embarrassing

One of Audrey's new favorite (and usually misused) words is embarrassing. I usually don't correct her when she uses it incorrectly because I think it is cute.

Audrey and Phoenix LOVE baths (it might run in the family). Phoenix does the sign for bath about 5 times a day (very hard to resist!). Once in a while Phoenix will need to um...err....uhh...relieve himself when he is in the bath. He will stand up and let the pee flow. Audrey thinks it is hilarious. A few nights ago Phoenix did just this and between laughs Audrey said "Phoenix, that is embarrassing!" Phoenix laughed, and so did I. 2 kids keeps things interesting!

an update on Phoenix

(oreo-stash)

I am not going to lie. this lil fella was a lot of work between the ages of 6-14 months. There was a 6 month period when he would basically whine the entire day unless I held him, and he wouldn't be satisfied with me just holding him. He liked it when I would try to do things while holding him (cleaning, cooking...). It was a really difficult time, but my hard work has paid off! Phoenix is the happiest little guy now, he still gets into EVERYTHING, but he brings so much joy into our home. He gives me lots of wet and slobbery kisses, he is ultra cuddly, he is actually eating now, he loves playing ring-around-the-rosie, he loves nursery, he loves getting picked up from nursery (me and Trav always fight over who gets to pick him up because he gets a huge smile on his face and runs over to us), he is obsessed with candy, and he is starting to try to talk. He can say "uh-oh" (sounds like eh-ah), sometimes he says "all gone" (sounds like ah-gah), when I say "Trav" he tries to say it...oh my goodness, we LOVE this little guy. Whenever he sees his binky and blanky he will go grab them and then come and cuddle in mine or Trav's arms (I will sometimes bring him into his room to get his blanky just for the cuddles). Oh, and the other day he played for almost 2 hours by himself, in his room, with his cars. I am starting to think I might be able to pick up crafting/reading again! I usually bring Phoenix and Audrey to the local kids museum about once a week and he is obsessed with the trains there. His newest obsession is peanut butter, one morning this week he just wanted spoonfuls of peanut butter (I gave him like 10!). Life is good here at the Andrew house!

Audrey"s First Kiss (and love triangle)

So...there is this boy named Andrew in Audrey's preschool class. He is totally adorable, has long hair (surfer like), and he is in love with Audrey. A few months ago when I picked Audrey up from school she told me that Andrew said that he wanted to marry her. So naturally I asked her every day after that if he told her he was going to marry her. For a while her answer was in a very high pitched and annoyed (at me) "No! Just forget about it!". Then one day he told her he wanted to marry her again. And the next day, and the next day, and so on. So pretty much her and Andrew have been unofficially engaged for about 2 months. I always ask Audrey for updates (do you blame me?) and one day she told me that on the playground she was playing with a boy named Benjamin and Andrew came up and started pulling Audrey away and saying "I am going to marry her!" and Benjamin started pulling her other arm and saying "But she is my friend!" Audrey went to play with Andrew. Every few weeks Audrey will get a yellow ticket in class (bad) because her and Andrew were talking too much. Audrey used to say that she was going to marry Phoenix, but apparently Andrew asked his Mom about that and he informed Audrey that she could not marry her baby brother. Last week when I picked Audrey up she said "Mom! Andrew kissed me today!" Travis heard it to, and he said "Audrey, you shouldn't be kissing him." She said (in a very defensive tone) "Andrew is in love with me!" Travis said "It is just puppy love", Audrey responded in the same defensive tone "No, it's not!" Then Travis asked her how long the kiss was and she said "two minutes" (I am pretty sure it was not that long). When we got home I asked her to show me what her kiss was like because I was curious. Let's just say that was waay too much passion in it (I'm talking moving her head back and forth and it was at least 10 seconds long!!). I told her that she shouldn't kiss like that until she is married. And the last few days on the playground Benjamin and Andrew have been fighting over Audrey a lot, and now Benjamin is saying he wants to marry Audrey too. She told me she usually pretends to be a kitty cat when the boys are fighting.

