Look who has braces...

Mary Catherine is now the proud owner of braces for the next two years. She is in her her 2nd week and we can already see the difference. I feel for her. I wore braces for 5 years. Mary sent me this picture via her cell phone, the quality isn't the greatest, but she is still just as beautiful as she has always been. The day I had mine removed was the happiest day of my life at the ripe old age of 22. The entire time that I wore braces, I craved Bar-B-Que ribs...so you guessed it, I pigged out on ribs in public for the first time in what seemed like forever the day those things came off. So I am making a date with Mary to take her out for ribs the day she has hers removed. Keep smiling Mary, you look wonderful!

Ups and Downs...
Thursday night me and Ward had our night out together. Lindsay came over and kept Audrey. All seemed well and fine right....wrong. Ward and I had a great time dancing and talking after several longs weeks at work. Anyway, the weather was really bad, it rained about 3". Audrey was asleep when we got home, but she woke up around 4:00 a.m. with 105 fever. Yep, you read that right. I stayed home with her Friday, and she seemed to be okay. Her fever was gone around 3:00 Friday afternoon. You would have never even known she was sick.

Saturday morning we took her downtown to the square and let her feed the squirrels. Or should I say, let her chase the squirrels. The grass was muddy and by the time we left so was Audrey. She scrapes the peanuts on the sidewalk, and the squirrels come out of nowhere. At one point, I counted 13 squirrels at her feet. She didn't blink, budge, or cry. She was having a blast. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera...again. After the park, we went for lunch and headed home to get ready for some BAMA football. Roll Tide Roll...they did it again.

Sunday, we had our pancakes with all the trimmings. After breakfast we got dressed and headed out for a day at the Greater Gulf State Fair. This was Audrey's second time to go...she was only 6 months old her first trip. Thankfully she is still to small to ride any of the "pack as you go" rides, so we let her play a couple of games and watched her eat cotton candy. She loved the petting zoo. I was so proud of her. She fed those goats like there was no tomorrow. She wasn't scared at all. This time I had my camera. We headed home after the fair and all three napped.

Monday Morning, oh my, Audrey's fever is back. This time it was 102.9. I made her an appointment with her pediatrician, where we learned she has "Strep Throat". My poor sweet baby. She is out of school until Friday. My mom is with her today, Lindsay will be with her tomorrow, and mom will be back on Thursday. Hopefully, she will be all better by Friday, and she will not have to miss her Harvest party at school. Is she cute or what?

Conversation with Audrey
The saying is true. Kids really do listen to everything you say. Audrey has gotten to the point of telling me that her tummy hurts. So I always tell her "let's go try to poo poo". Well yesterday I had a really bad headache and the conversation went like this:

Me: Audrey we are going to go to bed early tonight. Mommy doesn't feel good.

Audrey: You don't feel good?

Me: No my head hurts really bad.

Audrey: Your head hurts?

Me: Yeah, really bad.

Audrey: Well go try to poo poo Mommy.

Although I really did feel bad, I couldn't help but smile and cover her with kisses. This conversation with Audrey helped me feel better. We were able to call it a night rather early, and today, I feel great. She is at school, we are at work, and have a date planned for tonight. Audrey is excited that Lindsay, (her sitter) is coming over to play. Gosh, that little girl is something special.

Happy Halloween!!

We are getting in the Halloween Spirit! We have our flag flying, and our candy in the bowl. I volunteered for goodie bags for Audrey Harvest party next Friday. Her class will get to wear their costumes to school, and have a really fun party. Audrey is going to be a ladybug. Her costume is so pretty. She wore it last year as well. So I thought since it still fits, she can just wear it again. Thankfully she doesn't remember it, so she is very excited about getting to wear it this year. It actually fits her better this year than last.

We will be having our annual Halloween party at our house again. We have everyone over to Trick-or-Treat. Everyone brings a bag of candy and their favorite drinks. All the moms walk with the kids, while our men folk stay and pass out the candy. This year, we are planning on going out for dinner after the kids are finished collecting all the candy they can stand. It's going to be fun. So if anyone is interested in coming to our house this year...come on over!!!

Yesterday, Audrey and I carved her pumpkin. This was the first time I ever attempted this, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I didn't know that pumpkins were so messy and so slimy on the inside. There must have been about a million seeds inside that thing. Audrey was so patient with me. She sat right beside me and talked the entire time. We placed a fake candle lite in it, and it glowed all night long. Audrey is so proud of her "punttin". Judging from the picture to the right, it is hard for me to tell who's smile is bigger, Audrey's or her pumpkin's? Goodness, I love this little girl. This is going to be a fun Halloween. I can hardly wait!!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!

Happy 86th Birthday Nanny
We celebrated my grandmother's 86th birthday last week at the "Olive Garden". This year we opted to have a much smaller group. Last year for her 85th, we celebrated with just about all of our living relatives in Mobile. I'm sure that the Olive Garden was happy to see less people walk through the door this year. We had the three Fendleys, my sister Kathy and her two kids, Thomas and Mary Catherine, my cousin Tiffany and her boys, Noah and Brant, my Aunt Renee, Uncle Bobby, and of course the birthday girl, Nanny. I think her birthday turned out to be great. She seemed to really enjoy herself. Just like last year, we ate all the salad and bread sticks we could handle, and topped it off with each of us having our very own large entree. We laughed, told stories, and caught up with everyone. My cousin Noah is now a sophomore at Faith Academy, and oh my he is one good looking young man, with a personality to match.

I took several pictures, but somehow Audrey got her hands on the camera and really started taking shots. Most of them were of her index finger covering the lens. Now who in the world would have given her the camera....let me think. Could it have been her daddy? Of course it was. So the group shot isn't all that great, but it's family that is all that matters.

Before saying goodnight to everyone, we decided on the date to have "Nanny's Christmas" at my house. This will be my third year to host her party, and I love it. So all you kin folk get ready we are sure to have a great time. Bring a friend or two if you like.

Yeah...I'm Back
So much has been going on for the past month, that I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog. Ward and I have been working non-stop at our window company which is a good thing, but oh so hard. In the past month we ran from a Hurricane Gustav all the way to Demopolis, Alabama. My father-in-law lives there, so Ward likes to use hurricanes as reason to head that way. We both caught a very nasty and mean sinus infection. Thankfully, after almost 3 weeks, we are just about completely better. Amazingly, Audrey has not been affected by our illness. I guess those "Flintstones Vitamins" really do work.

My sweet baby girl...let me try to catch everyone up on her. She is talking up a storm. She is putting 10 word sentences together which amazes both me and Ward everyday. She says "please" and "thank you" all the time. She now insists on bathing herself...now that is funny to watch. She is learning her ABC's, which is totally hilarious. She starts out with A B C D S T V Y X, and so on. She has the rhythm down, but we have a bit more work in front of us. She is counting to 10, again not in correct order. She starts with 1 2 3 4 8 7 5 9 6 10. She is so funny. Audrey is just a complete dream to be with...I love that little girl to pieces.

We are getting ready to head back to Demopolis this weekend for my father-in-laws birthday. All of Ward's sisters and his brother will be there. Tomorrow night we are celebrating my grandmother's 86th birthday at her favorite, the Olive Garden. I will take lots of pictures of tomorrow night and this weekend.

Hopefully, I will be able to write a lot more soon. There is so much to say, so many wonderful things have be happening lately. So maybe this short blog entry will help get everyone a little more up to speed with what has been going on with The Fendleys.