Two nights ago Audrey was really struggling with sleep. She was crying and only wanted to be held. She seemed really scared and was acting really strange. It was 1am, and we all needed some sleep, so I decided to lie down on her floor. She was really pleased with this scenario, and took about 5 minutes to fall back to sleep (during those five minutes, checking to make sure I was still there several times). I was tired, too, so I ended up falling asleep and spending the night in Audrey's room...on the floor. I haven't slept on the floor with just a blanket since having sleepovers with my cousin when I was 10. I should have known better.
8:30 am rolled around (yay for sleeping in!) and my alarm clock was a cute little, "mama, mama!" softly spoken by Audrey. I smiled as I woke up hearing that, but quickly realized, "oh my gosh...I can't move. I CAN'T MOVE!" My back was aching, my neck was stiff, and I couldn't feel one of my arms. Audrey started getting impatient with me as I tried to regain mobility. It took me a good 15 minutes to get up from the floor after spending the night there, and I am still recovering from it today. I'm just getting to old for that kind of stuff, haha!
Oh well, at least it made Audrey happy and we all got SOME kind of sleep that night.
8/23/12
8/19/12
GRE, St. George, and the County Fair
Things have settled down a little bit around here and I am really behind with blogging about our recent activities! Downloading pictures from my camera made me realize that it is time to blog.
In July, Tony took his GRE exam. He was pretty stressed about studying and finding time to do so. He did the best he could with the time he had (at least I think so!) and let's face it, Tony's pretty smart, so I was confident he would do well. The Friday before his test Audrey and I decided to make Tony a "Good Luck" present. We hit up the Target Dollar Spot and got creative in the kitchen. This is what we came up with:
Never mind that the writing on those cookies could qualify them for an entry on Cake Wrecks. They were chocolate chocolate chip cookies, something Tony really loves. We also got him some pens, pencils, and snacks for his test. Unfortunately, he couldn't take ANY of those things in to the testing room. They gave him pencils, and no food was allowed. Rats. Oh well, he enjoyed them anyway!
Audrey REALLY loved helping me bake cookies. I let her dump all of the dry ingredients in and she thought it was the best. She's just the cutest little baker!
Tony did really well on the Verbal portion of his GRE (surprise, surprise) and above average on his Math portion. He got 96th percentile for verbal! He did well enough to get into the program he is interested in, so that's all that matters! Speaking of that, I should mention that Tony is no longer going to get his Master's from Utah State. Out of curiosity one night I started looking at schools that were ranked high for M.S. degrees for computer science. We found out that Colorado State University is ranked pretty high up there. I looked at their website and found that they offer a distance education program for the C.S. master's program. It is the same exact curriculum and diploma that on-campus students receive. It's a little more expensive, but it's also a little more flexible and a better program.
The week after Tony's test I decided it would be fun and relaxing to take a mini family vacation to St. George. Tony's parents have a wonderful little house there that they so graciously let us use. We were both pretty excited to have a weekend away. Little did we realize that Audrey was not going to be okay with a new place to sleep. We got there and put her in the pack n' play and she got super scared. She was shaking she was so scared! She was really nervous about this new place, probably because it was nearly midnight and she didn't know where she was. So, she and I slept on the couch until about 4am, when I finally got brave enough to put her in her room. She stayed asleep until 7am. We were all tired, to say the least. BUT we were determined to have fun.
We went swimming, hiking, ate at Chuck-A-Rama (gross) and went to a Wild Life Museum. Audrey loved all of it but the sleeping part. It was a fun trip, just a very tired one. Certainly not as relaxing as we had envisioned. Here are some pictures from that trip:
FINALLY....
This past Thursday (we always seem to do family night on Thursday for some reason) we headed to the Utah County Fair. It was really fun, but that county fair couldn't hold a candle to the Johnson County Fair where I grew up. It was more "carnival" sized with only 6 or 7 rides, two games, and one barn of animals. Granted, I grew up in a very agricultural state so that could account for the difference in enthusiasm for the county fair.
