What Are You Gonna Do?

So, I've decided that 2 year olds are about the funniest thing on earth right now. Audrey has more and more to say each day and while some of the things she says won't be so funny when she's older, I find it really hard to get too mad at her right now.

Saturday morning we went through the drive through at Chick-fil-a and Audrey wanted a chicken biscuit. We were planning on eating in the car so I got Audrey the chick-n-minis to prevent a major biscuit mess. I mean, their not technically chicken biscuits but seriously, is a 2 year old going to notice?

Me (handing her the opened box of minis): "Here are your chicken biscuits."

Audrey (pouting while smashing the box closed): "I no eat dis."

Me (a little shocked and partially laughing): "What's wrong? Their chicken biscuits!"

Audrey (handing the box back to me): "No shicken biscuit! Ugh! I so mad!"

Seriously? I so mad? Okay, I can only blame myself for that one. I should be grateful that's the only thing she chose to repeat from my little outburst at the printer the night before.

What An Imagination

Friday night we had a bad storm come through our area that resulted in Audrey and I spending some quality time in the closet waiting out the threat of a tornado. In an attempt to keep her preoccupied, I pulled out her rather large and fairly new set of play-doh that she received from her cousins for her birthday. I hide it in the closet because after letting her play with it a couple of times, I decided that I hate play-doh. For now. Maybe I won't hate it as much when she is old enough to not stick it up her nose and mash all of the colors together. But for the sake of the situation, I pulled it out. And I'm actually glad I did because she had me laughing hard at the things she was "creating" and talking about.

Lately, Audrey has become obsessed with singing the birthday song. She will randomly start singing, "Happy Burfday to you, Happy Burfday to you, Happy Burfday to Audrey, Happy Burfday to you" and then we have to pretend to blow out the candles and eat cake. And when I say randomly, I mean in the grocery store, at the gym, in the pool, at the zoo. It doesn't matter where we are- when she thinks of it, we sing it. A far cry from her actual "burfday" 14 months ago...

So, while she's playing with her play-doh, I notice her stick 2 crayons in the container and then hear, "C'mon, Mommy. Sing." So, with our pretend cake and candles in hand, we sang (way too many times to count) Happy Birthday to Audrey.

Poor girl is never going to make it 10 more months. Thank goodness her daddy's birthday is in a couple of weeks and he will have lots of candles to blow out (and a real cake that won't be green).

Let Summer Begin

Nothing says summer more to me than sweating to death while watching a baseball game and eating cotton candy...

and hot dogs, ice cream, and peanuts- that's really the only reason I go. Looks like Audrey agrees.

Hanging with Justin and Stryker

My parents went on an Alaskan cruise last week so Brett, Audrey, and I headed over to their house to hang out with Justin while they were gone. We all survived but I'm pretty sure Stryker will be chasing them to the airport next time they go anywhere.

I'm sure Justin is looking forward to getting some peace and quiet now, too. Audrey's favorite place in the entire house was his bedroom. When my parents built this house, they had all the of the light switches, thermostat's, and intercom systems put down low so Justin could reach them easily. Consequently, it's the perfect height for Audrey, too. Poor Justin would be in his room watching tv or talking on the phone and Audrey would come in, turn the radio up loud and start dancing. Jus had a daily concert- microphones and all.

She got her sweet moves from her momma.

And poor Stryker was expected to participate also.

I didn't have my camera with me most days so I missed some really funny moments but these were definitely the highlights. 10 days was a long time to be gone from our home but I'm so glad that my parents were able to get away and have some fun. Brett and I definitely came home with a deeper appreciation for the things they do each day.

Fun at the Zoo

Saturday, we took Justin to the zoo with us (really, he had no choice, but he seemed excited about it anyway). The zoo is one of our favorite places to go to and we are so lucky to have such an awesome one here. Each time we go, we always see something new or unexpected. I will never forget the time I went with my cousins and the black bear literally, and very unexpectedly, did this kung-fu type move doing a 180 degree turn and jumped on the rope wall seperating us (while growling mind you). It's at those times you re-think wanting them do something besides walk around. And no, we weren't taunting him. We were standing there talking and waiting on the straglers. Any-hoo, the trip this weekend did not disappoint.



