Audrie: 11 Months

Wow. I feel like Audrie's first year of life is just flying by! Yesterday she turned 11 months old.

Last month we were trying to get some cute pictures of the kids together for Father's Day. We were not successful, but we really liked a few of them of Audrie. She is still great at doling out the smiles.

She laughs really easily too.

11 Fun Facts about Audrie:

1. She only has one tooth.

2. She just barely started saying mamamama, but I don't think it means anything to her. The other day I pleaded, "Audrie, say mama" and she promptly responded with "dada."

3. When Carter and Ashlyn are getting their teeth brushed, she will tackle them to get the toothbrush out of their mouths and into her own.

4. She's been taking several steps! Hopefully walking is right around the corner . . .

5. She loves making Carter and Ashlyn laugh (and she actually does it all the time).

6. If she wants something she goes for it, no matter what or who she has to crawl over (or up).

7. She loves her binkie (I am not looking forward to that weaning process).

8. She still nurses all the time, but loves other foods too.

9. She loves rough housing with Daddy. If he lays down on the floor then she makes her way to him ASAP and wants to play!

10. She is obsessed with her cousin King. She is always watching him when he is around and wants to be as close as possible.

11. We've taken to calling her Odge or Odge Podge.

We love our baby girl and can't believe she'll soon be 1!

Memorial Day 2011

I love the Memorial Day traditions in Brad's family. We meet in the morning at Golden Corral with his extended family (whoever can come). We enjoy the breakfast buffet, which usually ends in ice cream cones for all.

We then visit some meaningful cemeteries and put flowers on the graves. Here is Carter at Jonathan's graveside. Jonathan is Brad's younger brother who died when he was 4 months old.

This is Grandpa Walker's grave.

Usually we end the day at a cemetery in Farmington. There is a playground and tennis courts there and we'll let the kids play and visit for awhile. However, this year we spent the rest of the morning bowling!

I couldn't get over how cute the kids looked in those little bowling shoes!

Carter would pick up the ball himself, walk it over and place it on the ball roller thingie.

Then he would just stand there and watch until we told him he was done. I'm not sure what he was waiting for.

I couldn't really get a good shot of Brad bowling. He's good (actually, compared to me everyone is good).

Waiting.

Our niece is awesome. She didn't even need a ball roller thingie!

Precious

I'm not even sure what they were looking at. The scoreboard?

Audrie was a champ and let anyone hold her. Not typical and very nice.

I love this.

Daddy's girl.

I was there too!

Ashlyn was happy whether she knocked down 10 pins or 1 pin. She just likes being with her cousins!

It doesn't get much cuter than this!

We spent the rest of the day with family at Grandma and Grandpa's house and it was perfect. I'm really excited for my children to grow up with special and fun Memorial Days!

Ashlyn's Preschool Graduation

Wednesday May 25, 2011 was Ashlyn's Preschool Graduation!

All the graduates were supposed to wear Sunday dress.

We took some pictures in our front yard before we went. We know, our grass is sooo lovely.

We even had some time for a little tree climbing

and grass sitting. I know, I know, the grass is beautiful!

The graduation was at her teacher, Laurel Steele's, house in the backyard. They sang lots of songs.

They did a cute dance.

Carter played during the entire thing. I think he now thinks that graduations are awesome.

He spent lots of time on the trampoline.

He had some fun with the trucks in the sandbox.

He also slid down the slide, played in the playhouse, swung on the swing, and rode around on a tricycle!

Audrie spent the whole time in my arms just looking around.

Ashlyn is receiving her diploma.

She loved her teacher and all the kids in her class!

It was a great year!

A Kiddo Update

I haven't done a very good job of recording the first year of Audrie's life. It is hard to believe that she is almost 10 months old!

Audrie is getting her first tooth! She was actually born with a "milk tooth" that fell out when she was about 6 weeks old, but this is the first normal one. :) She is still very happy and smiles at people everywhere, although she does not like to be held by any one but Mom or Dad. She walks along furniture, stands up on her own for seconds, and just recently learned to crawl down stairs. I am really glad that we only have short flights of stairs. She still loves to put things in her mouth and her favorite chew toys are toothbrushes, crayons, and pens.

A couple weeks ago I went on a field trip with Ashlyn's preschool class. Brad stayed home with the kids and Carter didn't want to go down for a nap. Apparently he wasn't able to fight off the sleepiness all afternoon because Brad found him like this:

Oh the places kids will sleep!

Carter is loving nursery now. YES! His nursery teachers recently taught him to hold up two fingers to show his age. However, he is not consistent with his answers when asked how old he is. Sometimes he's five, sometimes he's one, often he's three and occasionally he's two. He plays pretend with Ashlyn all the time. He loves fruit . . . kiwi, watermelon, pineapple and would eat it all day long. He is still my cuddly boy and loves hugs and kisses and being held. I hope that doesn't change any time soon!

Ashlyn and Carter are always pretending something - that they're monsters, or a family, or Kari and Bryon, or a girl and a dog. They make great messes all over the place, but Ashlyn is getting much better at picking up after herself. She is always helping me pack the diaper bag, buckle Carter up in the car, find Audrie's binkie, and grab the mail. I don't know what I would do without her! Lately she enjoys eating noodles, almonds dipped in honey, and Italian Ice (only strawberry flavored). She loves to hold Audrie (scary) and is great at making her laugh!

Ashlyn's Dance Recital

Since September Ashlyn has been attending BYU Children's Creative Dance Class. Her teachers were Miss Camilla and Miss Noelle. On Saturday she had a dance recital where they did a piece titled "Imagine." She was able to show us her beautiful slides, skips, gallops, and jumps. Grandma May even came to watch too!

Brad took some pictures of her in the front yard before the performance. It is a good thing that he did because the ones from the recital didn't turn out very well.

The recital was in a room in the Richard's Building. It has stadium seating with comfortable chairs, so every one has a good view. Ashlyn's class consisted of about 12 4 and 5 year olds.

The dance was definitely very "creative," but it seemed to work well for the young girls. We loved watching Ashlyn dancing around the stage and she really seemed to enjoy it too.

Kingsley is Here!

On April 21st Lorie gave birth to precious Kingsley. He is such a doll! We had about 7 of these cousin photos to choose from and this is about as good as they get:

Easter 2011

Typically we spend the Saturday before Easter with Brad's family. His mom always boils lots of eggs and sets us up with fun dyes for decorating. Ashlyn and Carter enjoyed dipping their own eggs into the colors.

Carter loved his blue egg most.

The kids also enjoyed a fun Easter egg hunt.

More cousins!

Audrie even got into the Easter egg action.

The kids put on Grandma's dress-ups and paraded through the room while throwing out candy.

Sunday was pretty low-key. We barely got ready in time for 11:00 church, so we didn't take any pictures before. These are the best shots we could manage after our meetings:

Ah well.

Later in the afternoon we stopped by Mason and Lorie's to see their new baby boy! It was also fun to visit with Mom, Kari, Bryon, Tyler, and Michael!

There are so many fun Easter traditions that it is easy to forget the true reason for the holiday. We're so thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. We'd like to do better at helping our children understand the significance of this holiday. Does anyone have any suggestions for Easter traditions that help the family remember Christ?