Not sure it gets much better than this

Autumn started truly laughing today, which I fortunately was able to prop up the camera and catch this afternoon.

Believe you me, we need a couple of laughs around here... we just found out that the hail storm destroyed our one year old roof and it needs to be completely replaced. Apparently it ruined every roof on our street. Oh joy!

Out and About part 2 (sans baby)

Jeremy and I were able to have some time to ourselves like we did before we had a baby! My mom dropped in for the weekend to let us have a little adult fun! On Saturday, we drove down to Gruene Hall for the day for some mexican food (yummm... Adobe Verde) and fine Texas music. A lot of people love Gruene for the shopping, but I'm not sure that type of shopping is for me. I have enough crap in my house and I think all of that stuff is overpriced anyways. So after the food, we walked over to Gruene Hall for the free afternoon concert and some Shiner Bock. I had not heard of the people playing (Gary Claxton, Erik Hokkanen & Friends), but we were up for anything. It was old classic country and we had a blast. There was this gal on the steel guitar who was badass and then a guitar/fiddle player that was just amazing. I turned on my camera when he started a version of the Orange Blossom Special and got a bit of the song which I'll post here for your enjoyment :) He really brought the house down!

It was really nice to enjoy some adult beverages and get away for a couple of hours to remind me what we used to do on weekends, although Autumn was a good part of our conversation while we were gone.

Speaking of my little genius, she is learning more and more every day! She's started to sing (well, when I sing to her she sings back at me). While she may not yet be on key, I'm convinced that she'll be the winner of the 25th season of American Idol. She loves music and I've started to sit her in my lap while I play the piano and she seems to really respond to it.

She really loves being outside and we've been going on daily walks. We had been using our "mall stroller" but it's kind of a rough ride on our sidewalks. I found a great deal on a 3-wheel stroller that I've had my eye on, so I bought it last week. It's pretty nice for what I paid for it, and Autumn likes it too! She looks so tiny in it right now!

She has also started to grab things and try to put them in her mouth. She concentrates so hard when she's reaching for her toys (or my hair, or my shirt...) and when she gets it, you can see the look of relief. Then the wheels start turning when she's trying to figure out what to do with it once she's got it. It's the most amazing thing to watch her figure things out and learn. I'm so proud of my little girl!

The thumb-sucking has been mastered with both thumbs now, but she still loves her pacifier. I'm glad that she's learned to soothe herself when the paci is not readily available and that should make the transition to her big girl bed and out of our bedroom all that much easier (on her; definitely not on me)! Wouldn't you want this to be the first thing you saw when you woke up every morning??

Or if I'm really lucky, I'll wake up first and get to see this face...

What the hail?

Last night, we had a horrible hail storm hit our neighborhood! I have seen hail a couple of times in my life, but nothing ever like this. It was terrifying. There was golfball-sized hail hitting the windows and the side of our house and the sounds that those ice pellets made were just awful! The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes, and when it was over, Jeremy and I looked outside to survey the damage. Here is the view of our backyard afterwards.


Last weekend, Jeremy spent hours planting new plants and making our yard beautiful. Unfortunately, they were all damaged by the storm. Beforehand, this little garden was full of beautiful red flowers in an attempt to attract hummingbirds...

Ironically, right after the storm, Jeremy saw our first hummingbird visitor at the feeders that made it through the storm!!

And here is the view out our front door. It looks like it snowed! You can see the steam coming off of our street...

Jeremy's truck was in the shop, which we were thankful for until we got the call today that they had moved it from the nice safe bay to their open lot right before the storm came in. That makes a lot of sense, right? There are a couple dings in his hood, and as you can imagine, he's not too pleased with their customer service!

We did have one casualty as a result of the hail. One little white-winged dove was in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn't make it through the storm. Poor little guy! Jeremy gave him a funeral and he's now in his final resting place. RIP little dove!

Jeremy and Autumn went for a walk around our neighborhood tonight and apparently our street got the worst of the storm. There's tree leaves and limbs all over the yards on our street that are going to be a blast to clean up. Thank goodness I have a husband that likes to work outside!

Out and About

Since I work from home, it's absolutely necessary that I leave the house on the weekends. Unfortunately, I'm not very creative when it comes to going places, so most times leaving the house means going shopping. While I enjoy shopping as much as the next gal, I absolutely cannot afford to do it 2 full days a week! It's also difficult to come up with places to take a 3 1/2 month old as well. Once Autumn gets a little older, I know that a lot of options will open up, but for now, taking her out of the house is a full production!

