cousins

Here is a photo series of my attempt to get a photo with all the girls together....

Luckily I have a few more days to master this task!

family

My in-laws are in town! Yipee!!!

My sister in-law Emily, her husband Aleks & their two beautiful girls Maia & Ruby are in town this week! They currently live in Pullman, WA but will be moving to Wichita, KS this summer. I haven't seen them since July at the family reunion in California but Emily and I were both still pregnant then so our daughters finally got to meet today for the very first time! I am beyond excited and can't wait to do all of the super fun things we have planned!

Off to bed so I can wake up early and start all the FUN!!!!

audrey's day at the zoo

Yesterday Audrey & I went to the Phoenix Zoo! My friend Tara has a membership and invited us as her guests. She also invited her friend Chelsea and her son Noah & our friend Beth Ann & her two boys Devon & Ryder met up with us a little later. It was so fun to hang out with other mommies! 

 The monkey house was one of my favorites! The monkeys roam free and get up close and personal. They were jumping from tree to tree right above our heads!

 

Tara & Melanie. Chelsea & Noah.

Having a little lunch

Elephants are one of my favorite animals

This beautiful Peacock was so intrigued by the soda machine! It kept sticking it's head into the hole and yelling. Have you ever heard a peacock yell?? They are LOUD!!

Audrey is obviously not walking yet, but she sure loves to stand!

 I fell in love with this gorgeous white horse. His name is Smokey.

I spent a long time petting his nose :)

Beth Ann, Ryder & Devon

Plum tuckered out!

 

It was such a lovely day!

mama/baby style

I had a lot of fun doing the outfit post last week so I thought I would make it (at least) a weekly feature.

So here is what Mama & Baby wore today!

black wrap dress } target
custom "Audrey" necklace } gifted
knee socks } target
boots } frye
peacock headband } thrifted via buffalo exchange

floral button down shirt } thrifted via Savers
skinny jeans } baby gap
glitter jelly sandals } gifted

Hope you all had a beautiful day!

1st mother's day

My very first Mother's Day!!

It was a lovely day. In the morning Audrey & I had a little breakfast out on the patio.

Then we got dressed & ready for church.

Church was extra special because we made a dedication to the church that we will raise Audrey in a Christ-centered home. Also to teach her to know Jesus in hopes that someday she will choose to accept Him and be baptized. We went up on stage, along with other parents & their children, and said our promise out loud.

Audrey's name was in the bulletin

After church we went out to lunch with my family and then later went over to Matt's parent's house for dinner.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers & great-grandmothers!! xx

babbling baby!

Lately Audrey has been "talking" up a storm! I heard her chatting away from the other room so I decided to walk in on her with the video camera....since whenever I am not sneaky with the camera she freezes like a statue.

So here it is! Our little chatty lady.

Hope you are all having a terrific Tuesday!

our weekend

Thursday was Matt's last day working on a commercial for Arizona Lottery so since then Audrey & I have been enjoying time with him before he's on to the next gig!

Friday was a day for errands. We paid our bills, went out to lunch & went grocery shopping. Even doing everyday errands like these are always more fun with Matt & Audrey.

I've been reading a lot of mommy blogs lately and something fun I've seen is a mother/daughter style post. Basically they post photos of what they wore that day. It's not something I would normally do, although I do really like clothes and fashion, but I thought I'd give it a shot!

Here's what we wore on Friday:

.::Baby::.

shirt } thrifted (international)
skinny jeans } baby gap

.::Mama::.

pony shirt } thrifted via Buffalo Exchange
jean shorts } Hudson, thrifted via Buffalo Exchange/Hollywood,CA
boots } Frye

On Saturday Jamie Tworkowski, the founder of To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) spoke at our church. Jeremy (Pastor of Worship Arts) interviewed him about his non-profit charitable organization. His vision is to present hope and find help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA started by selling t-shirts to raise money for a girl Jamie knew who couldn't afford treatment for her depression/addiction. They started a MySpace page and bands started wearing these t-shirts and spread the word about Jamie's movement. Five years later To Write Love On Her Arms has helped 150,000 people in 40 different countries. It was great to meet him & be able to hear his story.

Sunday was a relaxing day. Matt, Audrey & I took a long walk in the morning and a long nap when we got home. It was such a pleasant day together.

I have been doing baby sign language with Audrey since she was 2 months old. Just within the last 2 weeks I've noticed her really focusing on my hands when I've done the signs. Finally last week she mimicked me and did the sign for "milk"!!! It was literally jaw dropping to see her sign to me. The first couple of times she did it, I wasn't convinced that she knew what it meant because she would do it right after a feeding or just at a random time. Now, a few days later she is doing it when she is hungry! YAY!!! I am so impressed and happy that my persistence has paid off! I was able to catch her doing it on video yesterday and I wanted to share that here. The sign for "milk" is to squeeze your hand open and closed repeatedly, kind of the hand motion you would do if you were to milk a cow. So look at her hands in the video and you will definitely see her sign clearly towards the end. Just an FYI, she is fussy in the video because she is hungry, hence why she is signing for milk! :)

Sunday night ended with breaking news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. News like this just overwhelms me with emotion. Is it good, is it bad? I really don't know. What I do know is the feeling I had when reading my twitter feed and everyone was celebrating death! I couldn't help but feel like there was something very wrong with that. I came across a bible passage that put my feelings into words....

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles. -Proverbs 24:17

My only hope is that the war be over.