Our little gymnast

Memor and Fafa gave Audrey "Mommy and me" gymnastics classes for Christmas, and it has been such a great gift. Audrey loves going and jumping on the trampolines, walking across the beams, playing with the parachutes, and I love it too. I love it because I did gymnastics all growing up and it is so fun to see little Audrey in my old element. I also love it because it ensures a three hour nap after.

Audrey has this Little Mermaid necklace that looks like a shell and in the middle is a button that when pushed it sings the "Ariel song". I really think Audrey sounds like Ariel, don't you? She gets her singing talents from me. My favorite part is how she holds it to her ear...trying to stay in tune, you know?

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Oh, and the difference between blowing an "Ariel kiss" and a regular old kiss is how she keeps her hand next to her face when blowing an Ariel kiss. Very princessy.

December

The month of December was full of fun activities for our little family. Audrey and I started off the month by going to a mommy and me dance class. She loved it, and I loved watching her. She was such a natural! Disclaimer: I know she looks knock kneed and pigeon toed in this picture, of which she is neither, she is just going around in circles.
Audrey loves watching the movie, "12 Dancing Princesses" (shocking, I know) and at the end Barbie gets married and dances with her groom. While they are dancing Barbie puts her head back and arches her back...kinda like Audrey in this picture. Audrey grabbed this little girl and started dancing with her. All of a sudden Audrey pulls this move and then looks at the girl and says, "Married!"

Dave and I had a fun date night with lots of our fabulous friends and went to go see the comedian Brian Regan. If you ever have the chance to go see him, definitely go. He is so funny, and so clean, a rare thing these day! These are just some of the girls that went, the boys were all talking.

Regan had a little Christmas party with a fun ornament exchange and then we went to see the movie "Enchanted". Fun, fun night before everyone left for break. Let me rephrase that, before everyone left ME for break. They all seemed to go home leaving me here all by my lonesome!

Mindi had people over for one last get together after finals. There was numerous kids running around, numerous husbands talking dental stuff, and lots of yummy food. Thank you Mindi, it was so fun!

We did Christmas with my family a few weeks before Christmas. Audrey and Savy are opening a gift from D...a dress up trunk! This trunk will stay at D's house for her two granddaughters to enjoy. I'm sure Brother will get his fare share of time in these costumes too...maybe not by choice.

Dave and I took Audrey to Fentons in Oakland for the best toasted almond ice cream with the best caramel sauce. When Audrey was born I couldn't have any dairy for eight months, so you better believe I will be headed back to Fentons at least twice before this baby is born in case I can't eat dairy again. I love the look on Audrey's face...and her little belly sticking out...and her hand...

Dave had to study a little over break, and the weather was so terrible (the storm got so bad that our power was out for 44 hours - thank you Memor and Fafa for letting us come to your house!) so Audrey and I put on our "comfy clothes" and headed off on a little date together to the movies. It was so fun, and Audrey did so well. I let her pick out the treats, but she ended up not really liking the popcorn (which is fine by me, I ate the entire bag) but she loved the Slurpee. I love this girl...

Once the movie started she wanted to sit on my lap and she kept saying, "It's too loud!" She watched the entire movie like this...with one hand over her ear! We went to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and Audrey talked about the chipmunk movie for days afterward. That movie and the "CutCracker" (Nutcracker), the Barbie movie Dave rented for her.

I hope 2008 will be as much fun as 2007. We really had a great year and I'm looking forward to many more fun times in 2008.

Let's try this again...

So I tried to do this blog yesterday, and somehow it got erased right before I published it. I was in a sad mood yesterday because Christmas is over, and Dave's break from school is over. I purposely waited until yesterday to blog about Christmas and New Years so I could relive the memories and feel better, and I guess I get to relive them yesterday and again today!
We went to Dave's parents house the Sunday before Christmas. It was so great to be able to spend so much quality time with them. This is the picture I probably would have used if I did a Christmas card this year, and now you know why I didn't do a Christmas card.
Audrey loved watching Fafa's train go around and around and around...
The wonder of Christmas...

We opened a few presents on Christmas Eve, and Audrey LOVED her tent she got from her grandparents,
and I LOVED the quilt that my talented sister-in-law made for Brother!
Audrey didn't know how she felt about Santa coming. I guess the idea of a fat man in a red suit kinda freaked her out. On Christmas Eve, when Dave and I were putting her to bed she kept saying, "No Santa come!" I told her Santa was going to bring her presents and then she would say, "Yes! Santa come! Presents!" Then, "No Santa come!" She was so confused as to what she wanted. She finally made up her mind that it was okay for Santa to come and bring presents.

Christmas morning! Audrey had to make sure that Santa ate the cookies she decorated for him the night before, and of course he had. Santa was hungry for sugar cookies!
Whenever anyone asks Audrey what she got from Santa she always says, "Care bear!" When she pulled this out of her stocking, she came to me and put the care bare on my belly and said, "For Brother!" I think she thought since it was green it must not be for her. Welcome to a whole new pallet of colors little miss.
Audrey definitely "got" Christmas this year. We did Christmas with my family a few weeks before and Audrey would open one gift and want to play with it. It took her awhile before she wanted to open another one. By Christmas, she had changed her ways. She wanted to open, and play with, everyone's presents.

