Water Babies

Audrey will be in a "water-babies" class in Feb/March. It's throught the YMCA and I do the class with her (duh). I'm going along with my friend Diana and her almost 6mo baby girl Zahra. We decided to take the girls early and see how they like it. The children's section at the Y is really cool, there are fountains and a slide and a shallow area and such. Because Audrey's past experiences in water (including a cold lake) went so well, I just assumed she'd love the water again. Well, I guess at 9mo she's more aware of her surroundings now and she got very nervous! As soon as we sat in the water she grabbed onto me for dear life and buried her face in my arm. After a few minutes of getting her used to it, she was her happy, playful self.

Her and Zahra splashed and touched the fountains and went down the slide, with help. We also dunked them under water and they both seemed to actually enjoy it! It was lots of fun to do something different with Audrey. I'm excited for her classes in Feb!

Audrey was not sad here, the camera just caught her lookin' that way :)

In other events, today was really fun. After swimming I had lunch/shopped at the mall with my mama. Later Chris brought me Culver's for din din and finally, I had game night with the MOPS girls, a very fun bunch! What a lovely day!

PS: Gran, I did this blog mostly for you, so you could see the pics!!!

Nine Months

Audrey Jo is 9 months old! I can't believe it! She's grown so fast! Here are 2 pics from yesterday, her official 9mo to the day pictures.

MOA, Omelette, and Snow

Yesterday was a fun day. Chris had a itch to go to the Mall of America, so we did! We drove Audrey up there and the first thing we did was go to the amusement park area. It used to be called Camp Snoopy, but now it's Nickelodeon themed. Audrey loved it. She stared at everything! Chris wanted to take her on a ride. I was thinking there would be no ride for her to go on, but then we saw the carosel! And so, Audrey and Chris rode the carosel. I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera. So just picture a tiny lil' baby strapped onto a carosel horse holdin' on tight and looking all around in wonder while her Daddy makes sure she's safe. It was so cute, I was a smilin' fool watching them. It's really quite a joy watching your child do something for the 1st time! Then we ate at Ruby Tuesdays in the MOA. Chris had never been there and wanted to try it. I thought it was really good! It was very pleasant, the waiters were helpful with Audrey, they found a spot for the stroller and got us a high chair. Audrey was very good there too! We walked around for a while then went to see Brice and Jenny! They've already been living in their place for 3 months (today) but I hadn't seen it yet! It's very cute and nice! We all played with Audrey and it was just nice to be with them! Audrey slept the whole way home!

Today was also a nice day. Chris got up with Audrey and eventually we had lunch with my parents and spent the rest the day at their house! We went to look at a house at one point and Mom made us supper!

Now, I'm just relaxin' while Chris plays playstation :) I shall now post some pics.

Audrey LOVES this book called Skippyjon Jones Up and Down. She smiles very big when I read it, too funny.

Audrey has 4 dollies, she has a love/hate relationship with them, for some reason, on occasion, they frustrate her and it seems she's trying to rip them apart?!

Grandma Jackie gives Audrey her 1st taste of snow!

Grandma did this while I was at work! Audrey's 1st snow experience!

What is this substance Audrey is eating you ask???

It's an omelette, made of egg yolk only, formula, and carrot! It looks odd I know, but it tasted really good I thought! Audrey liked to pick it up with her fingers! She gobbled it up!

Well, that's all I got peeps! Thanks for reading!

Making Friends

Last night we decided to pay a visit to the Chesney's house! Jeff was at class, but we got to see Kelsey, David (20mo) and Sammy (7wks)!

Chris meeting baby Sammy for the 1st time!

Me and my newest friend!

It's a lot of fun to watch Audrey and David together now that Audrey is more mobile and can acutally somewhat play with David. They are both very interested in being read to. Kelsey read them this book, so sweet! They just sat there :)

David is thinking, who is this baby and why does she think she can just take-over my toys?

It was sooo funny, Audrey kept trying to crawl up David, she was successful! She grabbed onto his shift and David was a little worried about it, but he was a trooper. They look like they're slow-dancing, oh dear.

Today Kels and I took our chillin's to the mall to walk around. The Chesney boys were silent little angels. Audrey did ok, but needed treats to distract her, she was getting a bit antsy in her stroller.

Hello friend! They like to touch hands.

Later today I got all of Audrey's dolls out to see what she'd do. She was actuallly entertained for quite a while!

About to give the baby a kiss.

So, that's that. We love spending time with Kelsey and her boys! Thanks for hanging out with us!

Now Audrey's down for her afternoon nap going on an hour now. Tonight I have to choose between Biggest Loser and American Idol, why on earth are they on at the same time???

A Standing Baby

I was trying think of something to blog about, but I got nothin' So, here's a picture of my beautiful blessing, Audrey Joanne. I love you baby girl.

