Children's Museum

We met Ben's cousin, Tina, and her husband Toby at the Children's Museum today- it was so much fun! I have never met either of them before, and Ben had never met Toby and so it was so nice to finally meet them! Her parents live in Loveland, but she lives in San Francisco- we definitely think we need to plan a trip out there sometime soon!
Audra loved this slide- she would get upset when other children were in line and she had to wait her turn- but, she needs to learn to take turns, so this was good practice!

Here are Toby and Tina- aren't they such a great-looking couple? Their daughter, Kendra, is about 9 months old. She and Audra fought a little bit over this doll, but once again Audra had to learn to share!

I would definitely recommend the Museum to everyone- if you have coupons. It is a little pricey, but Audra had a fantastic time and was really sad to leave. Maybe when she and baby #2 are older we will get a membership- I really think that would be worth it!

Surprise!

With great excitement as well as some trepidation, we announce that we are pregnant, due July 17th. We are very excited, but we are also a little nervous and praying that this baby does not have colic- that really was hard with Audra, and I don't know if I could handle another baby with colic as well as a toddler. But, we also know that any baby is a blessing from Heaven, and we are happy to be pregnant again. So far, pretty easy pregnancy- I am blessed with easy pregnancies, I only get sick if I am hungry so I keep crackers by my bedside at night. Audra doesn't quite understand the concept of pregnancy and enjoys jumping on my stomach. Good times.

Fire? What Fire?

So, today during sacarament at church the fire alarm went off. The bishop (the spiritual leader of our congregation) gets up and says, "there is no fire, we will continue with the meeting as planned." While the fire alarms are blaring (and they are LOUD), this poor guy stands at the pulpit and bears his testimony. Obviously, nobody can hear him and our ears are all hurting. After this the bishop stands up and says, "rather then having our speakers talk over the alarm, we will have some quiet time until they are reset." He has the organist start playing the organ and we are supposed to sit quietly while our ears burst. I decide to get Audra (and myself) out of there- we went out to the hall and eventually outside where several others had also gone. It took about 10 minutes before the alarms finally stopped, and I am still hearing ringing in my ears- definitely a first for me in sacrament!

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Pictures speak a thousand words, so I will mostly just show you all how wonderful our Christmas was!
This table was the first thing she saw when she came down the stairs- she sat down, and didn't want to get back up!This tea set was the first thing she openend, and after she got it that is all that she wanted to play with...We had to help her open a few presents after that because she refused, but then she realized that every time she opened a gift, she got more things to play with! Then, she started tearing open every gift under the tree. Smart girl!I love, love, love, love, LOVE this dress! My brother Matt got it for her- he totally outdid himself this year and spoiled his niece rotten!

Playing with another toy...

Helping dad set up her baby-doll high chair (another gift from Matt)

The joy of being a Dad on Christmas day...

Best picture we could get of all of us...

We were definitely completely spoiled! Audra wasn't quite sure WHY she got so many toys on Christmas morning, but we are pretty sure she liked it anyway! We sure did- although now our house has been officially taken over by her toys!!!

Season's Greetings!

Audra is definitely our Little Princess. Every day, this is the dress she wants to wear. EVERY DAY! (I confess, normally she wears a nice white onesie underneath, but they are all dirty and so she is wearing the funny striped one instead) She will find it under a pile of clothes, in her closet, wherever it is and let us know (without words, of course) that this dress is what she will be wearing today. Sometimes, we would have already gotten her dressed in another outfit, but insists on us putting this on over her clothes. Lovely.

Isn't that a great picture of her with the train? She LOVES it, and will sit there for minutes (that is a long time for her) watching it go around and around. Then, because it is a very old train, when it can't quite get the strength to continue on, she will give it a push and nudge it along. I love it!

This is a short little video of Aud saying "bye"- it is SOOOO cute! She says this to Ben everyday as he heads to work, and it makes us both so happy! She is beginning to talk better now- saying words like "bucket" and "blanket." Slowly but surely, right?

Holiday Tradition

Every Christmas growing up, one of our best holidays traditions was to bake for an ENTIRE day (literally, all 5 of us- me, 3 sisters, and mom- the boys were not invloved at all). We made peanut butter balls (our favorite!), homemade caramels, monster cookies, and dozens of other items. Then, we delivered the goodies to neighbors and friends. Often we delivered upwards of 30+ plates! And, we actually did carol at each of the houses (looking back, I feel sorry for those poor people...)!!!

