What's old is new again

We haven't yet found homes for all of our stuff since we moved into the new house. We used to have an attic at the old house, so all of the stuff we weren't using on a regular basis went up there. We had a ton of storage at that house. It was great. This house has NO storage compared to what we were used to. We were spoiled. We do have a storage shed out back which offers a decent amount of space, but for those of you with babies - you know how big that stuff is. We have 2 swings, a bouncy chair, the jumperoo, the pack and play, the cosleeper, plus about a dozen awkward but large toys that Audrey doesn't play with but I am saving for future babies. Its a lot of stuff. I am slightly ashamed to tell you that right now most of that junk is just sitting around in random places. It irritates me, but we have to move around stuff in the shed to get it all to fit and we haven't done that. 

So what that means for Audrey is that all her old toys are available again! And surprisingly, she finds them interesting again. She really likes playing with her baby gym - remember this?

This was taken at the old house before the move. Had our junk out then too.

One year ago.

And then there's the bumbo. She never really cared for it much when she was a little baby. I think she felt too restricted in it. But now! Oh now it can entertain her for a half an hour at a time! She looked so cute trying to fit herself into the chair and it was fun to watch her concentration while she did it. She couldn't figure out how to get in and out but eventually she got it. 

And here's another unrelated video. Just because she's cute.

Blog Book

I haven't been blogging lately. I'm sorry! We moved into the new house (finally) last Sunday and have spent every day and night working on unpacking and getting some of the many projects started. I really, really am trying to get some pictures to put up here to see the inside and see some of the progress we've already made but I'm just not there yet. I apologize.

Two new things:
I had my blog printed into a book. The main reason I started this blog was to make it easier to share updates about our little family with the rest of our family, but another reason was to document my own experiences through my pregnancy and now through motherhood. In that sense, the blog has turned into a bit of a diary for me. I used to be very good about journal-ing, but since having Audrey I have written only two entries and they both are quite nonsensical and ridiculous. Instead, I have found it much easier to just pop on here every few days and write an update - that way I am more likely to write about the little goings-on and less likely to miss anything (it is so hard to come back after 2 weeks and try to fit everything in that has happened in 2 weeks...). SO with all of that said, I'd like to share with you - Patience and Perspective: The Book!

There is a website I found that basically just prints your blog into a hardcover book. I had mine done with a table of contents which was unnecessary but I didn't see an option to change that. The posts were printed chronologically with pictures, which is great. I had it printed up through Audrey's birthday. I think I am going to do this annually from now on so that one day when the internet disappears or is replaced by some super fancy better-than-the-internet thing, I'll still have this documentation of what our lives were like and how we felt. :) The only thing I don't like about this book is that in the posts where I had videos, there is nothing. So from now on whenever I post a video, I am also going to post a picture so that when I have the blog printed a photo will be in the book.

Moving on...I also FINALLY got around to ordering a photo book for 2010. Yes, in October of 2011 I printed our 2010 photos. It was hard work. If you remember, my computer crashed in August of last year, and I lost all of my pictures. I had some, but not all of them saved online. This was honestly a blessing. I had something like 3000 pictures just from August-December of last year. I learned two things. 1) I need to edit my photos and get rid of the ones that are crappy. I tend to just snap snap snap away when I have the camera out and of 20 pictures, only 10 are clear/in focus/useable. While I do still want to keep the less than cute pictures, I think I am going to start moving them to a "not perfect" folder so that it makes it easier to locate good ones for printing. 2) I need to start working on my photo book earlier so I don't feel rushed. The company I ordered from was running a special and I wanted it NOW. Which meant that instead of putting the time and effort into a well done book, I just let the computer auto fill using the pictures I selected and it came out less than perfect. I ended up getting a pretty standard book and the price was reasonable, so I'm happy with it overall. And now we are almost at the end of 2011 and I have probably 5000 more pictures to sift through to get started on this year's book. Lots to do!

I will try to update later in the week with pictures of Audrey and of the house.
xoxo

One Year Photos

I forgot to post Audrey's one year portraits on here, but you all saw them since they are on Facebook. Our photographer did a sweet blog post about them here if you want to read it. My sweet, happy girl!

Cox Farms

On Saturday Audrey and I met up with some friends and visited Cox Farms here in Centreville. Every fall they have a huge festival with slides, hay rides, pumpkin patches, animals, and so much more. I've always wanted to go because I love family stuff like this, but I figure it'd be kind of creepy if Josh and I just show up to a family festival by ourselves, so we never went. Thank goodness for Audrey, because this place was so fun!

We started out by going on the hayride which was nice and long, but Audrey didn't care for it, probably because she couldn't really see over the side of the truck. She did enjoy throwing the hay around and possibly tasting a piece here and there. We then headed over to one of the slides and waited patiently in the long line for our turn. I held her in my lap as we slid down, and she really enjoyed it! Maybe next year she'll be big enough to go down alone. We had some lunch while we were there and then ventured on over to the Kiddie Zone section, which is designated just for the littlest kids. It was perfect for Audrey. They had a little pond where the kids could throw rocks in and watch it splash, but Audrey only was interested in climbing the wall and attempting to get in the water, so we didn't stay there for long. We went up the hill where they had some corn pits - like sandboxes but filled with dried corn kernels! It was the jackpot! Audrey loved this. She had fun dumping and tossing and mixing and filtering the corn through her hands. She did really well, but I had to watch her very closely because every few minutes she would try to sneak a taste.

 

We also went on a long walk through the corn maze and walked around a bit more before Audrey was ready for a nap and we headed home. She was so worn out from all the excitement that she fell asleep in the car before I even pulled out of my parking space. It was such a fun day with some our our friends and Audrey and I both had a blast. I was disappointed that Josh had to work, but we agreed to go again on Friday, just the three of us!