Fall 2013 Picture Day

The girls' school went with a new photographer this year and to say that I wasn't impressed would be an understatement.  

Poor Audrey had a huge bruise on the left front of her forehead.

If you look closely, you'll see a large tear under Vivian's right eye and she's holding a graham cracker in her left hand.  This was because she was hysterical and they gave her food to help calm her down.  Notice that she has a pink hair clip in.

 Notice the new clip?  Not sure what happened to the one I sent her in.

While the pics ended up turning out okay, I still took more of my own when they got home that day.

I love my girls!!

Oh Boy.....

Lots to write and catch up on from the summer but here's a little note we got from Audrey's teacher yesterday......we're in trouble.

Audrey's Big Girl Room

I started drafting this entry over a year ago and have just never found time to finish it!  Audrey was hastily moved into her Big Girl room in February 2012 because we were leaving for Naples in a week and needed her to be able to sleep in a Twin without any problems.  On her first night, she didn't do well and ended up back in her crib but with her new big girl pillow.  Night #2 was a success and she's been a great sleeper ever since. 

It took us until the following August to finish decorating (and another 8 months for me to finish writing this!), although I think we need one more lamp.  The room is cavernous - 13' x 20.5'.  Before we built our his and her's walk-in closets, our master was 18' x 20.5' so it's not much smaller!  It made decorating tricky so we gave Audrey a small little reading area.  Her bedroom set is the same furniture my parents bought for me when I was 3.  I don't have a "before" picture because the room was empty save some moving boxes, but here's what the room looked like from the previous owners:

And here's what it looks like now:

This chair is my favorite thing in this room:

This door leads to a second floor "deck" which we never use.  Every house in our neighborhood has one and I think they're totally pointless.

Swimming, Swimming in a Swimming Pool

About a month and a half ago, Audrey started taking her first non-"mommy and me" swim lessons.  She LOVES it.  I mean LOOOOOOVES it.  She always has the biggest smile on her face and her mouth seems to never stop moving.  I'd love to know what she's talking about.  We had her in two mommy and me classes when we lived in Iowa.  First when she was only 11 months old and again around 15 months.  We don't have any pictures from her first classes, but here are some from her second.

She was so little then!  I no longer have to get in the water with her and it's actual survival skills, not just splashing around and singing.  This is her objectives list, it's no joke.

This is from her very first class and she's hard to see:

Watching her big sis:

Bill's parents were able to join us at a class:

By about her fourth class, Audrey was able to climb out all by herself! "Elbow, elbow, tummy, knee!"

We'll likely continue these classes until Summer when we'll pause for a few months and start using the outdoor pool.  We just bought our family pass!

Spring School Pictures

Viv obviously hates school picture day but I still love them!