Well, I have tried to continue on that tradition. For the past couple of years I have done Christmas baking- though I have greatly streamlined the process, choosing quick and easy recipes and spending about 2 hours baking instead of an entire day. Here is what I conjured up this year (yes, Danielle, that is your 5-minute fudge that is really like 45-minute fudge- YUM!!!!):

I think they turned out pretty good! Then, Ben and I delivered them to our neighbors and some people from church. I was hesitant to post this, because I don't want anybody to be upset if they didn't get goodies, but the deliveries have more to do with who lives close to us (sorry Seattle-ites!) then anything else. But, if you didn't get goodies and would like some, feel free to stop on by and enjoy some at our house:)

Let the Christmas traditions continue!!!!

Pretty Cool

I got an e-mail about a really neat thing Xerox is doing- if you go to http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html you can pick out a thank you card to send to a member of the troops- you don't get to say who it goes to, but it's pretty cool, takes like 10 seconds, and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Wonderful Times

This last weekend was absolutely wonderful- my sister and her family came into town. Audra absolutely LOVED having her cousins in town to play with- it was so cute to see them all running around laughing and playing! It was such a treat to have them here- my siblings don't get to make it out here too often (something about traveling with small children...), so while they were here we tried to make the most of it:

Tabatha and Alicia LOVED playing in the snow- even though they did get really cold!

We went to our ward Christmas breakfast:

We went and saw Santa Claus (much to Audra's dismay). Arapahoe Acres had this awesome free event with Santa and his reindeer, hay rides, free cookies and cider- it was really neat- we will definitely be making it a yearly tradition!

Olivia, who is Audra's age, was also in town, but for some reason I don't have any pictures...

We also went to Casa Bonita (of course), where all of the girls absolutely loved the puppet show. All in all, it was a great weekend! We had such a blast having them here!!! Come again soon!!!!

12 Days Of Christmas

I promise this is worth it- it is awesome!!!


Merry Christmas!!

Don't Tell Ben

He will find out eventually, but much to Ben's dismay, I have decided to enter the 21st century and sign up for Facebook. I did that about an hour ago, and I am still totally confused and overwhelmed by the virtual chaos. I have no idea what I am looking at- there are like millions of photos of people who might be my friends, random comments on friends of friends showing on the main page- all sorts of crazy things. I am really feeling like a stay-at-home mom right now (i.e, totally technically illeterate- not that stay-at-home moms always are, but I definitely am at this point)...

Moral of the story? If you want to be my "friend" you will have to contact me, because I have no clue how to contact you! Also, I am still trying to figure out how to put in my maiden name, so you will have to look me up with my married name (it wouldn't let me use High Marriott as my last name- it may have thought I was a drug user who was making fun of getting "High"- I don't know...). Someday I might get it worked out...

Do You Hear What I Hear?

In an attempt to get Audra to speak, I have decided that rather then letting her use sign or pointing to get what she wants, I am going to try and get her to say the word, or at least try to. Here is how our lunch conversation went today:

Me: Would you like an orange?

Aud: (nods her head "yes")

Me: Say 'orange.'

Aud: Daddy.

Me: Say 'OR-ange"

Aud: Daddy.

Me: Say 'OR-ANGE'

Aud: Daddy.

Me: (Give in and give her the orange and wonder if she will ever speak)

Any suggestions???

Can't We All Just Get Along?

I know this is too small, so here is the link: http://www.nomobveto.org/

It's a full page ad this organization put in the New York Times today in support of Mormons and other religious groups who supported Prop 8. I almost started crying reading it- Mormons have put up with a lot of persecutions in our time, and it is so cool to see people outside of our religion standing up for us and defending us, and so I wanted to pass this on so as many people could see this as possible.

If one good thing has come out of the hate and persecutions which have been raised against us in recent weeks, it is that people from all backgrounds are standing with us! And that is something I am very grateful for.

The Not So Amazing Race

To absolutely nobody's surpise, Nick and Star won the Amazing Race- much to my dismay. It's not that I didn't like them (though I didn't, but to be honest, I didn't really like any of the teams this year and found myself not caring who won), it is just that it was so incredibly predictable and boring. I was hoping the Frat Boys would win just because it would have been hilarious, but there was absolutely no suspense for any of the last, I don't know, entire season. This is the first season Ben and I have watched the entire race, and if next season is this predictable, we will no longer watch (at least I won't, though Ben might).

10 Most Fascinating

Barabara Walters came up with her list of the 10 most fascinating people of 2008. Here is her list:

Will Smith

Miley Cirus

Tom Cruise

Rush Limbaugh

Michael Phelps

Sarah Palin

Tina Fey

Frank Langella (plays Nixon in Frost/Nixon)

Thomas Beatie (pregnant "man")

Barack Obama

We watched this last night, and I agree with most of them. I am curious what others think. If it were me, I would definitely take Limbaugh off- not just because I absolutely hate the lying SOB, but also because he hasn't done anything- his show didn't change the outcome of the election, he hasn't done anything this year differently this year then any other year. Well, he did get his rediculous contract worth like 200 million dollars or something (to which he actually said he was worth it because he "works hard"- to which I say- HA!!!! But I could go off on what "hard work" is for hours and how people who "work hard" do NOT get paid millions, but rather pennies, but I digress).

