First Airplane Trip

Audrey took her first airplane ride at 5 weeks old. I believe my first airplane ride occured when I was 16...oh how things have changed. The trip was up to South Dakota to meet more of her family. The flight attendent even gave her a certificate for her first flight; however it was made out to Andrey Hoff instead of Audrey Hoff and said she flew from Sant Antonio instead of San Antonio. Oh well, it was very thoughtful. They even gave her a shout out over the speaker system!


I was a quite worried how she would take act on the plane...everyone dislikes those crying babies aboard planes. She was a perfect angel on the way there and slept the whole time. Dave and I were able to pass her back and forth when our arms got tired, so that was nice. That was not the case on the return flight. Dave had to go back before I did to return to work, so it was all me on the return. Let me just preface this by saying she still had not kicked the nightime "crying fits" prior to this return flight. I think she cried pretty much the whole time through all 3 legs of the flight. It was miserable and I was exhausted by the time we got back to San Antonio. I don't think I have ever been so happy to get home.

Crying Fits

You always hear about those babies that cry all night long and you never ever think that yours will do that. Until of course yours does that. I'm not sure what it is about 9:00, but that's when Audrey decided that she was not happy and started screaming for approximately 2 hours straight. We were taking car rides to get her sleeping, which would work, but as soon as we got her in the house, she started screaming again. We didn't know what to do until we got a suggestion from our friend Mindy. She told us to buy one of those big exercise balls and while holding Audrey, bounce up and down. Let me tell you, it was like the magic ball!!! As soon as we started bouncing, the crying would stop. It was absolutely the best thing ever. Who would have thought an exercise ball was good for anything besides sitting in a corner collecting dust! Thanks Mindy!!!

The Beginning

Well I finally decided to join the "in crowd" and start a blog as I figured it would be a good way to document all the things that go on in our family. So I guess I'll start at the beginning...of our family that is.


On March 22nd, 2008 our lives changed forever. I know that sounds cheesy and everybody says it, but it is soooo true. That is when we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Audrey Marie into this world. She came an unexpected 2 weeks early, but it was a wonderful surprise and those who know me, know that I don't usually welcome surprises. Arriving at 5:41am, she let us know from the start how little sleep we would get those first couple of months. I swear we got a total of 10 hours the first 3 days combined!! It's amazing how you learn to function off of so little sleep so fast! Audrey weighed in at 7lbs 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long...perfect if you ask me.