Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours! Anna has come down with the flu so we are going nowhere!! However, here's a Thanksgiving wish for you :0) May your stuffing be tasty May your turkey plump, May your potatoes and gravy Have never a lump. May your yams be delicious And your pies take the prize, And may your Thanksgiving dinner Stay off your thighs!

8 Months Old

I'm a week late in posting this but Audrey turned 8 months old last week. She had a reflux check-up with Dr. Miller and she's doing really well. So well that at her 9 month check-up Dr. Miller wants to start weaning her off of one of her medecines. She weighed 15 lbs. 8 oz. (11%) and was 27 inches long (50%). Dr. Miller said she expects her to be 18-19 pounds at 1 year old which is exactly what mommy weighed. Audrey is really starting to get around on her own. She zooms all over the kitchen on the wood floor in her walker, often chasing us and reaching out to grab our pants. She's so close to crawling, does an army crawl on her belly and pushes up on her hands and knees and rocks. She can also pull herself up onto her knees and get into a sitting position from her belly. She's got a big sister to chase around soon. :0) She's not been sleeping great at night, we're guessing it's due to teething although she still doesn't have any teeth, but she has been taking better naps so at least mommy is getting to catch up some during the afternoon nap. All in all, she's pretty content to play and of course watch Praise Baby movies when late afternoon fussy time rolls around. It's such a fun age with all of the changes in motor development and they always seem so much happier once they can sit up and be mobile. She cracks us up scrunching up her little nose when she really grins. It's so sweet to see her excitement when Michael gets home from work. Her face lights up and she often starts bouncing in her highchair as she's usually eating her dinner. This is a face she does often...one we saw on Anna when she was teething too, sucking in her lower lip.

Preschool Feast

Yesterday was Anna's Preschool Family Feast and we were shocked at the meltdown she had in the middle of their song. She started out doing great (on the right with the purple and pink skirt) and then all of sudden lost it. After they were done singing we made an edible craft, a yummy cupcake turkey, and she was fine then so we're not sure why she got so upset during the song. Wonder what the Christmas program will be like?! :0)

Daddy Caught a Deer

Michael has been hunting the past few months during bow season and now gun season and everytime he comes home Anna asks him if he caught her a deer. Well, yesterday he did although it wasn't purple like she asked for. :0) She didn't seem bothered by looking at it on the back of the trailblazer. She asked if it would bite and we said no and then she was happy to look at it.

Sleeping Beauties

1st Field Trip

Today was Anna's first field trip and we went to the fire station. She was also helper of the day so it was a GREAT day at preschool. It'll be hard to top this one...field trip and helper of the day all in the same day. She didn't want to get close to the fireman in his gear but couldn't wait to get in the fire truck. They sounded the horn on the fire truck and all of the kids burst into tears, thus Anna's teary eyes in the pictures. Despite the scare of the horn, she still wanted to sit in the driver's seat. This isn't all of the kids. Some were still so upset over the sound of the horn that they refused to leave their mommy's side and get in the picture. Anna is standing behind her buddy, Alli, who has quite the pose! :0)

It's a Miracle

I can't believe it...gas below $2?! Had to take a picture to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I never thought it would get below $3 and wow, now it's $1.99. Incredible!

Happy Halloween!

Uncle Nate came over on Wednesday and he and Anna made pumpkin cookies. They were quite tasty! I took the girls trick-or-treating to Uncle Nate's and we found Fred from Scooby Doo. How about that hair?! Anna refused to go inside after Nate opened the door. She didn't know who that guy was behind the blazing yellow hair. She finally warmed up after we were there awhile. Nate's hair matched their duck costumes perfect! Never know what he's going to come up with!! :0) After leaving Nate's we got held up by the band practicing around campus. Notice the "caterpillar" of drummers. It was fun to see some of their costumes - those that were appropriate! Anna couldn't believe the size of the drum. She was afraid it was going to get her. Off to visit the neighbors - Yea! Anna's wearing her flashing pumpkin necklace for safety - a gift from neighbors Dale and JoAnn. :0)

Candy Explosion

We went to the Candy Explosion last night at the church where we attend MOPS and Anna had a fun time with her buddy Emma, playing games made by the junior high kids and winning candy. Audrey and Luke were very entertained watching all the kids in costume run around like wild animals. We decided pocket-fulls of candy wasn't enough so we headed to the Frozen Custard after ward. :) Aren't our little ducklings just too cute?! Anna picked out their costumes and was thrilled that they could be the same thing. We hit the jack pot at the resale shop!

