Audrey - 21 months

Audrey,

You've been a busy little bee this month and we've taken lots and lots of photos! Your favorite phrase this month has to be, "Look, Mama! Look!" I have to admit, though it can be tiring chasing after you as you explore everything, I like this phrase much better than last month's, "No, Mama! Stop!"

When you want to get someone's attention who is doing something other than watch your every waking moment, you say, "Hoo hoo!" This is your version of "yoo-hoo" and it is so incredibly cute!

You have a thing for fingernails and toenails this month. You love to pretend to clip them and paint them. When you clip them, you even make this little noise with your tongue like the clippers do. It is hilarious!

 You've been working on your jumping a lot and you can actually get yourself off the ground now! Before it was just a cute like bend of the knees and a bounce. But with some practice and a rope on the floor to jump over, your feet leave the floor! You are so proud of yourself when you do it, and it makes Mama proud, too.

We've been working a lot on the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. You can correctly identify a circle, square, triangle and star, but you still have a little trouble with rectangles. You also know purple, blue, green, red, orange, pink, white, yellow and brown, but get stuck on black and usually call it brown. You know the numbers 1-12 and can say them consecutively with a little bit of help. Left to your own devices, you will usually go from 1-3, then straight to 8-12. I think you skip over the 4-5 section because "f"s are still difficult for you to pronounce.

Fall is here and we have been going on tons and tons of seasonal adventures! We have collected leaves, done leaf rubbings, gone to the fair, picked apples, taken a trip to the pumpkin patch and gone to the pumpkin festival!

At the fair we rode an elephant, and at the pumpkin festival you rode a pony! You still love animals, and were beyond excited for both rides! You also fell in love with Mama's cousin's new puppy this month. I love seeing that huge smile and the joy on your face when you are near animals.

Mama has been really good at getting her camera out this month, and we've gotten some really beautiful photos of you that I will always treasure.

You continue to be adventurous, unafraid, and sweet as can be.

I look back on the photos of you from when you were a baby, and I can't believe how quickly you've grown. But as you grow, my love and gratitude for you does, too. You are so special, baby girl! And Mama loves you so so so much!

Love Always,
Mama

My hubby's 30th

My hubby turned 30 this month. He had to work and didn't want a party or anything special, but I still wanted to make him a cake and something a little silly.

He works in the golf industry, so I decided to make him a golf cake!

I used a star tip to make the grass, although it would have looked a lot better if I was more patient and put the frosting back in the refrigerator when it started to get soft. The putting green is just green decorating sugar  on top of a smooth layer of frosting and the sand trap is ground up rice krispies. The golf ball is a plastic ball that goes to Audrey's play golf set, sitting in a hole that I cut out of the cake. And the flag is a lollipop stick with construction paper and the number 30 written on it. I didn't bother to even take it out of the glass baking dish, but he still loved it!

The silly gift I made him is all over Pinterest. I can't take credit for the idea, but I did try to make it my own a little bit.

And my hubby loves lollipops, so it was perfect for him!

L L F M D: Have faith and build a relationship with God

9. Have faith and build a relationship with God.

I honestly don't care (too much) how often you go to church, or which church you choose to worship at. What is important to me is that you do the work and build a relationship with God. Talk to Him. Ask for guidance. Have faith that He has a plan for your life and that He is in control. This is hard, sweetheart. I struggled for a long time (and still do to a lesser extent) with letting go of control and trusting that God has an even better plan for my life than I do for myself. Life can be difficult, but if you cling to this faith and remember that everything really does happen for a reason, I promise you it will help you through. It really has helped me through so much in my life, including my journey to have you. There is one passage in particular that I repeated over and over to myself on a daily basis for a long time. 

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

I hope it brings you comfort, too.

"Mama, look! Paint!"

I walked into the bathroom Friday morning and Audrey was dipping an eye shadow brush into a toothbrush cover and pretending to paint her toenails! I ran to grab the video camera and luckily for me she wasn't done yet! Too cute!

And by the way, does anyone else hate the sound of their own voice?! Do I really sound like that?!

New blog design and Tutu photos

Audrey is growing up right before my eyes, and I really cannot believe how quickly! The other day, I was looking at my blog and decided it was time for an update. I love the picture of Audrey that was in my blog header, but she is not that chubby cheeked little cherub just learning to walk anymore.

A new layout here on the blog meant that I needed to take some cute new photos, of course! Not that I really need a reason. I really want to do a tutu photo shoot every year, and it had been a year since the last time, so a tutu and pearls it was!

And look how much she has grown!

Anyway, the tutu photos came out incredibly cute! And I decided to get in on the chevron craze, too, so come check out the new design and header if you read from a reader! And I'll post some more of the tutu photos soon!

Wedding Dress

My husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary 3 months ago, and I am just now getting around to having my wedding dress cleaned and preserved. I know, I know, it took me long enough! But I had seen some pictures online of little girls in their mother's wedding dresses, and I knew I wanted to do that with Audrey. The thing is, I never got around to it.

Then it was the day the dress was going to the cleaners. We were both sick. Audrey was feverish, fussy and had the sniffles. But I sat her on the floor, put the dress over her, and took about 30 photos in about 3 minutes. They are not perfect by any means, but I am SO glad I took them!

I'm having my dress preserved because I hope that someday, Audrey will want to wear it. I'm not getting my hopes up. If she wants her own dress, she'll have it. But how special will these photos be if she does decide to wear it?!

Anyway, here's a little peak at some of my favorites!