Hold on my Celly is blowing up

Audrey can't go anywhere without her celly.

Audrey and Aunt Jennifer

Audrey got a great surpise when Aunt Jennifer stopped by on her way back to A&M. I'm pretty sure the only reason she stopped by was to see Audrey.

Ollie's first B-day!

Here's a picture from Ollie's first b-day. Jeremy and Candace, Ollie's parents, set quite the precedent for birthdays by renting a moonwalk. This is Ollie and Audrey playing together.

I want to be in Oasis!

Audrey tries to comb her hair like the guys in Oasis. I don't think this look is really working for her.

Skitarie's Christmas Present

It was finally cold enough to wear Skitarie's Christmas present. I think she did a good job picking it out, because Audrey looks pretty freaking cute.

Chuck E. Cheese

Audrey had her first of what will probably be many visits to Chuck E. Cheese. The Warners have David's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese every year. This tradition is still continuing despite the fact that he's nineteen. We had a great time. David and I had about an hour long competition on the basketball game to try to beat the high score. We came to the conclusion that the game cheats.

Parent Commitment

Tonight at our church we had Parent Commitment for Audrey's life. We have committed to raise Audrey in a Christian household and teach her about Christ, which she will hopefully accept as her personal saviour when she reaches the age of accountability. We were so lucky to be joined by a lot of our family and they also made a commitment to help raise Audrey in a Christian environment. Thanks so much for coming, it meant the world to us!

Coke Advertisement

Coke should abandon those stupid polar bears and get a real spokesmodel like this cutie.

New hairstyle

Audrey went to the world famous Nick Arrojo stylist from Shannon's favorite show "What Not to Wear" and this is the real winner that he came up with.

Bringing in the New Year

Notice to Grandparents: Skip to bottom for just Audrey updates. 2006 finally arrived. This is the year that I've looked forward to for a long time because I will finally graduate from optometry school. When you've strived for something since 8th grade, it feels really good to come close to reaching your goal. Well anyway, we had a small get together for New Years. Wes, Danny, Travis, Jennifer, Jason, Kendra, and Skitarie came over to hang out. It was fun to see everyone and we really enjoyed ourselves. Life is really funny because while I don't think I've ever been happier, I got kind of sad missing all of the times that we used to just hang out with no responsibility and the fun that we used to have.
Audrey brought in the new year with us and stayed up until two in the morning. She's so much fun and seemed to be the center of attention for a lot of the party.

More Christmas

One of the things about being married and now having a baby is that you get to have multiple Christmas celebrations. Here's some pictures of our third Christmas gathering at the Edgars. Shannon won the money jar, a tradition of guessing the amount of loose change in a jar, so we can now go the Laundromat many times. Grandma Edgar gave some very meaningful pots and pans of Granny Williford's to Luke and Stephanie and also gave Grandpa a very nice shadowbox of his army memorabilia.

Christmas Day

Here's a picture of Audrey and Shannon right after opening her stocking on Christmas day. We had a very relaxed Christmas day and opened presents later at night. Shannon and I only bought her two presents but the grandmas were there to spoil her rotten.

A different use for the walker

Audrey is starting to master walking with her walker. It gets frustrating because our house is so tiny that we constantly have to redirect her. She even started getting bored with walking and decided to use it as a ladder.

A Festivus Miracle!!

Audrey took her first steps (a whole 1.5 steps) during Christmas at the Bales house. One of Audrey's many presents was a walker which she practiced with and then she took some steps from her walker to the coffee table. She loved being with the Shannon family and I'm not sure there was a moment that she wasn't held by someone. Thanks to everyone for all the presents for her. She loves them.

For those who don't know, Festivus is an alternate Christmas celebrated by the Costanza family on Seinfeld. It is my favorite episode.

Going to Grandma's

Katherine the babysitter

Katherine got to come over and take care of Audrey this afternoon. They had a lot of fun at the park.

The weather outside is frightening.

It's really cold here in Houston. I feel really bad for Audrey because our hardwood floors that she crawls around on all day are really cold. Her hands are like ice when we pick her up. Here is a pic of her bundled up to go outside.

Christmas Tradition

We get Audrey an ornament for each different place that she visits during the year, and so it is now a tradition for her to hang all of the ornaments that she gets on the tree. This year she has a New Orleans, Stone Mountain GA, and North Carolina ornament. Hopefully sometime soon she'll get to add more. Beth had to help her hang them.

Hospital Trip

Audrey got really sick and had to be admitted to the hospital because she was dehydrated. One of the few benefits to living in Houston is the great medical care which Audrey received at Texas Children's Hospital. (I say all of this before I've seen the bill for all of this fine care) Shannon and Beth had to take her on Monday afternoon while I was in the middle of taking my national board exams. So after I got finished with testing on Monday, I went to the hospital and stayed for a while. I feel like a really bad father, because I had more testing the next day so I went home to spend the night. Shannon, being the super mother and wife, stayed beside Audrey's side the whole time! Audrey looked adorable in her hospital gown and when waving bye-bye to people with her IV hand which was in a splint. Well she stayed overnight and got really hydrated as you can tell by this picture. She wasn't too happy about the whole ordeal though.

First Christmas Party!

Audrey enjoyed her first Christmas party at our church. She made an ornamenet(my favorite on the tree), made some cookie mix, rode a pony, and most importantly heard the story of the birth of Jesus. Here's a pic from the party.