Audrey didn't know the difference and she had a blast seeing the animals. She got to hear what a real cow, sheep, and goat sound like. I think she was shocked at how big and loud all of the animals were and she ended up "baa"-ing for the rest of the night. We bought some carnival ride tickets thinking Audrey could go on a few of the rides with us but that ended up being a total waste. The carousel was broken, so that left one ride Audrey could go on. The "Berry Go Round". You know those big strawberries with the wheel inside that you can spin? Yeah, that one. We all got in and it was all great until Tony started spinning us. I got really sick and scared really quickly and it made me feel so old that I couldn't handle the Berry Go Round. Audrey started yelling "ohhhh no!" and her head starting going around in circles, and Tony finally admitted that he was pretty dizzy from it all as well. After that, we were stuck with several tickets and we could not figure out how to use them. Tony had a turn on the Gravitron, and I tried to go solo on the Ferris Wheel but they wouldn't let just one person go on in a seat. So, we've got several extra tickets. Lesson learned.
Wow, this ended up being a monster post! Sorry about that. Cookies for you if you made it to the end. I'll be sure to keep more up-to-date on our activities so I don't have to do these super long posts!
In July, Tony took his GRE exam. He was pretty stressed about studying and finding time to do so. He did the best he could with the time he had (at least I think so!) and let's face it, Tony's pretty smart, so I was confident he would do well. The Friday before his test Audrey and I decided to make Tony a "Good Luck" present. We hit up the Target Dollar Spot and got creative in the kitchen. This is what we came up with:
 |
| Cookies say "Good Luck We <3 You" |
Tony did really well on the Verbal portion of his GRE (surprise, surprise) and above average on his Math portion. He got 96th percentile for verbal! He did well enough to get into the program he is interested in, so that's all that matters! Speaking of that, I should mention that Tony is no longer going to get his Master's from Utah State. Out of curiosity one night I started looking at schools that were ranked high for M.S. degrees for computer science. We found out that Colorado State University is ranked pretty high up there. I looked at their website and found that they offer a distance education program for the C.S. master's program. It is the same exact curriculum and diploma that on-campus students receive. It's a little more expensive, but it's also a little more flexible and a better program.
The week after Tony's test I decided it would be fun and relaxing to take a mini family vacation to St. George. Tony's parents have a wonderful little house there that they so graciously let us use. We were both pretty excited to have a weekend away. Little did we realize that Audrey was not going to be okay with a new place to sleep. We got there and put her in the pack n' play and she got super scared. She was shaking she was so scared! She was really nervous about this new place, probably because it was nearly midnight and she didn't know where she was. So, she and I slept on the couch until about 4am, when I finally got brave enough to put her in her room. She stayed asleep until 7am. We were all tired, to say the least. BUT we were determined to have fun.
We went swimming, hiking, ate at Chuck-A-Rama (gross) and went to a Wild Life Museum. Audrey loved all of it but the sleeping part. It was a fun trip, just a very tired one. Certainly not as relaxing as we had envisioned. Here are some pictures from that trip:
 |
| Those are Otters behind her :) |
FINALLY....
This past Thursday (we always seem to do family night on Thursday for some reason) we headed to the Utah County Fair. It was really fun, but that county fair couldn't hold a candle to the Johnson County Fair where I grew up. It was more "carnival" sized with only 6 or 7 rides, two games, and one barn of animals. Granted, I grew up in a very agricultural state so that could account for the difference in enthusiasm for the county fair.
