belly laugh.

this video of Audrey and Will playing this evening makes my heart happy. i am sick, barely have a voice, and have had a really long day....but this...wow, i am so blessed. how did i get so lucky?

whenever i'm having a bad day, i'm going to watch this video! i had tears running down my face from laughing so hard when i was filming this!

what was supposed to be our church and family day turned into a let's-just-try-and-get-through-the-day. Will worked on homework and cleaned the house while Audrey napped and i recuperated on the couch. When Audrey was awake, he played with her, took care of her, and kept her occupied. i felt terrible that i wasn't fun mommy but i have a fever and my throat and sinuses are on fire. i really hope Audrey doesn't catch this bug - it's awful! i hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! today especially, i am thankful to have such an amazing man in my life to step in when i am not at my best and someone who can make my daughter belly laugh like she did tonight :)

DIY christmas ornaments.

(update): finally finished all of my DIY ornaments for the exchange! Ann and i decided the hand print with paint and a regular glass ornament would be too messy so i came up with this idea instead:

i used the shower curtain ring wreath ornament instructions with green ribbon instead of cream and gold, hot glued red buttons together for the berries, and traced Audrey's hand print on card stock to make the wreath "leaves." i outlined the hand print with green crayon and then let her color the inside of each hand print! she had a blast scribbling (and trying to eat the crayon)! i wrote her name, the year, and her age on the back of each hand print :)

also, as promised. here are a couple of the wreath ornaments i made with duck feathers:

and just for fun:

oh, how pinteresting.

so, i joined pinterest a couple months ago. i joined with an open mind and a sense of realism because let's be honest...i've heard stories of addiction and high expectations and i didn't want to fill my head with promises of projects and crafting that i don't have time for. i really just joined to get a few ideas for Audrey's birthday party. now, it's the holidays. holidays + pinterest = omg-i-want-to-do-it-ALL! i wanted to find a few DIY Christmas tree ornaments for the annual ornament exchange in Augusta over Thanksgiving. i'm still not sure what our Thanksgiving plans are -- the logistics and scheduling family time around everyone's schedules has been stressful. Will has to work on Black Friday, which we didn't realize until last week. Regardless of if we go to North Carolina, Augusta, Kingsland, or just stay here, i wanted to get creative and make my ornaments for this year's exchange. Last year, i had a five-week-old so my mother-in-law saved me and bought and wrapped my ornaments for me. This year, i searched pinterest for a few ideas, made some notes, and headed to Walmart hoping that their craft section would have what i needed (since there isn't a Hobby Lobby or Michaels anywhere nearby). The first idea i loved didn't have a tutorial, so i thought i would wing it and take notes on what i did:

No-Sew Button Ornament

Supplies & Cost:
6 pack of styrofoam 2" balls $3.47 (i also got a few 4" balls but i think they would turn out too heavy for a tree)
6 packs of buttons $5.66 each (i lucked out and found packs with just red and green buttons. this project would definitely be more cost efficient if you had buttons on hand)
2 additional packs of just red buttons $1.97 each
Red ribbon $1.97
100 white sewing pins $2.97
Hot glue gun & extra glue sticks $3.47, $2.97

since i just had a picture to go by, i kinda just played around with the button placement and how i wanted it to look for spacing. i ended up pinning a few large buttons to the styrofoam ball and then using smaller buttons to fill in space

once i had most of one side done,

i used my hot glue gun to attach the red ribbon (note: it's best to use the hot glue gun as it's heating up on the styrofoam as opposed to waiting until it's been on for a while. the styrofoam tends to get melty when the glue is really hot)

i glued down both ends of the ribbon, making sure they were as close to each other as possible so there wouldn't be any white showing. i then placed large buttons on either side to make sure everything held up. for most of the large buttons, i doubled stacked using a smaller button on top and also didn't use two pins for every button (mostly to conserve pins and also because it felt like it took away from the Christmas colors). i also tied a bow around the base where the hanging ribbon was attached because all Christmas ornaments need big bows, right? i love how it turned out, and i think it will look great on a tree! with the 2" ball, it didn't turn out very heavy. i would think that if you used a 4" ball, you wouldn't be able to hang it on a tree due to the weight. here is the finished ornament:

front

back

as much as i love it, i don't think i want to use this style for the ornament exchange. it took A LOT of buttons and also i wanted to do something a little more personal. for Audrey's ornaments for the exchange, i'm going to attempt to get her hand prints on the sides of a glass ornament with a little help from Will's sister, Ann. we have a pinterest ornament party scheduled for tomorrow, yay!

with this in mind, i moved on to inspiration #2, which i borrowed from blogger Sarah Ortega. she has a tutorial for her shower curtain ring wreath ornament which i loved! it's very cost efficient and there are endless possibilities to personalize it and add your own creativity. here is how i made mine:

