3 Years Old

Our little princess had her 3rd birthday party today.  She requested a princess birthday party.  She's a lucky little girl to have so many "buddies" to celebrate with.  I put her in a purple dress, POSITIVE she would change ASAP, but with all the fun happening she managed to stay dressed in civilian clothes until everyone left.  

Can you believe my peanut is 3 year old?  I know I can't.  How did my little 5 lb baby grow up to be such a lady?

I love you, little princess Audrey.

Hours Old

1 Year Old

2 Years Old

3 Years Old

Christmas Letter 2013

Happy Holidays all!  In an effort to save trees we are going with an online version of our Christmas letter.  Also, this way you have access to the letter forEVER in case, perhaps, you are too busy with your own holiday preparations to read entirely too many details about our past year.  To be honest, this letter serves more as a scrapbook for our own posterity so we can have a revisionist version of history where there are no tantrums, no crying, healthy snacks and limited television exposure....

   

The year always starts off with a bang as we celebrate the birthdays of two VERY important Ward ladies.  Audrey always gets the better end of the stick with very little prep work on her part.  Her two-year-old party theme was pink and teal, and was a really fun adventure.  As the babies of Range View become toddlers of Range View the parties only get more and more exciting.

Our family also took a vacation to San Diego to celebrate the 4th of July.  It's one of our favorite places to visit because of the lovely beaches, the delicious breakfasts and the exciting zoo.  This year we managed NOT to drop Audrey on her face out of the rental car and successfully vacationed an entire week without any trips to Urgent Care. This year we stayed at a hotel off the coast, which in my mind was only a mile or so from the beach. I persuaded Scott to push Audrey in the stroller to beat traffic and go see the fireworks at the fairgrounds.  3.5 miles later we reached our destination with 3.5 miles of walking back to the hotel in front of us.  The good news was there was lots of traffic that we avoided (and by lots of traffic I mean absolutely none-whatsoever-at-all).  We got our workout in for the vacation, and Audrey watched Cinderella on repeat on the i-pad (oops...revisionist history:  Audrey ate a healthy snack of kale chips and plain yogurt while listing state capitals alphabetically and thinking of ways she could help keep her room clean)

I guess I should also mention that Scott accepted a new job in Denver working for the avalanche.  He's director of the website and writes content/tweets/facebook posts about the team.  This new job has been quite the adjustment for our family.  Scott is commuting over an hour (almost 2 during traffic) each way to South Denver which means Audrey and I defend our Greeley domain and try to keep Tober from eating ALL the food in the house.  Through all of our adjustment turmoil I have been blessed with the most amazing family who support us emotionally, financially and without question, understanding friends who listen when I feel bad for myself, co-workers who understand when I'm 40 min. late to a 45 min. meeting, and a husband who although we've exchanged some "words" over the past few months is the best partner I could have hoped for.  I'm so proud of Scott and his accomplishments.  

Let me leave you with some of my favorite pictures from the year.  Pictures that remind me how lucky I am to have friends and family to share my year with, pictures that remind me I love my family when I'm exhausted and my daughter is a heap on the floor because I poured milk into the wrong cup, pictures that tell the story of an exciting year full of love, decision making, tears, and above all laughter.  

Also, Audrey was on the jumbo tron, and not because we have connections, but because she's CUTE!

Also again, here are some Audrey anecdotes, since I gave up keeping a scrap book when Audrey was 2 days old...

- Audrey tells me I'm the BEST mom in the unicorns (she means universe).

- One day while sitting on the couch she just rattled off the months of the year in order.

- While at the dr. office she pointed to a poster of the globe and told Scott we lived in the "pink one" (North America).

- All Audrey wants for Xmas is a red ball that Tober will fetch (the red ball is easy - Tober fetching willl be a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!)

- She told a stranger at the voting polling location she was there to "poop and vote"

- dad. Be patient with my mommy. She's really nice. She's a nice lady. I really love her. 

- My grandma is very special and my mommy is grumpy. 

- Audrey loves going to dance class and thinks of all the things she wants to tell Miss Cassie when she gets there.