Anyway, I would take Limbaugh off and probably put Stephanie Meyers on, because she did come out of obscurity and make a big, new impact on society. I do disagree with Miley Cirus, but I can understand putting her there and I can't think of anybody else I would put there instead.

All the others, I definitely agree did make an impact this year.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

First Christmas Show

Yesterday, we let Audra watch her first Christmas show of all time: Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. It's a classic, so we thought it worthy of her viewing (we don't let her watch much TV, though she ends up watching a lot of news by default). The reason we don't let her watch much TV is because of these pictures: she is totally transfixed on the TV, can't take her eyes off of it, and doesn't move or respond to anything besides the TV! Very cute, but not very healthy! We didn't let her watch the part of the abominable snowman, thinking that might be a little too scary, but she did catch glimpses of him in other scenes before the big snowcave scene. I was worried she might have nightmares last night, but she did just fine!
Oh, yeah- can you tell by her beautiful outfit that yesterday was laundry day???

Caught In the Act!

I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I caught 3 teenagers stealing candy! We were all on the candy aisle, and I looked right at them while they were stealing and said, "Interesting" and went to the cashier and told on them. The security guards talked to them, but I assume by then they had put the candy away and the guard let them go. That was fine, I hope that at least they will know that people are watching them and that they got a good scare.

This is actually the second time I saw teenagers stealing candy- the first time I said nothing, and I still feel incredibly guilty, and so I had vowed that I would never keep my mouth shut again. Teenagers stealing candy bothers me for a number of reasons:

1. We happen to live in a suburb where there are no apartments and no low income housing, so these kids come from families where they can afford the 10 cents needed to buy candy. (Not that stealing is ever OK, but I think we can all at least emphatize with a father who steals a loaf of bread to feed his hungry children as opposed to spoiled brats stealing candy).

2. I have to pay more at the grocery store to make up for those brats stealing the candy! It's rediculous!

3. There are a lot of people in this horrible economy who are going to bed hungry- whose children are going to bed hungry- who still obey the law and don't steal. It belittles their efforts to be good to have those with plenty stealing things they absolutely do not need.

Can you tell I am upset about this? It really bothers me- where are values being taught???? I almost want to go every day to the grocery store and just stand in the candy aisle for an hour until the high school students leave to make sure they don't steal anything. (Our grocery store is right next to the high school, so they come in during lunch and after school and steal- in fact, it has become such a problem, that they can no longer bring their backpacks inside the store, they have to leave them outside at the entrance). It just makes me sad that while so many people are suffering so horribly this holiday season (yesterday on the radio they were talking about how kids visiting Santa were wishing for things like, "Please help my Daddy find a job), there are bratty teenagers who think it is "cool" to steal candy!

So, I am sounding a call to all of us: If we see somebody stealing something, SAY SOMETHING!!! You don't even have to say it to them, you can tell a cashier who will alert the security guards. Maybe if people know others are watching them, they will stop! At least, I can hope so!

Reschedule

I need to reschedule tomorrow's craft day to Thursday. I just found out that a former student of mine who I taught for 2 years died on Thanksgiving due to an ATV accident, and his funeral is tomorrow at 10:30. So, instead of meeting tomorrow at my house, I am changing it to Thursday at 10 AM. Sorry for the inconvenience-- I hope to see you on Thursday!!!!

Change of Plans...

We are totally bummed, but we are ending up not heading out for Thanksgiving to Utah because of some complications on the homefront. We really are sorry, Jeremy and Hallie- we wanted to meet Cambria so bad!!!! Audra was looking forward to meeting her little cousin and her great-grandpa, but things were not meant to be this year...

But, because we are not going, it gave me some time to blog, and I am totally stealing this from my friend Carrie, but I absolutely LOVED it- I was crying I was laughing so hard!!!! If you are Twilighter, casual Twilighter, or have heard a lot about all they hype, you need to read this:

http://www.ericdsnider.com/snide/my-rejected-twilight-screenplay/

It is a spoof from the screenplay Twilight, and it is incredibly funny!! (At least I thought it was...)

I saw the movie last weekend (thank you Ann and Beth!!!) and I really liked the movie- in fact, I was surprised at how much I liked it. I don't need to see in a million times or anything, but it was good.

Thanksgiving

We are heading to Utah tomorrow for Thanksgiving- we are very excited, Audra finally gets to meet her Great Grandpa Marriott for the first time! We come back next Monday, and I will post some pictures then. Until then,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

And, remember, next Tuesday, December 2nd at 10AM we will have our let's-get-everything-done-for-Christmas- (or at least attempt to) party at my house!!! Brings the kids and the to-do-activities, and I will provide lunch!!