Shower Curtain Ring Wreath Ornaments

Supplies & Cost:
12-pack of shower curtain rings $1.16
9 rolls of cream satin ribbon $0.47 each
2 rolls of gold glitter ribbon $0.97 each
Misc. beads $1 per pack
Wooden letters (30 pack) $3.47
Painters pen in metallic gold $2.44

i connected the two ends of the shower curtain ring together and filled in the gap between the two sides with hot glue so that the circle wouldn't have a big dip in it. i wrapped the cream satin ribbon around the hot glue blob several times until it was even with the outside of the ring. from there, i wrapped the ribbon around a few times in each section to make the ring look more full and textured, putting a dab of hot glue down about every half inch to make sure the ribbon stayed in place. once i came full circle, i hot glued the end of the ribbon down on the back side.

now for the fun part! here is where you can get creative and decorate your wreath however you like! i used these beads:

and leftover pearl paper flowers from my wedding crafting. i hot glued my design on the "fat" part of the ring (where the two ends connected and i had my huge blob of hot glue) to make my wreath look like this:

i would recommend using the "fat" part of the ring to add decorations because there is more space to glue and also it takes away from the lopsided look of the curtain ring. to add personalization to each of the ornaments, i used a paint pen and a wooden letter:

i also slightly distressed the wood using a sewing pin. i then tied a bow with the gold glitter ribbon and attached the bow behind the letter. i used the gold glitter ribbon for hanging and then hot glued the letter and bow to the base of the hanging ribbon:

it was so easy to make and i had so much fun, i also made a few for my friends. here is an "M" wreath for Melissa:

Opening season for ducks was yesterday morning so Will brought home a small bag of beautiful feathers for me to use (will update with these later, Audrey just woke up from her nap) and we also have duck marinading in the fridge for dinner tonight. Yum! i love the holidays and i kinda sorta love pinterest as well :)

apparently i'm not the only crafty one in the family this weekend. Audrey (13 months old tomorrow!) made a hand print turkey magnet for us in Sunday school this morning. her first piece of artwork -- aww!

halloween.

this was our little 12-day-old pumpkin with monster feet last year on Halloween...

the big to-do on Halloween last year was having Will drive us to my OB's office so i could get more blood work done to follow up on my post-cholestatis-almost-completely-shot-liver. how eventful! this year i was really excited to take Audrey in her new wagon and walk around the neighborhood. however, i completely forgot to pick up a cute costume when i was in North Carolina and the day of, i was panicking. Mother-in-law to the rescue! Jen saved the day and snagged a cute spider costume and candy bag on her way to meet us for dinner. Ann, Jen, and i took Audrey around to "trick-or-treat" a few of the neighbors, but mostly we just had a great time seeing all of the other kids dressed up and pulling our tiny purple spider around in her red carriage :)

Audrey let me borrow her hair bow :)

checkin' for goodies

aren't they so cute together?

i was shocked she kept the spider hat on for so long!

i had a super lenient mommy moment and let Audrey have her first piece of candy, a grape dum-dum sucker. she loved it!!

Will was bummed he missed out, but he had class until 8:15 so he met us at home and convinced Audrey to share some of her candy with him :) Halloween was followed up by a check up with the best dentist in town, Pop!

i was actually there on business (more on that later) but i wanted Pop to look at Audrey's teeth and see if he could tell me what's going on. i noticed when i was brushing her teeth a couple weeks ago that she has little white spots on her front two teeth. i brush her teeth twice a day (after breakfast, and before bed) so i was wondering if there was something i was doing wrong or should worry about. Pop is almost certain that she has an enamel deficiency (Will had the same problem when he was her age) and we're hoping she grows out of it!

our adventure to north carolina.

i thought that driving to North Carolina by myself with Audrey would be a breeze. i was so wrong.

-- let me preface by saying that the trip was so worth it, i met my godson for the first time and spend four whole days with my best friend in the entire world.

well, the first challenge occurred about 2 hours into the trip. that large pumpkin swirl iced coffee i chugged at 7 am? i thought i would be fine to zip to Augusta with no pit stops. coffee makes me happy! happy happy! and alert, and optimistic that this trip wouldn't be a long, endless time warp of my day. needless to say, Audrey i had to make 2 stops before Augusta and i realized as i was pulling into the first gas station i could find that i had no one to hold my curious toddler while i used the ladies room and i had no patience at that point in time to get the stroller out and haul it into a tiny bathroom. holding a squirmy one-year-old whilst peeing and then trying to get my jeans back up and buttoned was an....experience. i sanitized the crap out of both of us when we got back to the car. *shudder*

i left at 7 am, planning to get to Augusta at about 10, which is when Audrey normally wakes up. between the many unplanned bathroom breaks (curse you, delicious pumpkin swirl iced coffee) and hitting school traffic in Bacon (not a typo) County, i ended up pulling over at a rest stop and sitting with Audrey in the back seat while she drank her milk and ate a Nutrigrain bar for breakfast.

