Slip-n-Slide

First time for the slip-n-slide this year. It seems to always kill my grass, so we might not get it out too often. Clark always seems to end up with his clothes off though.

Ready for Football Season

These guys already bought their season tickets and are ready to see #10 in action!

New vampire in town.

Clark bit me twice on the hand in ten minutes, breaking the skin both times. Any helpful hints from other closet-parents-of-biters?

My little girl is into cars...

Audrey is really making me laugh with her intense interest in cars. She asked my friend Marla, "What kind of car is this?" and Marla responded, "A Nissan Pathfinder." Audrey said, "Oh, that is not made in the United States." This is coming from a relative of Ann Falloure who, after purchasing a brand new car, could not name the make or model!

She has also taken to asking God to please give us "a Chevrolet Suburban."

One of the members at our gym drives a SmartCar and this fascinates her.

She spotted it first last week and shouted, "SmartCar!"

I said, "That is a really tiny car, isn't it?"

"Is it really tiny, Mom?" she said skeptically, almost scolding me for exaggerating. "I mean, it's not like you could lift it with your hands or anything. A really tiny car would be one on a Christmas ornament."

Well I guess you can't argue with that.

Museum

Our little pioneer children.

Addendum to Mother's Day Post

In all of my praise of Shannon for Mother's Day, I forgot to mention that she takes pretty good care of me as well.

Clark's Swing

If you can't see his swing so well, it's because I've had to back up to avoid getting hit.

Tribute to Mom

Shannon is the greatest mother that I could ever imagine to raise my children. I know that my children are being raised in a environment of unconditional love where the learn Biblical principles daily. There is never a dull moment in our house with Shannon but we wouldn't have it any other way. Some of these pictures are repeats, but they are my favorites of a great mother and our precious children. Shannon- thank you for everything you do. You have a incredibly hard, never ceasing job but I think you can see some of the fruits of your labor if you look our children's faces in these pictures.

Breaking news...

We've been working on potty training with Clark this week and he's been doing great! Today is his first full day with no accidents! (Unless Anna comes along and says he had one during Sunday School). He still has not successfully used a public toliet so I am unfortunately dragging the toddler toliet everywhere I go, but anything to save some $ on diapers!

Picking your battles

I have chosen not to fight the wardrobe battle obviously. I put Audrey down for nap in a perfectly respectable shirt and skirt and when she woke up she was wearing this.





I have to give her props for wrestling those tights on without assistance.

She got lots of looks at Sam's this afternoon and one sweet lady said, "Don't you wish you could hold up a sign that says 'She dresses herself'?"

nyc trip--part 2

After the zoo we did some shopping. Here's the standard big piano pic from FAO Schwarz.


Here's an action walking shot. Everytime we saw people crossing the street Audrey said, "Wow! Those people in the street are really brave!"

We grabbed a quick lunch at Speedy's and met Sarah who had just returned from a trip to London. I'm sure she was exhausted but she was a real trooper! She took us to SweetiePie, an adorable restaurant in Greenwich Village that she read about on Alston's blog. Audrey was enthralled. She summed it up pretty nicely, "Ooh, this place is so lovely and pretty and pinkish!"

These cupcakes tasted as good as they looked: strawberry lemon mousse and peanut butter chocolate.

Our super sweet waiter who had the major hots for Crystal



There were lots of "cheers" during our meal here.

We said goodbye to Crystal who had to go back to work. Here's the last shots of the BFFs in Penn Station. Yes, Crystal stole electricity to charge her Blackberry nearly every place we went.

On Sunday we weren't able to make our morning flight back for Kalan's shower. We were really sad about that. But in the end it turned out great because the weather was best on Sunday and we got to spend a little longer with Sarah.

We slept in Sunday and shopped in Union Square then ate a great lunch at Max Brenner's. So fun. I love this little hug mug.

We headed down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty and Audrey actually got to pet and touch these snakes! Sorry for the random picture, I didn't have my camera.

nyc trip--part 1

Last week after an amazing banquet, Audrey and I hopped on a plane to NYC to see Sarah and Crystal and cheer on our Baylor Bears at the NIT Championship! (Yay for flight benefits!) We had such a great Mommy/daughter trip. Audrey behaved wonderfully and we really enjoyed one another. Josh was so excited for us he packed Audrey a special backpack for the plane with crayons, books, NYC-themed movies (Muppets Take Manhattan, Enchanted, etc.) and even got up at 6 am to send us off with donuts!

Thursday we arrived about 5 minutes before the game at Madison Square Garden. Audrey wore her Baylor cheerleader uniform and attracted lots of (postive and negative) attention. Those Big Ten fans are psycho intense. Audrey dictated the players' names and asked me to write them on a notepad and she held up this little sign for the whole game. It was really cute.