Audrey didn't know the difference and she had a blast seeing the animals. She got to hear what a real cow, sheep, and goat sound like. I think she was shocked at how big and loud all of the animals were and she ended up "baa"-ing for the rest of the night. We bought some carnival ride tickets thinking Audrey could go on a few of the rides with us but that ended up being a total waste. The carousel was broken, so that left one ride Audrey could go on. The "Berry Go Round". You know those big strawberries with the wheel inside that you can spin? Yeah, that one. We all got in and it was all great until Tony started spinning us. I got really sick and scared really quickly and it made me feel so old that I couldn't handle the Berry Go Round. Audrey started yelling "ohhhh no!" and her head starting going around in circles, and Tony finally admitted that he was pretty dizzy from it all as well. After that, we were stuck with several tickets and we could not figure out how to use them. Tony had a turn on the Gravitron, and I tried to go solo on the Ferris Wheel but they wouldn't let just one person go on in a seat. So, we've got several extra tickets. Lesson learned.
 |
| This was a big moment for Audrey. She got to pet a real life Lovey Bunny. |
Wow, this ended up being a monster post! Sorry about that. Cookies for you if you made it to the end. I'll be sure to keep more up-to-date on our activities so I don't have to do these super long posts!
8/10/12
Finding the Positives
This morning Audrey woke up at 4am, screaming like she was being attacked by a badger. I'm not sure what the deal was but as soon as she saw me, everything was okay. Having gone to bed WAY too late, this 4am wake-up call was anything but welcome from me. I decided this morning that I was going to remain positive. I've tried to look for all of the good in today because it was looking pretty grim this morning.
THE GOOD IN TODAY:
- We've been really trying to enforce the "use your words" rule around here. Audrey will just scream at us to try to get what she wants. We simply say something like, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Can you please use your words?" or "Can you ask me nicely by saying please?" We would throw a huge party whenever anyone said please, especially Audrey. It was hard at first, but now we've got the beginnings of a polite little girl on our hands. When asking for something, Audrey will look at you and say "pees?" (please) It's really amazing to me that she learned so quickly. We're working on "thank you" and using words in other situations, but it gives me confidence that we will be able to teach her to use nice words to get things she wants. Today we had pizza for lunch (ee-patz, if you're Audrey) and for every bite Audrey would point to the pizza and say, "pees?" Awesome!
- I got a nap. Although it was a short one, I got to take a quick snooze this morning. I'm confident its what has kept me alive today.
- Audrey is happy. She's been in a much better mood since going back to two naps post-St. George trip. I really think she needed to catch up on her Zzz's.
- Audrey and I had to drive to Murray this morning. I was worried about her getting bored on our 45 minute drive and so I was constantly looking in her mirror to make sure she was okay. When I checked on her each time, she was quietly and contently reading a book in the backseat. How cute!
- Isn't it obvious? IT'S FRIDAY. The weekend is here. Time to spend time together as a family!
8/1/12
My Little Fishie
At the beginning of summer Tony bought season passes to Seven Peaks water park on a Groupon-like site. They were only 10 dollars each and we thought it would be a fun thing to be able to do. We haven't gone much but after going for a run in the heat yesterday, I suggested we go after Tony got home from work. It was the first time we've gone since Audrey started walking and we were excited to see how different her experience would be this time around.
There are two kids' pools at Seven Peaks. One is really shallow and has a fun jungle gym that sprays water, and the other is about 3ft deep and has mini water slides. We started in the shallow water so Audrey could walk around and she took NO time getting down to the fun. She nearly ran towards the jungle gym and climbed all over it, not caring a bit about the older kids that were being crazy around her. She kept trying to stick her face in the water and fell down a couple times and went under. (We were always RIGHT by her side. The total amount of time she was under was probably less than a second.) I was sure that after the first fall that we would be done. Audrey would be scared and we'd have to hold her. Boy, was I wrong. She loved going under the water and kept dunking her head in!
Tony decided to take her on the slides in the deeper little kid pool and she LOVED them. Sometimes I don't know who this girl is! I was terrified of all things pool/water well into middle school and still have anxiety over having to dive off of the diving board in high school. Tony said he was pretty chicken, too, and didn't like going down water slides. Audrey kept asking to go over and over and just loved being in the water. It was really fun to see her enjoy herself so much.
AND ... it made her sleep really well last night. :)
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