Always so happy at the beginning...



The zoo usually has an interative butterly exhibit during the summer but this year they changed it to bees and birds. I could have done without the bee exhibit, although, it still warms my heart to hear that they die as soon as they sting you. If only God would have punished wasps and those giant bumblebees the same way. Ugh. The bird exhibit was so cool. I think I loved it more than Audrey or Justin. This little friend flew up right next to me and sat on the branch. He was actually this close to me. Just beautiful.



You could buy these bird feeding sticks for $1. Sounded like a great idea but you had to get really close to the birds to feed them and most of them preferred to fly.

Justin gave up on his stick so I took it and found the bird on the left just sitting in the tree. As soon as he started eating, the other bird came over to share. I took so many pictures, you would have thought I had never seen a bird before! I really love birds, though. We have a lot of trees in our backyard and I love watching the birds from my kitchen window. I have seen so many pretty, colorful birds in my backyard. Although, my favorite this spring was all the baby birds that hatched.

Every time we go to the zoo, I seriously question whether the elephants use the pool. I have NEVER seen them in there! Until today.

Justin and I enjoying the air conditioning while Audrey ran around checking out the polar bears and sea lions.

Having fun can be so exhausting.

Audrey loves when Brett goes to the zoo with us because she gets unlimited carousel rides. The pageant wave just cracks me up.

Carousel rides AND the train? Does life get any better than this???

For as many times as I have gone to the zoo, I should be well aware of the fact that kids swim in the fountain area, but I didn't know about it! I guess because I prefer to go in the spring and fall when it's not so hot outside. As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed a ton of kids playing in the water and of course, Audrey had to join them.

Maybe, next time I'll be prepared with a bathing suit. I wonder what we'll see next time!

NYC Highlights

Part of my birthday present this year (and as Brett likes to joke, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, and really any other holiday that I'll let him get away with) was a trip to NYC with my friends, Ashley and Katie. We hadn't seen each other since my wedding 4 years ago so it was waaaay past time to get together. Ashley hooked us up with a great deal on the Marriott hotel right in the middle of Times Square. It was a beautiful hotel and so nice to be in the middle of everything!


This was what we walked out to every day...
Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

We hit the Today Show Friday morning to see a little Gwen. LOVE her.


And let's be honest, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Matt, too. I heart Matt.



And made our way to Central Park where Katie harrassed a squirrel. Guess when you're without your kids you get a little bored. :)



Then headed over to FAO Schwartz to do some shopping for the kids and Tiffany's to do some shopping for us. Well, it was more like window shopping. I really just scoped out what I wanted so I could look for the knockoffs in China Town. That night we went to see Mamma Mia. The songs in that musical had special meaning for us in college and it was so much fun to see it together on this trip. Front row seats didn't hurt either. For those of you who have seen this musical, you know it's a HIGH ENERGY musical, so when we left the theater we were ready to dance. A couple of diet cokes and 3 to-die-for desserts later, Katie and I opted to relive our college days by having a dance party in the room. I will only show a couple of pictures because as embarrassing as these are, the others are worse!


At 30, it's a little tougher to get your leg up by yourself. I'm still amazed that management didn't show up at our door with all the jumping, laughing, and loud music going on in our room.





The next morning was a little tough getting up but we managed since we had a lot of shopping planned. Ashley was our official tour guide, making sure we got on the correct subways and reading the map making sure we didn't get lost walking around.


It was so nice to get away and not have to worry about all the responsibilites of being wives and a mothers for a few days. Although, I know we were all very excited to see our families when we got back! Can't wait until next time girls!

Is there anything sweeter...

...than putting your child to bed and hearing, “Ni, Ni, Momma. I wuv you.” (Sigh) One of the many reasons I love bedtime.