At one point in the game they showed JoePa on the JumboTron and the whole place went crazy.

We lost the game and some of the Penn State fans were not so nice. Some kids threw a cup at her and said, "Baylor Sucks!" and some drunk college students told her, "go home and change! Your team lost!" Seriously! To a four year old! Josh has always liked Penn State but after this he said No way.

Friday it rained most of the day so we hit the Children's Museum of Manhattan. It was neat and Audrey had a great time. It made me realize how nice our Mayborn Museum is. The quality is very comparable! We also went to Toys R Us in Times Square and rode the ferris wheel, and then bought tickets for Mary Poppins on Broadway. Mary Poppins was so good!

I loved it, even more than Lion King. I didn't realize until it started that Audrey thought we were going to the movies. When it started she leaned over and whispered, "Hey Mom! This is a really real movie!" Then the intermission came kind of suddenly and Audrey cried, "No! Please! I want more Mary Poppins!" After the show she actually got to meet one of the actors, Ruth Gottschall who plays Miss Andrew. She shook her hand and said, "You did a really good job." Here is Miss Andrew giving Michael his brimstone, treacle, and cod liver oil.

Saturday we met Crystal at the Central Park Zoo because Audrey wanted to see where the animals from Madagascar are from. Imagine her disappointment when we found out this teeny-tiny zoo didn't have giraffes, zebras, lions or hippos. She did immediately recognize the Delacorte Clock which I guess is in the movie (I haven't seen it).

Here's my Itsy-Bitsy Spider:

And the bunnies.

Terrible twos meet Clark

Our lil' man turns two tomorrow. Doubt we'd be able to do a blog post on a Friday night so here it goes. He's done a complete 180 from last year's birthday post. Apparently last year he was a sweet, calm, unassuming little boy. I have no recollection whatsoever of those days. Don't get me wrong. This lil guy will give you some of the sweetest snuggling that you could ever have, but if you aren't careful it might be followed by a punch in the face followed closely by laughter. The expression boys will be boys fits this lil guy perfect. I can't tell you how happy it made me last week when he brought me his baseball glove, my baseball glove, and a ball. For everyday the past two weeks he's carried his Chuck E Cheese tokens around and begged to go "shoot ball chuck cheese." Tonight we indulged him. Here's some pics of my son who brings us immense joy.

Dress Up Like a Book Character Day

Monday at school everyone was supposed to dress up like a book character and Audrey chose to be Lisa from Corduroy. I made her a super-short 60s style dress (though I think it turned out a little more 70s) and made Corduroy some green corduroy overalls with one button. A dinner napkin finished her off.

More quotes

Last night I got back from a run and came in to get some water and invited Audrey with me on a cool-down walk. I told her to go ask Dad if she could go because I heard bath water running and didn't know if he wanted her to get a bath.

So she asked him, "Dad I'm going for a walk, is that okay?" He (not knowing I was going too) said, "No way." When I walked in to say hi and Josh said, "Oh I didn't know you were here. I thought Audrey was asking to go on a walk by herself."

Audrey said, "WHAT?! Is Dad cray-cray (crazy)? Kids don't go on walks by themselves! That's how kids get lost forever!"

Stuff they say...

Wanted to jot down a few of the things they have said lately.

Clark has really been talking a lot, adding sentences and is a little parrot. "Have a great day!" or "More bilk (milk) please, Mommy." or "bye bye Cheese shoot ball with daddy" which means (Can we please go to ChuckECheese and shoot baskets with dad?).

When I picked up Audrey from school on Friday she saw me walking up to the playground and I heard her tell her teacher, "Mrs. H! It's my mom! And she's wearing a skirt!!"

Just now she told me, "Mom, you and I are obsessed with Princess Genovia, aren't we?" (She means Princess Mia from Princess Diaries which she saw part of in a hotel last year.)

Easy Living

Pretty sure that there's not many things better in life than being in our backyard on a beautiful (humidity and mosquito free) evening with the kids. I am getting worried about Audrey. Just the fact that she already has a look like that at age 4. Plus, Shannon told me that they ran into a boy classmate of Audrey's at Sam's and Audrey got weak in the knees. Here's Clark doing his favorite thing: throwing. Anyway you look at it though spending time with them is priceless.

Lake wedding

Brigid and Joey's wedding was a lot of fun and God even stopped the rain for the ceremony. We don't want to steal any of Brigid's thunder and will let her show all of her pictures. These are just a little taste of some of our family. Check out Audrey's Matrix like dance move.