Audree's birthday party(way late I know) and update

I know I am way late in posting about Audree's birthday but what can I say, by the time I got the pictures I wasn't in the mood for blogging about it. Oh well, here it is now :)

Audree was playing in the balloons after we blew them all up. We had to get some pictures of that!


Before the party we had a dinner. Since that night was all about Audree it was all about her "favorites." We started off with dinner and had waffles(and in the mornin', I'm makin' WAFFLES!) since waffles is Audree's favorite dinner(I wonder why??? maybe it's the sugar!!). Of course we did other breakfast foods too for the rest of us to enjoy.

After our breakfast for dinner was Audree's party. Her favorite color is yellow so we decided to do a yellow party. Of course we had to get a cute yellow(partly) dress and a cute yellow bow. We did yellow decorations, yellow cupcakes, yellow fondant for our rice crispy treat cake topped with yellow stars, lemonade for drinking and just a whole lot of yellow. We also served fruits and veggies which are always refreshing and dip because what kid doesn't like to dip things. Also Audree happens to love rice crispy treats so that's why we made that into a "cake." And juice, well anything sweet Audree pretty much loves.

Singing happy birthday to the birthday girl
Yeah, she didn't quite get it so mommy ended up just blowing out the candles for her
And for who knows why she thought it was a good idea to dig in with her face. Really, she never does this, I have no idea why she decided to do it. It was cute though :)

The cupcakes with dried fondant stars
party snacks!

I left my sister in charge of taking pictures and we didn't end up with any pictures of her presents...I don't know why she didn't but I've decided not to be mad about it :)(love you manda!)

She LOVES all of her presents. She got some princess dress up stuff consisting of pretend powder and lipstick and a bracelet and tiara she also got some princess bubbles(Audree is obsessed with bubbles). She got a princess book, which of course she loves. She got a puzzle that makes animal sounds, a toy van with a mommy and a baby, Handy Manny's tool set and some bubble bath stuff and an outfit from her great grandma Spencer(I think that is all, I don't feel like going to look so sorry if I missed something).


After everyone left our friends Tyler and Christine stuck around a little longer and Audree was having a blast with Tyler. We had a good laugh when Tyler took the helium filled balloon and rubbed it on Audree's hair and it floated up a tad and stayed attached to her hair as shown in the above picture. Seriously Audree was being so silly with Tyler and just loved him. Thanks Tyler and Christine for sticking around! It definitely made Audree's birthday even better for her.

Now for just some plain old updates. We'll start with Audree.

Audree has hit the age where everyday is something new and I am constantly amazed by how much she is learning and how quick she picks things up.

Some of Audree's latest accomplishments and other things she enjoys doing:
-We have a bedtime routine that if we stray from Audree has a cow. First we get her pj's on then we brush her teeth. Then we go to the playroom and she can pick out 3 books to read. Pretty much she doesn't let us read them to her anymore and she has to do it herself. It's crazy to watch her flip through the pages and she knows exactly what the book is about. After we read books then we sing songs. Audree's 2 favorite songs right now is popcorn popping and head, shoulders knees and toes. We sing those two songs like 3 or 4 times each and then we usually sing the abc's, the wiggle song, the itsy bitsy spider and twinkle twinkle little star. Audree loves to do the actions in the songs with actions and she says about half the words in most of the songs.
-Audree knows most of her abc's but is still a little inconsistent about it. We go through her abc books and point to letters and she gets them about half the time. When we sing the abc's she pretty much just stares at us and grins like a dork and ocassionally will chime in with the emphasized letters in the song.
-Audree loves to count and whenever daddy brings multiple things back from the store he makes her count them. Of course she still messes up occasionally but she's still pretty dang good at counting items
-Audree can identify these colors, by their color, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black and white.
-I wont even write down all the words she can say because I wouldn't be able to name them all and the list of what I could name would be ridiculously long. But her vocabulary is ever expanding and she is making sentences and copying things that we say.
-Audree loves climbing up on chairs and moving them all around to get to where she wants to be. She goes to time our like 20 times a day for that alone and still keeps moving chairs and climbing on counters and getting into things she's not supposed to.
-Audree is exceptionally good at throwing tantrums...
-Audree still takes a 3 hour nap! She may not enjoy it but I do :)
-Audree has really grown into the role of big sister. She is so nurturing and caring with Arya. We occasionally get the scares where she thinks she can sit on Arya's head or something like that but other then that she is very loving and gentle with her. I guess she also likes to take things away from Arya but Arya is to young to care. When Arya cries she's right there to try and make her happy(or to tell her to be quiet). When she's in her high chair Audree comes up to Arya and pull the high chair close to her chair and play with her and puts her binky in her mouth and all that good big sister stuff.
-Audree loves helping her daddy fix stuff and is always pretending that she is fixing things.
-Audree is a master at opening things...I am pretty sure if we didn't keep child proof lids out of reach she would figure out how to open them.
-Audree isn't quite ready for potty training yet but she is starting to let us know AFTER she's gone to the bathroom and asks to have her diaper changed.
-She's obsessed with Arya spitting up and makes sure it gets cleaned up whether she does it herself or bugs us until we do it.
-Audree loves helping us put dishes from the dishwasher away. Of the non-breakable stuff we let her put away she knows where everything goes.
-She has started putting diapers on her stuffed animals.
-Audree LOVES going to her grandma and grandpa Bennett's house and is always asking to go to their house.
-Audree loves her aunts and uncle(I would say uncles but she doesn't know her other 2 hobo uncles) and is always asking where did they go.