SIDE NOTE: we are completely off bottles!!!! it was about a two week process but baby A is bottle free! we also cut out her bedtime cup of milk and had great success. she gets 10 oz. organic whole milk in the morning with her breakfast, 5 oz. water at lunch and about 3-4 oz. throughout the day, and 7 oz. milk with dinner. she gets dinner at about 7-7:30 and is in bed by 8:30 every night. she is still putting herself to sleep and sleeping 8:30-10 even without that last cup of milk for comfort, hooray!

we arrived at Nanny's in Augusta a little after 11, where i changed Audrey out of her jammies and let her run around for a little bit. Nanny fed us both lunch and we chatted and played with Audrey for a couple hours. we were back on the road again at 1:15, and Audrey fell asleep instantly. things were going great until we hit traffic in Charlotte (surprise, surprise). then, everything fell apart. it was about 3 and Audrey woke up as soon as we slowed to a stop. she was not happy. not happy AT ALL. there i was creeping along in mostly standstill traffic, with a screaming child in my backseat for an hour and a half. i wanted to cry. i tried all of my tricks. but i can only play peek-a-boo in the backseat mirror so many times, right? as soon as we started moving, i found the nearest rest area and let Audrey run around in the grass for a few minutes, gave her a little snack and located all of the pacis she had thrown around the backseat in her fit of rage.

we pulled into Laura's house in Greensboro at about 6:30 and i was never so thankful to get out of that car! I can't tell you how many times throughout the trip that i longed for the days when Audrey was a sleepy, blissful little traveler. after letting the babies meet for the first time (so sweet), i fed Audrey dinner, let her run around for a little while, and put her to bed (in Evan's pack and play). then, it was time for me to have a little snuggle with sweet baby Evan..

hello world, i'm super cute!

omgaaaahh the sweetest!

we had fun making faces at each other :)

Laura and i stayed up late catching up and dishing on all things mommy. can i just say how AMAZING it is that my best friend is now in the super awesome mom's club with me? it's so great! we've been best friends for over 8 years, have been co-workers, roommates, and everything in between. now, we're also moms!

the next morning while Laura took a shower, i held down the fort with a 5 week old and a 1 year old. remember that one time i had baby fever? yeah, well..it's gone now. for good! everything started out fine, Audrey was naturally curious about Evan and wanted to help rock him a little.

hmm, what is it?

oh, hello baby Evan!

ooooo, wants to touch the baby!

she said "uh oh" and ran away when Evan started getting fussy

so, Evan was a little fussy after Audrey got all up close and personal. i forgot that he doesn't like it when people mess with him too much, especially his head, and Audrey wanted to pat his head and attempted to pull his hair a few times. so that went south quickly. Audrey runs away, Evan is crying. "Audrey where are you?" *crash* "Hold on Evan, i'll be right back." "Audrey??" Audrey has gotten into one of the drawers in the changing table and dumped the contents out. Evan is starting to full on cry in the other room. I grab Audrey and go back out to the living room. Set Audrey down, pick Evan up and pat his back (he has lots and lots of gas, poor baby!), block Audrey from running back into Evan's nursery to re-dump the drawer, find some toys for her to play with, play defense to keep her from playing with Evan's hair again, keep trying to soothe Evan (Audrey never had bad gas so this is all new to me), Audrey starts crying now because she wants in the nursery so she can get into things, Evan is crying harder now and just as i'm about to start crying too, Laura pops out of the bathroom, takes Evan from me and i breathe a sigh of relief. Laura and i laugh as i tell her that i'm never ever having another child ever again.

we took the kiddos to do a little shopping and to the Greensboro Arboretum, which was my favorite part. when Will and i lived by campus, we used to take walks from our house to the arboretum a lot. it's such a gorgeous place! while we were there, i took a few sweet mama baby pictures of Laura and Evan :) oh, and a course a few of Audrey. she loved running around and checking everything out.

on our way!

 

i realized shortly before i left that Audrey didn't have a warm jacket to wear when were were "up north" (as Will refers to it). Mom Pat and Pop weren't sure what to get Audrey for her birthday, so i picked out her present from them and it's one of my most absolute favorite things EVER. behold, the pink fleecy baby bear jacket:

most favorite!

no more pictures mama!

it was so nice to just be back in Greensboro. i didn't realize how much i would miss it! Audrey and i wandered around the taj-ma-teeter (the biggest Harris Teeter ever) and i was in grocery store heaven. don't get me wrong, Kroger rocks and the Piggly Wiggly has been known to carry a few of my most favorite dinner delicacies but no grocery experience will ever top shopping at Harris Teeter. i actually text Will when i was there and bragged to him about being at the taj-ma-teeter. he was jealous.

Laura and i also had a mom's night in where we both treated ourselves to a bottle of wine and watched Magic Mike. it was a memorable night. i'll never forget it. Audrey slept through the whole thing (as expected) and Evan was a happy, sleepy little boy so his mommy and godmommy got to giggle a lot and enjoy themselves.....oh, and get lost in Channing Tatum's abs :)

the trip back wasn't so sucky. i left at 8:40 am and breezed through Charlotte at 9:50 am without any problems. by now, i was a pro at restroom breaks and Audrey was happy and i enjoyed her chatting with me instead of her screaming at me this time. we got home at 4:30, both took a bath, and were refreshed and excited to see Will when he got home from work. whew, WHAT AN ADVENTURE! :)