When Jeremy and I first started dating we liked to go fishing. Those days, I was trying to impress him, so I'd even bait my own hook! (Those days are long gone since I know he'll do it for me, ha ha). He once took me to this little park north of Leander on the North San Gabirel River called Camp Tejas. They have a great little walking trail that's about just less than a mile and then it opens up at the river where there's lots of space to fish and just lay out a blanket and enjoy the sun. Before I got pregnant, we started to get healthy and would take the jeep and the dogs up there and get in a little exercise while enjoying the outdoors. We stopped going when I was pregnant and kind of just forgot about our little retreat.

Well our Autumn is an outside girl!! So yesterday, we decided to take Autumn up to Camp Tejas so we could all enjoy this beautiful weather that we've been having. So we packed a water/bottle cooler (our cooler these days is so different than the pre-Autumn days!), a blanket, some diapers, our little kangaroo pouch, and Dolly and Abby (Sunny can't go on long walks because of her hips) in the Jetta and hit the road! Jeremy was disappointed that I wouldn't let Autumn ride in the Jeep just yet, but that is not something that I am ready for. Once we got there, we loaded Autumn in the kangaroo pouch and I loaded up a backpack with our necessities and we hit the trail. We had a great little walk down to the river and laid out our blanket, which our dogs quickly jumped on, and sat to rest a little. Unfortunately, once we sat down, Autumn got fussy. I tried to feed her a little, but she wasn't having any of that, so we had to pack up and head on back to the car. While we didn't get to stay as long as I wanted, we did have a nice day out. I got some cute pictures too!

On the way back, we found out why Autumn was fussy... She was pooped! Luckily, her daddy didn't care that she wanted a little nap while he walked. If only we were all so lucky! Unfortunately they don't make these kangaroo carriers in adult size...

As a side note, I'm open to any and all suggestions of things to do and places to go with Autumn :)

Mommy's big girl!

Once again, I feel as if I'm slacking in the blog posting department. Having 3 full-time jobs (a day job, being a mom, and housework) is really starting to take its toll on me. Unfortunately when I'm feeling extra overwhelmed, as I was last week, the one that is neglected turns out to be my housework. While I'm not too worried about my work wardrobe, Jeremy actually has to wear real clothes every day. So this week has been laundry-city! You would think the answer to my problem would be to have Jeremy pop in a load of laundry here and there, but I've learned my lesson. I don't want my whites to become pinks again. I've done what feels like 100 loads. I seriously need to win the lotto so I can hire someone do to my chores.

So, a lot has happened since I last posted here! Two weekends ago, we went to Mansfield for Autumn's baptism. On the way, we stopped to meet another of Autumn's boyfriend. We stopped at Joan and Wes' house in Burleson on the way to cuddle with William, who was born on March 1. He is super cute and I can't wait to watch him grow up! Aren't they a cute couple?
Autumn's baptism was Sunday morning in Mansfield. She was a perfect baby. They had a big screen at the front of the church so they were filming it while it was happening and we were told that they were focused on Autumn during the baptism and she was making cute faces and keeping everyone entertained. Already a little ham! I can't wait to see the video! Autumn wore her great-grandmother's dress (my grandmother) which is 84 years old. Here's a picture that Aunt Kate took in the dress.
Here is a picture of us with Jeremy's parents. Don't we clean up nice? Although for some reason I look bigger than everyone else in this picture...

Yesterday, I officially gave in to the fact that Autumn's 0-3 month clothes aren't really fitting very well anymore. So I put her in her first 3-6 month outfit! My little girl is getting so big and I can't do anything to stop it. We also bought size 2 diapers this weekend and, while they're just a tiny bit big, my guess is that she'll be in them next week after the size 1s that we have left are gone.

These last 2 weeks have been full of new behavior as well. Autumn has learned to blow spit bubbles (I'm so proud!) and if you blow a raspberry at her, she'll copy you and blow one back. She also gives you a really big smile! It's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. The following video was taken yesterday morning.

The second big accomplishment is that after weeks of eating her fists, she's finally found her thumb. And it's a great thumb! Here is a question for ya... Autumn is a right-handed thumb-sucker. Does that mean that she'll be right-handed? I searched for an answer on the internet but the answers were conflicting. The first picture was taken last Sunday, the first time she found it.

It took a couple of days, but today she officially became a pro...These last two weeks have been very busy at work, so I'm officially looking to hire someone a couple days a week to help me out in the house. This week, Jeremy's mom has been on spring break, so she was here Sunday through Wednesday morning to help me with Autumn during the day while I worked. I was able to get so much done and today it's been back to flying solo, which has really given me incentive to finding someone. Wish me luck!

Autumn and her new boyfriend, Graham

We took Autumn on her first date with her new boyfriend, Graham, last night. Aunt Kate took a picture to commemorate the occasion.She may be a little bigger than him now, but I know that not too long from now, he's gonna grow! Once again, I cannot believe how lucky I am to have so many close friends that are having babies. The question was asked last night whether or not they were going to like eachother and my answer is, without a doubt, yes! I am confident that these two are going to cause plenty of trouble together and I just can't wait :)

Sleep, Sleep, Glorious Sleep

Since I have updated the Internet on the status of my daughter's sleep, I feel obligated to type out the latest...