Nursery

Last week we took Audra in to test out nursery, and she gave us a look that said, "there has been this magical paradise here this entire time and you never showed it to me?!?"

Well, yesterday was her first full day (ok, only 2 hours) of nursery and to say that she LOVED it is quite the understatement. We walked her in, and she never looked back- even when we tried to say good-bye! Obviously, she is quite the independent Little Miss!

18 Months

On Tuesday Audra turned 18 months, so all you moms know what that means: shots and stats!

She is now 23 lb 0.5 oz (31%-tile) for weight and 32.75" tall (81%-tile). The doctor said her stats are fantastic and she in perfect health- she was ecstatic when I told her I was strict with what I let Audra eat and that she eats very healthy- she wants me to teach their parenting class:)

Then, she had her shots. I was a little worried, but she was great! She didn't fuss or cry AT ALL!!! I was so proud of her, being so stoic! The nurse said she wished all babies were as good as her!

Aud is a bit behind in speaking. The doctor said she thinks it is one of two reasons:

1. She has very good gross hearing, but maybe her fine hearing is not very good. We can test for that, or

2. She is simply taking everything in and in a month or two she will just start speaking in full paragraphs.

I think it is #2, and I don't think I am just being a proud mom. She really does seem to hear EVERYTHING- I think she has better hearing then I do. She will hear dogs barking and start pointing to them before Ben and I do. She'll hear noises outside and turn her head to things I don't even notice. Plus, her personality has always been one to observe and watch everything, so I could see her doing that with her speaking. So, we are waiting 2 months, and if her speech does not improve then we will have her tested.

Of course, she definitely gets full points for cutenes!!! We just love this little girl!! (oh, and she doesn't get her binky unless she is sleeping or cranky, so don't think she wears it all the time, even though it might look like it from this picture!!)

Let it snow! Let it snow!

Our first snow of the season! We took Audra outside- this was her first "real"time in the snow, last year she was too little to play in it, and she absolutely LOVED it! Here are some pics:

Ben pulled her around in this little sled I bought for 3.00 at a garage sale, and she was laughing and giggling the whole time! Perhaps the best 3.00 I have ever spent!

This is Ben attempting to give Audra her first snowball to hold!

Of course, the sun came out later in the day, and now all the snow is melted- but not until after all the fun!! She was sad to come inside, but I am certain there is MUCH more snow to come!

Here is a video of Ben pulling Audra around- unfortunately, it doesn't really capture all of her giggling. Oh, well:

Save The Date!!!

On Tuesday, December 2nd at 10AM I am going to host a holiday get-everything-or-at-least-something-done morning at my house. Bring the kids and whatever activity you need to accomplish: gift wrapping, Christmas Card addressing, finishing Super Saturday crafts- whatever it is!!!

We all have a million things to do in December, let's get together and get it all done!! I'll provide Christmas music, hot chocolate, and lunch (don't expect much- it will probably be mac and cheese for all!). The kids can play, while we work- or at least try to!!!

So, remember- Tuesday, December 2nd!! All are invited- even if you live 2,000 miles away!

Shout out to Mariah

I am not a Mariah Carey fan (I'm not not a fan, either- she is a good singer, I just don't have any of her CD's), but I read something yesterday about she and her husband that I thought was awesome. Apparently, she and her husband had a shotgun wedding (got married after 2 months) because they wanted to wait to be "intimate" until they were married. I know, it sounds far fetched coming from a woman who is practically naked in all of her videoes, but I thought that was awesome! Good for her! Here is the article if you want to read it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27632632/

Sure makes my 7-month courtship with Ben before we tied the knot seem like an eternity!!!

Hair Cut

When we went furniture shopping a couple of weeks ago, this is what Audra looked like:

Isn't this the cutest picture? She absolutely LOVED this chair and sat on it forever- she LOVED putting her feet up on the little ottoman, it was one of the most adorable things I've seen her do. Anyway, you can see that her hair is getting into her face. She has needed a "bang" cut for a long time, but I didn't want to cut them because it is a symbol of the fact she is growing up, and I don't want that as a mother.

But, today while eating Sunday breakfast, I finally decided to do it (I have a sneaking suspicion this was probably more her third or fourth bang cut, because I am pretty sure my mother-in-law has cut her bangs a couple of times while baby-sitting, which is a REALLY good thing, because like I said, she has needed it, but it has been difficult for me). Here is the end result:

Obviously, her bangs are now very croocked, and I think they make her look like a boy, or at least that she has the world's cutest mullet because the back of her hair is still long. But, I have done my job as her mother, and she has now had her first "official" haircut!