Baby's Got A New Toy

A week or so ago, I ordered Audrey Claire a walker. Friday I got an email that it was at the store so I went to pick it up. If you can believe it, I put it together all by myself! She was getting really sleepy when it was finally together but I couldn't wait to put her in it to see if she could actually get around in it or if she would like it.

She LOVES it. She now has the freedom to move around the house as she pleases! And boy is she taking advantage of that! She goes from room to room hitting every wall she can. She has even gotten our toes a couple of times.

This was such a funny moment. We were all in Seth's office and without hitting anything, she pulled right under the desk. It was a perfect little nook for her "car". We laughed so hard because it was like she was thinking "I am done for now. I will just pull into my garage and park".

"Well, are you gonna get me out? Or am I gonna have to stay here?"

Big Girl Goes Shopping

This weekend we went to Lowe's to buy materials for Seth to build some shutters. I have wanted them since we moved in our new house and can't wait for them to be up! He is going build them and I am going stain them. My little monkey showed us how big she was in two different ways:

She fed herself while I pushed her around,

and she sat up like a big girl!

I know what you're all thinking-NO BOW? Well, she knew we were going to Lowe's and she didn't want to look too prissy. She wanted people to think she actually knew a thing or two about the whole "building project" thing.

Play date with Jude

Last week's college Bible Study turned out to be a play-date for Jude and Audrey Claire. She started out sitting quietly outside with us but eventually we were inside. I guess she knew Jude and his toys were inside and she couldn't stand it. Melanie and I had so much fun watching them interact. As you can see in the pictures, Jude was really excited. Audrey Claire didn't exactly know what to think.

The end of the play-date didn't end so well. Even though I had pillows surrounding Audrey Claire, she still managed to topple over and hit her head. She screamed for quite a while. Seth and I freaked out right along with her.

Fun on "Lang Hill"

Today we went to Crystal Springs for my cousin Brookley's birthday party. (FYI-"Lang Hill" is where I grew up. My parents, mom's dad and two brothers are all next-door and/or across-the-street neighbors. And boy is that interesting at times!) Anyway, Brookley had a big blow-up water slide for all the kids-big and small. Most of the time, there were more adults on the slide than kids. We all had a blast-except Audrey Claire. She has a cold which has made her a little irritable these last few days. She is also not used to being outside for long periods of time. Most of the time she LOVES being in the water but the water at the bottom of the slide was really cold so she didn't like that either. I think she would have rather had the party in her cool house where all of her toys are. I say all that to say I have no pictures of her from the party. I do have one picture from the day. I thought this was the sweetest thing. We didn't pose her here. She kept her hand like this for a good while. She was glad to see ReRe and get out of the car seat.

Still a Busy Girl

We have been really busy lately and I haven't had much time to post. Here are some cute pictures from the past couple of days:

Here is Audrey Claire wearing my brother's hat. She knows she is a cutie!

Audrey Claire and her Uncle Justin

Baby's got a new toy! Saturday, my family came down and we went shopping. I've wanted to get Audrey this toy since she played with it at her friend Jude's house. It's called Little Superstar: Sing-Along Stage. She absolutely loves it!

Yesterday, my friend Whitney came to visit and brought her beautiful step-daughter, Gracie. We had a blast shopping around town and hanging out at our house. Audrey Claire is not as scared as she looks here. She was thinking to herself "Really? Another picture, can't a girl just play with a friend without pictures?" You see, Lindsey had come over to visit too so Whitney, Lindsey and I all had our cameras taking pictures. We looked like the paparazzi and they were our celebrities.

This morning I was feeding my little monkey some cereal. Well, she had other things in mind. She wanted to put on makeup like Mommy does! What do you think?

Ok really I had a big spoonful headed for her mouth and she went to rub her eye at the same time and this was the result!

