oops forgot the photos

One year since that first photo!

It has been one year since we got that first precious little photo of Audrey. Wow has she changed. Everyday she makes us laugh with her great personality and the many new words that she has added to her vocabulary. Some of our favorites: bu bu (butter--a favorite treat), Wil wie (our cat Willie), Hi Pa Pa (greeting to my dad), schooo schoo (what she says the moment we spot her little school down the street) and canny (candy, another favorite treat just like her mom). Here are a few more recent photos so you can see how much she has changed too.

A new Rockin' Horse from Granny and Pops. A new OSU Orange Swimsuit from Cousin Taylor.

My very own Rody to ride from my friend Brenda.

So this is why we hung up those stockings--candy!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

Hello All

What fun Christmas is with a two-year old! We had a wonderful day with each other and our family and Audrey enjoyed every part of Christmas. We spent every evening hearing the echo of lights, lights, lights from the backseat--our neighborhood really goes all out to decorate their homes and Audrey appreciated even the most over-top ones. At home it was tree, tree--and to my surprise not one broken glass ornament. I took a chance that she would enjoy all of our detailed ornaments, prepared to sacrifice at least one from a low hanging branch--but I am proud to say that they all lived to enjoy another holiday!

Christmas day was a joy. We did not have to arise too early, but when we finally made it downstairs she was quite excited about all the toys that Santa had brought. (now I might add she is not too impressed with Santa himself, but she did like the gifts)

I will let you enjoy these photos and I will post a few more the next couple of days. Hope your holidays were happy as well.

Well it is almost Christmas and I am quite bogged down with work and getting ready for the holidays--retail can be brutal or at least all consuming of your free time! So no Christmas cards yet and a whole lot of other things that won't get done, but I thought I would post a few more recent fall photos of Audrey. Perhaps I will have some time in the next few days to post 1st Christmas photos too.

Our China Baby Turns Two!

When you wake up at 6 a.m. it is no fun--even if it is your birthday!

Well it is hard to believe that Audrey is two.

The time goes so quick, yet all of her language development, growth spurt and fondness for the word "no" tells us--yes, she is two. We celebrated in a low-key way as we are hoping to make her annual "birthday event" in March to coincide with her Gotcha Day on the 24th. It is hard to have a December birthday and probably would be more fun to have a celebration in the spring anyway. But we wanted to commemorate her 2nd birthday and the first one with us in some way, so friends from our neighborhood stopped by for cupcakes in the afternoon and then we visited Granny and Pops and the cousins in the evening. You can never have too much cake--so we enjoyed it several times that day and again the next day when Audrey took treats for her school friends.

She knew the day was special and can quickly answer the question--"how old are you?" with "I two" and two little fingers in the air. In the beginning she would hold out her had so one of us could fold down her thumb and fingers to leave two fingers up, but now she has mastered that as well.

Every day she still amazes us with her happy personality, good-natured attitude and sense of humor--we are truly lucky to have her with us. These milestones remind us how quickly the time goes.

Enjoy the photos!

Happy Halloween

Hello everyone--as we move into the fall we have so many "firsts" to look forward to enjoying with Audrey--her first Halloween, first birthday with us, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas and hopefully her first snowfall. Keep coming back to our blog and I will share them with you as well.

Halloween was great! I wasn't sure what to expect and when we started looking for a costume about a month ago I was worried that there would be no Halloween. She did NOT like the cute ladybug that we first got and she wasn't very interested in any dress up outfits. Every time I showed her the ladybug she would through it and yell No, No, No! But one day we were at Babies are Us and she was very interested in the costumes--finally she picked out the lion and even wanted to put it on. So it was settled--she would be a lion (or as she puts it--RRRRR).

For 3 days we celebrated--at her School/church carnival (she quickly learned that at each activity you got candy--what a deal), then at the Zoo--thousands of kids and adults--crazy but fun and finally trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. It was a great week. Every night she was bouncing off the walls. Brad called her "sugar baby", but we all conceded we liked Sugar baby Audrey.

The first photos are from a Halloween festival in the Paseo. They had a little art activity where the kids could get dressed up in paper creations--Audrey wanted to be right in the middle of this. She was so patient and loved her paper dress--she kept it on all afternoon. We should all have paper dresses!