I am friends with Andrew's Mom and she told me that Andrew talks about buying a house with Audrey after they get married. I actually think the whole thing is wicked cute (except for the passionate kiss...but even that makes me laugh a little). But Travis is VERY concerned about Audrey's teenage years.

MY Valentines Day

When I married Travis I knew that he was not the romantic type. I was OK with that. I did not expect that he would get more and more thoughtful/romantic every year, but he does. He decorated our kitchen with the best cut out hearts, he had Audrey and Phoenix (and himself) make me valentines, and of course he got me loads of candy, plus the Taylor Swift CD that I had hinted at (5 years ago he wouldn't have taken the hint if I had straight out told him). He made sure that I knew I am loved (hopefully I did the same for him). At the end of the night he was checking his facebook and there were of course the guys complaining about V-day and Travis said "some guys just don't get what Valentine's Day is all about." My guy just keeps getting better!

Audrey's Valentine's Day

This was Audrey's first year of celebrating V-day at school. I told her that we could either make cookies to give to her friends or buy valentines from the store for her friends. She chose the more delicious option, of course! One of our favorite things to do is to make frosted sugar cookies for holidays. One night when it was close to the Christmas season Audrey woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that she had a dream that we made Christmas cookies with frosting on them. It was so cute. So basically, she is a pro at helping me make cookies.

When I was rolling out the dough Phoenix went and got the toy rolling pin. Awwww!! Audrey proceeded to use the toy one and cut out tiny little hearts for Phoenix.

He also found some powdered sugar I dropped on the floor...

Audrey signed her name on all of the hearts. She is getting really good!

Coming Home

Whoa! Have I checked out this month or what? I had no idea it had been so long since my last post. I will fill in the blanks between then and now soon. Promise.

Over the weekend I met two of my sisters in Chicago for another girls weekend. The nice thing about flying to Chicago from Raleigh is that it is a straight flight, less than 2 hours away (basically take-off, take off the seat belt sign, drinks, and then the landing) couldn't be easier. We had a delish dinner that night in Chicago (me, Leah, Jess, and Leah's beau, Paul), the next day we hit up an outlet mall (shopping opportunities with girls are few and far between for me so of course we all took advantage of our being together), and we got some pizza, and a milkshake (the sign said it was small but it was seriously like 4 regular small shakes). I was stuffed (like roll me through the door kind of stuffed). The next day was spent with me in bed feeling like...umm...I better not say here, let's just say pretty bad (or should I say ugly bad? just sayin....). Could it have been worse timing? I think not. My being sick definitely limited some activities (I thought about trying to rent one of those scooter wheelchairs, but those babies don't rent out as easily as a car, so I had to scratch that idea). I felt a lot better the next day and even better the day after that. All in all, we had a great time (food, shopping, family, movies...), aside from my sick day. No pictures this time though (I thought about taking one of my ugly sicko mug during my sick day, but lucky for you I refrained).

I was anxious to get home though. I had never been away from my little mama's boy, so I was excited to see his reaction, and of course I missed my cuddle buddy, and my little girlie. I got to my gate to wait to board my returning flight and I immediately felt comfortable with the people who were around me. A lot of them were returning home to Raleigh, like me. The south (at least this part of the south) is full of extremely friendly and loving people that will talk to you like they've known you their whole life. Who wouldn't want to be in a room full of instant friends? I know I like it. My flight went perfect (the ONLY empty seat on the flight was next to ....ME!!!), when I got back into RDU I was able to help a lady with a baby (I kinda make it my personal mission to help anyone with kids in airports) and that made my day. Walking through the airport everyone was so friendly and smiley, I would have felt like a movie star, but that is how people here are to everyone. Ahh, it was good to be back to the place I now call home!

I walked out to the 65 degree night air to look for my lova boy, and I saw him standing by our car (he always gets out of the car when he is waiting to pick someone up at the airport and fidgets around doing stuff like opening the trunk and pretending to fix something so that the airport peeps won't make him move). I always miss Trav when we are apart, and I love it when he wraps his arms around me tight to welcome me back. The kids were sooo excited (I was at least as exited as they were). Little Phoenix started to cry when I moved away from him so I sat next to him for the first few minutes back to our house. When we got inside Travis, Audrey, and Phoenix took turns hugging and kissing me, over and over again. Its good to be loved. It was the perfect home coming.