Busy Girl

This post may get a little long but bear with me. We had a quick but exciting trip home this week. It started Tuesday night after Seth's church basketball game. We loaded up a very sleepy little girl and headed north to Wesson. Thankfully, she slept the whole way there. However, when we got there at 10:30, she was so excited to see her Popa D that she woke up and stayed up until midnight to play. I was hoping that she would sleep late the next morning since she was up so late. But she must have known how exciting our day was going to be because she didn't sleep late. But anyway, we got up and I got to go to Brookhaven all by myself to do some bow shopping! (Thanks to Popa D for babysitting!) I know they must have played hard while I was gone because when I got back, they were knocked out on the couch. Before we left there, I managed to get a "few" pictures. Here are my favorites:

How grown does she look here? Does not look like a 6 month old to me!

Our next stop was Co-Lin. That's where Memaw works. We got to visit her for a few minutes and guess what! I forgot to take pictures there. Next time we promise to take pictures with you Memaw! From there we headed for Hazlehurst to see ReRe at her office. They must recognize our importance because when we got there this is what we saw on the door:

We stayed there long enough for them to have a little break from doing work. If you can believe it, Mrs. Amy somehow managed to get Audrey Claire from her ReRe for a minute. And I do mean only 1 minute.

Next we headed for Jackson, stopping in Crystal Springs for a few minutes to see my aunt, Michelle. No picture there either! Audrey Claire was sleeping by this point (what baby wouldn't be?) so Michelle just came out to the car.

So on to Jackson we went. That's where Mawmaw June lives. We don't get to see her as much as we like so we were excited to get to spend the afternoon with her. I think she was just as excited!

One of Audrey's favorite parts of the visit was Mawmaw's dog, Georgie! She watched Georgie run around the house all afternoon. She always wanted to know where she was and what she was doing.

She's 6! (REVISED)

Months that is. Our baby girl was 6 months old this past Sunday. I can't believe how fast time is going by. And I know it's only gonna go faster from this point on. I wish I had started this blog way before I did so I could have better kept up with Audrey's milestones each month. But I guess the important thing is that I am keeping up now! So here is what "My Monkey" is doing these days:

• She can roll over like the pro's. She has been rolling for a while but this month, she figured out how to roll from her belly back over to her back. Which means she is officially on the move. I try to keep her on the rug in the living room but that is quickly getting too small.

• She is still sleeping ALL night, thank goodness We have been blessed with a good sleeper. She takes around 3 naps a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

• She is doing GREAT with baby food. Her favorites now are green beans, squash and sweet potatoes. We are still working on the carrots, bananas, and apples. I have really enjoyed making her baby food so far and hope to keep it up!

• She is trying so hard to crawl. She can push herself off the ground with her arms and get her legs under her, just not at the same time. Maybe by next month's update, she will be crawling!

• Her hair is finally growing! I can get a bow to stay without the headband. Only for a few minutes though before it falls out.

• We figured out that she LOVES swimming. She laughs and splashes the whole time she is in the pool.

• She can sit up all by herself now! I have to put pillows around her because eventually, she is gonna topple over. Usually it's because she is trying to reach a toy.

• She has officially started "talking". Ok so it's really babbling but we pretend to know what she is saying and "talk" back to her. I am gonna try to get a video up of her doing this!

A wedding and trip to New Orleans

The Wedding: Saturday we got to visit with lots of friends who were in town for Jon and Jennifer's Wedding. ! We have been blessed with such an amazing group of friends and look for any chance to spend time together. This was the 2nd time in a couple of weeks that everyone has been able to get together and hang out because of a wedding. Some of the girls came to our house to get ready while the guys were already at the church. We had a little photo session before we left.

"The Brown girls"

Me and Annie in our Bridesmaid dresses from each other's wedding

New Orleans: Sunday after church, a group of our friends went to New Orleans to celebrate our friend Meghan's birthday! We went to the Aquarium, Riverwalk Mall and Mothers restaurant. It was such a great time of fellowship!

She was captivated at most of the tanks

Most of the group

Family pic. We gave up trying to get her to look at the camera. Too much going on!!

Silly girls

Watching all those fish swim around wore her out!

Green Beans Anyone?

This is a post I have been trying to upload ALL WEEK! Seth finally helped me with the video.

