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.

Hello November

How it is already November I'll never know. Nonetheless, our little angel is 7 weeks old and amazes us everyday. She weighed 11 lbs last time I weighed her. I prayed for a chunky baby and that is what I got. I mean really, who doesn't love baby double chins and roly poly thighs? Wish my chunkiness was as cute as hers. My doctor gave me the OK to start exercising again. I've always had a love for running so I've started the Couch to 5K program to get started again. I'm on week 2 and it's already getting easier.


Audrey has "found" herself in mirrors. Turns out that our retro pink 1960s bathroom is awesome for baby bathing. I knew it would come in handy one day. Lots of counter space and a big mirror. She loves getting a bath and now really likes staring at herself in the mirror with one foot hanging over the sling splashing in the water.


She also stares at her pretty little face in the mirror on her play gym. The play mat also has a piano that she kicks with her feet. A few lucky visitors have been able to attend one of her "concerts."


Her newest trick is to suck on her thumb and fingers. It's more like a slurp but she's definetly found her hands. It's pretty loud too and actually woke me up one night.


This one was taken on election day. I call it her "Proud to be an American" pose. For some reason she looks like a little soldier to me. Wish I would of had a little flag to put in her hand.


So on the topic of sleep. I'll start by saying that we've come a long way in 7 weeks in this department but I'm still dreaming of the day that she sleeps through the night. Usually we'll get a 3-4 hour stretch when we first put her to bed for the night. After that "long" stretch, she's been getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours. We've started trying her in her crib at night since her room is not too far from ours and it's not that big of a deal to walk the 10 steps to her room when she wakes up. Let's just say we're still working on our sleep routine. She's still little so we let her sleep when she wants to. She does sleep much better at night when she rests a lot during the day. But seriously, even when she gets up in the middle of the night, my heart melts when she looks up at me with those big blue eyes. I almost forget how tired I am. Almost.