The Holiday Season Can Begin...

Audrey's Christmas pants are officially finished and I think they turned out so cute!!


Up close and personal with the ruffles.


My friend is embroidering this design on a shirt that Audrey will wear with her pants.


I must give MUCH of the credit to my very talented and PATIENT mother and a fantastic tutorial, http://jumpupanddown.typepad.com/jumpupanddown/2008/04/a-tutorial-ruff.html, that I came across with directions for making the ruffles.

Now, on to making 2 more pairs for my nieces. I thought they would enjoy matching with Audrey, since the 3 of them are all crazy about each other, and check off 2 Christmas presents in the process. I love multi-tasking!

The 3 Under 3

(Don't you just love Audrey's "give me a break" look? I interrupted Barney.)

For the past 2 days, I've had my sweet little nieces at my house, who are 2 and 3 years old. Audrey has been in heaven and I have to admit, I have enjoyed myself also. Audrey's happiness has come from having 2 girls to play with (and who actually play with her), be silly with, scream with, talk to, watch movies with, etc etc. You get the point. While I love these girls, my happiness has come from BEING LEFT ALONE!! Don't get me wrong, they still needed things (food, lots of food) but Audrey was so entertained by them that she left me alone. There were times I think she forgot I was even there. I got laundry done, snacks given out and cleaned up, clothes put away, lunch made and cleaned up, the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded... all before noon! That stuff usually takes me ALL day. Audrey wasn't following me around destroying stuff as I cleaned or needing to be held. It was WONDERFUL! So, I decided that having more children definitely has its perks. Now, if I just didn't have to go through the pregnancy again... and wait for one of them to be able to fully communicate, clean up after him/herself, be completely potty trained, and take my threats seriously. he he

Making cupcakes, kind of.


Just like her mom.


Helping to stir the cake (the only real useful helper)


These 2 were more interested in licking anything covered in cake batter.


You know you have a good cousin when they will let you sit on top of them to watch tv. Audrey is currently boycotting clothes.


The only one content playing by herself.

Good Riddance!

After putting it off for, well, let's be honest, a year and half, I am finally cleaning out my closet. I have 4 different stages that I could catergorize my clothing in: super skinny (hey, don't laugh, these are my catergories) pre-baby stage, aka really cute, rather pricey clothes; really fat, I'm eating because "the baby needs it", maternity clothes; extra large, no, I'm not pregnant ANYMORE, cheap, please let SOMETHING fit around my Dolly Parton chest and my J.Lo booty clothes; and last but not least, my current, average size. No, I never made it back to my original weight, yes, my hips and booty forgot to shrink back down to pre-baby size, but hey, I am happy and feel good in my clothes.

Since I am post-baby and comfortable that my body will never be the skinny little thing it used to be, I figured it was time to finally get rid of all of my category 1clothes. However, that is the only category of clothes that is leaving my closet since I think I would like to have another child (today) and therefore, will eventually need those other clothes (but those are now organized within their own groups). Turns out, I had a lot more money to spend on clothes pre-baby and the stack of category 1 clothes leaving my closet was shocking. Now, you might be thinking that it could be worse, but the sad truth is that I already donated a pile just about as big as this to my sister this summer.


I can't tell you how freeing it felt to walk in my closet and just pull everything off the hangers. I almost messed up and got rid of things that fit just because I was enjoying myself so much. It was like turning over a new leaf. Finally acknowledging that I will never be able to wear those clothes again and not caring anymore. I mean, why torture myself? Plus, now that Brett's side of the closet is twice as full as mine it means that I can go shopping, right?!

I must say that I am thrilled to be free of the little voice inside my head that says, "If you would put down that cookie and go hit the treadmill, you might be able to wear that beautiful wrap sweater that you drove to 2 different stores to find and bought hot off the rack with no coupons" (gasp). Well, guess what? I like coupons now and while the sweater is beautiful, it itches.

Now I'm going to eat some cookies. Take THAT little voice.

Picture of the Week

I'm still laughing about this picture! As we were leaving the house this morning, Audrey insisted on getting her hat. She LOVES hats and tries to turn everything into a hat- boxes, pots and pans, the advertisement display's sitting on tables at the restaurant (you know, the ones featuring the yummiest looking dessert that you won't be able to stop thinking about because of the obnoxious, in your face display). Anyway, enough about my self control issues. Little Miss Independent wanted to put on her hat today all by herself and I about fell over laughing when I looked outside and saw her. The flap in the front technically goes over her ear and because of the way she was wearing it, the back of the hat was pointed just like the front. Positioned this way reminds me of those Trojan helmets (I think those are the right ones). Ahhh... thank goodness for the moments that make us laugh.

Gatlinburg Escape

Brett and I were able to escape to the Smoky Mountains for a few days last week and I have to admit, I could have stayed longer! I missed Audrey, but I knew that she was in good hands so I wasn't worried about her. She was spoiled rotten and probably had more fun in 4 days than she's had her entire 19 months with me. But I guess that's the point when you stay with Grandma and Grandpa!