Now for Arya
-Arya is now starting to get a nap schedule. For the longest time she would just nap all the time and whenever. Now we get a nap about an hour to an hour and a half after she wakes up. Then we get an early afternoon nap a late afternoon/early evening nap and then she goes to bed around 10.
-About half the time Arya sleeps through the night and the other half she wakes up once. She never stays up after she eats. She eats and goes right back to sleep and sleeps until we get up.
-Arya can now roll from her stomach to her back and is incredibly close to rolling from her back to her stomach.
-Arya has strong legs and loves to stand
-Arya still hates baths so we bring her in the shower with us, which is better, but usually she exits the shower on the verge of hysterics.
-Unfortunately we have already removed the bumpers from her crib because Arya moves all over the crib while she sleeps.
-Arya hold onto toys but instead of being good entertainment they seem to make her angry. She grunts and growls and makes angry noises at them.
-Arya is SO talkative. I thought Audree was talkative but seriously not compared to Arya. Sometimes Arya will go for like 30 minutes or more straight just talking/cooing/grunting/something kind of like singing. If you talk to her she talks back.
-Arya absolutely LOVES to be sung to. When you start singing to her she grins and has ears for only your voice.
-Arya is VERY much a mommy's girl. Audree has always been a daddy's girl but Arya is more of a mommy's girl. Sometimes it's great and sometimes it makes things difficult.
-Arya knows the moment I start walking away and wont let me go without her letting me know how mad she is that I am leaving. A lot of time she follows me with her eyes wherever I go.
-Arya is 3 months and still wearing her 0-3 month clothes(this was not so with miss Audree, she was just too fat!) She's getting to long for things like her pajamas, but 3-6 month outfits drown her not so fat body.
-Arya may not be as fat as Audree was but we are definitely starting to see the chub!!!
-Arya loves to giggle at what seems to us like nothing, she is doing it right now and it is making me smile
-Arya loves her big sister and when she's around she pays attention to her. She can be entertained by Audree for a really long time...as long as Audree will pay attention to her :)
-Arya will grab any skin, hair or clothing that comes in reach of her grip
-She's a spit up machine
-Her eyes get more noticeably blue everyday
-She is quite the charmer and when people oogle at her she knows exactly what to do and gives it to the onlookers until they are in fits of excitement and happiness

As for the rest of us boring adults there isn't to much new. We are thinking of planning a trip to the east coast something soonish. We are still unsure if we are going but are really considering it. I recently read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and I thought they were great and I am excited for Mockingjay to come out on the 24th. Me and Mark are coming up on 3 years of marriage and will be celebrating it in Solitude at his parents condo. I have been developing my passion for cooking lately as I have been expanding my knowledge and pallet by watching the food network and finding inspiration through it to create my own new dishes or even if it's just making fabulous dishes by the talented chefs on food network. I'm mostly obsessed with Giada, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Paula Deen and the Next Food Network Star. I still find inspiration from Anne Burrel, Sunny Anderson, Rachel Ray, Guy Fieri and the Neeley's.

I really just love my girls and my husband so much. I am so grateful to have spent the previous 3 years with my husband and plan to spend forever with him and my girls. I love them so much. If you made it through this possibly boring post you are great and probably a real friend! Now it's time for me to stop neglecting my fussy baby. Like I said, she's a momma's girl :)