Audrey at 13 Months

I just love this age! Audrey is so funny right now. She's walking well, but also crawling quite a bit, I'm trying to soak it in, because I know before long the crawling is going to be completely gone. She's so proud of herself when she gets a long string of steps together. 

She's also mimicking quite a bit more. Everyone pats her back when they hold her, and gives her kisses. My favorite is when she does it back to us. Her version is a really aggressive pat, some could call it a hit, while making kissy sounds. So funny. 

She has more words for us now: up, hi (with a huge wave, sometimes two handed), and no. No is a full body response, usually related to food- no, no, no, no. Poor girl, I bust out laughing everytime she does that one. 

She also loves saying night, night Dada, when Conan puts her down for a nap. She loves to snuggle with him. 

She loves to play with her barn animals, dolls, and in the play kitchen. She's still a pretty terrible sleeper, but I stopped nursing her in the middle of the night, so maybe we're making some progress? 

Her brothers adore her, and she loves to make them laugh. They are quite the team. The other day we let them eat dinner in front of the baseball game. Audrey was sitting with me, and then scootched down so she could sit on the floor right between Bryce and Chris. It was such a sweet picture of what's to come with these guys. I love their sibling bond!

Happy 5th Birthday, Bryce!

Dear Bryce,

Happy 5th birthday to you! What a great year it's been! You have learned so much, done so much, and stayed the sweetest little guy there is. It's a good thing you're five now, because people were not believing me any more when I said you were a four year old-- you're huge now!

You have gone from liking cars and superheroes to being a little obsessed with Star Wars. You want to talk about it, ask questions about it, and have lightsaber duels about 95% of your day. This isn't a bad thing, because most other little boys seem to be the same way right now, so you fit right in! You love Legos, and are constantly making the most creative ships and having battles with your Lego men. You can also put a Lego set together in record time.

You and Chris have the most special brother relationship. Yes you fight occasionally (ahem...), but you also really love each other. You talk for hours and hours about your own worlds (right now it's Lego Land), and make up the silliest stories. You really love each other, and it makes us so happy! You are also such an amazing brother to Audrey. She adores you, and you always say she's your very favorite person in the world. She's able to play with you a little more now that she's getting older. The other day you were letting her knock you down, and you both would laugh so hard. It's one of my most favorite memories. You are the  perfect middle child, and we hope you know how much we appreciate the love you show to your siblings.

You are still such a smarty pants. Your teacher always says you really get it. You can count super high, figure out lots of math problems, and you're starting to be able to read some words and spell. Your handwriting is awesome too! 

Your favorite songs are "Boom, Clap", "The Yoda Song", and "Hello". You are a really good dancer, and love to listen to music. Your favorite baseball team is the Yankees. Your favorite tv show is anything Star Wars related. We always have so much fun together during the day, and I'm going to be so sad when you leave for kindergarten!

Bryce, we are so proud of you! It's hard to believe five years have passed since we strolled a tiny newborn out of Beth Israel hospital and into crazy NYC. We love everything about you, and can't wait to see what five has in store for you! Thank you for being you-- a light and pure joy to our family.

All of our love,

Mom and Dad

Audrey's first steps

Audrey took her official first step 4 days after her birthday, on March 19th. Conan and I both got to see it. Since then, she's been standing lots, and takes 1, 2 or 3 steps. She's so graceful. When she gets down from standing, it's almost like a curtsy. Today you could tell she really figured out walking though. She practiced over and over and took at least 5 steps. She was so proud of herself! The transitioning from crawling to walking is one of my very favorite stages, and I'm trying to soak it in. I know in a few weeks she's only going to be a walker!

Audrey's Birthday

We had such a fun day celebrating Audrey's first birthday! We started with pancakes at our favorite breakfast restaurant. 

After that we decided to fill up my tire that I thought had a slow leak. Turned out to be a very fast leak, so we stayed for a while for them to patch it. Here's Audrey in front of beef jerkey : ). 

Then, it was toy shopping time! It's our tradition to let the birthday kid pick out their own present. Back in NYC they got stores like FAO Shwartz and Toys R Us in Times Square. Poor Audrey just got the neighborhood Toys R Us. She didn't mind. She picked out a ball popper. 

Then wanted this... Sorry girlie!

Here she is with her hat!