- She has watched the movie Cinderella 1,000,000 times.

- She loves a Christmas CD I bought at the dollar store and won't let me sing ONE WORD as we listen on repeat (and since it was only a dollar the cd lasts under 20 min.  It's shear torture).

- Audrey calls the 12 Days of Christmas the "Patrick Song" instead of Partridge.

- She calls Oreos Ariels

- Audrey's favorite songs are "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus, "Wake me Up" by Avicci (who she calls Aveevo because we watched the video on Veevo), and "Safe and Sound" (that she calls the Trumpet Song) by Capital Cities.

We Do NOT Garden...

Scott and I are many WONDERFUL things (if we do say so ourselves...) but we are NOT gardeners.  When we moved into our new house three years ago we inherited a flower bed with 2 rose bushes, a sprinkling of lillies, 3 random rocks, and a lot of tall grass.  I was pregnant and we were sure that we would turn this randomness into a work of beauty in the spring.  Fast forward a few months and we have a newborn.  NOT the time to garden.

One day I came home and Scott had lost his mind, I mean, decided to garden and dug up the two rose bushes.  I love roses, but we never got one single darn cottin-pickin blossom (in two years).  I rose a stink about missing my beloved plants but it was too late.  They were compost.

That was the beginning of the end.  Without those rose bushes our entry garden turned into this:


 A sad display of home ownership.  Without the roses we couldn't even pretend the randomness was on purpose.  And every time we drove into our drive way we were reminded how great the other gardens in the neighborhoods looked. Also, notice the protective ground covering peeking out underneath the awesome display of red mulch...

Did this inspire us?  NOPE.  Not at all.  Like I said, we are NOT gardeners.  Our front garden has looked like this for two years.  With the exception of the 3 bushes you see here:





 I got a wild hair last year (and sadly, when I went back to look for an old post realized it was TWO years ago...) and planted these bushes and wrote about it here.

Those bushes (minus the pink plant that bit the dust) at least mask the dastardly scene that greets guests as they arrive and kept us content... Until today.

Today, we decided to grab the nice weather by the horns and head to Lowes.  And wouldn't you know it, we left Lowes with TWO cart-loads full of gardening essentials.

 

Did I mention we drove the Civic?



After fitting all our purchases safely in the car and making sure the humans were also safely secured we started the two-block journey back to Casa-De-Ward.  Audrey kindly bowed out for her afternoon nap and we got to work!

One of the reasons we have not tackled this project sooner is the front spicket.  It is hidden behind a massive evergreen bush that causes unknown rashes and fits of coughing when rustled.  Attaching the hose to the spicket was a job for Scott.  He got dressed in snowstorm gear and headed in.  All the while I raked the mulch - out with the old, in with the new. 

While Scott battled mega-bush I raked... and raked... and raked... and raked, and FINALLY pulled that ever-loving-ground-covering-nasty-mold-infested covering off the garden. 

Then, we were faced with this:

 Scott's reward for battling mega-bush was shoveling old mulch away from the sidewalk.  Although a slow task at first Scott quickly saved the day and came prepared with the snow shovel which more than quadrupled our mulch-heaving speed.

The two of us were at our finest:  I was gripping and ripping it getting plants into their new homes while Scott swept the side walk and made sure each plant was watered and the dirt was arranged nicely in the bed.  We were constantly commenting how nice it was to have access to that front spicket.  "What a treat to finally be able to access the water supply in the front yard" - "this will help the grass grow in trouble spots" - "why didn't we do this years ago?"

After a 3 hour nap from my favorite little bug we were almost finished!  Not only was the garden prepped and watered but Audrey's Mother's Day pot was filled and proudly displayed on the front step (It's yellow, with her hands and foot prints).

The end result may not look like much to you, and we joke that our baby-plant garden will look much better in a few years, but we can't stop staring at it.  We went on a walk around the block just to come back home to NOT be embarrassed.

Hahaha...Did I forget to mention that we found out the front spicket has a leak and our basement now has a leaky ceiling and we have a plumber coming tomorrow?

Sigh.       We were not meant to garden.