Turkey Day

Our little family had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving and we hope you did too. I don't have many pictures of the day, but we had a delicious dinner, a little nap, a family drive, and a movie date night, in addition to the Turkey Bowl in the morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our ward hosted its annual Turkey Bowl. Matt had a great time, but came home sore and achy.

Audrey and I went to the Turkey Bowl but I didn't get to watch the game because I was running around after her.

It was pretty cold so I put my old pink coat on her. She looked super cute, even if she couldn't move her arms or turn her head. She reminded me of the kid from A Christmas Story.

Munch and Pops.

Pigtails!

A few days ago I decided to try to put Audrey's hair up in pigtails. I was surprised to find that it was long enough and actually looked pretty cute. It's not perfect by any means, but it was the best I could do with a squirmy 17 month old.

That same day I bought her some Crayola Tadoodles. She LOVES coloring with them. We're working on teaching her that you only color at the table and that you only color on paper, not on the table. Surprisingly enough, she's doing a pretty good job. She's also doing a pretty good job at learning her colors.

Children's Museum

Matt had off work last Tuesday for Veteran's Day so we decided to take advantage of having him around on a weekday. We got up early and took Audrey to the Children's Museum. We all had a great time even though the place was packed. I guess everyone thought it would be a good day to go. On the way home we stopped and had lunch and picked up some of the best doughnuts in the world--pumpkin spice doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. Heavenly! Enjoy the many pictures of our Children's Museum adventure.

Audrey loved playing in this little water pool they had. I think she would have been happy staying here the entire day, but there was more to see and do.

They have this great Mr. Potato Head exhibit. Audrey just got her first Mr. Potato Head around Halloween and has loved playing with him. She had a great time pulling parts out of the giant vat and assembling her Potato Head.

This is a little restaurant they had where kids could make trays of food. The only problem is that Audrey kept trying to eat the plastic food.

Grocery shopping in a store that is just her size.

Our little firegirl.

Sailing anyone?

There was a great little table piled with blocks and no one was playing at it. Audrey and her Pops had a great time stacking and then knocking over the blocks.

"Night, night. Shhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh."

I am sorry to say that I was the camera woman and so this is the only picture of Audrey and me from our day. We took this on our way out. What a fun day!

Sunday Dress

Maybe she does have a little of her mama in her after all.

Naked Monday

I watched Tyler on Monday this week. During the morning I was in the kitchen prepping some things for dinner while the kids played in the living room. I started hearing Audrey squeal and fuss the way she does when something isn't going the way she wants. I could see that it didn't involve Tyler so I wasn't worried. At this age when kids throw their little tantrums you're supposed to ignore it or redirect. I was busy so I chose to ignore. But the squeals continued and I started to worry that maybe her head was stuck in the metal banister. This house was built long before there were regulations about the width between bars and Audrey can completely crawl through some of them. So I went into the living room and found this.

For some reason that is beyond me she was trying to get her shirt off and was having difficulty. She looked at me and pleaded, "shurt, peees." I took a couple of pictures and laughed and went back into the kitchen. Eventually I started hearing the squeals again. I went to investigate and found her desperately trying to remove her other "shurt." She won't say pants and calls them a shirt too.

I don't know exactly what it is, but something about this picture reminds me of my niece Jennifer. Maybe it's the belly and that Audrey's hair looks kind of red in this picture. Maybe it's the expression?

Pulling as hard as she can.

Almost there! My little monkey!

Victory!

She wouldn't let me put her clothes back on for awhile. She carried her pants around the house and was completely happy.

As I mentioned in my last post, Matt and I don't typically let Audrey run around half clothed; mainly because it's so fun to dress her up. I don't know where this decision to be naked came from. She took off a shirt once, but it was really soft and loose and she was in her crib. And she's occasionally lost her slightly too big pants, but this was her first conscious attempt at ridding herself of clothing. All I know is that it was hilarious and I was practically on the floor laughing.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

This is a picture of Audrey eating at the table in a grown up chair for the first time ever. Don't worry, this isn't the new eating arrangement, just something we did a couple of times when we didn't have Tyler's high chair and I had to feed both of them. She did pretty well, but made a bigger mess than when she's strapped to her seat.

Whenever I try to do anything on the computer Audrey immediately runs over to me and whines and cries and pushes my seat until she is in front of me. She will continue to do this until I give up and quit working on the computer or pick her up. So if I'm ever on the computer and have a few moments of peace I try to get as much done as quickly as possible. If she's quiet for too long I know something is up. The other day this is what I found (minus the bib). She found the Halloween candy and was going to town on a blue Tootsie Pop. I put the bib on her.

Saying "Cheese!"

I promise I do not normally let my child run around half naked (although when you see the next post you might not believe me). The pants she was wearing this day were a little big and she walked out of them. I waited until after the sucker was gone to put her pants back on. One less sticky item of clothing makes me a little happier.

Trick-or-Treat Part II

Before I get to the rest of our Halloween adventures, I have to explain one detail of our exciting day. Since Audrey and I met Matt at his office, we had both of our cars there. This worked out because we were on our way to the Kim's house and I knew Matt would want to stay later than Audrey should be out (you'll see why later).

On our way we stopped at Wal Mart to pick up a bay of candy. Matt told me his Mustang was making a weird noise and when he opened the hood we found out why. His serpentine belt was almost completely shredded. We didn't think it was wise to try and drive it so we left it at Wal Mart until Monday when repair shops are open and we could go try and move it to one. Of course, it died and we had to have it towed and we're still waiting to get it back. It should be finished today. Evidently some pulleys or something were bad and that caused the belt to shred. And the battery needed to be replaced too. All in all we'll be sinking quite a bit of change into the car in order to get it running again. Anyone in the market for a 1996 Mustang GT?

The second part of our Halloween night was to be spent at the Kim's house. We met for a potluck dinner and trick-or-treating in their kid friendly neighborhood. Kid friendly neighborhoods are few and far between up here. Most houses are hidden in the trees and there are rarely sidewalks or well-lit streets. We had a great time! Thanks Phil and Misty!

All of the kids pre-trick-or-treating.

Panda Lilly with baby bumblebee Audrey.

Her first trick-or-treat at a house. I have to say that Audrey is not scared of anything. Not scary music, people in masks, moving skeletons, a dark and foggy night, nothing.

"It was a dark and foggy night..." Sound like the beginning of a fifth grader's bad short story? Nope. It was our Halloween experience. The fog was really thick. If you've never tried to take a picture in the fog, this is what happens if your subject is too far away.

After trick-or-treating the adults settled in for a night of Guitar Hero World Tour. This is why we were planning on taking two cars.

This is Audrey's haul from her three trick-or-treating experiences. Mama and Pops only ate a little.

Here is her candy haul from another perspective.

Trick-or-Treat Part I

On Halloween Audrey and I met Matt at his office so we could go trick-or-treating in the little town where he works. It's an adorable little town and is where we took Audrey trick-or-treating last year. They close the main streen downtown and all of the stores hand out candy. Maleficent was strolling up and down the center of the street keeping an eye on things. Audrey of course had a great time and was by far the cutest little bee around. Her trick-or-treat sounds more like "teet" but everyone was enchanted by her adorable little "day doo" (thank you).

I think this will continue to be a Holyoak family Halloween tradition.

Our little bee standing on a picnic table on the dock at Matt's office. What a view!

This is Audrey patting her chest and saying, "bee, bee, bee, bee." I think she really loved being a bee. If you ask her what a bee says she will reply with, "beeeeeeeeeeeee." No matter how hard we try this is as close to "buzzzzzzzzzz" as she can get.