After we got Chris from school we were supposed to go hike with friends. It was raining, so we settled for the McDonalds play place. Here she is with our friends. The sweet little girl,  Scarlett in the background made her a Cheerios necklace. I think it her favorite present of all. She chomped on it the whole time.

We came home and ate Chinese food (Audrey's a big rice fan), opened presents, and ate cake. There's pictures of all that on my other camera, which I'll upload soon! We had a great day celebrating our sweet little Audrey Bunny!!

Happy first birthday, Audrey!

Dear Audrey,

Happy first birthday, sweet girl! Every day I am amazed that God has given our family such a gift. You are the most loved baby! Everyone in this family adores you so much. You are always so happy, your smile fills your whole face. You have such a big laugh, and we all have fun trying to make it come out- which doesn't take much. Your favorites are baby chase, being tickled in the belly, and someone hiding and surprising you.

You have just started walking while holding on to a cart. You are the fastest run crawler I've ever seen. I'm sure you're going to be taking steps in no time, so we're enjoying this last little bit of  your sweet crawling! You can put your as up high when we ask you how big you are. You LOVE kisses. Whenever dad walks in a room you start making kissing sounds- so cute! 

You have five teeth, the last three popped up within the past couple of weeks so fast! We're still working on hair. Looking back at baby pictures of the boys, it looks like you're going down the Chris bald path : ). It's amazing how similar your baby pictures look!

You're starting to eat a little better now that you have teeth. No baby food for you! You only want what we are eating. You love steamed veggies, and who doesn't love some good carbs? Pizza crust, bagels, and toast are your favorites. You still nurse constantly, and I'm a little nervous how you're going to react when we start taking that away (tomorrow!). 

You are such a talker. You tell us all about it in big sentences. The words we can figure out in those sentences are Mama, Dada, mo (more), and na, na, (no). You're specialty is ahhh, ahhh until we figure out what you want : ).

You got off of your heart meds last week, and we feel so blessed that you're doing well without them! What a trooper you've been to take medication every eight hours for a whole year! We pray that your heart issue was a little blip that we'll all be  able to barely remember. 

You love your brothers so much! They are equally as smitten with you. They constantly want to love on you and speak "Audrey" to you. When you hear them get up in the morning your whole face lights up and you start looking for them. I love that you have each other!

You have become such a Daddy's girl. You are not the best sleeper (understatement of the year!). Correction, you're not the best sleeper unless someone is holding you. On the weekends Dad will hold you while you nap as long as you want. It makes you so happy. You wake up in the best mood! I love watching you two laugh together and be so silly!

I also love our girl time. When the boys are at school, you and I have some serious dance parties to Taylor Swift and Adelle. You love to twirl super fast. We also like to snuggle up and read, and play "roll the ball". 

Girlfriend, I hope you can tell how much we have loved this year! What a perfect addition you were to our crazy family! You are such a beautiful gift! We hope you feel the love we have for you! Happy first birthday!

Love, 

Mom and Dad

Spelling Bee

Yesterday Chris won the Spelling Bee at Redeemer. He did great up there! 

Here he is with his buddy Truth. 

1st place ribbon!

All the participants...

We went to yogurt lab after school for a treat to celebrate! Chris worked so hard on these words, and we couldn't be prouder!

Leap Day

I have been really excited about leap day. I'm not sure why, but having something to celebrate is always fun. I was talking to the boys about how we should use this extra day God gave us. I went upstairs to get dressed, and they brought a game to me that they wanted to donate to little kids who needed it. So sweet!

After school drop off for the big boys, Audrey and I met her friend Lyra (and her mom, Corey) for a quick coffee. Doesn't Audrey look like such a big girl in this chair?

Here we are waiting for them.

Bryce is only in school for 2 hours, so we picked him up next. We decided to deliver cookies to a home for people with developmental disabilities that we support. They can't take homemade, so Girl Scout it was!

Next, we went to LeAnn Chin for their Leap Day special. Audrey was a rice fan!

We had lots of boring errands in there, and then we came home to play. This is the new Audrey specialy... Pull up, and then start dumping everything off you can find. Books, toys, large cups of water, nothing is off limits!

I couldn't get a picture of it, but Audrey also got a Leap Day top tooth! It was not there in the morning, but by the afternoon I could feel it!

We picked Chris up and went to piano. After homework and dinner we did their new favorite, Golden Tee!

We haven't gotten it out since we lived in Austin. The boys love it, and it brought back really fun memories. Hope everyone had a special extra day!