Strike A Pose

Lately, more and more, Audrey likes to see the world from a different point of view. For whatever reason, she likes to lean over and turn her head to the side and look up at me. She'll do in randomly here and there, but this morning, did it after every bite of cereal and then later when I was taking her picture. What a silly girl! Here's some proof I caught on camera...

Those are blueberries in case you are wondering!

She kinda looks like she has a kink in her neck, silly baby.

My Eight Month Old Girl

It's been a nice week. Chris and I both have vacation and we've just been hanging out, doing some things here and there, and watching our daughter grow and learn right before our eyes!

In recent weeks she's started to stand up on things more and more and travel around the room by crawling. She will stand, but no steps yet. Tonight at my mom and dad's house she looked like she was thinking so hard about taking a step. She was at the couch, standing, and then she'd let go and balance. Not able to take a step yet, she'd finally bend over and use her arms to let herself down. She also reached a new level of silliness tonight. Chris and I got back from a movie and Audrey was reallly hyper with my parents (we think they gave her fudge, haha) She was totally playing with Chris. She was in crawling position then she'd look at him and giggle, then he start to go after her and she'd take off crawling. Then she's stop and look back at him and repeat this over and over as if to say "come and get me!" Then they got in a tickling match, as he tickled her, she bat at his face to try to fend him off. It was sooooo funny. Ya kinda had to be there, but it's fun to see her learn to play and be silly and understand what's funny. It's a blast watching her learn.

She's also starting to pick up little cereal bits and put them in her mouth on her own.

We're exicted for her 1st Christmas and hope all the out of town family members can get here! Snow, why this week!?

Here's some pictures from this week....

Today, eating some cereal.

She discovered the presents today!

We had dinner with our friends Diana and Anil and their 4mo. baby girl Zahra!

My new outfit from cuzzin Megan!!!

Cookie making at Grandma's!!!

A precious picture my Mom took.

PS: Thanks to all who send xmas cards! They were fun to get! Sorry, I'm so lame, I'm gonna try to get them out next year!

Casey Bishop!

This morning my alarm went off at about 6:45am. I shut it off, then I realized that I no longer set my alarm, since I just sleep until Audrey wakes up. So I looked back at my phone and saw that it was not my alarm, it was a call from my friend Casey.

Casey and I went to college together. We met in the dorms my sophomore year and ended up roomates the following 2 years! She grew up in Stewartville, but post-college ended up in Rochester, until last year year when she moved to Kansas to be a teacher (she decided to go where the jobs were!).

There was a message on the phone. I was pretty nervous to listen to it, no one likes getting calls in the morning, you can almost assume something is wrong. The message was from Casey's mom asking me to call her. Ok, now I'm very nervous. Expecting the absolute worst, I called Joy back.

Joy was in Witchita, Kansas with Casey, who had just been diagnosed with a form of leukimia, acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Casey had been feeling icky for a few weeks and had recently fell into the wall at home. Her family persuaded her after the fall to go to the hospital . A few friends drove her to the local ER. Turns out her platelet count was very low (platelets keep blood from getting too thin) and they found bleeding in her brain. The bleeding is healing itself and is no longer a concern, but led them all to the diagnosis of APL. She got some platelets infused and was airlifted to Witchita. I dunno how her mom got there, perhaps drove overnight, but Casey wanted her to call her MN friends ASAP! I ended up being the one that answered the phone so quickly friends were notified (aka Kelsey and Heather).

So, let the praying begin!!! She will be in the hospital for 6 long weeks, ick ick ick. Joy said she'll be on 2 meds, one being an oral chemotherapy drug and she will lose her hair. Apparently and understandably, Casey Jo is having a rather emotional day. I called this afternoon, but luckily Casey was getting some much needed sleep.

I just thought I'd blog about it if anyone out there would say a prayer for my friend. I was reading about this cancer and the numbers look great in terms of recovery. APL was discovered in the 50s and back then there was no cure. Sure makes me aware and grateful for cancer research, otherwise my friend wouldn't have a chance. But now they've found treatments that are successful.

Well Case, if you're reading this, I'm so sorry you're sitting in that hospital bed insted of getting ready to come home. It sucks, big time. I wish I could be with you right now. But your friends here are thinking of you all the time and praying fervently for you! May God pour out his peace and strength on you and you deal with these long weeks ahead. May he allow the medication to rid you of those dangerous cells and make you heathier than ever! I'm really mad at cancer right now, but thankfully, I know the God who is King of the Nations yet cares deeply for each one of us and hears our voice. He can do anything!

Love you Casey! Talk to you soon.

