Simming Lessons

This summer I enrolled Audrey in swimming lessons. Her class was called Wee Waders and it was for 6-18 month olds. It was more or less getting the kiddos familiar with the water. Dave and I took turns each class getting in the water with her. We sang songs and learned to float on our back and tummys. The class was 30 minutes long and about 20 minutes through each class Audrey was ready to go. The third and last week she finally made it through the whole 30 minutes so I call it a success! I'm sure next summer she'll like it even more!

Pudding Fun

Normally when Audrey gets to have pudding, I feed it to her. One evening though I was feeling really generous and decided to let her have the spoon. I have to say this was after a few adamant squeals from her that she wanted it. Well as the pictures show, the spoon was quickly tossed aside and it was all hands in. What mom can resist taking pictures of this!

Our New House

After looking for many months, we finally found a house! We realize that it probably won't be a long term house as we'll probably outgrow it, but it is perfect for what we need now. Plus the price was awesome!! It is in a great neighborhood and is close to everything. We are scheduled to close on June 30th and are very excited. I've attached some pictures of the outside, but will save the pics of the inside until we move in.

(ladder not included)

Audrey's new playhouse... and play system

Helmet No. 4

Yes that's right, we are on to helmet number 4. After we got back from doctor's visits in San Antonio for Audrey's third and supposedly last helmet, we learned through three weeks of crabby Audrey that the 3rd helmet did not fit. It was squeezing the back of her neck which was making her miserable as you can imagine. So we put her old helmet back on (luckily it fit) and talked back and forth with the helmet guy in San Antonio as to what our options were. We didn't want to have to go back to San Antonio again if possible. Finally after about a month going back and forth with him, it turned out that the guy who helped develop the helmet for our doctor years ago now lives in Sioux Falls, SD, only 45 minutes away from us!!! We couldn't believe it. God has defininately had us in the right spot through this whole thing. We were able to meet with him right away and a new helmet was ordered. The group in Sioux Falls (Davin, Mark & Annette) were fantastic and so helpful. I was worried that since we were approximately 2 months behind now on her helmet that she would have to wear it longer, but they said her head looked fantastic and she would not have to wear it any longer than originally prescribed. We all can't wait for August 14th to come because that helmet is coming off for good!!!

Now since we are in South Dakota and Clarisse is in San Antonio, we had to enlist someone new to decorate her 4th and last helmet. That someone, Jess Schelske, was Dave's friend from high school who also works at Daktronics. As you can tell from the pictures, she did a fabulous job. Thanks so much Jess for helping us out. The helmet looks terrific!!

Trip to the Zoo

Audrey has been really obsessed with her Sesame At the Zoo book lately so we decided we should take her to the real zoo so she can see the animals up close and personal. So off we headed to Sioux Falls to the Great Plains Zoo Sunday afternoon. Now neither Dave nor I had been to this zoo since we were in elementary school, so we really couldn't remember what it was like. Keep in mind the last zoo we were at was the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, so that was what was going through my mind as we were driving. I don't know what I was thinking...something similar to the San Diego Zoo. We are in South Dakota for goodness sakes!!

Once I got back to reality, I realized it actually wasn't that bad and is perfect for little kids. We got through the entire zoo in 2 hours. There was a petting zoo of farm animals for the kids and Audrey had a good time in there. Both the horse and the goat tried to eat her graham crackers and drink out of her sippy cup, so that was pretty funny. She thought the bears were really neat as well as the birds. Unfortunately the zebra (or bra which is what Audrey calls it) and the giraffe's weren't very close so she didn't get to see them real well. All in all, it was a fun trip and I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon.

We Have Steps!!

That's right! We have officially seen a couple steps out of Miss Audrey. She lets go of the furniture and gets this really excited look on her face as she takes a couple baby steps and then falls down on her butt. Then she gets back up and tries it again a few times until she gets tired of it. It is terribly cute and very exciting! Crawling is still her preferred method of getting around, but I'm sure we'll be chasing her around very soon!

Day at the Park

It was finally a nice weekend so we decided to take Audrey to the park not too far from our house so she could go swing or 'wee wee' like she calls it. We had lots of fun swinging and going down the slide. She was also pretty happy just crawling around and tasting the wood chips too.