Audrey is five

Today is Audrey's birthday so I want to write a few things about my girl that I love so much!  She is my independent, social and confidant girl.  She likes to do things by herself and can usually figure out how to do most things.  While she sometimes gets shy with adults, she is not shy at all with other children and likes to have lots of friend all the time!  She loves going to school and learning new things staying busy.  She has a harder time staying inside and playing by herself as she would much rather be busy with friends and lots of activities.  She is a huge help to me and I don't know what I would do without her to help me with Ava.  She can always make Ava laugh when I can't, and Ava adores her and tries to copy everything she does.  I can't imagine my life without Audrey in it and I pray every night that she will always be a part of my life and thank my Heavenly Father for sending her to me. 

Okay, so we woke up today and had chocolate chip pancakes and pink smoothies for breakfast.  I had to force her to eat her smoothie even though it was very good and had only things that she likes in it.  Oh well, she is not a smoothie girl.  Then off to school she went where she got to wear a special hat and I got to come in and talk about her and bring treats for all the kids. 

Then we came home, played with some neighbor friends, and headed off to IHOP which was her choice for dinner.  She got pancakes (again) with sprinkles and pink frosting (strawberry yogurt), and eggs and ham.  Then she used some of her birthday money to go to build a bear.  She chose a pink bear with a Rapunzel dress.  Since today is also Ava's half birthday we decided to let her get a cute little dog as well. 

Then we walked around the mall a little bit, came home and opened one last present.  Then we we sang Happy Birthday and Audrey made a wish on her candle and we had cupcakes.  Now I have to say I worked all day on making Ding Dong cupcakes since that is a very favorite treat of Audrey and Nate's.  So I thought it would be fun to make a homemade Ding Dong.  While they were very delicious to me, Nate and Audrey would still prefer the store bought kind and Audrey chose to have fruit snacks instead of a cupcake.  I know, I sometimes wonder about her.  Good thing I worked all day on those things.  Haha, oh well.  But it was a good day, and she had a great birthday!  Now we just need to get ready for her friend party on Saturday.  Whew, I am already exhausted!

Princess party!

This past Saturday Audrey's cousin Aidan invited her to come up and go to a princess party with her.  Her dance teacher is starting up a business doing princess parties and this was sort of a promotion for it.  We got Audrey all ready, she insisted on wearing a little mermaid costume even though it was a hand me down and not in the greatest condition.  At first I tried to persuade her to wear a different (newer) outfit, but then I thought you know what, she is little still and if that dress up makes her feel pretty, then she can wear it.  She felt quite beautiful and told me that morning that she was practicing laughing like a princess.  She was very serious and showed me how a princess laughs.  I was not very good at it according to her, but she was.  It was such a fun party and Audrey loved every minute of it.  I am pretty sure that she is convinced those were the real princesses and they did look pretty authentic!  Even Ava got in some of the action and did some dances with the girls.  It was a fun day, exhausting but fun!

Welcome to the world of poor homeowners!

Haha, this is what Nate's dad said to us when we signed the papers for our first home!  We will definitely fall into this category, but we are soooo excited!  Nate loved this house the first time we went through it, it took me a while to warm up to it, but I really do like it.  We had a hard time deciding between two twin homes we really liked, and of course Nate loved one and I loved the other.  We really are so opposite, why would choosing a house prove any different!  We took his parents through one last time to help us make our final decision and they were both hands down for the one we chose.  So, though there were a few tears shed over the other home that I really did fall in love with, I could not disagree with everyone's reasoning and agree that the home we went with is the best buy.  Here are a couple of pictures of the outside,

It has three bedrooms on the main floor, and an unfinished basement with room for at least two more. It is actually quite a lot of space for us, if you include the downstairs.  The backyard is not huge but plenty big to put a few fun things and the perfect space for us as we are just starting out.  We are scheduled to close on March 22nd so we will see how things go until then.  Yay for our own place!

Up All Night!

So as I was thinking of a blog title tonight I decided that "Up All Night" could really be the theme of my life for the past 17 months!  Ava has been a terrible sleeper since she was a baby and I have spent many many nights up with her, praying that she will go back to sleep and make it through the night.  No wonder the dark circles and wrinkles under my eyes have intensified so much over the past year.  I don't mean to rag on Ava so much, she actually has brought so much joy to our lives that it is worth every sleepless night.  She is a funny girl with a funny personality and I feel like the luckiest mom to have both of my girls in my family.

Ok, on to what life has been like lately.  I am pretty sure Ava is getting all of her molars in at the same time, and that has created quite a cranky baby!  She has not slept the past three nights because I am guessing her teeth are hurting her.  As soon as I get her down, she wakes back up again and I am back in there with her.  I don't want to make her cry too much because I feel bad if she really is in a lot of pain.  Anyways, then last night Audrey came home from a birthday party telling me that her stomach really hurt.  A couple hours later she is throwing up all over the place and the fun night begins.  Now keep in mind that we have already had the stomach flu in this house in the past couple months, and we have already had two different sets of colds, so I am just like you have got to be kidding me - not again!!  (Also both girls woke up a couple days ago with colds, so this is just really fun).  I am able to get Audrey to bed but she wakes up every hour moaning and in pain and throws up again.  Luckily all bodily fluids make it either to the bucket or the toilet so there is no huge mess this time around.  (It's been happening so much we are getting to be pros at how to handle everything!)  Meanwhile Ava went to bed around 9, but is awake again at 10 and there is no getting her back to sleep. After a long time trying and finally letting her watch a couple of shows she goes back down at 1:00 in the morning, and yes Nate and I are exhausted.  Everyone is finally asleep and I think Audrey is done throwing up.  Time to sleep!  Well, it was not to be!  Audrey gets up at 4:30 with a fever and after getting her a drink and some medicine and cuddling I have figured out that she is not going back to sleep.  She is up for the day.  So I set her up with a movie on the couch and hope that somehow miraculously she will fall back asleep, but I know her better than that.  I head back to bed around 5:30 and just as I am starting to fall asleep Ava wakes up at 6 and she is done sleeping and ready for the day.  Yes, it was a fun night.  And this is just an example of many such nights in the Panter residence.  Why do we want to have more kids, sometimes I am not so sure.  Well my head is spinning, my eyes are watering, and my body is telling me to go to bed.  Let's hope tonight is better!