New Years Eve.
My fabulous in-laws let us come back over and party at their house for New Years. My sister Melissa and her little family, and our friends Jocelyn and Brady came to party with us. We played Rock Band most of the night and had a blast. They boys thought they were pretty good with their serious concentration faces...

but obviously the girls rocked the house. I'm not gonna lie. I'm a pretty good rock star, even with this humongous belly of mine.

Happy New Year Audrey girl. Off to bed, we didn't want to start 2008 off on a crabby note.

Happy New Year! We watched Dick Clark (heartbreaking) and the ball drop and drank our "sparkling" drinks.
Bruce and Marianne (aka Faf and Memor)

Mimi and Gooke (Melissa and Luke)
Jocelyn and Brady (Joslynn and Bady)
Dave and I (Daddy and Mama)
And of course we couldn't forget the darling sleeping babies, Audrey and Savy.
Happy 2008 everyone! This year will bring lots of change to our little family, with the most exciting being out little baby boy coming in March. Life is good.

ARRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I just spent the last two hours doing a fabulous blog all about Christmas and New Years Eve and all of a sudden it disappeared! It's gone!!!! It was supposedly "autosaving" and everything. An entire nap time wasted! I might try again tomorrow.

B.O.A.R.D.S.

Since my camera is in the other room, and it is too cold in our apt to go get it, I will blog about what is totally and utterly consuming our life right now... boards.

B is for boards, the awful test that all dental students must take.
O is for overkill. Really? Dave (and every other dental student) has enough going on with studying for all his other classes (five finals in two days), scheduling his patients, seeing his patients, and spending time with us to have to stress this much about a test. Oh yeah, and there are three parts to it! He takes part two next year and then part three right before he graduates.
A is for Audrey. Dave has been studying at home in our glorious third bedroom, and Audrey is constantly neeeedddding something from him as an excuse to go see him. Usually she needs a hug or a kiss, and how can you pass that up?
R is for reward. The next time you go see your dentist, give him a nice pat on the back for having completed taking boards. Better yet, give him a pat on the back and give him one for his wife and every child that was born under the "board years". If you go see a specialist, give him two pats on the back (and two for his wife and kids) because he had to do amazingly well on the boards to specialize.
D is for Dave. I am so proud of him. He is such an example to me of really setting your mind to something and going after your goals.
S is for $$$$$. We have so many dental deck flash cards, books, and review material that I probably could have a new wardrobe with all the money we spent on these "much needed" items. The part that kills me is that you have to PAY to take these tests! And they charge you each time you change the date to take it (which we have done twice now). Oh well, such is life.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Oh the weather outside is frightful...


But the fire is so delightful...

And since we've no place to go...

Let is snow...



Let it snow...



Let it snow...


Thank you for a wonderful trip to Tahoe Aunt Andrea, Aunt Ritz, Memor and Fafa!

Audrey's very first exposure to the snow...
Coming home. This was her first time ever watching a movie in the car. She was watching the "Train Movie" aka "The Polar Express". Very festive.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

...and I'm not even blogging about it! Life has been pretty crazy. We moved, I am no longer managing, and I am loving my new life. Here are some of the fun things we have been up to:
Thanksgiving...
I am so thankful for my family. We had a great time over Thanksgiving and it is always fun to spend time together. The weekend before my sister Sara flew in to come see Jess. We had a great time eating and hanging out. All the girls in my family (minus my beautiful mom), with Jess sporting her new brunette look. She is feeling much better. Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers.

My cute parents.

I am so thankful for my sweet Audrey and my niece Savy. Aren't they cute in their food oriented PJ's? Savy's jammers are the ones that Audrey wore at her first Thanksgiving.

I am so thankful for our little brother-to-be. I am so excited for him to come to our family. 25 weeks.

My parents sent us out on a "Mission Possible" adventure. My mom watched Audrey and Savy and sent the adults to the mall with an envelope of money and someone's name written inside. We were to buy that person a gift, coming as close to the amount of money given as possible. We couldn't tell anyone who our secret person was, and we only had one hour at the mall. It was SO fun! We had to put our purchases in these big black bags so on the way home in the car no one would know what we bought. We all got some pretty strange looks walking around the mall with those bags. Aren't shoplifters supposed to be more discreet?

We gave each other the gifts we bought and it was fun to see who thought of what to give. Luke gave Dave the best shirt...yes Luke, you are bringing sexy back (kinda). The shirt he gave has him making a funny face and it says, "Hey Dave, I'm bringing sexy back". He won for best gift given and he should have...he had to make that face in front of lots of people at the mall!

Trip to see Santa...
Our playgroup ventured to the mall to see Santa. Audrey and I talked about it for two days, and she was so excited to go see him. That is until we actually got there and saw him. This was as close as she got to Santa, and every time I asked her if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap she would yell, "No thank you!" That night when Dave asked her about her trip to see Santa Audrey said, "No Santa's lap. Little bit scary." Maybe next year Santa.
After our amusing trip to see Santa we had nine moms and 11 kids eat at Olive Garden. I forgot to take a picture, but here is the proof of the yummy Andes mint Audrey ate in the car on the way home.
I love this time of year.