National "Talk Like a Pirate" Day

Avast, me hearties! Today is a very special day. A day long anticipated. A day that will forever mark a special place on the timeline of a little girl's life. Get out your pieces of gold, skull and crossbones, scimitar, bandana, trusty parrot (or monkey, whichever suits you), and camera because today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Audrey is a natural for a few reasons. Firstly, because her initials are AAR (how could one not talk like a pirate with initials like those?!) and secondly, because she looks great in a bandana:

Make no mistake, there are many faces
of the young pirate Audrey.

Happy:
Dazed and confused:

Tired and bored:

So today, remember to say AHOY MATEY! or AVAST YE LANDLUBBERS! or AAR! in honor of the young pirate Audrey.

Hurricane Ike visits Westerville

Miraculously, our power came back on the day after my last post. We were so thankful to have electricity again. I know that it will be a long time before I take it for granted. We were very blessed to make it through with very little damage from the 75-90 mile an hour winds that came through. Our home and vehicles are unharmed. Praise the Lord! As it turns out, the pictures I took during the storm aren't very good. However, I'll show them to you anyway since I promised them!

Our Toyota was parked across the street, and was within inches of being hit by our neighbor Jo's tree. You can't quite see it in this picture, but it was such a close call that we know that God kept the truck from being damaged. There is no way a tree falls in a howling storm and misses something as big as a truck by just inches. That tree was planted by Jo and her husband, years ago on their 45th wedding anniversary. Sadly, the tree won't make it. =( If you click the picture to make it bigger, you'll notice that most of the leaves and trees are a blur; it was still fairly windy when I took the picture.

Here is the tree we lost in our backyard.

Here's another tree in our neighborhood that had it's top taken off.

Unfortunately, that is all the pictures I have to post. I'm kicking myself for not taking more! The others were on the cell phone I was using at the time, and unforunately that phone is disconnected and being sent back, so I'm unable to retrieve the pictures from it. If I can, I will retrieve the pictures that Eric took with his phone sometime soon. That's it for now!

Hurricane Ike says hello

Just a quick note to let everyone know that our power is out, and it could be several days until it is back up. Hurricane Ike came through central Ohio last night and effectively took our neighborhood's power (and much of Columbus) out with it's departure. It was mostly a lot of strong wind, and a little bit of rain. It was a little scary, as there were some huge trees that were totally uprooted and many that came crashing down into streets, yards, and onto houses. Thankfully our home and cars are fine, but we had some close calls. Our truck was parked on the street out front, and it was barely missed by a tree that fell into the street. We also lost a tree out back that thankfully fell into the yard instead of on the house. Praise God! Pray for us if you think about it, so hopefully our power comes on soon. I know many of our friends don't have power either, so it is a strange time for all of us! Some parts of Columbus were given 7 day estimates for when their neighborhoods would get help getting their power back on. I took some pictures yesterday so I will post them when our power is back up. Talk to you all soon!

5 Months!

I know, I know. It's time for new pictures of the little munchkin, I know! I'll get to that in a minute, don't you worry. Or, you can just skip ahead and not read the text part of this post, as I'm sure you will probably do anyway. :) Hold your horses... all I'm going to do is give you the latest "stats" from her check up at the pediatrician's the other day, and then you can look at the pictures! Geesh.

Audrey is doing great physically and developmentally, emotionally and spiritually too of course. Ha. :) She is 16 lbs. 10 oz., and 27 inches long. That puts her in the 96th percentile for height, and 88th for weight! She has hit all of the developmental milestones that babies her age should have hit by now, and she is growing right on schedule. Praise the Lord for a perfectly healthy, normal, strong, happy baby! She sleeps 12-14 hours STRAIGHT every single night, which results in a nap schedule that consists mostly of cat naps. I would rather have her sleep through the night though, than for long periods during the day. OKAY already, on with the pictures!

So, she has this adorable little sweatshirt that she finally fits into. The hood is a tad big though, and we thought she looked a little like Rocky Balboa in it:

Imagine "Eye of the Tiger" playing loudly:

I wouldn't want to face this tough cookie in the ring, that's for sure.

She even has scars like Rocky. By the way I DO cut her fingernails often, I'm not a bad Mom you know! Babies scratch themselves accidentally sometimes anyway, and there is no helping it. Gah.


Here are a few of Gabby getting up close and personal. Audrey absolutely LOVES the dogs, and tries to grab their fur any chance she gets.




That's it for now. I am falling asleep at my keyboard. I'll try to post again very soon!