PS: Casey has a caringbridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/caseybishop

Some New Pictures

I don't have a ton to say, just thought I'd put up some new pictures :) I've spent the past 2 weeks working, so I'm feeling free now! I got the house cleaned (after like a month since the last cleaning, sick!) and got the place Christmas-ified. Thanksgiving lunch was so good, thanks to my Gran E. who makes the yummiest turkey! Thanks Gran! I had to work, but got to see my family for a couple hours.

I noticed last night that Audrey's 2nd bottom tooth is coming in! Two little teethers now. She has a horribly snotty nose right now! Poor girl, she's a bit miserable and taking short little pathetic naps today. Oh well, it'll pass. She's making little crawling motions. Like she'll get up on all 4s and move her hand then one leg and then collapse to her tummy, then do it all again. She LOVES to stand and will actually balance for a few seconds. It's a lot of fun to watch her try to figure out how to move around. I finally ordered her a car seat through Sam's Club. I hope we like it! It was such a hard decision. We got two, one for each car. Oofdah. She's outgrown her baby car seat, it goes up to 22lbs and that's what she is!

The plan is that Chris and I are going to The Blind Side tonight, I'm excited!

Well here are some pics....

My precious girl.

Chris putting up an ornament!

My silly ones!

The famous felt chicken ornament, this one's for you GRAN!!!!!

Well, I'm glad I could leave you all with this nice picture of me. Heehee. I feel like a boring writer, blah blah. Bye.

A 7mo. Baby with a Lil' Tooth!

Hello faithful readers who are still bothering to check my blog even though I rarely update. With facebook as it is, I feel like everyone already knows my life and I have nothing to blog about that you don't already know. (Except for you dear Gran E. since you don't have facebook :)
Oh, let's just start with today. It was wonderful. I just got a simple day to hang out with Chris and Audrey. It started wonderfully. My sweet husband gets Audrey on Saturday mornings and puts her down for her first nap, all before I even get up! I slept until 10:30 today! Any other day and I'm up by probably 7:30-8ish. I'm okay with it, but it's never easy and I hope Chris knows how much I appreciate him doing that for me! So, Audrey took her 1st nap from 9a to Noon! Oofdah, that was nice! Chris and I just hung out in our jammies until then, fun fun. I love Saturdays!

Then we ate lunch here at home when Audrey woke up. We try to eat with her otherwise she freaks out that we're eating and she's not. Then we went to Walmart and Target to get various things. This was somewhat exhausting for me. Nothing worse than croweded stores, ugh. Sooooo many people at Walmart.

We also went to look at a house, which we do from time to time. I think looking at houses has become a bit of a hobby. When we started, over a year ago, I didn't know much. I still don't know much, but I know a lot more and have strong opinions on many things having to do with houses. Chris and I have it pretty much down as to what we want in a house/yard, but then again, we change our minds every so often. Anyhoo, then it was time for Audrey to sleep again. She slept from 3p-6p! Wowee! She was a textbook baby today!

At 6p we went and had supper at Tinns, it's a yummy sandwhich place by Sam's Club. Then we went to the mall and strolled around. Audrey lasts a long time in her stroller just happily people watching :) We ran into Susan and Denny (My aunt and uncle) at Pennys! Fun fun. Audrey was glad to see them. She stared Denny down as she does with most men, haha. Susan gots smiles outta her.

Then we came home! We played with Audrey for a few mintues, then I gave her a bath, read her 2 books and off to sleep she went. She goes down to bed so well. All we do is put her in her crib, she grabs her little bunny blanket, rolls to the left, puts her thumb in her mouth, and closes her eyes. Sometimes she plays around a little and then goes to sleep, but she never cries. She does cry when she wakes up sometimes, but whatev.

So, there's my nice day. What else to say....Audrey got a bottom right tooth, her first! I was at home telling Chris about a baby I know, who is Audrey's age, who has 2 bottom teeth. I was holding Audrey when I said it. Just for fun I felt her gums again, like I do everyday, and lo and behold, a sharp little white tooth was poking through! She had a rough couple days. I could tell she was hurting a bit and she woke up once in the night for 2 days. Tylenol seemed to help quite a bit. Now, she seems back to normal.

I'm still making her food. She's eating carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, apples, and bananas. I tried beans, but they were so disgusting, I couldn't give them to her. They tasted like mushy water. I'd probably have to buy fresh beans in order for them to taste better. So far, over the month I've been making her food, I have save $68 appoximately. So that's pretty cool. However, I discovered that the peaches and pears would be slightly cheaper to buy packaged. Maybe I bought the fruit at a high price, but they were just too expensive and didn't make enough food to beat out the store price. Everything else by far was cheaper to make at home. So, maybe if I find peaches/pears on sale, I'll make them again.