So last Thursday night, it happened. The night that we've all been waiting for! We put Autumn down at 9pm and she slept the entire night and woke me up at 6am. Let me tell you, that little one was hungry! But she lived and I was so proud of her for sleeping through the night! Unfortunately the good times didn't last long. The next 2 nights she went back to her old ways of waking up at 3am to have me rock her back to sleep. Sunday night, though, she surprised us all and slept through the night again! The last couple of nights she has been restless throughout the night, but was able to be settled with a pacifier. So technically she is not sleeping through the night, but I'm ok with it! I'm not having to get up, I just roll over and stick the pacifier in her mouth and she will go back to sleep until about 530, when feeding is necessary! I think we're doing pretty good if I do say so myself and I am proud!

This week has marked a noticeable difference in her personality. She has been extra smiley and very talkative. It's just amazing how alert she is! She also obviously likes and dislikes things as well. Right now, she can be as smiley as ever and as soon as I hold up the camera, we get a frown-y face! What a little stinker. As far as things she likes, I bought her a play gym and she will smile at the hanging-down toys and talk to them as well. She's kicking them with her feet and will bat at the toys to the best of her abilities! I feel that her grabbing things is just around the corner. This weekend is Autumn's baptism, so that will be exciting! She's ready, but I'm still working on me. I haven't bought a dress for myself in a while, so finding one for this occasion has been especially trying. It's difficult to find something that makes me feel pretty and actually fits as well. I have one that I found from Banana Republic that is on a delivery truck on its way to me and I'm seriously crossing my fingers that it's going to fit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if it doesn't! Autumn's dress, however, is my grandmother's. It's 84 years old and still in really good shape I must say! I tried it on her the other day and she looks like an angel. Well, if I'm being honest, she would look like an angel in anything, but this dress is really special :)

Here are some pics from this week. Her cheeks are getting bigger every day! I think she's smuggling something in them :)

Populating Texas!

Wow, it's really easy to get out of the habit of writing on your blog! This is the longest stretch of time that I've gone since I started this thing and I feel like I have so much to catch up on.

Last week, Autumn and I both got colds. I know there's really no way to cure a cold, but there sure are medicines to make you feel better! Unfortunately, Autumn can't take any because she's too little and I can't take the good ones because I'm breastfeeding. So we both had to suffer through. We're fine now, but that was no fun!

I have a wonderful announcement! In the past 2 weeks, 3 of my friends have delivered healthy baby boys! Noah Monroe was born on Feb 18: Next came Graham Robert on Feb 26: And finally, we have William Wesley on March 1:
I would like to congratulate all of my friends on their new additions and wish them the best :) I have personally cuddled with the first two and will get to love on William this weekend! I can't believe that all of my friends just had boys. I do, however, love that there will be no shortage of playmates for my little one because all of these kiddos are going to be the same age!

Speaking of Autumn's running buddies, Felicia came up to Austin last weekend to see her best friend, Autumn! Elizabeth and I needed a day off of work, so we took last Friday to take a road trip to Fredericksburg and Luckenbach. We started off the day at our favorite restaurant, Auslanders, for a German Snack and some sausage and sauerkraut potato skins! I swear, I cannot get enough of those things. The only downside to the day was that it ended up being really hot! I had Autumn dressed in some jeans and a Polo shirt, but ended up having to buy her a little cotton bubble outfit because she was burning up. I did learn that old ladies LOVE to give their unsolicited opinion about how you are raising your child and the general consensus of the day was that I was a horrible mother for taking my teeny baby out of the house and in to that hot weather. I cannot tell you how many times I heard "How old is that baby?" with an accompanying dirty look. By the 20th time I was asked that, I decided that I needed to either tell them that I had just given birth in the car and needed some crap at their stores or that she was actually 7 and had a rare disorder that she would never get any bigger than she was. What I really wanted to say was that I had been cooped up in the house for the last 3 months and needed to be FREEEEEEEEEE! but I just answered their questions and went on my way. I guess the suggestions of what I should and should not be doing will never go away. It was just my first time to experience it and I'm not a fan.

Elizabeth and I also decided that we suck as photographers. We took about 15 pics of the entire day and they are all stinky. So we called in the professional! On Sunday, Kate came over and took some pictures of the two girls. Elizabeth and I bought them some coordinating outfits (they're really gonna hate us when they get older) and we had a little photoshoot. The funny thing is that Felicia wanted nothing to do with Autumn this time, so every time we'd try and put Autumn in Felicia's lap, she would push her away. I think that Kate was able to get a couple of good ones, though.
It's official, our children are adorable.