Brett and I stayed in a beautiful cabin with great views of the leaves changing.




The first day we drove into the park and hiked around. Before we left, Brett said that he would like to go on an easy/moderate hike. Nothing strenuous. I should have just laughed at him because I knew this would happen...


Now, I know from the picture it probably doesn't look bad, but let me assure you, it was. This hike, that was indeed labeled "strenuous," was 2 miles straight up with a 1700' elevation change (I think that's how you explain that). All I kept thinking was that if I made it up alive, it would be all downhill on the way back.

Point of destination: "Chimney Tops" If you wanted to get the best view, you had to climb the rocks. I chose to go about halfway where I stood a chance of getting down without killing myself (and everyone else in my path).


Brett chose to climb to the top. Here's his proof.


What's funny is that no one was going to the top when we got there. Once Brett started climbing, you could hear gasps and whispers (it was really funny) and suddenly there is a line of people going up behind him.


Going downhill (steep enough to make you just want to run the entire way) was not as enjoyable as I had hoped. I can't say it was worse than going up, but by the time we got to the car, my knees were in major pain. I think I have the knees of a 60 yr old.


Lucky for me, Brett was too sore the next day to want to do anymore strenuous hiking so we decided to head to North Carolina to see the Biltmore Estate. Ahhh... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this house. It is AMAZING!! My mom and I went and toured the house a couple of years ago and I knew that Brett would love it, too. We love looking at houses and you just can't beat the biggest home in America.





We were also able to get in some shopping at the outlet mall, ate lots of yummy food, and visited one of my closest friends from college and saw her little 4-month old baby for the first time.

While we were gone, Audrey had her own fun and my mom took lots of pictures to document. Here are some of the best...

Sat in wet cement.


Found a new hiding place in the cabinets of my parents new (under construction) house.


Ate LOTS of ice cream.


Invaded Stryker's space-


and made peace with Stryker by giving him lots of hugs.


Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!

Finished!

I finally finished Audrey's dress. It was a lot of fun to make and much easier after making the pink dress. The only help I needed from my mom was towards the end when I was sewing the lining- well, and I still don't know how to thread her machine. :) I'm pretty sure I'm getting a sewing machine for Christmas and I told Brett I want to find one for dummies. You know, like all those yellow guide books, "________ for Dummies." In fact, I would love to find a machine that can thread itself! Why is that so hard for me?? Anyway, if any of you love to sew and have a great machine, please share! I can use any good info you have.




Thanks to my very talented friend, Staci, for doing such a beautiful job embroidering the dress. I'll have some more business for you in a few weeks!


Up next, some really fun Christmas ruffle pants. Ruffle completed. Pants, not so much. Stay tuned!

Halloween 2008

Another successful Halloween has come and gone. Audrey was a bumblebee and I thought it was so cute!



When I first got her costume she didn't like it one bit. In fact, there was a lot of kicking and screaming when I tried it on her. So, we had to have a couple of dress rehearsals throughout the month to prepare for the big night and she eventually warmed up to her costume. We got it out on Thursday and she has been wearing it ever since. Now the kicking and screaming was because I told her that she had to take it off to go to Target (can you imagine getting that tutu in a car seat??) and no, you cannot wear it to bed.

We had so much fun having our family and friends over for trick or treating and yummy donuts and hot chocolate. I was a little disappointed that quite a few of my neighbors didn't participate in trick or treating. There were a lot of dark houses this year- it seemed like more this year than last- but I'm just going to tell myself that they were probably at parties themselves. Despite this, I think all the kids had fun and still scored tons of candy.

Greeting Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.


Audrey's bumblee hairbow. So adorable!


Audrey (with her mouth full of candy- and we hadn't even started trick or treating yet!) and her cousins.


All set to go trick or treating with Spiderman, Cinderella, and a ballerina.


My nephew, the cutest little cowboy.


Sweet Minnie Mouse



Stopping off at my friend's house (she was giving out coupons for free Wendy's frosty's- can't miss that!!)


Our neighbor had his Scotty dogs dressed up as hot dogs. We had to stop and say hi to EVERY dog we passed by last night.


My sister brought some fun crafts for the kids to do.


My nephews took care of the trick or treaters for me while I served food and drinks. Okay, okay. While I sat around and talked to everyone.


Audrey was in heaven... she was very shy trick or treating but as soon as she was home, the playing and screaming began. She loves playing with her cousins and friends. Every time I turned around she had a different sucker in her mouth- I'm sure I'll find several suckers stuck in my carpet today- and was still eating M&Ms at 9:30pm last night! I thought for sure we were in for a long night but as soon as her head hit the bed, she was out until 7:30 am. Can't complain. Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate such a fun holiday with us! We can't wait to do it again next year!