Chris and I are still workin' away, Chris everyday, me not everyday, but lots this past week and the week to come! I miss my fam when I'm at work! Things are ok there. We're being set up with mentors, us newer peeps. My mentor is a super neat lady. She's really really interested in making me feel good about the unit and my job. She's really encouraging and loves to hear whatever I have to say. I was hesitant at first, but now I think it's a pretty good idea. It's nice to have someone who specifically wants you to approach them with any questions/concerns.

I think IBM could use a mentor program! haha. Chris is left to fend for himself day-by-day. I'm so proud of how hard he works. It's a tough job, but he never gives up, despite the minimal guidance and availbe people to answer questions.

I basically get begged to ask questions and learn, but Chris has to beg to get his questions answered, something's not right there.....hmmmm.

Ok, here's some fun pics of sweet Audrey Joanna, 7 months old now!

Thanks for reading!

Audrey Loves to Stand!

A Happy Girl :)

Bottom right! (Her right)

Audrey is quite perplexed by this doll.

"I love bubbles and bathtime!"

Baby Food!

Why is Audrey Jo so happy you ask?

Because she got to eat her first real food, something other than formula and rice cereal!

I decided it's time to start the fruits/vegetables. I had thought of making them myself and thoughs of just buying them. There are pros and cons of both and I really hadn't made up my mind. Then, I was at Brice's wedding and his photographer (Hi Jen!) and I got to talking about a mutual interest, our 6 mo. olds! Jen told me about a website that helps you figure out making baby food at home. I decided to check it out. After reading a bit about it I discovered that all it really is is getting the food clean, cooking it (if necessary) and finding a way to get it smooth. So, I went out and bought carrots, bananas, apples, and peas. I already had a blender, steamer, and ice trays (to hold the frozen baby food) and freezer bags, so I started makin' it!

Carrots: Were hard! I think I could do it better the second time. You have to peel them, cut them, and then I steamed them. I couldn't get the blender to blend them so I put them in my food chopper thing to make them smaller. This was a messy annoying process. Then I realized if I added more water the blender could handle it. Then I had a beautiful bright orange smoothie! Then you place the food in ice trays to freeze into nice portion sizes which you take out as needed. Audrey tried carrots today for the first time, she seemed to really like them!

"I love my carrots!"

Bananas: Super easy! Just peel and blend! It was actually kinda fun and like a 1/4 of the time over the carrots. These were Audrey's first taste of something other than rice cereal and she seemed to like them, then she started to shudder with each bite! I realized they were a bit much for her, so I started adding a little cereal with each bite and now she's fine!

"Oh goodness, something with flavor!"

Bananas!

Peas: Also pretty easy, somewhere inbetween bananas and carrots. I bought them frozen, I wasn't about to break open actual pea pods. So I just cooked them up, put 'em in the blender and added water and there you are! They were a lovely shade of green.

Audrey hasn't tried peas yet, but probably next week!

Apples: Not as hard as carrots, but it took some time. I had to wash the apples, peel them by hand and cut them in little tiny pieces. Then I put them in the steamer and finally blended them! Then I realized I made applesauce. I don't know why this didn't occur to me earlier, probly because I hardly cook a thing, but there it was, real life homemade applesauce (but with no added flavors of course). I had plenty of food from the other ones I made, but little did I know, only 5 apples makes not much sauce. So, it I were to do it again, I'd probably buy like 15 apples or something. Also something we'll try next week! Yum!

Steamin'

Applesauce for Audrey!

This was something I was able to do in one day, using Audrey's naps to finish it all. So, it was a timely thing, but I made a lot and put it all in freezer bags. I estimated that it'll last about a month and 1/2. Here is the frozen deliciousness! (Minus the apples, they were still freezing)

So, I did this for 3 reasons, to see if I could, to give Audrey very healthy baby food, and to see if I would save money? I found I can do it, Audrey seems to like it and I like that I'm giving her healthy stuff, and I did save money. But, is the money saved worth the time spent? I am not sure. I spent ( and this is an approximation and I've rounding off the numbers for simplicity) $6 on the vegetables/fruits that I made, but used up about 3 or 4 hours making the food. If I were to have boughten the same amount of pre-packaged baby food (Walmart's Parent's Choice brand-the cheapest one I've seen) I would have paid about $16. So I would have spent only $10 more and saved the 4 hours. So, I dunno, is it worth it? Over the course of a few months the savings will be more significant. I dunno, I think I'll give it another try with some new fruits/veggies. It would be super easy to just go buy some and then they're all packaged up nice for ya, but there's also a very productive feeling about doing it myself. Either way, I'm fine with it and I know Audrey will be fine too!

Thanks for sharing in my baby food making adventure :) Until next time...

Audrey and I after she ate her carrots, I think she is glad :)