe's or sitting at our house. At least it's in water here. I love that in Texas, you can go shopping for your Christmas tree in shorts and flip flops 90% of the time. I especially love that we had a cute little barefoot baby to tag along with us this year.


Unfortunately, on the way home, we hit a huge pothole that Neal didn't see. He changed the tire down the street from our house and then ended up getting new tires t his afternoon.


We opted for a small, skinny tree this year since we have a space issue. Since we got new living room furniture, we lost our Christmas tree "space." We have a front room that has a really nice picture window but I really don't want the tree in there because I'd rather us get to enjoy it rather than all of our neighbors. Our cozy living room has also been indudated with baby gear. For the time being, our new friend is hanging out in our kitchen, but I think I have a plan for a place for it to call home.



Let the holidays begin!

What Really Matters

Something I've struggled with is finding the time to get everything accomplished on the always growing "to do" list. Seriously, I go and go until I finally poop out at night. I can only imagine this is going to get worse when I go back to work. It's hard (I'm getting better)but I physcially have to ask myself what's important. Reading stories & singing goofy songs with my little sidekick or loading the dishwasher? Takes me about half a second to choose my answer. The babe wins everytime. She's not always going to be little. Our house may never be perfectly picked up but I'll be damned it I wake up one day and regret not spending time with Audrey. It's so much more fun than all the mundane things anyway.


People always ask me if she's a "good" baby. First of all, I don't think "bad" babies exist. Babies don't ask to be colicky. Babies don't ask to have tummy issues. It just happens. But when people ask me that question, I always say that she's a happy baby 99% of the time. The only time she fusses is when she's hungry, sleepy, or needs a new diaper. Those are all things so easy to remedy and then I get my happy baby back.


I'll never get tired of seeing these gummy smiles and hearing all the weird little noises that she makes. If our "conversations" are this good now, I can only imagine how good they'll be when she can actually use words.


I know she loves us even when we get this little pouty face. Oh this picture will be so much fun to pull out when our little angel is a teenager and doesn't think we hung the moon anymore.

Mommy's Night Out

My mom has been dying to babysit so we took advantage of her being here and went out with the Conrads for a little while last night. Mind you I haven't had an adult beverage since New Years because I was pregnant most of 2012 and I'm also still breastfeeding so I need to be careful. We went to the little wine bar in their neighborhood. We ordered this ridiculous tower of Sangria. Sadly, even with 4 us, the tower won and we weren't able to finish all the Sangria. Neal and I even attempted to salsa dance. I've never felt so white in all my life trying to hang with the dancers who could actually salsa but it was fun.




The boys wanted to do some marketing for the TNO store, so we went to the local country bar in Katy. Oh. My. Goodness. The people watching was amazing. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I now realize how ridiculous I probably used to look back in my wild and crazy days. I don't miss those days at all. I'll have to say it was fun to dance to a little "Chicken Fried". Two bottles of water and almost hacking up a lung from all the smoke, we called it a night. Wild and crazy, I tell ya!

The Time Has Come

The day I've been dreading is coming up. I'm returning back to work on Monday after the best 11 weeks of my life. It's a double edge sword because I actually like my job and am excited to see my coworkers and all the little guys too that keep me laughing. On the other hand, I love, love, love hanging out with my new little bestie. She's going to Bear Boulevard which is run by SBISD for the employees' kiddos. I dropped her off several times this week to practice. We'll see how things go when she's going full time, but I'm at peace leaving her with these ladies. Several of my friends have kids that started at Bear when they were infants. They are so loving to the little babies and the mommies too. Audrey will be in good hands with Ms. Ana and Ms. Teresa. As a bonus, these ladies speak mainly Spanish during the day. Maybe it's the SLP in me, but I can't wait to hear those sweet first words.


They had us make a little poster to put by Audrey's crib so she can "see" us when we're not there.



There's 8 little ones in the room ranging from 11 weeks to 12 months. There's 2 little girls that are already walking and have taken over the "mother hen" role in the classroom. I witnessed them being so sweet to the babies. One little baby was crying and the sweetheart walked over and started petting her. The same little darling already knows I'm Audrey's mom and walks over to point to Audrey when I walk in. Yes, I'm going to miss little bit while I'm at work, but she's just around the corner if I need to go get my lovin' fix.

Baptism

We baptized Audrey at St Johns in Beaumont on November 25th. It turned out to be such a nice day. A lot of our families weren't able to make it but we enjoyed visiting with those who were able to be there for this special day.

Audrey wore the baptismal gown that's been in my family for nearly 60 years. My dad and his siblings wore it when they were baptized as babies then myself and all my cousins wore it when we were babies and now we're baptizing our kids in it.

It meant alot to have Pastor baptized Audrey. He baptized me when I was a baby and also married us.

Karen is Audrey's godmother. Coy also got to meet Audrey for the first time. He's a natural. Jokingly, he said he wanted to be called Uncle Boogie because he likes to dance. I think it's cute and hope it sticks. Patrick is Audrey's godfather but unfortunately couldn't make it to Beaumont because his dad had a heart attack and he was tending to him.

First Thanksgiving

Audrey began her first Thanksgiving by participating in the Turkey Trot with us. Isn't she the cutest little trotter?

Meeting Santa

We survived our first experience meeting Santa. We took Audrey to Memorial City mall right before Thanksgiving to meet Santa and mark something off our list before the craziness of the holidays begins. The mall has a neat system in place where you sign up for a time to meet Santa and then they text you when it's your turn which is supposed to eliminate the waiting. This would have been perfect except for the mall "elf" who was in charge of turning the system on was late for work that day. To make a long story short, we waited for about 2 hours to have her picture made and then wait for them to be printed.



