847

That's the number of pictures that I took while we were on vacation.

i am here

talk to you soon!

saying grace

Picture your entire family standing around the table holding hands and your 4 year old daughter and her 4 year old cousin aka partner in crime volunteering to say the prayer:

Audrey "God, we enjoy your food. Amen"
followed by
Abby "O lord, thank you for this food, please help it not get stuck in our throats. Amen"

take two

The second session was just Lucy since these were actually her "official" 18 month pictures. She had no problem letting the photographer know that she thought she was crazy. About half way through I let the lady know that it was ok to take pictures of her not smiling, I think they are pretty funny. Hey, if they all turn out perfect I just end up spending too much money so it's actually better for me to only have a few to choose from.

pictures

Here is the first session with Audrey and Lucy together. What you can't see is Lucy getting up between every picture and running through the store and Audrey bossing the photographer.

counting...hide and seek style

and yes I realize that it's sideways and maybe someday I will fix it, but for now I just couldn't not post it, so hear you go :)

synonym

Audrey has this habit of asking for 10 or 12 different things all in about a 5 second span. The words "I can only do one thing at a time" and "Please be a little more patient" are said quite often in our house...when I'm having a good day. She is also VERY good at giving un-directions - that is - telling you everything that you are doing wrong. Put the two of these together and it makes for a lethal combination.
So last night, while I was fulfilling request #2 or 3 or 10, as she was telling me that the water was the wrong temperature in the wrong cup, I blurted out "My goodness Audrey you are so high maintenance" to which she replied:

"What does that mean? Does that mean that I'm awesome?"

this many days

left 'til Disney

homework

Audrey brought home her first homework on the 2nd night of school. It was a "who am I?" questionnaire. I began to ask her these "easy" questions and quickly realized that she was making most of it up. I had to ask the same questions several times; in the car, during dinner, at bedtime. I kept trying to catch her off guard. I even had to put it down and do some breathing exercises. You see Audrey, she knows how to push my buttons. I had told Travis a log time ago that he would be in charge of homework and this was exactly the reason why. When he got home the next day I asked him "how he would handle the homework situation". I guess I wasn't clear on if it was ok for her to "use her imagination" on this assignment or if her class was really trying to learn some things about her. Seriously how does 4 year old homework become this complicated? Finally, I filled some of them in on her behalf and others I just gave up and let slide...like her pet bunny and her ice skating hobby.

she's finally here!

Lily Nicole MenziesLook at that red hair
7 pounds 7 ounces 20 inches
Congratulations Todd and Tara
I think Daddy is already in love!

the picture list

So when I was pregnant with Lucy I sat down with my picture albums and made a list of all of the pictures that I had of Audrey that I also wanted of Lucy. Some of them were obvious: the monthly chair pictures, the firsts, major holidays and events, etc.

And then there were the "accidental" pictures of Audrey:that became the "must have" pictures of Lucy:

first day of pre school

meet in the middle

Lucy turned 18 months old on the 1st. Her "half birthday" as we refer to it in our house. Her Dr. appt was on the 3rd. Her stats were surprising to me. She is now in the 10th percentile.

21.7 pounds

30.25 inches

I just kept saying to the Dr "she used to look like the Michelin baby, a year ago she was in the 80th percentile"

( 5 months old - my rolly polly)

This made me want to come home and find Audrey's stats. She started out not even on the chart.

(5 months old -my skinny mini)

And eventually made it to 10th percentile at 18 months.

21.0 pounds

29.5 inches

With only one difference - that preemie noggin.

Audrey 18 3/4 inches

Lucy 17 1/4 inches

(oh and apparently the 18 month "chair picture" is not a very smiley picture...let's hope for more smiles next week at portrait innovations)

contagious

Ever since I came down with the bingo fever, Audrey has been dying to use my dabber. Well, thanks to my good friend Kate, I was able to find something for her to do with them: She is "tracing" her name.

The finished product. I think she did at least 8 of them.

Once again, I was able to incorporate gambling into getting my daughter ready for school.