Here is a video from Sunday night's first attempt at baby food. We tried green beans that night but have since tried squash. As you can see from the video, she wasn't a fan of green beans. She ate the squash much better. This morning I tried them both again and she really liked when I mixed the two. Gross I know, but whatever it takes! I am gonna get some fruit next! If she is anything like me, she will love any kind of fruit.

Since this video, we have tried bananas and prunes. She liked the prunes when I mixed them with the squash or green beans. The bananas however, I mixed with her cereal and she hated them. I am not gonna give up on them! Eventually maybe she will like them! And, she will actually eat the green beans by themselves now!!

Last night, I went to Wal-Mart and got a steamer basket and some fresh fruits and veggies and made some baby food!! It was really easy and much cheaper. I made sweet potatoes and carrots. I plan on making some more this week!

The Time Has Come

Audrey Claire has TONS of stuffed animals already. We really don't have a place for them so I just put all of them at the end of her bed. After all, she only sleeps on half of it and really doesn't move around too much. Until now... I knew the time would come when I had to move them so she could have the whole bed. Well, the time has come. I heard lots of commotion the other night when she was supposed to be going to sleep and this is what I found...

We also started baby food this week. (I know I've said this before but she is growing up WAY too fast!) We tried green beans at first. I will upload a video later of how that went. Today we tried squash. It definitely went better than the green beans. I will put up pictures of that later!!

Fourth of July Fun

We had a VERY busy weekend full of friends and family. It all started Friday when ReRe and Pops came down to visit. When they got here we went shopping, as usual. They stayed for a while and when they left they took Brookley home. I loved having her here! She was SUCH a big helper.

Later that night, Matthew and Annie came to stay with us. We were so excited to see them! We stayed up way too late talking to them thinking we would get to sleep at least until 8 or so Saturday morning. Well, Audrey Claire had different plans. Since she didn't get to see them Friday night, she couldn't wait till 8. She woke us up at 6:30! But she is so stinkin cute we didn't care.

That morning, the boys went to play disc golf while the girls prepared for Saturday night. That's when we had about 20 people come over to our house to celebrate the 4th! We grilled and played Wiffle Ball. We really enjoyed having everyone over at our house.

Saturday night Seth's mom (Gi-Gi) came to stay the night with us. Sunday morning she went to church with us and then we all went to Newk's for lunch!

Whew! Told you it was a busy weekend!!!

Annie and Audrey Claire reading a book

Not sure when this was taken, just found it on my camera!

Baby's got a new dress on!!

Fellowship at the Kent's

Audrey Claire is definitely growing up too fast. She already goes to the College class at church! I know she should probably be in the nursery by now, but she really prefers hanging out with the older crowd. So last night we went to the college Bible study at some fellow church members' house. They are doing a study on C.J. Mahaney's book titled "Living the Cross-Centered Life" every Thursday night and we try to go each week. We got there early last night and Seth walked Audrey Claire around to see some of their animals. My child loves being outside!

I wanted a picture of her in front of the pig too but my camera battery was dying so I had to take what I could get!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us FULL of grandparents and friends coming to visit. I can't wait to hang out with all of them! We are especially excited to see Matthew and Annie! They are coming home from New York today and we finally get to hang out with them as a MARRIED couple. I am sure I will have lots of pictures and stories to post about at the end of the weekend.

Fun at the Pool and an "Update"

We took Audrey and my cousin Brookley swimming tonight at Justin and Lydia's. At first, I thought Audrey was going to miss out on the fun because she fell asleep on the way there. But eventually all the splashing and noise woke her up. She got in the pool with Daddy and LOVED it. This wasn't her first time in the pool though. That was Monday of this week and I forgot to take my camera. Anyway, we have come to the conclusion that we definitely have a swimmer on our hands. She splashed and laughed for at least 45 minutes which is a long time for a 5 month old!

An update for the grandparents: Audrey now has TWO bottom teeth which make her smile so much sweeter! And she has just started to sit up by herself the last couple of days. Lastly, she is making me chase her all over the living room now. Not crawling but rolling! Every time I put her down she immediately begins to roll. She can now roll from her back to her belly then over again!