- As soon as we got to the beginning of the line, Miss A decided that was a good time to fill up her diaper. There was no way we were getting out of line to change her. Maybe that's why we didn't get a very good picture. It's very hit or miss trying to get her to smile lately.It will be fun to look back at this picture through the years to remember her first Christmas.

In All Things Be Thankful

This was our second year that we wrote things we were thankful for daily on post it notes. I hope this is something we can do with Audrey when she gets a little bit older. We missed a few days because of traveling but here's our list for 2012. The girl is thankful for: *For good health that allows me to exercise *For Neal putting up with my moodiness *For Neal putting up with my post-preggo bitchy moments *For Audrey's good health *That God chose me to be Audrey's mom *For my maternity leave *That my sister is able to go back to school to find her passion *For our cleaning lady *For our snuggle puppy Mack *For all my mom's help *For my time off with Audrey *For cameras that capture memories *To live somewhere that doesn't get too cold during winter *For Audrey's smiles *For holidays *For a rewarding job The boy is thankful for: *For my training partners *For a sleeping baby *For our baby Audrey *For pacifiers *For great friends *For our health *For the little patience I have *For the cleaning lady for my baby baby *For my health *For a wife that doesn't yell *For each and every day we have *For my business opportunities *For the job and career that I enjoy *For life's opportunities *For the rockers and the bouncers

2 Months

Audrey Anne is 2 months old! I really can't remember our life without her here. It just seems like she's been here forever yet it's only been 2 months. Her little personality is starting to shine. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. We play this little game where we go around the house and try to find the baby in all the mirrors. Funny, all our mirrors have a cute baby in them. My favorite is when we're giving her a bath and she stares at herself in the mirror with her leg hanging over the side of the sling in the bathtub. She's lifting her head more. She can hold it up most of the time when we're holding her. She's also getting better at tummy time. We put a mirror on the floor to give her and she tries hard to get that big ol head up so she can see the cute baby in the mirror.

She's found her hands and likes to slurp on her little fingers. Just a matter of time before she figures out she has feet too and tries to get those in her mouth. Her feet were always in front of her face when I had ultrasounds. She makes excellent eye contact with us and is trying hard to "talk" back to us. Those little coos that she makes will melt your heart. I'm so excited to see her language develop in the next few months. Makes a Speech Language Pathologist giddy just thinking about it.

So let's talk sleep. She was on a pretty wacky sleep schedule, meaning she woke up randomly many times during the night. Now we've had 3 nights in a row of her sleeping in her crib for a 7 hour stretch. I think we're on to something here, but if I've learned anything about this mommy business, it's not to get too excited prematurely. As soon as I think we've got a routine down or jumped over a hurdle, it all changes again. Such is life, I guess.

We're having so much fun with little Audrey. I thank God everyday that He chose us to be her parents. Here's to all the good times coming our way!

Shots=No Bueno

Audrey had her 2 month check up with the pediatrician today which also meant a big round of shots. She's right on track checking off those milestones. She weighed in at 11 lbs 8 oz. She's in the 71st percentile for weight, 70th percentile for head circumference, and 38th percentile for height. Yup, looks like we have a shorty on our hands. Not surprising since neither of us are very tall. Right before the doctor came in, Miss A decided to have a poop explosion of epic proportions on the exam table. We just started laughing after it was over since there wasn't much else to do. I got her cleaned up and then called in the clean up crew to clean up the table. Audrey put on a show for Dr. Shuman by flashing her a big, gummy grin. The little darling was happy as a lark waiting for the nurse to come in to give her the shots.




The shots themselves weren't too bad. I was prepared to cry but I surprised myself and made it through. Poor baby screamed for about a minute and then was fine.


Poor Audrey had a bit of a rough afternoon. We went to the ribbon cutting at the TNO store which she slept through most of that. Once we got home, somebody switched my sweet baby out with little miss fussypants. Her poor little whimper was so sad. After a little bit of Baby Tylenol, she finally went to sleep. She screamed everytime I tried to put her down so I ended up holding her for a couple of hours while she slept. I actually didn't mind. A day will come when she's not going to let me hold her so I'm soaking in as much of this as I can.

San Antonio Road Trip

We made our first road trip this past weekend for Neal to run the San Antonio half marathon. Audrey and I have made a couple of trips to Beaumont to stay with my mom, but this was the first trip as a family. She did amazingly well traveling and we only had to stop one time en route. The first thing we did was pack up the truck and the Nana.

It was so much fun seeing Coleson meet his little cousin for the first time. He was so good with her. I loved hearing him talk to her and sing to her.


- Somebody wasn't too thrilled at first to be in her UT outfit. I think this picture will be priceless one day if she decides to be an Aggie!

I just love this kid. I can't believe he's already 4. Neal and I started dated a week after he was born so I've had the pleasure of watching him grow up.

We got up super early on Sunday morning to head downtown for the race. Luckily, I'm used to getting up at 4 am with Audrey so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. Like a good little Texas baby, Audrey made her maiden voyage to the Alamo.

Nana and Audrey hanging out downtown. Neal has lovingly started referring to her as "the babysitter." We are so thankful for all of her help and luckily she likes to be paid with baby snuggling time.

Not the best picture, but here is Neal about to cross the finish line. It was pretty warm by this point and the San Antonio "hills" got to him too.

Our little family of 3.