Phoenix Willy's Haircut

Some of you may have noticed that our lil fella's hair has been getting rather long. Last week TWO people thought he was a girl (I didn't bother to correct them)!! We debated cutting it into a full blown mullet and keeping it for a week, but I didn't want to get rid of his long hair on top. So, Phoenix got his way (not that he is talking yet, but if he could talk I am 93% positive that he would be against sporting a mullet). I gave the kiddos a bath while I cut Trav's hair (I wanted Phoenix to see that the clippers were not scary). Then it was Phoenix's turn. We let him go commando (a decision I would very soon regret), I gave him a sucker, Trav held him and I cut fast. After about 10 seconds Phoenix started squirming so me and Trav got creative about holding him down long enough for me to cut a chunk. At one point I felt something warm and tickly on my foot...I screamed...my sweet little fella was peeing on me!! I grabbed his towel, soaked up the excess, and continued with the haircut. The whole things lasted about 5 minutes start to finish. I thought Phoenix was cute before, but now he is a whole new level of adorableness. See for yourself...

The before pictures:

The after pictures:

Andrew/Weekes Family visit...

Trav's parents came for a visit last week. We had TONS of fun! Janae (Trav's sister) and her adorable family came down for the weekend. It was awesome having so much family around (since there is NO family on either side in Raleigh we really appreciate it when we have visitors). I didn't take a ton of pictures but this is my favorite one from the week. Jeff kept saying that they are going to start making more trips out east (they live in AZ....soooo jealous!!) and hopefully that is true. Audrey was so sad after everyone left (I am pretty sure we all were).

Wacky Wednesday

Last week was wacky Wednesday for Audrey. We had a lot of fun dressing her up. I told her that every else in her class would be wacky. I was wrong (either the other moms didnt get the memo or we took it a little too seriously). But Audrey didn't mind.

Mind Reader

I know that you have been wondering the same thing that I have for last 18 months. Don't even try to deny it. You can't hide it from me. The question on all of our minds is: What would Phoenix look like as a girl? Here is a little taste...

He totally loved it. Since he was just a wee little fella if he could get his hands on a brush or comb he would immediately start combing his hair. I thought about putting a dress on, but Travis told me that was too much. I guess he was right...

Merry Christmas!

We had a quiet and fun filled Christmas this year. I asked Audrey what her favorite part of Christmas day was and she said it was that Santa ate the treats all gone (a cookie and a cinnamon roll). Phoenix wasn't aware so much of Santa, but he did enjoy having free access to the tree (we had a cage around it up until Christmas morning). Kids make Christmas so fun.

Kids in their Christmas outfits for Church...umm, and yeah...that little stud muffin is mine!!

Audrey's ornaments that she made in school. So cute!

My Mom gave Audrey a snuggie...and she totally loves it. I put mine on to show Audrey and her face was totally disgusted. Apparently snuggies aren't a good look for me (but that doesn't stop me from wearing one!!).

Christmas List

Audrey has a looong Christmas list this year (I may be to blame...every time she asked for something in the store I would say, why don't you put that on your Christmas list? not expecting she would remember everything...I was wrong). We went to see the mall Santa last Monday. We never actually get the pictures taken, but he is the only Santa available for Audrey to visit. Phoenix started to cry after a minute in Santa's lap. After the kids were done, we went shopping for a few gifts for other people. I have been eyeing these charm bracelets at Gap Kids for a while (like a year) and I asked Audrey what she thought about them. She immediately fell in love with the bracelets and one charm in particular (a globe). She of course asked if she could have it and I said "Why don't you ask Santa for it?" She was a little distraught because she had already spoken with Santa, so I told her that she could write him a letter. Pretty much the cutest thing ever!

"Dear Santa, I want a bracelet and a charm please. Heart Audrey."

We sent it to Santa.