"The Bag Lady"

We call Anna "the bag lady" as she gets up in the morning and usually goes straight for her shopping cart after eating breakfast, fills it up, and then drags it around with her all day. She parks it at naptime and usually goes right for it when she wakes up. Cracks me up the stuff she hauls around in it! We have to unload it before bed each night just so she can refill the next morning. What a goof! She's quite the pack rat, putting all kinds of things in it and wants to save everything. That doesn't go over well with her O.C.D. momma who's always cleaning out, organizing, and pitching things we don't need.

Teething - UGH!

Miss Audrey has been such a handful this past week. She finally started recuperating from her ear infection, had about 2 good days/nights of sleep, and then really started teething and has been up in the night multiple times and so fussy during the day. No rest for the weary around here! Hopefully we'll see a result of all this soon as she's still all gums. Poor girl! I just don't understand how some babies have very little discomfort at all when teething and others are so bothered by it. Unfortunately it's been rough for both of our girls. :0(

Exploration Acres

Today we visited Exploration Acres with other CAT employees and had a good time venturing out into the corn maze, eating catered food, and playing. The girls were so tired by the time we left... both were asleep shortly after we got on the road. The temp was around 55 so we kept Audrey bundled up while she cruised around in the stroller not wanting her to catch anything else while she tries to get over an ear infection. She was quite the happy girl being outside watching lots of kids play. Lovin' the straw tunnel - we weren't sure she'd like going in this with it being dark but she obviously did from the look on her face when she came out. Glad we didn't have to go in after her! It only took about 15 tries to get this picture! :0) Duck races - this is such a neat idea! Snugglin' on the hayride back to the corn maze. Anna loved riding on the wagon - she got so excited when she saw the tractor coming to pick us up! Which way do we go? Daddy got us lost in the corn maze but not for long thankfully! My sweet, sweet girls who are growing oh so fast!

Audrey's 1st Ear Infection

I took Audrey to the doctor on Thursday as she's been congested for about 3 weeks now and it's not getting any better. I figured she had a sinus infection but to my surprise she actually has an ear infection. She'd been fussy but we figured it was teething related. Thankfully she was prescribed an antibiotic as Thursday night was awful! She's been spending lots of time sleeping on Daddy or Mommy as that's the only way she seems to get comfortable. She was more like herself today so hopefully the worst is over and this doesn't become a reoccurring thing.

Pumpkins

Anna had her first experience carving pumpkins this week. Daddy and Mommy actually did the carving but she did help clean them out, a little. She didn't love the feel of all the goop inside...that's a great job for Daddy to do!

7 Months Old

7 months old - Wow! She sure doesn't seem 7 months old as she's still a peanut having lost a month of growth in the beginning but developmentally she's doing great. She's been sitting up for about a month now and since then has been entertaining herself quite well with toys. It's so nice that I can put her on the floor with a few toys and actually get some house stuff done or just sit and watch her play. Anna is enjoying getting to play with her although we sometimes have to make her let Audrey just play and learn by herself. She's doing much better eating solids and doesn't mind sitting in her high chair now. She does ok with a sippy cup but still needs some practice. Before too long we'll be introducing finger foods - Yea! She's nursing 4 times a day and sleeping 11-12 hours at night but not consistently. It seems she's up 1-3 nights a week and it usually takes nursing her to get her back to sleep. She's not a great napper: on a good day she'll sleep 30 min to an hour in the morning and 1-2 hours in the afternoon. On a bad day she'll sleep an hour total all day and of course is very cranky, only happy if mommy holds her. Those are some LONG days! I cut her hair on top as it was hanging in her eyes and it looks so much better now. We started doing baby sign language with her about a month ago and she really seems to be concentrating on what our hands are doing. I started it with Anna at 6 months working on "all done", "eat", "more", and "drink" and she signed "all done" at 8 months so I hope we have the same progress with Audrey. Anna's doing it with us now as we teach Audrey and she thinks it's so fun.

Fun with hats

Anna and I had so much fun putting hats on Audrey and laughing hysterically! Audrey's facial expressions were great and her round little face and big blue eyes popping out with a hat on her head is just too cute!

dot com sesame street

This is Anna's new favorite thing to do..."play dot com sesame street". She's really gotten good with the mouse on the computers at preschool and often asks to play on the computer at home. It's not something we let her do every day but it is a good distraction when Audrey's being a handful. :0)

Praise Baby

So thankful for the Praise Baby DVDs and music - entertaining for the girls and uplifting songs for mommy! Check it out at http://www.praisebabycollection.com/index2.html

Indian Summer

Today definitely felt like an Indian summer with the temp being so warm. The shade in the backyard has been great on these warmer days keeping it cool enough to play outside comfortably. Thankfully Audrey enjoys swinging outside because when she refuses to nap that's about the only thing that will keep her content.